Work Text:
Timeline: Midseries
Theme 4: Dog
“Congratulations. You're now a dog of the military.”
With those words, Edward Elric entered into Roy's life. Edward, with all his brilliance, stupidity, idiosyncrasies, and annoyances. Roy soon learned to put up with him, because as the youngest State Alchemist Amestris had ever known, he was the talk of the military. And Roy had found him.
For the first month or so, Roy was just pleased for the leg up Edward had given him with his first few successfully completed missions. It seemed that Edward could do no wrong, even when he went up against angry mobs and conniving officials. His sharp mind would analyze the problem and come up with a solution, and if that solution usually involved his fists and alchemy, then at least he was one of the leading combat alchemists in the country.
But gradually, as Edward and Roy got to know each other more and more, Roy discovered that they'd set up an odd sort of friendship. He easily learned where Edward was the most sensitive, and prodded him with teasing comments until the boy was red in the face. Edward, for his part, came up with several choice insults that he threw at Roy whenever he had a chance, no matter who was present. And yet, beneath the mocking and the rants about height was an understanding born out of familiarity. They were comfortable around each other; they knew what the other would do or say when they met each other.
And then came the day when Roy was scanning the morning newspaper in his office, seeing if there was anything terribly important he needed to attend to. On page 5 he found an article about none other than the Full Metal Alchemist. Curious, Roy folded back the pages and began to read. Soon, his hands were shaking so badly he could hardly read the print. The idiot who had written it criticized Edward in a lofty tone, saying that no self-respecting alchemist would become a dog of the military, that the alchemists' code of honor forbade it. He laid out baseless accusations that the only reason Edward was so successful was because his silver watch artificially amplified his alchemy, and hinted piously that the military had accepted him only because the number of State Alchemists had been going down recently and they needed to bolster their ranks.
After Roy balled the newspaper up, threw it into a corner, retrieved it again, and burned it down to a few ashes curling in the garbage can, he sat back and wondered at his violent reaction. Was it natural to get so worked up just because he'd been the one to find Edward and see to it that he got into the exam with a fighting chance? No, it had to be something else. Something more.
Roy stared blankly at Edward's favorite couch, the one he always flopped down into when he came to report. No matter how many times Roy told him to be careful or he'd ruin the cushion, Edward still dropped down into it exactly the same way. He would sit there, legs stretched out as far as they would go as though to prove he wasn't short, and he'd gripe away or counter Roy's taunts or complain about how a certain colonel was a slave driver. Roy was surprised at the feeling this recollection gave him.
He was fond of Edward.
The next time Edward stomped into his office to report another dead end, Roy contemplated him around the insults they passed expertly back and forth. He had grown a little in the past month, as he was quick to point out, and his hair looked a bit longer. He'd somehow managed to lose his garish red coat, and one of the buckles on his shoes was missing. Yet despite these changes, his mannerisms were the same as ever. The way he held his shoulders, the movements of his hands....
Roy smiled under cover of one of Edward's endless rants about how not -short he was. Somehow, as the years had rolled by, he had come to care about the boy behind the success.