Descent

Chapter Eleven

Sorry, short chapter. But I promised a certain someone that it'd be published tonight, so it's gonna be. Promise the next one will be longer, but, in the mean time, HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEEEE! :D

~Kala~

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Throughout the rest of that week, Roy watched Edward intently. Watched every move he made, every person he talked to. He noticed that as the week progressed and the day of the move drew nearer, the boy became increasingly nervous and jumpy. He flinched at every single touch, every spoken word he hadn't been expecting. Often Mustang watched him shake and shiver, and he knew what Ed was thinking about each time he did. It gave Mustang a kind of twisted pleasure to know that it was because of him that Edward was keeping himself locked away, where the only person with the key to the lock was Mustang. Another thing he noticed was that whenever Edward had any kind of spare time, whenever he had finished his work, he would request to do downstairs to the firing range, to practice his aim with the handgun. And while Mustang didn't like the idea of the boy being capable of defending himself against Mustang's attacks, he also didn't want him to die at the hands of someone else. Ed was still his most prized officer, and he was unwilling to lose him.

The night before Edward moved into Roy's house, Winry left for Rush Valley. Mustang had watched intently as tears flowed down both of their faces, down Edward's sparkling golden eyes, and from Winry's own blue ones, left eye clear and twinkling, right eye murky and unseeing. Since being burned Winry had had her hair cut properly, so now her bangs were even, and the once flowing long locks that ran down her back were trimmed to just below her ears. Mustang had seen pictures, and knew this was exactly what her hair had looked like when she was a child. Mustang remembered Edward's words to that Mr Garfiel that Winry was going to live with six days before. 'There was an accident a weeks ago and, well...Winry looks a bit different. Try not to bring anything about her appearance up unless she does, please. She's rather sensitive about it.' Roy liked Winry, and he hoped that Mr Garfiel and all Winry's friends in Rush Valley would follow Ed's advice, for her sake.

After they had said their goodbyes and Winry had boarded the train, Mustang had escorted Edward back to his former house (Which Winry had already sold; the new owners would be moving in in a few days time) to retrieve his already packed belongings. He helped Ed load them into the car, and Edward had given one last, longing look at the house before clambering nervously into the backseat of Roy's car. It had bothered Roy that he hadn't sat in the front, but, considering the way he had been treating the boy, it was of no surprise. He could hardly blame him for wanting to avoid pain.

There would be plenty of that later.

Mustang sighed as he pulled the car to a stop beside his house. He got out and opened the boot of the car, pulling out Ed's trunk and allowing Ed to carry the rest of his possessions. He saw that he was shaking terribly, so that he almost dropped the stack of books he was carrying as they walked to Mustang's front door. Roy unlocked the door and showed Edward inside. His house wasn't too remarkable, considering he was a general, a mere one rank below the Fuhrer. It was a simple two story building, with a conjoined kitchen, living and dining room, separated only by a few couches. The downstairs bathroom sat next to the laundry room, which was opposite the kitchen end of the first floor. Above were three bedrooms, his own, opposite that was where Riza always slept when she visited, and beside his own was what used to be the guest room, but would now play host to Edward. Next to Riza's bedroom to the left was the upstairs bathroom, and to the right of Edward's room (which was the smallest) was a small cupboard where Roy kept towels, bed sheets and pillowcases. He showed Edward all of this, neglecting to mention the medicine cabinet and first aid kit in the upstairs bathroom, which Edward would not be permitted to use. While Edward unpacked his things, Roy went downstairs to cook dinner; stir-fried broccoli, cauliflower, beans and tomato, with baked potato and lettuce. Roy didn't eat meat; he hated the smell of burning flesh, it made him sick, didn't make a difference to him whether it was human or not. The stir-fry didn't take long; five minutes to prepare and two and a half minutes to cook. He poured it all into a glass bowl and put the lid over the top so the food would stay hot, and set to work on the baked potato. While he waited he took the lettuce out of the refrigerator and pulled pieces off, dividing them into equal amounts and putting them onto two plates. When the potatoes were finished he smeared them in butter and did the same thing, dividing them equally and separating them onto the two plates, then repeated the process with the stir-fry. He called out for Edward to come down for dinner and grabbed two knives and two forks from the cutlery drawer, placing them on the dining table beside the plates, which sat opposite each other. Then, not bothering to wait for Edward, he pulled out a chair, sat down and dug in. That night, before he went to bed, he would have to drink down a tablet to make up for the lack of iron in his meals, just as he always had since the war in Ishval.