Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Departure ❯ Little pitchers, big ears ( Chapter 2 )

Title: "Departure"
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Pairing: Ed and Roy, others mentioned
A/N: Ed overhears a bit more than he should of.
This story is mental crack to get these two together. Go me.



Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me and I make no money from this work of fanfiction at all.

A/N: Written for shit and giggles, like most of my other writings. Divergence from episode 13, AU, and possibly OOC.

Pairing: Ed and Roy, others mentioned.



“Marco… Marco…”

It was one of the many records rooms in Eastern Command, full of mentions of the different civilian alchemists of note in the past ten years.

Edward and Alphonse had what looked like half a library scattered around.

“It's like the guy doesn't exist! No Marco, nothing at all- it goes from Matthew to Miter, but there's not Marco!”

Across from him, also adrift in the sea of paper, Al helped him flip through the pages. “Maybe you should go and ask the Colonel? Some of our best leads have come from him.”

“None of those have panned out!”

“None of the ones we've found on our own have meow panned out either!”

Ed blinked, suddenly suspicious. “Al… why is your chest plate purring?”

“It's still raining!”

Ed glared, about to yell when he put his hands in his face. “Why do I have to go subject myself to more abuse?”

“He's not that bad, I verbally abuse you all the time.”

Meow

Ed's eyebrow twitched as he got to his feet to leave.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The blond alchemist chewed his bottom lip, his stomach twisting uneasily as he walked down the halls to the Colonel's office. It was late, and there wasn't much of a guarantee that Mustang would be around, but he probably would with the weirdness going on.

“...heard that Ed…”

Hughes? What was he- well, never mind. He had figured out that those two would often get their heads together.

Though he'd said Ed's name- and whenever that happened, it was a sure cue you needed to eavesdrop.

“You told me you'd gotten over it, Roy. I hadn't heard about you having an episode in years.”

“I was distracted, that's all. Sometimes I get lost in thought.”

“Yeah, and I've got some ocean front property in Risembool I'd like you to buy. You lied to me. It wasn't anything bad this time but what if you start blowing things up? What if you choke doing something else? Even worse- what if someone like Gran finds out? That bastard would love to know he'd actually succeeded. Finally, someone has broken the Mustang!” Hughes ended; his tone was a low hiss.

Ed swallowed. Maybe he shouldn't be listening to this.

Who was he kidding? He wouldn't have left if someone walked up with the Philosopher's Stone.

“You're worrying too much.”

“Am I? You think you're talking to some other Hughes?”

“This was the first one in as many years.”

“So you're admitting it still happens.”

Ed's mind flailed, trying to understand what exactly they were talking about. It was utterly unthinkable that Mustang had ever been broken, whatever that meant. Lovely blackmail material, perhaps; but he didn't want to use something like that against him. It just felt wrong and unfair. He wanted to beat the bastard face to face.

“Well, obviously if someone like Fullmetal could walk in on me and catch it.”

He took it all back. By tomorrow, everyone would know.

“Oh drop it. You forget who you're talking to, Roy.”

There was a low, deep snort in answer. “Like I could forget.”

“Get over it. I'm straighter than a pencil, Roy.” He heard Hughes make a gusty sigh.

Ed nearly fell over and completely forgot any other plans he might have. Roy and Hughes? Eww!

“So, you going to tell me what happened this time?”

There was a long, deep silence, punctuated with the sound of the occasional roll of thunder.

“I had been reading a few reports about Xenotime. There had been rumors about red stones there for years now.”

“Oh fuck.”

Ed swallowed again.

Mustang was frighteningly quiet.

“I remember the rumors during the war. That's what set you off? Hell… I know you still can't say anything. Still “top secret” and all…”

Ed really wished he could barge in there and start asking questions. He almost did- if it wasn't for the sinking feeling that those two men would clam up tight.

“I saw the report and… and the next thing I know he's there.”

“Roy… I wish you could tell me what it is you keep reliving.”

“Top secret, remember?”

Hughes blew a raspberry, presumably at Mustang.

“Ed asked about Marco- and that's another thing you can't tell me about. Never did tell me about, at any rate.”

“Hmm.”

Oh, now Ed was really pissed.

“He was a deserter; that much was in the records. You can tell me more, can't you?”

“Not much else to tell.”

“Dammit Roy! Stop trying to do this alone! You can't keep protecting Ed, you can't keep protecting Marco!”

Ed's mouth dropped. Say what?

“Just- please. Roy.”

“He called me a hero,” Mustang said, flatly. “If he knew the truth about me… well, at least there's someone who would put this old dog out of his misery.”

Edward really was going to put someone down if they didn't get to the point soon!

“Roy… I'd tell you to stop pitying yourself if I thought it would do any good. You're hurt, Roy.”

Right. He'd believe if he… well, wait. Ed had seen it.

“Stop treating me like I'm made of glass, Maes. I'm a big boy. I'll deal.”

Ed would have sat there and frothed in frustration if there hadn't been an equally frustrated noise from Hughes and the sound of footsteps to the door.

It was, unfortunately, too late for Ed to run away.

Roy didn't see Maes out, and Maes had closed the door slowly, his eyes fixing on Ed in surprise and dry amusement.

“How much of that did you hear?”

Ed squirmed. He didn't want admit he'd been caught eavesdropping- but he'd been caught eavesdropping.

“Everything from `You'd told me you'd gotten over it',” Edward muttered, fidgeting and twisting his fingers. He liked Hughes, and he didn't want to lie to him directly…

The Lt. Colonel sighed, sending a glare at Mustang's door.

“Come walk with me for a while?”

Ed didn't think he had much choice.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hughes didn't say anything, didn't even change his expression until they'd gotten on to the Eastern Command roof.

Ed would look up at him occasionally, wondering he would ask first. There was Marco, the red stones, the straight-as-a-pencil comment…

Hughes, predictably, beat him to the punch.

“I'm going to ask you to please keep this to yourself,” the older man began abruptly, startling Ed from his thoughts. Ed's eyebrow went up at that, and Hughes took off his glasses to rub his eyes.

“I don't know what you know about the war in Ishbal-“

“Part of the Eastern Rebellion, right?”

“If you want to put it that way… Roy was part of the group of alchemists assigned to help quell the rebellion. Up until then, he'd just done research, but...”

Ed watched Hughes' jaw tighten. “He'd been a bright, hopeful kid until then. We'd been through academy together, but… when he came back, he was someone else. That's not unusual in and of itself…”

He continued to listen, eyebrow cocked. “Yes?”

“Roy has flashbacks, Ed. Bad ones. When he first came back, Gracia and I would take turns with him to make sure he wouldn't eat his gun, but that wasn't the worst part. Something would happen and- he would be gone. His mind would just slip off to relive whatever it was that happened.”

Hughes had a half smile on his face, but it was more like he was bearing his teeth at the memory. “Sometimes he'd act on those memories, sometimes he wouldn't. I don't know what they made him do, but whatever it was, he can't talk about it.”

“And you're telling me this, why?” Ed couldn't think of a purpose other than it made his stomach feel mighty queer.

“The higher ups can't find out. I know you don't care about the inner workings of the military, Ed, but Mustang pulled himself together and he's been making himself into something. He made a promise and I want to see him carry through.” The smile on the older man's face was real this time, if sad. “Roy needs to succeed- for everyone's sake.”

“Uh huh. And the pencil comment?” That was not what Ed had planned on asking! His mouth had disconnected from his brain. That was the only explanation.

Hughes barked in laughter, covering his mouth with his hand and giving Ed a sly smile. “Well, some people swing both ways. I don't.”

Ed wondered if he had stepped through the Gate and was in some bizarre alternate universe. Okay, intellectually he had known people did things to further the species but of course, he'd never done anything about it… And the only significant relationship he'd ever had was with his left hand, and that was just so he could get through his hormones long enough to get back to tracking down the Stone.

The Colonel swung both ways? Was that legal? Did that mean..?

Ah, what did he care?

“Well, we still tease each other about it because friends are safe to crush on.” Hughes gave Ed a strange look- and Ed found himself blushing for no good reason.

Fighting through the sudden spate of totally out of character embarrassment, Ed tried to bring himself back around. “You can't tell me he doesn't know anything about Marco then.”

“If he does, he's not talking. It could be one of those war things he doesn't want to talk about, or that he can't talk about.”

Ed growled, bristling, before he wrapped his arms around himself to huff.

“You could ask him anyways. He might tell you.”

There was something off about how Hughes had said that.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm not going to tell you,” Hughes seemed terribly amused by this. Then he looked up, eyeing the heavy clouds above their heads. “We should be going back in. You probably need sleep- and, yeah, I forgot. Your assessment is coming up. We'll talk about it later after a good night's sleep.”

Ed wanted to jump up and down in frustration and from too many unanswered questions- but at least he had a good idea of where to start now.

“Well good night then, Edward. I'll see you in the morning!” Hughes called, giving him a two fingered wave. Of course he left Ed standing there when it started to rain.

Not that Ed noticed- he had too many things to think about.



To be continued.



A/N: In case you haven't noticed, Roy has post traumatic stress disorder. Though they are not going to call it that, I think one of the earliest references was “shell shock” or something of the like. I don't think psychiatry as a medical field is very well known in Amestris quite yet, so its not been identified or treated.