I have decided to take a little breather from ' If it's for you, I'll do anything'. I got the story kind of going, but I misplaced the rough draft of it, so I decided to type up this one I wrote forever ago. I promise when I find the papers, I'll start it again.

~Kuro

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A Small Gift Comes in Many Ways

Chapter 1- A rather 'small' cat

Roy Mustang was walking on the sidewalk, alone, going home in the strange downpour of rain in March. Not that it mattered. It had basically been a year of rain since Edward Elric had gone missing. Nobody knows where he went; all they know is that it was like magic: He was there one minute, and then he wasn't. Roy continued walking down the sidewalk without real thought. He was too focused on the case of Ed again. That's all he has been focused on. Ed, Ed, Ed. All the time. Non-stop. It started worrying the crew he worked with. Riza even asked him to take a little break, but he refused. ' Not until I find Ed! I won't stop until I have found him.' He said to her, and continued to work hard to find his missing subordinate.

He was jerked away from his thoughts when he saw armor huddled in an alleyway. Roy immediately knew it was Alphonse Elric, Ed's younger brother. He walked towards the young bodiless boy.

" Nice seeing you again, Alphonse." Roy greeted.

The armor didn't look up, and didn't reply. Instead, he was looking into a box. He seemed to be covering it from the rain. Roy was confused at first, until he heard Alphonse mumble something worriedly.

" Don't die… don't die… don't die…" He repeated over and over.

Roy was even more confused, that is, until he heard a quiet 'Mew…' noise coming from the box. If Alphonse had an expression, he probably would have been overjoyed. He turned his armor head towards Roy and happily called him over. Roy walked over and saw a golden cat in the box, with a slight red tinge to it's fur on it's back. " Is it a kitten?" He asked. " It's so tiny."

The cat hissed at Roy, but nuzzled up at Alphonse's touch. Roy took note that it seemed to love Alphonse. " I don't think so. He's smaller than most cats, but I've seen a lot of kittens. He doesn't have the characteristics of one. I think he's just small."

With that, the golden fuzzball hissed. " He was caught under a car. I helped him with the small amount of Alkehestry I learned from Mei. But, I could only stop the bleeding. I was quite surprised to see him so energetic after what happened though!" Alphonse burst out. Roy smiled, but frowned once more.

" You can't keep him, can you…"

Alphonse stayed quiet for a while. It was several minutes until he said something. " I can't. That's why I am trying so hard to make sure he is okay." Then a thought struck him. " COLONEL! Can you take car of him? Just until he is okay enough to go back?"

Roy was shocked. " I…I don't know Alphonse… I mean I—" He was stopped short by Alphonse's worried tone. Roy couldn't say no to that. " Alright. I'll take him. But only until he is well enough to be on his own, okay?"

Alphonse nodded and picked up the small creature, and handed him to Roy. Roy took the cat and looked at him more closely. He had gold fur that was the color of honey. His eyes were the same, but they had the gleam of determination in them. If he didn't know any better, it would seem as if this cat was the animal version of Ed.

Shaking his head, he covered the animal in his coat, gave silent good-byes to Alphonse, and they headed off in separate directions.

Roy removed his coat and dropped it on the floor. The little cat fell out of the inside pocket and landed with a thump on the hard ground. Scurrying away from Roy, the golden puffball ran into the kitchen and sat by the fridge, as if indicating that he was hungry. Taking note, Roy went to the kitchen and found some fish from the other night, and gave it to the cat.

The little stray ate it hungrily. Roy poured some milk into a small bowl and set it by the golden terror. Almost immediately, the little cat hissed and ran from it. That alerted Roy. " It's almost as if you're…" Roy stared, but stopped. " That's impossible."

He picked up the bowl and dumped out the milk. Roy walked up the staircase in his house and entered his library. He stopped when he heard tiny yells coming from the little cat, who was struggling to get up the steps.

Laughing, Roy walked back down and picked up the small burden. Strangely, the cat shut up. It had been so loud the entire way home, and suddenly shut up. That made Roy curious as to who this creature was, cause it wasn't acting like a normal animal. Forgetting about it, he sat the cat down at the table he was sitting at in his library and continued to look through files of Edward Elric again and again, even though his work hours were over with. This case just wasn't something he could forget about. It was his subordinate; his responsibility. He can't just forget this boy! He meant to much to him. Wait…

Did he just admit Ed was important to him?

He was taken away from his thoughts by the cat sitting on the files, as if reading them. He looked at the pet's face and gasped. The cat looked like he was in disbelief at the context. The cat used his paw to move the files around and read more. Roy was in awe. Rubbing his eyes, he decided he hasn't gotten a lot of sleep and blamed on the fact he could be sleep deprived. He pet the cat gently on the head, starting from the top, down to the tail area, and told him it was time to sleep. The cat just glared at the files, not even acknowledging Roy. It seemed as if this case disturbed him somehow. But Roy didn't understand, and had to intention to at that moment. Before he picked up the cat, he could have sworn he heard Ed's voice saying ' It's not true…'. But then again, he was sleep deprived. He picked up the cat, got in bed, and fell asleep with the golden creature next to him, without even changing or getting something to eat.

The next morning, Roy woke up. But when he sat up, he felt something heavier on the side of the bed where the cat was laying. He turned to look, but instead of the cat curled up there like last night, it was a familiar blonde haired boy with a braid and he was in a long red coat.

Roy yelled as loud as he could after waking up. " ED?"

I thought that it was a cute little quick story when I reread it earlier while I was cleaning. A little couple chapter story.

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