A/N: Another short story about my favorite FMA couple. Enjoy, and as always, comments and constructive criticism are always welcome. Please keep in mind that this is only my second fanfiction, and I am still growing as a writer.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of the characters, though the story is mine.
Roy Mustang was not a man of many fears. Considering what he has gone through and everything he has seen both before and after joining the military, the fact is not all that surprising.
He fought in Ishval, killing thousands of innocent men, women and children while watching his friends die around him. With a simple snap of his fingers he would become a harbinger of death, cutting down anyone and anything in his path with his merciless flames. And, like almost all the soldiers who fought in that war, once they came home they were forever plagued by nightmares of the place where blood soaked the sand. However, Mustang, being the strong man he is, can handle the nights where he is back on the battlefield, back to slaughtering people as the sounds of guns roaring and agonizing screams echoed through his head no matter how hard he presses his hands to his ears. Once the dream shatters, he simply reminds himself that the war is over, and Ishval is simply a memory now that he swore to undo in the future.
Other nights, he dreams about his best friend and comrade, Maes Hughes. Those nights, he usually relives his funeral over and over again, or when he found Hughes body slumped lifelessly in the telephone booth. But after a particularly bad day, the sadistic part of his mind will torture his fragile state, twisting his thoughts of Hughes into brand new horrors to unleash upon his subconscious. On those nights, sometimes Mustang dreams about burying his friend while he's still alive, or being the one who shoots him through the heart. And when it's the worse, he is even sometimes the bullet, ripping through Hughes chest, with Gracia and Elicia's sobbing voices ringing in his ears long after he's startled awake. He can manage those dreams, too. As he waits for his pounding heart to slow down and his breathing to go back to normal, he points out to himself that Hughes is in a better place where he feels no pain, and with a small smile also recalls that he succeeded in avenging his friend, so he could rest in peace. He is used to these dreams and has learned to adapt to them.
But every once in awhile, when he is feeling especially stressed, his dreams will he filled with her. Finding her body, bruised and broken, unable to save her. Discovering her name in a casualty report while sorting through them. Or worse, when he can't find her, whether because she is simply missing or because she is burnt beyond recognition, just another corpse which was victim to his fire, and being able to identify her only by her dog tags. While Roy Mustang may not have many fears, losing Riza Hawkeye is one thing that terrifies him above all else. Which is why, whenever he sits bolt upright in bed, screaming her name, she is always there to kiss his trembling lips and hold him until the shaking stops, while softy whispering in his ear that she is safe and sound, forever by his side.