Chapter 13 : Headstrong
Colonel Roy Mustang liked to think of himself as a respectful and brave man. He'd fought in the Ishbalan wars and survived, faced his own first lieutenant multiple times a day and lived to tell the tale and had been the subject of female wrath many a time. Yes, Roy Mustang truly was a brave man, therefore when the door of his office suddenly slammed open, surprising the poor colonel while in the midst of some very important 'paperwork' he did not startle, nor did he squeak, as his subordinates would mockingly tell him later. Instead he let out a manly grunt and turned to his door to see what hooligan, because there was no way any lovely lady would slam a door like that, dared interrupt his reading time.
Somehow he was not surprised to see his favorite midget, automail leg outstretched and half-clad in a hospital gown. At least he'd had the mind to put on some pants before barging into his office first Roy noted absently and thanked the gods for small blessings, a half naked fullmetal was not something he needed right now, a new door on the other hand…
Sighing he pinched the bridge of his nose with glove clad fingers, feeling a headache coming on, and finally looked down at the alchemist, making sure to tilt his head a bit more obviously than normal to emphasize the height difference, and addressed the wayward alchemist.
"Fullmetal, good to see you back on your short feet again."
The reaction was instantaneous, and completely according to plan of course.
"WHO'S SO SMALL A FLEA COULD WEAR THEIR SHOES?!"
Roy smirked and leaned back in his chair, enjoying the shorter alchemists misery. This was just what he needed after a day of hard work to relax.
Eventually he decided he'd had enough and put a stop to the ranting,
"So did you get kicked out of the hospital, Fullmetal? I thought I had at least another week before I'd have to put up with you again." The Colonel was quite pleased with himself, that didn't sound like he cared at all.
He watched as the little man grit his teeth and visibly tried to calm himself down, honestly if he continued like this he was just gonna end up right back in his hospital bed from the stress.
"They didn't kick me out." The boy finally grit out, "I left."
"And pray tell, why, exactly ,did you do that?" The Colonel made sure to use his most sarcastic voice, secretly dubbed his Elric voice, to make clear what he thought of his Major's most recent actions.
"I just can't stay there anymore. I need to do something, anything."
The frustration in his voice was evident and Mustang couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy. He'd heard what had happened on his last mission and knew how it had effected Ed. He'd seen for himself what the boy had been reduced to after he first woke up and it had not been a pretty sight.
Roy still remembered how relieved everyone had been when the Shortstack alchemist had woken up one morning and seemed entirely changed, what exactly had brought about the change they did not know, but he did know they, he himself included, were all eternally grateful to whatever had brought the little spitfire back to his normal, non-vegetablelike state. There was just something horribly wrong about seeing the usually so lively alchemist moping so unresponsive, and honestly Roy had missed messing with the younger alchemist. Something about seeing the Elric's pissed off face just made his day.
But, while it was nice to see the alchemist so lively again, he really didn't think this was a smart thing to do.
"I don't think you need to be doing anything right now, Major Elric, except for marching back to your hospital bed, that is."
Roy stapled his hands together on the desk and leaned forward as he watched the little alchemist try and keep his cool, to great his surprise he actually succeeded.
"I can't do that." Edward finally said, and one look at his uncharacteristically serious face, uncharacteristically so when faced with Roy at least, told the man he would not have an easy time convincing him otherwise. The Colonel wouldn't give up without a fight though.
"And why ever not? Those little legs not able to carry you anymore?"
Roy almost hoped the other would start on another short-rant and forget about his plans, but when the other just stared back at him with a knowing glint in his eyes ,he knew he'd lost.
"You know why I can't. You know what happened on that last mission. I can't just sit by and let things like that happen again. Every moment that I'm lying there another life could be lost. I need to be out there. I need to do something!"
Roy almost let out another embarrassing squeak when an automail hand slammed down on the polished wood of his desk, leaving behind a sizeable dent in the gleaming wood. Hawkeye was not gonna be pleased about that.
Instead of giving into his, admittedly embarrassing, instincts he looked straight back into the others glaring eyes and returned the glare with one of his own.
"And what if I don't want you to do anything?" He asked slowly, dangerously, but he knew it wouldn't affect the other. The kid had a stubborn streak the size of Amestris and there was no convincing him otherwise once he had his sights on something.
"Then I'll go myself. I can't just stay here and let anyone else die. I need to do something."
"People might die anyways." The Colonel said softly, looking away.
"Then at least I'll know I have tried."
The Colonel sighed and massaged his temples tiredly, trying to think of some relatively safe mission to send the Elric on. Preferably something that would take him awhile to complete.
"Very well then," he finally relented, "there've been reports of a small village to the east getting attacked by bandits. Some of them have been rumored to use some rather…interesting alchemy. Seems like it'll be right up your alley."
Roy quickly made his way over to one of the many filing cabinets that lined his office's walls and pulled out a small brown envelope.
"The rest is in the file. Now go."
He tossed the envelope at his subordinate haphazardly and watched as the younger alchemist snatched it out of the air dexterously, looking it over once before nodding and turning to leave.
"Oh and fullmetal, try and stay in one piece for once, will you? The military really can't afford to keep wasting our money on those hospital bills of yours."
The door slammed close before he could hear the others reply, he didn't really mind though, the muffled swearwords from the other side told him enough.
He leaned back in his chair once more and put his feet up on his desk, it had already been ruined by the Fullmetal-midget anyways.
In a small city to the east a woman reclined in the shade of a tree. She watched with a small, pleased smile as a young boy played around in front of her. Her smile grew as she saw the boy pick up a small stone and look it over before he seemed to come to some kind of decision and clapped his hands.
A small, bright blue flash of lightning lit up the surroundings and when he opened his hands again a small flower lay in the place where the rock had once been.
The boy smiled and skipped over to the tree the woman was leaning against, presenting her with his creation.
The woman smiled at the boy and patted his head soothingly, thanking him for the flower before pushing him lightly and urging him to go play again.
The boy nodded and skipped back to the field to start looking for another stone or twig he could play with, a proud look now coloring his innocent features.
Back at the tree the woman was still looking down at the little purple flower the boy had made for her. Slowly, one by one, she started to pluck the petals from the stem, watching with interest as they drifted to the ground. Right before the first petal could touch the ground she moved her hand, far faster than any normal human could.
When it became visible again the petals had stopped moving, hanging unnaturally still in mid air, the only thing keeping them in place a pair of impossibly long and sharp nails.
The woman smiled once more at the now ruined flower petals, before flicking her wrist, retracting her nails and turning back to the clearing.
This boy would do just fine.
AN/ Annyeonghaseyo and welcome back to Smfm :D I know its been a while but school once again interfered . I had a bunch of exams and this really important paper to write, so I didn't really have the time to write :( Still, the new chappie's finally out now and I hope you all liked it. Not a whole lot of Ed or Envy in this chapter but that'll pick up again next chapter. for now you'll all just have to make do with Roy (who I've decided I love) and 'mystery' woman (not like everybody doesn't know who she is already, but at least you don;t really know what I got planned yet...right?). Anyways a big thank you to all the reviewers, faves and alerts, it really means a lot to me to know people enjoy this^^ Well (hopefully) Till next chapter and see ya then! xXx