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There are few things in the world that makes Roy Mustang angry. He gets irritated, yes, he’s only human after all. But there are rarely any happenings that cause him to lose his composure.
But if there’s one thing that never fails to irate him, it’s one particular subordinate’s lack of concern regarding their own personal safety.
Edward Elric, a hero, a genius— a genuine, caring, gorgeous human —has absolutely no idea on how to keep himself safe. Roy had thought the worst of the events through the years to be the time in Baschool when Ed had been impaled by a metal pole after the more-than-brief scuffle with the Crimson Alchemist. But this time—
“I think it goes without saying that you’re a massive idiot,” Roy says shortly as he steps into the hospital room. “If I hadn’t known you to be a genius, I would have chalked it up to brainless idiocy with no regard for personal safety. Now, after all these events, especially this one , I believe ‘suicidal’ might be a better fitting label.”
Ed looks up at him and it feels like Roy might have been afflicted with some of the same injuries Edward had suffered. A knife wound to the stomach, but instead, affecting Roy’s heart, blood pouring down in between his organs to pool somewhere in the bottom of the abdominal cavity.
He had talked to the doctor before entering the room, had been forced to stay stoic as the doctor had explained all of Edward’s injuries. A fractured ankle, blood loss, two infected wounds, a laceration to some internal organ Roy hadn’t paid attention to and three broken ribs.
There hadn’t been a question as to why Roy as there: he was Edward’s superior officer and the person responsible for Ed’s sick leave, and besides, the one responsible for filing the documents that would ensure that the military would pay for the hospital stay and health expenses.
In reality, however, Roy had come there for one selfish reason; he needed to see if Ed was really still alive, really still with him. He had needed to see the injuries for himself to calm his brain down from screaming at the worst moments that Edward surely was dead, even though he had been brought back to Central two days ago.
This mission should have been standard, should have taken a week at most. It hadn’t even supposed to be a hands-on thing at all. Ed had been instructed to go to a small village outside Central and sniff out a group of military defectors looking to cause trouble and come back with whatever intelligence he had gathered.
However, three days in, it seemed that the defectors had gained intelligence from someone in the military and they had become aware of Edward’s presence. They had caught him in the act and a fight had occurred.
If it hadn’t been Edward, Roy would almost be willing to bet all his possessions and his rank that they wouldn’t have survived.
“I’m sorry, okay?” Edward snaps, crossing his arms and wincing. “It’s not my fucking fault that the military didn’t manage to pick up on some inside traitor that just so happened to get wind of what we were doing.” He frowns and Roy resists the urge to touch a hand to Ed’s face to soothe away the premature stress wrinkles. “About that, did you figure out who the rat bastard snitch is?”
Roy looks down at Ed’s information on the top of the sheet. Hypervolemia. Risk of septicemia. Fractured ribs. Fractured ankle. Liver laceration. “Yes. He’s in custody and being questioned as we speak. But—”
He clears his throat, swallows around the ball of worry that’s prevented him from eating properly the last few days. “But that’s not an excuse, Edward. Do you remember what your orders stated? Written in bold, capital letters?”
“Yeah, yeah, run if you’re discovered, yadda yadda. But I couldn’t , okay?” Ed says angrily, sitting up with only a minor wince. “I’m not a fucking pussy and besides, what if they had carried guns and I’d gotten shot? Would that have been any better for you? You’ve forgotten what it’s like being in the field, Mustang. Sometimes— sometimes you just can’t follow what some conjoined letters on paper tells y—”
“ Would you listen for once? ”
Ed’s head snaps up to look at him and Roy would almost have felt guilty for putting the borderline scared expression on Ed’s face if he hadn’t been bursting with anger and worry, almost like a tightly coiled spring threatening to snap.
“You’re not invincible, Edward. You’ve never been. At some point, you really do have to realise that or you’ll end up dead somewhere.” He pauses and looks up, towards the door to the hospital room. The room is quickly darkening and he sighs and clutches the medical papers the doctor had handed him. “I worry about you, Edward. You know that. You know how much I care about you, even though we cannot .. how can I convince you that you’re worth more than you seem to think with how you throw yourself into these fights. I understand that I can’t just take you off missions outside of the office, because you would feel trapped at all times. But as long as I’m legally your commanding officer, I can’t do more than to talk to you in the hope that you’ll come back in one piece. You end up toeing the line between grievous injury and death more and more every time you leave the office— you scare me, Edward. It keeps me up at night when you’re gone but I can’t show you how much I feel because we’ll get in trouble.”
Ed doesn’t reply for almost a minute. The silence is deafening and Roy feels like his head is about to explode. The external pressure combined with the internal one that’s been building for days is causing a small headache to appear behind his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Ed says quietly, reaching out a bandaged hand with a needle stuck in the back of it. “I’m sorry, Roy. I really am. I— I didn’t mean to get hurt make you worry. I really, really didn’t. I got caught up in the moment and when I realised that it would all go to hell I really did try to call in reinforcements and they came just in time. I know you’re worried, Roy, I really do but — shit , Roy, at least I’m still alive, right? I’ll still be here tomorrow and the day after that and — and in five months it’ll all be easier.”
Roy grabs Ed’s hand, vary of the needles and clutches it tightly against his chest, likely making Ed able to feel his frantic, pounding heartbeat. All the anger from a minute ago has seeped out of him, leaving him exhausted down to the bones. He wants to stay here all night, until after Edward has fallen asleep so that he can check and make sure that Ed is actually still alive and okay and that he won’t just slip away in the quiet hours of the morning like some of the madam’s girls had because they’d gotten ill and hid it until they had been beyond medical assistance.
Amélie, the Aerugonian one who’d only been with them for nine months when she had felt under the weather one night and gone to bed early, only to never rise from her bed again.
“Just—” Roy hesitates, breathes in, holds it and slowly lets it out again. He’s okay. He can do this. “Just do me one favour before we go back to professionalism. Stay safe, Edward. Five more months and you’ll be free. It’s not too far off. You don’t have to try to get so injured that you’ll be discharged on medical grounds. Stay safe for me instead and we’ll figure out all of this. Just, please , stay safe, Edward. Stay alive.”
He clears his throat and lets go of Ed’s hand to pull out a pen from his uniform pocket. “If you are able to write, I would much appreciate it if you could fill out as much of this paperwork as possible. It’s regarding your hospital stay and filling out these forms will ensure that the military pays it in full, plus compensation for any sick leave you may require after you get discharged.”
Roy stands and looks down at Ed — fights the urge to lean down and touch Ed’s cheek with the back of his hand. “I’ll have to go back to the office now, but I will be back tomorrow to collect the paperwork.”
He turns, takes a few steps towards the door. “Don’t forget that you should have Ms Rockbell take a look at your automail before you come back to work. Oh, and—”
He meets Ed’s yes, lets a gentle smile slip onto his features. “If you need anyone to talk to, I’m only a phone call away.”