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Ed was at his wits end. It was raining, which meant his automail stumps were aching. He forgot an umbrella, so he was soaking wet. And, to top it all off, that stupid Colonel had decided that he needed Ed to write a mission report on a minor mission he and Al had gone on. It wasn’t even that important! Just investigating an alchemist, nothing even happened! None the less he had written the report, though he had used some rather, ahem… colorful language. Now he just had to deliver it, then he could go and collapse on a bed. Or on a bench maybe. Depended on his mood.
After a while of walking (limping) through that stupid rain, he slammed open the door to the building the Colonel was in. He got some stares, probably because he looked like a small, angry, wet rat. But he paid them no mind, and dripping water, he stomped (or at least tried to, it was difficult to stomp when you couldn’t even walk properly) over to the Colonels office.
Roy was having a terrible day. It was raining, for starters. Fullmetal hadn’t turned in his report yet. And Hawkeye was prodding him about finishing his paperwork. He hated paperwork. Especially on rainy days. He had been checking the time often today, counting down the hours until he was free. He could go home, and not do paperwork or look at the rain. He had almost forgotten about Fullmetal until he threw open the door, soaked to the bone in rain water. He pulled out a paper from his jacket and slammed it down on the table.
“There you go.”
“What’s up with you Fullmetal, you looked like a rather small drowned rat.”
“I’m not that small.”
“If you were any smaller, Fullmetal, you’d fade out of existence.”
Edward was having none of this and simply glared back. He started heading toward the door again to leave. But his leg locked up and he tripped, face planting on the floor. Roy stood up and walked over to him.
“What’s up with you?” He asked again.
“It’s raining.”
“So?”
“Why do you care?”
“I’d simply like to know why my subordinate just fell on the floor, and is just laying there.”
“My automail stumps are sore.”
“Oh.”
With that, Ed tried to stand again, only to almost fall. He grabbed the wall to steady himself. If only Al were there. He could help him walk out of this stupid office. Of course, he was studying at the library. It figured.
“Do you want me to call someone?”
Well, that surprised Ed. The Colonel? Offering him help? Unheard of. Nonetheless, he probably shouldn’t decline. He definitely couldn’t get home like this.
“Al. He’s at the library.”
With that Roy left Ed sitting on the floor, and went over the phone.
After making the call, he walked back over to Ed.
“He’s on his way.” Said Roy, “do you want to sit on the couch?” Without waiting for answer he went to help Ed.
“I can get over there on my own.”
“I’m sure you can, but I’m expecting some other reports, and it’s not exactly the best to have you laying on the floor in front of the door.”
Ed sighed, but allowed Roy to help him over to the couch. After sitting down, Roy went back to his desk. They sat in silence for a few minutes until Riza walked in. She glanced at Ed, giving him a look of pity, then walked over to Roy and sat another stack of papers on his desk. Roy groaned in response.
“Guess you’ll be staying late, Colonel.”
Roy glared at her and went back to signing papers. Riza then walked over to Ed and passed him a blanket, (Ed briefly wondered where she got it from, but decided he should just take it.) He accepted it with a nod of thank you, and with that, she left. The silence between Ed and Roy continued.
Ed must have fallen asleep on the couch, because the next thing he awoke to was the clank of Al’s armor.
“Did I wake you? Sorry brother.”
Ed grumbled an “ ‘s okay” in response and promptly fell back asleep. Al sighed and picked him up.
“Thank you, Colonel.” He said
Roy nodded at him and Al went to leave.
“He said he was sore.” Called the colonel.
Al turned around, “once he gets in bed, he’ll hopefully be fine.” Al then left, leaving Roy alone with two large stacks of paper. Roy wouldn’t admit it, but he felt sort of bad for the kid. He made a mental note not to ask for reports (or anything that could wait, for that matter) on rainy days.