Time for some FMA! I had worked on this a lot in November (totally ignoring my studies in order to do it too) so I decided to (ignore my studies again) post it and see what you think.
I like to think someone will comment someday TT_TT
~
Nearly ten years had passed since the death of Fuhrer Bradley. The first few years found the military unstable; it went through four new Fuhrers until it finally stabilized (with the help of thousands of officers that couldn’t bare the collapse of the entire Amestris government). Over the years, several key players in the Reconstruction - as it was dubbed by the civilians - rose through the ranks, while those who presented problems and were overall roadblocks found themselves demoted or discharged immediately. The military was a fragile thing these days.
Which was why Edward Elric found himself being sent, once again, to dismiss another group of trouble makers. This had been half his work since he decided to reclaim his position in the crumbling institution. Ed felt he could do some good here, help rebuild the government. Maybe if he was part of the Reconstruction, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing in the future.
Maybe, one day, being the dog of the military would not be such a bad thing.
It was the only thing that kept him going on days like this. Days when he would go around and say, “Hey, the military has a problem with you, get lost.” Not technically what he was advised to say - Hawkeye had actually instructed him to be much more tactful and not at all himself as these soldiers were considered rogues and generally had guns. Of course, he had never been afraid of guns and Fury had a nice scar over his left eye to prove it.
And that was why he was sent out. Different Lieutenant Generals were given different jobs to hand out to be “more efficient” - the current Fuhrer, Grosow, liked “efficiency,” which Ed quite frankly thought was just another term for laziness - and his Lieutenant General decided the newly appointed Colonel deserved this job. Of course, his Lieutenant General would not allow him any subordinates, so Edward found himself doing all of the work himself.
This was because his Lieutenant General was none other than Roy Mustang.
Mustang, of course, kept his sense of humor after the Event - dubbed such by Ed so he didn’t have to think about what it really was. There was a period where he lost it, of course, right after. He lost everything right after. It took Hawkeye, Black Hayate, a steak dinner, Havoc, a rather disreputable woman, Edward’s old automail, and a lot of ammunition to get him out of that depression, but it made for a story that they would never, ever tell again. And those were just loads of fun to have in your past.
Once he was knocked out of that stupor (and had his promotion to Brigadier General made permanent due to his part in stopping the “homunculus invasion”) he went right back to being the bastard he’d always been.
After he promoted Edward to Lieutenant Colonel that is. It had been the surprise of Ed’s life. No one had expected it; it wasn’t like Roy disliked having complete control over Ed - it amused him to no end, Brieda had explained to him once. The autonomy of a Lieutenant Colonel would greatly restrict his control. But it didn’t happen like that.
Because he wasn’t allowed subordinates.
“It’s a symbolic promotion,” Mustang had said as he finished shelving his texts. He had moved into an new, bigger office in central after his promotion. That was fine to Ed, as it meant it was much easier to find and more satisfying to slam the door of. It resounded for entire minutes.
“What the hell's a symbolic promotion?” Ed had asked, ready to symbolically pound the man’s head in. It would be a symbol of his anger. On Roy’s face.
“It means that I’m acknowledging your work, but you are still first and foremost another one of my officers that I plan to use to my full advantage.”
Edward understood that, someplace in his head he did. It was perfectly logical and would help Roy reach that level that was just over that next horizon.
He still found himself fingering the release switch on his right arm, wondering if he should throw it at Roy and run before the man knew what had happened. That would be childish though.
And he was fairly sure Mustang wasn’t above melting down his automail.
So today, promoted once more - right after Mustang became promoted to Lieutenant General - Ed found himself sending many young men (and women) back home with dishonorable discharges. He had finally finished this long tedious task only to remember he had a mountain of paper work back at his desk. Joy.
That was the other half of his work these days. He had never realized how much he would miss those adventures, those life or death situations that caused him so much grief at the time.
He also kind of missed being the hero. It boosted his ego in ways he’d never realized - sure, he had been pretty arrogant for most of those years, but he had been happy to be arrogant. And everyone knew Mustang enjoyed his arrogance, so it wasn't too bad that Ed had liked his.
Upon returning to the office, he made his weary way to his desk. That’s all he got. A desk. Mustang had had an office and a team of underlings as a Colonel, as well as all sorts of other privileges.
When Edward was promoted to Colonel, he got a desk.
He supposed that was better than nothing. When he was a Lieutenant Colonel, he had all the paperwork and no desk. That had sucked.
On his desk, like most other days, was a small hill of paperwork. It was even more tedious than dismissing rogues as all most pages needed were his initials. Initials, not even his full name. Today was no different. The first twenty pages or so just needed a quick Col. E.E. at the bottom. Edward didn’t see how this really did anything as there could easily be a Colonel Evan Eldridge or something similar. Maybe Roy would pass them on to more underlings who would then stamp each page with the office.
He didn’t read any of the papers, of course. This pissed off Hawkeye often, as she had to go through everything before hand to make sure he wasn’t signing something detrimental. Roy had done the same thing when he was Colonel, Hawkeye loved to inform him. She had just let him go on like that until one day Brieda didn’t show up for work. He wasn’t in the next day, either, or anytime that week. He ended up coming back the next month, having had 30 days paid leave for no particular reason. Roy’s name was on the bottom of the form, though he didn’t remember signing off on it. That’s because Brieda had slipped the paper into the middle of his pile and the Colonel hadn’t even glanced at what he was signing.
~
This next one is right after that last section and was one of my favorite things to write in a very long time.
~
A Brigadier General got a ceremony when he was promoted. Mustang’s ceremony reminded Ed of a wedding he had seen once, sans the bride of course. Mustang sat at the head of a table during the meal, in which several men gave short, stupid toasts. Afterward, people whom Edward dubbed as yellow-bellied suck-ups proceeded to attempt the crushing of Mustang’s shaking hand - why did all low ranking officials think breaking fingers meant they’d be favored by the one with the broken fingers? - and congratulate him. Mustang took it all in stride, shaking their hand back - his fingers couldn’t crush, but he had his Flint gloves on, so they could scratch “unintentionally.”
But he seemed tired to Ed’s eyes. Tired and broken, like the man at the wedding Ed had witnessed. He looked defeated, but only for a few seconds when one of the suck-ups walked away and the next hadn’t realized that the new Lieutenant General was free. After seeing this expression ten times in twenty minutes, Edward decided to intervene.
He didn’t care about the General, though. He just hated the suck-ups.
So, in what can only be described as an Ed-like way, he walked over to Mustang and began speaking to him. He didn’t really think about what he was saying because it wasn’t for Roy’s benefit.
“Excuse me!”
It was a Second Lieutenant this time, an old one. He had a scruffy beard and cropped hair and Ed was sure Roy wanted nothing more than being rid of this man. So when he said that, apparently offended that Ed would interrupt him, Edward just rolled his eyes towards the man.
“You’re wearing your aiguillettes wrong,” he said, making his voice as bored as he could.
“My what!?”
It was too easy sometimes. Edward rolled his eyes for real this time, reaching out and plucking at the braided cords hanging from the man’s shoulder.
“The braids? They’re called aiguillettes and your arm goes through them, not behind them.”
The man looked livid, his face a shade of red that Edward honestly had rarely seen on human beings. He looked like he just may explode (and not figuratively) before he turned on his heel and stalked off.
Unable to resist, Ed called out after him, “That’s not the proper way to execute an about face either!”
The man tripped on his way through the doors.
Turning around, Ed was met with the startled yet amused face of Lieutenant General Roy Mustang.
“You don’t think that may have been a bit rude?” Roy asked in such a voice that Edward knew he didn’t care.
“If I know you’re wearing your uniform wrong, then you deserve what you get,” Ed replied.
Mustang chuckled, though it seemed slightly forced. Ed, now standing more beside the man than in front of him, glanced sideways at Roy.
“I’ll distract them,” Ed jerked his head at the small group of higher ups congregating a short distance away, “if you want to get out of here.”
The older man looked startled and stared down at his subordinate.
“Edward, are you suggesting that I ditch my own promotion party?”
“I’ll come with, if you’re chicken.”
This time Mustang’s laugh was completely natural. It took him a moment to calm himself and though his smile faded, a grin lingered at the corners of his lips.
“One more hour of this and I’ll take you up on that offer, but I can’t duck out until after they present me with my new uniform. I’ll hardly be missed then.”
And so Edward spent the next hour chatting with Roy and those that approached the pair. Ed was pleased to note that he was some sort of coward repellent as few dared to approach Mustang with his young, hot-headed alchemist at his side.
Ah, finally his outbursts paid off.
He hadn't had one recently, of course. He had mostly grown out of them- literally. He now stood just under eye-to-eye with Roy, making his glare much more potent. He didn't feel like using it now, of course. Not when Grosow was in his line of sight. The man was slowly making his way to them, but he kept getting distracted by the same yellow-bellied suck-ups that Edward was so effectively repelling.
Grosow seemed to be a magnet for them. Ed wondered what would happen when they got close. Would the cowards stick closer to the Fuhrer or would they scatter at a few sharp looks from the FullMetal Alchemist?
~
This next piece is from much ealier than the last two. Think after the stake, Hawkeye, Havoc, Black Hayate, disreputable woman, ammunition, automail incident. Like, right after.
~
"I'm resigning."
Roy looked up from whatever report he had been going over, clearly started.
"Well, Full Metal, I understand if you're feeling overworked. I can see about lightening your load a bit, even give you some time of leave to relax-"
"I don't have a lightened load, I want to resign"
Roy, still clearly troubled, tried again.
"Why don't you take that time of leave and think this through. It's a big decision to make."
"I don't need to think things through, I want to resign."
Roy sighed and opened a drawer in his desk.
"Very well, Full Metal. I suppose I should have seen this coming."
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Ed grabbed the paper that he had started filling out and threw it as far as possible.
Unfortunately, as it was only a piece of paper, it ended up floating down to the ground next to him. Roy watched it sink down with mild fascination then returned his one eyed gaze back to the blond before him.
"I was filling out a resignation request to take you out of the records."
"Yea, I figured that out. Why?"
Roy just stared at him blankly.
“Edward, do you remember why you came into my office?” he asked slowly.
His response was two furious amber eyes.
“I’m not stupid Mustang.” Ed spat out the name like a curse.
Roy was completely lost
~
I hope to write more on this later. That last scene was pretty fun to write too.
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