Author's Note:
Written for the Thousand Sunny Lyon, Megami Ze, Disastergirl and mebh Blind!Roy challenge. Roy in the short time he is blind following The Promised Day 500-1000 words
Based on the last Brotherhood episode. Can be seen as coming before Chapter 1 of my fic "The Toll."
Word count: 995, not counting author's note.
Pain
When he woke up, he didn't know what time it was. Once the adrenaline from the battle had worn off, it seemed he could feel every ache, every bruise in his body, not to mention the excruciating pain in his hands, all magnified by his lack of sight. Interesting how that worked. You closed your eyes to sleep or to think or to concentrate on physical sensations. Where does that hurt? Can I move my fingers? Did I sprain my ankle in that fall? But he couldn't sleep because the pain woke him up and he couldn't think because the pain was fogging his brain so all that left was ...
When the pain subsided somewhat, he realized he was lying on a cot and he could smell disinfectant. The hospital smell. People were moving around, talking quietly. Was this the night shift or was it day? He opened his eyes and it happened again - the rush of disorientation caused by seeing nothing. It was like the sensation of "moving while lying still" that he'd had when coming to after a concussion.
Once again the pain from his hands jolted him out of his train of thought. It was getting worse, not better. Did that mean his hands weren't healing properly? Were the wounds infected? That would be great - blind and unable to use his hands. Well, there was nothing he could do about his sight but there was always automail for hands. But then they'd have to amputate them, he supposed. Another jolt and he couldn't keep from crying out. At the moment, amputation didn't sound half bad.
Quick footsteps came to his cot. "Mr. ... Mustang," said a woman's voice, apparently reading his name somewhere. "Your pain medication wore off ... 45 minutes ago. Please! Call us before it goes that long again."
"Nurse - " started Roy. "Are you a nurse?" The pain overwhelmed him again and he almost missed the answer.
"The nurse's uniform is a rather obvious giveaway," she said crossly. Despite her insistence that he should have called for help sooner, she was frazzled by the huge influx of patients caused by the battle. Normally she would have had a sense of humor, but it was missing at the moment.
"It would be if I could see," Roy answered through clenched teeth. "What the hell do they have on that chart of yours? And what time is it? Is it day or night?"
"All I have here is your last name, your medication record, and notes about the impalement wounds in your hands." She was looking at the light gray eyes now. That was an odd color for a man of obvious Eastern extraction. "Has a doctor looked at your eyes yet, Mr. Mustang?"
Roy tried to answer, but the pain worsened. If he'd had a knife, he might have considered cutting off his hands himself. The nurse noticed and quickly finished preparing the injection she'd started when she'd entered the room.
By the time the medicine took effect enough to let him think again, the nurse was gone and she still hadn't answered his questions. But that was okay, because shortly after that, Roy dropped off to sleep again.
It was a lucid dream. Roy was looking at a gray wall filled with alchemical symbols, but he was having trouble reading them. The symbols were blurring into the gray of the wall. Okay then, they were carved into the stone, he could read the engravings by feel. The gray of the wall filled his field of vision as he got closer until everything was gray. Then he touched the wall to read the symbols and he felt a deep ache in his hands.
"You have to call someone," said a voice, "or this will get very bad."
"Well, I'd have to wake up first to do that, now, wouldn't I?" he answered, annoyed.
"Fine, then don't," said the voice.
"I don't think I want to wake up," he said. Roy had a feeling that would be a bad idea.
"Suit yourself," said the voice.
But Roy could see a blur of red like a physical presence coming towards him and he knew that it would be very bad indeed when it arrived.
"All right," he said and opened his eyes.
I must still be dreaming, he thought, because instead of waking from the gray and red world to light, it had actually gotten darker.
Oh right, he thought. I must have slept through the day and it's night now. But this is a hospital. It shouldn't be completely dark, should it?
Then he opened his eyes wide, fully awake. And remembered that he was blind. He closed his eyes but didn't try to stop the tears. It was odd to lie there in the dark like that, totally silent, tears running down his cheeks and making the pillow damp.
After a while, the wet spot on the pillow began to irritate him and he could feel the ache in his hands getting stronger. He dried his eyes and cheeks by moving his face on the pillow. "Nurse?" he called.
This time when the nurse came, a different one to judge by the voice, he got an answer. It was a little after nine in the morning. He could tell by the way she introduced herself and told him what she was doing that the other nurse had added a note about his blindness to the chart.
When the medicine took full effect, it didn't put him to sleep this time. He must have slept enough for now. He sat up by bracing himself on his forearms, keeping his eyes closed.
He arranged himself cross-legged on the bed, arms loosely draped over his legs. He was awake and relatively pain-free, so he could think clearly now. But as the thoughts started running through his mind, it didn't seem like much of an improvement over the pain.