Title: Memo
Summary: Roy moves out of the old office.
Timeline: Post-Promised Day
Rating: K+ for an instance of choice-words
Author's Note: I just had some post-Promised Day feels, and this wouldn't leave me alone. Thanks for reading and don't hesitate to give some feedback :)
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It was strange to push the door open to his office and find everything as he had left it over a month ago. The air inside was stale, and the atmosphere was silent and preserving, like a museum. Roy supposed it was a sort of museum - a window into the past, where everything had been as normal as could be before all hell broke loose.
Late evening light poured in from the large window in the back, illuminating the feathery layer of dust that had settled on his chair and desk. On the bulletin board to the right were a few maps and some articles of various happenings that he must have somehow found interesting; there were also a couple of pictures of Gracia and Elysia Hughes. The sight sent a pang down Mustang's throat. Maes had put those there on one particularly bad Monday that Roy had experienced, gabbing on about how his girls would undoubtedly make his day better. He had never taken them down.
On his desk were a few messy stacks of offending paperwork, a clock in need of rewinding, and some pens and a notepad. The office was blessedly simple, so moving into his new one wouldn't prove to be too difficult. To be honest, Roy was glad he was moving out of the place.
It held a certain nostalgia that he desperately wanted to get rid of.
Breaking out of his trance, he stepped across the threshold and into the dim. In his arms he held a cardboard box that he could transport his few office belongings in. He set it down on his desk and got to work, removing the articles and such from the wall - most of which he threw away. He took a good look at the two pictures of the remaining Hughes family and tucked them safely into his front pocket. Next was the desk. Briefly, Roy wondered if he even needed to take the paperwork, which was so overdue that he could have been court-martialed, had the circumstances been different. Still...
Roy thought of the gun that was strapped securely to Hawkeye's side just in the next room and sighed, reaching to apprehend the offending documents. Something on his notepad caught his eye mid-grab, and he paused for a moment to read.
In his own tired handwriting, one jotted note occupied the otherwise blank leaflet: Fullmetal reporting; 3:45, May 12.
Roy had the subconscious urge to sigh in annoyance; he really wasn't in the...
...mood.
That appointment was for Ed's return from Briggs. It never happened. In one shit-storm after another, everything spiraled out of normalcy and into something that eventually tore the country apart. Everything turned out fine in the end, despite the devastation. Fullmetal had been honorably discharged over a month ago.
Roy stared as an unexpected lump formed in his throat, duties temporarily forgotten.
"Sir, are you ready?"
Mustang's head jerked up to meet the Lieutenant's steady gaze. Her arms were laden with a filled box, and she leaned back slightly with the weight. A beat passed.
"Uh, yea, just give me a minute." She nodded and sauntered out the room.
Roy's gloved hand shot out to grab the note, resisting the growing sentimentality in his brain as he crumpled it in his grasp and swiftly shot it into the waste-bin. He then gathered up the paperwork and the notepad and pens and stuffed them swiftly into the box. When he picked it up, it was light, and Roy didn't look back when he disappeared through the door, closing the door on what had been.