Title: Control
Author: S J Smith
Rating: Gen
Summary: Roy can't allow himself to react.
Disclaimer: I just play in Arakawa's world.
Note: Written for the FM_Alchemist drabble tree. The line I used for my prompt was, "He gripped the sink, his knuckles turning white."
The words struck like a blow, and Roy had to swallow them down, and try to keep his composure in front of the others. Not his men, he could've reacted in front of them, but not before Grumman's staff. He had to remain stoic, and in control, and not let that façade slip, because.
Because men didn't cry.
Roy stared at himself in the mirror of the men's room. He gripped the sink, his knuckles turning white. "Control," he reminded himself. "Stay in control."
He couldn't let go now. Later, maybe, he could have a drink, or a bottle, and consider what had happened to his best friend. That he'd been on the telephone with him while he died. But now, right now, he had to put on his best poker face, and turn it on the world outside.
Inside, though, he knew a part of his heart was dying.
- end -