What is a better time to launch such a week than during the Pride Month! (Nope, not the homonculus-named-Pride month, sorry Selim)
August 18-24💫
Run by the FMA community admin, @rene-of-the-blackouts, with the help of @detroyteck and @vikingpoteto❤️
You have an LGBTQIA+ FMA ship? You headcanon an FMA character as an LGBTQIA+? Have an AU for that? This is your time to shine!✨️
It doesn’t matter who, canon, headcanon, or AU, as long as you feel like your idea matches the theme of the week, please go ahead!
Please tag this blog and use #fma lgbtqia+ week tag. We'll create an AO3 collection, too:)
PROMPTS
Day 1: rose – holding on – Sci-fi AU;
Day 2: food – letting go – Folklore/Fantasy AU;
Day 3: secret – just another boring day – Modern-type AU;
Day 4: gift – with a heavy heart – Crossover/Fusion AU;
Day 5: goals – up to your (old) shenanigans – Swap AU;
Day 6: sightseeing – figuring out – Canon Divergence AU;
Day 7: family – alchemy mishap – an AU of your choice.
Prompt notes:
You're free to understand the prompts as you wish. Most of the AUs are actually umbrella AUs, meaning that you can choose the narrower idea to explore.
For example, by folklore, one may understand fairies, merfolk, dragons etc.
For crossovers/fusions, no one is telling you how much you are to take from the other piece of media: may be almost the entire universe, maybe be just some vague inspiration.
For the Swap AU, feel free to swap anything, from the age to their country.
Rules
1. Rules of the FMA community apply to the event (the ones stated below), but you do not have to be a part of it to participate in the event. You do not even have to have Tumblr. Feel free to post wherever and share the link with us or add it to the collection on AO3 (even as an external bookmark)
2. Respect other people's choices, ideas, and headcanons/AUs.
3. OCs, crossovers are allowed, but we encourage you to avoid canon/OC, canon/reader, self-inserts, and focus on existing characters.
4. No hate-posting and no propagating anything illegal (note: it's not about not mentioning any crimes, we're talking about fma here, but, for example (not limited to), using the event to advertise... like selling illegal substances).
5. No AI. Even if you think you lack skill, we'll welcome your creation. No AI.
FAQ
Is *insert an idea* suitable for the event?
This is something for you to decide. We will not (and have no right to) deem something "not queer enough". Just act in good faith and don't abuse the event out of malice❤️
Are late entries allowed?
Sure! While we'd love to see your creations as soon as possible, we all have lives apart from the fandom, so don't worry about it! We'll still reblog every post we manage to track;)
Do we have to fill all the prompts?
Not at all! You're free to pick just one, more than one, or even combine them.
Can one day entry borrow ideas from another day prompts?
Sure! If you want to write about a character keeping secrets as a merperson with a heavy heart, we are not gonna stop you.
Can it be a series/multi-chapter fic/comics?
Whatever your heart desires!
Do you have to post every day?
No. Every new work is welcome, but you're free to just work on whatever day inspires you most.
Does it have to be the same character/ship/headcanon every day?
Nope! Feel free to create about a different character/pair/setting every day.
All in all, you're pretty free in what you do, we're here to give you ideas and hopefully inspire some creativity!:)
The askbox is still open!
May be updated when more questions come:)
We hope you'll have fun!✨️
Reblogs appreciated;)
P.S.: if you want to help with the promotion of the event, reach out to us!
After Xerxes, Breda’s travel report makes Roy think that Ed is pregnant. When he tries to raise the subject with Ed, he doesn’t make it better, instead taking Roy’s concern as another point for his theory that Al’s body is still connected to his own. This miscommunication leaves Roy with the impression that Ed is pregnant, before he leaves and is then MIA after Briggs. In the run up to the Promised Day, Roy is worried about Ed and the baby’s well being after getting hurt like that, as well as sick with guilt for letting Ed leave. For getting him caught up in this in the first place.
On ao3.
Ships: none
Warnings: teen pregnancy, guilt, grief, self loathing, mentioned abortion, the general fucked-ness of Amestris
~~
Chapter 2: The Responsibility
Roy actually tries to do appear normally the next day, chatting with Havoc and flirting with the nurses, as he waits for Fullmetal to report. He figures that wanting to touch base with his entire team after a ‘terrorist attack’ is normal. It’s the same excuse he used with Breda.
Or, if people don’t believe them, he can say it’s because he wanted to assess Fullmetal’s readiness to return to the field after getting his automail repaired – truly, a horrendous excuse since Winry is here, but that’s what he gets for leaving it to Major Armstrong to come up with a fib.
The acting like himself isn’t going very well, even if he’s managing. It’s just- Every time he tries to do anything, his mind wanders back to the upcoming observation session and it gets stuck again.
Fullmetal… pregnant… It feels unreal.
He tries to convince him that it’s not, that he doesn’t know for sure, but he just keeps talking himself in circles and landing at the same conclusion; Fullmetal is in all likelihood pregnant. Accidentally by the looks of it.
And yeah, he knows that Fullmetal didn’t grow up around sex like he has, that he lost his parents young, then trained under a teacher that allowed them to graduate before they hit puberty and then he signed up to the military. If anything, Roy should have realized earlier that the awkward duty of giving the sex talk would fall on him, but if he’s honest, he hadn’t realized that not everyone grew up around it like he had and that such a thing would be necessary. His mistake.
But now here Fullmetal is and Roy has no clue how to act around him. He knew what to do when it were his sisters, knew which one wanted children and which ones didn’t, knew how he could comfort them, the role they would like him to play. He doesn’t have that with Fullmetal. He’s not Fullmetal’s brother, not family. All he is to Fullmetal, is his CO.
Still, despite not having a real plan, Roy is desperate to check on Fullmetal. The need to lay eyes on the kid, is an instinct he can’t tamp down. He has to. Hughes died while Roy wasn’t looking, Havoc got hurt when Roy wasn’t paying attention, and he’s not making the same mistake again. Until he can make sure Fullmetal will be fine, he’s going to be distracted. At least he has Hawkeye watching his own back, so he can afford to miss the focus for a moment.
Fullmetal kicks in his door as if nothing’s out of the ordinary at exactly one in the afternoon. Roy would have liked it to be earlier, but Havoc is out the room for a check up, so it’s the best time. With his usual scowl, Fullmetal greets: “What did ya want, Colonel Bastard?”
“Ah, Fullmetal, always pleasant to see you again,” Roy snaps into character almost convincingly. His tone is more genuine than he’d like and he knows Fullmetal notices with the way he’s looking at him.
There is nothing immediately off about him, but that is to be expected. He looks a little more tan, maybe a little more gaunt around the cheeks too, which would check with Breda’s story about him gagging so much. But his hair is still the same gold it has always been and his matching golden eyes seem sharp.
“So… why did you call me?” Fullmetal asks less boisterous this time. He looks worried now that Roy has taken a beat too long to pick up the usual banter where he condescendingly tells Fullmetal why he summoned him.
And Roy realizes that his amazing plan of calling in Fullmetal to check on him, might be perfectly plausible on paper, however, anyone that actually knows him, not to mention Fullmetal himself, will see through it in a second. This is the point where he should say something along the lines of ‘Breda said you grew taller and I had to see to myself. How sad that eyewitnesses can be so unreliable’ but the words get stuck in his throat.
Fuck, he’s supposed be good at this!
“Colonel?” Fullmetal asks, beginning to sound worried. He’s never said his rank like that, not without adding a swear. Roy is really messing up.
Well, his original stupid plan may have been stupid, but it’s better than sitting here silently like a dumbass. “I heard you went for automail repairs and I wanted to check in.”
Fullmetal’s eyebrows creep higher than Roy has ever seen them, before he narrows his eyes suspiciously. He scoffs disbelievingly: “You wanted to ‘check in’?”
“Yes,” Roy says sharply, “I did.”
He gets assessed for another moment by an annoyed teenager that is now crossing his arms. Then Fullmetal rolls his eyes: “My automail repairs were very illuminating. Got everything screwed on right again and shit. You can stop worrying, you old bastard, you’ll get more gray hairs than you already have.”
For Fullmetal’s usual grace that was quite a solid attempt at double speak, Roy is almost proud. He can also hear that Fullmetal is not amused by the whole situation. The annoyance is understandable, Roy doesn’t expect Fullmetal to like him. Not now and not ever again.
However, something terrifying is happening to Fullmetal. Because pregnancy is terrifying, even if you planned for it and wanted it, and Roy can hazard a guess that Fullmetal hasn’t. Fullmetal can hate Roy all he wants, but that isn’t going to change Roy’s attempt at being there for him. To watch out for the ones around you, is the least anyone can do. Roy has always thought so and Hughes believed it too.
Fullmetal might rather have Hughes here right now than Roy and Roy understands that, he too would rather have Hughes here. However, Hughes isn’t here and Roy will have to try his best in his stead. He wants to rebuild this country into something better, how can he even begin to attempt such a thing, if he can’t even be here for another person?
“I’m glad to hear,” he tells him, going for pleasant and not hitting the mark with Fullmetal – he’s always been distrustful of Roy’s motives.
“Yeah, sure,” Fullmetal responds, sticking his hands in his pockets. “Is that all, or do you have something for me?”
Roy knows that if he tells Fullmetal that is all, Fullmetal will leave. Roy cannot allow that to happen without getting any clarity. Thus far Fullmetal hasn’t acted outside of the norm – though perhaps he’s more snappy than usual, possibly the start of the mood swings? – but there hasn’t been anything concrete.
“How have you been, Fullmetal?” he asks, leaning back in his pillows to observe him better as he shifts gears.
“How do you fucking think, you bastard?” Fullmetal shoots back, annoyance levels spiking.
“I think a lot of things,” Roy answers cryptically. “It must be nice to have Winry in town. And I hear you made a friend with Xingese royalty. That’s exciting.”
Out of everyone, Fullmetal’s new friend, Ling, and Winry are Roy’s top suspects for being the potential other parent. Ling primarily because of the timing. He’s the first friend around his own age that Fullmetal has managed to make and pretty soon after, this happens. Winry is on the list, because for a long time she’d been the only person to even be considered. It’s not unheard off for small country folks to switch up records for for kids looking to swap genders under the table, but Roy would never be able to prove that. Nor does he have an interest in doing so. It won’t do him any good to figure it out after the fact.
“What the hell does that have anything to do with it?” Fullmetal demands and Roy hates that he’s blushing now. That’s not a good sign when trying to convince himself Breda made it up, or Roy is reading into things.
“Can’t I be interested in your friends?” he asks, more rhetorically than anything else. “I just want to make sure you’re alright. I know the loss of Second Lieutenant Ross hit you particularly hard. I don’t wish for any ill will between us to… fester.”
It’s horseshit and they both know it. Well, the loss hitting Fullmetal hard. The other stuff is pretty accurate, but Roy is content to let Fullmetal think it’s part of the ruse. It’s safer.
“Nothing’s festering, Colonel Bastard,” Fullmetal rolls his eyes, though he relaxes somewhat. The casual insult is the closest they’ve come to normal all day and Roy clings to the bit of hope. The glimpse that he hasn’t fully pushed Fullmetal away entirely.
The feeling is utterly childish, but Hughes always called him too naive. So maybe it is childish, maybe it is naive, but having Fullmetal not entirely hate him, feels like a sign that maybe he isn’t ruining everything, because it feels like he has. Ever since Hughes died, Roy keeps ruining things. He’s supposed to work to fix this country, not break it more.
His failure shouldn’t be a surprise, but it still chafes. Roy wants to be better, he’s sick of this. He’s sick of breaking things, sick of being stuck as it all gets worse, sick on being unable to do anything. Fullmetal needs an adult right now, someone to be in his corner and Roy isn’t even capable of figuring out what kind of help he needs.
Fucking useless.
He keeps wanting to reach out to Ed. Keeps wanting to tell him it’s okay like he did for Rosie, let him cry on his shoulder like he did for Esther, let him tell Roy to run around town to find this one specific craving like he did for Nikkie, or let him hold his hand at the clinic like he did for Vanessa. But there is nothing for him to grasp onto, so his hands remain on top of the sheets and Fullmetal remains standing there. A chasm of space between them.
It’s pathetic. He can’t even figure out if Fullmetal needs that from him. He seems perfectly fine now, like nothing is amiss, but Roy knows that you can’t just see it. You have to observe someone, be around them, know their routines well enough. It was a pitiful thought that he could just call Fullmetal here and make up his mind – maybe prove Breda wrong and wash his hands of it. It’s selfish. This might be real and Fullmetal might need help. Roy needs to get over himself. Madame Christmas would be ashamed of him, if she could see him now.
So he doesn’t insult Fullmetal back to get the conversation back in a well worn routine. Instead he pitches his voice low and lets the concern he feels bleed through as he checks once more: “And you’re sure you’re okay?”
“Okay, what the fuck is wrong with you?” Fullmetal demands, slamming his hand down on the foot of the bed, the metal frame ringing under his automail hand. The tension is back in his shoulders and his jaw is clenched. Roy hates himself for that too.
“Nothing’s wrong with me,” he says. It’s not truly a lie – hell, it’s probably the closest thing to the truth he could have said, it’s not Roy, who is in deep shit – but he knows Fullmetal will take it as a deflection. Neither of them are used to him being genuine.
“You’re hiding something from me,” Fullmetal accuses.
And he’s not wrong, but how can Roy tell him?
Roy’s silence is taken for the confession that it is and Fullmetal’s face twists in rage. The hand he’d slammed down now clenches and it’s a miracle the hospital bed doesn’t warp under his grasp. “You are,” he says, voice almost flat. “Of course you fucking are.”
“Fullmetal-” Roy starts, unsure of how to navigate this. He isn’t like Hughes, who could balance a thousand secrets without making someone upset about hiding things. Roy is good in pretending he doesn’t have secrets, but Fullmetal has already seen through that.
“No,” he hisses. “Don’t. You don’t get to do that. You better fucking tell me right now, Roy-” he nearly chokes on his name, maybe the first time he’s ever said it “-because you keep hiding things from me and people keep dying, so you better spit it the fuck-”
Oh, this is bad. This is worse than Roy trying to have a vulnerable conversation with Fullmetal about if he’s been sexually active wherein Fullmetal hates him for prying into his business and offering Fullmetal help when Roy is the last person he probably wants that from. Roy needs Fullmetal to know he isn’t lying about this, that no one else is dying. Not again. Not on his watch. So he cuts him off by quickly ripping off the band aid: “Are you pregnant?”
“WHAT?!?”
Roy winces at the volume and really hopes no one with an interest in listening just walked by, because they’d definitely stick around now. He wishes he could have handled this more subtly – and, you know, better in general, but that has always been a vain hope – but Fullmetal probably wouldn’t have picked up on what Roy was insinuating.
So, here he is, gently starting: “Ed-” he can’t remember using his name either, but the boy needs humanity now and this is the only thing Roy can grant him. “Is- Is there any way that you could be pregnant?”
Ed just stares at him uncomprehendingly for a good few moments, before the shock wears off slightly and he chokes out: “Wha-? Huh? Me?”
He actually points at himself, like Roy is talking about anyone else right now. It makes him look so young and Roy’s heart aches for him. He’ll have to handle this carefully. “Well, I spoke to Breda about his… holiday. He mentioned a few of your habits and they sounded like pregnancy symptoms. Like the eating and the drinking.” He decides to not call Ed hormonal or point out his bathroom habits. He needs Ed to listen and those are unlikely to make him do so.
Realization dawns on Ed’s face.
It’s a horrible sight.
Looking back, he can’t deny that a part of him hadn’t wanted to believe that Ed actually could be pregnant. He’d convinced himself that maybe he was just being dramatic and Ed was just going to laugh in his face, but Ed isn’t laughing. No, that would be too kind. Ed is looking at him with eyes as wide as saucers.
Then he lets out a shaky breath, pushing a hand through his hair. He looks down at himself as if he’ll see something different now, as he does, he whispers: “That would make so much sense…” the final and damning nail in the coffin.
Ed is pregnant.
This should be the part where he says something comforting – like Ed would ever let himself be comforted, ha, the universe keeps playing jokes on him – and assure him, tell him that it’s okay and they’ll figure it out.
However, before he can do that, Ed seems to snap himself out of the stupor. It’s as if admitting it to himself, made him able to move on. It has always impressed Roy, the things Ed can walk away from with a head held high and determination in his stride.
Because Ed is pushing his shoulders back and turning away, striding towards the door. Striding, not running. Ed isn’t running away from this, he has somewhere to be. Over his shoulder, he calls: “Thanks, Colonel Bastard. Try not to die.”
“Wait, Fullmetal!” Roy yells, finally finding his voice. He can’t just let Ed walk away like this. He needs to support him, needs to help, needs to anything.
But Ed is turning around, as he exits, flashing Roy a grin. “Don’t worry. I’ll eat more, I’ll even bill you for the honor!”
Then he’s gone, leaving Roy in his hospital bed, stunned and unsure. Out of all the ways he imagined this talk to go, this definitely hadn’t been one of them. There had been no anger, no tears, no horror, just… easy acceptance and then nothing. Nothing but a promise to eat more.
Roy isn’t sure where that leaves him. Ed hadn’t really said what he expected from Roy, but he’s sure Ed must want or need something from him, even if it’s only his silence. There isn’t much he can make out from Ed’s reaction, but the boy hadn’t seemed upset at the news or like he wanted to get rid of the baby either. No, Ed is planning on eating more, as if that’s the only concern.
Fucking hell, he might have successfully broken the news to Ed, but Ed clearly doesn’t know what the fuck he’s gotten himself into. Pregnancy isn’t easy, it’s hard in the best of circumstances. He’s rubbed too many backs of sisters with morning sickness, held them when they cried, bore their anger, massaged their swollen feet and drove them to the hospital in a panic in the middle of the night. It’s hard and Ed is just a child himself.
There are so many things that can go wrong and so many things that aren’t good for a baby. Stress being one of them, and the coming year is going to be stressful. It’s not as simple as eating more.
He doesn’t think he can bear it, if something were to happen to the baby. If he had to witness the devastation of that on Ed’s face. He won’t force him to get rid of it, never, but he needs Ed to know what he’s getting into. Needs him to realize that this isn’t a game. There’s an actual human life at the end of this and Ed is already carrying so much, is he sure that he can carry this too?
Roy doesn’t know the answer, but he’ll have to find out whatever way this world will take him. He is so under equipped for this and he misses his friend so strongly it hurts. Hughes could always talk to Ed like he was a kid, who still needed some things explained and that was okay, without Ed puffing up like an angry cat. Roy doesn’t know how to do this. But he’ll have to. For Hughes and Ed and all of Amesteris, he’ll have to.
First, however, he’ll need to find a way to get Ed alone so they can have this conversation. As much as he wants the back up, this isn’t his news to share. Hopefully Ed will be open to it once he’s processed more, since he didn’t seem ashamed or scared like Roy had feared, but he can’t decide that for Ed. Nor for whoever helped create that baby. Ed definitely didn’t do it alone.
Still, the other parent can wait until Roy has talked to Ed, which will need to happen soon. The kid went to the desert and back, who knows how far along he is and what kind of complications that brought with it. Ed being safe in his own body and cared for is his first priority.
But Ed has just left, clearly not wanting to be here. Roy can give him a day to collect himself, before making a mission out of it. How much trouble can Ed get up to in that time?
…
It’s truly a mistake to ask that question, though Roy can’t know that Ed takes his words as confirmation of his theory about Al’s body and doesn’t at all consider how he might have come across. That right now he’s taking the theory and presenting it to Al and Winry, before concocting a truly stupid plan along with them and the Xingese royalty they’re harboring.
All Roy knows, is that the next time he hears about what Ed and Al are doing, it’s Hawkeye bursting into the shared hospital room to tell him they have to move because the Elric brothers are in the center, trying to lure out Scar.
Ed can never make Roy’s life easy, can he? He’ll be completely gray before he reaches 35 at this rate and it would not suit him. He needs less of a baby face before he can rock the silver fox, thank you.
~~
A/N:
This fic has become more about Roy’s feelings about himself and Hughes dying than Ed’s fake pregnancy, but if you’ve been keeping up with my little spiral into making Ed fake pregnant, that shouldn’t be a surprise lmao
Roy is truly twisting himself in every turn to manage this whole situation, meanwhile Ed is ladieda’ing away without a care, completely oblivious lol
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Characters: Alphonse Elric/Edward Eric
Prompt: Stargazing
“You ever think about how far the light we’re seeing has traveled? Some of those stars aren’t even there anymore. They burned out thousands of years ago, but the light’s still coming.”
“I think about that a lot,” Ed admitted. “Like… if something that far away can still leave something behind that reaches us, what does that mean for us? For people? As a whole, I mean?”
Written for the @elricestloveevent 2025. Companion piece to THIS artwork by @artful-alchemist
Gift for amazing @peapodsinspace — hide-and-seek (don't hide your pain, seek your happiness)
Al learns to enjoy having a body again, Ed frets (water is wet), and the boys have a well-deserved moment of peace.
***
The hardest part, surprisingly, was sheer boredom. See, Al had his physical therapy that he was absolutely not going to rush, that Alkahestry book that May had sent him first thing after arriving home, some fiction books he had started reading to shorten the nights, his alchemical research he was too shy to work on around Brother (despite Ed's rather vocal arguments that Al was being stupid) and yet…
He was so, so bored.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
whumptober time!! starting out strong with an FMAB fic on day one!! let's gooooooo! i used the prompt "panic attack" :)
Ed stumbles away from Mustang’s office with a tight chest and numbness in his fingertips. He feels so stupid. Weak. Even just reporting what had happened with Scar has him reeling. It doesn’t help that Mustang had so many questions, forcing him to relive the fight in vivid detail. It could have easily ended so differently. He was a hair away from being killed. Then who would restore Al’s body? Thinking about it makes him ill. He can’t just abandon his brother. He’s lost too much in his life already—their mother, Nina, his very body. Taking away the only family he has left in this world would break him.
He manages to make it to the break room in search of water. A little down his throat, a little splashed over his face might help to ground him once more in reality. He’s so absorbed in trying to keep it together that he doesn’t notice that Riza Hawkeye has rounded the corner and collides into her with a good deal of force.
“Edward,” she greets in surprise. “Sorry about that.”
“No, it’s—it’s not your fault, I’m just—I need some water.” She frowns.
“Are you alright?”
Barely perceptibly, he nods. “Fine,” he lies. “Just—water.”
She follows him as he rushes away. She has a good instinct for when something is wrong, and alarm bells are ringing now. He stops in front of the sink and turns the water on, immediately plunging his hands and face into the stream.
“Is something the matter?” she asks, laying one hand on his back. It’s then that she can feel that he’s trembling. He doesn’t reply, just continues to splash water on his face. His breathing is fast and shallow and he’s out of breath by the time he finally shuts off the water. She wrestles a clean handkerchief out of the pocket of her coat and hands it to him. Gratefully, he rubs it over his face to dry it.
“What’s wrong?” she asks. She’s no longer allowing him to brush her off, not with Edward so pale and shaky.
“Nothing,” he says. “I just—I don’t feel like talking about it and I had to—I’m—” he trails off to take a breath, pressing his palms to his eyes. Is he crying?
“Let’s have a seat,” she advises, leading him to the nearest chair. He doesn’t open his eyes, so she has to walk him there. “Breathe, Edward. It’s going to be okay.”
“I know,” he says. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“You don’t seem fine to me.”
Another few shuddering, quick breaths escape him and she takes his hand. Though she’s not usually so touchy feely, she’s willing to make an exception for a 15 year old child who’s having a meltdown in the middle of his workplace. It takes a lot to break him down, and she has a feeling she knows what did it. He was attacked just yesterday and barely escaped with his life. Alphonse was nearly killed, too, if she can call it that. It must have shaken him up. She can’t imagine someone who wouldn’t be. She takes the handkerchief back and runs cold water over it, then returns to press it against the back of his neck.
“Can you feel that?” she asks. He nods, but doesn’t respond verbally. “Good. Focus on that feeling. The water. My voice.”
“I don’t need—” he trails off, unable to finish the untrue sentence.
“Just think about the cloth,” she says. After a few moments, his breathing begins to even out and he moves his hands to his lap, though they’re still clenched into white-knuckled fists. “There. Are you feeling better?”
He nods. “Sorry. I can’t… I don’t want to think about it anymore. Al almost—and that bastard made me talk about it.”
“I’m sorry that you had to relive that,” she replies. “But the Colonel needed to know the details if we’re going to catch the man who attacked you.”
“I know.”
“I think you should go back to the dorms. Maybe you’ll feel better if you can see your brother. I’ll explain to the Colonel why you had to leave early. You look like you could use some sleep.”
For a long moment, he’s hesitant. She’s never known him to want to be working on anything other than his own personal quests, but she supposes that it’s a point of pride. Trying to push through it to prove himself. As much as she understands, he’s got to learn to draw the line somewhere.
“I’ll call a car for you.”
“I can walk. It’s not that far.”
“But you don’t have to, so why would you?”
Ed doesn’t have a good answer for that, so he shrugs, which she takes as an confirmation that if she calls a car for him, he will get in and accept the ride. So that’s what she does. After all, someone has to take care of these kids, and while she’s certainly not looking to fill the role of mother to them, she knows he needs allies, and she’s going to be one today. It’s not easy to explain to the Colonel that she granted him permission to leave, which is not her call to make, and ordered a car, which she has no authority to do, but he does accept it because he trusts her judgment. If she says the kid needs a day off, then he’ll grant it. He’s not a monster, just a man with high standards and an ambition to be the best. He and Ed are alike in that way, which is why they often butt heads. This time, though, she ensures that Edward will take home one small victory.
Another shot of two Ishvalan OCs for my Royai fic, Show me a hero. One shot in time-appropriate(ish?) photograph treatment. I needed this picture for chapter 3, ok? (Jokes aside I am editing that as we speak)
