cornerofmadness

Letters to Home
Author - cornerofmadness
Disclaimer – all rights belong to Arakawa sensei, no money made
Rating – PG-13
Character – Cain Fuery
Series - manga
Timeline/Spoilers – Eh, let’s call it anything after volume 10. Has spoilers for the Warehouse 13 omake.
Summary – He doesn’t want Mom guessing he’s in a war zone.
Word Count 884
Author’s Note – this was my first time writing a Fuery pov fic. It was written for the fma_fic_contest for the prompt ‘sidekick’ thanks to evil_little_dog for the beta after the fact. I won first place. Wow.

And since this was a ‘blind’ contest I even won a prize for being one of the best guessers.

* * *

Dear Mom,

Something fun happened last night. I went out with the guys and Havoc had this little audience while he bragged about all we do every day. One of the girls, Maisie, called us Mustang’s sidekicks. Havoc bristled about that, saying he was more important than a sidekick. No, that wasn’t the fun thing.

Fuery tapped his pen against his lips, debating how much about the night at the bar he could tell his mom. Certainly not Havoc passing out face down in Bella’s cleavage or that he got a kiss from Sarah when he walked her home.

Havoc took the heat until Breda pointed out that even if we were, that still meant we were right in the thick of the action. Sarah, you’d like her Mom, said that had to be exciting. She talked to me all night. She didn’t seem the least bit bored by my job. I told her about the ghost of warehouse thirteen.

Fuery debated if he should tell his mom that. It was sort of embarrassing but Mom would get a laugh.

It all started when Hayate, that's Lieutenant Hawkeye's dog, the one I told you I rescued, found a bone behind the warehouses. I heard there was a haunted warehouse and was convinced Hayate had found a murder victim. Didn't take me too long to convince the rest of the guys that there was a ghost. Call us sidekicks if you want, the Colonel sat up all night with us because we were scared. Turned out it was where Hayate buried his steak bones. Sarah said I should write it all down and sell my story later. All the girls said those sorts of stories are really popular. I think all of us are keeping journals now. Who knows, maybe I’ll be a famous writer once my tour of duty is over, ha ha.

* * *

Dear Mom,

It feels a little odd at the office right now. Breda's on a secret mission, Falman, too. It was just Havoc and me out tonight. He really is a wild man. Don't worry, Mom, he's a good guy and I don't let him get me into too much trouble. The girls were back tonight, too. Sarah sat with me again. I told her about a secret ops we get to do. Well, I didn't really tell her the secret, just that I had this really big job to do. Sorry, can’t tell you more than ‘secret' either, Mom, but boy, that word sure makes me seem cool.

It certainly had gotten Sarah’s attention, Fuery remembered with a grin.

I'm kinda envious of Breda's mission. He gets to travel. I'd love to do get to do that, Mom. Well, I guess I'm getting to see Central now. It's so big. On the other hand, I'm glad I don't have to help Falman with his secret op.

Fuery meant that sincerely. Mustang had determined that Cain was likely to end up on the wrong end of Barry the Chopper's blades if he helped to babysit him. Fuery still thought Falman and Havoc were pulling his leg about Barry having the hots for Hawkeye. He didn't even want to imagine it.

***

Dear Mom,

It's been a little harder here than usual but I'm okay. Don’t worry about me. I had another really big and secret job that I had to wire up. I'm always amazed when the colonel trusts me so much. I know I can really learn a lot from him about being a good guy. I can't tell you too much about it. I wonder what the newspapers will say about the destruction.

He wished he could tell his mother about tracking Barry the Chopper and the strange beings that he still didn’t really understand. That giant had tried to eat him and Hawkeye. Certainly couldn't tell Mom that.

The really bad thing, Mom, is that Colonel Mustang and Havoc got hurt, really bad. I've spent the last two days in the hospital visiting. The colonel will be all right but Havoc might not walk again. It's a little scary. I knew when I signed up that stuff like this could happen but this is the first time I've seen it. Try not to worry, Mom. I'll be careful.

***

Dear Mom,

I know the last letter was probably pretty scary so here's a better one. The other night the Colonel got drunk and ordered flowers, an entire street cart full. He took some to these nice ladies at Christmas’ bar and then told me to use the rest to decorate his girl, Elizabeth's, room. He even had me tape some to the ceiling! I hope she loved them.

Frankly, Fuery thought Hawkeye was going to shoot them both and he was pretty sure Madame Christmas and her girls were prostitutes but he definitely wasn't telling Mom that.

Fuery folded up the letters and put them in his pack. Everything in the series of letters was weeks, if not months old, but he couldn't tell his Mom he was headed to a war zone. This was the price to be paid for being one of Mustang's men. He would just post a letter a week and Mom wouldn't know. Fuery just hoped he lived long enough to write a fresh batch.