Yay! One-shot time because of inspiration from a midnight migraine!

And as always, I don't own FMA.

And I hope that you people will enjoy this!

Roy had burned all those bastards to hell and then some. He hadn't thought about it, he'd just acted. He could hear the building collapsing behind him as the structures were weakened to the point where they gave out. The sounds of the raging flames eating away at the supports and everything flammable in the abandoned factory. All the evidence of what those bastards had been up to was being burned beyond recognition and the cause of the fire would be written off as an accident, most likely due to the old electrical system combined with the old fuel tanks.

Only Roy and the shivering bundle in his arms knew better.

The nightmare had only begun two hours ago, but it felt more like ten years.

All because of that damned mission in this damned town.

And it had all been a sick experiment and little else. Five bastards who all wanted to make sure. To see for some sick form of entertainment.

Which was why he'd started with melting their eyeballs.

Roy heard the sound of an explosion and felt the wave of heat brush against the back of his head, but he kept walking, only looking at the precious cargo in his arms as well as he walked towards the safety of the dark forest ahead of him that was hiding his car.

The boy shifted slightly with a grunt. "M'cold."

"I know, kid, but we'll be back soon."

"Stole m'arm, y'know," Edward mumbled. "An' m'leg too."

"I know, Edward, but I've got them. You'll be all right."

"An' mah 'pendix."

Roy felt a shiver going down his spine and anger surge through him once again at the reminder. There was no way he'd ever forget that. Falling asleep after carrying the sleeping boy into his room and tucking him in, figuring that it had merely been a long week and that Ed was tired as he gently fell asleep on the couch and slid sideways so that he ended up resting against Roy's shoulder. Roy knew he was a heavy sleeper and hadn't really had the heart to wake him up as he knew for a fact that the previous nights had been plagued by violent nightmares and sheets drenched in sweat.

It was all such a boring and unimportant mission. All they did was take phones and study dirt samples and they'd been doing so for a week.

And would keep doing so for another three months all because the Führer decided that they needed to learn a lesson in patience. And it was all just because they'd destroyed a few buildings to get at one of the most cruel and disturbing serial killers Roy would ever meet, even if the serial killer was the alchemist who had seriously weakened the structures in the first place and for once the kid wasn't actually at fault for them collapsing and nobody had been injured or killed because they'd cordoned off the area in advance.

But apparently levelling a brand new stadium and the adjoining hotel for over a billion cens in total to the ground was seen as a "display of appallingly poor judgement leading to rash decisions and their actions brought shame over the military."

So they spent their days at their flat, receiving daily loads of hundreds of equally uninteresting samples of dirt as this godforsaken little border community may have some valuable minerals that were nearly indistinguishable from regular dirt to the common man, but would be identifiable to the trained eye of a State Alchemist.

Which meant that Roy was seriously contemplating murdering the Führer by force-feeding him said dirt just to get a small sense of vengeful satisfaction.

And Al was of course not allowed to join them either because this was a very important mission that required an intense amount of concentration, which meant that little brothers were considered "distractions".

Meaning that Roy was also falling into the role of companion and guardian to the increasingly edgy fourteen-year-old.

…But he wasn't really complaining about that part.

Then came last night. In hindsight, it was very clear to him that the pizza delivery man was one of the charred corpses he was currently walking away from and that it had not just been a long day but an extra dose of special "spices" that had made them so tired.

Roy had still been tired when he woke up because of the sound of someone knocking on the flat door and Roy had sleepily opened the door, watched as the delivery man placed the cardboard boxes inside the flat, thanked him sluggishly and then closed the door and gone back to bed, his body still too drugged to actually think much.

Roy had kept sleeping for another six hours before he was woken up by a curious smell. He had walked over to the cardboard box that was undoubtedly the culprit and had gagged at the sight as his stomach clenched with horror.

It had not contained dirt, but two very familiar automail limbs and a plastic bag with what was undoubtedly someone's appendix wrapped up in in a bright red ribbon. Then there was the note taped to the plastic box…

Seems like we found your little pressure point, didn't we, Mustang? Hope you're liking our gift box, Edward was practically screaming with excitement as we prepared it… Nearly passed out in fact at this second one, but the boy's got stamina and pulled through…

Roy had opened the plastic box with increasing dread and then thrown up as he realised what was lying inside.

"Stole m'kidney too… kept sayn' one's 'nuff," Ed continued sluggishly. "Kept lafn' at muh…"

Roy hugged the boy even tighter. "They had no reason to laugh, Ed. You were being incredibly brave and strong and you should be laughing at them."

"Hurts tuh do it… Fey stole muh wisduhm teef … All four of'm."

That was news to Roy.

God, Ed, I'm so sorry.

"Hadda cut'm out … free of'm han't c'mout yet."

"Edward, I'm so sorry about this."

"Notshor fault … Fanks for get'n muh fow."

"Of course I'd come for you, kid."

"Fey were gunna k'll yuh, yuh knew t'was a trap."

"Which was why I put an extra pair of ignition gloves inside a plastic bag in my trouser pockets so that if and when they doused me with water and asked me to remove my coat, I'd be able to use my alchemy nonetheless. You'd be surprised at how many of these guys think that I only have the one pair."

They may have had a skilled surgeon, but they were really just amateurs most of them and the rescue itself had been easy and quick.

"So fey're dead?" Ed asked, his brain obviously overclouded by agony.

"Yes."

Ed didn't even say anything as Roy got them inside the car and Roy realised that Ed had finally fallen asleep to get a break from the constant pain that was wreaking his body. Most of Ed's body was littered with cuts and bruises in varying sizes and Roy would have to stitch the boy up once they got back to the flat and the risk of discovery of what had really transpired was gone. Staying to watch as people arrived at the scene would be a bit suspicious as Roy was sitting with his injured and tortured subordinate in his lap and was none other than the Flame Alchemist.

And he didn't want people to know about this.

He couldn't let it become common knowledge that Edward Elric was such a major point of weakness to him.

And so he drove, knowing that his coat was enough to keep Ed relatively warm and the cuts relatively covered up.

And so he brought the sleeping boy back to the flat and gently placed him on the couch, cleaning up the wounds, bandaging them and applying stitches where it was needed. The young boy was looking like hell and once Roy was done, he carried him inside his bedroom and gently lay him down on the bed.

Thinking that if Ed woke up and was in need of some painkillers and because Roy was feeling extremely uncomfortable with the idea of leaving him alone in this state, he slipped under the covers himself and gently took Ed's left hand in his, knowing that hugs would only bring the boy even more pain. Then he gently pressed his lips to his head.

Yes, he had damned well killed those bastards in cold blood.

Because they had purposely gone after Ed and they had hurt him.

And nobody hurt Roy's kid.