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The scent of war is something Roy is well versed with. There are several that he is far too familiar with. The smell of death, decay, smoke, and gunpowder. The smell of distress, pain, anger, and grief. One he is particularly well versed in being the scent of rot that pups emitted when in pain or distress. It could only be drowned out by the scent of smoke and burnt flesh, back in Ishval. It was a scent he never wanted to smell again, yet, here he is. That stench of a distressed pup clings to every corner of the Tucker residence, and it's suffocating. It’s worse than all those nights stuck in the desert, watching flames crackle and burst as it turns the region to ruins. At least, the scent was buried or blown away in the wind, back then, but it’s inescapable here. The walls of the household keep it contained, the lack of windows in the office make it impossible to vent it out.
His instincts make him want to give chase and find the pup. He may have gone through with sterilization, but that doesn’t rid him of the instincts and urges as an Omega. It simply makes him unable to carry pups of his own. Nor does he need to have any pups, not when he already has two subordinates that he has to constantly keep himself from scenting. No, he has two pups of his own already, whether he wants to admit it or not. Whether the two boys realize it or not.
But, that’s what makes this scent all the worse. He had prayed it was Nina Tucker, Shou Tucker’s pup, but he knows better. The scent is too clean, it doesn’t bear any notes of her father’s. It’s just the sickening scent of rot, one he faced just over a year ago when he met the Elrics. The scent was Edward’s, and a feeling of dread pools in his stomach.
The pup in question wasn’t there when he arrived. Military Police said he had run off with an armored fellow, Alphonse, chasing after him. They managed to supply that the elder brother was going after some “beast”, as they called it. Roy can only imagine what exactly they meant by that, but considering Nina’s and the family’s dog’s absence, he has a few ideas.
Roy can only grimace as he puts the pieces together, staring at Shou Tucker’s bloodied form. The chimera’s… he merged people with animals. He merged his own daughter with their dog. He left two pups in this man’s care. He left his pups in this man’s care. Bile sits heavy in his throat as he tries to fight his urge to find Ed and Al. He needs to stay professional, especially in matters like this.
“You know, Colonel,” Tucker starts, a cruel smile on his face. Blood drips from his lip and his eyes struggle to focus on Mustang, his body shuttering in pain. “You can wear that poker face all you want, but it doesn’t mean anything when your pheromones leak nothing but anger and fear.”
His expression steels and his hand twitches. It takes every bit of strength to not light up the man beside him. Roy scowls, teeth bared, “I suggest you save whatever pathetic words you have for the MPs.” A chill runs down his back as he narrows his eyes and scowls at the man. The depraved alchemist only seems to smile, tauntingly, at him. The man sits there, beaten and bruised by Fullmetal, with a maniacal smile. It only makes Roy even more uneasy.
A trembling voice, one he didn’t even realize existed in his mind, asks if Tucker had done anything to his pups. He knows what the man did to his own mate and pup, god only knows what he did to the Elrics. The thought of those boys’ injuries makes his blood boil.
Was life not cruel enough to them, as it is?
“What’s wrong, Colonel? You wreak of distress, like a mother fretting over her pups,” Tucker chuckled.
Roy glowers, hand raised and ready to strike, “Watch your tone, Tucker. I have-”
“Colonel.” Lieutenant Hawkeye’s voice cuts through, steady and sharp. He can hear the safety on her sidearm click off. She takes a step between him and Tucker. “I suggest you go find Fullmetal and Alphonse. I worry about the trouble they’re bound to get in.”
“Yes, omega, go find your little pups. You don’t want them getting lost…” The word leaves his lips like a slur, and Roy finds himself snarling. The world has and will always be cruel to him, no matter how many stars and stripes he carries on his uniform, he knows this. But, like hell he’ll allow someone to use it as a means to demean him.
Though, he can’t even add anything before the firing of a gun pierces his ears. Mere inches from Tucker’s head, a bullet hole sits in the wall behind him. Lieutenant Hawkeye’s gun is raised and her hardened gaze is focused on him.
She takes a breath and the safety is back on, “I would watch what I say next. It would be a shame if the MPs were unable to properly interrogate you.” She’s shoved herself between the two men, pushing Roy behind her.
Roy takes this chance to step away, to follow the nauseating scent of rot. The faces of the children of Ishval haunt him, but the voice worrying over the brothers is deafening. With a shaky inhale, he finds his footing and a steady pace to track down the runaway pups.
The scent clings to every inch of the house as he makes his trek to the front door. Part of him wishes it was in part due to Alphonse’s distress, but he knows better. Alphonse has no scent of his own, he can’t release the scent of joy or fear. The scent of a pack won’t cling to him either. The boy can’t even let out a muted purr, and it’s all because of the metallic body his soul was bound to. Roy depended on honesty to understand Al’s emotions. He wishes it might even be from Nina, but he can’t guarantee it. Her body was used to create a chimera, a beast. There’s nothing to say it shares the same functions of a human.
No. He knows better.
That horrible, suffocating scent was all from Edward.
The scent is so strong, it hardly even dulls in the rain. Roy finds himself picking up on it and following its trail before he can even process it’s Edward. Part of him starts running on autopilot just so he doesn’t have to think too hard about how the events have unfolded.
A twelve-year-old and almost-eleven-year-old pup, finding out the man they thought they could trust, had turned his five-year-old pup into a chimera. The brothers were attached to Nina Tucker, she was a sister to them. They might not have ever said it to them, but Roy was no idiot. He saw how they adored her, he saw the way she clung to them and played with them. She was the first semblance of family the boys had found in a long while. The thought of them losing her so suddenly makes his stomach churn.
The pouring rain can’t drown out the sickening cry that meets his ears as he walks further down the road. It forces him to move faster, his steps becoming heavy and rushed as he makes a dash for where it came from.
Instincts slowly start to override reason. His heart aches at the sound. It repeats in his head, even if the cries of a grieving pup are now muted. Every bone in his body, every voice in his head, demands he finds and comforts whoever the cry came from. He’s losing his grip on the names of the boys, every “Ed” and “Al” being replaced with “My pups”.
The square breathing Madame Christmas taught him all those years ago are thrown to the wayside. He can’t seem to calm his nerves, he can’t ground himself. All he can think about is getting to his pups.
His crying, grieving, hurting pups.
The scent of rot is stronger as he nears an alleyway. It clings to everything and if he didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought it was from a dumpster. The way it’s just the scent of rot, he would’ve thought it was an actual decomposing body. But does, and he knows it’s the scent of an unclaimed, distressed pup. It’s the scent of Edward losing one more person that meant everything to him.
The metallic scent of iron fills his nose as he turns the corner and his blood runs cold. Iron. Blood. His mind immediately thinks the worst.
Deep, bold red is the first thing Roy notices, and it’s not Edward’s distinctive jacket. No. Somehow, the thoughts that were initially in his head, paled in comparison to what was actually awaiting him.
Blood, in the shape of what he can only imagine was once Nina, paints the wall of the alleyway. Rain causes it to run, pooling onto the ground and flowing towards the storm drains. The scent of blood and rot make it near impossible to hold the bile down.
Though, the loud, pleading cries pull Roy away from the blood. His head turns to the source and he can feel his chest tighten. The cries are loud, gutwrenching keens. The sound pups make to call out for family. The keens beg and beg, pleading for an answer they will never receive. A smaller chirp tries to comfort, to answer back, but it’s ignored. Roy knows it’s not the answer the pup is looking for.
His eyes meet the sight of Edward, letting out watery keens and reaching out desperately for what was once Nina Tucker. The boy shakes as he struggles against his brother’s grasp. He begs and pleads, in no doubt, for a response from Nina. All the while, Alphonse holds Ed tightly. Metal arms bind the small pre-teen to his chest, while teary chirps try to comfort him. Edward is lost to his grief, crying and letting out low whines as he begs for a girl who’s no longer there.
As if weighed down by cement blocks, Roy struggles to push forward and run to them. Instead, he barely trudges forward and drops to his knees beside the brothers. He lets out small chirps and croons, some poor attempt to comfort his weeping pup. His mind is fuzzy from the scent of distress and urge to comfort, and he finds himself letting out some deep purr as he tries to tug his pup into his arms.
He wants to cradle and nuzzle his pup. Tell him it’ll all be okay, that he’s here.
He once had fears of overstepping as his commanding officer. He was not the boys’ father, he wasn’t anything more than the man who roped them into the military. Lieutenant Hawkeye, Jean, and the rest of their ragtag team may let Roy scent them, especially when he nears his heat and develops the urge to claim everyone on his team, but he would never scent the boys. They had a mother and father, and while he can’t speak for the latter, he knows their mother loved them dearly. He can’t overstep and start claiming them as his.
But, that’s when his mind isn’t wracked with pheromones and instincts screaming at him to comfort his pups. His skin itches at the mere concept of keeping away from them in this moment. Right now, all he wants is to hold and rock his weeping pup. He wants him to know that he’s there, that he’s not alone.
And Edward lets out a strangled answer. A heartbreaking warble, an answer to his own croons. The first time he’s answered any of them. And he lets out another choked out warble to Alphonse, pressing his head to his chestplate and scraping his hand against him. He cries for Nina, he cries for Alphonse.
The sour smell of guilt pours off the pup and Roy holds him tighter. He nestles his head atop Ed’s, pressing the boy’s head into the crook of his neck and letting him sob into his shoulder. His pup, his precious pup, clings to him like a lifeline. His cries still call out for Nina, but they’re softer, muffled by Roy’s military blues. It’s snot-covered and he can feel it seep into his undershirt, but that doesn’t matter. The comfort of his pup matters above all else.
When he hears a quiet warble echo out from Al’s armor, Roy wraps an arm around him and rests his helm against his other shoulder. He answers it with a chirp of his own. Whether Al can feel the touch or not doesn’t matter to Roy. He wants to hold them both and comfort them.
His pups are hurting, they’re grieving. He failed to protect them from the pain, and now they’re forced to face another loss. But, he won’t make them face it alone.