A/N: Ok, so this is not typically my style of fic but I wanted to try out a romance that is based on healing. Each chapter is going to be short, about 2,000 to 5,00 words each just because I think I have plenty of other big fics going at the moment. I wrote another story in the same format and I really liked the way it turned out so I'm doing it again with this RoyxEd.

Gift fic for malfoysdaughter because I love her and wanted to give her something. Darling, I hope you enjoy this! I know its a little late for Christmas but I DID say that I would write you something, didn't I?

Warnings: There will be sex of the boyxboy persuasion. Mentions of rape and dealing with the aftermath that comes with that kind of trauma. Warnings will come with the chapter but if its not your kind of thing, please make friends with the back button!

Out of Flame and Ash the Phoenix Rises

Pain swirled all around him, a fog of grey darkness spattered with deep, red blood, staining his consciousness as much as it did his body, the taint spreading under his skin like an infectious, fast-spreading disease. They had used him again and again, laughing as they split apart his body, already fragile and broken from all the times that he had been used before. It shouldn't hurt so much by now, he figured sluggishly to himself as he wavered in and out of consciousness, he should be used to it. But every time he was sure he was going to die. Sometimes, his own screams were mingled with his brother's, who they often forced to watch and other times he was alone.

As long as they don't hurt Al, he could remember thinking, over, and over, for once glad the boy was nothing but a soul and a towering hunk of metal. Through the ever present haze, he couldn't even remember how or why he had been captured, just cruel hands, hard words and pain. There was always pain.

Just then, as he was ready to accept the encompassing darkness of unconsciousness, there was a new sound, voices he had not heard before, footsteps and…

Here, I'm here. But he couldn't find his voice. It had been shattered along with the rest of him. There was a voice, so familiar, so warm and he wanted to throw himself at the person. They were calling his name…save me…

When they found the young blond alchemist, nothing could ever have prepared him for the sight that greeted him upon entering the dark, wide room.

The Fullmetal Alchemist and his brother had been missing for nearly three weeks when the report came in about several supposedly abandoned warehouses deep within the heart of the city that were at the heart of suspicious activity. At first, he hadn't been worried. The boys had gone on another one of their missions, always hunting for a way to restore them to their original bodies. Usually, he would have heard something by the end of the week, either from Ed himself, voice snappish and short or from Al, all apologies that his brother was shirking his responsibility. It was one of the stipulations he had set with the younger men a while back, seeing it as a way of keeping them safe while under his care as they were still so young. He knew the older boy chafed at such shackles but with the amount of trouble they got themselves into, he kept it as a standing command. As much as Ed claimed he hated the dark haired Colonel, he wouldn't directly disobey a direct order. The kid was too smart for that.

And yet, it had been two weeks and there had been nothing. What was worse, the mission they had taken was to be conducted within Central City limits, which meant they should only have been gone a single full day, at the most. By the end of the first week, he had been worried. By the second, he and his entire office were beside themselves with worry for the two young men had become well loved and they were doing everything short of running out and kicking every single door down to find the blonde alchemist and his walking, talking suit of armor for a brother.

Once the third week had rolled around, an official search had been sent out, complete with extensive informant network use throughout the entire city and the encompassing country side.

Roy realized that it may have been a little extreme; that maybe the boys had gone out to visit their old home and had forgotten to tell someone. But there was this nagging in his gut that told him something had happened and if they didn't find Ed and Al soon, there was a chance they would never see them again.

As he stared down at the still form of the blonde alchemist, he desperately wished they had started looking as soon he had noticed their prolonged absence.

Bile climbed angrily up the back of his throat as he screamed over his shoulder for someone to call an ambulance before crouching before the boy, anger and terror warring for a place in the smoldering pit his stomach had become. Slim, pale wrists and ankles had been shackled and chained to bolts in the floors, the metal old and digging fiercely, chafing lines into the skin they encircled, making the boy look small and vulnerable. The blond hair had been shorn, ending in rough, jagged strands at the younger man's jaw line, falling over his face in dirty, stringy lines. Blood spattered his skin, turned sallow with malnourishment and a long time spent in the dark. There were long cuts on his chest, barely covered with a tattered shirt that looked like fingernail or whip marks, some deep and beginning to fester. But all of that paled in comparison when his inspection moved lower, though he had already been aware that the kid was only in his underwear. One of the legs had ridden up, baring a slim, pale thigh, coated with more blood and something else, something white and sticky. Slowly, nausea battering him, threatening to spill over, he pressed his hand gently to a patch of uninjured skin of the blonde's shoulder, wanting nothing more than to draw the kid into his arms and cradle him, protect him, make him feel everything was going to be okay. How could this have happened?

"Fullmetal," he coaxed softly, careful not to shake the boy and keeping his touches light, almost afraid the slim frame would crumble away to dust if handled too roughly, "Fullmetal, wake up," Roy had thought, upon first seeing the boy, that the kid was dead for he had been laying so still but closer inspection revealed a slow, steady pulse and an uneasy flutter of breath that stirred the slender chest. Pain etched itself into the sharp features, shadowed and deep, making Roy wonder just how long Ed had been here. Too long. Before he could get the kid to stir, Lt. Hawkeye slipped into the room, gun out and at the ready, her eyes dark and hard as she stepped up to him.

"The place is clear. No trace of the people who did this. We found Al. He was locked away in an old storage room. There's not much left of him," he nodded as she spoke but couldn't tear his gaze away from the blonde alchemist's pale face, heart aching. Why, why hadn't he started to look for them earlier? A warm hand descended upon his shoulder as Riza crouched next to him, her presence familiar and solid, "Colonel. They called for an ambulance. He's going to be alright," for a second, the prickling at the back of his eyes almost won but he shoved it back. Despite the young man's temper and his sharp tongue, he had been innocent, pure in a way only Ed could be, all his spirit and life force untainted by the world, even after all the shit that he had been through. Yet now…

"How can you know?" he breathed, voice ragged and noticed how the slender eyebrows drew down in a momentary frown of distress. The blonde woman next to him was quiet for a long moment, watching his big, pale hand stroking bruised skin before she sighed and leaned down to rub gently at one of the shackles, easing her finger under the metal.

"Because he is who he is. Let's just get him out of here," the shackles proved difficult but the Lt. was an excellent lock pick (something that amused him to no end) and soon the chains lay in a piled heap on the floor. He eyed the way the rubbed skin looked red and raw. Yet when he reached out to touch one, the boy instinctively flinched away, another frown marring his face.

"He's waking up," he breathed and winced when the blonde moaned softly, shifting away from him.

"…no…don't…" the Colonel suppressed his sudden elation at getting some kind of reaction, reaching out and stroking a slim wrist. There was a distant shout that the ambulance was around the block and he shared a look with Riza. All he wanted to do was to get the hell out of there and get Edward to safety.

"We should move him," yet when he went to put his arms around the slim frame, intent in carrying him out into the sunlight and away from this awful place, he was dismayed at the violent reaction the touches caused. The younger alchemist started flailing, crying out in a breathy voice, face scrunched and closed off in terror. Blinking and biting back the horrible sinking feeling in his chest, he backed off when his Lt. put her hand on his arm and leaned forward, speaking in a soft, steady voice that seemed to instantly sooth the boy's fear. Dark eyes watched on, feeling helpless and a little disappointed that Riza had succeeded where he had not as a hand that was not his own pushed back cropped, dirty blond hair. When their eyes met, the young man moving in blind, shuffling movements towards the blonde Lt. dull fury choked his airways.

"It was men who did this to him," the woman said in a soft, sad voice and all he could do was look, unable to do anything as she carefully lifted the battered teen from the ground, pulling him into her arms. Yet when she stood, she offered him a smile, catching how he had not once stopped looking at the younger alchemist's face, "He knows he can trust you, Colonel. It's just an instinctive reaction," he couldn't help but wonder if maybe that really wasn't the case after all.

That didn't matter now, though. They had found Edward, and Alphonse, and they were both alive. He gritted his teeth as fell into step behind Riza, watching the boy's head as it pressed to her shoulder. The people who did this would pay; painfully and quite possibly doused in very final flames. A beast had risen within his chest, protective and fierce, the force of it like nothing he had ever felt before. He had promised to protect these two brilliant young men and had failed miserably. Guilt ate at him as their footsteps rang through the dark corridors, sometimes joined by more at times as his other officers scoured the place, looking for evidence. Right then, in the flickering, moldy shadows of the dank warehouse, he made a silent promise to the young man he longed to reach out and touch being cradled in his Lt's arms; he would tear the entire city apart looking for the people who did this.

Just as they stepped into the sunlight, gravel crunching under their feet and cars with flashing blue lights surrounding the building and Al in pieces and crying in his soft tenor at the sight of his brother, the blonde head lifted from the Lt's slender shoulder, gold eyes flickering open. Roy caught his breath as they looked straight at him.

"R-Roy," a slim, bruised hand lifted towards him and he stared at it, the motion almost slowed down, frozen in time. It was a gesture that filled him with a burning fire, fizzing through his veins, making everything seem so much brighter. Yet before he could take it, his heart slamming anxiously in his chest, the blonde alchemist had passed out again. Riza glanced over her shoulder to look at him, surprise in her dark hazel eyes but whatever she found on his face, she said nothing. Al continued to call Ed's name from the box his broken pieces were being held in and the Colonel's heart ached…

Until the ambulance doors swung closed, hiding away a young, battered Fullmetal alchemist, he couldn't take his eyes away from the pale, blank face.

In the dulled golden gaze, he had seen the barest flash of hope.

To be continued...

Poor Ed! I know, pretty terrible but it will get better, I promise!! Please, I would love to know what you all think!