Your Choice
It was a cold and snowy night in Eastern and all Mustang wanted to do was sit by the fire for warmth. An extra large blanket was wrapped around both him and Hawkeye as they watched the flames flicker in the fireplace. Hawkeye leaned her head backwards and closed her eyes as she rested her head against his chest. The orange flames flickered in the reflection in Mustang's eyes. He watched as the wood and paper burned slowly into black ashes, then settled to the bottom as dust or rose through the chimney as smoke. It mesmerized him. He never paid attention to the way of flames. His mind was always concentrated on the creation and use of Alchemy, not the specific element in which he used. He first started staring at the flames when Hawkeye first struck the match. From that moment on, he watched the flames flicker and burn. His mind was preoccupied by the dancing embers that illuminated the small living room where he sat with Hawkeye in his lap, wrapped up in a blanket. A small black dog sat curled in a ball before the fire, sleeping soundlessly with warmth walking all down his fur.
'Flames. Why flames? Why not water, or air? Why flames?'
Mustang thought silently to himself as the flames danced and swayed inside the brick fireplace against the soft yellow wall. It never crossed his mind before why his alchemy was flames. It was just the alchemy circle he mastered, drew often and then ... became. He was the flames. The fire. In his walking wake, he left behind black ashes which either fell to dust or rose to smoke. The smell of burning embers forever burned into his flesh, hair and mind. As he watched the flames, he felt a cold breeze blow by him, he closed his eyes to enjoy the sudden coldness, a change from the warmth. He opened his eyes when he heard a gunshot. The fire was gone.
"Riza..."
Mustang moved his arm to shake Hawkeye, when he relized, she was gone too. He sat up and looked, the dog was also gone.
"Riza! Black Hayate!"
He called again. He got no answer. His eye scanned the dark room. The room as gone. All that was left was him and the sofa he sat on. He stood up and slowly turned around. As soon was he was fully turned, the sofa was gone. Vanished like everything else. He frantically began to call out. His voice echoed. Where was he? He wasn't at Hawkeye's anymore. He was...
"Roy, old buddy!"
Mustang's eyes quickly scanned for the source of the voice. He turned around in circles, looking for anyone, anything.
"Don't waist your time, your alone here...well alone except for me."
Mustang turned one last time. His face formed into a shock and he felt his skin go pale. There, about six feet away was Hughes. He was dressed in a military uniform with his same old grin from ear to ear. Mustang couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"You're...you're dead."
"Duh!"
"But how..."
"Don't think to hard Roy, you'll hurt yourself."
Mustang lost the shock and sent the so-called Hughes a death glare. Hughes laughed as a non existent light reflected off his glasses. When the reflection was gone, Hughes looked straight at Mustang, smiling.
"But..."
"Now, do you really need to ask questions? Just except the fact that I'm here. It's not alchemy Roy, there is no real answer. No real understanding. It's just accepted."
Mustang watched as a tan sofa chair appeared from no where and Hughes sat down, crossing his leg as he did.
"Sit."
Another, identical chair appeared and Roy was pushed into it by an invisible force. Seconds later, both chairs were within inches from each other, the two men facing one another. Silence befell them as they stared. Mustang's eyes scanned the figure before him, looking for anything out of place.
"Well now Roy, I see you really haven't changed."
"..."
"Speak... usually we couldn't get you to shut up."
"No, it was you who always talked. On and on about Gracia this and Elicia that."
Hughes laughed. It was true, but at least he got Mustang talking.
"So, why are you here? You like one of those spirit guides or something? Guardian Angel?"
"Well, I am a guardian angel, but not for you. I'm Elicia's."
Hughes uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands and his elbows on his knees. Mustang remained reclined in the soft armchair, he was comfortable and didn't want to move.
"Roy, do you have any idea what has just happened to you?"
"Um..."
"Military, Fuhrer, Pride, Hawkeye..."
"Hawkeye! What about Hawkeye is she okay? Did something happen to her? Where is she?"
Mustang leaned forward and practically jumped into the air. Hawkeye was everything to him. And he didn't want to feel responsible for her death... or injury.
"She's fine... well sort-of. What I'm talking about is your fighting the Fuhrer. Do you remember?"
Mustang closed his eyes and tried to remember. As he opened them, the darkness that surrounded him and Hughes was gone and replaced by burning flames. Hughes stood next to Mustang as they watched a rerun of what had happened. There before and around them was a burning house with Mustang and Pride fighting in the middle. Mustang was badly hurt and Pride was doing fine. The real Mustang rose his hand and touched his face. He started to feel pain and blood dripping down his cheeks. The image around them disappeared and they were once again in darkness.
"I remember something about killing Pride. Did I kill him? Is he dead?" "Not sure. Haven't figured that out yet..."
"Well, am I dead?"
"Well..."
"Hughes!"
"Okay... okay. Your half dead."
"What!"
"I said...your half...-"
"I heard you."
The chairs reappeared and they sat back down. This time Mustang was leaning forward and Hughes was leaning back.
"Roy... you have a choice. You can stay here and become a guardian too. Or you can return...-"
"Return...?"
"Back there..."
Hughes pointed into the empty darkness and a large moving image appeared. A wounded Hawkeye was running to a lifeless Mustang who was lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. His left arm was bleeding and her right hand held a gun. She collapsed at his lifeless body and began to call out his name. Mustang and Hughes couldn't hear anything, all they could do was watch. Hawkeye began to shake Mustang's body but nothing was happening.
"Is this..."
"Happening right now as we speak, yes."
"So Hawkeye is..."
"Really crying for you...right now."
And sure enough, Hawkeye bowed her head and rested it on mustang's chest, tears streaming down her face.
"Riza..."
"Roy you can go back. But only if you want to."
"I want to!"
"But Roy..."
"I want to! I want to go back to Hawkeye! to my life!"
"fine, but just remember I warned you..."
"Warned me...?"
"Your life is different now. You can never become Fuhrer and you'll be blind in one eye, making using your alchemy correctly almost impossible..."
"I can't be Fuhrer..."
"No, your now considered to be an assassin."
"..."
"Roy..."
"I don't care, I want to be with Hawkeye!"
"All right... all right... have it your way..."
Hughes snapped his fingers and Mustang's chair disappeared. A swirling white and black portal appeared below mustang.
"See you some day, hopefully not soon... oh and Roy.. Last time I'm gonna tell you... get yourself a wife."
Mustang growled, but then smiled.
"I will..."
And with that Mustang was gone. Hughes turned as the portal disappeared. He looked at the moving image. Hawkeye began to stand and walk away. Just then, Mustang's arm moved and grabbed her leg, causing her to turn and face him. More tears formed in her amber eyes as he opened his one eye and looked up at her, his playboy smiling stretched across his face. Hawkeye fell back to her knees and Mustang used her shoulder to boost himself up. He cupped her face in his hand and smiled, wiping away her tears with his thumb. Before she could say anything, he leaned forward and kissed her.
"You've got yourself a keeper there Roy. A keeper indeed."
Hughes smiled as the image disappeared and the light reflected off his glasses. He turned around and walked away into the darkness, his form slowly disappearing into the darkness, the last to disappear was the sparkle on his glasses.
A/N - Well? This was originally another chapter for my story 'To Thine Own Self Be True', but I changed it a little to be a ONESHOT. Hope you enjoyed it.
Please review. No FLAMES (Thats Roy's job only). Please look in my profile oo0AnimeChild0oo for all my other stories. And again, thanks for reading.
"Write a wise saying and your name will live forever"
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