The life of Edward Elric

Chapter One

"Daddy? Where's Mommy?" "She's... You can't talk to her right now..." "Why?" "Because she's not here anymore..." "What do you mean?" "... I don't know..."

The man sighed. "What am I gonna do with you?" "Huh?" "C'mon, Ed, we're going for a walk."

The hour was 11:00 in the evening. Roy Mustang sighed and rubbed his eyes. It was late and he should be getting to bed, but he was working on paperwork that he had brought home with him so that he could finish some of it. Of course, the paperwork would never actually be finished, just somewhat lessened.

Useless complaints were common, and it annoyed him no end.

He had only recently moved to his current military position, at the age of 27, and was already accustomed to the painful haul of paperwork.

He was focusing on anything but the paperwork, his exhausted mind looking for any escape from the taxing job at hand.

A faint thump at the back door alerted him, and he jumped at the excuse to stop and do something else.

Setting the papers in his hands down on the table in front of him, he made his way around the low table and to the door, where he looked out. There was nothing there that could have made that sound, and he sighed, knowing full well what joy awaited him back at the table.

As he went to release the curtain from his grip, though, something caught his flighty gaze and he pulled them back once more to take a look downwards. A young boy, looking about 3 years old lay on his door step. His eyelids were shut, presumably meaning that he was asleep, though Roy wasn't sure if that was what that was indicative of. He had blonde hair that was slightly long for a boy, though not unheard of.

There was one particularly strange thing about him, though, and that was his right arm.

Automail.

What had a young child gone through that had merited that? Though he had never had experience with it himself, he had heard that the surgery to get it was painful.

After staring dumbly for several minutes, Roy's sleepy brain processed what was going on, and he swung the door open, immediately dropping down beside the child. He put his pointed and middle fingers to the child's wrist to ensure that he had a pulse, and upon confirmation of this fact, picked him up, shaking him slightly to rouse him.

"Umn..." The child sleepily opened his golden eyes and gazed up at him.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Roy asked. "Are you okay? Where's your parents?"

The boy sat up and looked around. "Where'm I? Where's Dad?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"What's going on?"

"Okay, calm down. Do you know your phone number?"

"Um.. I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." He crossed his arms and looked away.

"C'mon, tell me. I'm a..." He bit his lip. "I'm a police guy, kind of..." Pretty much true. "Plus, you're on my house's door step." "555-2883" "Okay. Thank you. I'm gonna go inside and call your parents to come get you. You can come with...what's your name?" "Edward..." he mumbled. He stood to go in and glanced back to see the boy hesitantly following.

"The number you called is no longer in service. We're sorry for the inconvenience."

He turned to look at the boy who was now standing beside him, expectantly.

"Hey, Edward, are you sure that's your number?" He nodded. "Okay, say it again, so I can make sure that I got it right." "555-2883. Is something wrong?" "I don't know..." 555-2883 He pushed the buttons on the phone, making sure that he put them in correctly.

"The number you called is no longer in service. We're sorry for the inconvenience."

" ...do either of your parents have any other phone number?" He shook his head vigorously. "Nope." " ...this isn't ringing through." "Whatd'ya mean?" "Its... This number isn't working. What am I doing...?" "Are you gonna call th'police? Am I in trouble?!" He looked up at him, his eyes scared and pleading. "No, you're not." He patted him on the head, but stared at the wall, lost in thought. "I think I am going to call the police, probably... But you're not in trouble. I'm just making sure you don't get hurt. Got it?" " Hn.. " He thumped his head against Roy's leg. "Tell you what: you can sit on the couch while I make some calls, okay?" "Fine.. " "Oh, what's your last name, kid?" " ...Elric."

The number he found himself dialing wasn't the police, but Lieutenant Hawkeye. "Hello?" her groggy voice came through the phone. Despite the fact that she sounded tired, she still sounded strict like she normally did, being part of the military. "A kid showed up on my doorstep. He said he isn't sure how he got here. I tried calling his parents, but the phone wouldn't ring through, and it said the line had been disconnected. What do I do?"

She sighed. "Roy, call the police.." His sigh echoed through the phone. "That's the thing: I was wondering if maybe you could just see about getting a hold of his parents without calling them. The kid seemed pretty shaken up about it."

Her turn to sigh. Again. "Alright. I'll see what I can do. What's his name?" "Ah.. Edward Elric."

Silence.

"Hello? Hawkeye? You there?"

"Roy... There was just something on the news about... That boy's father commited suicide right after Edward's mother died."

"Crap..."

" You have to let the police know that you've got him."

"Fine, I'll do that. Thanks, Riza."

"Mm"

Sleeping. He was sleeping on the couch. In the few minutes that Roy had left the room to call Hawkeye, the boy had dozed off on Roy's sofa. He sighed and eat down next to him, stuffing his hair. This kid was going through hell...

He dialed the phone and held it to his ear. "Hello, police?..."

Knock knock

Roy started. "Huhn. ..?"

Another knock resounded from the front door. "Ow.. My back..." he mumbled, groggily pushing himself off of the couch, being careful not to disturb the sleeping boy. What time is it, anyway...? He glanced up at the clock. Midnight. Of course.

He opened the door to see two people dressed in familiar blue uniforms. "Hey. We're here about the child." Roy nodded, running his fingers through his disheveled hair in a fruitless effort to neaten it. "Of course. Come in." He held the door open for them, closing it once they went through. "He's right over here," he said, leading them to the couch where Edward was still asleep. He exhaustedly took a seat beside him. "He showed up on my doorstep a bit ago." A nod. "Right. We're gonna have to take him into the orphanage as a foster child since he has no family." "That's it?" "Yeah." He felt something clinging to his arm and looked down to see Edward grabbing his arm, looking up at him, wide-eyed. "Don't. Please ," he whispered. "Hm?" " Please don't let them take me, " he whimpered, "You're a police, right? You can make 'em stop, right?" Roy bit his lip and looked up. "Don't take him." " But-" "Don't." "What do you expect us to do?" one asked exasperatedly. "I don't know, but you aren't taking him to the orphanage." "Sir, he needs a parent, and he can't be without a guardian of some sort, as you should know," the other explained. "Fine, then I'll take him!" he blurted. "But.. Sir you have to fill out lots of paperwork for that and-" "I want the paperwork on my desk at work in the morning, and that's the end of it. No ifs, ands, or buts." "We'll have to take him into custody until it's officially done." Roy looked down at his soon to be son. "Go with 'em." " Huh?! Bu-" "Shh," he cut him off, "I'm coming back for you tomorrow. Just go, 'kay?" He pouted, but nodded. "I'll be there tomorrow, " he repeated.

He watched as they walked out of the house, not taking his eyes off of them until they left. He turned off the lights and lay down on the couch that he had just been sitting on. He had made his desicion. It might be difficult, but it was a good desicion... right?

Edward pressed his face against the window of the car, staring out as they left. He has no family... What did that mean? I had Mommy and Daddy...right? What happened to them? What's goin' on? Is that guy gonna replace my Daddy? Where's my old one?

"What's goin' on?! Why are you putting me in here?! I din't do anything wrong!" He was gently pushed into a cell. "Calm down, kid. We're just holding you here to make sure nothing happens to you." "No! Nothings gonna happen! Lemme go!" he whined. He flopped down on the seat groggily, starting to cry, and he quickly drifted into sleep.

Edward Elric 's phone number is 555- CUTE because that's what li'l Ed is.

Thank you for reading this first chapter of the Life of Edward Elric! Don't forget to click the review button when you go! I really appreciate the feedback, and I'm also trying to aim for 100 reviews on this story.

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I seriously appreciate that you're reading my story. Thanks!

-Riku