The Butterfly and Flame Alchemists: War (COMPLETE)

Part One: Beginning Flames of War

            “Is that so? Sounds like things are getting out of hand up North,” Roy Mustang said as he leaned against his car.

            “Indeed,” the petite florist said as she wrapped another bouquet of flowers, “they could use and offensive lead about now. The Fort Briggs strong suit is defense, but you need more than defense if you want to be the one who makes the first strike. With the offensive expertise of your Eastern forces, Madam Olivier believes they have a chance,”

            “I’m honored that she would choose me as her partner in arms,”

            “Oh, no,” she laughed lightly, “Madam Olivier needs the strength of your army, not you. She said you might as well just get lost,”

            “Uh huh,” he shook his head, then narrowed his eyes, “I have to ask: it’s kind of risky telling me this, what’s stopping me from telling Führer Bradley?”

            “Well, you are. She assured me that you weren’t that kind of man,” she turned around and smiled at him, “Well then, that’ll be 35000 Cenz please,”

            “I appreciate it,” he returned her smiled, handing her the money.

            “Oh,” she stopped, taking the money but not yet leaving, “I have one more message from Madam Olivier that she says is from Edward Elric,”

Mustang stiffened slightly.

            “He says, ‘get them out of the country’. She says he wasn’t specific who needed to leave, but he said that you would know,”

            “Yea,” he closed his eyes, “I know who he’s talking about,”

            “If it’s as bad as he’s making it out to be, I would do it sooner rather than later,” she began to leave, walking down the street at a slow pace.

            “Hey wait!” Mustang called after her, “Who are you?”

            “Oh just someone who has served the Armstrong family for generations,” she turned as smiled at him, glistening a bit like most Armstrong family members did.

Chuckling, he leaned back against his car.

            “Well Hughes, it’s safe to say that our closest Allies they invariably turn out to be the same people we fought side by side with out on the battle field. But,” he frowned, “what do I do with these flowers?”

He could hear the people around him whispering, some snickering. Frantically shoving the flowers into the back of the car, he kept out four bouquets and placed them on his passenger seat. Two would be given to women he hoped he could gather more information from and the last two would be given to two special women in his life. Smiling slightly, he pulled away from the curb and onto the main road towards home.

Since he had reconnected with Aileana a year ago, news of a new war had begun to spread amongst his Allies and he had been separated from most of them. Hawkeye was now working under the Fuhrer while the rest of his troops had been sent to the far corners of the country.

Parking just outside his house, he looked up at it. The room on the second floor was light by a soft light. It was most likely Aileana waiting up for him to get home. Recently she had been acting odd, as if she could sense just how much evil was pulsing through Central. Though the situation was dire, he made it an effort to not tell her what exactly was going on. They didn’t have all the pieces and he didn’t want to cause her any more panic than she needed. Holding two bouquets in his hands, he climbed out of the car and entered the house quietly.