Broken↩️🪭 ✔

Chapter 8

Maes watched Roy as they got the tickets for the train ride back to Central as he watched Edward cling to Riza like a baby chick to its mother. He knew that he blamed himself for whatever was happening and even though he didn't want to be jealous of his subordinate, the fact that it seemed like everyone except him could get through to Edward was eating at his soul.

"Roy?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, look at me." Roy looked at him. "If you glare at Hawkeye anymore you'll shoot fire from your eyes at her..."

"What are you talking about? I'm just watching her get tickets."

"With about the same amount of malice as you have for the people who hurt Ed. Roy, she can't help it if Edward feels comfortable around her. Do you think she's doing it on purpose just to hurt you?"

"I know it has nothing to do with her."

"Then why are you staring at her like you could rip her heart out?"

Roy turned away, realizing that Maes was right and he was secretly very angry with her. Maes walked over to his friend and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Look, he'll come around. When we get to Central, I'll see what I can do about a child psychiatrist-"

"He doesn't need one of those."

Maes blinked at his friend.

"Are you serious?"

"Edward can figure it out himself. Now that he's not being brainwashed or used like a whore, I think it's safe to say that he will begin to remember himself."

Maes was going to say something else but Riza walked up and handed them their tickets.

"Here's the rest of the money. Since Edward is under five he gets to ride for free."

Roy took it and pocketed it. He then took out his watch to see what time it was. He wanted to know how long it would be before nightfall.

"Watch."

Roy looked up and saw that Edward was looking at him quite intently.

"What?"

"Watch. Mine." He said, looking between the watch and Roy.

"This is my watch, see?" he said, opening it to show that the inside was clean. "Your watch is back at home. That's where I found your color codes."

Edward seemed to think about it for a minute, as if he were trying to remember what that meant. Roy pointed to the inside of the watch opening.

"Your watch says: 'Don't forget, 3 Oct. 10'. I don't know what it means but it's something special to you."

Edward stared at the watch for a second and then turned away, wrapping his arm around Riza's neck.

"13 53-16 31-8-10..."

Roy sighed and closed the watch, heading to the train platform so that they could go.

***************

As they rode the train back to Central, Edward was fascinated by the countryside and watched it with keen interest. As he looked at the moving scenery, the three soldiers continued to deliberate what would be done with Edward.

"Well, first things first, we need to get him cleaned up. We didn't have time to really do anything since we needed to get back to Central, but we need to clean him up." Maes said, looking at Edward's clothes. "Second, we need to get him new clothes."