She was still screaming. Trying to pull herself away from him, to the pile of dirt and rubble Roy and Alphonse had disappeared under. Ed's grip didn't falter even as his voice gave out and he was forced to stop yelling. He tightened his arms around the lieutenant's waist even though his shoulder port ached like a bitch and his flesh arm was hurting like hell too.

Eventually Riza stopped screaming, but she was still trying to pull away from him.

Ed thought maybe he should just…. Wait it out.

He pressed his forehead against the lieutenant's back, shutting his eyes tight. His throat hurt way to much to yell at her at the moment. So…. He waited.

Eventually she stopped struggling too.

…

"You done?" Ed said, cringing at both the pain in his throat and how scratchy and weak his voice sounded.

…

She pulled away from him, successfully this time. He fell forward a bit before catching himself on his arms. Ed felt around for half a moment frantically, afraid that she might have left or something-

"Your voice sounds terrible." Riza said somewhere in the dark. Ed chuckled briefly, cutting himself off with a cough or two.

"Yeah, you too."

Another deafening silence. Ed was going to say something again when he felt a hand on his flesh shoulder, fingers curling into it gently. He tensed, but calmed himself quickly when the familiar voice spoke again.

"I'm sorry, Edward."

Ed made a sound that may have been 'what?'

Riza sighed. "I… I shouldn't…. I…" another sigh "I lost my composure, I'm sorry."

Ed chuckled again and reached for her hand with his flesh one. "Gimme your hand."

"Alright."

…

Ed… didn't feel anything.

"Are you holding the automail one?"

…

"Yes. Apologies."

He felt Riza's hand wrap around his. Her grip was too tight and her fingers were trembling. Ed squeezed his grip a moment.

"You got any-" he started to hack out another series of coughs. He heard Riza shift, moving to be by his side and rubbing her free hand in comforting circles on his back. After some coughs, Ed grinded his teeth and tried again, summarizing his question. "Light?"

She kept her hand on his back, and Ed heard shifting. Then a sigh.

"No, unfortunately."

Ed snorted.

"I agree." Riza sighed. "Here, let me help you sit back."

A bit of awkward shuffling around and they both managed to sit back against the walls of the dark tunnel.

Ed stared into nothing. There really wasn't anything else to look at. The lieutenant was on his left, his flesh hand wrapped tightly around her fingers. She was shaking. But, now that he had a moment to think, it might be both of them.

"Do-" he coughed, internally swore, and tried again "Do you think they're…."

Ed couldn't make himself finish that thought out loud. And from how Riza's grip tightened considerably, it seemed she didn't want to either.

Ed was the first to break the following silence. Using the wall as leverage, he pushed himself back onto his feet, cursing internally at the pain that shot up his left leg.

"Alright," he said "let's go look for them."

"Right." Riza said.

…

"I know you can't see it, but I nodded."

Ed snorted out his amusement and took a bit of pride at the chuckle that got from her.

His ears were ringing and he felt like he was made of fractured glass. As his awareness trickled back, the sound of clanking and shifting metal slowly emerged from the ringing. His eyes opened and he almost screamed at the pair of red lights glowing just above him.

"Al?" Roy said. Apparently too abruptly, as Al almost fell over.

"Colonel, you're up!" The boy sounded far too relieved. "You weren't moving or saying anything and….well, it's hard for me to feel for a pulse, y'know?"

Roy forced a chuckle "I know, Al." He looked around, as much as he was able too, anyway. "Where are we?"

"Underground." Al said. "…Sorry, that's all I know. There's….." Al looked left and right a bit "Not much else to say otherwise."

"I….Yeah, I guess." Roy said, wincing at an especially painful movement of his arm. It hurt a lot, but….all things considered he was oddly comfortable being carried around by a suit of armor. "What happened?"

"The ground collapsed after that mole thing ran off, we fell down. Um…. A lot of ground fell down with us. I think I managed to shield you a bit with my armor, but I guess….I guess it wasn't enough-"

"Enough of that, Alphonse." Roy cut him off with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I get the feeling I would've just been buried alive if you hadn't helped me out there."

"Oh. Uh. Okay!"

"How about the Lieutenant and your brother?"

"I think Ed got the Lieutenant away from the hole before it caved in."

Roy sighed a bit, relieved. "That's…that's good. Then they're okay."

"Yeah." Al said. He looked straight ahead. "There's a lot of tunnels down here too…."

Roy furrowed his brow, narrowing his eyes in the direction Al was looking. "How long have we been walking?"

"Um…. At least an hour?" Al said, fidgeting slightly. "Probably longer."

"How long since we fell?"

"Longer than an hour." Al said, chuckling a bit awkwardly. "Sorry, I wasn't paying much attention to the time I spent digging us out."

"Fair 'nough." Roy sighed. He squinted down the tunnel some more. "You can see down here?"

"Oh, uh, yeah." Al said "I mean, it's not bright but, uh, I can see. It's dark, though, you're not blind."

"That's a relief." Roy rolled his eyes, smiling a bit. "…Feel free to not answer, but you can see in the dark?"

"Yeah." Al said "I'm not sure how that works, but I'm not sure how I can see in the first place. Or talk or hear or…move. I, uh, I do a lot of things I don't understand how it's possible."

"Hm." Was all Roy said to acknowledge that.

"Colonel," Al said before quiet settled in "Do you- do you think they're okay?"

Roy took a moment to process the question. "You said they didn't fall with us."

"Well, yeah, but, uh, I mean…. Emotionally." Al said. His arms tightened a bit around Roy's body. The colonel furrowed his brow.

"…I think…. I think they should be okay." He took a breathe, then relaxed. "The Lieutenant might be a bit frazzled, and Ed…." He trailed off, hmming.

"If the Lieutenant is obviously distressed, I think Ed will keep his cool pretty well." Al said, completely derailing Roy's deductive reasoning. Al's soul fire eyes darted to him a moment, and apparently his expression was amusing as the armored spirit chuckled a bit. "I know, I know, it sounds weird."

"Yeah. FullMetal can be calm?" Roy said, disbelief dripping from his words.

"Yeah, oddly enough." Al said. His voice sound a bit less distress as he continued on "If he thinks someone needs him to be calm, he'll be calm. I, uh, I think his temper always how it is because he thinks he needs to be angry for me? It's kind of weird logic, but it is Ed."

Al kept talking about his brother, little tidbits of information and small stories of their childhood together. Roy closed his eyes, pressing the side of his face to Al's chest plate. The armored spirit was rambling, he got the feeling they both knew that. But the boy seemed less worried when he spoke of his elder brother, and that was something Roy was happy to indulge him with.

They'll find them. It's best to keep their chins up.

A/N

Ed and Riza's scenes are going to be a pain to write because i'm a masochist who made it so they can't see and one of them can barely talk.