"Roy, Roy where are you?" Hughes stood outside the door to Mustang's apartment, knocking with vehemence.
"That's it, I coming in!" He kicked the door down and stood breathing deeply, taking in the mess around him. The bottles, the notes, the transmutation circles, the blood, he gasped as he realized exactly what would call for a set-up like this, and ran around the corner to find Mustang sitting huddled in a corner, a gun against his head.
"Damn it Roy!" He shouted, kicking the weapon from his hands and grabbing him by the neck, lifting him to eye level.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Mustang turned his limp head to the side, looking away from Hughes. His fiery eyes glazed over with sadness, fear, and muted with tears.
"I've been sitting here like this for hours. Every once in a while I'll try to pull the trigger, but I just can't do it. That's just how much of a coward I am."
"It's called 'sanity', although, I don't know how you managed to acquire any…" He trailed off, looking around the trashed room again.
"I was so close." Mustang mumbled. He sounded dangerous, his voice so deep and distant that Hughes was honestly scared. He shook Mustang by the shoulders, attempting to draw him back into reality.
"Don't you know why it's a taboo!? The Devil's alchemy! I don't mess with any of this madness, but even I know enough to see that this is more than illegal! It's morally disrupted! Why the hell would you want to try something so futile, knowing it could kill you?! Or is that it, are you just looking for a way to die? You can take a shotgun to the head without this shit you know!" To Hughes's surprise, Mustang had begun to laugh, but also to cry. He was sobbing through gritted teeth.
"You just don't understand do you? You can't see what I've seen, all the death…all the blood..." Hughes eyes got wide, and then he pushed Mustang to the ground, holding the gun at his left side. He began rubbing his temples with his hand to suppress the headache that was forming.
"No," He said finally, "I don't. And I don't want to. If I wanted to screw my mind like that I would have, but I chose the desk job, like you had every opportunity to do." From the ground, though Hughes couldn't see his eyes from behind his greasy hair, Mustang was snickering.
"Yeah maybe," He said, just as distant, but when he looked back Hughes noticed that the fire in his eyes was back "But then I'd be as useless as you." Hughes still had a look of confusion strewn across his face, but he smiled a little anyway.
"But at least my brain still works right. If you ever pull anything like this again…" He shook his head, "You fucking scared me man."
"Yeah well," Mustang began to get up, and Hughes offered his hand, which Mustang took in earnest, "There's a price, there's always a price." The distance was back, and he turned to look at something that wasn't there.
"I don't know what you're looking for," Hughes scolded, "But you know that this isn't the way to find it."
"But there are so many people, people that I have killed…"
"And you can't bring them back! Not now, not ever!"
Silence.
"But you can avenge them, and you can help this country in the long run." Hughes assuaged. "But there is only one way to do that." He looked Mustang. "I'm still with you."
"Even now?" Mustang questioned
"Especially now." Hughes added, taking in once more the terrible mess around him. "You have me. I'll work under you, help you up. I always have before, and there's always that."
"Yeah," Mustang agreed. "There's always that."
"Excuse me."
The receptionist at the front desk in the central military building looked around to see where the small voice had come from.
"Excuse me!"
She looked at the edge of her desk and saw grasped there two little hands. Only, one of them was automail, and it was colored bright pink. She pushed back her rolling chair and peered over the other side of the tall counter. She saw stretched out towards her a young girl on her tiptoes, pulling herself up to see over the counter, but still she couldn't quite reach.
"Hello," She answered sweetly, "are you lost?"
The little girl shook her head, "No, I'm looking for…um…" The young girl let go of the counter and let the balls of her feet drop back onto the floor. She took a crumpled piece of old ledger paper out of the back pocket of her worn-out jeans and held it in front of her, "Lieutenant Mustang."
"Lieutenant," The secretary wondered aloud, "He's a Colonel now; he has been for a couple years actually."
"Oh, well I still need to see him." The young girl asserted as she folded the paper back up and put it into her pocket.
"May I ask why?"
"Because he told me to come find him here."
"The colonel told a young girl to come to headquarters to speak to him? I think you must be mistaken, are you sure you're not looking for someone else?"
"No, I know it's him," She pulled herself back up until her chin rested on the counter, and looked at the secretary with wide eyes, "Can you please just call him at least?"
The secretary sighed and picked up the receiver, but didn't dial. "What is your name?"
"Jess," replied the young girl, "Jess Yuric."
The secretary shook her head, and then proceeded to dial in the code to Mustang's office. She put her hand over the receiver and turned to Jess. "How old are you anyway?"
"Eight." Jess answered with a grin. "And three-quarters."
"Why are you…?" She was cut off when a voice picked up on the other line. Jess listened carefully to the one sided conversation
"Hello Colonel Mustang, there's a young girl here who wants to speak with you.
I know, but she insisted.
No…she's alone.
Well, I didn't have a chance to ask because…
She says it was you who told her to come here.
I can't imagine sir, but I could…
No, of course not but…
She says her name is Jess Yuric."
Then there was complete silence on the other line. Jess leaned in closer to try to hear what was coming out of the phone, getting up on her very tippest toes to listen in. Then, she heard it.
"Send her in." And it was just the voice she remembered too, rich and brusque.
"But sir!"
"I said 'send her in.'"
And that was that. There was a click and the line went dead. The secretary shook her head in disbelief and looked down at the girl once more. She sighed and shook her head repeatedly as she walked Jess down to Mustang's office and opened the door to let her in, and she sighed again as she closed the door once Jess was inside, and she shook her head as she walked all the way back down the hall to her desk.
Inside the room Jess stood with her small hands clasped in front of her, her thin frame being highlighted by her loose white tee-shirt, and Mustang just stared in disbelief. Eventually he also shook his head, but this was too clear something else out of his mind. He smiled at Jess, his best possible smile while trying to hold back the tears forming in his eyes.
"I just can't believe it…" He whispered, "I just can't believe you're alive."