One
Roy Mustang had very particular ideas about love. His love in any case. Women, as laws unto themselves found any and all rules to be inapplicable in his vast experience and other men's mishaps were none of his business. His rules are as follows. You should love beautiful women within five years of your age, or within ten if you were over 50. If for whatever reason he could not love a woman, he should love a homosexual his own age. Failing this, he ought to find a homosexual near to his age to love. If he found himself incapable of even this he should give up on romance and resign himself to solitude. As a foot note you should never be involved with a coworker or the relative of a coworker. Married and "taken" women are off limits- adultery is bad.
Roy believed heartily in the rules- they allowed him to have his fun within carefully predetermined lines. They prevented disturbed pedophilia, awkward obsessions and other messiness. In recent times he found the rules increasingly difficult to follow. The first challenge to his rule-abiding romantic existence came in the form of Riza Hawkeye. She was, just barely, within his age limits, but was thoroughly off-limits as not only a coworker, but the relative of one too. To make matters worse he had been entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the girl. Somehow, following her every move out of the corner of his eye and encouraging her misguided attachment to him hardly seemed to qualify. In spite of all this, he found himself admiring the shift of her shoulders when she shot her gun, as she walked and when she did anything at all. He did it any time at all he could get away with it. He was captivated by the play of light on her corn-silk hair , the angles of her face and the planes of her pleasingly strong figure.
Then, the fuhrer separated them. At first it was a heart-wrenching loss, an ache in his chest every time he missed her presence, almost as if his heart was still with her and not in his chest. Then, he simply got over it. While he was partially relieved, he also felt empty at first without that familiar longing. A bittersweet ending he concluded, one way or the other.
No longer caught up in Riza, Roy hit a new low. He found himself in denial over his increasing attraction to the worst possible candidate. Age: only seventeen- way out of his range; a coworker and additionally not even female. Roy was, as a matter of fact, drawn to a seventeen year old boy who worked with him. The ultimate sin: the boy was perfectly straight and quite possibly already in love with someone who certainly loved him. Roy had fallen in love with none other than the Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric. You could call him a bad person- he already had called himself one by this point. You might consider him a pedophile- he certainly considered himself one. Neither of you would be entirely wrong. This observation, did not stifle, but instead fed the perverse infatuation. And so it is that in the middle of an almost war with non-humans who secretly gained control of the government Roy fell in love with a straight seventeen year old on a quest for the truth. Roy tended to consider himself a monster and so might you, but I never quite believed it. Which is why I have brought you the totally honest account in Roy's defense. With that said, it happened something like this.
***
To Whom It May Concern:
I guess when it comes down to it, I have Fuhrer Bradley to thank and blame. If you asked me when it was happening I blamed him. Now, mostly, I thank him, but there are still times when I hate him for what he did to me- and everyone else. Now it's all over, I'm just glad I can go back and at least explain where it all went wrong. I've accepted that what I did was probably wrong, but we're all happy with what I chose. That's probably the most important thing- Hughes always thought so. If he was here I get the feeling he would have been laughing and cheering for us all along- he was the kind that supported anything you went with as long as it made you happy (and didn't hurt anyone else). In either case, we did the very best we could possibly do with what we were given. That's good enough for me.
Fuhrer Roy Mustang
***
Yikes, super short chapter here. This is starting to become a bad habit with all my prologue chapters- I'll need to do something about that, and soon. Anywhoozle, I'm still working on typing up and editting the hand-written chapter of the next chapter, but should have it up soon. I caught a stomach bug, so that'll slow me down a bit, as will make-up work, but I'm on the mend so it shouldn't be too long. So, for those of you who follow other fics of mine, look for updates soonest here and on the Shunsui/Ukitake fic Let Them Fall as well as Shatter Shatter Shatter Like So Much Glass (Kisuke/Ichigo) which may have a change of name coming up (because much as I love it, it has ceased to fit). Into The Black (Sebastian/Ceil) may be a while since my guest writer for the upcoming chapters writes unpredictably at best though I'll nag her to the best of my ability. That aside, I haven't worked on this in ages and I have to say I'm feeling pretty pleased with what I've editted thus far. When I have a whole chapter I will post straight away. Review, review, review (although there isn't much to review on)- even a mono-sylable like "nice" or a two-worder like "good job" speeds up the writing process, you know~!
The Hatter, out!