New chapter, woohoo! I was originally planning to make this twice as long, but I decided that the next part fit better as it's own chapter. As such, this chapter is basically just one long fluffy friendship scene with Maes and Roy. But that's ok, because they are the best friend duo in the universe and no one will convince me otherwise. Thanks for reading!
~Esteria
I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist
A month after his visit to the Elrics, Roy Mustang sat on the bed of Dr. Knox's guest room, thinking back on his life, and trying not to panic. The latter part was proving to be very, very difficult. It wasn't just that he had lost an arm and a leg, he was a soldier, he hadn't even expected to live through Ishval, much less spend his whole life with all four limbs. No, the reason Roy was freaking out was that Edward Elric was his fucking soulmate.
Riza would have told him to calm down, and get a hang of himself. She would have said that a month was long enough for him to grow accustomed to the fact, and that he needed to get his head back in the game. Riza wasn't here, though. Roy had taken an extended leave from work, citing a family emergency, but his Lieutenant would never have been able to get that same time off without it looking incredibly suspicious.
They couldn't let the military know about his soulmate. While it's true that not all soulmates are romantic, and Roy knows that he was in no way attracted to the mutilated twelve year old he had met in Risembool, the rumors and unsavory suspicions that would result from Roy having such a young soulmate would all but put a stop to his ambition. Not to mention the fact that, if the news got out the military would never place the Elrics under his command, and Mustang didn't trust that the boys would be placed with someone who would be able or willing to watch out for them.
The flame alchemist was broken from his musings by the bedroom door being thrown open. Standing there, disheveled and wild eyed was Roy's best friend, MAes Hughes. Directly behind him stood Dr. Knox, looking incredibly annoyed. THat seemed to be his resting expression, though, so Mustang wasn't overly concerned about that.
"Roy!" Hughes shouted, his voice a strange mix of desperate and relieved "Thank god I've finally found you. What were you thinking disappearing like that?"
"Disappearing?" Mustang replied "I went through all of the official channels to get time off."
"Yeah, for a family emergency." Maes " I saw Madam Christmas last week, and she doesn't know where you are either." Mustang had the decency to look abashed. "C'mon Roy, What's going on here?" Roy fidgeted. He had never been one to be embarrassed, and with how close he and Maes were, there wasn't a whole lot that the other man didn't know about him, but still this was a big deal. And it was a personal matter. Roy had never been able to deal with those. The room was permeated with a tense silence for a few moments, as Mustang gathered the courage to speak.
"Around a month ago, I traveled East to visit a couple of promising alchemists, the Elric brothers." Maes listened in rapt attention. "It turns out our records had somethings wrong about them, though. When I reached their home, I did not find two grown men with a talent for alchemy. Instead, I found two prodigies, one twelve and the other a year younger. They had attempted human transmutation."
"Shit" Hughes breathed. "Were they alive." Roy nodded.
"The older boy had lost two limbs, and nothing was left of the younger but a soul stuck to a suit of armour, but they were alive. I told them that becoming State Alchemists might give them access to information that could help them return to their original bodies." Maes took a couple of deep breaths.
"Ok," he said "This is bad. Horrible things happened to those kids, and I don't entirely agree with how you handled it. This isn't bad enough to cause you to hide though. If anything, this should motivate you to work even harder at your plans for Furhership. What else happened." Roy was silent for a long moment, looking away off into the distance, as if he hadn't heard the question. After a few moments, he began to speak again, sounding detached and confused.
"Hey Maes, do you remember back when we were teenagers? And how you used to tease me about my soulmate marks, joking about how I must be a peadophile, because only kids got that many scraped knees." Maes nodding, unsure where things line was going, and Mustang let out a humourless laugh.
"Well," he said, pulling off his glove "It seems that you weren't entirely wrong." Hughes didn't reply, too busy staring at the shiny metal sitting where Roy's hand should be, connecting the obviously new automail with the story he had just heard about the Elrics. Pushing away a panic attack to deal with later, he leaned forwards and, being careful not to bump anywhere painful, wrapped his best friend in the largest, warmest, most comforting hug he knew how to give.
"It's Ok, he whispered, we'll figure this out."