Author's Note: I haven't updated many of my stories over the summer because I was working on this story for the FMA Big Bang 2017.This was my first time writing for this event and I am very grateful to have so much support on it by Quiet Leaf who betaed the whole story. Really helped me to acknowledge some of my writing bugs like repetitive words. Now I am a little more conscious of writing! They helped pull this story together. Please look at their page to see what else they have written. I am sure you will enjoy their work as well. Along with Quiet Leaf, Dzioo did artwork for this story to complete the Big Bang event

Along with Quiet Leaf, Dzioo did artwork for this story to complete the Big Bang event. The picture is the story image and if you would like to see a bigger version of it I included it into my posting on AO3. I was really excited when I got paired with them as an artist and every time dzioo sent me an update on their progress I still couldn't believe how amazing they were. Please see more of their work on .

Glow

Chapter One

The Illumination was what people were calling it now, this phenomenon of light. As he stared down at his own aching hand, Roy thought that it was ridiculous to put a name to it. The eccentricity had started on 3 October, 1910, and he remembered it very clearly.

As the world was listening to their radios, learning of the Illumination through the awestruck broadcasters, Roy was shuffling through his dark bedroom, trying to find the edge of his bed: he was tired. He'd just finished a long convoy to Central Command to return some gear his unit had borrowed for the war. They should have given it all back ages ago when they first returned to headquarters, but the 57th Division had just been deployed when they got back. Roy had to wait several months, and finally hearing they were back in Central, he went on the hard drive from Eastern Command to return everything his unit had borrowed. Unfortunately, there was a mix up with the numbers and it took twice as long as it had to. Not only was it a late night when he returned home, but Roy's back ached from the horrible humvee seats—the cushions were practically just metal with a small sheet of fabric over them. He felt like a wreck, but at 19:20 on October 3rd, 1910, he could actually see that he was a wreck.

A dulled white light shone suddenly from his back, sending an odd glow through the darkness of his room. Its pulsing light startled Roy so much that he stubbed his toe against the post of his bed. The light then became blindingly bright. It seared out of his toe and broke through the shadows, igniting his room and possibly his entire house. Roy wanted to let out a yelp of shock but he was caught in complete awe as he stared at his own foot as a twinkling light emitted from it. He watched it dull with his pain, fading as his toe stopped screaming at him for his misstep. Soon it vanished, and his room was plunged into darkness once more, the only source of light being the dull throb of his back. Roy stumbled over to the standing mirror in the corner of his room, careful of his furniture, and stared into it. He turned his back to it and saw the warm light twisting through his muscles and around his spine right where the ache was. It pulsed as his back throbbed like a lighthouse on the Cretan shore.

What was this?

Roy had looked down and reached a hand out and gently pinched his arm. He winced as a dull glow lit up underneath his twisted skin and faded as he released it from his grasp. He repeated the action. Roy couldn't remember how many times he pinched himself before the fact that he glowed had settled in his mind. His pain lit him up like a lantern.

That was the Illumination. It spread around the news and appeared in every newspaper, on every radio station, and in every gossip ring around Amestris. Everyone was talking about it, and those that didn't still communicated the strangeness through the many cuts, scrapes, and abrasions they found on their body. It wasn't just in Amestris either but everywhere. The Xingese originally thought it was a new form of cancerous sunburn. Arugo thought it was a new infection born from the dead sea. Drachma thought it was biological warfare from Amestris, which was quickly denied once the scale of the phenomenon was observed. The world's population was infected by ailments like tuberculosis, tetanus, Crohn's disease, polio, leprosy, the flu, and even simple headaches, which were only brought to light by this Illumination. Depression, anxiety, mania—all appeared as a clouded aura around their victim, like the emotional rain clouds had actually settled on their shoulders. People could see where and how they hurt, and others could too. Neighbors could see the pains and troubles of others. Preachers and followers thought that this was a sign of God; they imagined that the Illumination would bring help to those that needed it. It would end suffering. Roy laughed at that; nothing had changed. People still crawled around with aching knees and terminal cancer growths in their kidneys. People still cheered when they saw the gleaming shine of a busted lip on a boxer in a ring. People still walked down the streets with the obvious glow of pain, distress, and suffering. The only difference was that others knew just how bad they hurt.

Roy frowned and he shook his head, staring at the carpal tunnel in his hand from writing his reports all day. He saw the webbing of his nerves through his hand as the light of his ache throbbed in it. It really was stupid putting a name to it. The Illumination wasn't an infection, it wasn't an object, it did nothing but bring notice to what was already there; pain. It didn't deserve a name, but they had to call it something.

He could have stared at his hand for hours, but a bolt of lightning flashed through his office window, jolting him from his thoughts with the accompanying roll of thunder. With the blinding light of the storm, he had almost thought that the Illumination was covering his entire body. He thought he was in pain! He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, angry that the stupid light had gotten the better of him.

Trying to put his thoughts back in order, he shook his hand out and picked up his pen once more, ignoring how the light in his hand seemed to glow brighter. A while into his work, there was a knock on his door that Roy could have mistaken for another roll of thunder. Hawkeye was standing in the door holding a glass of water and a small pill bottle in her hand. A bright light was shining off of her shoulder through the thick fabric of her uniform; she had been on the firing range the previous evening. Roy noted that she must have fired more than she used to and it took a tole on her shoulder.

Hawkeye, ignoring his studying gaze, walked up to his desk and set the glass and bottle down gently. Roy glanced down at them curiously and then back at her. "You have a headache," she told him as if he didn't already know. He took out his pocket watch curiously, already feeling the throbbing pain that she had mentioned, and stared into his reflection in its smooth metal backing. A blaze shone out of his temple that he hadn't noticed before. He groaned to himself and muttered a thanks to his lieutenant as he traded his watch for the glass of water and medication. He gulped them down and finished the water silently. Hawkeye waited patiently by his desk.

"Did you take some?" Roy asked her softly as he handed the glass back to her. She looked just as confused as he had been when she offered him the pill, but then the Colonel motioned to her shoulder.

"Yes sir, I have," she said stiffly. She felt the same about the Illumination as he did. It was a bother, but it had been years since it first started and they had to get used to it.

Roy sighed as he sat back in his chair, stretching his back out.

"Sir, Edward is going to be in to turn in his report. They had an incident on their mission to New Optain; there were some civilian casualties in the flood."

A groan escaped Roy's lips as he continue to massage his newfound headache, one that he knew would Illuminate when his youngest officer walked through the door of his office. He reached across his desk and picked up the bottle of medication, jiggling it lightly. The pills clattered around the inside like a tinkling bell.

"Mind if I hold onto these?" he joked, though in all honesty, he secretly wished he could keep them. Hawkeye held out her hand expectantly and he slapped the bottle down in her palm, regretfully relinquishing it from his care.

"You're an officer, sir, buy your own," she told him.

"You make me wish I was still enlisted," he whined, upset that officers had to pay for everything from lunch to uniforms while enlisted got it for free. Hawkeye gave him a smirk, probably knowing her joke had gotten the better of him, and left his office. The door closed as another round of thunder rolled across the sky and shook his window frames. His temple glowed a little brighter with the loud sound, and it felt like the needle in his head became a knife. He rubbed it out, knowing that no matter how hard he raked his skull, he could never get deep enough to extinguish the light.

It was a few hours before there was another knock on his door to use as an excuse to ease the pain of writing with his carpal tunnel. He set down his pen, but didn't even have to acknowledge the knock before the door flew open and his newest headache presented himself.

Edward was soaking wet from head to toe; not an inch of him was dry. Roy mused to himself that if he were to sit the kid next to a wet puppy, he would not be able to tell the difference. The kid even wore the same upset pout that a puppy would. However, unlike a puppy it wasn't from being wet.

A piercing light radiated out of his heavy jacket around his right shoulder and his left leg. People who didn't know of Edward's impairment would think that the stupid child had just pulled a few muscles or twisted his knee in his rampages across the city. Those that did know him understood that his automail ports lay in the exact position of the Illuminations. It hurt him even after the surgical scars had healed.

Thunder rolled through the office, rattling the floorboards. Roy saw the lights around Edward's port pulse brighter and expand, flowing down the automail limbs like a sleeve or a glove. It glowed for a few seconds as Edward clenched his left hand around his shoulder, letting the gleam fade in his grasp. The light then flew back to his shoulder port to await the next flare. The metal had no feeling. There were no nerves in fake metal limbs, only gears and wires that could not feel pain, yet they lit up. They glowed because Edward could still feel what was no longer there.

…..

Roy remembered when he first found Edward in Resembool, just a few days after the Illumination had started. He had driven all the way from Eastern Command, and though it wasn't as far as Central, his back was glowing when he got out of the car. He whined to his subordinate about his back, but she just shot him a look that told him to quiet down. He knew he deserved it, as he had been complaining the entire ride about his back. Maybe he should see a chiropractor.

An elderly woman answered the door to the Elric's neighbors' house. It was Rockbell's Automail, a family of mechanics well known for their work in prosthetics even in East City. For as wide spread their business was, they lived quite humbly. The old woman didn't seem pleased to meet them, her disapproving expression emphasized by the burning blaze of her body. Her joints were lit up with arthritis, showing her skeleton wherever she ached. Roy could clearly see every bone and tendon in her wrists and fingers, pained by years of tinkering with wires and gizmos. The Illumination even got to her lungs, where it seemed ages of smoking had taken their toll. She held a pipe between her lips, which were pursed upon seeing the navy blue of their uniforms, but it held no tobacco. She must have taken the light as a sign to better her health—Roy wished Havoc would do the same.

Though the old lady, Pinako Rockbell, didn't think highly of the military to begin with, Roy probably made it worse by pushing past her into her house.

He knew a few things about Edward Elric before actually meeting him in person: he knew that Edward was a genius. It was the whole reason why Roy was here in this bumpkin town, Resembool. Elric was an alchemist of such skill that he could be accepted into the State Alchemist Program without question.

Roy knew that Edward Elric was at the Rockbell's that evening—he didn't even have to ask the old woman to know that. With the amount of blood in the basement of the Elric's own home, they had to have gone to the closest doctor they could, which was the Rockbells themselves. With the mess being only a few days old, he knew that the house had not been abandoned long and that the Elrics were far from dead. What he didn't know about Edward Elric was that he was a child.

The brightest light that Roy had ever seen had come from the eleven-year-old child in the wheelchair that day. Light like the sun burned out of the kid's shoulder and his leg where they had both been reduced to stumps; it was blindingly bright, and Roy had to shield his eyes for a few seconds until they could adjust to it. Everyone was relatively new to this phenomenon, but Roy easily understood that the brighter the light, the more pain had caused it. With the amount of pain medication the kid must have been on, he still burned like the gates of hell. He just couldn't imagine that a child was in so much pain that he was lighting up the house like Amestris' Yule festivals. However, though the child was shining like a bonfire, the light never reached his eyes.

Roy didn't mean the Illumination—that was the last thing he wanted the kid to have more of. It was the fire of determination, the glow of will, fluorescence of lively energy that burned like a candle in everyone. For Edward, it wasn't there. His eyes were a blank slate that only held one word: defeated.

Roy talked to Edward Elric for a long time that day—more like scolded—and he only held his breath once. A waterfall of starlight seemed to fall out of Edward's shoulder when Roy was in the middle of explaining what the State Alchemist Program entailed, making him stop in his tracks to watch the Illumination do its work.

It painted a picture of a white transparent arm which laid itself on the arm of the wheelchair that Ed was confined to. A glowing finger lightly tapped the edge of the armrest as if it was fidgeting. Roy watched as the kid gritted his teeth at the sudden light; he moved his left hand over to grab and soothe the ghostly limb, but it just went right through the light and hit the armrest.

"Brother, are you all right? Your arm—" the hollow suit of armor echoed out, his voice concerned. The young boy trapped inside was known as Alphonse—that was another thing that Roy didn't know about Edward Elric; he had a brother. Roy only knew what Alphonse was supposed to look like because of some family photos hanging in the hallway of the Elric house. He was supposed to have two golden eyes instead of two fiery red ones. He was supposed to be only a few feet tall, about the height of his elder brother, not bridging seven feet. He was supposed to be a child who experienced the world through touch and sound, but now he was a suit of armor that felt nothing. Not one glimmer of the Illumination touched him.

"I-it feels like… knives," the little child choked, gripping his armrest with such ferocity that Roy expected it to splinter and break.

"Phantom limb pain." Pinako stated the cold hard fact. Seeing the young boy bite his lip as invisible knives stabbed and twisted in the air below his residual limb, she grunted and stood up from her seat across the table, hobbling over on her arthritic glowing knees to where the boy was sitting on the other side. She bent over the ghostly limb and set her hands on the stump of the arm. Her hands gently massaged the kid's shoulder, being careful not to aggravate the new scars from the surgery. As she ran her hands over the limb, the light flickered and sputtered as she soothed the pain that stemmed from the missing limb. Edward's hard grimace relaxed as the light sizzled out, his pain and the ghostly limb gone for now. Seeing that it was gone and her job was done, the elderly woman hobbled back to her seat, ready to complain more about the military and the State Alchemist Program. Edward's wide eyes turned to his shoulder, curious as to what this new pain was. He hovered his hand over the stump, which was still glowing, even though the image of the limb had retracted back to the light.

"It never did that before," he hummed, the tiredness in his voice quite obvious to Roy.

"It will ease with time, but you are going to have to get used to it," Pinako told him, her voice quieter than the usual gruff tone she spoke with.

"But… I won't have to get used to it if I get my arm back," Edward mumbled, surprising nearly everyone in the room. Roy remembered quite clearly how high his eyebrows rose on his forehead. He couldn't have been more amazed.

Edward looked up to Roy expectantly, his eyes hardening. They looked to be focusing, like a lens of a camera capturing its picture. Roy could see the flint strike behind his eyes, trying hard to ignite the fire there. "The State Alchemist Program gives access to the library right? And research documents and everything?"

"Yes, along with having to take some assignments and follow a soldier's life, you do get unlimited access to literature, lab space, and networks with other alchemists around the country. Should you pass the examination and keep your record in good regard, you will get a decent sum of money to fund your research," Roy told him, trying his best to ignore the hateful glare Pinako was giving him. The woman had stated exactly why she didn't want him there. She had told him exactly why the military was the devil, and she even stated exactly why Edward was not going to take him up on his offer. However, against all of her concern, her loss, Edward was considering the State Alchemist Program all the same. After all, he'd already lost so much that his freedom as an Amestrian citizen probably wouldn't be missed.

"Alphonse, your soul is still here. You're not dead, which means this can be reversed. We know now that human transmutation is impossible. Death can't be undone. But… I think we can get your body back. We just need to search for the answer," Edward muttered, talking more to himself than to anyone in the room. The kid's quick eyes stared at the table for a long time, taking in every option. Someone who only recognized Edward as a child would think he was thinking about staying home. However Roy saw Edward for what he was—a genius. And in that genius brain, he was already working on a way to return his brother and himself back to normal. Pinako knew that too, but she wouldn't have it.

"You don't need to join the bloody military to research alchemy. You're just a kid—I couldn't imagine you selling your soul away to blue devils like these—" the woman scolded the two boys. However, Roy could already see that the kid's mind was made up.

He stood up from the table and stretched his back where it still ached from sitting in the car all day. The Illumination flared at him in its aggravation but soon calmed down into a gentle glow. No one seemed concerned with his light, and he wasn't either. They all carried their own lights. They all had their own wounds to tend to. Roy didn't force Edward to make a decision, knowing that it would have been a long battle with Mrs. Rockbell if he did, but he left his name and contact information and told the kid that he will have a spot in the State Alchemists exam reserved for him should he take him up on his offer. With that, he gathered his coat and his lieutenant and left the bright light of the Elric's pain for the dimmer light of Resembool's midday sun. They walked to the car in silence and climbed in, ready to start their long drive home. Roy winced as he sat down and buckled into his seat. His back flared.

"When we reach Lassid, we are getting out and taking a nice long walk," Roy ordered Hawkeye as she started the car, already imagining himself strolling down the streets, stretching his aching back.

"Sir, I have enough change for you to grab a pay phone in town—"

"Why would I need to—?"

"To call a chiropractor, sir, on your walk."

….

The file looked as if the kid had thrown it into the nearby river before he came to turn it in. It was soaking wet, and Roy feared to open it only to tear the soaking wet pages. So it stayed flat on his desk, untouched. The other drenched mess, however, stood shivering across from his desk with his wet puppy pout still on his face. It was obvious that the kid didn't like the rain, and that the rain did not like him.

"Here's your stupid papers," Edward gritted out grumpily as gravity took him down into one of the two seats on the other side of Roy's desk. He slouched down into it so far that his neck was resting on the back of the chair in such a way that it made his head stare intently towards the ceiling. Roy looked up just to make sure that there was nothing especially interesting up there and then returned his attention to his subordinate. The kid was obviously tired, in pain, and wanting to go home. However, Roy needed him to give him a verbal account of what happened in the aid he was supposed to give New Optain through the flood.

"Report," Roy said simply. That one word carried a string of questions with it. Did it go well? Did you catch the train? Is the river contained? What is the damage to the town? Where is your brother? Did you catch a cold? Did you fill out a casualty form AD1300 for the people who were hurt? What happened? All of his questions were wrapped into one single word, into two syllables. It really made life easy. Edward, however, didn't seem to agree.

"It's all in the file. Read your own damn report."

"It is more like soup than a report, Fullmetal. Try putting it in a plastic bag next time to keep the papers out of the rain," Roy retorted, shifting the sodden mess to the corner of his desk with the end of his pen. The kid looked like he wanted to snap back but he knew that when advice was given, it should be taken into consideration for next time. It didn't mean he had to use it, he just had to remember it as an option.

Knowing that he still had to give his verbal report whether if Roy could read his papers or not, Edward let out a sigh and somehow managed to sink even deeper in his chair. He seemed exhausted and telling stories by the fire light of his illuminated ports just seemed to exhaust him more.

"We made our train to Optain, but because of the weather it stopped short at a water and fuel station in Wakudu for turn around. We had to find a car to take us the rest of the way," Edward told him. The young officer explained how he and his brother had hitched a ride on some farmer's hay cart and then got a trolley to the older town of Optain itself. The wind and rain were horrendous from the storm and they nearly had to turn back several times in fear of being swept away. The bridges were all taken out by the spreading and roaring river, which made their journey even longer than it should have been. With the soil being so water logged and loose from the bulging streams, it was impossible for Edward to simply make a bridge that could carry their weight safely. They arrived at Optain several hours past the expected time of arrival put out by Roy himself when he assigned him the mission, and the town was a wreck; the entire riverside had been evacuated and sandbag walls were being washed away with the ferocity of the flood. Some of the houses had already been destroyed by the raging waters, and people were stranded on roofs. Edward and Alphonse both rushed forward to help quell the disaster, but their boots immediately began to fill with water and Edward nearly got swept away in the current himself.

"Hell…. Colonel, it was bad. I could barely get to the riverside by myself. Alphonse wanted to help but I couldn't let him go near the water. If he fell…. Oh my God, Colonel, if he fell his blood seal could have been history. He wouldn't listen. I had to pull rank on my own brother and use my pocket watch to make him stay on shore," Edward exclaimed, his voice still carried the disbelief and fear he must have held in the chaos. He closed his eyes and ran his hand down his face, exhaustion showing clear. Stimulation seemed to be the only thing keeping him awake at that point. However, even he knew that the quickest way to get out of there was to finish his report so he could leave. So he continued and painted a picture in words of how he helped stop the flood.

He'd had to pull the team back from the river and make a barrier farther into the city. They were risking too many lives being right near the chaos of the flood. Even though they had to sacrifice some houses, the majority of those being severed by their makeshift dam were already being swept away from the roaring waters. Edward used alchemy to turn the cobblestones of the streets into a wall to hold the river at bay and keep it away from the rest of the town. Optain's disaster team, a band of citizens who were helping evacuate and carry sandbags, reinforced the wall with heavy sand weights to keep it up. Unfortunately, they weren't fast enough. A section of the wall broke down, and like an annual dam release, all hell broke loose. Edward rebuilt the wall, but damage was already done. People were toppled, broken, or completely swept away. Blinding lights roared through the rain of the storm as flashes of broken bones, lightning bright fissures of concussed brains, or the haunting glow of waterlogged lungs speckled the darkened town like stars in a clear night sky. A particularly heavy wave caught the side of a battered building and brought it down on top of a few farmer's heads.

"It was like I was standing in the middle of the galaxy looking at these millions stars all around me. I never saw so much light before," Edward hummed, his bagged and tired eyes distant. The kid seemed disturbed from the mission and Roy didn't blame him. Death was never an easy thing, especially when one thought it could have been prevented. Edward found out what it was like for someone to die at a very early age, but with the Illumination it seemed to be different. Roy actually didn't know what it looked like for someone to die with the Illumination. Of course, he had seen countless deaths in the Ishvalan War—more than anyone should—however, the Illumination started after he returned from the desert.

He wondered what it looked like for someone to just lose all sense of pain and become still. Was the light that already consumed their bodies snuffed out like a candle? Or did it escape them as their soul dispersed? He remembered listening to some of the chaplains in the command center say that the Illumination was a way for your soul to seek freedom and relief. Every scrape glowed because that was your soul seeking the world outside of its body. Death was just a release of a soul from the capsule that contained it. Roy thought the notion was ridiculous, but it still made him curious about what it was like to actually see death itself. Edward probably had enough experience with it by now.

"How many casualties?" Roy asked, hoping to push the conversation onward and get to the end of the report.

"Six altogether. Three farmers, a banker, the station master, and a house father. They all have AD1300s filled out along with the search and recovery forms the 698th brought when they finally decided to show up," the child ground out, resentment obvious.

"They weren't dispatched until the following morning. They got there when they were supposed to, Fullmetal."

"Well, maybe if they got there sooner people wouldn't be lit up like a fucking yule tree!" Edward exclaimed, throwing himself out of his chair in a sudden rush of energy. Water droplets flew from his soaking wet coat sleeves as he flung his arms out in exasperation, and the drops hit Roy right in the face. The kid was drowning in water and Roy knew it wasn't just from walking to the Command Center from the train station. He was still in the same clothes that he left in. The flood water had drenched him to the bone and the rain added to the weight. He could see how cold the Major was as he turned his back to his desk and started to pace the office floor to warm up. His body was shivering so much that his hand shook as he ran it through his sopping wet bangs in an attempt to get them out of his face. Roy thought of lighting a fire for him to warm up by, but he had no fuel other than overdue paperwork. The kid just had to endure it along with the pain from the storm that shone from his ports in an astoundingly bright light.

"Why did we have to go by ourselves?" Edward asked, his voice no longer harsh but reflective as the verbal report made him go back and consider the circumstances in hindsight. Golden eyes turned towards Roy and caught his dead center. They held the burning glow he remembered igniting all of those years ago in Resembool, but they were being drowned in a watery grief from ghosts so recently made and encountered. "If we had more people… if I made that wall stronger then maybe—"

"Fullmetal, no one knew it was going to be that bad. We thought that one State Alchemist would be enough. Be grateful that you were able to stabilize the situation enough to prevent the entire town from being swept away," Roy told him, his voice only slightly softer than his usual hard tone. The golden eyes looked away from him and back down at the floor as if contemplating something. He looked distant, and Roy knew that the farther someone wanders into their thoughts, the more they get lost to reality. "Edward, are you going to be okay?"

The kid looked up, and the normal cocky smirk grew back on his face as the he reached up and tiredly massaged his neck with his automail hand. A little chuckle escaped his lips, as if he was laughing at Roy's concern. However, the Colonel knew that Edward was just telling him it was nothing to worry about.

"Me? I'm fine, I guess. Alphonse, though… he's taking it hard. He was able to save one casualty's family but… there are only so many people you can carry at one time, even if you are a giant suit of metal. When he went back…" Edward shrugged his shoulders, the exhaustion evident in his voice and the bags under his eyes.

"I guess it's good that the Illumination doesn't affect your brother, or he might have strained his back from saving all those people," Roy commented lightly, hoping to continue to lift the conversation out of the depths to which it fell. It was a weak attempt to clamber out of the mud pits of grief, but it was an attempt all the same. Edward, however, took the little lift Roy was offering him and bounded out of the ditch. It seemed he didn't want to stay in the past for too long.

"Like you? Sheesh, you're glowing like a firework about to go off. You would think a bastard like you would see a doctor, or something," the kid snorted as he pointed out his pain. He looked him over several times and Roy caught his eyes lingering on his radiating carpal tunnel, his glistening back pain, and his luminescent migraine. "Is it an old age requirement to light up like that or what?"

"Is it a requirement for short people to be so bratty?"

Edward threw many profanities his way, all of which Roy tuned out while he tried to find a better position to ease his back. Those days of sitting in uncomfortable chairs still took a toll on his back, even though he was no longer doing long convoys in rickety military vehicles anymore. The light pain medication Hawkeye had given him earlier didn't help noticeably, which made Roy very upset with the amount of light his body was giving off. Was it an old age requirement to acquire more Illumination? He had seen countless elderlies with their entire skeletons glowing from osteoporosis, their hearts in flames from cardiovascular disease, and their eyes being robbed from them in bursts of light from diabetes. In children, it was the occasional cut or scrape glowing like a little candle from a day of roughhousing in the park. He wasn't old, was he? He was only thirty, for Pete's sake! If he was aching this bad already, he feared for what his forties or senior years would bring. Why didn't he go to a chiropractor?

Thunder rolled outside and snapped Roy from his wandering thoughts and back to the report he was being presented with. The sound of the thunder was so loud that Roy almost missed the pained hiss that escaped his subordinate. He watched with wide eyes as Edward doubled over his left automail leg as the sputtering light of its Illumination trickled down from the port all the way through the toes like a waterfall. The light glowed fiercely, and the kid furiously tried to massage the pain from his stump with both of his hands. The only thing Roy could hear was the pitter patter of rain against his window and the almost-but-not-quite silent curses that were muttered by his subordinate. It seemed like hours but was probably only minutes before Roy saw the light sputter and flicker out in Edward's leg, and the only lights left on him were those around his automail ports. Edward let out a relieved sigh and urged his tired body to straighten out. The kid was a wreck.

"Hey, can I have some of your aspirin before I go?" Edward asked him eagerly. It was obvious he wanted some relief to the sparkling lights around him.

"Don't have any."

"Of course you have some, you always do. If you didn't your headache would consume your ugly head," he growled at him, clearly angry that he wouldn't share.

Roy held up his hands as if to show that he wasn't holding any bottles of medicine behind his back. "Honestly. I don't have any. I ran out. First Lieutenant Hawkeye shared hers with me."

"Damn. I just ran out at the barracks. Looks like we are both in the hole," Edward grumbled as his eyes wandered out the window, probably imagining the trek through the rain to the drug store. He was already soaking wet and looked like he was on the verge of falling over. Roy glanced at the clock and noticed that his lunch hour was approaching. Was it really only twelve? He felt like he has been there for ages.

As his back gave a rather particularly painful twinge, he realized that it was his spine that thought he has been in the office for ages and not just himself. What he wouldn't do just to get out of this chair for a good few minutes. What he wouldn't do to go to the chiropractor.

Roy groaned as he stood up, his back celebrating the relief brought by movement. He twisted back and forth to shake the light from himself before yanking his greatcoat off the back of his chair. Its heavy hide, though soaked when he first came into the office that morning. had shed its water and was now dry and warm, unlike Ed, who still resembled a wet dog.

"Come on, let's go," Roy muttered, snatching up his hat and tucking it under his arm.

"Where do you think you're going?" Edward asked, befuddled by his sudden motion. "I don't need you to walk me to the store, I'm not a child!"

"You are a child until you're 18 years old. I am not walking you to the store, I'm going myself. Hawkeye made it quite clear that she won't be sharing anymore of her pain relievers with me. 'You're an officer, sir, buy your own,'" Roy mocked with a smirk as he walked out his office door. He knew full well that the Lieutenant could hear him.

Hawkeye stood across the office at her own desk, her shoulder flaring with a radiant glow. She gave him a warning glare, and Roy smiled back innocently. Though they bickered back and forth on occasion, it was all in light fun. Hawkeye, however, didn't seem to like fun, because she always had to get the upper hand. This time it was with the giant stack of papers she lifted lifted up which were meant for his desk. Roy's smirk disappeared as fast as hers grew. She just had to ruin his day.

The others in the office seemed to notice that he had his raincoat on and was heading out, and were all too eager to ask favors of him so they wouldn't have to fight the storm outside themselves.

"Hey are you going to the store in this weather?" Sergeant Fuery asked, his voice actually inquiring. Roy noticed that his hands glowing from various cuts and burns; he had been tinkering with the unit's dysfunctional radios and vehicles all week and had managed to get few bumps here and there. It also seemed that his hands were permanently stained with blackened oil no matter how many times Roy told him to go wash them. He currently had a small radio lying on his desk, gutted with all wires exposed. If Roy listened very hard, he could hear the light static through the microphone, signalling that it was fixed. "I know the food isn't the best in the mess hall but going out in this weather you could get sick, sir."

"Getting some aspirin. Do you want anything?" Roy asked him. The Sergeant pushed his glasses up as he thought for a little bit but shrugged as if anything other than the wires and mechanisms in front of him escaped his mind. Second Lieutenant Havoc, however, didn't hesitate to ask his commanding officer for a favor.

"How about a pack of cigarettes, sir? Some of the nice ones, none of those knock off sticks. They light for two seconds and cost twice as much," the man complained as he sat back in his chair, his legs kicked up on his desk. Roy had to try and imagine what him being productive actually looked like because he had yet to see it. However, beneath the cheap smile and the bedridden hair from a long night with his girlfriend (one who Roy knew for a fact would only last long enough to count as a one night stand), there was the faint glow of the man's lungs showing the wear years of smoking had cost them. They were like faint paper lanterns lit up in his chest. Roy knew it was Havoc's decision, but it was a habit that he had to stop.

"I am not going to buy you those cancer sticks just so you can fill the office with their nasty stench and empty my wallet," Roy reprimanded the him, but he was relentless. Knowing that he could not weasel a few smokes from his boss, he went to the next best thing.

"How about you chief? Don't you wanna do me a favor and—"

"Fullmetal isn't old enough to buy cigarettes!" Roy scolded the man as he shoved Ed toward the door. Out of everyone in the office, Havoc was probably the worse influence to have around his youngest subordinate.

Edward squirmed out of his grip muttering that he could find the door himself. They walked through the Command Center in silence and watched lower-ranked soldiers scatter around and quiver under the intimidation that simple rank brought on them. Roy remembered his days as a private and understood very well the difficulties of their job. They were pulled this way and that by one leader and the next, reprimanded for one thing then the next, just to watch their higher ups become hypocrites to their own speeches. He felt a sense of empathy for them that some officers liked to ignore. Did that make him enjoy watching them run around any less? No. No, it didn't. So with a smirk of pure amusement, he and Fullmetal made it to the building's exit and stood under the roof's edge, building up the courage to step foot into the cold, drowning rain.

Raindrops poured out of the clouds in buckets and hit anything beneath them with a deafening roar. Roy found it hard to believe that water droplets could be loud, but he could barely hear himself think, let alone what someone next to him might have to say. He guessed that was the beauty of rain—it gave you time to relax and wander in your own thoughts. That was why Roy hated it.

He sighed as he brought his cap out from underneath his arm, and he was about to put it on when he caught sight of his subordinate next to him. He was standing tall—well, as tall as he could—with his arms crossed and his eyes staring out into the storm. He was as focused as anyone could get. Someone who didn't know him might think that he would walk into the rain with his youthful energy without a problem. They would imagine that he was too determined to let a little rain stop him. Roy, however, saw the soaking wet, shivering kid beside him who was willing to go into the storm only so he could get back home to his brother for a well needed rest. Roy looked back down at his hat and relinquished a disbelieving breath as he slapped it down on his subordinate's head. It fell over the his eyes and he seemed startled at first, but when he straightened the thing out, he scowled at Roy ungratefully.

"What the fuck is this for?" he asked, taking the large tri-cornered rain cap off of his head and throwing it back at him. "I don't need your stupid hat to keep me dry, I'm already wet as it is."

"The last thing I need is a sick soldier who can't work. You will wear it and return it to me tomorrow when you have dried off," Roy ordered him, none too gently slamming it back on his subordinate's head. The kid growled as he pushed it back from his eyes; it was way too big for him and made the him look even more like a child than he already was, which was probably one of the reasons that he didn't like it.

"You're going to be out of uniform if you don't wear this stupid thing," Edward warned him.

"Not as much trouble as you would be in if you don't obey my orders," Roy retorted, easily pulling rank over him.

"Wet match."

"Shrimp," Roy retorted. He stepped out from the minimal cover the lip of the roof provided them and into the torment of the storm. With how loud it was, he could only faintly hear the squeaking of his subordinate's lengthy curses and colorful vocabulary. On second thought, maybe the rain wasn't that bad.

They left the gates of the Command Center and slowly trudged their way down the streets towards the nearest drug store. It was a silent walk, almost peaceful, if Roy ignored every single drop of rain that pelted his head. Puddles on the sidewalk formed rivers down the streets and flooded the grates that lead into the depths of the sewers. They were so deep at some points that Roy was afraid that the water would seep over the brim of his boots and soak his feet.

It was an ugly day, but he supposed every day wasn't that pretty to begin with anyway. As they walked, Roy saw many other civilians running through the street, trying to seek shelter in some of the oddest places. He spotted a taxi driver with his liver glowing bright white from years of flooding it with alcohol hiding in the safety of his cab as his customer, an old woman with a rather luminous hip replacement, struggled to open a ratty old umbrella. A young child with a viciously Illuminated head cold was standing outside the sweet shop awning, desperately trying to taste the colorful flavor a rather large lollipop that his clogged nose denied him. Roy knew that elsewhere, his mother was probably worried about him getting sicker than he already was.

The drug store was nothing special. It had dim, flickering lights of a faulty and out of date electrical system that lit up the haphazard wooden shelves stocked with random and sometimes questionable goods. The only business the shop really saw was the occasional flood of hungry soldiers who desperately wanted an escape from the office and a better taste in their mouth than what the cafeteria offered. Homemade subs were offered in the back of the store, and Roy had enjoyed them on more than one occasion. For as run down as the place was, they could put together a mean sandwich. He would often eat it outside on the lopsided wooden bench that tilted if you shifted your weight unevenly. However, today he wasn't getting a sandwich. He didn't expect it to be all that pleasurable in the flooding streets and the sub would be a soggy mess should he try to take it back to the office.

Roy browsed the shelves for where the store kept its over the counter medicine and only found anything of the likes in a small corner on a bottom shelf. It held a few measly boxes of off-brand antihistamines and eye drops.

Roy sighed as he got down on his knees and bent down to get a better look at the stock. His back scolded him angrily and lit up, giving better lighting than the fluorescent bulbs above him ever did, though it was more painful. Pushed to the back of the shelf, he saw one tiny bottle of pain relievers hiding behind the nasal allergy spray. He reached in and grabbed it after sifting around to make sure there weren't any more hiding in the shelf. He let out a breath of air as he turned it over and read the label.

"Did you find them?" Edward asked as he came around the corner, having been searching the other half of the store. His boots squeaked and squashed on the tile floors, filled with water like a sponge. He still wore the overly large hat on his head. Roy could see that the ends of his hair were already trying to dry as they were kept out of the rain for once that day. He was glad that something seemed to be drying on the kid. The Major was looking less like a wet dog by the second, though the unbearable pout still was there.

"Yeah," Roy breathed as he handed it up to his subordinate, who took it to read the label. Roy placed his hands on the ground to push himself up, but his back screamed relentlessly at the motion and made him severely doubt he could stand up. He really needed to see a chiropractor.

"God, you're ancient," Edward huffed as he held out his hand for him. Roy grimaced as he took it and was easily pulled to his feet by his subordinate. He made it up and stretched his back once more, a groan escaping his throat as he twisted back and forth. The light dimmed and left only a dull glow, but it was still present and threatened to make a bonfire of his back once more. "Seriously, why don't you see someone about that?" Edward asked as he handed the bottle back to him. Roy shrugged not really knowing the answer himself.

"This is the only bottle," Roy muttered, hoping to take the conversation away from his own ailments. He shook the bottle gently and listened to the pills rattle around on the inside over the roar of rain on the roof top.

Edward's eyes widened for a moment as he realized their predicament. His golden eyes darted down to the floor as his shoulders sank beneath his soaked coat. Roy imagined the light around his ports to glow a little brighter with the realization but if they did, Edward made no sign to show his discomfort. After weighing his options, the kid straightened himself out and rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh.

"You take it, bastard, or Lieutenant Hawkeye will chew you out otherwise," he told him.

"She'll find something else to complain about." Roy smirked lightheartedly as he tossed the pills back to his subordinate. "I'll pick some up on the way home after work. Until then, I'll just sneak some more of Hawkeye's when she isn't looking."

Edward glared at him and shoved the bottle back in his hand. "Hey, I'm not the one who can't even bend over to tie his fucking shoe. You'd think that with Illumination crap people wouldn't be so oblivious to their own pain, but apparently you're an even bigger idiot than I imagined," Edward scolded him, throwing his hands in the air in disbelief. Water droplets sprayed from the sleeves of his coat. "God, you're an idiot. Take it. Alphonse went to the grocery store today, maybe he picked something up. If not, I'm just gonna crash when I get back anyway."

Roy raised his eyebrow curiously as he looked his soaking wet subordinate over. "Are you sure?" he challenged him. The kid faltered slightly, taken back by his question. Golden eyes looked up into his as if he was in search of actual concern, not just the mocking tone Roy normally used. Edward found what he was looking for and looked down for a moment to absorb it.

"Yeah," he replied weakly. It took a moment for the kid to put the usual taunting smirk back on his face, but it was soon there, ready with another witty jab. "Yeah, I'm not old like you. I can still touch my toes without breaking myself."

"Maybe it's because you're already so close to them," Roy muttered, though not quietly enough.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Edward screeched.

….

Roy bought the bottle of pain relievers after getting a scolding from the shop owner for his subordinate's obscene language. Apparently it was a family place, but the lack of customers told him otherwise.

He snagged a newspaper as he waited by the door for a few moments as Edward browsed the dime a dozen book cart by the window for something interesting to read. There were only cheap romance novels and biographies about people no one cared about, so if he was trying to find something to aid in his alchemic research for the Philosopher's Stone, he wasn't going to get far looking in the corner store. Roy made a note to dig into more cases concerning the kid's real mission. He was trying all he could to even catch a few rumors about the Stone, but he was coming up as blank as the kid was. Dead end after dead end.

Roy shook his head and tried to settle himself into the news column in front of him. He didn't get more than a couple sentences into it before he felt a none too gentle kick to his shin. He glared over his newspaper at Ed, who was staring with equal intensity back at him. He held a cheap romance novel in his hand, one that Roy would never admit he'd actually read. Back in Ishval, you grabbed onto anything you could for entertainment. For only two days his had dwelled in the poorly written, overly sappy romance by a nameless author. Roy was amazed that the book was still selling with how bad it was.

"For Alphonse?" Roy asked. He didn't question if it was for Edward's own pleasure or not, because he knew that the kid would do his best to deny it entirely.

He let out a gruff snort and tucked the tiny book into his soaking wet coat to—ironically—keep it dry. "Yeah. He needs something to do when he can't sleep," Edward muttered. Roy sighed as he reached into his subordinate's pocket and pulled it back out, much to his annoyance.

"You aren't going to keep it dry like that, and your brother shouldn't have to read alphabet soup tonight," Roy scolded him as he dropped the book into the thin plastic bag the clerk had given him for his purchase. He folded it up and around the book and then stuffed it back into the pocket of the gaudy red coat. Edward shoved him off and straightened his coat out roughly. He muttered a grudging thanks, and Roy knew that was all he was going to get from him.

They headed back outside into the storm and made the trek back to the Command Center. Roy used his newly bought newspaper as a makeshift umbrella, and Edward kept as dry as he could under the hat he was borrowing. They walked passed the sweet shop to see the child with a head cold get scolded for being out in the rain by his now-arrived mother, whose belly was glowing with another child on the way. The taxi cab had moved onto other, dryer destinations and its customer had taken shelter, probably in one of the many buildings on the street. Roy sighed as he felt the rain drip down his neck through his exposed collar. If he had his hat on he'd be dry.

They kept light conversation about the office, mostly about their concern for Havoc's smoking problem.

"Don't you ever buy him cigarettes, Fullmetal," Roy warned him.

Edward just scoffed. "I'm not of age remember? Anyway, I might as well start digging his grave for him if I did."

They parted ways once they reached the Command Center. Roy still had a few hours of work to do until he could be free of his office chair for the day. His back ached just thinking of sitting in it. Edward, on the other hand, had had a long mission in Optain trying to control the flood, and he was heading back to his barracks for some well deserved rest. He was exhausted and drained from that mission, if the bags under his eyes told him anything. Roy remembered the verbal report the kid had given him, and he wouldn't want to hold him up anymore. The kid deserved his sleep.

After they exchanged some sharp quips with each other, Edward turned and left for his own lodgings. Roy watched the light from his automail ports fade like a lantern into the haze of the storm as he disappeared down the street. He sighed as he turned back towards the entrance to the Command Center and started walking back towards his dreaded office. A kid like that shouldn't be in that much pain.

When Roy made it back to his unit, Hawkeye was already waiting for him at his desk. He saw that the papers on it had doubled since he had left, and just seeing it felt like the woman had chained him to his desk for life. Roy groaned as he passed her and slipped off his coat, giving it a heavy flick to shake the water off in his subordinate's direction before dropping it on the back of his chair. Hawkeye was not amused as she wiped of the water droplets from her brow. He smirked at her lightheartedly.

"Did you get the pain medication from the store, sir?" she asked him.

Roy slowly sat back in his chair, groaning as his back eased into it. He was not liking being back to hunching over his desk. The light sparked and sputtered in his protest and he assumed that the Lieutenant had gotten her answer, but she always wanted a verbal account.

"No. Unfortunately, the store had run out."