Soldier Blues

IV.

Edward adjusted the collar of his shirt and popped open the first two buttons. Envy had given him a sound lecture that morning, ordering him to listen to Roy or else get… well, ‘or else’ had basically covered everything that Envy could possibly come up with as form of torture or death. Shaking his head to dispel the thoughts that were making his skin crawl, he hastily braided his hair and hopped to get his shoes on, hurrying so he couldn’t get chewed out for being late. Not that he had anything to be late for, he just didn’t want to give Envy an excuse to hit him. It would only cause a fight he’d lose because his brother would cheat in some way, and then Ed would have to take a bath to get clean and find new clothes to wear. Would just cause headaches and somehow it would be all his fault.

“EDWARD!”

That was Roy. Ed grimaced and grabbed at his jacket, hurrying from his bedroom down stairs to meet up with the Lieutenant Colonel. He received a glare for his tardiness, but the blonde only straightened his back and glared back into those black eyes, fighting to keep the snarl from his face. He ended up frowning.

“If you’re ready, shorty,” Roy said with a grin, watching Ed fight back the surge of anger. Ed stalked by Roy, and if the black-haired man hadn’t been expecting some form of retaliation, he would’ve gotten an elbow in the gut. Instead, Roy neatly sidestepped and followed Edward from the house, through the slowly disbanding encampment, and out into the forest where they would meet Envy and Greed.

Ed stalked ahead of Roy, bothered by the fact the man wore a smug look on his face. The blonde simply wanted to smack it right off, but he couldn’t. Not if he wanted to get home, because he was sure that Roy would lead him somewhere into the wilderness and leave him there to die. So Ed grit his teeth and clenched his fists and went along with it, only because he wanted to get home to Alphonse.

“There you are,” Envy moved out of the line of trees, revealing himself to the blonde and Lieutenant Colonel. “You’re late.”

“Princess was taking her time in getting ready.” Roy said with a grin, sliding his hands into his pants pockets.

“Screw you, Mustang.” Ed snapped back. Envy frowned, staring at his brother for a long, uncomfortable while. As Ed squirmed, Envy flicked his gaze from the blonde to the Lieutenant Colonel.

“I trust you know where you’re going?” he asked of the black-haired man.

Roy nodded. “Resembool. I’ve been there before, before I was ordered out here. I’ll get him there.”

“I can go by myself.” Ed mumbled. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

Envy raised an eyebrow. “He’s not babysitting you. He’s escorting you.”

“I don’t care what you call it. I don’t need him.”

“Do you want to see Alphonse or not?”

“Don’t bring him into this!” Ed snarled, hands on his hips now. Envy simply smiled, showing off a bit of a canine.

“Then be a good boy and behave for Roy.” Envy turned away from the blonde and looked at the taller man, giving the Lieutenant Colonel a look. Roy simply nodded and moved forward, taking a small package from the Brigadier General before Envy walked away, disappearing back into the trees. Ed frowned at the package and looked at Roy for answers. But the man refused to give him any, instead tucking the package into his coat pocket and moving forward to catch Ed’s shoulder to shove him forward.

“Let’s go.” Roy said, pushing the shorter blonde before him.

Edward resisted for a moment, but his own momentum soon forced him to walk or fall face first into the dirt. So he walked, ignoring the darker’s smug look that plainly said he was sulking. So he picked up his pace and kept moving forward, putting a good ten feet of distance between them. They didn’t speak to each other, knowing that they would just provoke each other into a fight that neither of them wanted.

Not yet, anyway, as Ed was still healing and Roy felt bad beating the shit out of a wounded soldier, even if the soldier was beginning to have a knack for pissing him off.

Around midday, Roy finally caught up to Edward to force him to rest, aware of how that small body was panting. The dark-haired man had realized a while back that Edward had a tendency to push himself to the brink of exhaustion, and so to remedy that, he called a rest every four hours or so. He made Ed eat, even if it was only a few bites of a sandwich or fruit, and let the boy have water. He treated the blonde much like a pet, keeping the food and drink on his person rather than letting Ed carry some of the burden, figuring the teenager would be reluctant to leave without a constant supply of energy. This theory proved true, but something else was keeping Edward from leaving Roy’s side, the Lieutenant Colonel soon discovered.

Other than his wounds bothering him now and then, Edward rarely stopped for any reason, including Roy’s own demands. But while they sat there on the side of the road having their lunch, Edward was oddly quiet, golden eyes on the road around them, suspicious of every sound. Roy almost asked the boy what his malfunction was when he heard it. He’d been around them far too long for his liking not to recognize the sound of the tank and so Roy moved accordingly, grabbing up all signs of the two of them and dragging Ed away from the road, into hiding amidst the underbrush. He pinned the blonde down, staring as the tank and some haggard rebel soldiers began to pass by, eyes narrowing the longer he watched. These weren’t ordinary soldiers, Roy surmised, considering they seemed to be more of a scouting party despite their war-torn look. They were making casual sweeps under the pretense of guarding the lumbering tank, but they were up to something.

Roy didn’t really want to find out what. Edward, however, seemed to have other ideas, scrambling out from beneath Roy to the edge of the road. Roy cursed and shot up to grab him, arms wrapping around the boy’s middle before Ed could give away their position. Roy hauled back on the boy, lifting Ed right off the ground and they both tumbled back into the underbrush, rolling in dead leaves and over twigs. Roy was certain the rebels had heard the noise and were coming to investigate, but he didn’t have time to ponder what to do next. He simply pinned Edward beneath him and covered the boy’s mouth and nose, perfectly willing to suffocate him into submission if that’s what he had to do.

Ed struggled against him, but Roy simply put his mouth by the blonde’s ear and hissed, “Do you really think they’ll save you? A traitor?”

Ed stopped, lying beneath Roy and panting. Finally Roy leaned back, staring into those burning wheat-coloured eyes. “If I take my hand away, are you going to yell?”

Ed slowly shook his head and Roy pulled his hand back as he got to his feet, hauling the blonde up by the collar of his shirt. Before Ed could even say a word, Roy grabbed his face in his hand and leaned close so Edward had no chance of looking away.

“Listen to me, Edward. They’re not your friends anymore. You can’t trust them, if you ever could in the first place. The moment the rebels find out you survived they’re going to come to take you back. You understand?”

“I get it. I’m not a little kid.”

“You sure as hell act like one.”

“Shut the hell up, Mustang.”

Roy hauled on Edward’s collar, dragging him from the woods and back to the road, looking for signs of the tank. Seeing and hearing nothing, he pushed Edward ahead of him and followed, hands shoved into his pockets. He could sense the blonde’s anger and knew he couldn’t really do anything about it. He just had to keep the brat safe until they reached Resembool. And that, of course, seemed a long time in coming. It wasn’t that Edward was bad company – and he sort of was – it was that the fifteen-year-old was just so naïve. That in itself wasn’t a bad thing – it just was a bad thing when compared to what they were dealing with. Still, the kid seemed to have a heightened sense of awareness of life for a teenager. He seemed to be much more mature than a fifteen-year-old should be, whether they were thrown into a life-or-death situation or not.

“Mustang?”

“What is it now, brat?” Roy caught up to the small blonde as they crested a rise in the road and Edward pointed at the plume of smoke rising from about a mile down the path. “Fire?”

“The smoke is too dark and if the wind blows just right, there’s something that stinks.” Edward was saying, golden eyes locked on that black plume, watching it twist and fray as it grew larger.

“What’s over there?” Roy questioned. Edward just shrugged in reply.

“I don’t know. Resembool isn’t the sort of place that gets a lot of information. I mean, we only got involved because of all the Ishbalan refugees.”

Roy frowned. “We need to find out what’s going on. Why Amestris decided to attack her own people and why her own people are fighting back.”

“What’s to know?” Ed asked suddenly. “There are two different ideals and probably, someone somewhere decided to act on them and destroy all the social chains. The only way to fix everything is to attack and claim back what was taken.”

Roy’s frown increased and he sat his hand on the top of the blonde’s head. “You’re too young to be this cynical.”

“I was being serious.”

“I know,” Roy said, sighing. “It’s that that frightens me.”

Edward looked up at the black-haired Lieutenant Colonel from beneath his hand with a questioning expression. Finally, Roy broke that gaze as he shook his head and took hold of the back of Ed’s neck, leading him down the road, to that huge black plume of smoke. When they arrived at the source, Roy let Edward go so the boy could be violently sick on the side of the road instead of his own shoes, and couldn’t help but stare at the carnage himself. It was no secret to who had done such a vile thing, since the tank was the thing smoking, bombed out as it was, but it was why such a thing had been done.

Bodies lay strewn about the grounds, some blown in half, others in pieces, guts and limbs scattered here and there. Bullet casings still smoked where they lay, giving a definite time. Finally, Edward was by his side and Roy pulled him a little closer, if only to give the boy something else to focus on than the ugly scene around him.

“You’ve never seen anything like this, have you?” Roy asked gently.

Edward shook his head. “No. I wasn’t close to the fighting. Not unless I had to be.”

“Well, don’t let this completely ruin you.” Roy said in a heaved breath. “We have to keep going.”

“Roy?”

The black haired man turned to face the blonde who was staring at the ground, fists clenched at his sides. When Edward looked up, there was something in his eyes, something fierce at the same time compassionate, and Roy turned to face the kid fully, hands sliding into his pockets. “What is it?”

“We can’t let this happen anymore.”

Roy stared at the kid for the longest time before he finally cracked a smile. “We won’t. For now, let’s get to Resembool.”

When Edward simply nodded, Roy wondered just what was going on within their world and why it seemed like this whole scene had been staged, as if whoever had done it had known their witnesses would be by at any moment. Roy sighed. When he got a chance to, Roy would have to message Envy about this. Even if the Brigadier General couldn’t give him a straight answer, he’d at least get something. For now…

Roy’s gaze focused on Edward.

For now he had someone he had to protect if only to save his own ass.