{[Prepare for an oncoming of insane cheesiness and sappy love]}

Edward curled slightly inward on himself, as his body spasmed with another series of painful coughs and wheezes.

How much longer would he have to endure this? Was God finally getting back at him? Punishing him for daring to practice the forbidden, for all the wrong and hurt he had caused throughout his useless life? If he was, Ed wished that it would just end. Twenty days of endless brutal torture was enough, right?

Of course not. Nothing could amount to the damage he'd caused. But even so, he didn't know how much more he could take of this. His wounds along his abdomen and arms festered sickeningly, many of which had become large, red, swollen lumps oozing green odorous discharge. He hadn't slept in almost four days; his lungs stung and burned almost constantly, and every time he felt his eyes shut and slumber begin to grab hold of him, he would fall into another choking fit, or his head would throb unbearably, or the destroyed muscles in his broken leg would fluctuate violently. Either way, God was making sure to make his long-awaited payback a living hell.

Edward straightened back as much as he could, eyes watering from the pain and chest quivering, as he breathed haggardly through his bloody chapped lips. Really, it was all too much.

Just end it. Somebody, please, just kill me now. I want it all to stop.

As if his prayers had finally been answered for once, the door slid open loudly, sweet light flowing in momentarily in a thick band of golden orange, before dropping harshly back to the ground, loud pants and gasps the only sound left in the room.

Edward's stomach caught in his throat. Oh god, Jerone was back.

"W-what…what do you want…" he involuntarily breathed. Shutup, Ed! He thought, wanting to smack himself in the face.

"You h-here to piss of some more?" he asked, voice shaking uncontrollably from fear. The pants cut short, as he heard uneven footsteps drag their way towards him. And Ed knew he would die today. Because he was sure his body couldn't stand another brutal beating from the deranged man.

This was Ed's problem. If he had just taken the abuse from Jerone without a fight, maybe he wouldn't be in this mess. If he had just forcefully bit his tongue, maybe he'd be home with Alphonse, searching for the stone and restoring their bodies like they promised. But no. First all Ed cared about was his pride as a man. He wanted to show Jerone that nothing could hurt him; that he was the stronger man, no matter if he was small or bound up to a chair and defiled in more ways than one. But after time, he knew his pride was gone, and smart-assing his way through the violations were simply a way out. A futile way of comfort to forget the pain. To hopelessly tell himself that he could 'get through it' or that it 'didn't hurt'.

And so, in reflexive security he said, "Go on! Do your worst, asshole…I can take…t-take it…" as Jerone's hand grabbed his shoulder.

This was it.

"…Ed?"

Edward's heart almost stopped, eyes widening as if delusional.

No!

"C-Colonel?"

"Ed," Roy sighed, eyes wide with relief as a small, almost unbelieving, smile tugged on his lips. His fingers trembled and his heart beat with intense briskness. "It's…really you-"

Roy suddenly sputtered and spat, shaking his head with complete disgust. "Ew! Fullmetal, what the hell! Don't spit on- Oh my god it's on my mouth!"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Ed roared after projecting his saliva, craning his neck back to glare into the Colonel's eyes. "I told you not to come!"

Roy wiped his face, vigorously scrubbing the horribly sticky and miry goo off his nose and lips. That worried him a little. Saliva was only sticky if the owner was extremely dehydrated. But his annoyance pushed that thought to the back of his mind temporarily. He turned down to glower at the boy, his eyebrows lowered in astonishment and irritation. "Are you serious? I run around doing shit for three weeks, I risk my life freezing my ass off in a desert, face a madman out to slit my throat, and then you actually have the nerve to ask me 'what the hell I'm doing here?'"

"You could've gotten hurt, you bastard!" Ed forced, voice high and bitter, but also grounding with grief. Roy, apparently, didn't realize, or didn't care.

"Could have gotten hurt? And you think that you would have been any better off? Whose ass do you think I'm saving, you ungrateful son of a-"

Roy broke off, finally noticing the way the skin around one of Edward's eye lids was thick and swollen and his lip was split. He withdrew a bit, scanning the boy fully, gruesomely taking in the bruises, the burns, the missing steel arm, the protruding bones and scrawny build, the cuts, the blood the blood the blood.

"Oh my god…" he breathed, distasteful bile rising in the back of his throat as he realized what Edward had been put through all this time. What he had allowed Edward to have been put through all this time.

Roy hastily reached down, clumsily untying Edward's bound arm oh my god his fingers how did they get so mangled and sitting him up in an attempt to relieve some of the bodily stress. Edward gave a small sharp grunt, and Roy quickly looked to his clammy face to see what was wrong.

"L-leg…" Ed managed to choke out. The colonel eyes trailed down, and winced and shot his hand up quickly to his mouth upon seeing the boy's leg jetting upward at the knee and twisting slightly inward. He almost wanted to throw up.

"Goddamn, Ed." Roy pushed the chair away, sitting Ed against the wall, hands worriedly groping and exploring his face and torso for any more wounds or injuries.

"See what I mean? This guy isn't playing around. He will kill you, Colonel." Ed said, flicking his wrist up and down to acclimate to the movement again. "God, why couldn't you just stay at Central like I told you with your stupid almighty attitu-"

"You think I would stay and do nothing after I get a call like that?" Roy interrupted about the call he got weeks ago from Jerone. "You make me go through all this shit and you actually think I'm doing this for fun?"

Edward scoffed. For a reason or not, he was almost hysterical. "Well if it was so much trouble, why don't you just go back to Central and throw this into another of your problems that aren't worth your time? Because you sure have been doing a mighty fine job of that so far."

Roy raised his brows, not understanding. "What are you getting at, Fullmetal?"

"Just admit it, Colonel. It's not like you've ever cared about me to begin with. I was just you're ticket to promotions. You're way to boost up higher in the ranks. And if I were gone, you'd be out-shined by some other brainwashed bastard looking to suck up to the Fuhrer."

Ed shut his mouth, quickly turning to Roy, a look on his face as if he were a child just being caught red-handed stealing from a cookie jar. Roy's eyes were wide, his lips parted in disbelief. "Is that…what you really think?"

Ed turned away, disgust for himself growing in the pit of his stomach.

Of course Ed didn't mean it. He didn't even know why he said it. The colonel had helped him and Al out more often than he wanted to steadily admit. In fact, the colonel was the only one in that hell-bound military that had would readily stand by them no matter what. The only one that actually gave a fuck about what was going on in their lives. Ed was just spouting out nonsense again, because he really didn't want Roy to care about him. There was no reason for Roy to have any concern for them, but for some reason he did and that scared Ed. Because being associated with Edward Elric never ended up well. Edward Elric only brought pain to others. Only messed things up. Yet despite it all, Roy Mustang still chose to care for him. Still chose to bother. Still chose to come out here and risk his life for this punk. And that scared Ed.

"You're right, Ed." Roy complied harshly, causing Ed's neck to jerk up in shock. "I didn't care about you. I had wanted to make it to the top. I wanted it so bad. And when I found you, I knew you were just what I needed to please my superiors. I used you. Used you for my own selfish reasons."

Ed could hardly believe what he was hearing. He turned away again, biting his lip and fighting back the unneeded tears. Why was he so close to crying? He knew it was true anyway. How many times had he told himself that? But to hear it coming from the very man's mouth, it was almost heart breaking.

"I used you, Ed. But things changed. I hated your arrogant mouth. Hated the way you walked and spoke as if everyone had to listen to you. You made my life in the office a living hell. You made me chase after you, clean up after you...You were such a brat, only caring about what you wanted." His voice softened "But then I began to know you guys. I found the way you two were steadfast, full of heart, never actually caring about yourselves, determined. God forbid, I fell in love with you two."

Ed turned to Roy, who was fixing a leveled glare at him. "I love you, Ed. You and Al both. You're like sons to me. And even now I'm still being selfish because through this love a part of me still wants retribution. I hurt so many people, Ed. So many you cant even begin to understand. But then I saw you two; broken and pathetic, and alone, and I wanted to fix things. So let me, Ed. Let me help you, when I couldn't help them long ago. Let me fix my own sins while I help you fix yours."

Ed looked down at himself; broken, pathetic, alone.

"I-" Edward swallowed, his voice catching in his throat and breaking without consent.

Roy stared down at the boy, watching as his eyes shined in the sunset with forming tears. His throat clenched uncomfortably, and he felt a pang of guilt rise in him. "No…Edward, no…" He said, leaving his hand to hover hesitantly in front of the boy's face, stricken dumbfounded on what to say.

People would say that Roy was a man of words, because he had an undoubtedly smooth way of talking. He was the King of Manipulation, the Baron of Concubines, as some envious colleagues would whisper as he walked by. Roy had to disagree. He would just say it as it is. He didn't really believe that he had a special talent for speech. Even just then, when he made his huge, heartfelt message about his love for Ed and Al, he was just saying it as it is. He didn't think of it as flowery or smooth, it was just the truth. He didn't feel he had a suave way of talking and that came especially with comforting. He had never been particularly good at that, no matter who it was. And when Edward turned his glassy eyes away, and forced through his constricted throat, "I thought he would kill you…" he could only close his eyes, and respond with a sullen,

"Me too, kid."

Ed bit his lip and his shoulders loosened, before tensing up again and quivering violently, as tears finally found their way down his cheeks. "I'm scared, Colonel. So scared."

Roy reached forward, weaving his fingers through the hair at the back of Ed's head and pulling him awkwardly to his chest. "I know."

God, Ed had been through so much. Ed was a small guy, but now he looked even smaller than usual. So small was he-frightened, alone, losing spirit-for so long. It was hard to swallow that this was even him to begin with. The light and fire once burning in his bright entrancing eyes had died down, fading the beautiful starry gold into a dull murky amber. The determination and steadfast beat of his voice had ascended to desolate and hopeless. And that's exactly how he looked. He looked like he had given up hope. Looked like somewhere along the way, he had lost the will to live. Given the situation and torture he had been in the past two and a half weeks, it was no wonder. Roy had been the same as the child before him once; dead sunken eyes, lost ambitions, and the constant futile pleading for death to just consume him already. Take me! he had wanted to yell. He had been exactly the same all those years ago. But Roy had made it out. And so would Ed.

"I-I could've taken care of myself, you know. You didn't have to come." Edward insisted again, face blushing with embarrassment after calming himself down.

He pushed himself off Roy's chest, and only then did Roy notice that his hand had unconsciously began stroking Edward's head. Roy pulled his lips into a sad, wry smile "Of course you could. Now get up," he chuckled, forcing himself up and offering his hand out, a sarcastic grin finding its way onto his face. "I don't know what I'd do if you started crying on me."

"Don't flatter yourself... I'm not crying" Edward grunted, reaching up to grab the Colonel's hand.

Roy grabbed the boy's wrists instead, paying mind to Edward's twisted fingers. They looked almost demonic.

"Can you stand?" he asked, as Ed leveled himself onto his automail leg.

"Yeah, I think I'm good. We needa' find a way out of-…Colonel, what the hell?"

Roy looked down to wear Ed's eyes were scanning his broken leg. "Oh yeah. I had a little brawl with Jerone up there. Let's just say he really hates my ass."

Ed frowned, still examining the way Roy's knee twisted inward and blood oozed from a deep slice wound in the shin. "Why didn't you tell me you were hurt? You look like hell, Colonel."

"You're telling me. You aren't exactly find and dandy yourself, Fullmetal."

"…shutup. Look at us, limping and toddling around like a bunch of special kids."

"Don't say that, Ed."

Without warning, the door flew up roughly, crashing loudly at the top. They both jumped, as Jerone teetered his way into the room, eyes wide with deranged mirth. "Oh my. You guys have found each other. This is gonna be so much more fun."

SSOO? you like the cheesy? I don't like the cheesy. This is probably my least favorite chapter -_- but my sis was telling me I needed to add a heart felt confession there, and I didn't really want to make it Yaoi (which I'm sure is what she wanted) So I came up with this. I mean...it kinda fits, right? A lil' OC...yeah...

Yeah I don't like when people make fun of autistic/special kids. LEAVE 'EM ALONE!

I always feel my endings are rushed. Maybe it's just me. It feels like all my chapters end so abruptly without warning...

Tell me what you think? Pwease?