A/N: This one... a little slower. Ah, well. I'm pretty pleased with it, and the plot finally gets going! Yay! Enjoy!
Thank you to shadow of eyes, Breyannia, Dark Cat Food Lover, lizzylue skadoo, ThreeGoodReasons, and Guest for reviewing.
Title: Foundations
Author: liketolaugh
Rating: T
Pairings: None
Genre: Angst/Adventure
Warnings: AU
Summary: If Edward was one thing, he was fire. But if he wasn't careful, he was going to burn himself out. Or, Edward Elric is a mutant, Mustang disapproves of him almost burning down the office, and the Xavier Institute is wary of military operatives no matter how old they are.
Disclaimer: If I owned Fullmetal Alchemist or the X-Men, would I really be here right now?
A month and a half after Edward left Amestris, it was June. To many of the students' disappointment, the arrival of summer didn't mean the end of school, at least not at Xavier's. They did, however, let up a little, shortening hours and easing out-of-class work.
Ed really didn't mind either way; his friends, on the other hand, seemed either pleased with the easier work, or thoroughly disgusted at the continuing presence of school. Ed was amused.
It was a day after school, transmutation circles drawn in the dirt in front of them, that Kitty asked Ed, almost hesitantly,
"Hey, Ed. Can you tell us about one of your missions?"
Ed froze, then, slowly, looked up. Bobby and John were looking at him now, interested. He grinned with forced confidence.
"Sure." He dragged his metal hand across the dirt, smearing out his array with tumbling grains of brown (though it hovered still in his mind's eye) and leaned back, crossing his arms, one white glove now stained brown. (The transmutation to take that off was simple, but not worth his time.) "Well, the first mission I ever got was a mine inspection."
John groaned. Bobby frowned at Ed. Ed laughed.
"Don't knock it 'til you hear it, I wouldn't be telling you this sotry if it was boring, would I?" Ignoring their dubious looks, Ed continued, "The mine was at a town called Youswell,and damn, it was a dump. See, the guy in charge, Yoki, he was a real asshole…"
As the story continued, their expressions changed from dubious to interested, and Ed got more and more into it, all wide gestures and loud noises like a crackling bonfire, eventually standing up to act parts of it out, sending his friends into peals of laughter that he barely noticed, he was so intensely focused.
"And so the people of Youswell got their town back, and Yoki?" Ed smirked. "Well, none of the officers he bribed would fess up, so he got court martialed. Last I heard, Youswell was doing fine, too."
It was a moment or two before they snapped out of it, and finally, John snorted.
"No way in hell," he declared, pointing accusingly at Ed, "was that your first mission."
Ed grinned. "Yeah, it was. Way to show up with a bang, huh?" His face transformed into a scowl. "Bet the damn Bastard Colonel did it on purpose, the manipulative jerk."
"He can't be that bad," Kitty protested.
"He is!" Ed insisted. "One time, before I was even a State Alchemist, he made me and Al jump on an earlier train to stop a rebel group and get a General on board to give me permission Mustang told me I already had!" He huffed.
"Now you're making stuff up," Bobby said confidently, laughing.
"I wish," Ed huffed, crossing his arms. "Stupid bastard."
"Edward," a voice called, suddenly and unexpectedly, making all four of them jump.
Ed looked up to see Scott striding toward them, face strangely grim, as if lit by a funeral pyre. "Yeah?" he said cautiously. He and Scott had been on pretty good terms since Scott apologized, but it wouldn't be the first time Ed had touched a fire and gotten burned.
"Can I speak with you a moment?" He paused, an Ed would guess he was glancing at his friends, who sat on the ground, levity gone from the atmosphere like smoke in the wind. "Alone?"
"Sure," Ed said slowly, pushing himself to his feet. "Where?"
"My office, if you don't mind."
Edward nodded cautiously and looked back to his friends, who appeared as startled as he was. "Uh, see you guys later, I guess."
Kitty waved hesitantly. "See you later, Ed."
John nodded, and Bobby raised a hand halfheartedly, both their eyes on Scott.
Edward turned away and looked expectantly at Scott, who looked to the front and started walking. Ed followed after, deeply confused.
"So what's up?" Ed asked, growing impatient with the older man's silence.
"In the office," Scott repeated, looking at the students around them, who were basically ignoring them. Ed huffed, but kept following, grumbling to himself. He stopped when Scott looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.
Finally, they reached Scott's office, and Ed barely had a moment to look around before Scott shut and locked the door behind them and turned to him.
"Fullmetal."
Ed started and looked at Scott, distracted from taking in his surroundings. Scott hadn't called him Fullmetal since he'd first noticed how much Ed hated it. Subconsciously, he straightened slightly, adopting the more military pose he took when Mustang was really, truly serious. "Yeah?"
"Have you ever heard of the Brotherhood?"
Ed's sharp gold eyes narrowed and he shook his head. Scott nodded, expecting that, mouth a grim slash.
"The Brotherhood is a mutant group led by a man called Magneto. They believe, in short, that mutants should be in charge of everything, and they take steps in that direction." Scott's disapproval radiated off of him in shimmering heat waves.
Ed's mouth twisted into a faint echo of Scott's grim frown, mind touching on people with no mutations, people he trusted more than anything – Mustang, Havoc, Winry, Pinako, others. "What about them?" It wasn't hard to guess, but the hypocrisy was stunning.
"Professor Xavier runs a group known as the X-Men." Edward didn't bother to stifle a snicker. Scott ignored him. "This group includes most of the staff here and works against the Brotherhood."
"And?" Ed prompted, crossing his arms, wanting him to say it.
Scott sighed. "The Professor wants someone to investigate a new project of theirs. We know next to nothing about it, but they seem to believe that it's very promising." He frowned. "If it were up to me, Fullmetal, we wouldn't be sending you in at all. You're far too young." Ed bristled. "But it's not."
"Why am I being sent in?" Ed asked suspiciously, shifting restlessly. "Why not one of you?"
"Because with the right measures, you can be inconspicuous," Scott answered grimly. "You're small-"
"Who're you calling so small an ant couldn't see him in front of its face?!"
"-and fast, and you have practice at these things. Most of our members work best in the open-" As did Ed. "-and those who don't are occupied." Then, quieter and more intense, "Fullmetal, this is a one-time mission, but it's important. Will you take it?"
Ed hesitated. Looked up at him. Finally, he smirked confidently. "Heh. I don't see why not."
Scott relaxed visibly. "Thank you, Fullmetal. This will be a great help." Then, businesslike, "Meet me here after dinner. I'll give you the mission details then."
Ed smirked again, more wry than confident. "Yeah, sure," he said offhandedly, turning away. Then he paused. "One more thing… don't call me Fullmetal." He'd never liked being addressed as a weapon, and it was somehow worse when the person using it didn't really know what it meant.
"I'm not calling you by your given name when you're on a mission," Scott said sternly. "It's a security risk."
Ed shrugged. "I don't care what you do, just don't call me Fullmetal."
Then he was out the door, before Scott had a chance to reply. Scott sat back and sighed.
Well, it wasn't like it really mattered. Ed would never be given a mission again, after all.
Later that night, Ed bade farewell to his friends and headed back to Scott's office, where the man was waiting, eerily reminiscent of the bastard colonel behind his desk, only less smirky.
Ed had left behind his red coat for the occasion, keeping on his black jacket instead, with his white gloves clean and snug on his hands.
"Thank you, Fullm-" Ed scowled at him and he obligingly cut himself off. "Elric." He felt uncomfortable using Ed's real name in the context of a mission, even in the safety of the office, and he made a mental note to speak to the Professor. Just in case. "The Brotherhood doesn't have a real base of operations, but recently, Magneto obtained a warehouse that looks like it's been set up as a research base. The Professor wants you to go there and investigate their newest project." Even through the red-sheen sunglasses, the intensity in his gaze was clear. "Don't take any risks. Don't go anywhere near Magneto. And make sure you're back within six hours."
Ed smirked and nodded, fire comfortable under his skin, like it was before. The training with Storm really had helped, he thought absently. Gold eyes shone with confidence and his metal arm locked neatly with his flesh one as he crossed them. "Right. Where is this warehouse?"
Scott pulled out a map, examined it for a moment, and then circled a place on the map with a red pen. He gave the map to Ed, along with a small photograph. "Right there."
Ed briefly examined both and then folded up the map, tucking it neatly under his arm, and shoved the picture into one pocket. "Got it. That all?"
"That's all," Scott confirmed. "Listen in on conversations, and don't take anything unless you think it won't be missed."
Ed waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. I'm not some newbie, you know." They better know, considering.
Scott paused, then nodded. "Go on, then."
Ed cast him a grin and turned, heading out the door without a care in the world.
Why was this place so damned big?
Ed growled at the map in his hands, then at the street sign, then glared at the map again. Ed wasn't directionally challenged, not by a long shot, but damn, this was harder than he thought it'd be. At this rate, it'd take an hour and a half to get there and another to get back, at least. And that was three hours of his time gone right there.
He found his place on the map a moment later and sighed with a hint of relief. Wait, no, he was almost there. Sure enough, two blocks later, he found a row of warehouses, and he put the map away with a smirk, taking out the picture instead.
He was more careful now, cautious and discreet – take that, Mustang! He found the warehouse and smirked, putting the picture away and checking the time on his silver pocket watch.
Damn. Hour and a half, indeed. He made a mental note to give himself another hour and a half to find the Institute and put the watch away, too.
He moved over to the warehouse in question and peeked in the window. No one was there; a ten minute wait revealed that no one was coming, and Ed grinned. This might be easier than he'd thought.
He opened the door and darted in. Quickly, he swept his golden gaze over the room. It was thankfully full of tall shelves full of boxes, and he climbed nimbly up one, flesh and metal fingers each as sure as each other.
Ed didn't climb all the way to the top, because that would be almost as bad as staying on the floor, but he clung to the side like a monkey anyway, grinning at the ground. Damn, but this was fun. His gold hair shone like a street lamp in the dark, sure, and he made a mental note to remember that, but those scientists in their cheesy lab coats down on the ground? They had no idea that he was there. It was awesome.
Still, he should probably move. If one of them decided to look up for whatever reason, then his position would be as bad as wearing a shrieking orange sweater on the op. He moved as quietly as he could back to the other side of the shelf and then down a few levels, listening from there as he kept a careful eye out for anyone coming this way.
"Magneto is freaking nuts for this one, you know," one scientist was muttering to the other, halfhearted gaze on a book in his hands.
"Don't say that!" the other hissed at him, sounding half-panicked. "What if he has a spy somewhere? Or a bug? He probably has us bugged."
"You think so?" Now the first guy sounded panicked.
"Of course, numbskull! Shut up!"
There was a minute of quiet, and Ed scowled. As if feeling this, the first guy spoke again.
"But seriously. What's he thinking?"
A brief moment in which the second guy probably shrugged. "Don't know. But apparently there's a scientific basis for it, don't ask me what it is. No worse than any mutant power, you know? Let's just try to keep an open mind, so we don't get eviscerated."
"Yeah." Ed peeked through the boxes and smirked as he watched the first guy shudder. "Seriously, though, a perfect mutant? Making a perfect mutant? That's got to be some seriously fucked up genetic shit right there, don't tell me you're not skeptical."
Gotcha. Ed tilted his head, gold eyes sharp. Making a perfect mutant, huh?
"Well, yeah," the second guy admitted. "Anyone sane would be. But Magneto's never wrong." He shuddered, too. Ed bit down a laugh; it wouldn't do to give away his position this early in the game.
"Yeah," the first guy echoed, dubious.
Ed stayed there for what felt like a short eternity, listening, but most of the time they were quiet. Even when they spoke, it was in low tones he couldn't quite make out, though that revealed itself to be quiet scientific discussion when he chanced moving a few more levels down.
"I know the Brotherhood doesn't concern itself with morals much," the first guy said, suddenly and abruptly. "But don't you think…" He trailed off.
"Shut up!" the second guy hissed at him, looking panicked. Ed looked through the shelf to see him hitting the other man over the head. "You're going to get us both killed!"
Ed chuckled quietly and then looked back down, still grinning, and froze. In the short time he'd been looking away, a woman, blue-skinned and red-haired, had wandered in, and was currently searching through a box with strange intensity.
Ed half-panicked and scrambled up, internally thanking God that the shelf was so steady – if he was careful, it wouldn't wobble enough to be noticed.
He chanced another glance down and found the woman looking up past the shelf, sharp gaze on where Ed knew the scientists were working. They must have continued their apparently blasphemous discussion.
Then she must have, he didn't know, heard something, and she paused. He hissed through his teeth and scaled the last few shelves, reaching the very top – no time to jump across now – and pressed himself to the wide shelf, praying internally. He peeked through a gap between two boxes just as she looked up, yellow eyes bright and suspicious even from his high vantage point. He held his breath, skin boiling hot.
She looked back down and tucked the book under her arm, striding forward past the shelf. He relaxed.
"How goes your research?" Ed heard her deceptively casual voice say, but he didn't stick around – his watch revealed that he had another two hours of time, half an hour before he meant to leave, but it was definitely time to go.
He stood, hunched over, and straightened as much as he dared before he jumped, landing precariously on the next shelf and making a slightly louder sound than he was comfortable with, but the men's pleading covered it neatly. Ed sighed with relief and jumped over the shelves all the way across the warehouse before scrambling down and darting out the door.
He was three blocks away before he felt safe enough to slow down, casting fervent glances over his shoulder. Seeing no one following him, he grinned and let out a short, but loud laugh, pleased and relieved.
Ed pulled out his map, grinning, and set about finding his way back to the Institute.
Ed returned to the Institute fifteen minutes before the assigned return time; apparently it was a good thing that he'd left early, since Scott had forgotten to mark the Institute on the map, leaving Ed to rely on his (thankfully excellent) memory to find his way back.
Tired but pleased, Ed wound up in Scott's office five minutes before the deadline, where the man was pacing anxiously, brow furrowed.
Scott looked up sharply when he entered. "Fullmetal."
"Ed," Ed reminded him tiredly, suppressing a yawn. "Finished the mission." He waved his hand vaguely. "It was pretty easy, don't know why your guys couldn't do it. Whatever." He yawned again, his internal fire flickering sleepily. He always felt cooler when he was tired – his power felt all but out of reach.
"Did you find anything out?" Scott pressed, stomping down the urge to send the student to bed.
Ed rolled his eyes and nodded. "Duh." He forced himself to straighten, rocking slightly back and forth on his feet. "There weren't any guards on, so they can't be that far into it." He grinned. "And the stupid bastards never looked up, didn't even almost see me climbing on their shelves." He chuckled as Scott gave him a brief, incredulous look. "Anyway, the two guys – there were only two scientists there right then – they didn't talk much, but they seemed to think it was pretty immoral." He frowned a little.
"It is the Brotherhood," Scott replied grimly. "Anything else?"
Ed nodded. "Yeah. They said something about 'making a perfect mutant'. The guy mentioned that it seemed like some sort of genetics experiment." He frowned a little. Human bodies were not something you should mess with.
Scott's brow furrowed, mouth straightening into a firm line. "I see." He sighed. "Thank you… Edward. It's not as much as we hoped for, but it's a hell of a lot more than we knew before. We'll set some more people on it as soon as we can."
Ed failed to suppress another yawn and nodded. "Good. Human experimentation's some freaky shit, you know? You don't mess with human life." Yawn. Scott gave him a funny look, but didn't say anything beyond,
"Go to bed, Edward. It's almost one in the morning and you have class tomorrow."
Ed rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and who's fault is that? Asshole."
He was out the door before Scott could do more than blink.
"-and Fuery found my kitten, but he promised not to tell anyone," Alphonse finished happily, then squeaked. "I mean…"
The day after the mission, Ed's friends had pestered him about why he'd left right after dinner, but he hadn't breathed a word, brushing it off easily. By lunchtime, they'd given up, and now, at the end of the day, John was the same as ever, rolling his eyes at him and miming barfing as he talked with Al.
Ed rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Al, you haven't exactly been subtle. I knew you had it."
Al laughed sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess so." Then, suddenly, "Oh! Brother, the Colonel wants to talk with you."
Ed frowned and sat up suddenly, gold eyes suddenly suspicious. "The Colonel? What's he want with me? I'm on assignment, technically, can't he just let me alone?"
"Brother!" Al sounded exasperated. "It's nothing like that. He just wants to check on you."
Ed stilled. "Check on me?" he asked, voice pure surprise.
"Yeah!" Al insisted. "That's all, brother." Ed heard a muffled voice on the other end and frowned. "Oh, okay, Colonel." To Ed, "Colonel Mustang's taking the phone now, brother. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"
"Got it, Al," Ed said with a grin. "Talk to you soon."
There were a few muffled sounds as the phone switched hands, and then it was Mustang's firm voice on the other side.
"Fullmetal," he greeted.
"Hey, Colonel Bastard," Ed replied, inexplicably cheerful. Absently, he wondered why he didn't mind it when Mustang called him Fullmetal.
Maybe it was because Mustang knew what it meant better than Ed ever wanted to.
Mustang sighed and Ed grinned. Knowing full well that resistance was futile, Mustang ignored the title and moved on. "How's your training going? Will we be able to expect you back soon?" He sounded almost concerned, but that had to be a joke, and Ed scowled at the phone.
"It's going fine, bastard. Apparently I had some sort of mental block on my power that was making it so it built up instead of just letting me regulate it, but we're moving past that." He sighed, scowling. "Don't think I'll be making it back anytime soon, though."
"Hm." Ed hated it when he 'hm'ed; it was impossible to guess what he was thinking when he did that. "And the staff? Alphonse told me you were having some trouble in the beginning."
There was a strange edge to his tone, like Al when Ed mentioned some kid on the street that had called him 'cripple'. "They're fine, too, bastard. Got a lot better when they realized I wasn't some mindless soldier."
Mustang let out a sound that was almost like a chuckle. "I don't know how they could think that," he said idly. Suspicion gnawed at Ed's brain and sure enough, "Your attention span is too short to take orders, let alone follow them."
Ed growled furiously. "Who're you calling so short he can't hear people talk 'cause they're too far away?!"
"That would be you, Fullmetal."
"At least I'm not some smirky bastard who's useless in the rain! And I'm not short!"
Mustang chuckled over the line and Ed scowled at him across miles of land and ocean. "Ease up, Fullmetal. You're too easy to wind up." Ed huffed. John laughed at him. Ed rolled his eyes. "Is there anything you ought to report?"
Ed didn't even think about it before shrugging. "Not really, Mustang. It's a school, after all. Not much happens here." John chuckled and mouthed 'you can say that again'. Ed grinned. "Really, Mustang, it's fine. Don't worry your obsessive head about it."
"Pot, meet kettle," Mustang retorted, sounding far too relieved for Ed's taste. "Fine, kid. Keep it that way, understand? That's an order."
Ed scowled and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. See you, Colonel."
"I'll check in again in another month," Mustang informed him. And then he hung up, the bastard.
Ed chuckled and put the phone back where it belonged, feeling far too comfortable with the whole thing.
It was only after he finished getting ready for bed that he realized that the mission probably fell under 'things he ought to report'.
Ah, whatever. It's not like it would happen again. Scott had assured him of that.
There were a lot of kids in the field today, Ed noted. He waved at the ones he got along well with – which, he realized, was far more of them than he had before – and grinned. Then he looked back at his friends, walking beside him.
Bobby huffed at nothing. "It's too hot," he complained to the air. Ed and John laughed at him, and even Kitty suppressed a giggle.
"It's barely summer," she pointed out. Bobby rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, so? It's too hot."
More laughter. He scowled.
"Stop laughing."
Louder laughter. He sighed, defeated. Ed took pity on him and let his laughter die off, John and Kitty following shortly after. Or, well, not so shortly.
"So what should we do?" Kitty asked, still breathless. "All the game courts are occupied."
Ah. So they were.
"We don't need a court to play a game," John dismissed, rolling his eyes. "Now we just need to figure out what to play."
Ed considered. Then he grinned mischievously and reached out to tap John on the shoulder. John looked at him expectantly. "Tag, you're it!"
Then he took off, grinning. John stared at him a moment, incredulous, and then smirked and looked back at the still-startled pair behind him. He swatted Kitty's arm. "Tag, you're it!"
Then he, too, took off.
Kitty took one look at Bobby and Bobby took off, and she scowled at him and chased him down to hit his shoulder, pronounce him it, and take off. He pouted and chased after her. She lost him and he gave up for John instead.
They played like that for a while; other kids ducked in and out of the game, and at one point Ed swore there were at least twenty kids running around rampant. Finally, though, breathless and laughing, it was just the four of them again, and then they fell to the grass, grinning like idiots.
"That," John announced, "was the most ridiculously childish thing I've done in years."
"I bet," Ed said with a grin. "And isn't it great?"
No one answered, but their grins told the story well enough.
They stayed down for a while 'til they caught there breath, and then pushed themselves up to sit, though they didn't leave yet.
"I wonder what games we could play with our powers," Kitty said thoughtfully.
John snorted. "Yeah, okay. What do you get when you put ice, fire, and intangibility together? 'Cause I sure as hell don't know."
"Me either," Kitty admitted. "Still, it could be fun."
"I still don't have a lot of control," Ed felt the need to point out. Bobby laughed.
"That's okay, none of us do, really. Young mutants never do." He shrugged. "It's a lot harder than it ought to be, you know? I'm just glad that it's okay here. More than I can say for home."
John snorted, agreeing. "Yeah, well. Everything different at home, isn't it?" He sounded bitter.
Bobby winced. "Yeah," he admitted. Then, lower, "My parents don't even know what kind of school this is. They think it's some kind of, I don't remember, prep school or something."
Ed gave him a startled look. "Really?"
Bobby nodded miserably. "Yeah." Then, "Why, how did your parents take it?"
Ed didn't know how his parents would have taken his powers. Ed felt very uncomfortable. Ed said, "I never got the chance to find out. Mom died when I was five and Dad walked out a few years before that."
John snorted again. "Parents," he said derisively. None of them asked about how his took it.
"Mine took it really well," Kitty told them in a small voice. She didn't like thinking about how most parents reacted – how lucky she'd been. How close she might have come to not being so lucky. "They were proud."
Ed gave her a small grin. "Good for you, Kitty," he said encouragingly. "That's great." She smiled back. John rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.
It wasn't nice to rain on other people's parades.
I'm getting questions again, so I'll say this again: This takes place three years before the first X-Men movie. There are no planned changes to the course of the movies, so Wolverine does not show up early in the fic (he'll show up later, when I skip forward the years necessary to make Ed sixteen and reach the anime) and Pyro won't be betraying them anytime soon either. Thanks for reading, and please review!
By the way, the update for For the Sake of Science is being published first thing tomorrow if you're reading that. If you're not, I'd love it if you'd go check it out. Thanks!