R-K-K: Damn… I'm one sad person…
Reddawn: Yah you are…
R-K-K: Hmmm… I'm using your pen name this time… and the abbreviation for mine…
Reddawn: I noticed Kate…
R-K-K: Shrugs oh well…
Reddawn: Sooo… Um where are we?
R-K-K: You remember the fic called "The Price of Life" that I let you read the rough draft of on the bus? Well… welcome to the typed version…
Reddawn: You're one stupid little bitch…
R-K-K: Really? Well you're a psychotic killer insane bitch who is obsessed with muffins!
Reddawn: Laughs you're a psycho Ishvarlan bitch who has an affinity with Sugar Babies!
R-K-K: Giggles alright… Look changes to a saddened one any way… in memory of Hughes… who I will never believe is really dead for as long as I live!
Reddawn: WHOOOO Kate!
The Price of Life
"Maes! Maes!" a brunette young woman shouted. The young woman was twenty nine year old Cecilia Hughes, the Life Alchemist, and the younger sister of everyone's beloved Maes Hughes. Cecilia was running through the streets and alleys of Central City searching for her older brother.
Cecilia stopped running in a dark side street and leaned against the building to her left. There had been no sign of everyone's favorite living Kodak commercial. She clutched the stitch in her side as her breath came in short pained gasps. Cecilia looked around before taking a walky-talky from her belt.
"First lieutenant Hughes reporting, over." She said as formally as she could through her gasps.
"Go ahead first lieutenant. What's your status, over?" a voice asked from the walky-talky.
"Negative, Sir. No sign of the lieutenant colonel. Permission to keep searching, over?" Cecilia asked leaning a little more heavily on the building.
"Granted first lieutenant. Be careful…" the person on the other side said a little less formally.
"Thank you colonel…" Cecilia replied a small smile playing across her face.
"Any time Cel… just be cautious, I hear Scar's in the area…" the voice from the walky-talky said tenderly making Cecilia smile a little wider.
"Roy… you worry too much…"
"I've got a lot to worry about with you…"
"I'll contact you in an hour, less if I find him…" Cecilia switched off the walky-talky before sighing. Roy was the twenty nine year old flame alchemist, Roy Mustang, Maes Hughes' best friend as well as Cecilia's fiancée.
Cecilia clipped the walky-talky back onto her belt then continued on her search. Half an hour later she came upon a telephone booth… a telephone booth spattered with blood.
"M-M-Maes?" Cecilia stammered praying that the person lying on the ground in a state uniform wasn't her brother. Her prayers were shattered however, when a horse male voice answered her.
"Cel… Cecilia…?" the horse voice asked and Cecilia rushed to her brother's side. Maes was covered in blood that was flowing from a wound to the chest. "Tell… tell… Gracia… I… I love… her… Tell… E… Elicia… I'm sorry… sorry… I can't… see… her… grow… up…" Maes said with difficulty. Cecilia took the Walky-talky from her belt.
"Roy! Man Down! Main street area! Get medics here as soon as possible!" Cecilia said into the walky-talky. Roy replied that he was sending people immediately and that help would arrive soon. Cecilia took off her uniform jacket and put it over Maes. "I swear you're not going to die!" Cecilia said pressing her hands on her jacket directly over the wounds to try to keep them from bleeding more than they had already done. "Brother! Talk to me!" Cecilia demanded trying to keep panic out of her voice.
"Cel… you… can't... do… any…thing… I… I've… lost… too… much… blood… Even… if… you… could… do… some… thing… I… I… won't… live… Be… a… good… girl… Cecilia…" Maes said managing a slight encouraging grin for his sister.
"Don't talk like that! You're going to be all right! I promise! The medics will come and you'll be fine!" Cecilia said unable to keep the threads of hysterics out of her voice.
"Ce… Cecilia… don't… don't… look… at… me… like… that… You… You're… the Life… Alchemist… you… understand… that… death… is… supposed… to… happen…" Maes said and tried to grin more but he only managed to gasp in pain.
A few moments later medics arrived and transported Maes to the hospital. Cecilia paced the lobby of the hospital her white shirt of her uniform stained crimson with her brother's blood and her left thumb's nail in her mouth. Cecilia chewed at her thumbnail hoping that Maes would live.
"Cecilia?" a soft male voice said from behind her, making her jump. She turned around to find Roy Mustang and Alex Armstrong looking extremely solemn.
"How's my brother, is he going to be all right?" She asked and the men exchanged saddened looks. Roy looked Cecilia in the eyes.
"Cecilia… Maes… Maes is dead…" Roy said and Cecilia's eyes widened, filled with tears, then she fell to her knees sobbing. Roy knelt next to the young woman and put his arms around her making her cry into his shoulder.
"I promised! This wasn't supposed to happen!" Cecilia said and her sobs worsened. "I promised he wouldn't die. I told him he was going to be fine." Cecilia wailed and Roy tightened his embrace, not saying a word.
"You can't blame your self First Lieutenant… Death is a natural event in this world." Alex said and Cecilia pushed out of Roy's arms.
"Next thing you're going to say is that because I'm the life alchemist I should know that better than anyone else! No need to remind me! Maes said the exact same thing… they were… were his last words to me…" Cecilia then stood and stormed from the lobby in hysteric tears.
A few days later Cecilia stood in Maes' old office with a box in her arms. The box contained the miscellaneous things that had been in Maes' desk. Since Cecilia was Maes' sister the fuehrer had decided that she should be the one who cleared his office. She set the box on Maes' empty desk and went to the wall to her left. Hanging on a nail on the wall was a picture of Maes, Gracia, Elicia, and Cecilia at a barbecue at Maes' house that had been held for Elicia's second birthday. Cecilia tenderly took the picture from the wall tears flowing down her cheeks as she remembered that Edward Elric's birthday had been the same day and that he had turned thirteen that day. Elicia and Edward had spent the whole day with Maes and Gracia; Cecilia had only been at the celebration for a few moments because she had been swamped with work that day.
Cecilia watched the picture as she walked back to Maes' old desk with it. She opened the lid of the box and laid the picture inside, glancing one last time at the smiling face of her much beloved older brother. She wiped away the tears on her face as she closed the box.
"I… I'm Sorry… I'm sorry I couldn't save you… I'm sorry you're not here to smile and tell me and the others not to worry and that everything would be fine…" Cecilia then burst into a new wave of tears. "Maes, come back… please come back!" she whispered as she collapsed her knees so that she knelt on the floor. Being the life alchemist Cecilia had seen many death scenarios but as tough as she was, Maes had been her only weakness. Cecilia wiped away her tears again then got to her feet. She picked up the box containing the picture and various things that had been in his desk and clutched it to her. The box was going to Gracia so Cecilia was just the person who had to actually deal with the giving of the box as well as explaining to Gracia that her husband had been murdered.
Cecilia took one last look at the room as she prepared to leave, it seemed to echo Maes' laugh and signature saying; "look at my baby!" Cecilia was reluctant to leave but she had to do what she had to do and she left the room looking back over her shoulder catching a glimpse of the living Kodak commercial talking about something on the phone as she shut the door behind her.
As soon as the door was shut that was the day Cecilia resigned from the military. Cecilia never married Roy, it severed the happiest memory Maes had of the two. Things happen to the best of people… but soon all must pay the ultimate price… The Price of Life…
R-K-K: I'm still not over that…
Reddawn: Yah, I figured that… you're procrastinating on the Hughes section of Caught in the act.
R-K-K: Well… I suggested the picture thing, but you said it was too much like "Flame Vs. Fullmetal" which I kina agree on…
Reddawn: Sighs Well… Get over Maes' Death… Besides, YOU'RE THE authoress here…
R-K-K: Yah… I kina know…
Reddawn: What don't you know?
R-K-K: The FMA Movie's coming out in aguest in America…
Reddawn: Isn't Hughes in that?
R-K-K: YAH HE IS! No need for hankies Hughes fans! HE DOESN'T DIE! Does happy dance