A/N: After two months, here is the new chapter: at 3,320 words, it is officially the longest chapter.
My comment for this chapter: Look! Roy! Ed! They are in the same room. (I really did mean eventual Roy/Ed.)
Disclaimer: I do not own FMA
Warning: None, it's plot.
Chapter 13: Inconsistency
The black military car pulls up to the front of Roy Mustang's house. Roy pauses before thanking his driver and stepping out of the car. He isn't expecting visitors today, but Roy doesn't mind the company. He had just recently acquire a recipe from Charlotte, the secretary at the front desk of Headquarters, and he can always use someone to test it out. It is from experience that Roy had learned that not every woman would have the same taste in food as him.
Roy did not live in military residence or the dorms. He has a preference to living outside of military compound. His house is white two-story structure like most in neighbourhood. Some of the front yards have a flower garden to decorate their homely abode. Roy did not have the time, nor the want to spend capital resources on a garden. So his front lot remains bare, except for the green grass and the walkway to his front door. Alphonse and Edward are currently sitting on the wood steps raising to the porch.
From where he is standing, Roy could see the title of the book. Even with the light dimming as the sun is setting in the horizon. As Roy walks to them, Alphonse stands up with Edward following.
"Hi," Alphonse giving a crisp, clean, playful salute. Edward looks queerly at Alphonse for the mock greeting. Roy dotes on the thought of Edward copying Alphonse salute. He couldn't get the image to form.
The elder man notes that the weight of Edward's staring is different from the times before. Roy can feel Edward looking at him, and the assessment and observation from those gold eyes - no longer searching. Roy is happy to know that Edward is trying to make an identity for him, though the emotion isn't showing on his face. He didn't like the thought of being Edward's saviour or hero, whatever label the boy had decided to place on him.
Edward turns his head away to face the white painted wall of the house. "Hi." His voice is neither shy or quiet, yet he can detect a nervousness. Mustang suppresses his need to laugh at Edward's attempt to sound bored. Now wouldn't be the time, not when he is (technically) reintroducing himself to Edward.
"What brings you to my home?" Roy looks at Alphonse, expecting him to answer.
"I was wondering if Edward could look at your books on alchemy." Alphonse points at Roy's home, in the general direction of his private library. Roy can sense that Alphonse wants to ask something else. He can only guess it involves alchemy.
"We also need you to feed us." Edward interjects, slyly looking at Alphonse -suggesting it to be his idea.
"Edward!" Alphonse reddens from embarrassment. The vegetable soup had split to the ground when Alphonse had pulled his hands - along with the pot - away from the burning steam.
Roy smirks from amusement of Edward's betrayal.
"I hope Juliet knows of your whereabouts Edward? She is your guardian." Roy makes a point to look at Alphonse, more so than Edward. They can not have Juliet panic over Edward disappearing again so suddenly. In fact, it's only yesterday since that happen. Edward had ran away because of alchemy. He can recall the specific details that Alphonse had told him. Alphonse was showing Edward alchemy in the park when Edward started to panic. So why is Edward learning alchemy?
The boy's disappearance coincided with a couple of others, and the discovery of a sleeper. Division 2 and 4 are now on a high alert/activity status. Two males and a female had disappeared from their homes. They were later picked up not to far from the military residence. As it turns out, they were running away. Though they are under investigation to see if Alpha's organization is involve in some minuscule way. Roy imagines, Edward would be having a chat from someone in the fourth division some time in the near future, once his run away has come to light.
The sleeper is a more concerning matter. Officially three people are dead, and the child's target is still unknown. Roy isn't carry out the investigation, but it is important that he should keep tabs on it.
With a sheepish smile Alphonse gives a nervous laugh. "I could call her now to let her know."
"Then you can use the phone in my house." Roy climbs the steps to his porch, digging into his pocket for the key as the boys follow behind him. "Though you are starting to worry me Alphonse, forgetting your duties so easily like that."
"It's not like that! Stop laughing at me." Alphonse is desperate to redeem himself, and to get Edward to stop snickering. He points to Edward saying the first thought that came to mind, "You're the reason we're here."
x x x
Edward glares at Alphonse, keeping careful to not see Mustang. From glimpses he has of the man, there's a smirk on his face. He wants to growl at the man.
Mustang opens the door, and Edward looks inside before entering after Alphonse.
Juliet's home did not have two floors like Mustang's, only one. Her wooden floors are light brown-tan, which compliments the cream brown walls of her home. Her door is dark brown - Edward realises that almost everything is some form of brown. The left wall of the front entrance holds a row of pegs for coats, and systematically the shoes would go on the floor below your coat. No matter where Edward kicks his shoes, he will always find them to be below his coat later in the day if Juliet is home. To the right is the doorframe that leads to her living room - Edward hopes she doesn't mind the mess he left in there. White curtains, tan couches, a coffee table, and a desk tucked into the farthest corner of the room. Left side is the doorframe for the kitchen near the end of the hallway, before it turns ninety-degrees to the right. The rest of the hallway then just leads to their bedrooms.
Just from a peek inside before actually entering, it is completely different from Juliet's.
Mustang floors are also wooden, yet a dark cherry colour. Looking down he can see his reflection in the smooth wood. The walls are white with a few decorative pictures hanging in various places. The stairs to the upper floor is to his left, right by the front door. Edward follows Alphonse lead and hangs his coat on the coat stand by the stairs. An entire section of the wall is gone to his right side, giving him the full view of Mustang's living room.
"Have I been here before?" The words come out before Edward can think about them, yet instinctively he does feel he's been in that room before.
x x x
Both Alphonse and Roy seem surprise by Edward's question. They both have almost forgotten that yes, Edward has been here before. He was unconscious though, after fainting in front of Roy during the kidnapping attempt. "Once," Roy replies. "You were conscious at the time though." Roy shakes his head at Alphonse as he opens his mouth. He can not tell Edward it was during the kidnap attempt a few months ago. Edward didn't even know he is a target for the labs. He did not need to know.
"Since you already feel familiar with my living room – Alphonse the books are upstairs, I'll get started on dinner."
Edward flops on the couch, arms behind his head and feet barely reaching the end of the couch's arms. "What's being served?"
Roy takes off his black military-issued trench coat, watching Alphonse go up the stairs and turn into his library. "A recipe from Xing," Roy recites using Charlotte's exact words. "It's from the Ha'un region. The dishes there are usually sweet." She went into more detail about the recipes history: how it came to be, easy to make, and royal dish 'fit for a king.' Roy speculates that Charlotte knows the nature of the man: every man wants his own kingdom. He is no different, his ambition are just on a grander scale.
"If the dish is sweet it's Ha'an, not Ha'un. Those two regions aren't even close to each other." Edward shouts from the couch.
Roy huffs placing his coat on one of the arms of the coat stand. "They're close in pronunciation." He takes off his gloves and puts it in his pocket. "And how would you know, if I may know?"
"Read about it," Edward yawns and stretches.
"I thought you didn't like reading?" Roy says walking by Edward and into the kitchen.
"Being force to read every single…" Edward's brows is furrowing. He flashes to a sitting angrily on the couch instead of the relax sleeping position. His index finger is pointing at Roy in some form of blame. "How the hell did you know that!" Edward is stalking towards Roy, and the sound of the left automail leg reminds him of the danger he is up against. Roy smiles with a smirk.
He really cannot help about the next statement. "I feel I need to know of any reasons why you may need to grasp at me like a child and then faint..." It is a rather far fetch statement. Yet it is too fun in trying to decipher the red tinge in Edward's face: is it anger or embarrassment?
"Am I interrupting something?"
Both Roy and Edward turn to Alphonse and the stack of books in his arms. Roy can see Edward wanting to comment, if he isn't marvelling at the amount of books for him to get a start on alchemy. Roy really cannot help smirking now. Edward seems ready to keel over any second, or to run out from the living room window - maybe even through it.
Edward lowers his voice to an animalistic sound, "I'm not reading all of those."
"You don't have to, just certain chapters." Alphonse struggles his way to the coffee table in the center of the room.
"It's still a lot," Ed yells.
Roy removes himself from the room, leaving the boys to their alchemy. He has an irrational fear that if Edward becomes crankier from an empty stomach, Roy can say goodbye to his home. If someone is learning alchemy, who know what can happen. It is a fact Roy has learned from his own experience and watching his younger brother's alchemy lessons.
x x x
She likes it better when the military never knew of their existence. Three laboratory operation have been closed down, one of them being her own. Their leader, Alpha, is starting to show signs of paranoia. Every personnel of the organization are having their background check, even the friends of his family - or so the rumours went.
Kei shifts through the papers on the desk. Her temporary house is in a small good-for-nothing-town out in the middle of Ametris. A safe house, one of many throughout this country and others. She hates it. Didn't like the open space or the rolling plains, the city dwellings and the crowds of the streets are the places Kei prefers more.
There are no places to hide in the middle of nowhere. And she can only hope that she is laying low enough. The neighbours, who are yards away in their own houses, shouldn't be suspecting her of experimenting on kids and such. She is just an author finding the right set of mind to write her book. Kei is sure the details of her book aren't consistent when she talks to the residents of the town - frankly she didn't care. They can try and figure it out all they want, maybe even right it themselves (because she isn't going to).
It has been so long since the military assault, she can almost say that she miss those brats. They at least give her work to do. Then finally, a letter from her editor. Months of paranoia and she receives a letter telling her to wait for a bit longer. She wanted to throw the desk out the window, if only she can lift it. Reading further on gave her the relief she is in need of for the past months. The military heat has lessen, and so they can prepare. The records of each subject has been reviewed: a compilation of notes written by surviving doctors that have escape the lab, along with her personal notes that had accompany a few of the documents. The list is ten pages only. Comparing it to the amount of folders in the record room didn't even compare.
Priorities have been given with the top identification numbers being the most important, and decreasing she looks down the list. It amazes her the amount of face she can recall and correlate with the identification numbers. Kei can clearly define the face of the third highest on the list. Davis, the traitors, insistence of using the boy's name. She's a doctor, so why didn't she catch it? Dr. Fallor didn't catch it either though, but the man didn't really know anything. If Kei heard correctly, Dr. Fallor died in the assault. Davis had killed his entire team when trying to retrieve the subject, and for his crime is now to be shot on site. She looks at the identification number again, sketching and colouring the detail of the boy's face. The subjects description from the failed retrieval… Kei smiles. It is so remarkably similar to 15099's (or Edward as Davis prefers).
Davis and Edward. The two names bring question after question in her head. There is a relationship between the two, it is apparent now, if she thinks about things more carefully and clearly. Kei can imagine that Davis was (maybe is) more intimate with Edward than originally thought. Yet how far did Davis go? Kei can feel the curiosity itching.
She looks at the files on her desk and those in the box on the floor. The box of files came with the letter. All of the files have been taken away after the raid, yet an operative within the military is slowly compiling the files together - copying each page by hand and photographing the pages as extra insurance, then sending it to out where it will eventually reach her. There are twelve files in the box, with some new information: psychological examinations by doctors and most importantly the subjects current address of resident.
"So much planning to do," Kei says to herself. She needs to write a letter back: ask for information of the military compound and their residency area, security procedures of handling the subjects, the subjects current psychological status (if any), and the activities of the specified subjects (though without a picture they couldn't do anything). There is much planning to be done if she wants to retrieve at least the top ten of the list.
x x x
"How's he doing?" Roy asks Alphonse when he walks into the kitchen. He scrubs at the dish in his hand, as Alphonse stands in front of the second sink to his left to dry the dishes.
"Edward's fast learner. And despite his insistence to not wanting read, he's driving through the books and memorising them by word."
"If I recall correctly, you are exactly the same." Roy remembers very clearly. Teaching Alphonse alchemy had been enjoyable. It had forced him to review all the basics and more further on in Alphonse studies. He knows more about the other types of alchemy besides his elemental and atmospheric specialisation.
"What I'm saying is that he's memorising more than I did when I started," Alphonse says in complete awe.
"Don't forget, he's older than you were at that time." He places a dish to Alphonse drying pile as he proceeds with the pots. "How did you convince him to start alchemy lessons?"
"I didn't." There is a pause in Alphonse's movements. Roy can see that Alphonse is also questioning Edward's sudden interest.
Alphonse shakes his head, and Roy finds that he can only frown in concentration. Juliet couldn't be an influence, and from what Alphonse tells him, there is no one else in Edward's life.
"I asked him, but he didn't say anything."
Roy almost did not catch it, but Alphonse gave a shy look his way as though afraid or being timid. "Do you speculate something?" Again, the timidity before Alphonse feels courageous enough to speak.
"I was told about the sleeper this morning, and told to investigate his file. Beforehand, I read some of the Labs files on Edward, and I notice an 'inconsistencies' in some of the experiment reports similar to the sleeper's."
"Inconsistency?"
"In the sleeper's some of the files seem incomplete or…" Alphonse struggles to find a word that would finish his description. The inconsistencies didn't just show up in Edward's files and the sleeper, but a few others. "…or they don't match the laboratory procedures that I had observed while undercover. Sometimes there's a lack of description within the files, or it sounds as though the person writing the report is just throwing details together. There could be others, but the false file was written better."
"Are you saying some of the files are made-up?" Roy already knew that this is the case, with the files 'inconsistencies' with each other. It's a headache-inducer. It just creates more theoretical problematic scenario's for him and the rest of Division 2. "I hope you understand what you are saying Alphonse."
Alphonse nods regrettably. "There could be the chance that Edward's a sleeper."
"We have to keep an eye on him. Edward might not be a sleeper, if the Lab is just trying to cover something up within it's own walls - so to speak. But no ones willing to take the chance."
"Who was the target?"
"Unknown, at the moment. Still, there were many important people in that room. We just need one scared high society man to suggest an extermination." It feels as though there is grime in his mouth when he says that last word. It was used so efficiently in the last war, and now again for these children.
Alphonse shudders.
"Don't worry, it should not get that far." Roy wouldn't allow it. "And the inconsistency could mean anything. Go through the file and try to figure out what the inconsistency relates too." Roy pauses, see the signs that Alphonse is in deep thought.
"What other reasons if not conditioning a person to kill someone on command."
Alphonse is fishing for a place to start, and Roy can only provide the knowledge being the teen's mentor since Alphonse childhood. "To conceal information Edward might have discovered, hide information from other the other scientist in the lab - I'm sure they are no different from alchemist."
Apart from the seriousness of the topic, Alphonse laughs at the comment, knowing the paranoia of research alchemist.
"They could have been doing experiment without authorisation, there are really a number of reasons." Roy finishes and places the last dish into the adjacent sink.
"Does it really take that long to wash dishes?" Edward stomps into the kitchen, eyeing Alphonse and Roy. Roy could feel the blame is inevitably going to land on him. "Stop wasting his time Mustang, he needs to help me." He watches Alphonse being drag back into the living room, Edward already throwing the problem in his face.
Roy washes and dries the last dish himself, wondering how often this rampage is going to occur in the next few weeks. Or when the boys would come out with the question that had been nagging at them. Roy noticed during dinner that the both of the keep making glances in his direction. I could make the haphazardous guess that it is Alphonse job to ask, and it is Edward with the question.
Author to Reader/Reviewer: Thank you to all who are reading this story and those that reviewed. Special thank you to those that critiqued. I melt with happiness. So there are only two people I could remember that didn't/couldn't get a response back from me. (Sorry to anyone I couldn't remember).
IcEcReAm69: For reading it in one go, I salute you. As for the present tense comment, the truth of the matter is that I hate using it. :P But the university english essays (in my case)are required to be written in present tense - there is an exception though. That is my reason forusing it, and I'm finished the English course now! But to keep consistency (or the sorta consistency if I'm still switching tenses within the story), it's going to stay present tense - I can't say the same for the revised version though. And don't worry, I loveexcessively long reviews!
silverbrumby123: Receiving a review with 3/4 of this chapter written, that was cool. Receiving a review two months after the last chapter was posted, that was"priceless" (copyright to MasterCard :D :P). You get an award.
Speaking of awards. Award for the shortest review goes to LonelyInACrowd. lol, it's now in my account page unless you rather not have your name there. Just tell me. If I missed anyone...tell me.