Pills and Buttons

Mental Box

No! No more! I just wanna go home... I want my brother, I want Winry and Riza and Den and Hayate and... I want Roy. As much of a bastard as he is...

"I just wonder what he's thinking." I can hear you, can't you hear me? "Do you think he imagines Winry in her underwear?" Not Winry...

"You disgust me, sir." Riza! Please, I can't see. I can't speak!

"I'm offended, Riza. But Winry is here to repair Ed's automail." I hear him stand, his boots clicking on the floor. Don't leave... please Roy.

I miss you.

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Winry pushes open the door, spying Alphonse still asleep and Roy talking quietly to Riza. "Hello Hawkeye, Colonel. How are you?"

"Sleeping better knowing Fullmetal is back and safe." Riza smiled, giving Winry a tight hug for a few moments. "What about you?" Riza was back in her uniform, her blue jacket hanging tied around her waist and a black, short sleeved turtleneck hugged her frame.

"Worried sick about what that bastard did to him." She smirked, her large blue eyes turning to Ed. She wore a short white skirt, the hem of her black button down reaching the top of it. "But that's not my job." Winry settled her toolbox onto the table provided for her, stopping when she heard talking.

"I hear this Rockbell chick's pretty good." A man with several tattoos spiralling his arms was talking to the girl Winry had been told was Luna. She caught her eye, which was emerald green.

"She's here now." Luna heads closer, her hips not swishing as much as the average female would. Her one side was more curved as well, and her skin sleeve was off.

"Did you get what you needed?" Roy asked when she entered the room. Luna nodded, placing her hands in the front pockets of her ripped black jeans. She smirked, not taking her eyes from Winry. "You're welcome." Mustang rolled his eyes, stripping his jacket and tossing it to the chair.

"Thank you. You must be Winry. He could describe well under distress." One of Winry's eyes twitches. "I had to keep him talking. He told me everything about himself, about what all of you looked like." She ducked a swinging wrench, kicking it out of Winry's hands and into the palms of her personal mechanic. "That's not nice of you."

"You aided that monster! I should at least get a knock of my own in!" She was fuming mad, arms crossed over her chest. Riza had stepped between the girls, giving Luna a pointed look. "How did you do it? How did you break him?"

"I didn't. I didn't touch him. I was my father's pawn for years, mixing moot chemicals to buy him some time. Time is precious, especially when you're being embalmed alive." She stood, turning away from Winry's horrified eyes. "And the only reason I came in here was to talk automail." Luna shook Roy's hand. "Thanks for showing more hospitality." She saluted and left, the mute mechanic following.

"She's not that bad." Alphonse spoke up, the yelling have been what woke him. His blonde hair was a mess and his cheeks were red from crying. "She was really nice to me last night."

"She doesn't work under me, hell I've never heard of her." Roy ran a hand down his face, biting his thumb.

"She isn't our problem, her father is and so is Ed. Now, do what you were called here to do." Riza snapped, her eyea narrowing to look at Winry. She scurried about, picking up different pieces and laying them out on the table. Alphonse stood, inching over to quietly talk to her. Hawkeye took post outside, relieving the two guards that were out there. Mustang just say in that stupid felt covered chair, staring at Fullemtal's closed honey eyes. Five years, give or take, with a chemist and her father. Nearly embalmed. God, you do wonders on the mind huh? He let out a strangled laugh, clenching his jaw to keep his voice from cracking. The Crescent Alchemist left her report with Riza, hightailed it out of the hospital and disappeared somewhere. The Lieutenant brought Colonel Mustang the pages, flipping through it silently.

23) Formaldehyde
24) Store bought Grade C embalming fluid
25)...

Grade C was pretty poor quality. It doesn't thicken the veins like it should. She knew what she was doing. There was an on going list of about 70 chemicals but Roy didn't bother reading those. He jist watched Winry's fingers work and tighten different parts on the automail limb in her possession. His leg was in one piece, thank gosh, and the major damage was internal. No one likes a bruised corpse.

==========

Roy must have fallen asleep in the extremely uncomfortable chair because the stars are just beginning to peek out from behind several patches of clouds. Winry had packed up and left by that time and Al must have gone with someone to go get something to eat. Ed was still half asleep, half comatosed on the bed, his soft hair like strands of pure gold in the moonlight. His forehead was wrapped in bandages like his arm and shoulder, the nurses having replaced his black shirt with the scrubs patients usually wore. His one eye fluttered open, followed by him shutting it tightly again.

"No- m, ore." His voice cracked and stuttered, shaking his head back and forth. He mustn't have noticed Mustang in his little corner of solitude.

"Edward, it's okay. You're not there. You're back in the South End." Gold eyes flashed and found Onyx ones, refusing to relax.

"You wanna, k-know something?" Ed's face suddenly split into a wicked smile. And it looked insane.

"What should I know Fullmetal?" He leaned forward, standing and moving closer to the bed.

"You may have taken my sight, my ability to walk, and my sense of smell, but you will pay Meyer!" Edward grabbed at Mustang's collar, attempting to choke him. Roy pulled his surprisingly weak hands off, keeping his wrists in his hands.

"You are not in that basement Ed! You're here with me and Hawkeye and Alphonse and Winry and all of us." Ed's eyes soften, his bottom lip starting its quivering.

"R-roy?" Ed felt his heart drop to his stomach. Roy had sounded like Shou, but up close... he wasn't him at all. He had just tried to choke his friend.

"I'm here, Edward." Roy chanced it and let go of Ed's wrists, cupping his cheek with a dove's feath touch. The blonde still flinched. "No one is going to hurt you again. Not as long as I'm alive."