"I've got you now, Kid"

Ed's first crush is Havoc, the cool older young man, Havoc lets him down gently

Ed has a crush on Riza and the team is planning the boy's funeral, Hughes is shocked how expensive funerals are

Ed has a crush on Gracia, Hughes is not worried until Ed starts acting coldly towards him, giving him murderous stares when he kisses his wife, crush comes to a heartbreaking end when Ed hears Gracia say Maes is the love of his life and she wouldn't choose Ed even if he was an adult. Ed is devastated and experiences his first heartbreak.

It is scary how good AI has gotten lately.

I'm 34.

When I first read the manga I thought Hughes was so old. He was fucking 29 when he died.

Honestly! Half those guys would occasionally have to show their IDs when buying alcohol.

They are not even 30 and have careers.

Edward is a child so adult CPR does not apply to him

Okay, so, FMA taking place in an imaginary world gives you a leeway and he has automail so you need to consider it but new guidelines say that up to age 14 or puberty child CPR guidelines are to be followed.

Edward is 12 at the start of the show and very clearly a child. I would say he doesn't start puberty until 15-16, he is a late bloomer.

Mind you, adult and child CPR are not drastically different and in a real situation it's better to do something than nothing at all. But Edward is a child, you can't change biological facts. He is much smaller than an adult.

The team would do a CPR refresher course focusing on child CPR because by the rate Ed's heart is going give up sooner or later. Hughes also takes part in the course because he spends so much time with the boy.

Also Ed's automail makes the boy unable to swim so that is a huge hazard.

I also think alchemy takes a lot of energy. Of course Ed is ridiculously powerful and knows all kinds of loopholes to conserve energy so it doesn't happen often but sometimes, after a long battle he just crashes. Hard. Team can tell the warning signs of Ed running out of energy but the boy never listens, no sir. Ed keeps up until day is saved and then he collapses right there and he is freaking lucky to end up with team mustang who are all competent soldiers. Team Mustang takes care of each other. Ed looks after them in a battle and they take care of Ed afterwards.

They roll the boy on his side in recovery position, align his head so he can breathe easy and make sure his tongue does not cover airways. Sometimes the boy needs his back and chest rubbed when his breathing is not good.

"That's it. Keep breathing, kid. You're okay. Come on, come on. Don't check out on me now."

Sometimes Ed's power is so spent he vomits and that is a hazzle. Turning the boy on his stomach, making sure he doesn't choke or inhale stomach acids. After that they need to clean his face and airways and hope ambulance gets there soon because the boy now has nothing in his stomach. He is running on pure fumes.

Also thermoregulation. After a battle Ed gets cold, his automail sucks out any body heat he has and shock is a very real possibility. Even if the boy is not unconscious staying warm is difficult. Blankets barely do anything so when the boy is spent they need to rub his body to create warmth. When Ed is conscious, they rub his arms up and down. If the boy is feeling faint and needs to lie down, take his flesh foot and rub it up to calf.

I was thinking what if the worst happened.

The team has seen the looks Ed is getting and they have talked with him about it. Warned who to stay away from. And Ed is told to tell everything.

But too much happens and Ed just stops reporting it. He is tired, he can handle a few flirts.

Then this one guy gains Ed's trust. They talk alchemy, the guy knows about alchemy and lets Ed talk all he wants. The guy can give an actual answer, not the patronising smile and a "that's nice".

And then it happens and it is sudden and brutal. Edward freezes completely. He had imagined the possible scenario and it that he was always beating the rapist to a pulp. But when it actually happens, he starts screaming and trashing and then he feels it and his mind just blanks.

The guy must have said something afterwards. Ed must have answered.

"That was... was it your first?"

"Yeah..."

"Really? I though those guys in the office- oh well, I beat them to it. Was it good?"

"Yeah..."

Ed just wants the man to leave. He is left alone in the supply closet and he crawls under the shelves, wraps himself in his coat, out of everyone's sights.

Hours pass by. Night comes. Voices dim down and he doesn't leave the closet. He can't face anyone. He sits, head on his knees, tries to imagine it was all a dream.

Then the voices start again.

His name is called. Multiple people are calling for him.

He crawls deeper under the shelves. He claps his hands, tries to transmute his arm into a blade but nothing happens. He looks at his hands and panic and grabs a pair of scissors instead. He holds them from the middle, ready to stab whomever comes through the door.

The door opens and he pauses when he sees Fuery.

"Ed? Hey!" He calls over his shoulder. "I found him!"

"Good!" Colonel's voice call and Ed hears heavy steps and the voice coming closer. "Tell him he's in a world of trouble, making us chase him around like this!" Colonel appears at the door furious. "You better have a fucking solid explanation for this! I get a call from your brother that you haven't returned to dorm and then I have to wake my entire team up to look for you and what do we find? You! Sitting in a supply closet- what-" he looks over his shoulder "twenty feet from office. Fucking fantastic, Fullmetal! Such an asset you are -"

"Roy, you made your point" Hughes clasps the man's shoulder, a hard look on his face. He eyes the boy. "Ed, put the scissors away, please."

The boy does as is told and crawls back under the shelves.

"Come out." Mustang says and enters the closet, the entire team is now by the door.

"What has happened?" Hawkeye whispers and Hughes shrugs.

"Fullmetal, that is an order!"

The boy shakes his head and the Mustang's emotions overwhelm him. He had been worried sick when Alphonse had called, feared the worst had happened, that Ed was lying dead in a ditch somwhere but here he was, warm and unharmed and to Mustang's eyes, being a petulant child.

He grabbed the boy's automail wrist.

Edward screamed and clawed himself free. He kicked the man in the stomach and was ready to strike him on the head and it was only by others interfering that nothing more happened.

Pretty much all of them got between Ed and Mustang, Havoc and Breda were brave enough to get behind Ed despite knowing how much damage automail could do. They tried to restrain the boy, Hughes placed himself in the front and tried to help. "Ed." The boy wasn't really fighting them, more like sguirming. "Ed, look at me."

The boy growled like an animal.

"Roy." Hughes turned to his friend. "Something has happened."

"I agree." Mustang rubbed his aching stomach. "This - this isn't him."

"Ed." Hughes placed his hand on the boy's arm. Ed freed himself from the grasp. "Okay, no touching. Havoc, Breda, let him go. Ed, can you look at me."

The boy was lying on the floor, the men behind him ready to step into action.

"Do you know who I am?"

Ed looked at him for a long while.

"Hughes."

The man smiled. "That is right. Good boy."

He brought his hand closer but halted when Ed flinched. Hughes's love language was touch and touching Ed's hair came to him naturally, be it by ruffling it messy or caressing it gently when the boy needed a moment to unwind.

"Ed. What happened?"

The boy seemed perplexed by the large question.

"Did- did someone bring you here?"

Ed nodded and Hughes stomach sunk.

"Was it a man?"

"Yeah."

"Did- did he hurt you?"

"It hurt..."

Hughes clenched his fist.

"I-" tears gathered in Ed's eyes. "I didn't-" the boy screamed. "I froze! I said no! He just kept going and I froze! I didn't fight back! I didn't fight back!".

"Okay, okay." Hughes gathered the sobbing boy into his arms. "Shh... shh... you're safe now."

"I- I let it happen." Edward sobbed, his face pressed against the man's shoulder. "I didn't fight. You told me fight. I didn't."

"Oh, Edward." Hughed kissed the boy's temple and rocked himself back and forth. He looked around at his team. They were still too numb from the revelation to really do anything but look at each other with shock and fear in their eyes.

"We're not mad at you." Hughes said while looking his team, as if looking for assuration. "Edward, you did nothing wrong."

One by one, team members approached the boy, giving a clear signal that they were on his side. Hughes could do nothing but hold the boy in his lap, let him cry his heart out.

"Who was it?" Havoc's voice was filled with so much dark hatred that it got Ed to lift his gaze. Like an attacking cheetah, the man grabbed Ed's arm. "Chief, who was it?!"

"Jean." Mustang said in a soft voice but it left no argument. "Leave it be."

"But we can't let that- devil get away with this!"

"We won't" Mustang said and his face told Hughes his friend mean it. "He will pay but now is not the time for it."

"Roy is right." Hughes said and tried to rise up with Ed in his arms but dear God was automail heavy. He gave up the effort before his back could check out completely. He readjusted the boy in his arms, Ed was no longer sobbing out loud and had quieted down considerably, Hughes couldn't tell if it was good or bad since they boy refused to meet his gaze.

"Right now, we need to focus on Edward. He needs to know he is safe, loved and that this was not his fault."

Havoc scoffed. "Of course it was not his fault."

"Good, we're on the same page. Okay, Ed needs to go to hospital-"

"No hospital." The boy whimpered and Hughes patted his back.