I was bored and I wrote this to pass time. I was thinking about what happened to Roy once Ed returned on the other side of the gate to destroy the portal on that side. Pretty dark, I must admit. Maybe I'll do a sequel if I get enough demand for it.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot of this story.
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He looked at the clock.
3:10 am.
Three more minutes… Three more minute and it will be twelve hours since… then. But he really didn't want to think about it. About how stupid it all was. About how stupid he had acted… And now…
He turned his head to look out the window. The sky reflected his feelings: dark and sad. The clouds were covering the sky that he knew was still night-dark.
Glancing around the room, he took in every detail. A small table next to the only window, a chair lying near it. On the opposite wall was a bed, next to the bathroom door. And on another wall was the door to get out of the extremely small apartment.
Being in the military, one could have expected him to have a more… decent place to live in. But he didn't want to return in the north. He didn't want to go back to his old house in central. He didn't want to stay in the headquarters.
He just wanted… to be alone.
No… not alone…
As strange as it could seem, he wanted to be with his ex-subordinate right now.
He liked Riza. A lot, even. He liked to go out with women. He liked how they all fell for his charm. However… He never asked himself why none of his previous dates ever worked out.
He glared back at the clock hanging on the wall, just above the bathroom door.
3:11.
Time was passing so slowly. It seemed as though ever since he left, everything was in slow motion. He had smiled to him just before he left, but now he wasn't even sure he had the strength to stay alive until the sun came up.
He couldn't sleep, he couldn't eat, he was barely able to breathe.
He hadn't cried. Winry cried. Sheska cried. Even Breda, Falman, Fuery and Armstrong cried. But he hadn't. He was sure even Riza had cried, even if it hadn't been in public. He was sure everybody who knew him had cried already, and were probably still crying. But he hadn't been able to even shed one tear.
But don't think he wasn't hurting. Heck, his heart hurt probably even more than everybody else's put together! The pain was so intense that he knew that was the reason he couldn't cry.
Anyway… he had never cried in his life.
Not even when Maes Hughes died. Not even at the funerals. Not even when he learned of his disappearance two years ago. But if there ever was a time when he really wanted to cry, it was now.
The clock now showed 3:12.
He still remembered his sad expression when he said he had to go back to destroy the gate on the other side. He still remembered wanting to do like Alphonse and jump on the ship at the last second. He still remembered when Armstrong asked him if he wanted him to destroy the gate on this side in his place.
He had agreed.
And had watched as Fuery, Breda and Falman sent letters to everybody who knew him but didn't already know of his departure, crying at the same time.
He remembered the sad and comprehensive look on Riza's face before she left to her office. The small slaps on the back of those trying to cheer him up a bit, or get him to cry. The completely destroyed look on Winry's face as she boarded the train to go back to Risembool. The hollow look in his eye when he stared at his reflection in the mirror of the bathroom of the small apartment.
He had stared at his reflection during a whole hour when he got in the apartment. Yet he had seen no sorrow, no anger. Just the void that made his heart hurt so much and the pain.
The clock switched to 3:13.
He slowly lifted his hand and put three of his gloved fingers together. He felt something wet roll down his cheek. He didn't even have to look at what it was to know that he had finally started crying. If Maes had been there, maybe he wouldn't have decided to do it. Maybe he would have cried during a month and get over it as best he could.
But not this time.
Before the clock ticked to 3:14, a single word escaped his lips.
"Edward…"
A husky whisper carried the name out of his trembling lips. Then a snap could be heard… and flames consumed the building.
When the sun showed up on the horizon as the clouds had already scattered, when the fire was extinguished and people finally investigating on what had happened, everyone had someone else to cry about.
Three years later, a blond girl ran to the top of a grassy hill. She stopped just before arriving and turned around.
"Hurry up, mommy! I wanna put the flowers now!" said the two and a half years old girl, waiting impatiently for her mother to come.
They had already visited two other graves earlier, but the young girl preferred this one the most.
"Alright, honey! Calm down! I'm coming!" said the blonde mother, laughing a bit at her daughter's impatience. "I'm not the only one coming, you know! And Riza has trouble walking fast. I'm sure you remember that."
"Don't worry about me, Winry. Go ahead, I'll catch up in a minute." said Riza, a hand on her swollen belly and waving the other at her friend, motioning her to go.
"Alright, then. We'll wait for you at his grave." said Winry, going ahead with the flowers in her arms.
Arrived on the top of the hill, the young girl extended her arms. "I wanna put the flowers!"
Winry gave the flowers to her daughter with a big smile. The girl put them before a single grave. A few minutes later, Riza finally arrived at the grave, too. She smiled at the two other girls.
"Could you read again what is written, please, Riza?" asked innocently the little girl.
Riza nodded and read the grave stone. "Here lies Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, greatest General to have served in the military during the crisis time of the humonculus and the Philosopher's Stone. Dead after the mysterious disappearance of an ex-subordinate. He committed suicide exactly twelve hours after said disappearance. May his soul finally find peace after all he has endured." said Riza, almost choking the last sentence as she held up her tears.
"We should go back, now." softly suggested Winry, putting a hand on Riza's back.
All three girls went down the grassy hill, leaving Roy's gravestone standing tall and alone.
Owari
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