(See Chapter 11)

On the morning after Roy’s rough night, Maes got up and stuck around while Roy continued his deep, heavy sleep. The stricken man had finally managed to nod off, his tremors and the “night shadows” subsiding, about three hours after Maes had come to the house. His slumber hadn’t been entirely perfect even in the three hours since ( Read more... )

(See Chapter 10)

He didn’t even have to knock; the two guards at the front of the yard waved him past, and as he took the porch steps in one leap, he saw Fuery standing in the doorway, waiting for him. All the lights in the house appeared to be on.

“What’s happened?” Maes demanded breathlessly. Even though he’d driven here, he’d been unable to get ( Read more... )

(See Chapter 9)

Maes walked into the outer office and waved cheerily at its current inhabitants: Lieutenants Hawkeye and Havoc. He knew that both Breda and Fuery were napping at home this afternoon, preparatory to their guard duty at Roy’s house tonight. He also knew that Breda would have one more night after this, before he was spelled off by ( Read more... )

(See Chapter 8)

He sat as though enthroned, on a bench along the wall across from the doorway, his long, greasy black hair tumbling down his shoulders and over the front of his light brown prison uniform, his wrists encased at either end of a double-thick stock of wood that had been both padlocked to a post embedded in the floor and attached to the ( Read more... )

(See Chapter 7)

Major Vanova, when she arrived, paused in the doorway at the sight of Roy Mustang lounging all over Maes Hughes’s chair while Maes himself sat on a corner of the desk, arms folded across his chest and ankles crossed as he stretched his legs out before him.

He gave her a wan smile as she appeared. “We’ve got an extra passenger,” he ( Read more... )

(See Chapter 6)

Maes dropped in again, the day after the new arrangements had been put into place, partly to see how all the parties had survived through the day and overnight, and partly to try to take the brunt of things if Roy was in a foul mood. Havoc and Breda had stayed inside the house during the night, spelling each other off in two-hour ( Read more... )

(See Chapter 5)

Maes strode down the hall at military headquarters, reflecting on how the day was about to take a distinctly negative turn.

Breakfast at Roy’s had been riotously funny. He had seemed to wake up fully recovered, and Maes had awakened to the sensation of a finger trailing down the side of his cheek, and a voice crooning, “Was it as ( Read more... )

(See Chapter 5, Part 1)

And suddenly, deep, deep inside the building, a loud rumbling started that grew louder and louder, beginning to shake the ground beneath their feet. Then Maes knew with sick certainty that the wooden barrels had begun to burn through and give way, their contents quickly vaporizing in the heat, and beginning to ignite in the ( Read more... )

(See Chapter 4)

Maes ran sideways along the street, with one arm waving on the water pump truck as it followed behind him, and with the other arm trying to sweep people out of the way as quickly as possible.

“Move aside now! Hurry!” he called. “We’ve got more water!”

Not that it was enough, when they had to wait so long between arrivals. The fire ( Read more... )

My very first AU fic, though it’s not *too* AU. It could fit around the end of either the anime (although Roy has both his eyes) or the manga, but not the movie (in other words, Ed and Al never ended up in our world). The story would presuppose that the great political and alchemical problems, in either the manga or anime, have been resolved, so ( Read more... )