Title: Confession
Fandom: Full Metal Alchemist
Theme: 1 – Trust
Characters: Roy Mustang, Alphonse Elric, Riza Hawkeye, Edward Elric
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1016
Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist or any of it’s characters, I am merely a fan with too much free time on her hands and indulges in this by writing fan fiction. No profit is being made besides that satisfying of my muses. ^_^
Summary: Roy pushes Edward’s buttons to try and uncover a confession.


Roy knew without even having to question the Full Metal Alchemist that the boy hated him like nothing else. The only reason he even did what he asked was because he had no choice in the matter. Time and time again Edward referred to his being ‘a dog of the military’ to explain things to Alphonse. It was Roy’s job that commanded he know every movement the two boys make, but Roy didn’t pay close attention to the actions of the boys just because he had to. He wanted to.

Roy wasn’t so dense as to think that Ed and Al had no idea how cruel the world could be. The two had been through too much to cling to any such claims. Ed had lost an arm and leg in failed human transmutation – though this price was lucky compared to Alphonse. The younger of the two brothers had lost his human body, no longer was he flesh and bone like any other human – he was a bodiless suit of armor. It was a small miracle that Alphonse had managed to cling to his innocence.

Roy kept such close attention to the actions of Edward and Alphonse because he had to protect them. They had already lost their mother and their father had disappeared off the face of this Earth. Without some adult influence Roy wondered what would become of the two of them.

He didn’t care if Edward and Alphonse hated him though.

- - -

Alphonse sat in a room down the hallway, awaiting Ed’s return from the Colonel’s office. Usually when he waited for his brother to return he would be alone in the room, however, today, seeing as Riza Hawkeye was waiting to speak to the Colonel he had company. He didn’t mind Riza’s company; she was always nice to him.

“WHO YOU CALLING SO SHORT THAT HE COULD GO SKATING ON AN ICE CUBE?” Edward’s hyper shouting came drifting from down the hallway; it was obvious that the Colonel was engaged in one of his favourite games of poking fun at Edward’s height, a sensitive spot for the Full Metal Alchemist.

Riza sighed, wishing inwardly that the Colonel wouldn’t purposefully go through such lengths to get a rise out of Edward; he’d already been through enough in his short-lived life…

After a few tense moments of waiting Edward came storming down the hallway, his face burning beet red and Alphonse was half expecting steam to come flowing out of his ears at any point in time. He was completely oblivious to Riza’s presence until she moved forwards, nodding toward the young man.

“The bastard’s all yours, Lieutenant.” He grumped, nodding in greeting before turning sharply to Alphonse, “Let’s get out of here.”

Alphonse didn’t need to be told twice, he knew better than to try and reason with his brother when he was upset.

- - -

Upon entering the office the Colonel occupied Riza was surprised to see the look of victory that filled his dark eyes. Then again, on second thought Roy was probably celebrating the fact he had gotten yet another rise out of Full Metal, or that he had somehow embarrassed the young boy. Riza wouldn’t put it past him.

“You shouldn’t push him so hard,” Riza advised.

Roy, unsurprisingly, was unfazed by the comment as he remained smiling and turned to give her his attention, “Now, Lieutenant that would ruin all my fun!” he half-heartedly protested.

“Sir, I fail to see what’s so fun about picking on the Full Metal.”

Roy simply shook his head, Riza wouldn’t believe him unless she had been present in the room during the routine report of the Full Metal Alchemist, either way there was no need to run around embarrassing the brat even more than he already had. It was simply enough to have the memory…

- - -

“You know Ed… I think you’ve gotten shorter…”

“WHO YOU CALLING SO SHORT THAT HE COULD GO SKATING ON AN ICE CUBE?”

“…Since the last time I saw you.” Roy simply continued, unfazed by the outburst, an arrogant smirk finding its place on his face.

“Yeah, yeah… get on with it!” Edward snapped.

“Now, is that any way to speak to your superior?” Roy chided the boy, “Don’t forget I know your secret and if it were to slip…” What Ed didn’t know was that Roy was purposefully pushing the Full Metal’s buttons, trying to get a rise out of him though more importantly trying to find out what the Full Metal really thought about him. It had been a question that had been plaguing the Colonel for some time now – though he wasn’t about to openly blurt that to the kid.

“You wouldn’t!” Ed snapped, there was something in his voice though Roy couldn’t quite uncover what it was.

“Don’t be so sure…”

“You wouldn’t!” Edward repeated, standing up, a hint of red spreading across his face, there was something definitely bothering him.

Roy smirked, “What makes you think that?”

Ed’s face reddened as he shot Roy a glare. “You may be a lousy, arrogant bastard…”

With Ed’s pause Roy felt the need to push the confession that was bubbling to the surface out. “But...?”

“I hate you!” Ed snapped, getting up and heading towards the door as fast as he could, however Roy stopped him before he could go.

“That’s hardly a secret, Full Metal. Now what were you really going to say?” He smirked as Ed didn’t turn to face him, his hand still frozen, reaching for the door. For a brief second Roy doubted the boy would speak, he began to believe that Ed was going to leave without saying anything else to the Colonel.

“I hate you but… I… know you wouldn’t expose Al. You wouldn’t let him become a test subject.” Edward finally admitted. He didn’t use the actual word, but he didn’t need to. He had just admitted to trusting the Colonel with his most precious secret.

Ed didn’t stick around to let Roy tease him any further, though to Roy it didn’t matter.