Pills and Buttons

Pain Pills

Roy hopped out of the black town car, slamming the door shut and hearing Riza pull away he stepped into the hospital with a lacked confidence. His footsteps were solid, keeping his pounding heart in his chest. He had been missing for five years, and he decided to return home. In one piece? Armstrong didn't say. Alphonse was waiting there, his blue honey eyes catching sight of the Colonel marching towards him. "Colonel! They won't let me in. I don't know why and I could hear him-." Al shut up when Mustang finally stood directly in front of him. "He looked dead, sir... It scared me." Roy set a hand on Al's shoulder, squeezing lightly.

"Let me talk to him a moment and then you can see him. I just wanna know where he has been for a few years." Roy's smirk seemed out of place and a bit mocking, but he was just joking a bit. Mustang shed his coat, placing it beside Riza who had come in to sit behind him silently. She had brought a book and was reading it, the Colonel's boots clicking as he stepped closer to the door with two guards. Recognizing their superior, they salute and open the door for him.

Inside, a blonde piece of gelled hair stuck up above the blankets and brought a snort to Roy's lips. He kept it down, watching Edward Elric for a mere moment. He was asleep, maybe sedated, but he looked near death. Armstrong was in a chair beside the poor now 19 year olds bed, just writing up his report. A good soldier. Ed's face was still the same, if not a bit more grown up. Bandages entrapped his forehead, fitting his bangs over the top. A few stitches held his bottom lip shut and a few more closed up the back of his left hand. His hands and arms were decorated in thick scar tissue and fresh wounds, his black shirt ripped up and hanging limply from his body. A ring pierced his cartilage like a deer tag, infection enflaming the area red. A nurse's heels clicked to a stop behind him.

"We had to sedate him. He refused to let us touch him. Even Mr Armstrong couldn't come in contact with him." Roy turned around and faced the man. His eyes were a dark green, his skin a tanned sun color. He had a tattoo running the side of his neck of the spinal column and his veins. His name tag read David, and his hair hung all to one side. The other was shaved.

"He was scared, most likely. I hardly blame him." Mustang turns back to the boy, watching his eyelids flutter in his unnatural sleep. "Missing five years and being held somewhere does something to a person."

"Mr Elric had this in his pocket," a pocket watch dangled between the man's fingers and Mustang snatched it away, "and this." He also held up a photograph, the familiar black hair and eyes causing him to smile. Only Ed would keep his picture around. Probably reminded him of the game of chess they had to finish. Fullmetal was a stubborn bastard that liked to be right.

"Give these to Miss Hawkeye outside. She has blonde hair." Roy threw the pocket watch back at the nurse, whom swiftly caught it.

"Oh, there was a second who came with him. She was out cold when she got here." He pointed one door over, a plastic bag hanging on the handle, before disappearing. Mustang turns back towards Edward, the Major just finishing his report.

"Where was he?" The Colonel stepped closer, placing a hand on the back of Alex's chair.

"An empty basement surrounded by human bodies and a mad scientist who was trying to transmutate his daughter back from the dead and embalm him alive." He couldn't even look at Edward, let alone Mustang as he stood and saluted before leaving the 35 year old to watch over Edward.

"I told you to stop looking Fullmetal. Don't try to stop them all." He had a cheap smirk on his face as he traced his gaze over the boy's battered body. He smelt of iron and rotting flesh, his hair drenched in sweat and blood. His eyes were scrunched in his sleep, probably with a nightmare. Waking him wouldn't help, Mustang learned that the hard way a while back. His automail was still in one piece but not all of it was there as he could see. Winry would be contacted in the morning for repair. "People are just lonely."

"Mr Mustang?" Alphonse gulped as he saw his pale and death stricken brother. "Is he awake?"

Mustang stood, running a hand through his black hair roughly. "No. Call me when he is and his statement will be taken. Keep him calm. Make sure he doesn't hurt himself." Al nods, bidding good-bye to the military man as he walked to his Lieutenant's side. She was glancing at the inside of Ed's watch, of which the front had been broken off the hinges. "Do you have the Major's statement?" She looked up at Roy with a soft set of eyes.

"Yes sir. Ready to leave?" Roy dared a glance behind him at the door that once had a plastic bag on its handle.

"Yeah." He turned towards said door. "In a minute."