This was supposed to be a one-shot... It somehow got out of hand and grew...
After the final battle at the promised day some moments went missing in both brotherhood anime ad manga, so this is my attempt to fill these holes.
It is focused on the Flame Alchemist, Colonel Roy Mustang and his first lieutenant Riza Hawkeye. Royai for all who didn't get it.
Again, English is not my mother tongue, so I apologize for strange phrases and ask you to help me correct them.
Also I tried to avoid any use of word the mean "to see" when writing from Roy's point of view, If you find one please tell me so I can exchange it.
Fullmetal Alchmist is not mine, I only do fan stuff. I all belongs to Arakawa Hiromu.
This was inspired by this fan art on deviantart:
deviantart[dot]com/art/After-the-battle-fma-royai-163802234
Erblindet
Underpinned by a wall they sat back to back. Her had rested on his shoulder, his head was tipped back, blind eyes closed. Hidden under his coat their hands touched, a kind of validation for both of them. For him it meant that it was really her and that she was alive. One of the last things he had seen was her, lying in a puddle of her own blood and this picture hat burned itself into his memory.
The battle (if you want to call an fight against a single being a battle) had ended according to the shouts of triumph (as well as the fact that they were still alive) they had won. But what exactly had happened the blind Flame Alchemist did not yet know. The world which once had consisted of colours and shades was only black now. It had been a combination of sheer instinct, his own pride and the knowledge what was at stake which had made it impossible for him to give in.
But he could not fight sightless and so he had put himself, a human weapon, into the skillful hands of the hawk's eye. Her eyes navigated his flames and provided him the necessary information, in return he supported his first lieutenant by wrapping his arm around her waist, for she had lost a lot of blood.
The shouts of victory fell silent, the homunculus was defeated. Edward Elric and his brother Alphonse had reached their journey end as well, but the two individuals who had presented that path to the boys for the first time where both to exhausted to congratulate them on their sucess.
She had guided him to the wall, had made him sit down and had collapsed right next to him.
So they sat until the arrival of the rescue workers.
The silence was unbearable. Not that they ever had talked much, their exchanges always had been short and formal, colonel and lieutenant.
The true conversation was hidden, decoded in a secret language which consisted of a few well chosen words, secret glances and subtle gestures only the two of them noticed.
Words alone were empty.
It got loud around them, someone called his Name. More voices, all talking at one it seemed, then next to him the first lieutenant responded with a single word which meaning he wasn't able to gasp.
And then she was gone, so sudden as if something had ripped a rift in the matter by his side by taking her away.
He remained where he had been seated, as if he had a choice: He didn't have a clue where in the headquarters he was.
Eventually, he did not know how much time had passed, not only his sight was gone but also any kind of sense of time, he heard his name again, this time directly in front of him.
"Colonel Roy Mustang." Guessing from the way he spoke he was a soldier, probably from Briggs.
"Are you all right, Sir?"
"Given the circumstances." he heard himself say.
Again people shouted, the soldier answered and suddenly grabbed his arm.
"Come along, Sir."
He did not resist as he followed the order, although he felt more like luggage than a superior officer under the gruff guidance.
They did not go far, only a few steps across a floor littered with rubble, then a sudden weight on his shoulder told him to sit down.
He smelled mouldy cotton and impregnating agent, a smell which was familiar to him from the tents the military had used in Ishval, he was in one now he concluded.
He was left alone again, sitting on something which appeared to be a crate.
Some time later someone came who introduced himself as a doctor. He examined the Colonel's hands and tended to the wounds.
The alchemist winced when the punctures in his palms were sutured, he had not truly realized until now that Wrath had pierced his palms. It seemed minor in relation to everything else.
The doctor started to ask questions he answered mechanically.
Did he have any other injuries? No, nothing serious.
Where the Rumor true concerning his eyes? He opened them for an answer.
What had happened to them? Truth took them as a toll.
He did not recognize the doctor as Dr. Knox until he apologized for his crudeness.
He asked about the first lieutenant.
She is tended to Knox said, they would take him to her as soon as there was time. As soon as they could do without anyone, because of the rescue operations. Many were still buried under the headquarters' debris.
He left with those words and left the blind one alone again.
Roy waited. He listened to the shouting people without understanding their words and to the humming automotive engines which came and went.
Eventually someone came and gave him some water.
Again he waited with nothing to presind him from the darkness in his open eyes and the pain in his palms.
It was not until many (conjectured) hours later when when the noises died away when the noises died away consecutively. Slowly the cool of the evening came.
He was tired, hungry and cold, but he knew there were many whose conditions where far worse. At some point his exhaustion overwhelmed him and he just dozed away.
He was half asleep when he realized that soldiers were talking to him. They guided him from the out of the tent and into a car and they did so far more gentle than the Briggs soldier earlier. A few times he stumbled across for him invisible debris but each time arms came out of nowhere to catch him before he fell.
He got lost for good in the car, it could be going anywhere.
When they arrived he recognized the hospital by it's smell.
More Voices, someone touched his shoulder. Then suddenly his journey came to an end and he found himself sitting on a bed.
"First lieutenant Hawkeye?" he asked weak.
"She is right here." He recognized Fuery's voice:
"No two meters afar from you... wait a sec."
Someone, probably sergeant Fuery led him a few steps forward and placed his hand on her face.
He sensed her soft, warm skin, which was soaked in sweat. His thumb traced the line of her nose, then her eyebrow.
"She is asleep." Fuery said: "She lost a high amount of blood. We were not sure if she would make it. But in the end on of us disobeyed your order."
Carefully he moved his hand across her chin until he touched the bandage wrapped around her neck. He winced, then gulped due to the sudden pain which flashed his soul, triggered by the mere memory. But he also could feel her slow, steady pulse.
He finally allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief. Terrifying fear fell off himm like a physical burden.
"Thank you. Tell the others as well."
"We are all here." He heard second lieutenant Breda's voice.
"You should rest as well." A woman said, Maria Ross he realized.
His eyes were as if on fire, suddenly resting seemed like a good idea. He stumbled back to his own bed, removed the boots eyless. He did not even notice when someone took off his tattered uniform and dressed him into an infirmary pyjama.
(authors' comment: I sort of figured that after the battle first no one would care about the Colonel, first because of his (compared to others) minor (not life threatening) injuries and than Major General Armstrong has command...
So he gets Kind of forgotten, moved at some point because he is in the way and so on.
I imagine that Major Alex L. Armstrong told Dr. Knox about Mustang being in this tent after the worst Injuries were tended to.
About the tent... have you ever been inside an old military tent? they have this particular smell...
In brotherhood anime Maria Ross is seen guarding Roy's and Riza's Hospital room door, I kind of like the Idea of her (and maybe Danny Brosh as well) joining Mustang's team after the promised day, so here she is.)