Like a Wounded Animal

“Gracia, would you mind getting Elysia ready for school?” Hughes asked his wife after the two of them had finally managed to calm down the little girl.

Gracia, fully understanding her husband’s reasoning behind this, didn’t argue with the incredibly anti-Hughes behavior one bit. She led their daughter upstairs to get her dressed, into the kitchen to get her some breakfast, and then finally, out the front door.

He could hear Elysia’s nearly wordless whimpers of protest about why her Papa wasn’t bringing her to school as Gracia tried her best to explain, as the two of them walked down through the front yard and out to the street, out of his earshot.

Good, he was alone now.

Almost.

“Roy.” He said, trying to see if he could wake the sleeping beast in front of him. The one that was lying on his couch, posing as his best friend.

He still couldn’t believe that that chimera was his friend. There was no way…

“Roy.” He repeated when he received no answer the first time, his voice higher, tone more stern.

A midnight blue orb opened partially to look at him. Within the next few seconds, it was closed again, like that of a disinterested animal.

The Roy Mustang he knew, would never do that…

“ROY!” he bellowed finally, jumping to his feet. The Alchemist on the couch lazily lifted his head, opening his eyes.

“What?” he asked, voice more of a growl than any human tone he had ever heard.

“What is wrong with you?!” Maes hollered, his rage at his daughter nearly getting her head bitten off by her own uncle biting through his tone.

“What are you talking about?” The chimera asked, raising an eyebrow, laying his head back down.

Maes took a few steps closer to the couch, and reached down to pull the man half asleep on it off, to give him a rude wake-up call. As he reached down though, Mustang’s eyes snapped wide open, and he sat up, crawling away from his friend’s hand and beginning to shake as he curled himself against the backing of the couch. He began to whimper, and the tail that had become so recently attached to him wrapping under his thigh.

“Roy, what-?” Hughes asked, seeing true fear in his friend’s eyes. He had never, ever seen that emotion in those eyes, even as changed as they were now. The midnight blue was a few shades lighter than he remembered, his pupils slits.

“Don’t…. Don’t touch me…” muttered the man trying to sound tough through his cracking voice, even as he cowered away from Hughes.

“Hey… what’s wrong?” The Brigadier General asked, taking another half step forward, reaching out to the wounded chimera.

“… Don’t touch me… Maes…” Mustang warned, still cowering back as he watched Hughes’ hand grow closer to him, a snarl forming at his face, teeth bared as they had been that morning.

Seeing the sudden change in the alchemist, Maes backed off of him.

“Stay away…” Mustang whimpered.

“Roy, I am away.”

“Stay that way.”

A long moment of silence passed between the two, Hughes sitting in the loveseat across the room from the couch, Mustang gazing at him out of still fearful eyes.

“This isn’t going to work.” Hughes groaned, reaching up for his glasses to clean them, taking in for the first time the fact that his pink pajamas were covered in dried crimson. He frowned and went into the kitchen, coming back a minute or so later, glasses replaced on his nose.

“What isn’t?”

“Huh?”

“What isn’t going to work, Hughes?”

The father nodded, realizing his friend was curious.

“This.”

“What?”

“My not being able to touch you.”

“Why not?”

“Roy, look at yourself… those bandages need to be changed. I can’t do that if you won’t let me get near you.”

As if following a command, the Flame Alchemist looked down at himself, eyes finding the bandages that had been slowly turning pink since very early that morning when they had been applied.

“It’s ok…”

“No, Roy, it isn’t.” Hughes said, rather testily. Mustang gave him a sad look, his ears drooping. Maes couldn’t take it, first the fear, and now the sadness. It was as if all of the emotions the Flame Alchemist had pushed aside in order to be able to do his job, and do it well, were flooding back to the surface, out of his control. He walked upstairs and went to go get changed, staying in civilian clothes. Schiezka could take care of any paperwork that came his way, and would call him about anything she didn’t know. He had faith in that.

So, with much reluctance, he tossed aside his pink chicky pajamas, and went back downstairs, to find Roy hurriedly scratching at one of his long, wolf ears. “Need some help?” He asked.

The response he received was a growl.

“I’m not even anywhere near you.”

Roy snarled up at him, giving him a menacing glare.

“Ok, so you don’t want help. Are you hungry.”

“A little.”

“What do you want?”

“Something dead…”

Hughes rose a brow.

“… preferably not rotting…”

“What were they feeding you?” he asked, walking into the kitchen to begin looking around for something for his friend.

“They weren’t.” came the sad response.

Hughes stopped, and backtracked into the living room, looking his friend over. Now that he had said something about it, the Alchemist, who usually took great care of himself, so much so that it showed, looked thin and tired, though not very much. He had only been gone a week, but you could tell he hadn’t eaten in that time.

“You serious?”

Mustang looked over at him in the doorframe, and nodded once, his ears lying down against his skull again.

“Not only did they do this to you, and torture you, but they didn’t feed you?”

Again, a single nod was his answer.

“And you let it happen?”

Those blue eyes looked to the ground, his answer obvious. He didn’t need to speak, but he did. “I didn’t have much of a choice…” he said in a hushed tone.

“Roy…” Hughes said, coming over to the couch.

“Stay…” Roy began, but all too soon, Hughes was sitting next to him, and had pulled him into a hug.

The chimera’s ears stood straight up atop his dark crown, and he started growling. “Maes… stop… please….”

“Roy…”

“Leave me alone…” Mustang’s ears dropped again, his eyes turning large, fearful and sad. They began to shimmer with tears that Hughes’ couldn’t see, because the chimera’s head was resting on his shoulder. He could, however, feel the man’s body begin to shake as he started to whimper, shedding silent tears, while still trying to get away.

“Let go… Get off of me…” Hughes refused though, wouldn’t let the wolf chimera free.

Finally, Mustang used the only option left to him, and bit his friend in the arm. He kept his fangs from entering his friend’s bicep, though just barely.

“Ow! Damn…” Maes yelped, backing away, a hand coming to the now slightly ripped sleeve of his t-shirt.

“I told you to leave me alone.” Mustang said evenly, as if it was a normal occurrence for him to bite his best friend in the arm.

“Do I have to get you a muzzle?”

At that comment, the chimera bristled noticeably. “Weren’t you getting me something to eat?”