Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/3077633.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Fullmetal_Alchemist_-_All_Media_Types
  Relationship:
      Edward_Elric/Roy_Mustang
  Character:
      Edward_Elric, Alphonse_Elric, Roy_Mustang, Heymans_Breda, Kain_Fuery,
      Vato_Falman, Zolf_J._Kimblee, Van_Hohenheim, Riza_Hawkeye
  Additional Tags:
      Alternate_Universe_-_Modern_Setting, Child_Abuse, Sexual_Abuse, Human
      Experimentation, Prosthesis, Automail, RoyEd_Week, Protective_Roy, Fluffy
      Ending, Fluff_and_Angst
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-01-01 Updated: 2015-08-23 Chapters: 5/25 Words: 23699
****** Dark Secrets of the Light ******
by phoenixreal
Summary
     A Fullmetal Alchemist Yaoi Fanfiction Novel
     Roy Mustang/Edward Elric
     Colonel Mustang goes to Central City to take over the police force
     there under State orders. He finds himself, though, in the middle of
     a den of secrets involving a scientist and his son, and perhaps more
     than that.
Notes
     Author’s Notes
     This is an alternative universe fanfiction. Characters are placed in
     a world of my own creation. In some cases, the characters and their
     personalities have been altered to fit the situation.
     Warnings
     This is a hardcore yaoi fanfiction. This is rated MA. This contains
     explicit sexual content. This story includes several adult themes.
     This story may contain at any point: non-consensual sexual acts,
     sexual abuse, physical abuse, depictions of child abuse, depictions
     of blood and gore, human experimentation, torture, and unethical
     scientific methods. This story also contains consensual sexual
     content. This story is not intended to be read by individuals under
     the age of 18. By reading this story, you are agreeing that you are
     both over the age of eighteen and aware of the possibility of
     disturbing material contained within.
     Disclaimer
     I do not claim ownership of any part of the Fullmetal Alchemist
     universe or of the characters. Hiromu Arakawa is the mangaka for
     Fullmetal Alchemist and owns this world and these characters. I am
     simply playing within it. Original elements do belong to me. There is
     no copyright infringement intended and I in no way make money from
     writing or posting this work of fanfiction.
     For more information on Fanfiction, Fanart, and Legal Rights
     associated with both, see the Organization for Transformative Works
     at http://transformativeworks.org/.
***** Discovery *****
===============================================================================
 
Central City was perhaps the most misnamed city in the State of Amestris.  A
small, out of the way place, almost a hundred miles from anywhere that
mattered, the town was a small town trying to be a big city and failing
miserably.  The population was nearly a hundred thousand people, and they had a
local college.  North of the closest real city but smack in the middle of the
State, Central City didn’t welcome outsiders very warmly.  Despite the midsized
nature of the city, the people in city government had been there for
generations, the titles passed from father to son. So it was when the State
government insisted on using a State run police force, they were not welcomed
with open arms.  Most of those in Central City felt that they could handle
things well enough on their own.  President Bradley, head of the State of
Amestris, did not agree.
The new head of the Amestris Police Force stationed in Central City was a man
named Colonel Roy Mustang.  Roy had been sent to the city with his own task
force to take over the local police and install his officers in the high
ranking positions.  They were only six people that Roy brought with him, and
most of those already in the police force were kept, though some were moved to
different positions.  This was not met with happiness.  There was much
resentment and some outright hatred of the interlopers in their city.  Roy had
brought in Deputy Chief Maes Hughes, Commander Riza Hawkeye, Major Jean Havoc,
Major Kain Fuery, Captain Vato Falman, and Lieutenant Heymans Breda with him. 
The existing chief of police, Chief Alex Armstrong, remained in his position,
though the rank of Colonel was installed as a superior rank by the State. 
Majors Kimblee, Ross, and Tucker were kept from in their positions as heads of
their divisions along with the Desk Sergeant Denny Brosh.
It was a rough transition, but Roy tried his best to keep everyone in line. 
Central City was known for its tight knit community.  While the city itself was
rather large, the people in the city government tried its best to keep too much
change from happening to their community too quickly.  They did not like
change, and they didn’t like the State coming in and changing their police
force.
Three weeks had passed, and finally Roy could walk down the street without
getting glared at, well, he didn’t get glared at by everyone now, just only a
quarter of the people he encountered.  It wasn’t like he came here to turn
things upside down.  He was under orders from President Bradley.  There were
too many local forces that just did not have things together, and this was one
of them.  Part of the problem people had with him was that Roy was a war hero,
but he was also rather young, in his late twenties.  He had a lot of power and
control for a man his age, and there were many things about him that set other
people off.  He didn’t particularly care much for public opinion and often came
off as condescending, even when he didn’t mean to do so.
Things were strange, of course, as he got into the community.  He didn’t speak
about it, but he wasn’t particularly keen about being moved with his entire
team like this.  He followed orders though, and he did his job, no matter how
many times he received dirty looks from the locals.  His thoughts were
somewhere around those areas when he ran smack into one of the local kids as he
was walking down main street.
“Oh, oh, Colonel Mustang, sir I’m sorry!” squeaked the young man.  He was a
lanky, willowy boy in his late teens with sandy brown hair.  Roy, of course,
recognized him immediately.  He had files on all the prominent citizens of
Central City and their families.
Roy smiled, pushing his black hair from his eyes and kneeled down to help the
kid pick up his satchel full of books that had scattered when they had
collided.  Roy was known for his quick mind, and one of his abilities was near
perfect memory and analysis.  Five books had slid out.  One was a first grade
reading primer, another was a book on advance biomechanics, a third was a book
on basic first aid, the fourth a book on speech therapy, and the last a book on
preschool skills.  It was a curious combination of books to be certain. 
“I’m sorry, Alphonse, right?  You’re the Elric boy that lives at the end of
Mansion Road with your dad, Van Hohenheim, one of Amestris’s head scientists.”
Roy knew about their family even before he came to live in the city because
they were perhaps one of the most influential forces in all of Central City. 
Hohenheim was a scientific genius, and his innovations alone had brought enough
income into Central City that there was nothing the man could do that was wrong
to most people in this city.  For the State, he was one of the largest
innovators and producers of advanced medical technology and genetic
manipulation.  He’d lost his wife before he moved to the area with a young
son.  Al, or Alphonse, was a genius as well, and was currently at the beginning
of his college education at the local school.  However, there were some strange
rumors around the city about the family.  The strangest of which was that no
one had ever been inside their house.  Al had many friends but his father said
his work was too delicate to have others in the house.
Al smiled.  “Yeah, I know you.  Chief Armstrong was at the school when you came
to town to tell us what was happening,” he said with a grin.
“How are you doing?” Roy asked, slipping his white gloved hands into his
uniform pockets.  He never went out without his gloves.
“I’m good, Colonel Mustang,” Al said, looking a bit nervous.
“Roy, I’m not on duty right now.  Where are you off to?” he asked.  “That’s
quite a stash of books you’ve got.”
Roy knew now something was odd because the look that crossed the boy’s face was
somewhere between terror and anger.  “Oh, yeah, discount books at the bookstore
I work at.  Never know what will come in handy!” he said, waving as he left. 
Roy watched for a long moment until he felt someone walk up behind him.
“What’s wrong, sir?  You’ve got that look,” Jean Havoc said softly.  Havoc was
one of Roy’s best people.  Major Havoc was the head of the foot patrol section
of the officers.
“Something’s just not right around here,” he said, watching Alphonse Elric
disappear down the road.
“Yeah, well, you best be getting back to the office.  Hawkeye’s looking for
you,” Jean said with a smile.
Roy cringed.  “That woman is a slave driver.  Paper work, I hate paperwork!” he
muttered, scratching his head thoughtfully as he turned and headed back to the
precinct.
“Yeah, well, if you don’t do it, she’s going to crack you in the skull with
that pistol of hers,” Jean said with a smirk.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
It was nearly another three months before something came up that made Roy sure
that there was more happening than there appeared to be in the large house on
Mansion Road. 
He’d kept his eyes on various locals, including the too good to be true
Hohenheim.  Something about the man didn’t sit right with Roy, and he couldn’t
quite figure it out.  He had poured over his research and the work he did for
the State as well as for the locals, and some of the things he did just didn’t
seem all that possible.  There was no doubt that he was an innovator in science
and technology.  In his research, he often spoke about test subjects, or test
batches, but none of them went into detail on exactly who the test subjects
were and where they came from.  Roy wasn’t a biomechanical engineer, nor was he
a doctor, but he did know a few things about genetics, and he knew that some of
the things that Van Hohenheim had done would have to have had human test
subjects.  He’d developed an inoculation for a group of people in the east that
were born with blindness almost seventy five percent of the time.  There was
another cure for previously irreparable cochlear nerve damage from explosive
discharges or genetic deformity.  He had come up with ways to actually repair
brain tissue and nerves directly.   
His son Alphonse was an A+ student, popular, and going to the local college
with a full scholarship in mechanical engineering.  He worked part time at a
book store, and more than once Roy would see him leaving with a bag full of
books.  He never got another chance to see what books he was taking with him. 
Still, Roy’s mind would go back to the first time he ran into him.  Why would a
kid like him need a reading primer and preschool activity books?  It didn’t
make any sense at all.
He was also more than a little suspicious of two of his Majors.  Major Solf
Kimblee was a local who was over the administration and human resources
division.  He was the type that when he smiled, he made skin crawl and was
constantly looking like he was thinking almost murderous thoughts.  He had also
doubled as the bomb disposal technician, which surprised Roy.  The other,
another local officer named Major Shou Tucker was the head medical examiner,
and he had an almost unhealthy obsession with biology of things.  It wouldn’t
have been so strange but the man would go on, in gruesome details, about
autopsies and necropsies.  When there did happen a murder or a mysterious
death, he took great glee in showing graphic photos and describing in detail
everything for the officers and
The only people Roy trusted for certain were his own.  Something was happening
in this town, and he was wondering if the police chief, a seemingly
incorruptible man, was involved.  Because of this suspicion, he kept his
thoughts from Chief Armstrong.  The man had been incredibly willing to work
with him while the rest of the place had been at best resistant to the change
in command, or at worst, outright aggressive about it.
Things culminated one fall afternoon when his assistant Riza Hawkeye buzzed him
saying someone was here to see him.  Curious he had her send whoever it was in
and was surprised to see a wide eyed Alphonse Elric.  One of his eyes was still
deep reddish purple where someone had hit him with a more than solid punch to
his face.  Roy stood up and approached the lanky teen, both curious and
worried.  He didn’t want to admit to the rising excitement in his chance
because this was perhaps his opportunity to investigate further into what was
happening.
“Alphonse, what happened?  Are you okay?” he asked, truly worried.  He’d never
imagined the boy getting into trouble or fights.  He was genuinely one of the
nicest kids in town.  More than once, he’d stopped and talked to Roy when he
was out for his afternoon walk and passed the bookstore.  They had talked about
many things over the last months, from small talk to politics.  Roy had been
impressed at the boy’s wide knowledge base for a kid that had never left home.
“Roy, Colonel, what…what do you do when…when you know something is
wrong….but…but you can’t tell someone b-because…you can’t?” he said, tears
already gathering at the corners of his eyes.  He was clutching a ripped book
satchel. The frustration and fear on his face was apparent.  The boy was
tormented by whatever had brought him to see Roy.
Roy reached out and took the bag as Al watched numbly, not moving to stop him
from taking the satchel.  Roy blinked and opened the ruined bag.  Inside was a
motley collection of books.  All of them had been torn apart.  Pages were
scattered and crumbled in the bag and ripped into shreds.  He pulled the cover
of the reading primer he’d seen the day he’d run into Alphonse the first time
out.  There were dirty, smudged fingerprints around the edges.  Someone had
been using this book a lot.
“What is this?” Roy said, looking up.
“I…don’t…it was okay before, but…but now…I can’t be quiet.  I’m scared, so
scared, Roy, what do I do?  If I say something…I…I’m betraying m-my
father…I…but if I don’t…he won’t stop, he has to stop…” he said quietly.  “I’m
scared, and I just…I want to tell someone, but if he finds out…won’t it be
worse? Wh-what if nothing changes?”
Roy stared at him for a long moment then laid the bag on his desk.  “Alphonse,”
he said softly and put both hands on the young man’s shoulders.  He looked up
at him with teary eyes.  “I’m not going to make you betray anyone.  Stay here. 
I’ll stop whatever this is.  Just stay here.”
Alphonse nodded, sitting down with shaking hands.  Roy knew something was
happening but for this kid to act like this, what could be going on?  He’d
thought that perhaps his father was abusive, but over the last four months
since he’d arrived, he’d never had a mark on him.  He stepped out into the
bullpen and looked around.  “Havoc, come with me.  Got an assignment I need
your help with,” he said, feeling the eyes of everyone on them.
Jean came running, tucking his blonde hair behind his ears and pulling out a
cigarette as soon as they got outside.  “What’s up, boss?” he asked, walking
beside his colonel with a quick stride.
“Elric boy came in, black eye, scared to death.  Something is going on in that
house, and I’m finding out what,” he said as he slid into the driver’s seat of
his State vehicle.  Havoc jumped in beside him. 
“How we gonna manage that, boss?  We can’t just walk in and do a search,” Havoc
said, scratching his head.  They had State military backing, but they were not
authorized to do unwarranted search and seizure of private property.
“No, just follow my lead, okay?” Roy said as they pulled up in front of the
huge house at the end of Mansion Road.  He trusted Havoc.  The man would not
let him down.  He had an idea, and he just hoped it worked out the way he
wanted.
They got out and went up to the door and knocked.  There were lights on in some
of the windows.  “Dr. Hohenheim?  Please come to door, Colonel Mustang, I need
to speak to you immediately!” he called after his knocking didn’t summon anyone
to the door.
A few seconds later the door opened and the tall, blonde scientist stood there
staring with a scowl on his face.  “Yes, what is it?”
Roy cringed internally.  Police show up at his door and he doesn’t ask about
his son.  The alarms in Roy’s head were starting to ring louder than before.
“Sorry to bother you, but we’ve had a report of a break-in at your neighbor’s
home, so we’re checking in with everyone to see if they’ve heard or seen
anything,” Roy said with a very diplomatic smile.
Hohenheim frowned deeper.  “Why are you here?  Shouldn’t you be running the
station?” he asked.  “If there is a break-in, why would you not send a foot
patrolman to check in?  This makes no sense to send a Colonel for something
like this.”
Roy smiled brightly.  “Oh, sir, you are somewhat of a VIP around here, I
couldn’t leave coming out here in the hands of foot patrolmen.  President
Bradley would have my head if I didn’t personally see to your safety.”
Havoc was impressed.  Roy could lie, he knew that, but this was on a whole new
level.  He would have believed every word he said if he didn’t already know it
wasn’t true.  Hohenheim, though, did not seem impressed. 
“There is no problem here, please leave,” he said and attempted to slam the
heavy door when Roy heard a crash inside the house.  He knew it wasn’t just
him, because Hohenheim jumped.  That was exactly the opening he needed.  If
there was nothing, he now had an excuse to enter the house.  If there was
something, he wouldn’t have to face questioning.  Granted, he did lie about the
break-in.  He only hoped that there was something to be found that made his
superiors ignore his unauthorized action.
“Sir, step back, it might be the intruder!” he said, pulling his gun to the
ready and quickly hiding a smirk that was threatening to break across his lips.
“There is no one here, it was…the cat,” he said, trying to shove Roy back. 
Roy was having none of it, though, especially when he heard something rattle. 
He shoved back on the door and Havoc followed him, holding the door as the
scientist tried to close it even still with Roy standing in the opening. 
Hohenheim growled at him. 
“Get the hell out of my house!” he snapped, lunging to tackle the other man
despite the service pistol in his hand.  Havoc was quicker, and snagged him
back by hooking his arm around the other man’s neck to stop him.
“Whoa there, Dr. Hohenheim, sir, you can’t just attack the Colonel!” he said,
and struggled against the scientist.  He was a lot stronger than he looked. 
“Go ahead, boss, I got this,” Havoc said, grunting as Hohenheim tried to get
the broader man off of him.
Another noise caught Roy’s attention, coming from a partially opened door in
the middle of the room.  He headed toward it, completely ignoring the profane
proclamations coming from the owner of the house.
“Stay out of there!” Hohenheim screamed as Roy got closer to the door, almost
yanking out of Havoc’s grip.  Roy turned and stared at him as he pulled open
the door to reveal a set of stairs leading down into a dark basement.  Again, a
small noise, not like before but something was moving down there.  “That’s a
lab, I have experiments down there!   Stay out, you’ll ruin them!” he shouted.
At the shouting, Roy was sure he heard someone gasp and whimper.  He turned
back to Hohenheim.  “Who is down there?”
“No one, there is no one down there, now get out of my house!  I’ll call
President Bradley on you in the morning!  I’ll have your head on a plate!” he
screamed.  Havoc had to jerk him back hard again as he tried to lunge once more
toward Roy.
“We’ll see about that,” Roy said, reaching in the doorway and flicking a switch
that turned on a dim, flickering bulb in the basement.  He started down the
stairs and winced at the smell.  It wasn’t bad, but it was dank and moldy.  It
was not a pleasant smell and it did not match what most of the labs he’d been
in smelled like.
If this was his lab, there was something seriously wrong with the guy.  He
could smell wet dirt, ammonia, and the distinct smell of rats and mice.  He
stepped down onto the concrete floor and put away his pistol.  His heart was in
his throat because scenes like this didn’t bode well for what was to be found
in them.  He’d been in a war, after all, and he’d been in dark, dank places
like this.  The things usually hidden in them were terrible beyond words.  He
heard what sounded like metal scraping concrete, and now he knew he was hearing
someone breathing.  There was someone down here.  The doctor was lying about it
for some reason.  What was he going to find?
“Hello?” he called, trying to keep his voice from shaking. 
It wasn’t that he was in fear of his life or anything.  He’d often been in much
more dangerous situations, to be honest.  No this was a different kind of fear,
the one that sits low in the belly and twists and turns because it isn’t the
kind of fear that makes a man run.  No, this was the kind of fear that makes a
man sick beyond words.  This was the kind of fear when walking through a burned
out husk of a building and knowing that a body burned beyond recognition would
be found at some point.  This was the kind of fear when walking through a scene
of battle and knowing that there would be someone that couldn’t be saved.  This
was a fear that could not be run from by a man like Colonel Mustang.
Again a subtle scrape of metal and a slight gasp resounded, and then almost a
whine in the darkness beyond the light’s dim radius could be heard.  “Please,
my name’s Roy, I’m here to help you, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said,
trying to keep his voice even.  Again, a sound of fear, quickening breath, he
knew that sound quite well.
Roy pulled out his flashlight and stepped toward sounds carefully.  He didn’t
think whoever was down here was dangerous, but scared people sometimes lashed
out.  He really didn’t want to lose his head like that in trying to save
someone.  He followed the concrete path toward the back of the basement past
the light. 
The place was lined with shelves, and only half of it had stone walls.  He’d
come down a straight set of stairs with a wall almost in front of them, forcing
him to have to turn and go back under what would be the area that Havoc and
Hohenheim were standing over.  If he was right, the stone walls stopped at the
end of the house, but beyond that point there was a dirt portion of the place. 
He walked under a broad a stone archway and it opened into a round, dirt room. 
The floor hadn’t even been covered with concrete.  This was where the damp
earth smell was coming from.  A coppery, metallic smell caught his nose and
again his heart beat in his ears.  He sung the flashlight around and saw that
there were furnishings in here of a sort. There were shelves and tables in the
back, a steel table smack in the center of the room, and a…bed?  Roy stopped,
his mouth going dry.
There was a dingy cot, not really a bed, over to the side, and the steel table
looked to be some sort of surgical table.  Roy glanced at the table then walked
toward the bed.  There was no pillow, and only a thin blanket laying on it.  He
shook his head as he traced the flashlight over the small space.  How could
anyone live in this sort of condition?  He spun around and stared when he heard
movement behind him and caught a shadow moving just outside his flashlight’s
range.
“Please, can you come out?  I won’t hurt you,” he said softly, heading in the
direction of the noise and where he saw the shadow move.  Behind a rack of
shelves he heard the quick breathing and as he moved his light toward it, he
caught sight of what looked like blonde hair and fingers gripping the shelf. 
It was a corner, and whoever it was had nowhere left to go.
He moved slowly, the light starting to illuminate a figure now, crouching
behind the metal shelf, and it was definitely a mess of blonde hair on it.  He
kneeled down a couple feet away from them but kept the light on them.
“Hey, who are you?” Roy said quietly.
The figure seemed to tremble but slowly, the head turned and a pair of golden
colored eyes was staring at him from between the slats of the shelf.  Roy
smiled, the odd color of the eyes rattling him; that was not a natural eye
color, they almost glowed in the darkness of the basement.  “There we are,
hey.  I’m Roy; can you tell me your name?”
The eyes blinked and just stared at him.  Roy moved forward and the figure
jerked, the left hand moving and grabbing the side of the shelf.  Roy stared
for a moment, unsure if he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.  The hand,
and arm from what he could tell, was metallic. 
“I just want to know your name,” Roy said, taking the distraction to inch
forward bit by bit as he spoke.  Whoever it was, they were frightened.  He
pointed to his chest and smiled again.  “Roy,” he said, tapping his chest and
recalling the book on reading and speech that Alphonse had had.
“E-Ed…” finally came from the figure’s mouth, but it was strained and obviously
took effort for him to say.
Suddenly things began to come together all at once for certain.  The books. 
Alphonse’s appearance at the precinct.  No one ever being allowed into the
house.  He had to take the chance on what he thought was happening.
“Ed, Al sent me,” he said softly.  “He’s at my office right now.  I can take
you to him.”
At the name, the boy’s head came up all the way and he stared at him with those
unsettling eyes glittering brightly at Roy.  His mouth worked hard for a moment
and he said softly, “A-Al…b-bro…b-brother…”
“Al’s your brother, that’s right, he wanted me to come get you,” Roy said,
standing up and moving forward.  This time Ed didn’t try and run; instead he
pulled himself up on the shelving he was holding, and Roy winced.  He could see
now the condition he was in and only his experience kept him from vomiting.
He was wearing what amounted to a pair of ripped shorts of some sort, no shirt,
and Roy could see where the metal on his left arm fused into the skin of his
shoulder.  His right leg was also metallic and fused into the skin of his
thigh.  His face was dirty and drawn, and his long blonde hair fell around him
in dingy strands.  Roy could count his ribs easily, and even in the dim light
of his torch, he could see there were numerous bruises and cuts on him.  Where
he clutched at the metal of the shelf, the metal was buckling under his metal
hand.  He watched Roy with suspicious eyes and didn’t move at all as he looked
him over.  He stood perhaps five foot or so, and it was obvious by the fact his
skin was nearly translucent, he hadn’t been outside in a very long time.
“Let’s leave okay?” he said, reaching out a hand for him.
Ed stepped out slowly, wobbling on his metal limb for a second before he fell
to his knees with a clang.  Roy, without thinking, moved forward and put his
hands on Ed’s shoulders in concern.  Ed’s head popped up and he gasped and
stared into Roy’s eyes for a long moment and Roy could feel the shuddering
going through his body.  It was too late, though, he’d done something he wasn’t
going to do, so he had to continue.  He knew better than to initiate physical
contact with a traumatized person before their full status was known.  That was
basic.
“Shh,” he said, trying to stroke the boy’s shoulder’s in soothing manner as he
kneeled in front of him.  “I’m not going to hurt you; we’re going out of here,
okay?  I’m going to pick you up,” he said softly.  He wasn’t entirely sure that
Ed knew what he said, though, so Roy leaned forward and put an arm under his
and then moved quickly and lifted him up easily.  He stumbled a bit, having
expected the metal to weigh more, but perhaps it was because the boy was nearly
skeletal as it was.
“We’re going, Ed,” he said, clutching the flashlight in his hand that held up
his knees as he went up the stairs.  Ed immediately buried his face in Roy’s
shoulder when they came into the brightly lit room. 
Roy was not surprised when he found that Hohenheim had been handcuffed and
taken to the car.  Havoc jumped and ran toward him when he came out of the
basement door.
“Havoc, take Hohenheim in.  Take…take him…back to the station and throw him in
an interrogation room,” Roy said, feeling the boy’s fingers digging into his
back and shoulders.
“What the hell…” Havoc muttered, looking at his Colonel with wide eyes.  “Who
is it?”
Roy adjusted the waiflike body as Ed panted against his collarbone. 
“Apparently, Hohenheim’s other son.”
Havoc stared for a minute.  “His what?”
Roy nodded.  “Get an ambulance out here now; I need to take him to the hospital
to see what kind of condition he’s in.  Call it in, and have Hawkeye meet me
there with Alphonse.”
Havoc nodded, pulling out the walkie on his belt.  Roy moved into the living
room where there was a pair of couches and tried to put the boy down but found
him clinging to him even more than before.  He winced, and eased himself down
onto the sofa and situated the boy on his lap as comfortably as he could.  He
noted that he’d stopped panting on him, so perhaps some of his fear had abated.
He used one free hand to push the hair away from his face, gently working knots
out of the dirty strands.  Roy could easily tell the boy had beautiful hair,
and even thin and drawn, his face was one of those that radiated when he
smiled.  Roy imagined that, of course, but he knew.  He wondered thoughtfully
how old he was.  He had to be younger than Alphonse.  That kid was easily
almost six foot tall and had just turned nineteen.  This one had to be much
younger. When he’d stood up downstairs, he couldn’t have even been five foot in
height.  Roy quickly noticed that he seemed to curl into him even more the more
he stroked his hair and back.  He had to keep him calm and still.  He had no
idea what condition he was in otherwise.
It seemed forever, sitting in the room alone, stroking the boy’s head until the
door opened to reveal a pair of medics.  They came toward them, announcing
themselves rather loudly, and Roy winced as the metal fingers dug into his arm,
no doubt leaving bruises.  He realized that Ed wasn’t letting go.
“For the sake of all of us, I’m going with,” Roy said, slowly standing with the
boy.  The two medics stared in disbelief at the state of the boy Roy held.
“We don’t let people ride in the back that aren’t family,” the first said
softly, automatically, her eyes centered on the emaciated form Roy held.
“Well, considering that we just took his father to the precinct, and he has a
deathgrip on my arm with a metal hand, I think I’m going in the back with him.
I don’t fancy losing my arm,” Roy said, wincing again as the fingers dug into
his bicep even harder.  He had said it as an exaggeration, but he was wondering
exactly how much of an exaggeration it actually was...
The medics glanced at each other and nodded, letting Roy carry him into the
back, but as Roy expected, Ed wouldn’t let Roy put him down, and he wouldn’t
let the medic in the back touch him.  If either of them got close to him, he’d
tighten his grip and attempt to hide himself in Roy’s arms even further despite
it being completely impossible.  Roy asked them to wait until they got to the
hospital as he wasn’t in danger at the moment.  A few moments later, he got out
at the hospital and was led into a private room where Ed hid his face even
further, and Roy could feel his heart beating hard through his skin.  He was
almost afraid the kid was going to have a heart attack.  He wondered how long
he had been down there in that dark basement like that.  This had to be
terrifying for him.
The curtain opened and Havoc came in with one of the State doctors that had
come down when everything changed for the town. Dr. Tim Marcoh, one of the
premier researchers of the State program, had come with Roy’s group to make
sure the city’s medical system was up to State standards.  Finding the system
well below standards, he ended up staying and taking over.
“Roy, good to see you,” the doctor said, looking over the boy in his arms. 
“Granted, this is a strange circumstance.  Tell me what has happened?” he
asked.
Roy retold the story, beginning with his encounters with Alphonse.  Marcoh
nodded.  “I’ll sedate the boy before I try to examine him,” he said, grabbing a
syringe and quickly injecting Ed in the thigh.  The boy tensed, but nothing
more before he went limp completely in Roy’s arms.  Marcoh smiled and waited as
Roy put him down on the bed.  “I’ll have the nurses clean him up before he
wakes and we’ll put some fluids into him and some clean clothes on him.”
Roy left, stepping into the hall as the doctor and nurses cleaned him up and
did the tests they needed.  After nearly an hour, the doctor opened the door
and motioned Roy back into the room and shut the door behind him.
“What’s the verdict, Doctor?” Roy said.
Marcoh looked slightly ill as he spoke.  “He’s severely malnutrition,
dehydrated, and he’s covered with scars and marks.  Some look to be surgically
related, from what I can tell; the metal attachments are some sort of
prosthetic as there is no limb under either of the metal limbs.  He’s suffered
a lot of ill healed broken bones, and from what I can tell, he’s suffered a lot
of physical abuse.  The eyes aren’t natural, and I’ve seen an effect like it
before, but I’ll have to verify it before I make a determination.  I’ve ordered
an MRI and CT scan, and I’ve sent out for extensive amounts of bloodwork and
genetic tests to figure out what’s happened to him.”  The doctor paused,
pinching the bridge of his nose for a long moment before he continued.  “And
there’s signs of long term sexual abuse as well.”
Roy felt his stomach drop.  “How old is he; can you tell?” he said quietly.
Marcoh sighed.  “He’s in his late teens or early twenties, his wisdom molars
have erupted already.”
Roy looked at him sharply.  “He’s tiny; he looks like a fourteen year old.”
“He’s been without nutrition most of his life, most likely he never developed
correctly,” he said sadly, glancing at the curtained bed area.
Roy nodded.  “What now?” he said softly.
“This is beyond my skill, Colonel Mustang.  I believe you should first find out
exactly what happened to the boy and why.  All I can do is treat his physical
condition.  I’m going to warn you now, though, if this boy has been kept locked
up since he was very young, and that is what it looks like, he may never
recover, especially if he lacks basic skills and language as you suspect,” he
said and nodded to Roy as he left.
Roy stood still for a long time before he pulled back the curtain and looked
over the now cleaned up boy.  Twenty or older?  It had to be impossible that he
was older than Al.  He was a lovely boy though, and Roy had to smile. Cleaned
up, he looked to indeed have beautiful hair.  It reminded Roy of…  He paused. 
No, his mind was not going to wander there right now, he thought, shaking the
past from his mind.  The nurses had washed it and tied it up in a long braid. 
Without all the dirt on his face, Roy was even more struck by how someone could
do such things to someone. 
Behind him, he heard the door and Alphonse came rushing in with Hawkeye behind
him.  Roy smiled as Alphonse grabbed Ed’s flesh hand and put his forehead to
it, dropping to his knees beside the bed with a gasp of relief. 
“Brother!” he cried and turned and looked at Roy.
“Thank you, I didn’t know what to do, I…I went to see Ed, to help him with his
reading, and…there was a visitor…and dad…he…” 
“Al, don’t, I know,” Roy said softly.  Al nodded and kissed the hand gently. 
“He was crying and I know he didn’t know the words for what he wanted to say,
and that’s when I argued with Hohenheim because I wanted to know why he’d do
something like that to brother.  He hit me and I dropped the books and he tore
them apart because I wasn’t supposed to be teaching him those things…” he said
softly, reaching up and brushing a hand over his brother’s blond head.
“Al, how old is he?” Roy asked.
“He’s my big brother,” Al said softly. “A year older than me, and he was born
with the deformity, his arm and leg were just missing, and there were other
things too.  Mother tried to protect him, always told me before she died that I
had to take care of him.  Father, though, he hated him.  Maybe that’s why when
Mother died, he snapped.  We moved and as soon as we were here, he put brother
into the basement and said that he was trying to fix him, and it would be
alright.  He promised me he’d make him better.  I was only six years old then,
I believed him.  Brother couldn’t talk or walk, and he was blind.  When Father
gave him sight, I thought he was telling the truth, that even though I couldn’t
tell anyone I had a brother, I thought he was trying to help him.  He fixed his
eyes.  But then…it just got worse.  He seemed driven by the success, so he
started experimenting on him.  Different serums, different prosthetics.  He
screamed so much I had to leave the house sometimes,” Al said, running his
fingers over the metal melded to his brother’s shoulder.
“I would visit him when Father was gone even though I was forbidden.  I
realized that he could talk, if someone just taught him, and he was smart now,
not like before when he couldn’t do anything, so I thought Father was helping
him, even though he caused him pain, he was fixing him.  But I was wrong.  He
wasn’t fixing him.  He’s been using him to test things on, the things that he
sells to the State,” Al said, sighing deeply.  “There were others, too,
visitors that would come to the house and disappear downstairs for hours with
father.  I…I don’t think they were there for good reasons.”
Roy glanced at Hawkeye.  “Like who?”
“Major Kimblee, and Major Tucker, I know came by a lot…” he said softly,
glancing at him.  “That’s why I came to you.  I thought maybe you’d help him
because if they knew I’d been there, I don’t know what would have happened.”
Roy looked at Hawkeye.  “Get back to the station, if we’ve got corrupt
officers, they have to stay away from Hohenheim, they might try to…”
The door opened and Breda was standing there.  “Sir, Hohenheim is gone, he’s
not in the interrogation room.”
Roy sighed and rubbed his head.  “Wonderful…” he whispered.
***** Entreaty *****
Chapter Notes
     First chapter got some edits, second chapter is first draft, there
     are some annoying errors I missed in the first *sigh* Hope you enjoy!
                                        
Chief Alex Armstrong was perhaps the single most imposing figure in all of
Central City.  He stood over six foot and five inches in height, and was easily
around the three hundred pound mark.  However, those three hundred pounds were
worthy of a body builder, as the man was easily twice as broad as his new
superior, Colonel Roy Mustang.  He very literally appeared to be capable of
lifting a house.  He had, on occasion, lifted small houses.
His physical size and ability could be rivaled by none, however, neither could
the size of the large man’s heart.  Chief Armstrong became a police officer to
help people, coming from a long line of military and private sector police
officers.  He had been in the war, though he had never encountered Roy during
his time there, and had done things he wished to forget.  It seemed that he
would spend his life repaying debts by helping those in need.  He took his
position as the Chief very seriously, and every crime that was committed in
Central City was a personal affront to him.
When the door of the precinct opened and a cursing and handcuffed Van Hohenheim
was drug by him toward the interrogation room, he at first could not believe
his eyes.  He blinked and watched as one of the young State men, Havoc, slammed
the door and walked back out toward him.  He ran a hand over his nearly bald
head, pausing to straighten his trademark blonde curl over his forehead as
Havoc approached.
“Chief, we’ve got a situation,” he said quietly.  Around the precinct, everyone
was staring at them.
“Havoc, what’s happened?” he asked, glancing toward the back where the town’s
most eminent citizen had just been drug.
“Boss said to bring him in for interrogation.  Hold on,” he said, turning and
waving at Hawkeye.
“Riza!  Bring the kid, we’re going to the hospital!” he yelled across the
room.  Hawkeye nodded, stepping into Roy’s office and calling Alphonse out.
“Is that the young Elric boy?” Armstrong asked, very confused, but then his
back grew taunt when he saw the black eye the boy was sporting.  Hawkeye
stopped nest to them and Havoc turned to him and smiled.
“Alphonse, the Colonel’s at the hospital with your brother,” he said quietly so
no one but the small group around them could hear.  Alphonse’s face relaxed and
tears started falling immediately. “You don’t have to talk about it yet, Al,
let’s just get you there.  I called on the way over and they said you won’t be
able to see him for a while, but you can wait until they’re done. Take him,
Hawkeye?” he said nodding to her. 
“Come on, Al,” she said, confused by the comment and still unsure what was
happening.
“The Elric boy has no brother,” Armstrong said, watching them leave.
Havoc shook his head.  “That’s what that bastard in there wants you to think. 
Don’t know the details, chief, Boss is waiting on something from the doctors. 
All I know is we heard something in the house, went in for a wellness check,
and the Colonel found an emaciated, dirty boy with blonde hair down in the
basement.  I’m going back to sweep the house.”  He nodded to Armstrong and then
grabbed Breda and Fuery and headed out immediately.
A boy? Armstrong’s thick hands made fists at his side.  He felt every eye on
him, waiting to see what he’d do.  He grit his teeth tight and turned to the
desk sergeant, Brosh. “Turn on the cameras in the interrogation room.  I will
discover what has occurred in my town.”
Brosh, a young man with neat blonde hair, nodded and jumped up, nearly running
over his wife Major Maria Ross, the officer in charge of the children’s welfare
division. He disappeared for a moment to set up the instruments on the room and
came back and nodded to Armstrong, who headed into the room with a man he
thought he had known well for the last thirteen years.
Van Hohenheim was sitting with his legs crossed and his arms tight over his
chest in obvious anger at the situation.  Havoc had removed his handcuffs, but
the door only opened by fingerprint scan from the inside. Armstrong sat down
slowly across the table from him.
“Doctor Hohenheim, what’s going on?” he asked slowly.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on, that bastard Mustang walked into my house
without authorization!  He took what belongs to me and he had no right to do
so!” he said, looking away.
Armstrong chewed his lip for a second before he ran thoughtful fingers over the
blonde handlebar moustache he sported.  “What did he take?”
Hohenheim glared at him.  “That is none of your business, Chief Armstrong.  I
suggest you let me out of her.  I have friends that will aid me should you
not.”
Armstrong nodded.  “Havoc said the Colonel removed a boy from your house,
another child that belongs to you.  You’ve lived here thirteen years, Van, and
there has never been another child at your home that we knew of,” he said
slowly.
“Of course not.  Why would anyone want to know about that dismal failure?” he
muttered.  “I do not advertise things of inferior value as belonging to me,
Chief, you know this.  That thing is not human, you understand that?  He was
born deformed and unable to even think.  I fixed what I could, but he is an
inferior test subject any way I look at it,” he said, running a hand over his
blond hair.  Armstrong’s face was set into an inscrutable mask.  He knew that
outside, Ross and Brosh at least were watching this in the next room.  “It is
mine to do with what I will, just like any other test material.  It is no more
than a rat or a gerbil.  It has been useful, the prototype for the various
nerve agents I’ve invented were tested through it.  The most successful were
the optic nerve and cochlear nerve serums. I attempted to rectify the subject’s
inferior intellect, however, that serum seems to have had no good.  The tests
for the prosthetics were somewhat successful.  The next stage was going to call
for me to remove the prototypes and install another set if the subject survived
the process,” he said, glancing at his nails as he spoke.
“Why?” Armstrong said, his face beginning to ache, and feeling the building of
extreme emotion in his chest already.   “Did you see opportunity when he was
born with these issues?”
Hohenheim snorted.  “It was a failure from the beginning.  The serum I injected
the amniotic fluid with was a prototype metabolic accelerator and cellular
infusion vehicle. Afterward the infusion would bind to other compounds that I
gave my wife, and it was supposed to change the mental capacity, reflex skills,
and general genetic attributes of the fetus. Unfortunately, the subject was
born deformed and nearly useless.  I salvaged from my failure, however, and
continued using the subject to find cures for the deformities.  The blindness
and deafness were easiest to cure, and the deformed limbs, of course, but it
has the mental capacity of a flea, making it useless for anything other than
physical studies.”  He paused.  “I made something of nothing.  I turned a
complete failure into multiple successes. I should be commended for not
throwing the thing that my wife gave birth to into the nearest incinerator.  At
least my second attempt was more successful.  The metabolic accelerator was
refined by the time Alphonse was in utero.”
Armstrong coughed, very nearly unable to hold himself back.  “You tried the
same thing on Alphonse?”
Hohenheim rolled his eyes.  “Of course, I’m a scientist.  The first was a
failure, but that was no reason not to continue my research.  She had insisted
we would have two children, no more, so my window of access to a developing
fetus was extremely limited.  I was able, for Alphonse, to give him a
heightened immune system and give him advanced physical endurance.  Of course,
his genius, I attribute to the serum but also to his pure genetic code he
inherited from me.  Overall, Alphonse was a suitable result, though the results
were much less impressive than I had hoped.”
Armstrong nodded and stood up slowly, opening the door and leaving the doctor
alone in the empty room.  He didn’t hear the large man sobbing for the
innocence lost on the two boys on the other side of the door.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
After a brief moment with his brother, Dr. Marcoh told Alphonse that they were
taking Ed for the more detailed testing.  Alphonse honestly didn’t notice much
as he was led to a lush looking waiting room.  He looked up to see the Colonel
talking to the doctor and then leaving and he was alone.  He was going crazy
with the waiting as almost three hours passed.  He swallowed hard for a moment
before his phone buzzed in his pocket.  He picked it up and saw it was a
message from his friend Ling Yao.  He debated for a long moment before he
messaged him back saying he was at the hospital waiting if he wanted to come
sit with him.  Ling immediately said he was on his way.
Ling and Alphonse had not met on the best terms, but eventually they’d become
best friends.  Ling’s family was one of the founders of the city and an
extremely wealthy family due to smart weapons sales during the recent war. 
Ling hated the nickname he’d acquired, Prince, due to his family’s wealth, as
well as his constant companion and bodyguard Lan Fan who was always quick to
defend him to anyone.  While she was his bodyguard, it was well known once he
was old enough he proposed to her.  There were no signs in public of their
affection for each other than violent reactions to people insulting them.
After about fifteen minutes the pair was escorted into the waiting room.  Ling,
his long black hair tied up in a high ponytail as usual frowned at the sight of
his friend’s face. Lan, her own dark hair pulled back into a bun and framing
her face as usual.  They did not look as though they expected to be in such a
place when they’d been called to a hospital.
“Al, man, what is going on?” Ling said.  “What the hell happened to your face?”
Alphonse shook his head, touching his black eye absently, almost having
forgotten about it.  “I have to tell you something.”
“Did your dad get hurt?  Is that why you’re here?” Lan asked, frowning at the
fancy room.  “I guess he is a State made man, right, so they’d cover him for
anything…” she said, trailing off as she looked out the window down onto the
city.
“Not my dad…someone else…”  Alphonse leaned back on the sofa.  “My…my b-
brother,” he said quietly, tears already filling the corners of his eyes again.
Ling sat down beside him with a shocked expression.  “What?  You said you were
an only child?  Is it a brother you didn’t know about?  I mean, some dads are
manwhores, you know, so it happens…”
Alphonse shook his head.  “No, you don’t…you don’t understand…I knew….”
Just then, the door opened and Dr. Marcoh came in with a nurse behind him. 
Alphonse stood up as he approached.  Ling and Lan both glanced at each other
and stood behind him.
“Alphonse, how are you doing, my boy?” Dr. Marcoh said softly, not looking as
he flipped through the clipboard with the results.
“I want to know how he is,” he said quietly.  “And when I can take him out of
here.”
The doctor paused and looked at him sadly. “Look, Alphonse, I’m not going to
handle you gently.  I’m going to give you the facts.  We had to keep him under
heavy sedation to even work with him.  He panics the second his eyes open. 
He’s been kept in that basement for thirteen years,” he said, and Alphonse
shivered at the gasp from Lan behind him.  Marcoh cleared his throat.  “I’ve
finished the tests.  His entire DNA structure has been altered.  He’s been
changed on the genetic level, several times, in fact.  These things, Al, they
can only happen before birth.  Your father had to have done something before he
was born to cause these sort of changes.  Whatever he tried caused the
blindness, deafness, the hyper sensation, the other deformities.  My guess is
that whatever experiment he tried was a failure and your brother suffered for
it,” he said, rubbing his hands thoughtfully.
“Your father is known as an innovator with agents that cause rebuilding and
repair of nerve tissues.  It is quite obvious that he used your brother as the
catalyst to develop those substances.  That is the main reason he has been able
to have so many discoveries so quick.  Human experimentation is absolutely
banned by the State, not to mention the ethics of experimenting on his own
child,” he said softly.
Alphonse nodded.  “Okay, so how do I help him?” he said, his voice trembling. 
Marcoh had a pained expression.  “Al, you can’t.  He needs to be put in an
institution.  He’s never going to speak, never going to recover from the abuses
he’s suffered, and there are parts of his brain that are completely dark on the
brain scans.  There is nothing you can do, Al, nothing at all.  You’ve saved
him more suffering at your father’s hands, so you’ve done a good thing, but all
we can do is keep him on sedatives and hope that he can live out what’s left of
his life in peace and without pain.”
Alphonse blinked at him rapidly for a minute.  “No, you’re wrong,” he said
finally.
Marcoh stared at him.  “Pardon me?”
“You’re wrong.  I taught him his name.  I taught him how to read words.  He can
say his name and my name. He’s twenty years old and he’s been kept a prisoner
in his own mind and in that basement for the entire time.  I’m not giving up on
him.  Father made him see and hear and he gave him something to fix his brain. 
I can teach him,” Alphonse said, a deep frown lining his face.
“Son, I understand you’re upset, he’s your brother, but it is really for the
best if you just let us…” Marcoh began.
“No!” Alphonse yelled.  “No, I’m not going to let you just give up on him!  I’m
getting him out of this place and I’m going to give him a home, and help him.”
The nurse shook her head and left quietly as Marcoh sighed.  “I’m sorry, son,
but you can’t take him out of here.  He’s in State custody, and whatever I say
is what happens.  Your brother is a danger to himself and you if you leave with
those metal prostetics.  He can crush bone in that hand.  He stays here until
morning, and then he’s being transferred up-State to the State mental
institution.  I’m sorry, son.  I really am.”
Marcoh left and Alphonse slammed his fist into the wall.  Ling put an arm
around him.  “I’m sorry, I’m really sorry…” he started.
“No, take me to the police headquarters, Ling, please?” Alphonse begged.  Ling
had a car and could get there quicker than if he walked.
Ling shook his head.  “Sure, but what’s that going to do?”
“Just take me, there’s someone there who can help, I know it,” Alphonse said as
they left the hospital at a near run.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Roy had come back and started on the paperwork.  As he had been informed,
Hohenheim was gone, and no one had any idea how.  Roy knew it had been Tucker
or Kimblee, but he wasn’t going to reveal his hand just yet.  He watched the
interrogation tape and was nearly sick at the things Hohenheim had said about
his child.  It was like he wasn’t a child at all to him.  He was less than a
testing animal to the scientist.  Then, to find out that he’d experimented on
the second child as well…
Hawkeye insisted on getting the paperwork done early so they could find him
faster.  Roy didn’t see how that had anything to do with finding the bastard. 
As was often the case, Roy ended up falling asleep on his desk, pen in hand,
halfway through a signature.
The door burst open and Roy started violent, knocking half finished paperwork
everywhere and sending his pen flying.
“I’m awake, Hawkeye!” he called out, blinking sleepily for a moment while his
eyes focused on Alphonse Elric and two dark haired teens he had with him. 
“Alphonse, what…is something wrong with Ed?” he said the cobwebs burning away
quickly at the thought that the boy he rescued could be in trouble.
“Colonel!  They’re sending him away tomorrow!  They’re sending him to some
institute, locking him up and just going to wait for him to die!” Alphonse
explained, both hands flat on the top of Roy’s desk and eyes wide with fear and
emotion.  “I can’t let them do that to him.  He says he’ll never get better and
he’s dangerous and I can’t stop him and…”
“Whoa!” Roy said, waving his hands at the boy.  “Whoa, slow down, come on!” he
said, slowly standing up.  “Tell me what you want me to do?”
“Stop them!  They can’t send him away!  I’m the only one he knows, he’ll waste
away!  He’s my brother!  I kept the secret far too long, and I’m not going to
fail him now!” Alphonse said, glaring at Roy with a fierceness that the colonel
hadn’t thought possible in the teen before him.
“I can’t just stop him, Al, he’s made a medical choice and…” he started.
“No!  You don’t get to say that!  You promised me to help him.  You promise,
Mustang!” he practically snarled at the other man.  “You risked your life to go
into that house without knowing what you’d find, you had to know it could be
dangerous, and you, no one else, you walked out of there with him.  I know you
did without you saying anything, you’ve got the bruises on your arm where he
held you!” he exclaimed pointing to the dark marks on Roy’s bicep and peeking
out onto his neck from under the edge of the sleeveless tunic he wore under his
jacket.  “He doesn’t let anyone touch him without a fight, and he let you take
him out of there, please, Roy, please, you can’t just give up on him!  He’s in
there, I know he is!  He says my name and they say he can’t and won’t ever
speak!  They’re wrong!”
Roy’s hand went to his bruised arm as he stared at the boy.  Alphonse was
actively fighting tears.  “The others, when they came, they…they strapped him
down to the table so he…he couldn’t fight them when they…they did things to
him.  When I found out what Father let them do, when I got this,” he said,
pointing to the still black eye.  “He was crying for me, Roy, for me, because
they were hurting him and I told him people couldn’t do that to him.  I lied to
him, I told him no one was going to hurt him, and they did!  My father let
them!  I can’t…”
Roy had slipped his jacket on while Alphonse spoke and now he moved around and
put his hands on his shoulders.  “Alphonse, stop,” he said quietly.  “We’ll go
get your brother.”
Alphonse started to argue then realized that Roy had agreed to help him. 
Alphonse grabbed the Colonel in a tight hug.  “Thank you,” he whispered. 
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet, we haven’t pulled it off yet,” Roy said, rubbing the
teen’s back for a moment before he released him.  “I’m taking one of my people
with me.  Meet you at his room?” he asked.
Alphonse nodded and motioned to his friends and they were gone.  “Hughes!” he
called loudly.  The bespectacled man with brown hair came around and looked at
him questioningly.  “Time to go argue with medical.”
The new deputy chief, Maes Hughes, was a man good beyond measure.  He also
constantly talked about his adorable daughter and his wife.  His desk was a
maze of pictures.  Havoc was still at the Mansion Road house, so Maes it was.
Minutes later, the pair came to the hallway outside the room that Ed had been
put into.   Alphonse and his friends were standing outside looking very worried
over something.  Alphonse came at Roy in a run.  “They’re doing something, he’s
awake, and he’s scared and they won’t let us in.”
Roy nodded, hearing a commotion from inside.  He reached down and pushed the
door open. The orderly started to protest but saw who it was and stepped back. 
Maes and the other three followed him into the room.  Marcoh was looking
flustered and so were the three nurses trying to wrangle an extremely
frightened Ed into a set of restraints that he had apparently already broken
through once with his metal arm.
“Get him still, I’ll put him back out…” Marcoh yelled at the nurse trying to
avoid being kicked by the boy.
Roy scowled deeply.  “Stop it, Marcoh, you’re scaring him to death!” he
called.  Marcoh jerked his head around and saw the audience he had.
“I have to do this, Mustang, there’s no way to control him, he hasn’t even got
the mind of an infant, he’s…” Marcoh grunted as he was pushed violently aside
by Ed’s metal arm and he fell to his knees on the floor with a banging sound
when the metal knee hit the hard floor.  He was trying to say something it
seemed though, and he scrambled as quickly as he could toward Roy and
Alphonse.  Thinking that he was going to his brother, Roy didn’t pay much
attention to anything except keeping an eye on the doctor in the room.  He
nearly jumped out of his skin when the boy wrapped both arms around Roy’s leg
instead of Alphonse and stared with his glittering gold eyes up at him.
“R-r-roy…” he uttered finally and then buried his head into the front of Roy’s
thigh. 
Marcoh stared in disbelief.  “There’s no way, there’s no brain function in the
language centers, he can’t talk, there’s no way…” he started.
“Well, you’re wrong,” Roy said, kneeling gently down beside the boy.  He could
feel the shaking and trembling through his body where he held to his leg. 
“Maes, turn out the light,” he said.  Maes frowned but flicked off the bright
overhead lights.  Ed’s body relaxed a bit and he turned his face up toward Roy
again and his face seemed to shake and then he smiled at Roy.  Roy’s heart
clenched in his chest then and there.  There was no way anyone was taking him
again.  This boy had nothing to hold onto other than him and Alphonse right
now.  Ed’s eyes began to mist and Roy put his hands gently on his face and
nodded at him.
“Its okay Ed, its okay.  We’re going to a new home, you and me and Alphonse,
okay?  My house is just big enough, okay?” he said softly, not really sure how
much he understood. 
Roy leaned further and scooped him up into his arms again with ease and stared
at Dr. Marcoh who was shocked completely speechless. 
“I’m executing State Seizure of a Person of Interest.  There’s nothing you can
do to stop it, Marcoh.  He’s under my protection now, and unlike you, I am sure
that he can be something more than he is,” Roy said as Ed’s face buried into
the hollow of his neck and he felt dampness spreading outward onto his jacket. 
He may not have understood the words, but Roy knew that the boy understood the
meaning of what he said well enough.  He turned, nodded to Alphonse and his two
equally shocked friends and headed out into the hallway, finding people staring
at him nonstop.
Alphonse followed him to the car and watched as Roy settled him into the seat
with a little effort after dislodging Ed’s hands from his arms.  Alphonse’s
eyes were filled with tears.  “I…I just…”
Roy shook his head, sliding into the seat beside Ed, who had already covered
his face but his hand found its way to Roy’s arm as soon as he was close
enough.  “No, just follow us to my house.  We’ll figure this out,” he said as
Maes started the car.
As they pulled away with Alphonse in the car behind them, Roy looked to the
person beside him who had curled up against him as much as the safety belt
would allow. 
“Maes, you’re going to have to take point on finding Hohenheim and finding out
how deep his corruption goes into the locals.  I trust Armstrong but no one
else,” he said softly, stroking the flesh hand that held his arm softly. 
“Damn, this is going to be a lot of paperwork,” he muttered softly under his
breath.
***** Chapter 3 *****
Chapter Notes
     I want to thank every one of you that read this.
     However, I do have a favor to ask. I'm looking to get my original
     Yaoi Novel, On the Training of Doctors, published this year. I would
     appreciate it if you would help make it a success. My original
     fiction is more detailed and polished, of course, than my fanfics,
     and I have both an amazing co author and artist. Please visit goo.gl/
     VS2QQs or look up On the Training of Doctors on Kickstarter.
     And thanks to my muse, Miss SapphireTou who has some amazing
     character backstory inspiration and ideas for this one as usual.
                                        
Izumi Curtis kept to herself most of the time.  She had one child, a disabled
boy named Aoya.  Aoya was born with severe immune deficiency.  Because of this,
Izumi and her husband, Sig, had turned the attic into a clean zone for the boy
since he was born.  When he was small, Izumi remained with him while Sig worked
at the butcher shop that he owned.  The house had come with an intercom system
and there was already a dumbwaiter that led to the kitchen.  Such things made
it easy for Aoya to spend his time alone and in a clean zone but still able to
talk to his family.  They lived on Forestside Road, right next to Mansion Road
where Van Hohenheim lived. 
Izumi clicked the intercom from beside the dumbwaiter system in the kitchen. 
“Hey kiddo, ready for lunch?” she asked.
“Yeah, mom, hey there were cops at the Mansion Hill house last night really
late, and there’s someone still there this morning,” he said, obviously
curious.  “Wonder what happened?”
Izumi ground her teeth together.  “Maybe Van got what was coming to him,
sweetheart.  He’s not a good person.”
“You always say that, but never why he’s such a bad person,” he said, his voice
a little distant as he walked away from the intercom.
Izumi chewed her lip for a moment then put the food on the dumbwaiter for him. 
“I know, sweetheart, I know.  But it just isn’t something I like to talk
about.  Coming up with your lunch, your favorite,” she said, trying to keep the
tension out of her voice.  For a kid that rarely went outside and even less
often saw other people, Aoya had a way about having intuition about people. 
Sig, Izumi’s husband and long time supporter, was gone to work at the butcher
shop.
“Oh, thanks mom,” Aoya said with an obvious smile to his voice.  He loved
French toast for lunch.  She reached the com to turn it off but the doorbell
rang. 
“I’ll be back, hon, the doorbell,” she said, turning and leaving.
She didn’t hear Aoya’s comment that it was the police as she opened the door
for Hughes and Havoc.  “Gentlemen, what brings you by today?” she said, her
brow scrunching.
“Ah, hi, Ms. Curtis?” Havoc said, smiling timidly.  He’d only met her a couple
times.
“Izumi, please, come in, I’m putting on a hot pot for dinner later.  Some tea?”
she asked, leading them into the kitchen.
Hughes smiled and sat down, pausing to clean his glasses on his shirt.  “Of
course, thank you very much Izumi.”
Havoc followed suit.  “Yes, thank you very much.”
Izumi set down two cups of a fragrant green tea she grew in the back.  “Now,”
she said, turning and chopping the vegetables, but keeping her eyes on the two
police officers, “What can I do for you this morning?”
“Well,” Hughes said, sipping his tea and putting it down carefully.  “There was
an incident at Van Hohenheim’s house last night.”
“So my son tells me.”
“Your son?” Havoc said looking around.  “Seriously, does everyone in this town
have mystery kids?”
Hughes kicked Havoc under the table as Izumi turned around and looked at them
both.  “What the hell does that mean?” she asked, seeing the blush rising to
Havoc’s face.
Hughes sighed.  “Um, we’ll get to that.  Um, first I need to ask you what your
relationship to Van Hohenheim was like?”
Izumi turned back to her chopping.  “We didn’t get along.”
There was a long pause before Havoc cleared his throat.  “Um, that’s all?”
“That’s all that is important,” she said quietly, rhythmically chopping. 
However, both men saw the tightness in her shoulders.
“Well, anything could be important,” Hughes said, looking over his teacup at
her.
“We knew each other.  We were both scientists.  When he moved to Mansion Hill
with is son, I thought that Aoya would have a playmate.  Aoya is my son.  Aoya
was born with a specific immunological issue that confined him for the first
fifteen years of his life to pure clean rooms.  Any entrance of foreign
bacteria would make him deathly ill.  He lost one of his arms and legs as an
infant due to an infection before we knew he had to stay in a hermetically
sealed room.  Since then, he’s had a transplant of the missing limbs and
through intense therapy and medication he has the ability to leave his attic
clean room now and then, for limited amounts of time,” she said almost
mechanically. 
Hughes nodded.  “I see, what happened?”
She sighed.  “Something wasn’t right.  That gut feeling you get when this are
just…off.  The boy, Alphonse, he would come down and play with Aoya, now and
then, of course, the procedure to get into the clean room is a little involved,
but Al didn’t mind, but then one day he told me his dad didn’t want him coming
over.  He always seemed so sad for some reason.”
She paused again, turning toward them.  “I remember going down there and asking
him what the hell his problem was.  He just slammed the door in my face, told
me his son didn’t need to associate with deformed monsters like my son. 
Something about he’d make a better test subject than a child.  I lost it, I
screamed obscenities through the window at him.  I went back home, and I just
couldn’t shake the feeling something was going on that he didn’t want me
finding out about.  I ended up trying to break into the place a couple times. 
I didn’t succeed, but a couple weeks later, I got seriously ill.  Took almost a
year to get over it, and by then, I couldn’t do my work anymore.  I video
conference with some people in the north now and then, and they carry on my
theories and the like, but I can’t do the work myself since I was ill,” she
said the words with a hollow tone to her voice.
“What did you do?” Hughes asked quietly.
“I am…was…a cellular biologist.  My specialty is cellular regeneration.  My
work paved the way for Aoya’s limbs to be successfully transplanted,” she said,
and the regret in her face was obvious.  “Now what does this have to do with
the bastard?”
“Well, Colonel Mustang and I went there last night.  We told him that their
neighbor had called about a break in, of course, you’re his only neighbor,”
Havoc said softly, brushing a hand through his hair.
Izumi glared at him.  “That didn’t happen.”
Havoc shook his head.  “No, but…we needed an excuse to get in there.  Al came
to Colonel Mustang, and he was scared but couldn’t say what it was.  We heard
something inside the house, and Hohenheim didn’t want us in there at all. 
Colonel went down in the basement after the noises and…well…he found another
kid.”
Izumi blinked rapidly.  “What?” she said softly.
“I guess he’s Al’s older brother, he was born deformed as a result of Hohenheim
experimenting on the mother prenatal.  When the experiment went back, Ed was
born, deaf, blind, and missing two of his limbs.  He said he was a failed
experiment and that he was worthless.  He said that he used him to create all
of the serums that he’s produced over the last thirteen years,” Hughes supplied
quietly.
“He experimented on his own child?” she said, her heart beating heavy in her
ears.  She’d been right.  All those years ago, she’d been right.
Havoc nodded.  “He’s been fitted with these two metallic limbs, and he can see
and hear, but he was kept from learning anything.  He can barely talk, and the
doctor here says it is impossible for him to ever get better or speak.  But he
can, he can say Roy’s name and he met him yesterday,” he said, smiling at her. 
“But I don’t know…he’s used him for other things as well,” Havoc said, looking
down at his hands.
Izumi frowned and looked between them.  “What does that mean?”
“We’re investigating, but Chief Armstrong said you were a good person to
trust.  We think he was trading favors with some of the local officers so they
would stay quiet and keep people off the property,” Hughes said with a sigh.
She stared for a long moment.  “Favors?”
“Majors Kimblee and Tucker, and we don’t know what kind of favors…” Havoc
started.
“Those bastards,” she said, slamming the knife in her hand a good two inches
into the table in front of the two police.  Both men jumped.  “I know exactly
what that fucking perverted bastard Kimblee wanted.  And I know what the
fucking sick bastard Tucker wanted.  How bad, is the question?”
Havoc glanced at Hughes who cleared his throat.  “Bad, just from the medical
exam.  A lot of abuse.  Over a long time.”
Izumi ground her teeth again, this time audibly enough that both men feared for
their safety.  “You’re here for a reason, other than to make me incredibly
angry at that bastard.”
“He’s gone.  We’re sure that Kimblee or Tucker got him out of the station last
night, but we have no way to pin anything on them.  Ed can’t even put a
sentence together to tell us what happened.  Al says that he caught one of
them, but it was all shadows, and he can’t be sure who it was, and he ended up
with a  black eye for his efforts at trying to stop his father from letting him
hurt his brother,” Hughes said softly.  “Obviously, neither boy can go back to
that house, especially with their father at large.”
“You want me to take them in?” she asked, leaning back and crossing her arms
over her chest slowly.
Hughes shook his head.  “I don’t think that will be possible,” he started and
shook his head as she narrowed her eyes at him.  “Not that we wouldn’t love to
allow someone like you to do just that.  The problem is that he seems to have
bonded with Colonel Mustang, and refuses to leave his side.  Even Alphonse
can’t coax him away from Roy.  I think it would be detrimental to force him
away from the only person he trusts at the moment.”
Izumi nodded.  “Yes, no doubt.”
“However, Roy isn’t capable of the type of teaching necessary, and while Havoc
here, didn’t know about Aoya, I did, and knew that you have home schooled him
most of his life, and you might be the best person to help him learn to talk,
read, and other basic skills he lacks,” Hughes said finishing his tea.
“I see.  Have Colonel Mustang bring the boys by tomorrow morning.  I’ll set up
the sunroom as a school room.  Aoya can come down and help for a while before
he has to return to the clean room,” she said nodding to them.
Hughes nodded and stood.  “I appreciate it,” he said. “Oh, do you want to see 
pictures of my beautiful little girl?” he said, reaching into his coat. 
Havoc grabbed him by the arm.  “No time, deputy chief, gotta go, thank you for
the tea, Ms. Curtis, I’ll see you soon,” he said, shoving Hughes out before he
could start gushing about his daughter.  They’d never leave if he didn’t get
him away quickly.
Izumi watched them go and then sat down with a sigh.  “I should have done
something…” she said softly.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Roy didn’t know what to do.  Honestly, he’d never been in this sort of
situation.  He wasn’t what most people would call a people person.  He was more
likely to make people annoyed and angry than happy, and he most definitely
didn’t like children.  Of course, it wasn’t like the boy currently curled
against his side wasn’t twenty years old.  He wasn’t a child, far from it. 
Emaciated, beaten, traumatized and hurt, yes, a child, not so much.
Alphonse’s friends had gone back home, and Hughes and Havoc had gone to talk to
the closest neighbor to Van Hohenheim’s house.  Alphonse was in the kitchen,
having told Roy he would fix food for them all.  Roy had two bedrooms, and he
assumed that the two boys could share the other room.  It was, however, looking
more and more like Roy would have a bedmate.  For some reason, he didn’t find
it all that distasteful.  It had been a few years since Danny…  He shook his
head and blinked.  He didn’t want to think about that.  It brought back too
many bad memories, and the reason he got called the Flame of Amestris.
“Okay, I don’t know what brother can eat, so I made a lot of things,” Al said,
bringing a tray into the living room and sitting it down with a wide grin.
Ed looked at the tray and up at Al then clenched Roy’s arm even tighter.  Roy
looked at Al who was trying very hard not to cry and keep a smile on his face. 
“Father gave him nutritional injections and liquid nutrient mixtures he was
testing.  I’m…I’m not sure if he even knows how to eat normally.”
Roy winced at the thought of not understanding something so seemingly simple.
The report from Marcoh had indicated that his stomach was half the size it
should have been for a person his age and size.  Roy nodded, leaning up and
grabbing a piece of bread.  Ed watched him intently, clutching him as though
afraid he was going to leave the couch.
Roy sat back and patted his hand with his free one.  “Ed, see?” he said, taking
a small bite of the roll he’d picked up.  Ed blinked rapidly, the bright golden
orbs focused intently on everything Roy did.  Roy offered it to him. 
Tentatively, Ed reached out and took it in the flesh fingers.  He moved it to
his mouth and mimicked what Roy had done.  He frowned as the sensation was
obviously foreign to him.  Roy nodded, letting him experience it, but he choked
when he tried to swallow it.
“Oh, whoa,” he said, turning more to face him at the panic on his face.  “No,
you’re okay, just relax, chew,” he said, showing him with his teeth, “Then
swallow.  It won’t be thin, but that’s okay, got it?”
Ed tilted his head to the side and did what Roy did, and swallowed after a
moment, almost choking again, but this time managing the solid food for the
first time.  He looked up at Roy with a somewhat shocked look on his face then
smiled at him when he saw Roy was nodding and smiling at him.  Roy’s heart shot
to his throat.  That expression looked so much like…  No, he thought, shutting
down that train of thought.  No, must not go there.
“Good, good,” Roy said with a smile.  He gestured to the roll again and Ed
tried another bite of it, this time getting the hang of it, and within a
moment, he’d finished the small roll, much to the happiness of both Roy and
Al. 
Ed smiled, but then put his hand on his stomach with a deep frown.  He looked
up at Roy with a questioning look.  “Feel full?” he asked, touching his own
stomach.  Ed tilted his head again, as though he was trying to absorb and
process what was going on around him.  He picked up his shirt and stared at his
belly for a second before grabbing Roy’s hand and putting it over his stomach. 
“Full?” he asked, blinking at him again.
Roy smiled.  “Yeah, I think so,” he said, feeling that his stomach was indeed
taunt now.  Such a small amount of food…  Roy knew he couldn’t force him,
though.  If he really hadn’t been given any solid foods and kept on only enough
to keep him alive, it would be a long process. 
Alphonse handed Roy a glass.  Again, Roy looked at Ed and took a sip before
handing it over.  It was milk, which would be a great thing for him to build up
his system after being without nutrition for so long.  Unfortunately, it
appeared they’d found the first thing that Ed did not like.  He no sooner took
a sip of the white substance than he blinked spit it back out into the glass
with a disgusted look on his face.  He looked up at Roy with a  sudden near
panic on his face.
Roy took the cup gently and nodded.  “No, that’s okay, you don’t like milk,
huh?”
Ed just stared for a moment until Al handed him another cup.  Ed looked into it
suspiciously for a moment, and then sipped it.  He paused and smiled.  “Not
milk,” he said carefully.   Again both Roy and Al grinned.  
“No, Ed, that’s juice,” Al said softly, picking up one of the pieces of cheese
and eating it slowly.  Ed looked interested, but Roy could tell that he just
couldn’t handle that much right away.
He took another sip and then frowned, setting it down carefully on the table.
 “Full,” he repeated, putting his hand on his stomach again.
Roy nodded.  “Good, that’s good,” he said smiling.  Roy swore every time he
praised Ed, the boy’s eyes lit up even brighter.  He wondered if he had ever
heard kind words.  Something told him, Al was the first and only person to say
something kind to him. 
Ed smiled and leaned into Roy and fell into a fitful sleep very quickly.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
The most familiar words to him were the ones he heard the most often.
“Failure.”
“Useless.”
“Worthless.”
“Be useful or I’ll kill you.”
“Don’t move.”
“Don’t scream.”
“Don’t fight him.”
They rang out in his mind endlessly.  Those were the words he knew for sure. 
Those were the only ones he ever heard once he became able to do more than
sense the world through touch.  The hearing had come first after an eternity of
being in silence; it was like a constant buzzing in his head when he could hear
the sounds around him.  Tiny sounds would be so very loud and scare him.  The
buzzing of insects, the scurrying of rats and mice, they were just so very
loud.  Loudest of all, though, were His words.  He was so very loud. 
He realized after the sounds began, the loud one, Him, was the one that made
the world hurt so much.  He was the one that made his skin burn, and made his
body feel like it was lead or something.  He didn’t know these words, of
course.  He would have no way to explain these sensations, but he knew that he
was miserable.  He didn’t understand why the world hurt so very much.  Flaring
flashes of pain would spark through and through him.  It was always so very
scary, and he wanted to get away from the pain.  He couldn’t, though, because
the pain was inside him.
Then sight came after a week of pain that left him so drained that he couldn’t
move any further. A burning liquid had pushed its way into each of his
sightless eyes first, and he started to scream immediately against it.  It was
as though every part of his face was burning and stinging.  After the week, his
head was still on fire and his eyes which had never seen admitted light for the
first time.  It seemed to cut through his brain with a fury unbridled.  He
tried to push it away, but his body was kept tightly strapped.  It was before
the metal limbs were connected to him.  He thought that this thing He called
“sight” was painful.  Then, he began working on the metal pieces. 
“Don’t scream, you stupid creature.  You have no right.  You are a thing.”
He learned that screaming made the pain worse.  He equated screaming to more
pain, so he stopped.  It was so hard, when the knives cut his skin.  When the
arm and leg that were incomplete shouted pain at him, he couldn’t contain it,
however.  He felt the cold metal at first, but then something snapped through
his leg and shoulder that was like strips of fire sliding into his body.  No
matter how hard he tried, the sounds escaped his lips until something was
shoved into his mouth to stop them. 
Then He put him in another, softer place to lie down again for a while.  The
pain was still there, it was duller for a while.  He didn’t have long, though
before his world was again descending into pain of different kinds.
Then the Others came.  He hated the Others worse than he hated Him.
He was ruthless; He hurt him.  But the Others…
The first time the Other with the terrifying eyes was there.  He would giggle
and laugh as he pulled away his clothes and cut into his skin and seem gleeful
about the things he found.  He made man words for Him.  He could hear Him in
the background.  For the Other, he did scream.  At least, at first.
“Don’t fight him; this is your payment for me allowing something so pathetic to
live.”
He had hit the Other with the scary smile with his metal arm because he was
doing something to him he didn’t like.  He didn’t understand, he didn’t want
it.  But he was scolded and there was screaming and yelling as he was bound and
the Other continued.  Somehow, this pain was different, and he couldn’t
understand it.  He wanted it to end, and it did end, but only to begin again.
“You’ll stop this, or you’ll die.  Worthless.  This is your worth.”
Then Al came.  He would show him pictures and books and he felt so much inside
that he couldn’t understand.  Then He would come back.  He wanted Al, not him. 
And the Others would come, again and again, and he just wanted them to leave so
he could see Al again.  Al was nice, he spoke to him, he didn’t yell, he didn’t
hurt him.  Al said he was Ed.  Ed was a person, he told him. 
The Others and Him hurt him.
He fought them, and he wanted them to leave him alone, just alone, just alone. 
They didn’t, though, they came back, again and again, and he couldn’t get away
from them…
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Roy realized something was wrong when he started to thrash again.  He frowned
and reached out to hold him tighter against him, knowing it was likely a
nightmare that was hitting him.  He didn’t expect the violent reaction as Ed’s
arms both impacted with his face.  Granted, the flesh one wouldn’t have hurt. 
It was the metal one that broke Roy’s nose on impact.  Even so, he gritted his
teeth together and bit back the yelp of pain as he spoke to Ed as soothingly as
he could. 
“Ed, please, wake up, its Roy, remember?” he said, holding onto his struggling
body so he wouldn’t hurt himself.  “Roy, remember?  No one will hurt you here,
you’re safe, remember, it’s Roy!” he said, starting to worry.  What if Marcoh
was right?  What if this was the best he would ever be?
Ed’s golden eyes shot open in obvious terror and he gasped and tried to pull
away from Roy.  “Ed, stop, look at me, its Roy!” he said.  Al had gone out to
pick up groceries while Ed slept.
Ed finally seemed to center on Roy’s face.  “Roy,” he whispered, relaxing
enough that Roy wasn’t having to struggle to hold him.
“Yeah, there we are, remember, you’re with me now? Safe with Roy?” he said,
pulling him gently toward him on the couch.
“Roy, Roy, Roy,” he whispered, then reached up and touched the blood leaking
from Roy’s nose.  He looked shocked then looked down to see the metal hand
stained with it already.  He winced and tears welled in his eyes.  “Don’t
fight,” he whispered.  “Don’t fight him,” he repeated, looking away from Roy.
Roy fought back a sob of his own.  “Ed, no, no, stop, it’s okay, it’s good,” he
said, pulling him into his side and stroking his head gently.  “Shh, don’t
worry,” he said, feeling the boy trembling under him.  “Shh, please,” he said,
grabbing a tissue and dabbing his nose clean of the blood while he brushed his
hand repeatedly over Ed’s head. 
The door opened and Al came back in, stopping to put away the groceries he’d
gotten first before he came into the living room again.
“Oh, gosh, Roy what happened?” he gasped when he came in to see Ed obviously
upset and looking away from Roy as much as he could and Roy with a purpling
nose and blood still crusting his nostrils.
“Ed had a bit of a nightmare,” he said, squeezing his shoulder softly.  “But
I’m fine.  I’m worried he’s not, though.”
Al came forward and smiled at him.  Ed looked at Al and held out his hand that
still had some of Roy’s blood on it.  Al put both hands over his metal hand. 
“Ed, no, its okay,” he said nodding.  Ed nodded, looking over as Roy stood up,
tipping his head back a bit to staunch the blood again. 
“Al, I’m going to shower, I got blood all over me, take care of him for a bit,”
Roy said, heading to the bathroom in his bedroom.
Ed watched him go and then leaned forward and began pulling at his hair.  Al
gasped, grabbing his hands and pulling them away from his head.  Ed looked up
at him with teary eyes.
“Oh, Ed, you think he’s mad at you, don’t you?” he said softly. 
Ed stared for a minute before choking out a barely understandable “Roy” that
made Al’s heart ache worse than he expected.  He had a feeling that this
attachment wasn’t going away anytime soon.  Al stood up from his crouched
position and pulled Ed to his feet and led him toward the bathroom where they
could hear the water from the shower running.
“Roy, I think he’s afraid you left,” Al announced, trying not to stare through
the smoked glass at the colonel. 
Roy pulled open the door and glanced out, seeing them standing there.  At Roy’s
face appearing, Ed let go of Al and went forward immediately, pushing open the
door and going straight into the shower and wrapping his arms around Roy’s soap
covered body.
“Ah!” Roy said in surprise, the glancing down and sighing as now the boy was
soaked through in his clothes.  “Um, Al, find him some clothes, I’ll go ahead
and help him bathe while he’s in here,” he said softly as he could, knowing
that the echo would be loud to the boy’s sensitive ears.
Ed looked up and Roy knew there had been tears in his eyes.  “Ed, hush, now
look, you’re all wet.  Let’s take these off,” he said, reaching down for the
buttons on the pajama top he’d been given at the hospital.  At first Ed
flinched back, but then he looked up at Roy and let him unbutton it and pull it
off, dropping it into the corner of the shower stall.  He then kneeled down and
undid the tie on the pajama bottoms.  This action, however, got more of a
reaction, and Roy barely stopped himself from being kneed in the face by his
metal limb.
“Whoa,” he said, pushing his leg down and seeing the look across his face. 
He’d pressed his back against the  wall and was just watching him.  “Ed, it’s
okay, safe, remember?” he said softly.  Ed visibly swallowed hard and watched
as Roy took the rest of the pajamas off and pulled them away.  “See?” Roy said,
letting the water sluice over him without touching him.  He went back to
washing himself off, stepping in front of the spray to clear his nose of blood
as he popped it back into place.  It had to be the sixth or seventh time he’d
broken his nose.
Ed watched him carefully and then tried to mimic him a bit, taking the cloth
when Roy gave it to him.  Roy was quite thankful he had a huge shower
installed.  Granted, the reasoning behind it was slightly perverse, as he did
like the idea of showering with a partner and shower sex was even more ideal. 
He did not expect to shower with someone like this, however.  He took down the
sprayer and rinsed them both off then stepped out first, grabbing the towel and
wrapping his waist then helping Ed out and wrapping another towel about his
waist.  Al had brought some clothes and sat them on the edge of the counter.
Roy first dried and dressed himself while Ed stood and watched.  Roy had to
admit, it was a little odd being watched like this, though he knew that it was
important.  He supposed such simple routines as a shower were going to be
strange to the Ed.  When he was done, he shifted Ed in front of the mirror and
took a brush from the drawer that he’d bought for someone else a long time
ago.  He’d never had a chance to give this gift, and he’d never brought himself
to get rid of it.  He slowly brushed out Ed’s hair, smiling in thought as he
remembered doing this same thing several years ago.  Slowly Ed seemed to relax
under his brushing, and when he was done, he deftly pulled his hair up and
braided it easily.  He then grabbed his clothes, and this time, Ed was able to
help put them on better.
“Sleep?” Roy asked as he looked him over.  It was another set of simple
pajamas, but this set was red.  Somehow it suited the golden eyed boy more than
the pale blue ones.  Ed swallowed and nodded.  Roy led him to the room where Al
was already getting in bed.  As Roy expected, he just looked up at him.  Roy
nodded and took him back into his room.  He pulled back the covers and nodded
to him, where he crawled up into the bed then watched Roy very carefully.  Roy
smiled, turning off the lights and sliding into the bed slowly.  Almost
immediately, he felt Ed move closer to him.  He reached out and let him put his
head into the hollow of his shoulder and tucked his arm around him.
“Roy,” he murmured and then Roy heard his breathing even and deepen.  Roy
smiled despite himself.  This may not have been what Danny meant when he died,
but it was close enough, Roy guessed.
“Don’t die with me, Roy.”
***** Learning *****
Garland Reed, or Greed as he was known to everyone else, wasn’t sure about the
situation.  He hadn’t minded letting his cousin Envy (Noel Verdanis was his
name, but everyone called him NV, so it became Envy).  Of course, he also
didn’t mind his sometimes girlfriend, Lust, staying there either.  He was
always amused by her wanting to be called Lust.  Her real name was Eugenia
Luster, and she thought her name wasn’t sexy and made her sound old, so she
decided to make herself the epitome of sexy.  There was plenty of room for them
and more, actually.  The old farm house he had inherited from his family had
six bedrooms, and a huge front room and dining room.  The front room and dining
room were often used for Greed’s large parties that he invited everyone to on
the weekends when he felt like it. So there was plenty of room.
However, letting Van Hohenheim hide out in the basement was pushing things. 
Greed had no idea what was going on with him, but he’d come to him the night
before and asked if he could stay there for a while until the heat died out on
his house.  Greed had heard that the state police had raided the place.  He was
pretty sure that Hohenheim had been trafficking custom drugs or something like
that, but the less he knew the better.  Hohenheim knew that Greed had less than
legal connections since both Tucker and Kimblee had been to his place.  Neither
were allowed to come by anymore, but that was their own fault.  Tucker was just
too damn creepy, and Kimblee, the dumb ass, had set off a pipe bomb and blew
the hell out of one of the east walls.  Definitely no longer allowed at his
get-togethers.
Greed had some pretty good parties, and everyone always had fun, but they
weren’t illegal at all.  They just had a lot of fun, and sometimes in the
summer, they would hold bonfires in the field.  Envy had come to live with
Greed because Envy had had it with his previous roommates.  Envy was studying
advanced computer programing, and needed a lot of time to study.  His
aspiration was to become a licensed ethical hacker.  His roommates, though,
thought that parties were places for violent drunks to fight and brawl.  He’d
tried everything, but even with a locked door and headphones, he couldn’t get
peace.  Then, one night his bedroom door got broken down during a massive fight
between two party goers.  He’d been stuck, unable to go to his parents because
they lived in a retirement condo.  Greed then offered him a room, and told him
that his parties were enjoyable, and even the police chief Armstrong attended
now and then.  Envy had packed while his roommates were in jail again.  Envy
had the attic room, and everyone knew not to bother him if the door was closed.
Envy even had expressed a little trepidation about Van Hohenheim staying
there.  As he put it, something was off about him, but he wasn’t sure what it
was.  Greed had to agree.  He shook his head.  All he knew was that Hohenheim
didn’t want to come in contact with the State people at all, and wanted to
avoid the locals.  It wasn’t like the State guys came to the parties, though
he’d invited them before.  Mustang had turned him down, and Greed was pretty
sure he was thinking Greed was trying to bribe him.  Mustang was an odd man,
and seemed overly cautious about everything.  He shook his head and chugged a
beer as he sat on the sofa.
He looked up to see his newest houseguest walking through with a bucket of ice
from the freezer.  “Yo, Hohenheim,” he called out.
The blonde turned a glaring eye on Greed.  “What is it?” he asked testily.
“Hey, man, just wanted to give you an FYI, we’re having the fall bonfire party
in a couple weeks, I know you want to go without being spotted, so you might
want to make arrangements before then, never know, those state boys may decide
to show up for once,” he said, shrugging as Lust sauntered into the room and
fell into his lap.
He arched a brow.  “Hey sugar,” he said, kissing her on the forehead as she
lounged on him.
“Hey,” she said.  “Anyone cute coming to the fall party?” she said, playing
with Greed’s collar with her long, manicured nails.
“Maybe, don’t know who’s coming yet,” he said, finishing the beer he was
drinking before he tossed it at the recycling bin off to the side.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Hohenheim said, walking off toward the basement door.
Lust nuzzled against his neck.  “He’s strange,” she said, nipping at his neck.
Envy came through then, stretching his arms over his head with a yawn.  Greed
looked over at him, “Yo, cousin, got a favor to ask.”
Envy came over, popping his shoulder as we walked.  As usual, he wore a skirt
and a t-shirt.  Greed was pretty sure Envy didn’t pay attention to what he
wore.  “What’s up?”
“Can you work that computer magic you have and see if you can dig up what the
hell is up with that Hohenheim dude?  I’m worried about it, and I’ve had some
sketchy people here before, but that guy…” Greed said as Lust ran a hand
through his hair.
Envy nodded, pulling his long black hair up into a ponytail on his head. 
“Sure, man.  I can do that, if there’s dirt on the bastard, I’ll find it.”
“Good,” Greed said, looking off after the direction to the basement stairs.  He
had a bad feeling about the whole thing.  Really bad.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
It was soon quite obvious that Ed was not going to let Roy out of his sight. 
Al thought it was actually quite adorable, even though it seemed that Roy
thought Al would be against the attachment.  Al had a feeling that their
companionship would be a long and productive one if things kept going in this
fashion.  He was still worried, though, that their father was out there.  What
he was capable of, Al was no longer sure.  He knocked gently on Roy’s bedroom
door and heard the muffled response.
“Um, Colonel, we should be going to Ms. Curtis’s house soon.  She’s expecting
us at nine am,” he said.
“Okay, um, Al, can you find clothes for your brother?” came the muffled words a
few seconds later.
“I’m not sure, I don’t have much that fits him…” he said slowly.  “I’ll find a
pair of shorts and a t-shirt, it will be baggy on him.”
A few minutes later, Al returned and knocked again, hearing Roy tell him to
enter from the other side.  He went in and blinked at the sight.  Roy was half
dressed, his nose still purple from being decked the day before, and sitting on
the end of the bed.  Ed was laying half on his lap and half on the bed,
clutching his leg, completely nude.
“What happened here?” Al asked from the doorway.
Roy looked up at him with his eyes still tired.  “Apparently, Ed has discovered
that using the bathroom is a nerve racking experience, as is the idea that
people go into bathrooms alone.”
Al tried not to, but ended up smirking anyway.  “What happened to his clothes?”
he asked, not seeing the red pajamas anywhere.
“Honestly, I don’t know right now, let’s just get over to the Curtis’s,” he
sighed, reaching for the clothes Al was holding. 
It took a few minutes of convincing, but they managed to get Ed in the new
clothes, which hung off his thin body ridiculously.  Roy managed to get into a
pair of jeans and a T-shirt himself and finally they were out the doorway and
headed toward Izumi Curtis’s home.  Roy was already exhausted when they
arrived, but then the last few days had been exhausting. 
“You’re late,” she said when she pulled open the door.
Roy arched a brow.  “Yeah, I know.”
She glared at him a moment and then stepped back, letting the three of them
enter.  She led them to a large sun room where her son, Aoya sat on the floor
with a few books laying out and open.  Beside him sat a sphinx cat with a black
and white knitted sweater on its hairless body.  Both Aoya and the cat looked
up as Izumi and the three newcomers came into the room.
“Aoya, you remember Alphonse, don’t you?” Izumi said as she sat down.
“I do,” he said, smiling at the sandy haired boy.  “Hi Al, how are you?”
“I’m okay,” he said shyly, and sat down out of the way on the side of the room
to watch.
“This is Roy Mustang, and apparently Al’s brother, Ed,” she said, looking at
the figure clinging to Roy’s arm.
Roy pushed Ed into the room a little ways.  “You, go sit with Aoya, Ed, I’m
going to sit over here by Al,” he said, nodding toward Al’s seat.  “I’m not
leaving.”
Ed’s golden eyes flittered around the room and he swallowed nervously, moving
slowly to where Aoya was sitting on the floor and sitting down, his metal leg
making a strange sound on the hard floor.  He started at the noise and looked
at Aoya before looking back at Roy again.
Izumi shook her head.  “He’s the spitting image of Hohenheim if I ever saw
one.  No doubt that this boy’s that bastard’s son,” she said, chewing her lip
for a moment in thought.  “Thin as a rail, but that’s to be expected.  “Ed,
look at me,” she said, her voice taking a more commanding tone.
Ed’s eyes snapped to her, wide and unblinking.  “Marcoh said he didn’t have a
hope of learning anything when I talked to him this morning,” she said
thoughtfully.  “He’s wrong.  The boy’s feral, not an idiot.  He just needs to
be taught.  How much he can learn will be determined by his intelligence,
though,” she said.  “So we’ll see.”
Aoya looked at Ed and smiled.  “I’ve got replacement limbs too,” he said,
pointing to his arm and leg which were slightly darker than the rest of his
body.  “My mom helped me get them.  Though metal is cool,” he said, reaching
out tentatively and touching Ed’s arm. 
Ed watched then touched the arm that Aoya had touched him with.  Izumi smiled,
reaching into her bag and pulling out a binder.  “Ed, I need you to pay
attention to me now,” she said, and Ed looked back to her.  She held up a card,
on it was a series of images, and Ed needed to pick the next one.  “What comes
next?” she asked, then pointed to the correct answer.  She held up another
card, similar, and repeated the process. 
“Now, Ed, I want you to tell me the answers,” she said, holding up a card for
him to see. 
After a couple hours, Aoya had gone up to his clean room, and Ed had finished
the visual test.  The cat, named Gremmy, had moved into Ed’s lap and Ed was
petting him with a smile on his face.  Izumi scored the testing.  Without a
handle on language, Izumi had to rely on nonverbal tests.  It wasn’t as
accurate of a measure of Ed’s potential, but it would have to do for the time
being.  What she was finding, though, was phenomenal.  Roy, during the long
testing, had fallen asleep in his chair, head back and arms crossed over his
chest.
“Mustang!” she said suddenly.
“I’ll do my paperwork!” Roy said as he started to wakefulness.  He blinked and
looked at Izumi.  “What?”
“Marcoh doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about.  This boy’s
intelligence…I can’t be sure, but he’s got the potential to far exceed his own
father.  The only thing stopping him is the lack of teaching.  In the time I’ve
sat here with him, he’s learned how to interact with a cat that he’s never seen
before, figured out how to manipulate the answers on an advanced visual
screening test, and managed to put together a tangram puzzle for high school
students…” she said, looking over where he was moving the pieces of the puzzle
around again into different shapes.
Roy shook his head.  “What’s that mean for him?” he asked, leaning forward and
putting his elbows on his knees while he watched Ed.
“It means, the boy is a genius, possibly more intelligent than anyone we’ve
ever seen here.  The problem is, getting him to the point he can use that
incredible intelligence for something other than putting together a child’s
puzzle,” she said, sighing.  “You’ve seen him do this already, haven’t you?”
“He learns quickly,” Roy said, watching as Ed reassembled the shapes.  “He
figured out how to eat the first time I showed him, and he’s picked up how to
dress already.  I’d think if he wasn’t smart, he couldn’t pick up those things
after only seeing them once or so.”
Izumi nodded.  “It is remarkable.  The fact that he’s advanced so quickly just
since you rescued him from that terrible place,” she said quietly.  She turned
and looked at him fully now.  “What happened to your nose?”
Roy smiled sheepishly.  “Oh, Ed had a bit of a nightmare,” he said, reaching up
and touching it gently.
Ed looked up then and pushed himself to his feet.  He went over to Roy and
crawled up onto his lap, straddling him and hugged him.  Roy wasn’t sure what
to do, but just put his arms around him and held him for a long moment.  Then
he looked up and touched Roy’s nose with his trembling flesh index finger
gently.
“Sorry, hurt,” he said in a hoarse voice.
Roy smiled.  “Oh, Ed, don’t worry.  It was an accident.  Soon, you’ll be able
to tell me about your nightmares, and we’ll make them go away together,” he
said, reaching up and brushing a hand over Ed’s head softly.
Izumi caught the look on Roy’s face, and so did Al.  They exchanged a look with
each other, a knowing look that spoke volumes.  There was more to what the
colonel felt than just wanting to protect someone vulnerable.  There was
something much deeper there.  There was some connected that went beyond a
simple caretaker position for the colonel.  Could it be that he had left
himself open to something more?  Izumi’s eyes narrowed at him.
“Mustang, I’m going to warn you one time about what you’re doing.  If you don’t
tread carefully, you will shatter him.  And if you do that, I will break you,”
she said, glaring at him hard enough that he felt there was no doubt in her
words.
“I know,” he said simply, brushing a hand over Ed’s head again as he put his
head down on Roy’s shoulder.  “I think we need to get you clothes, Ed,” he
said, pushing Ed up slowly.  “You can’t go around wearing Al’s stuff; it is way
too big.”
“Clothes?” Ed repeated, his brows meeting.
“Are you sure that’s safe with Hohenheim still out there?” Izumi said, standing
up and putting away the testing materials.
Roy nodded.  “If he comes out in public, he’ll be arrested.  Something tells me
that he’ll be in hiding at the very least, and far away from Central city if
he’s as smart as he believes himself to be.”
After a moment of dislodging Ed from his lap, Roy had managed to get Ed up and
to the car.  Al said he would stay and go up and spend time with Aoya in his
clean room since he hadn’t seen him in a while.  Roy bid him and Izumi goodbye
and drove into the shopping district of town.  Ed stared at his hands while
they drove, refusing to even look out the windows at the scenery for some
reason.  They stopped at the largest clothing store and he got out first, and
then helped Ed get out.  Ed was still a bit unsteady on his feet, but he tended
to cling to Roy because of it.
As they entered the store, everyone seemed to stare at them.  Roy knew it was a
combination of things.  Roy’s disheveled appearance, for one, was odd.  He was
never seen in public without his uniform on and in a pristine condition.  The
added bonus of the bruised nose, of course, made people stare.  Then, he was
being held onto by another person, and Roy had never been seen in public with
another person.  Ed’s appearance, nearly emaciated, bruised and in way too big
clothes, made him an immediate mark for staring and muttering. 
Despite this, Roy headed to the counter.  “I need to have measurements done and
a wardrobe for Ed.”
The lady behind the counter, nodded.  “Oh, yes, yes, come back, let’s get
him…her?” she said, looking at Ed.
“Him,” Roy said, following her to the back room. 
“Oh, I’ll get the male tailor…” she said, starting to duck out.
Roy stopped her.  “Actually a female would be better in this situation,” Roy
commented, smiling at her. 
She blinked.  “I don’t understand.  Usually our clients prefer the same sex to
their own for their tailoring…”
Roy nodded.  “I know, but Ed is a special case.  He’s in a delicate state, and
he doesn’t react well to males he doesn’t know yet.  It would be easier on him,
and you, if it were a female that worked with him.”
She frowned and nodded.  “I’ll get Danielle, then…” she said, ducking out of
the room.
Ed was stading in front of the mirrors looking at himself while Roy sat down in
the seat to the side.  A moment later a short, red haired woman entered the
room with a measuring tape around her neck.  She glanced at Ed then back to
Roy.
“Aren’t you the one in charge of the police?” she asked, frowning.
“Colonel Roy Mustang, yes,” he said, nodding.  “I brought Ed here for some
clothes.  He doesn’t have anything right now.”
“Ed?” she said, frowning and looking at the short, blonde boy.  “He’s been
starved,” she said as soon as she came up beside him.  I can size him, but if
he’s being fed appropriately, his size will change drastically.”
Ed looked at her and smiled.  She stepped back.  “He has a metal arm and leg. 
Colonel Mustang, I need to know what is going on here, I’ve never seen this
child…”
“He’s twenty,” Roy said without thinking.  “And yes, I know you haven’t seen
him before even though he’s lived here for the last thirteen years.”
The tailor turned and stared at Roy for a long moment.  “But he looks like…”
she said then stopped.  “No.”
“Yes,” Roy said.  “He’s staying with me, and he needs clothes, his brother’s
clothes, as you can see, are far too big.”
She nodded, and quickly measured Ed, with only a few tense moments when he
jerked away violently from her.  After a few minutes, she brought back in a
selection of clothes, and Roy helped him try on several for size.  Most were a
bit too big, but they would need to be for when he put on a normal, healthy
weight.  They headed out with several large bags, and Ed dressed in a black
pair of slacks and a red t-shirt.  He seemed happy, though, and by the time
they got home, Roy was really exhausted.
Roy dropped the bags and fell into the sofa.  “Ugh!” he muttered and laid
back.  He was surprised when he felt Ed’s weight climb on top of him.  He
looked down to see that Ed had crawled up onto the sofa beside him and was
wedged now between him and the back of it.
“Ed, what are you doing?” Roy said, smiling.
Ed looked at him, golden eyes wide.  It struck Roy that Ed was perhaps the most
honest and naïve person he’d ever known, and how delicate he truly was.
“Love Roy,” he said finally and then buried his face in the hollow of Roy’s
shoulder.
Roy was stunned for a moment before he sighed; heart beating hard in his
chest.  “I love you, too, Ed,” he said softly, threading his fingers through
the gold hair spread out behind Ed.
***** Attaching *****
                                  Chapter Five
                                   Attaching
Greed had everything ready for the party tonight.  It had been almost three
weeks since their latest houseguest had joined the household.  To be honest,
the three of them hadn’t seen much of him.  He spent all his time locked in the
basement doing who knew what.  He had just sat down in the kitchen to read his
paper when Envy came into the room and sat down with a huff across from him.
“Something wrong, Envy?” Greed asked, putting down the newspaper.
“You bet something’s fucking wrong,” Envy grumbled, passing a file folder over
the table to Greed.  “That fucker down in the basement needs to leave.  Now.”
Greed frowned and pulled the manilla folder to him.  He opened it.  “What is
all this?”
“You wanted to know about him, I found out.  It is horrible, Greed, like a
goddamned trainwreck, I couldn’t stop reading about this guy.  He’s more than
bad news, he’s a huge liability and you need to get him out of here,” Envy
said, running a hand over his spikey black hair.
Lust came into the room, dressed up for the party that would start in the next
few hours.  She’d put on a nice fall themed outfit, looking more like a pin up
poster than anything else.  She wore a brown dress that flowed down the back in
a short train, and was bunched up at the top of her thighs in the front,
accenting her long, shapely legs.  The top was a bustier that showed off her
assests well, but not so much that it looked like she was over exposed.  Over
this, she’d put on an orange and red shawl to cover her bare shoulders.
“What is this?” she asked, leaning over Greed’s shoulder.
“Stuff on that Hohenheim,” Greed muttered as he read through it.  “Whoa…”
Lust sat down next to him and arched a brow.  “What is it, baby?”
“Envy was looking up why he was running.  Listen to this, it says that he was
let go from a big university in Xerxes because his ethics were ‘not in line
with’ their ethics.  He’s written lots of papers on the fallacy of keeping
inferior humans alive as more than testing subjects.  He claims that any born
with ‘inferiorties’ should be put to death at birth or given over for
scientific research.  There were rumors that he was caught doing human
experimentation illegally and that was the real reason behind his being let
go.  He came to Amestris and was immediately employed by the state as a private
researcher, given funding for his personal lab.  This conspiracy theorist here
suspects he never stopped human experimentation…” he said, thumbing to the end
of the first stapled paperwork.
“It gets worse.  The next one is why he’s fucking on the run,” Envy said,
rubbing his eyes.  “I’m going to have to fucking watch every goddamned Tim
Burton movie I own in a row to scrub this shit from my brain.”
Greed arched a brow.  Envy was a huge fan of Tim Burton, and it was his “happy
place”.  When stressed or upset, one could always find Envy watching something
Burton had done.  For him to feel like that…
“A warrant has been issued by the state of Amestris for the order of capture
and detainment of one Van Hohenheim in connection to several heinous charges. 
Van Hohenheim is charged with two counts of prenatal genetic manipulation, one
count of severe child abuse, one count of severe child neglect, one count of
solicitation for prostitution of a minor, one count of greivous human
experimentation without consent, one count of assault on a state official, one
count of genetic manipulation without consent, one count of illegal containment
of a minor, one count of illegal containment of an adult, several counts of
falsifying legal documents…wait a minute…I thought he had one son…two counts of
prenatal genetic manipulation?” Greed said looking up at Envy.
Envy nodded.  “I got a copy of the state police report, the ‘raid’ that you
thought was for drugs?  Might want to look at the report, Greed.”
Lust gasped as soon as Greed flipped the paper to the first sheet.  There was a
photo on the first page of Ed when he’d first been taken to the hosptial.  It
was one of the early ones where they had sedated him and taken a full body shot
covering only his groin with a paper covering.  His eyes looked unfocused from
the sedation, but the bruising and scarring were apparent in the bright light
of the hospital
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” Greed breathed out.  “Report filed by
Colonel Roy Mustang, State Police Commissioner for Central City.  After a
report of possible intruders in the area, they went into Van Hohenheim’s house
and found he’d been keeping his older son captive and using him as a human
experimentation subject for the thirteen years he’s lived in Central City. 
Edward Elric, age twenty, was found in the basement area of the house located
on Mansion Hill.  He has a metal prostetic arm and leg, and was unable to speak
due to the fact he had been kept captive with no access to education of any
kind.  Reports show that Hohenheim used his son to manufacture almost all of
the medical advancements he has been credited with over the last twenty years. 
Amestris Ethics Board has met and decreed he should be captured and transported
to the headquarters as soon as possible, but he is still at large.”  Greed
flipped through pages.  “Confidential reports indicate that local police
officers may be responsible for releasing Hohenheim from police custody and
likely were participants in the illegal experimentation, torture, and abuse of
Edward Elric.”
“So, that’s why I started looking into the police,” Envy said, sliding a second
folder over to him.
Greed wasn’t sure he wanted to know any more.  “This is on Kimblee and Tucker,”
Greed commented.  “You think they’re the ones that the police think are
involved with him?”
Envy nodded.  “Oh yes, I know it.”
Greed frowned.  “Kimblee left his home town after reports of several suspicious
fires and a few unsubstantiated reports of sexual and phsyical assault. No
charges were ever officially filed, but Kimblee was picked up on five occasions
for questioning. Tucker’s wife and daughter both mysteriously disappeared at
the same time, and soon thereafter Tucker was accused of possible illegal human
experimentation when he submitted two artifical life forms that were created
from human cells to his university for his dissertation. He left after the
creations died, and he had the bodies incenerated before anyone could examine
them.”
“I thought they were creepy,” Lust said, wincing at the photos of the strange,
short lived creations Tucker had presented.
“He needs to go,” Envy said.
“But someone like this, Envy, I can’t just kick him out, what if he goes psycho
on us?” Greed mused, frowning and rubbing his head.  “I know, Mustang.  He
turned down the invitation before, but maybe he’ll agree to come this time if
he’s still trying to take care of that kid of Hohenheim’s.”
Greed leaned back and snagged his phone from his pocket, dialing the number for
the police chief, who he already knew was attending that night.  “Hey,
Armstrong, bud, is Mustang coming tonight?” he said into the phone.  “Um, yeah,
I heard that he was taking care of that…look, I really think the colonel should
come.  I can’t say more, but it might help his mission,” Greed said with a grin
at the others and then he told Armstrong farewell.  He put the phone away. 
“Something tells me he’ll be here.”
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“I don’t know, Armstrong.  Do you think it would be the best thing?  Ed’s come
a long way, but is a party really a good idea?” Roy said as he sat at his own
kitchen table talking on the phone with the police chief.
“I’m certain!” Armstrong responded firmly.  “The boy needs to be around others,
and Hughes is taking his family.  Greed’s parties are always a very good time,
and he doesn’t allow drunken debauchery, especially before sunset!”
Roy nodded.  “Only if he wants to go.  I’ll speak with you later,” he said,
putting down the phone and looking in the livingroom were Ed had laid down on
his stomach and was working on writing.
It had been three extremely long, exhausting weeks for everyone involved with
rehabilitating Ed.  His incredibly quick mind caught on to things far faster
than anyone expected, even Izumi.  He seemed to absorb everything around him at
an impossible rate, including things they rather he not absorb.  It was more
than that, though, Ed actively wanted to know things.  He sought out
information if it wasn’t provided, meaning he would grab anything he could find
and try and read it.  Physically, he had filled out, putting on a resonably
appropriate weight, though he hated milk in any of its forms.  Marcoh had
confirmed he’d never gain any height, all his growth plates had fused at five
feet and one inches.  Izumi had finally convinced Marcoh that Ed was not a lost
cause after sharing the information while she was working with him.  He still
worried that he was a danger to himself and others, but he at least stopped
speaking of it in front of Ed.
Suddenly, Ed got up and came into the kitchen and stared at Roy, a book he had
been looking through left behind.  This was another thing they had yet to get
him to stop doing.  He never would say things to people; he’d just stop and
stare and wait to be asked to speak.  Roy looked up at him.  “Hey, Ed.  What do
you need?  Al’s gone to the store.”
“Why did that man put his…his…” he stopped, finding the word elusive.  He moved
forward and touched Roy’s crotch.  “That.  Why did he hurt me with that?”
Roy’s heart bottomed out suddenly.  There was something he had  hoped wouldn’t
come up for a while, and he had hoped it was with Izumi, or Al, or anyone but
him.  They hadn’t even gotten to biology yet, and Roy honestly wasn’t wanting
to be the one to explain the birds and the bees to him, and why someone would
force themselves on another.  Explaining to him what Hohenheim had done, the
experiments, and treating him like a test subject instead of a human being,
that had been easy.  This, however, this was another thing entirely.
“Ed, um, oh, ah, that was wrong.  Hurting someone is wrong, everything they did
that hurt you was wrong,” he said, trying to circumvent the entire subject.
Ed’s brows scrunched.  “Hitting people hurts both people.  But cutting someone
only hurts the other person.  Does hurting someone with that hurt someone or is
it like cutting them?  Is it a tool like a fist or a tool like a knife?” he
asked thoughtfully.
Roy felt blood rush to his face.  Not getting out of this one, he thought. 
“Ed, there’s more to it than just that.  This,” he said, gesturing to his
crotch, “Um, this is something that can be done between two people and it makes
both people feel good, something called sex, or making love for some.  And, ah,
if someone tries to make another person have sex without their permission, it
hurts the other person and is very wrong.  It is taking something from them
without their concent.”
Ed tilted his head to the side, golden eyes distant in thought.  “It feels good
when you want to do it, this making love or sex then?”
Roy nodded. “Yes, it is a very pleasant thing when two people want to do it
together.”
“So it doesn’t hurt?” Ed said, frowning.  “When you want to do it?  It feels
good?”
Roy grinned.  “Feels really good, most people like to be in love with the
person they do it with, you know, and they can get married and if they’re a man
and a woman, they might have a baby.  Of course, two women or two men can be in
love and do things like that too, just things work differently.”
Ed seemed to process it slowly, digesting each thing that Roy had said to to
him.  “So making love is a thing for the one you love the most?” he said
finally, looking up at Roy with wide eyes.
Roy nodded.  “I guess you could say that.  I mean, some people just like to
have sex because it feels good, but to me it was about being with the one you
love the most.”
Ed thought about it again.  “So, do you love someone the most?” he asked,
looking at Roy with a completely wide eyed innocent face.
The blush rising to Roy’s cheeks told a story his voice couldn’t.  “I…Ed, this
is a hard topic to talk about just like this, love and all of this, it is so
complex.”
“I love someone the most,” Ed said, looking it at Roy.  “But the bad man didn’t
love me the most.  So why did he do that to make it hurt so much?”
Roy rubbed his hands over his face and blinked.  “Bad people use it as a weapon
and hurt people, Ed.  See, look,” Roy said and put his hand gently on Ed’s
face, caressing it.  Ed turned into the touch.  “My hand can touch you softly,
and you like the feeling.  But the same hand can turn into a fist and hurt
someone too.  We are capable of much love or violence with our bodies, Ed, it
all depends on how you use it.”
Ed placed his metal hand over Roy’s hand with suprisingly gentle pressure. 
Three weeks had taught him almost full control over the metal limbs.  “I don’t
want to hurt anyone,” Ed said quietly, stroking the back of Roy’s hand.
Roy smiled and nodded.  “I know.  I’m happy that you don’t want to hurt anyone
Ed.  Oh, we were invited to a party, would you like to go?” he said, changing
the subject, hopefully. 
“A party?” Ed asked, putting his hand back down.
“Yes, I’ve never gone, but it is a fall party, and many friends will be there. 
I think it might be time for you to make some friends other than me, Al, Izumi
and Aoya.  Would you like that?” Roy asked, moving his hand to push a loose
strand of hair behind Ed’s ear.
“If you stay with me,” he said softly.  “I don’t want to be alone.”
“I know, Ed, that’s fine, I won’t go anywhere else,” he said.
Suddenly, Ed lurched forward and hugged Roy tightly.  “I love you the most,
Roy,” he said quietly before he let go and disappeared back into the living
room.
Roy was left with his heart fluttering in his throat.  He hoped that what Ed
said was true, because he knew for a fact that he had fallen in love with Ed. 
It was killing him because he knew that Ed was nowhere near ready to even hear
that from Roy.  All Roy wanted to do was hold him, kiss him, love him…and he
couldn’t. 
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Roy had been invited many times to the larger parties that Garland Reed threw
on his property.  He’d been invited to a few of the smaller weekend get
togethers, and he’d never taken the man up on it.  However, he knew that Hughs
and Armstrong had both been to a few, and it seemed like a good chance for Ed
to get some much needed socialization.  They drove up the long drive to he
farmhouse.  It was an old place, but well taken care of.  Roy could see several
other cars already parked in the parking area that had been set up, and there
were several people milling around outside.  Roy pulled in and looked next to
him where Al sat, nervously looking around and glancing at Ed every now and
then.
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Roy?” he  said. “Do you think he’s ready for
this?”
Roy nodded.  “We’ll be here with him, Al, don’t worry so much.”
Roy had gotten both the Elrics dressed nicely for the occasion, after all, it
was their first outing.  Al was wearing a blue polo shirt, and a pair of tan
slacks.  Roy had dressed Ed in a pair of dark, heavy pants that he seemed to
prefer over shorts, and a button up sleevless black shirt.  He’d grabbed a red
coat that Roy had picked up one day coming home from the station.  He’d worn
that coat at least a little while every day since Roy’d brought it home.  Roy
himself had dressed in jeans and a loose button down shirt.  He opened the door
for Ed who got out of the back seat very slowly.  His eyes took in everything
around him as he moved, though. 
Roy had noticed that not only was he fast at learning, he was keenly observant
of everything.  He seemed to pick up all the details on the world around him,
even things that normally people didn’t notice.  One of the things that he had
said that worried Roy was that he “remembered everything”.  Izumi and Roy
weren’t sure yet if that meant he had an eidedic memory or not.  If he did, the
trauma he had endured would be permanently etched in his mind in excrutiatingly
precise detail.
Ed grabbed Roy’s forearm though, as soon as someone walked by them.  The
reaction was instant and reactionary.  Roy gently put his hand on Roy’s and
smiled to himself.  He hadn’t gripped his arm hard enough to even bruise.  He
looked up to see Hughs headed toward them chasing his little daughter.  Roy
smiled at them as they ran past. 
“She is little,” Ed commented as he watched the little girl outpace her father
easily.
“She is, I think she’s turning three years old this year,” Roy said as he led
Ed toward the house. 
Ed glanced back toward the little girl again.  “When I was that small, I didn’t
have eyes yet,” he said almost casually. 
Roy didn’t say anything for a moment.  He wasn’t sure if that was a thing that
he should respond to or not, but they had arrived at the door, which was open
for the people who were arriving.  Roy and Al had decided to arrive a half an
hour early so there would not be as many people milling around when they
arrived.  They entered the large house to the open foyer where Greed was laying
out several plates of snacks for everyone to have as they came in to enjoy the
fireplace.  The fire was already going as the evening’s chill had already begun
to set in for the night.  As they entered, Greed looked up, noting that Roy had
arrived.  He smiled and came forward, extending his hand to the other man.
“Roy Mustang, good to see you finally came to one of my get togethers,” the
tall, dark haired Greed said.  “I see you have a couple friends, I know
Alphonse, but I haven’t met your other companion,” he commented, eyes falling
on Ed’s golden ones. 
Roy smiled, shaking hands with him as Ed’s hands constricted on his own arm a
bit.  “Um, yes, this is Edward, Ed, Al’s brother.  I’m helping him get to know
some new people…” Roy began.
“This is all new to me,” Ed said, his eyes taking in the environment, catching
Roy off guard when he spoke up.  “I have never been around this many people.”
Greed started to comment but stopped.  All around them there were perhaps six
or seven people gathered.  “Ah, I see, well, nice to meet you, Ed,” Greed said
with a grin and held his hand out.  Ed stared for a second, then reached out
with his metal right arm and shook Greed’s hand.
Greed stared at the strange metallic hand for a second, only long enough to
verify that this was indeed exactly what the stuff Envy had found had
detailed.  It was correct.  The boy was real enough and it was easy to tell
that something truly aweful had befallen him.  The golden eyes alone spoke
volumes and not just because of their strange color.
“Well, Roy, Ed, the rest of the guests should be coming in soon, but if you
want to walk around and through the place and check out the food and
everything.  Lust’s around somewhere, and I think Envy’s camped out in the
living room watching Nightmare again,” he said, nodding and then glancing over
to Al who was standing and watching Ed carefully.    
Roy looked over at Ed and smiled.  “Do you want to walk around a bit, before
other people get here, so you know where everything is?”
“Oh, I guess so,” Ed said, his curiousity outweighing his nervousness about
stepping away from Roy in the house. 
Ed looked around, then let go of Roy and headed toward the nearest doorway to
explore.  Roy watched him go.  Greed came up beside him and put a hand on Roy’s
shoulder. 
“We gotta talk, man, I got something you need to know,” Greed said quietly in
Roy’s ear.
Roy started for a second but nodded slowly.  “Mr. Reed, you wanted me here
specifically, please tell me that this wasn’t a bad idea to bring Ed here.”
“Ed will be fine, Envy is gonna watch him, Lust too, but you gotta know.  Van
showed up here after you raided his place.  I ain’t been able to shake him out
of the place since then, and turning him out ain’t an option without him
turning on me, that’s a danger I don’t want,” Greed said, his voice still
quiet.
Roy nodded slightly, knowing the truth in what Greed said.  He glanced over
toward the door as Hughs came in with his little daughter on his shoulders,
apparently having caught the child at some point.  He immediately started
talking to a couple that had come in with him about how amazing the little girl
was on his shoulder.  She beamed and chatted at people too.  Roy looked up as
Lust came through the room.  Lust was smiling and chatting with another of
Roy’s officers, Danny Bosch. 
“Where is he now?” Roy asked, turning around and grabbing a drink from the
table.
“Basement, I think, there’s an outside door.  I’ll tell Armstrong to bar it
from the outside until you cuff Van.  You should take him out through that door
so your boy there doesn’t see him,” Greed said, walking away to welcome
Armstrong who had just arrived.
Meanwhile, Ed came into the living room where Envy sat crosslegged on the floor
watching the big screen TV play a movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Ed
walked in slowly, watching the images with interest.  He’d gotten used to
seeing television and movies at Roy’s house, but this particular movie was
something he had not seen before.  He watched as the two characters sang to
each other.  Envy, black hair pulled up on top of his head in a tail looked up
to see Ed standing there watching the duet with Sally and Jack.  He had read
the reports, and he recognized the boy even though he looked a hell of a lot
better now than he had in the hospital photos.
“Hi, Ed, right?” Envy said.  “You can sit with me if you want.”
Ed didn’t say anything, only moved to sit beside Envy and watch the movie
intently.  After a while he spoke, “They love each other,” he said quietly.
Envy nodded.  “Yeah, they do.”
“Will they have sex?” Ed asked thoughtfully as they grew closer to each other
in the film.
Envy blinked rapidly and looked at Ed, who was utterly serious he realized. 
“What?”
“When you love someone more than anyone else, you have sex or make love with
them,” Ed said thoughtfully, eyes taking in everything on the screen.
Envy hadn’t expected him to ask about that sort of thing.  “Um, well, you can,
but love isn’t just that, you know, there are other things people in love do.”
Ed blinked and turned to Envy and stared for a moment.  “What kind of things
mean you love someone?”
Envy could have kicked himself because he realized that in less than a month he
was having to figure out a lot of things, and one of the things was being
sexually abused.  No wonder he had questions on what these things meant.  He
swallowed hard.
“Um, well, you know, people kiss, you know, touch lips, they hug each other,
hold hands, cuddle with each other, do things for them, just be with them, just
to show love, you know…” Envy said slowly.
Ed was quiet for a long time as they watched the rest of the movie.  Finally
when it was over he looked back at Envy.  “How do you know you love someone?”
Envy shook his head.  “Different people know it different ways, you know.  You
look forward to spending time with them, miss them when you’re away from them,
maybe your heart beats a little faster when they’re around, you just want to be
with them more than anyone else, and they make you happy and make you feel
good,” he said slowly.
Ed nodded.  “So love is wanting to be with someone?”
Envy sighed.  “Sort of, you can want to be with people you aren’t in love with,
but it is different when you have friends.  You want to be with your friends,
too, but the person you are in love with is just a different thing, you know,”
Envy said with a nod.
Ed nodded and stood up, the metal foot making an odd sound on the floor.  Envy
barely noticed the sound as Ed left the living room to go back in the foyer
where Roy was standing.  He helped Ed figure out what foods he would eat, but
below them, someone else had noted the odd gait of Ed’s footsteps.  The
basement carried the distinct sound easily below them.  Before long the sound
of footstep fell on an empty room.
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