I've always felt I should write a Hughes death fic, since he's such a great character and his death was really a turning point, but I could never figure out how to approach it. Of course when I did it ended up being from Riza's point of view. I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Established
Riza Hawkeye awoke one night and realized that Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes' death was an established fact in her mind. She didn't like that.
As she padded out to her kitchen, drawing her robe around her, Hayate at her heels, she thought of the man he had been: cheerful, sharp, observing, always with a smile or a wise crack or a wise word, sometimes all three at once. That was before. Now he lay dead and buried in a military cemetery in Central, Gracia and Elysia cried, and there was one more thing that the Colonel wouldn't talk about. That was after.
As she leaned back against her kitchen counter, she tried to recall the exact moment she had learned of his death, and found that she couldn't. So many images flashed before her eyes: the obituary, the coffin, her black sash laid out on her bed, the pictures of blood stains, the telephone booth, the printed name of the gun that had been used, Colonel's face when she had known that he knew, yet none of these came with the sense that she felt it should have – the sense that this was the moment the world had changed irrevocably.
What kind of person was she, to forget a moment like that? Surely Gracia remembered the exact moment she was told her husband had died. The Colonel had started to speak, once, about how he had realized it was quiet on the other end of the line, something that would have never happened if Hughes had been there. Would Elysia remember? One day Daddy didn't come home. Maybe Mommy cried. And he didn't come home the next day, or the next. And Mommy cried. And then they buried him, so he couldn't go to work. And she and Mommy cried, and then he still didn't come home. Where was the line drawn for Elysia? Would it always be an elusive thing? An aura more than a moment, an atmosphere that indicated something was amiss, the absence of her father a permanent thing.
Riza finished her tea and set the mug down in the sink. Black Hayate whined at her, wagging his tail as if to dissipate whatever mood that had fallen.
She wondered if one day the Colonel would wake up and remember Hughes was dead, and if that fact would strike him as ordinary, instead of something very wrong. She wondered if the number of years since he had been dead doubled the number of years the Colonel had known him, if the shock and feelings of emptiness would go away. She doubted it.
Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, now Brigadier General Maes Hughes. Maes Hughes. Hughes. He had been a good soldier, a family man, and a friend. But not to her. He was nothing to her: a passing acquaintance, an ally perhaps, a man who spoke too often on the phone – an animated voice burbling out from across the room. He was gone now. He was dead. It was an established fact in her mind.
Ahhhh! I really can't remember myself when I found out Hughes died. And this is sad because he was one of the first FMA characters I encountered while watching a random episode of the anime and I thought: even if the military is evil and corrupt, that guy is good guy. I feel like I should have a "He what!" reaction from when I found out he died, but I don't think I did.
About the smile, wise crack, and wise word: In chapter 8 of the manga Hughes comes to deliver Ed the message from Roy. Ed is all like: Tell Colonel Shit I won't die before he does. Hughes laughed and said that bastards like Roy and Ed would have long lives. I had already read about his death, and that comment struck me as portentous. Poor Hughes. He was so wise, but he didn't fully realize the implications of his own words. Rest in Peace.