Thicker Than Your Blood (Fullmetal Alchemist Reader Insert)

Chapter 8 ~ Meeting the Colonel

"Here goes nothin'," Edward muttered under his breath. Alphonse stayed at the hotel room, at least that's where he was when Edward left. Who knows? Maybe he decided to walk around. . . Or look for a stray cat or two.

Edward pushed open the two double doors in front of him, sighing in relief when he saw that the Colonel wasn't at his office. Beginning to turn back to the way he came, Edward gleefully sighed, "Looks like I don't have to talk to him after a-"

"Hey, Fullmetal."

"Ack!" Edward jumped back and saw Colonel Mustang walking around the corner smirking at Edward's surprise.

Colonel Mustang was a confident man who was around 5'8 (173 centimeters), respectively much taller than Edward; he was confident in nature, and, to Edward's annoyance, loved to pick on his youngest subordinate.

Trailing the Colonel by a few strides was Second lieutenant Hawkeye; she was hugging a large stack of papers to her chest.

Hawkeye was a little shorter than Mustang, her blonde hair was put into a bun that was held by a hair thing. She was often seen as cool and monotone making many people have a strong sense of respect towards her.

"You seem disappointed, Fullmetal. Is something wrong?" Mustang said in mock concern as he passed. Edward, who glared at his commanding officer, followed him into the office.

"What do you want from me this time, "Sir"? I'll have you know that I'm still working on the last errand that you didn't want to do," Edward replied showing little respect to the Colonel.

"That's right, you were working on the job in that small town on the outskirts of the country," Mustang recalled while getting comfy in his office chair.

"Did you even look over the report?" Edward was really getting annoyed with the Mustang's "I don't give a crap attitude". "To answer your question, yes, I am still working on that job you gave me."

"So, how is that going?" He asked, now suddenly serious and in command. The sudden change in his attitude caught Edward off guard.

"It's taking us longer than I thought it would," Edward paused as he briefly recalled you and your sister, "but it's going well I guess. Why are you suddenly so interested?" He asked.

"No need to act so suspicious, Ed." Mustang chortled, then returned to being more serious. "I just remember the report being a bit ironic, calling the military for help, not that I verbally questioned their logic," he explained. "And before you yell at me for giving you that- as you called it- errand, I thought you knew more about biology-related alchemy than I did, and the only other alchemist I could think of is neither under my wing, nor privileged with leisure time."

Edward was taken off-guard. He hadn't expected Colonel "Playboy" to have a legitimate excuse for not taking the job in the first place. "So why exactly did you want me to meet you in central?" he asked tentatively.

"As said previously, I am interested as to how it was going so far, considering how odd it seemed. I do also need some form of a progress report so that I can have all of my paper work in check." The sound of a tongue clicking in annoyance came from Hawkeye's desk, almost as if to point out Mustang's habit of pushing his paperwork on to his subordinates, specifically her. Mustang seemed to have either ignored or just didn't hear it based on the fact he didn't have a reaction to the sound and continued speaking. "What can you tell me about the sisters?"

"Well, the older sister, (Y/n), supports both herself and her sister. Her sister was born prematurely, thus being handicapped," Edward paused for a moment to think of what else to say. "The night Alphonse and I arrived, she explained that the reason she called the military for help was because she believed alchemy could help her sister live as a normal human. She believed that state alchemists could help. When we met (Y/n), she said that she knew some alchemy, but not to the point of risking her sister's safety."