Somewhat Human (Fullmetal Alchemist)

10: For a Child's Smile

They get off the train and Edward grumbles as Mustang approaches them, naturally, Hawkeye was at his side, "Hey you three." Alphonse and (Y/n) were the only ones who returned Mustang's greeting. Edward scratches his head clearly upset with the idea of helping Mustang, "As cold as usual Fullmetal." Mustang remarks, he looks at Edward's arm and points, "I see you haven't restored yourselves."

Edward clenches his automail into fist and looks at Alphonse and (Y/n) who were happily chatting with Hawkeye, " We searched everything, no luck. We're going to head off to East City, but we haven't found anything that will work."

Mustang hums and looks into the distance, " I've heard the rumors, you all got quite busy down there." Edward winces and folds his arms, "Forever the gossip aren't you Colonel."

The maybe untrue jab has Mustang raise an eyebrow at Edward, " It's not my fault you make such a show out of it." Edward sighs but before he could say anything the leader of those who took over the train revealed a hidden knife and cuts through his cuffs, " Colonel, please stay ba-" Mustang stops Hawkeye and smirks while fixing his glove, " This should be fine." With that Mustang walks up to the leader with an ungodly amount of finesse.

When Mustang approaches the leader he snaps fingers and a huge fire explosion comes out, the leader is easily overwhelmed and the subordinates in the area chain him up once again, "Who are you?" Mustang lightly chuckles as he looks at the leader below him, "Roy Mustang, rank, Colonel. More importantly, I'm the Flame Alchemist, do your best to remember that name."

(Y/n) walks next to Edward and whispers in his ear, " Do we just introduce ourselves really lamely or was Mustang's introduction just really cool?" Edward frowns and harshly whispers back, " I don't want to hear the Colonel's name and the adjective cool in the same sentence, ever." (Y/n) stifles back a laugh and Mustangs turns to face them.

" I heard that." Edward waves him off, "Not my problem." Mustang sighs and folds his arms, "Anyways, I'm sure you three have words for me. Follow me to my office." The three of them look at each other before following the Colonel, Hawkeye softly laughing at how they interact with their eyes before joining them.

=TIME SKIP=

" We exposed corruption twice, and took back the train, don't you say we deserve a reward?" (Y/n) asks innocently, Edward smirks resting his hand on his cheek, "You owe us big time Colonel!" Unlike the other two, Alphonse doesn't push Mustang for a favor, maybe out of respect or because Edward and (Y/n) were already doing it for him.

Mustang sends them a tense smile, "Something about being your debt disturbs me... Alright, what do you kids want?" Edward is the first to jump on the opportunity, " Can you show us a library or alchemist that knows a thing or two about biological transmutation?"

" Right now? How impatient Fullmetal." Mustang walks up to go grab a file from a shelf reviewing it before telling its contents to the three of them, " Shou Tucker the Sewing Life Alchemist, he's the guy you're looking for. He specializes in bio-alchemy, he even made a talking chimera." The three of them look at each other surprised and Edward asks for the group.

" A chimera that can talk to humans?" Mustang nods, " Yeah, I wasn't in charge at the time so I didn't see it, but there is one thing I do know about it." Mustang looks at the three of them, their innocently curious gazes making him take a breath before continuing, " The chimera only said one thing... I want to die."

Mustang watches their gazes turn into shock and how they all scoot closer to each other, "Afterwards it refused to eat and died." (Y/n) already had a bad impression of Tucker and doesn't particularly want to meet him, " Can you take us to him?" Edward asks and (Y/n) mentally slumps over but she knows she's accusing Tucker of something out of nothing.