The Mission (Ed, Roy: Ask to Enter)

[Ed Elric]

It was too early. Far too early; and Edward was grumpy. He hated waking up before he was ready, but that morning he had been woken by the frustrating and incessant ring of a telephone. When he had finally dragged himself from the warmth of his bed, the voice on the other line had been Riza Hawkeye, briskly informing him that he was to meet Colonel Mustang in his office promptly. He would have asked why, except, he knew why. Having been in the military for years at this point he was very used to being drawn from any and everything he could be doing to abide that damned ringing; it was time for duty, and he had to answer the call.

Miserably, Edward trudged down the hallways of Central Headquarters, bright sunlight shone through the windows, nearly blinding him, his improperly buckled boots were scuffing the floor more than needed and his shoulders were slumped to the point of almost making him appear hunch-backed. He tried to think of what his mission could possibly be this time, but tiredly his thoughts seemed to leak back to his room, and the question of how long it would take to pack before he could fall asleep on the train to his destination.

He passed multiple officers of superiority and simply ignored them, and when the much better disciplined soldiers of a lower rank saluted him he shrugged them off with a grunt and continued on his merry way. At least the silence of the elevator was a relief, and even allowed him a micro-nap, from which he jerked awake at the all-too-cheery sound as the doors opened.

He stood silently for a few moments on the landing platform, his sleep addled brain having trouble making the distinction between moving forward and not. When eventually he managed to coerce his feet into turning and moving forward, he continued towards Roy Mustang’s office, unconsciously straightening his shoulders out as he walked.

Slowly things were coming into focus, and his ears were beginning to pick up snippets of conversation, the word Avalon seemed more common than any other and instead of heading directly for Roy’s office, he paused to lean against a window ledge. He stared into the courtyard, watching military men amble along while secretly listening to the man and woman talking next to him. From what he could gather tensions were rising and there had been a snap the day before.

What little information he managed to glean told him that the Amestrian border patrol spotted suspicious activities over the line and upon further investigation found that Avalon was preparing tanks for battle, fuelling and arming, and the Amestrian regiment had panicked slightly and begun doing the very same thing, leading to a misfire and small skirmish. He didn’t know how ‘small’ the skirmish was, but apparently still large enough to be alarming.

Mentally, Edward began preparing for a trip to Avalon.

The conversation broke apart shortly after when a Colonel walked past and they were forced to salute and part ways. Once they had left Edward picked himself up from the ledge and began towards Mustang’s office once more. He made it in short order and thought about barging in, Mustang was supposed to be expecting him after all. But, for once he held his fire and knocked, if only to give himself a few moments more to think.

[Roy Mustang]

[bg=000000][atrb=style,border: 4px solid #701111;][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450,true][atrb=width,20%][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,3,true] I'm obsessively thinking about you ★ ( just Compulsively trying to break you ) Phone call, after phone call after phone call. This had been the Colonel's week. There had just been to many things going on for the man to simply keep up with it all. Roy got irritated with phone calls as much as he did with paperwork. It was a wonder why the man hadn't threatened to burn that yet. He seemed to do that with everything else. Though, it was weeks like this that the man was thankful to have people like Hawkeye. She really helped when Roy got frustrated taking a few of his calls and such. He really did appreciate them. There was one thing that was starting to bother the man though. And that, was all this news over Avalon. Things had always been tricky when it came to them, but then again, it was always hard because of boarder issues. But due to the earlier misfire, things had just gotten out of control. It was hard to deal with these kind of things when he was not there, since he had no idea what was going on. With everything going on in Central however, there was no way that he would ever make the trip out there, not that he really wanted to go anyway. So, that left only a few options. One, simply ignore it and move on. That one could always work for a little while, but for all the colonel knew, the minute he left it alone another squirmish could happen and they would be in an all out war. And if anything Roy would love to not let that happen. He wasn't really on board with the whole fighting one another thing. If it was up to him, he would just build a big gate to separate Ametris and Avalon. But, of course, he couldn't do that. Things were becoming such a bother. He really didn't have time for all this. So, one to plan number two. He could send someone out in his place. But almost everyone under him was busy, HELPING him. He let out a agitated sigh as he rubbed his temples trying to think during his one moment of peace. Then the thought crossed his mind. Almost. There was one person that wasn't busy that he knew of. However, asking something from him was like trying to pull a tooth. Roy resisted the urge to sigh once again. At this point he really didn't have any choice but to do just that. He finally looked up from where his head had been placed in his hands. He glanced up before saying the words that were going to make his day even more hectic than it already was. "Get me Edward Elric." Roy didn't know what he was up against this time, but he knew he had to take it. Unfortunately right now he had no choice but to call upon the Fullmetal Alchemist. Roy let out a sigh. He really wasn't in the mood to argue with the blonde and hoped to just get this over with. Though, he didn't expect Ed to actually come when he was told to. He expected the boy to put it off till about late tonight when Roy was about to go home, or right when he was busy. The blonde just knew when the worst possible time was and came then. He was getting good at it too. When he heard a knock at his door, Roy blinked. He glanced at the time, and the call to Ed had probably only been about an hour ago, maybe sooner. There was just no way. First off, Ed never showed up when he needed to. Second, there was a knock... it couldn't possibly be Ed. Maybe someone coming to give him MORE damn paperwork but it just wasn't possible. Roy didn't really want to think anymore so he scoffed to himself before answering. "You can come in." he said. He really, REALLY hoped it wasn't more paperwork, but then again, he didn't know which one was worse. ★ And i'm all sorts of disorderly Words:n/a ★ Tagged:ED ★ Music:Dance with the devil Template by Usagi of on the edge

[Ed Elric]

Impatiently, Ed tapped his foot against the floor as he waited. This was why he never knocked, that few seconds that felt like forever tended to drive him insane. However, despite his impatience, at least this time it was for his own personal gain. His mind flickered to thoughts of the country Avalon. It was one of the few bordering areas that his travels had never taken him to and he knew very little about it. He knew that it was not military run, like Amestris, but ruled by an emperor and counsel of advisers, much more like the neighboring country of Xing. He also knew that recently their military forces had been growing greatly, much to the disapproval of the higher-ups here in the Amestrian military. But beyond that, there was nothing more he could really think of, not that it mattered, he was certain he would be given a file of great size after he was assigned to visit the border.

After what felt like forever but was probably mere seconds he heard the pompous voice from beyond the door beckon him in and he shook off the lingering thoughts of Avalon, instead readying his wit and reigning in his temper, though the second was much harder than the first. With a breath, Edward pushed open the office door and stepped inside.

Roy Mustang sat, as usual, behind his large mahogany desk a mountain of paperwork cluttered about it and of course, looking like a right git so composed at such an awful hour of the morning. Ed felt a grimace already tugging at his lips and a growl working it's way into the back of his throat. “What the hell do you want this early?” He snarled over the heavy sound of the door slamming shut behind him.

Without waiting for an answer Edward trudged over to the couch across from Mustang's desk and plopped down onto it, swinging his left leg up over his right and tilting his head back against the cushions. He stared up at the ceiling now, instead of looking at Roy, the thought or watching that arrogant face, with that arrogant mouth spread into an arrogant smirk at this hour made him literally sick to his stomach. Briefly, Ed wondered if he could sleep here on the couch as Mustang prattled on about no doubt useless information that he would have in his file anyway. While the thought was nice, actually, very nice, he knew he wouldn't be able to get away with it. Mostly because he had tried before, but also because he actually found himself somewhat intrigued by the Avalonian situation.

Sighing, and lifting his head up a little, Ed tossed a glance in Roy's direction, asking sharply, “Well?”