Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Through Metamorphosis ❯ Part I ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I do not FMA. Someday…   Warnings: This is YAOI, aka, SLASH. If you (a) are homophobic or (b) don’t support this pairing—why are you here? Be off with you, I say. You have been warned.   Author’s Note: This fic is classified as being “slightly AU” because, hey, it is. If you’re familiar with the anime or the manga, know that both Ed and Al manage to overcome Dante unscathed—and with their original bodies. Same side of the gate, no more Philosopher’s stone, no automail or suit of armor. Also disregard the movie.   Through Metamorphosis By RWThunder Part I               “Go, he’s waiting for you.” Winry’s expression was unreadable. Roy Mustang, former Brigadier General and State Alchemist found that, despite his infamous eloquence, he had no idea how to reply.             The Flame Alchemist had lived through many wars, killed too people, and faced numerous inner demons along the way. Now, in the quiet countryside of Resembool, after exchanging a few words with a sixteen-year-old automail engineer and a certain Metal Alchemist, Roy was shaken.             Shocked, stunned, flabbergasted—all synonyms for an emotion that he was not accustomed to feeling, much less exhibiting. Frowning slightly at the young blonde—who refused to meet his eyes—Roy tried his best to understand their recent and somber exchange. Comprehension, as it turned out, was harder to achieve than Mustang had previously thought, without his morning coffee, at least.             “Good morning, Mustang,” Winry was washing dishes when Roy got back to the house. He started, internally damning his nerves. Roy Mustang was not used to being surprised. That morning, however, had been full of surprises; or maybe the surprising thing about his talk with Ed was that he hadn’t been surprised at all. The Flame Alchemist realized that he was ignoring Winry and rapidly pulled himself together.       &nbs p;     “Good morning, Winry.” He replied, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against the doorframe, trying to look as natural as he could. At ease, relaxed, calm. Maybe if he could fool the engineer, he could fool himself as well; at least that was the plan.       &nbs p;     “We missed you and Ed at breakfast.” The teen commented off-handedly, her back to Roy. The sound of running water and clinking porcelain almost masking the dark  tone of her voice. At any rate, it served to rescue the air in between the two youths from fateful awkward silence. For this, Roy was grateful.       &nbs p;     “Sorry about that.” He said after a time, watching her closely.       &nbs p;     “Aren’t you two hungry?” It was more obvious this time; there was a tremor in the blonde’s voice, a sound that indicated a great deal of restrained emotion. Her shoulders were tense.       &nbs p;     “I can hold out until lunch. However, I cannot speak for Ed.” He said this carefully, suddenly distracted from his own plight as he focused on Winry, the daughter of two innocent people that he had killed under orders, two out of thousands, but the only ones with surviving relations to deal out the guilt he deserved. Winry was the last of his guilt, his self-hatred, and his past.Everything else that composed General Mustang was buried, literally. Roy supposed it was only fair that he never be free of his sin, not completely. Winry was a reminder to him, a warning that one cannot blindly follow orders throughout life, safe, clean, and justified as they may seem. Murder is murder. It sounded like something Ed would say. Ed… “Mustang, why did you come here?” Winry had abandoned the dishes and was wiping her hands dry as she turned to face him. “To the kitchen…?” “To Resembool.” She tucked the rag into her pocket and folded her arms expectantly. Abrupt was the word that came to mind. Abrupt, direct, and aggressive. Clearly the mechanic had been mulling over the question for some time. Consequently, so had Roy. “Does my presence upset you? Is it because—” He began. “No, it’s not because of that.” Winry cut him off sharply, hands clenching at her sides. The Flame Alchemist sighed, trying not to think about what it had to be like for her. He was her parents’ murderer, a mockery of their lives who would forever embody her loss and accentuate their absence. He was a reminder to her as well. “After the election of the new parliament, I discovered that there was no longer a place for me in the military. I had nowhere to go and Ed was kind enough to offer me a place to stay for awhile. I should have realized that he’d come back here. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come with him.” Roy said slowly. “So, Ed asked you to come?” Winry questioned, giving Roy a hard look. “Yes. He was visiting shortly after the election. I was still hospitalized then, and recall alluding to my predicament. He generously offered his company, announcing that he too was finished with the government, and suggested coming here.” Out of mild suspicion and instinctual tact, the former general refrained from describing Edward’s eager insistence to the girl. The blonde narrowed her eyes. Already an idea was forming in Roy’s calculative mind, bringing with it the familiar pang of guilt sparking in his gut. Winry and Ed had been childhood friends. That friendship had never died,  even though they had been apart for so long. Winry had been invaluable to Ed on account of her engineering skills and had visited often. It had been Winry who had given the Fullmetal one his automail in the beginning. They were peers, adolescents, and Winry was…jealous…? “Mustang, did you come here because you needed a place to stay or because you needed someone to be with?” She demanded. “Winry—” “Were you ever actually interested in Riza, lieutenant Hawkeye?” “Winry, please—” “You’re a real ladies man, lots of women like you. I’ve always wondered why you never seemed to care. I used to think you considered yourself to be above them. Rr maybe you just liked the attention. Maybe you’d had your heart broken before, or maybe you just didn’t want to juggle your ambition and a steady love-life at the same time.” The auto-mail engineer took a deep breath. “But I was wrong, wasn’t I? It’s not just women, everyone knew how respected and admired you were in the military, how inspiring you were to your peers and subordinates. You were inspiring to Ed, Mustang, even if you weren’t trying to impress him. Or maybe you were, were you…?” She trailed off. Roy was suddenly minutely aware of his heart pounding against his ribcage. “Winry, Riza Hawkeye and myself have defined the nature of our relationship quite clearly. As to the attention I receive from the rest of the female populous, you were correct in stating that I am uncomfortable balancing my career and my romantic liaisons—nonexistent as they now are.” The Flame Alchemist heard himself speaking and let the words flow, thankful for what  years of military experience had given him in terms of being quick on his feet, not to mention thinking fast and responding progressively under stress. These talents were invaluable, and yet, his aversion of her question would not solve the problem at hand. “As to my militaristic reputation—”He continued. “Mustang, did you ever try to impress Ed?” The aggression was gone from her voice. What replaced her apparent anger was almost worse, that down-trodden tone often acquired when the speaker feels they have lost ground.. What did Winry think she’d lost? “No.” It was the truth, yet somehow, Roy felt guilty about his answer. After all, Winry seemed to be implying more than she had the heart to actually accuse him of. “Winry, was there something else you wanted to ask me?” He couldn’t believe he was prompting her. “A question about Ed, maybe?” The blond looked up from the floor at this, giving him a thoughtful look. Suddenly, she smiled. “I like him, Mustang, I like him a lot. You know that we grew up together—he, Al, and I—and I guess I always thought I meant something to him. Even before I got to thinking about things, I was always resentful when he’d talk about you. I know he’s insolent, but…but you must realize how much he respects you, like he always has, like he still does.” Abruptly, Winry turned back to the sink and turned on the water. Roy’s instincts told him to flee the kitchen and its insightful sixteen-year-old inhabitant as soon as possible, but the small part of him that understood exactly what she was talking about begged its remuneration. Remembering to breathe, the Flame Alchemist approached the sink and took a plate from the counter. “I respect him as well.” He began scrubbing. Winry cast him a side-long look, examining the plate in his hands and watching as he washed it meticulously. “You like him.” The mechanic said simply, removing the plate from his hands to dry it and stack it on top of its fellows. Roy selected a piece of silverware from the frothy depths of the sink and went to work. “It’s strange, you took away my parents, and now you’re taking Ed.” The fork plunged back into the warm bubbles from whence it came, leaving Roy’s hands with nothing to keep them from trembling. “I’m sorry. I don’t really mean that. Ed likes you, too, I’m just being selfish. You’re a good person, Mustang, I could never hate you for that reason alone, no matter what you’d done.” Winry retrieved the utensil and dried it thoroughly. You like someone, someone likes you back…was it really so simple as all that? Roy had never been in a serious relationship before. He’d been on dates with women, kissed some, romanced here and there—his virginity had been lost somewhere in the mix—he didn’t remember the name or face of the honored lady, however. Winry’s affection for Ed was undoubtedly different from his own.. Yes, it was affection, affection for Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist.  In Roy’s mind, it had been entirely the shrimp’s fault. Roy had been amused and intrigued by him at first, impressed, later by his extraordinary exhibition of skill and adult prowess. The extent of his admiration was cut short, however, by Ed’s age and the ranks that separated them. But Ed had been clever. He had never been anything but himself, always honest and upfront. To the former general, Ed’s rudeness and cheek was preferred to the deceptively submissive demeanor of his comrades. Roy had a hard time finding people that he could trust, people that weren’t fakes. With Ed, there had never been any question. From there, the Fullmetal one had only to maintain his place in Roy’s good graces. When that place was secured, from there, things could only move forward. For the most part, the progression from State Alchemist and Colonel to Alchemist and Alchemist had been subconscious. One day, Ed simply wasn’t his subordinate. It had been near the end of the troubles in Lior when Roy felt, for the first time, that crucial connection between Ed and himself as people, as equals. Things had gone very far since their first true encounter at the train station in Central. Ed was a man now. He had changed and grown drastically throughout the years, innocently entering into the inevitable metamorphosis that shapes a person, the final stage of growth in adolescence. Unfortunately for Roy, Ed had been as open and extroverted then as ever. He had always let himself shine shamelessly, but now, he was blindingly radiant. To witness a person evolve within themselves through strength, morality, and grace is an impressionable thing to behold. Roy had observed a blossoming maturity in the boy that ripped apart every restraint placed on his feelings for Ed. The Fullmetal one was grown now, but he wasn’t the only one who had experienced changes. As  Ed developed physically and mentally, these transformations triggered a reaction in Roy’s emotions. By the time Ed had revised himself completely, the Flame Alchemist discovered that his feelings for the boy had been equally revolutionized.  His emotions towards the eldest Elric had been modified in much the same way as the boy himself, moving from reserved fondness to suppressed desire as Ed grew from a child into an adult before his eyes. The process had been so slow that Roy had not had time to prepare himself for the sudden eruption of lust that overcame him. His feelings, of course, were not composed solely of sexual craving; the corresponding morph of Ed’s maturity and Roy’s emotions had been too profound for him to understand and evade. No, the former dog of the military was probably cultivating true infatuation for the first time in his life, if guiltily. By that time he realized all of this, of course, it was too late. “Did you hear me? I said he likes you.” The brunette jumped slightly at the abrasive intrusion into his thoughts. “I suppose I could believe that.” He answered calmly, draining the sink and handing Winry a fresh dishrag. The blonde frowned at him. “What are you going to do about it? You like him, don’t you? Isn’t it different than with those girls that hound you?” The engineer maneuvered the plates and silverware safely into their cupboards, glancing over her shoulder to meet his eyes challengingly. “What makes you think that I have had any experiences with Ed with which to compare?” Roy shot back, folding the cloth over the edge of the sink. “First Ed brings you home, you socialize with auntie and I, then the two of you disappear one morning. One has to wonder what kind of tension drove the two of you to get up at the crack of dawn—even before auntie—and meet up somewhere. It’s obvious that something is going on.” Roy lowered his head in defeat. “I congratulate you.” He smiled, genuinely. “I know how Ed feels about me, if only since this morning. We’ve been talking, he and I. We’ve been…bonding.” The brunette raised an eyebrow at Winry’s sudden snort. “Bonding, hm?” The mood of their conversation was lifting rapidly. “I haven’t touched him. A few minutes ago, I would have, but…” Roy glanced out the window briefly. “You backed out. Was it because he told you how he felt?” Winry watched the former soldier carefully. “Yes.” “Idiot.” The teen shook her head and mimicked Roy’s visual sweep of the yard outside. “Humans want to be together, Mustang, they don’t want to be alone. People don’t want to be with just anyone, though, you understand that. I wanted to be with Ed, but not if he doesn’t want me. Besides, if Edward prefers you and you accept, that means that there’s someone else out there for me, someone waiting to be with me. If that’s the case, then you need to go outside right now and find my best friend.” Winry had planted herself in front of Roy and was glaring up at him. “But you said…” The Flame Alchemist stared down at the mechanic, resigned to the fact that he would have to get used to surprises. “Rejection hurts, but if you can make Ed happy…I don’t know…I forgave you for my parents, I did, but somehow, because I love him too, I need you to do this for me. For me, and for Ed. For yourself, Roy.” Winry laughed when she saw her companion’s frown. “Don’t question  yourself, Roy. You’re not my parents’ murderer, you’re my best friend’s lover. Fair?” The brunette hardly trusted himself to speak. “Fair.” He needed to see Ed. Roy started for the door. “Winry, I—” “Don’t apologize, Roy, go to him.” She winked.   TBC   -Thunder