Chapter Text
Roy was a logical man. Everything had a plan, a set of instructions, an expectation. And when those plans fell through, he had backup plans, and backup plans for the backup plans. But every now and again, Roy Mustang would end up completely out of his depth. In chaos. No idea what to do and just taking the decisions as they came. Roy loathed those times. Which is why when the newest state alchemist was assigned to his team, he was less than thrilled about it. This was not part of the plan.
Alphonse Elric: the boy who smashed Roy’s record for youngest state alchemist. Elric was only 14 years old, and yet the base was filled with whispers of “prodigy” and “genius”. So it was no wonder that Roy heard about the boy long before he met him.
***
He had been at the cafeteria, frowning over his shitty military coffee as it came out of the coffee machine with a sad splutter and groan. The sludge could barely be considered coffee but caffeinated was caffeinated, and when Roy had 2 hours to get through the rest of his paperwork—lest Hawkeye shoots him—it got the job done. As he sat there, watching his sad excuse for coffee being brewed, he noticed a strange conversation from the men behind him.
Roy crept closer to the group of 4 young Corporals he thought might have been from Schmitz’s team.
“-gold alchemist. Apparently he’s only 14!” said the man closest to Roy.
Roy’s brows furrowed at this. A 14 year old in the military was absurd. That was a child. Roy knew the Amestrian military was less than morally sound, but a child soldier? Surely they couldn’t get away with that. The public would be outraged.
Right?
Now the words “gold alchemist” were concerning. Alchemist’s names nearly always related to the type of alchemy that person used or the person themself. The Flame Alchemist, The Strongarm Alchemist, The Sewing-Life Alchemist. If there was an alchemist dealing with gold, they were performing illegal alchemy. Roy didn’t even want to consider the thought that the military might hire someone to, say, discreetly tip the economy in their favour.
Roy’s thoughts were interrupted when another of the Corporals said,
“I heard he doesn’t use alchemy circles! He can just do it with a snap!”
“That’s not possible. Don’t be stupid Shane, it’s just a sleight of hand trick. He has some circles hidden in his clothes somewhere.”
Roy swept up his coffee on his way out the door. Looks like it’s time for a visit to Hughes’.
***
When Roy entered the office, Hughes was sitting on top of his desk. Happily looking through some photos.
“Roy! What a pleasant surprise. Come here, I’ve pulled out pictures of my beautiful wife! Isn’t she gorgeous, look at that baby bump she’s glow-”
“Hughes, what do you know about a gold alchemist?”
Hughes sighed dramatically, “It’s always straight to business with you Roy. No “hi how are you today Hughes?” no “oh I’d love to see pictures of your amazing beautiful wife Hughes”.
Roy didn’t dignify that with a response, just staring expectantly at Hughes.
“Uuuugh fine,” Hughes twisted around to pull some papers out of a drawer behind his desk, taking a moment to straighten them before dutifully reading out, “Alphonse Elric. Originally from Resembool, out in the boonies. He took his state alchemist exam yesterday. Scored an incredible 98 on his written exam, a score that for the record has never been achieved before, and all done in a record breaking 3 hours. Let me tell you Roy that is crazy. The highest scorers in history all took at least 6 hours. There was a genuine upheaval about cheating and they had to hire an investigations team. Christ, I think they made the poor boy take the test twice. Anyways that’s not even touching on the madness that was the practical. Apparently, the boy waltzed in there, clapped his hands, and created a sword. No circle or anything. Looked right into the Fuehrer's eyes and held out this sword he pulled straight from the ground.
Honestly, it’s a little odd. Obviously he’s a genius, and being able to perform alchemy without a circle is unheard of, but just creating a sword? Seems kinda anti-climatic. You’d think if you had power like that you’d make something a little more impressive. I guess that’s not really any proof of power... A part of me thought he wasn’t going to be accepted. But I guess he did because he’s supposed to be placed today, The Gold Alchemist he’s been dubbed.”
Roy wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Hughes was right, this Alphonse Elric was a strange boy indeed. Being smart is one thing: hard but not impossible, but alchemy without a circle? That’s not possible. You might as well call yourself a wizard at that point. There’s some trick that Elric’s hiding. Some sleight of hand like that Corporal said.
“The Gold Alchemist?” Roy asked, instead of all the impossible questions that were floating around in his head.
“Yeah,” Hughes chuckled a bit, “It’s a little misleading until you actually see the boy.”
Roy merely raised an eyebrow, waiting for Hughes to continue. Hughes only laughed, “What. I’m not gonna ruin the surprise! You’ll have to see for yourself when you meet him. Now Gracia has been-”
***
Later that day Roy got the news that would result in his entire life changing.
The bomb dropped on his life would come in the shape of a simple white envelope on his desk: Major Alphonse Elric, The Gold Alchemist, would be assigned to his team.
This was the worst possible outcome. It was one thing to have a child soldier in his military, but if it was from a distance he could pretend to ignore it. He didn’t think it was likely that he’d have to interact with the boy that often. But that wasn’t the case now.
Roy felt a little sick to his stomach. He didn’t want to be in charge of a child soldier. Roy was used to having to throw away his morals, but it never made it any easier. God this was a child. A child he was responsible for keeping alive. His only comfort was that at least this way, the kid didn’t end up under someone like Barlowe who would definitely take advantage of the boy.
And what kind of kid signed themself up for the military anyways? Would The Gold Alchemist be arrogant? Rowdy? Violent? Roy had a hard time coming up with a positive image for a 14 year old boy who enlisted in the military. Roy was not a fan of kids, let alone kids who were praised as' geniuses’ and could create weapons with the clap of their hands.
Roy rubbed a hand down his face.
Not to mention that The Gold Alchemist was meant to be a field agent, someone to send out and about. Who left a child unsupervised in the world?! He’d die in a heartbeat. Roy could send one of his men out with the boy but it’s unlikely the young alchemist would be able to protect the team if they got in a tough spot. And these missions he’d be sent on would not be easy. What was the Fuhrer thinking? This Alphonse Elric would get his team killed, no doubt.
But alas, complaining about the placement won’t magically make it disappear. So the next step: problem solving. Roy couldn’t send one of his team with The Gold Alchemist, it was too risky. He might be able to send Hawkeye with him but…something about that idea made Roy’s stomach roll uncomfortably. Honestly, Roy would rather go with the boy himself, but he couldn’t afford to just leave his paperwork…
Well actually…
A knock sounded on his door and Hawkeye peeked her head into the office. “Sir, Major Elric is here to see you.”
Roy barely held back a sigh, but the long suffering look didn’t seem to make it past Hawkeye based on the look she gave him. “Well, send him in.”
And in came The Gold Alchemist.
Suddenly the name made perfect sense.
The boy had golden hair and golden eyes. Not blonde. Not brown. Gold. The hair was one thing but Roy didn’t know that gold eyes were possible. His golden hair was short and parted to the side. His skin was lightly tanned, and he wore a kind smile.
“Hello Colonel Mustang sir!” said the boy before snapping into a salute. Roy couldn’t help but find the image of this child dressed in military blues a little comical. Saluting his superior, despite the sleeves being just a touch too long.
“At ease.”
“I came to introduce myself, sir! My name is Alphonse Elric, The Gold Alchemist. I look forward to working with you and your team!”
The boy was earnest, that was for sure. He was perfectly polite, which rubbed Roy the wrong way. No 14 year old boy was this polite. Probably sucking up he imagined. Honestly, the boy didn’t look like much. He had a hard time putting together the image of this boy being an alchemical genius. He seemed perfectly average. Though only time would tell he supposed.
“Well Major Elric, My name is Colonel Roy Mustang, The Flame Alchemist. You can address me as Colonel Mustang.”
“Ah- Colonel Mustang, please, just call me Al.”
Roy balked a little at the familiarity and rejection of formality from the boy. Frankly, he expected a child to jump at the chance to be called by a fancy rank and title.
“Right, well…welcome to the team, Elric.”
“I said just call me Al, sir.”
“Dismissed.”
***
Roy’s first impression of Alphonse Elric was less than great. Words like incompetent, childish, and burden, come to mind when describing Roy’s initial feelings about the boy now under his leadership. This lasted until 3 weeks later.
After all, Roy had just watched from 5 feet away, as the boy stabbed a spear straight through the head of a lion chimera. In through the chin and out through the skull. Blood spurted onto the boy, and he never even flinched. No longer was Roy thinking “incompetent” “childish” and “burden”. Instead, he was thinking,
What The Fuck.
***
When the mission to Liore appeared on his desk he thought that this might be an alright first mission. All they had to do was investigate rumors about some impossible alchemy. Alphonse just joined the military and was absolutely in no shape to start missions in Roy’s opinion. The kid was still learning what the different ranks meant for Christ's sake. But still, looking into a rumor was safe enough.
And then he saw the glint in Alphonse’s eye when he first saw Father Cornello perform alchemy up on the stage. And after that he saw the way the boy reacted when the young girl, Rose, talked about Father Cornello bringing back her deceased boyfriend. Roy felt a spark of excitement at the idea of an alchemist discovering the secret to human transmutation, though admittedly he had his doubts. But when he turned to Alphonse the boy only looked sad. He was going to ask him what was wrong but Alphonse interrupted, insisting Rose took them to see Father Cornello.
It was then that he knew this wasn’t going to be as simple of a mission as he’d hoped.
And shortly after that everything went to hell.
***
Immediately after killing the chimera, did Alphonse Elric point his spear, now coated in viscera, at father Cornello.
“Cornello. Give us the stone before you get hurt.”
And when the priest retaliated with an alchemized machine gun. Alphonse wasted no time in putting up a wall to shelter both Roy and the girl.
Roy, tsked. He didn’t want to have to kill the priest, in front of a child no less. Though, after that display, Roy wasn’t sure if that was a valid concern. Still, there was no way around it. So, Roy brought his hand up to snap. It wouldn’t be a problem to feed his flames around the cover Alphonse had made. But before he could snap he heard Alphonse yell.
“Wait! Don’t kill him! I have a better idea!” and that was all the warning Roy got before the floor abruptly disappeared beneath him.
He fell, along with Rose and Alphonse, and before he could get his bearings the hole was already being closed up, blocking Cornello from following.
“Go!” Alphonse yelled, quickly running out of the room they dropped into.
***
Roy had to admit. When Alphonse had pitched this plan, he wasn’t sure it was going to work. It seemed too simple. And yet, Roy held the large speaker on his shoulder, listening as Father Cornello unknowingly admitted that his miracles were all a sham. Alphonse led him on in a beautiful display of manipulation that Roy couldn’t help but respect.
Roy watched on as Cornello’s followers hung on his every word, slowly becoming more and more enraged. Rose herself was beginning to look a little sick.
Roy couldn’t help but be curious when he heard a sudden crashing coming from the other end of the speaker, and then silence.
***
When Alphonse eventually reappeared, he looked a little worse for wear. He was covered in dirt and had a scrape on his cheek. Roy was waiting for the kind boy to smile at him and Rose. Instead, he looked sad. Roy had never seen the boy so upset. It was disconcerting.
“Alphonse?” Roy asked, already anticipating the worst.
Alphonse sighed, “Cornello’s dead. The stone rebounded. Well…the fake stone. It wasn’t real. It’s also gone…disintegrated.”
Roy knew this was bad news, but he couldn’t help but be a little relieved that the source of Alphonse’s upset wasn’t that he had just killed a man for the first time.
“Rose,” Alphonse addressed, looking determinedly at the girl. “Your boyfriend, he’s dead, I’m sorry. Human transmutation isn’t possible. There’s no such thing as miracles. Chasing this dream Rose, will only result in your own suffering. Please. I don’t want to see you hurt. Please, just…just trust me when I say that this is something best left alone.”
Roy quietly readjusted the image of Alphonse Elric that he had in his head.