So this one-shot could be seen as a kind of prequel to my other fic "Struggling to Breathe" or just as a parental one-shot all on its own. I got some inspiration from reading Little Minamino's The Ties That Bind, and I highly recommend that you guys check that out!

I hope that you people will enjoy this little one-shot of mine.

"You ready, Colonel Mustang?" Doctor Marcoh asked.

"Yes."

Roy could hear alchemic crackling. Then he could see it. He could see the red lightning. His five days of darkness were over. The blurs were becoming clearer, turning into people and a window and curtains and books. He looked over at the rest of them.

"How do you feel?" Doctor Marcoh asked, looking worried. Roy had to say that he had never imagined him to look like that, not even with the knowledge that Scar destroyed the outer layers of the skin in his face.

Then Roy looked over at his Lieutenant. She still had a bandage on her throat, but she was doing good, and she was smiling. They all were.

"I feel good, Doctor Marcoh, thank you."

"It's my pleasure." The man looked grateful for having been able to do this.

"So what do you want to do now, sir?" Hawkeye asked him.

"First of all, I want to check on my subordinate. Unlike the rest of you, I've yet to see the Elrics with their bodies back."

And so Roy swung his legs over the edge of the bed, marvelling at being able to see them. For once his Lieutenant didn't follow him, she understood that this was something that he wanted to do alone.

Roy hadn't told the kid about getting his vision back. Havoc was still going to need some physiotherapy sessions to actually teach his nerves to listen again, but the connection was back. Jean Havoc would walk again.

Roy had actually been kind of avoiding the Elrics ever since he became blind. Even though they were only one floor above him, he hadn't said a word to them because he was afraid of how much it would hurt to hear the boys speaking, maybe even shake their hands, but not be able to see how they were.

And so he had waited for two days where he wasn't allowed to leave his hospital room anyway, and then Doctor Knox had come, and so he decided to wait until he could actually see them.

But now, now he was allowed to go wherever he wanted inside the hospital. And so he went over to the sign for the stairs. He had to say, he had never been so thrilled to use a staircase. It was funny, he had never really appreciated what being able to see did for your movements. He loved seeing his hospital slippers move forwards. He marvelled at the crack in the wall.

Then he found himself inside a hallway and looking at the reception desk. He walked forwards and over to a pretty blonde behind the desk who smiled up at him.

"Hello, sir, what can I help you with?"

"I would like to see the Elric brothers, they were admitted five days ago?"

"Are you a relative? Because visiting hours are not before five o'clock."

"I'm Colonel Roy Mustang, I am Edward Elric's Commanding Officer."

"Oh, I see, sir, then I'm sure we can make an exception for you." She smiled widely at him, definitely flirting. Right now, however, Roy didn't care. "Let me see, they're in room 357."

"Thank you."

And so Roy felt a bit odd. Should he have visited them earlier? By only showing up now, was he basically saying to the boys that he didn't have them among his priorities? Were they both hurt and angry with him because he hadn't been to see them once since they were admitted? Everyone else had after all and he'd made sure that Hawkeye gave him daily reports on their condition. But they didn't know that.

All too soon and not quickly enough he found himself outside their room. What was he supposed to say? He knew that Fullmetal was planning to retire. In a way he was happy about that because it meant that he could have a non-militaristic relationship with the boys. His five days of darkness had left him with a lot to think about. He still remembered the fear when Hawkeye told him that Alphonse still hadn't come back from the other side. And then he had been taken away on a stretcher right after learning that the brothers were safe. He hadn't even said hello to Alphonse yet.

His heart was pumping, his palms sweating and he could practically hear Hughes laughing at him from beyond the grave.

Just when did I start to care about those boys?

Well, it had been a while ago, he guessed. He didn't know.

He knew that he had never been scared before that the kid would think badly of him. But he knew that he had been a bit of a coward, afraid of meeting the brothers because it would have meant that his blindness was permanent. Because Roy had been looking forward to the day that he would see those boys back in their original bodies and had been thoroughly disappointed that he lost his sight before he could do so.

Okay, you see, Roy? You avoided them because it would mean that you were blind for the rest of your life, that's all.

And so Roy knocked twice before opening the door.

Immediately his eyes fell upon the malnourished form of Alphonse Elric. His hair had obviously been cut since yesterday because it only reached his ears now, although it didn't have a particular style yet.

Roy had half a speech planned by now, but upon looking at the young boy on the bed, he couldn't get a single word to form in his mind. That was the boy that had lived as a suit of armour for five years.

And Roy had to say that he kind of hadn't imagined that Alphonse would look so human. So small. So sweet. His face may be sticking to his bones, his skin may be grey, but the eyes ... The eyes were shining with the kindness that Roy had come to associate with Al's soul. But then weren't the eyes a mirror into the soul? It was something the Madame had told him when he was little and he had to say that he couldn't remember it word for word.

Before Roy knew what he was doing, he was striding forwards and ruffling Al's hair, absolutely astounded by the fact that Alphonse was breathing again, sitting there, his eyes so bright.

Then next second he was being tackled to the ground and pinned to the floor, a hand clasping his throat. "You bastard! What the hell did you do?! What the hell did you pay now?!"

Edward Elric was suddenly pressing his fingers against his stomach, probably checking for missing organs.

"You're probably going to hit me, but Doctor Marcoh healed me with a Stone."

The boy seemed to freeze. The he pulled his left fist back and punched Roy in the face. "OF COURSE I'LL HIT YOU! WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT?!"

"Because I'm going to use my sight so that I can stay in the military and work to restore Ishbal."

That earned him another punch, although not as hard as the first. "You bastard! Of course you just had to be noble so that I can't even be angry with you!"

Roy then realised something and grabbed the boy's right wrist that was tightened around his throat. "That's your arm. You've got your arm."

The boy looked confused. "Yeah, but you already knew that."

Roy looked all the way up to the boy's shoulder. It was a lot thinner than its muscular counterpart, but it was there.

And so Roy stretched out his left arm and put it on his shoulder, pulling the boy into a hug.

"Uh, Colonel?" Ed asked, confused, pressed against Roy's chest.

"I'm so happy for you."

Riza came to the hospital room three hours later to find three people asleep in Alphonse's hospital bed. The Colonel in the middle, holding his arms around both boys, a smile on his face.