Ed woke up suddenly to a blistering cold. Where was he? Shivering slightly he burrowed his head underneath the two blankets that were already draped around him and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate and remember what had happened earlier.

The Promised Day had come and gone; they had been successful in stopping Father's plans but could not prevent the homunculi from reviving. Now, he and Colonel Mustang were being sent out to Briggs HQ to help them prepare for the upcoming war between Amestris and the homunculi. Ed remembered complaining about having to be separated with Al, who had just gotten his body back thanks to The Promised Day, but had grudgingly went along, knowing that Al would be needed to help Central prepare for the war as well. He just wished he'd had more time to celebrate the re-gaining of his brother's body and he also wished that he didn't have to take the mission with an ass like Mustang.

"Now's not the time to be complaining, just think about why they hell I'm lying here"

Then he remembered, along the way to Briggs he had been attacked by Lust. He remembered the cold and exhaustion he had put up with and a hazy mental image of Lust standing over his body, her nails dripping with his blood, formed in his mind.

"Then what?"

Ed thought hard but came up with nothing. He'd probably passed out after that. Sighing, he opened his eyes and looked around more carefully. Where was he now? Surely not dead but not on the battlefield either. He couldn't see much. Dim light was coming from somewhere but he wasn't really sure where and he hesitated before pulling the blankets off of him and sitting up.

He realized he wasn't wearing a shirt and decided to huddle in his coat that had been draped over him. Inspecting himself for any wounds he noticed that his ring and middle fingers were splintered. There was also a gash along his abdomen that had been burned closed; it had then been bandaged with what felt like a shirt. It was most defiantly Mustang's work.

"Great, he'd better not have used my shirt" Ed said to himself, blindly feeling around for it. Luckily, his fingers almost instantly wrapped around it and he lifted it up towards the dim light penetrating through whatever structure he was in. He noticed a few blood stains but he would be able get rid of them easily with alchemy.

Deciding to worry about stains later, Ed quickly put it on and draped his coat over his shoulders before looking around once more. By now, his eyes had accustomed to the dim light and he soon realized he was in an igloo. Or at least something that resembled an igloo.

"Should I even bother asking Mustang how he knows the alchemic array to build an igloo?" Ed thought to himself. Speaking of which, where was that bastard? He defiantly wasn't in the igloo and Ed sighed before pulling out his gloves in his pants pocket and crawling out of the confines of the blankets towards the light emitting from outside.

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Outside, he noticed a small fire was burning which explained the light. Mustang was easy to find, he was in full military attire and huddled in a tight ball next to the fire, his back facing the igloo and Ed.

"How is the idiot not dead of hypothermia yet?" Ed wondered, walking over to Mustang.

"Colonel?" Ed asked hesitantly, kneeling behind Mustang and shaking him gently. When Mustang didn't even flinch Ed shook harder "Colonel!" Still nothing.

"Oi, wake up!" Ed yelled, standing up and kicking Mustang in the back.

Mustang's eyes shot open, jerking awake. His back arching away from Ed and he made a sound that sounded like a mix of a hiss and a yelp. His face instantly tightened into a look of pain and he closed his eyes tightly for a few moments before opening them again, turning ever so slightly to glare at Ed.

"What the hell do you want Fullmetal?"Roy hissed at the boy.

Ed, who hadn't been expecting such a sudden and pained reaction, had fallen back in the snow in surprise, feeling guilty for what he'd done. This guilt led to unwelcome worry and anger as he was soon up on his knees glooming over Mustang who was still lying on his side.

"What are you? Crazy? You're going to freeze to death. Where's your coat god damn it" Ed asked angrily.

Mustang blinked a few times.

"You're wearing it idiot"

Now it was Ed's turned to blink as he looked at himself for the first time since he'd gone outside. What he had thought was his own coat draped over him was instead the Colonel's coat, much to Ed's annoyance."

"Damn him for always looking after his subordinates better than himself." He felt like an idiot now and couldn't stop the guilty feeling from re-surfacing again either.

Looking away from the coat, Ed realized that Mustang was still looking up at him and he had his trademark smirk on his face. Ed was very close to hitting him again but eventually decided against it.

"Fine, then where's my coat?" Ed huffed, crossing his arms and choosing to not look at Mustang for the time being.

"Somewhere in there, it got torn to shreds and I'm sure you can fix it better than I can"

"And yet you can make an igloo?"

Mustang chose to ignore that remark, instead asking "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just got a few broken fingers that's all" waving said fingers in the air. "Thanks for splintering them, what'd you use? Wood?"

Mustang gave a grunt for confirmation and closed his eyes.

"Are you OK?" Ed asked after a while, knowing what Mustang would say but deciding to ask anyways.

"I'm fine" Mustang said, right on Ed's cue.

Ed couldn't help but roll his eyes a bit and noticed that the Colonel was shivering visibly now that he was awake.

"Sure you are" Ed said sarcastically "Why didn't you come into the igloo?"

"Because if I woke up next to my superior officer I'd freak out too....unless she was a beautiful woman of course"

Ed opened his mouth to make a snappy retort but closed it when he realized the Colonel was right, he would have freaked out if he just woke up with his superior sleeping next to him. It took a while longer to finally clue in on the 2nd part of the Colonel's statement.

"Pervert" Ed growled, flicking Mustang lightly on the shoulder when Mustang's face gave way to another smirk.

"Now come on, you're like ice, get inside"

"No"

"What? Why not?"

"Don't feel like it"

"What do you mean don't feel like it?!" Ed was starting to get really pissed off at the Colonel's stubborn attitude.

"You're just going to lie here and freeze to death because you're too lazy to get off your ass and come inside?"

"Not lazy" Mustang opening his eyes again to look up at Ed who was still towering over him.

"Oh yeah, sorry, you just think you're so superior that you're above sleeping in the same vicinity as one of your lowly subordinates" Ed answered, sitting down stubbornly and looking at anything other than Mustang.

Time passed in silence with Mustang too tired and cold to make conversation and Ed fuming away in anger.

Ed knew what he had just said wasn't true; Mustang would probably kill and get killed for him. It was the fact that he was actually worrying over the stupid bastard that made Ed feel frustrated. Either way, he couldn't help it at the moment; he felt that something was wrong but couldn't pin point what it was exactly. Mustang looked like he had been in pain but he didn't see any injuries on him...then again, he was lying on his side fully clothed so all he really could see was the left side of his face. Mustang was even wearing his gloves with him although it was probably because he was cold.

"Either way it's not like him to get those wet"

Cold was another factor, Mustang's lips were already starting to turn blue and he was shivering a lot, teeth chattering away hard enough to break his jaw. Not only that but Ed figured a good half of his body was wet from the snow and if Mustang didn't have hypothermia already then he could easily catch it with him half soaked. The fire only did so much to warm Mustang and Ed didn't even know how long he'd been lying out here in the first place.

"Wonder what time it is" Ed thought to himself, pulling his watch out of his pocket and checking it.

"2 in the morning. Great, just fucking great. He's been here for over 5 hours" Ed noted, remembering that when he was battling Lust, the sun was still up signalling that it was around late afternoon. On the positive side, that meant that the temperature would start increasing soon when dawn broke, although here in Briggs it didn't really increase that much to begin with.

"I've got to get him inside and warmed up soon or we'll both freeze to death out here"

Ed didn't even know if Mustang didn't want to come inside or simply couldn't.

"Guess I'll just have to find out....although he's not going to tell me directly"

Sighing, Ed tightened Mustang's coat around him and started speaking.

"So...."

"Oh damn this is awkward"

"....what happened? Where's Lust?"

Ed waited for an answer of some kind and when he got none he started to worry. He got back up on his knees so he was looking down at Mustang again and was somewhat scared to find that the Colonel's eyes were closed. Not only that but his face had turned extremely pale and he had stopped shivering. Ed also noted that Mustang's breaths were coming out as short erratic gasps as if he wasn't getting enough oxygen.

"Shit, not good, not good"

"Hey, you idiot, don't go to sleep!" Ed yelled, shaking Mustang slightly.

"Wake up Colonel" Ed shook a little bit harder and didn't even get a groan as a reaction.

"Mustang!" Ed yelled, sitting down and kicking the Colonel in the back again.

Granted it wasn't the best way to wake the man up judging by his reaction last time but at least that had yielded results and almost instantly Mustang's eyes shot open again. He gave a strangled cry and rolled over so fast Ed didn't have time to get out of the way. It ended up with Ed's legs pinned under Mustang which caused him to cry out again and arch his back upwards painfully.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Ed yelled, wrenching his feet free and getting onto his knees again, holding on to Mustang's head as he closed his eyes tightly and just focused on breathing.

"I just needed you to wake up, you weren't responding to anything else I did and if you fall asleep now you're not going to be able to wake up again"

Mustang probably wasn't even listening to Ed right now. He was still concentrating on just breathing, but after a while Ed grew silent and Roy opened his eyes tiredly, blinking a few times to concentrate on Ed out of all the other fuzzy images spinning in his head.

Ed was staring at him in a mix of shock and horror which confused Mustang greatly.

"Fullmetal? What's wrong?" he managed to rasp out

Mustang cursed himself for how pathetic his voice sounded but Ed didn't look like he cared, the damn shrimp was still staring at him like he was some monster.

"God damn it, when he was half dead I didn't look at him like that"

After a few more seconds of silence Mustang was starting to feel uncomfortable.

"uhh....Ed?"

The use of his name somehow seemed to motivate Ed enough to blink and point to Mustang's face.

"Colonel, what the hell did you do to yourself?"

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"Oh shit what was that idiot thinking?!"

"....it was a misfire, happens all the time" Mustang said, looking away from Ed.

"Like hell it was"

Mustang had been lying on his side which explained why Ed hadn't been able to clearly see the total mess he'd done to the right side of his face. It looked like it had been burnt pretty badly, just border line between a 2nd degree and a 3rd degree. There was a palm sized burn around Mustang's eye, stretching from his cheek bone to past his eyebrow. The skin around the eye had started to blister and swell, pushing the eyelid closed. The skin on the forehead was peeling back and in various places it had turned black.

However, the main thing that caused Ed to look in shock was a thin red-black burn, which ran from the larger burn down to the middle of Mustang's cheek. There, it made a 90 degree turn outwards and continued all the way down; through the neck only to disappear beneath the folds of Mustang's uniform.

If it was anyone other than Ed, they would have most likely paid more attention to the larger burn than the smaller one and believed the Colonel's statement that it had been an accident. Ed knew better. The burn looked like it had been drawn with a pencil and it was much too thin and precise to have been done accidentally. Someone made sure that the burn went straight down, turned at almost exactly 90 degrees and continued down and who could have done it better than the Flame Alchemist himself?

This realization caused chills to run down Ed's spine, his mind flashed quickly back to the Colonel's pained reaction when Ed had kicked him and he also noted that the burn running down his face and neck looked like it continued onwards.

"Show me"

Mustang turned and looked at Ed, his face unreadable

"....it's nothing...really, you don't have to see"

Ed threw the Colonel a "don't fuck with me" glare and began un-doing one of the many buttons lining Roy's uniform.

Given any other situation the Colonel would have made a comment about the awkwardness of this situation, just to piss Ed off. Now however did not seem to be a good time so Mustang tried to squirm away from Ed but whenever he moved, Ed would grab onto his uniform and head and hold him down. Mustang then noticed for the first time that he actually had his head in Fullmetal's lap.

"Well, that's just great" Mustang thought sarcastically. By now even the slightest movement caused freezing agony to run through his body and eventually he stopped struggling and welcomed the slight body heat that Ed gave off.

"Why the hell do these things have so many buttons?" Ed's splintered fingers were driving him crazy. It made unbuttoning uniforms feel a lot harder than it really was and Ed wasn't even left handed in the first place. His right, automail arm was holding on to Mustang's head and Ed didn't really feel like letting it go, otherwise he'd have the Colonel's head directly in his lap.....and Ed figured that'd be just plain awkward.

"Stop" Mustang seemed to have noticed Ed's difficulties but Ed ignored him, not wanting to give the chance for Mustang to try and squirm away again. He was almost done anyways and he just had to see what on earth Mustang had done to his body.

"I said stop"

Ed paused to look at the Colonel who had grabbed Ed's wrist.

"I'll do it, just quit ruining your fingers, I spent a long time splintering those" Mustang sighed, pushing Ed's hands away and unbuttoning the rest of the buttons with much more ease than Ed.

Then came the hard part, with much difficulty Mustang sat up, ignoring the pain and biting down his lip to silence any noise that he might make. Ed helped prop him up as Mustang removed the soaking wet uniform entirely, tossing it aside before collapsing back into Ed's lap, exhausted.

"Damn I feel like shit. This is so embarrassing"

Mustang had closed his eyes again; his breathing came out as uneven hisses between his lips, much too fast and small to be healthy. Ed found himself not caring at the moment that Mustang might be falling asleep again. Instead, his eyes were focused entirely on Mustang's body.

"Oh man, I think I'm going to puke"

The sight before Ed was disturbing to say the least. Mustang's whole body was burned horribly, even worse than his face. Black and charred flesh littered the areas surrounding his torso, back and arms while in other places, the skin was blood red. Blisters had formed along the arms and Ed yanked off Mustang's gloves to follow the lines.

Ed had prepared himself for the sight of the burns but he was not prepared for the form the burns had taken shape.

"It's an....alchemy circle?" Ed whispered, wanting to trace the huge pattern on Mustang's chest.

And indeed it was, it looked like Mustang had burned several different alchemy circles into his flesh and connected them all together. There was an extremely large one in the middle of his chest and two medium sized ones were on his back, one by his shoulder blade and another further down. 2 more circles were on the back of both of Mustang's hands and everything was connected together with lines, ranging from thick and thin, that seemed to run all over Mustang's body.

At least the burns weren't life threatening, although they probably hurt like hell. It looked like a major 2nd degree burn and hopefully, no muscle, ligament tissue or anything else underneath was damaged.

The alchemist side of Ed was fascinated, he'd only ever seen an alchemic array so complex before in textbooks. Not only that, but this was burned into Mustang's flesh and Ed hadn't even known that was possible.

"Does it still work like a regular array?"

Ed wondered how powerful it was for Mustang to be willing to burn his own body for it. He reached over to run his finger along the circle on Mustang's chest with the desire to test out the array.

However, the 16 year old boy side of Ed was slapping him for even considering trying it out.

"You idiot! You don't have enough energy to use any alchemy at the moment and you want to go activating one that's literally on the Colonel? You don't even know how it works, you could die....he could die."

In the end the boy side won over and Ed quickly removed his hand, feeling ashamed he'd even thought of the idea.

The array probably went down to Mustang's legs but Ed felt like he'd seen enough at the time being. He was still wrapping his head around the fact that Mustang had done this on himself.

He maneuvered his mind back to the task on hand. The Colonel was probably freezing now that he was lying bare back in the snow and his eyes were closed again. Panicking slightly Ed reached over and slapped Mustang's cheek lightly.

"Oi, what'd I say about going to sleep?"

Mustang's brow knit together and he emitted a low groan of pain as he forced his eyes open. A few seconds later they dropped slightly, eyes turning unfocused.

"If you want to sleep come inside so at least you'll be warmer"

"....no"

Ed growled, was the Colonel still trying to prove he was strong enough to survive out here in the cold?

"You're an idiot you know that, just suck in that god complex of yours for once and get inside OK?"

"....it makes me feel better..."

"What?"

"The cold...it makes the pain go away"

Mustang closed his eyes, slightly embarrassed that he'd actually said that out loud. He hated sounding weak.

Ed remained silent, thinking.

"Great, now what? I can't move him, he doesn't want to move himself and we both don't have the energy to use any alchemy."

And now that Mustang had pretty much admitted that he was in pain, Ed was hesitant to force the Colonel to get up, especially when the cold was helping him more than Ed would have been able to.

"So he either dies of the pain from his burns or dies of cold. Hmm, decisions decisions" Ed thought sarcastically.

While Ed tried to sort out the dilemma, he wrapped his arms around the Colonel's head and leaned in more to try and share body heat.

Mustang wasn't exactly fond of that idea and tried to squirm away from Ed only to find him being held on tighter.

"Can you not be an ass for one night?" Ed growled

Mustang opened his eyes half way to look at Ed before sighing and giving up his squirming. He had decided that he was just too tired and cold to even consider his dignity anymore.

"You've got way too much pride you know that?"

"You just don't have enough" Mustang muttered, closing his eyes again.

Ed watched as the Colonel's chest fluttered up and down with each quick and shallow breath he took. The Colonel's eyebrows were knitted together in pain and Ed reached over to the side of the Colonel's neck to check his pulse.

"Dammit, too weak and too fast. He's already in Stage 2."

Ed knew that if the Colonel reached Stage 3 of hypothermia then moving would be near impossible for him due to the loss of muscle coordination. He couldn't let that happen, otherwise the Colonel was as good as dead.

Ed then reached over to his own neck and checked his own pulse. It wasn't as weak as the Colonel's but Ed knew that he was very close to catching hypothermia himself. Ed was shivering mildly and his breathing was starting to become quick and shallow.

"If we keep this up we'll both die"

But there was no way he was leaving the Colonel out here alone.

Thus proceeded a few minutes of silence with Ed still trying to solve their current dilemma and Mustang half asleep in the snow.

"Maybe I should put his uniform back on him"

Ed soon dismissed that idea. The uniform was mostly made out of cotton which retained water so it would probably do more harm than good in this current state. Besides, it was probably freezing cold and soaked already, having been lying there in the snow for quite some time.

"You OK?"

Ed nearly jumped as the Colonel spoke up; he had thought he had been asleep all this time.

"...Yeah....course I am" Ed lied. He was freezing to the bone and his fingers were starting to turn blue but he didn't want the Colonel worrying about him.

"No you're not, your shaking more than I am"

Mustang forced his eyes opened and looked up at Ed.

"And your lips are blue"

"Well so are yours" Ed replied rather defensively.

"Get inside"

"I'm staying right here"

"That's an order"

"And why should I listen to you? It's not like you're going anywhere"

Mustang remained silent at the reply and Ed felt triumphant that he'd won the little argument that had sprung up.

"The bastard's got no right telling me how to take care of myself if he can't do it to himself in the first place"

At least, that was what Ed thought until Mustang suddenly jerked forward and sat up. There was a flicker of pain shown in his eyes and face but Mustang wiped it off almost immediately.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm 'going somewhere'....and you're coming"

"What?!"

"Just help me up....can't have you dying because of me..." Mustang said the second part of the sentence much quieter than the first part and Ed barely heard it. He felt kind of touched that the Colonel was getting up mainly because of him but he was quick to brush off the sappy feeling.

"He's an idiot, he might be a really good guy underneath.... and he looks after his subordinates really well to be honest...but he's still an idiot"

Nevertheless, Ed quickly got up and grabbed the Colonel's hands -careful to avoid the burns on the back of them- and pulled hard.

With a grunt of pain and a quick closing of his eyes Mustang slowly got up onto his feet only to nearly topple over after a few seconds. Thankfully, Ed caught him and help right him and soon, Mustang quickly made his way to the igloo entrance before dropping like a rock onto his knees.

To Mustang, his body felt like it was on fire and the few steps it had taken to get to the igloo entrance made him feel like he had just ran a marathon. He was shivering hard and his body had started to give off a cold sweat. His eyes made everything look fuzzy and the pain from his burns was unbearable. He wanted to scream and just curl up in a little ball and go to sleep where he sat.

"Almost there, I can do this, come on damn it move"

Mustang gave a grunt and forced his body to crawl quickly through the igloo entrance. The sooner he got this over and done with the better. He didn't think he could ignore the pain for much longer without the need to vomit.

Ed followed soon after, marvelling at the effects of sheer willpower and the amount the Colonel had.

There was no snow under the igloo since it had all been used to make the igloo in the first place. Therefore, when Ed crawled through the entrance the first thing he found was the Colonel lying up with his back pushed up against the snow wall. Obviously, the cold made his burns feel better and even though he had managed to keep his face impassive, the Colonel's eyes reflected all the pain he was holding in.

Still, Ed didn't think it was a good idea to let the Colonel just lie there. He was awake, although his eyes had clouded over as if he wasn't really all there. This scared Ed and he crawled over to Mustang and shook him gently.

"Come on, turn around, we've got to get you dry and warmed up."

Mustang blinked at the physical contact, his eyes coming into focus. However, at Ed's comment he just groaned and closed his eyes.

Ed paused.

"...Please?"

Mustang remained silent for a while but eventually sighed and rolled over away from the comfort of the wall.

"Who are you and what have you done with Fullmetal?" Mustang managed to grind out through chattering teeth.

Ed was too embarrassed to reply, instead he just flicked the Colonel lightly again on the shoulder and Mustang gave a small smirk, eyes still closed.

After Ed got over his initial embarrassment, he allowed himself a small smile too before grabbing a blanket and crawling over to Mustang's head. Lifting it slightly, he then proceeded to dry off the snow from the Colonel's hair.

"You better not start squirming. It's either this or die got it?"

"God damn it. If he ever mentions this again I'll kill him myself"

Ed's words must have done the trick since Mustang actually stayed in once place during the drying process. When his hair was dry enough Ed did a quick rub down of the Colonel's back and threw the second drier blanket unceremoniously on top of him.

"Here bastard. Don't die."

"Mmm" was all Mustang said, his hands adjusting the blanket and his body automatically curling up into a little ball. The blanket was big and thick enough to soak in any small traces of excess water on the Colonel's body without losing its ability to keep its occupant warm.

As Ed lay down and began to make himself comfortable (he needed to sleep too) he took one last look at the Colonel, hoping to pick up something that seemed out of place if there was anything.

Mustang's condition was pretty much the same as before and Ed told himself that it would get better over time so he dismissed them for now; there wasn't much he could do for him now anyways. Instead he noticed that the Colonel was very tense, his body wasn't moving as much as it should have been from shivering and he was grinding his teeth together, preventing them from chattering.

"The burns"

Ed yanked off the glove covering his automail hand with his teeth. Reaching under the Colonel's blanket he placed his palm on Mustang's back. As the cool metal reached skin Ed felt the Colonel give a small shudder upon contact before relaxing under Ed's touch, most of the tension evaporating.

"That should do for tonight I guess"

The Ed realized something.

"Hey, you never told me what happened to Lust"

"I took care of her...again" Mustang mumbled, half asleep.

Ed didn't bother asking how.

Instead, he nodded and closed his eyes, intent on getting some sleep before dawn. However, he opened them again briefly when Mustang spoke up.

"...Thank you"

Ed chose not to reply for a moment before smiling.

"No problem... but you're still and idiot....and a bastard"

"And you're still a shrimp, what else is new?"

Ed got up to growl at his commanding officer but gave a small smile afterwards when Mustang made an amused noise and his face broke out into another grin.

"Oh what a day" Ed thought before drifting off into the bliss of sleep.

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First fan fic. I've got ideas for more chapters but I don't know if this is good enough fo me to continue or just sell it off as a one shot. Reviews would be greatly appreciated! ^_^