Roy Mustang is a top-notch wordsmith with that silver tongue of his.
Even so, he rarely talk into a certain length—not when he doesn't get any answer nor objection.
"I know, it's been quite a while…" The man paused. "Cancel that. Now that I recall it, I was still a colonel the last time I visited." He sighed.
"Okay, okay. It's been a long time. Happy?
"Well, in my defense, the following event and things proceeding it gave me little to no time to breath.
"Even after I got healed and restored my sight—wait, I haven't told you the part when I became blind in the Promised Day, have I? Remind me to tell you on different occasion, and let me finish my reasoning first—yeah. Even after that, they only gave me one week to pack my things—my loyal subordinates included—and arrange everything administratively necessary before they expect me to report to my new post in Ishval. The days had been so frantic, I somehow managed to left the required files in the central HQ, only to remember it on the last minute before our train's departure. Hawkeye wasn't happy about that." Roy chuckled, seemingly impressed by his stupidity back then.
"No, definitely not. We weren't there to take lives of the innocence." Again, he grimaced. "We were there to rebuild Ishval. Honestly, it was kind of astonishing to see military officers and ishvalans worked hand in hand—rebuilding public places, setting up semi-permanent tents, planting crops, drilling wells—after everything that had happened. Although not everyone was happy with the 'Hero' of Ishval being there. I got batted like twice or thrice in the first months. Maybe more, if it wasn't for my adjutant." A heavy sigh escaped his mouth.
"Not that I'm angry with it, though. I can't blame them for fearing the same flame will burn their homeland. Again.
"But luckily, with Major Miles—he's a colonel now—on our side, winning people's hearts had been so much easier.
"…I know. After everything we did—I did—in the past, forgiveness is not something we could ask for. I could never atone my sins...
"I'm not stupid enough to think that I'm doing this to correct my wrongs. Not a chance. It's for the better future, you know. Their future. That was the least I could do—I agreed to use the souls of their people to regain my eyesight, after all. Call me inhuman with all your might, it had already happened nonetheless.
"We stayed there for at least three years before we could go back to Central. I climbed the ranks quite progressively during that period. Arriving in Ishval as a colonel, I came to the Fuhrer as a major general when I was going to report everything we did in those three years.
"And in just days upon my arrival back in the Central HQ, he bestowed me the rank of lieutenant general." His fingers ran through his neatly-combed raven hair. "That old man Grumman. Lately he seems to have a thing for making flashy moves.
"Of course, everyone congratulated me afterwards. Lt. Col. Armstrong embraced me tightly when we met. He said something about 'one step closer'—I couldn't remember, though. I was focusing on staying intact and worrying if I broke a rib or two. The Elrics called from Resembool, and Fullmetal said 'Seriously? Almost a Fuhrer already? I haven't even changed your name from Colonel Crappy to General Grandpop in our phonebook! Aw suck it, I'll change it straight to Fuhrer Fi—' his words stopped abruptly there, and Winry was the one to continue speaking afterwards." Roy furrowed his brows. "Ah, did I mention that they got married at some point before? Well, they did. And Alphonse was still on his travel to Xing, back then. His letter arrived the following week."
A sneer crept on his face. "Yeah, go on rubbing the fact that Fullmetal had been one step ahead me on my face. But let me say this; even your beloved Elicia initiated to throw me a small party, and made me spinach quiche. It was her first time to cook one, Maes. How does that feel?
"They are fine, nothing to worry about. They still visit you regularly, so I'm sure you too can see it. Gracia is still a strong, loyal, and kind-hearted wife, just like you always said. Your daughter is growing up into a cheerful, pretty girl, like you always mused. I am grateful that she is a spitting image of your wife instead of you. That would be hideous." He smiled—half sadly, half genuinely.
"But Lt. Gen. Olivier Armstrong was different. Her brother told me she was there in Central to run errands, but I was totally damn sure that she made it all the way from North to my private office in the Central HQ, only to see me from top-to-toe in disdain. 'Reaching the same level as me with that kind of attitude?' She said, 'What an insult to my dedication. Mark my words, Mustang. If you are thinking to climb any higher than this safe and sound, you better damn well stop being soft and cocky and—shit, basically just stop being your current disgusting self.' I was wrong when I thought she was giving empty threats, Maes. Because after saying those words to me, and only those words, she went straight back to Briggs—but not before splitting my desk in half using only two things; her military boot and sheer badassery.
"It didn't stop there. People whom I only knew briefly started congratulating me as if we were old friends. Some of them were actually imposters, I recall. What a pain in the arse. My office phone rang every three to five minutes. It stayed like that for days—I actually asked Fuery to manipulate my phoneline to refrain from receiving trivial calls.
"And after another hustling two years, at last, the day arrived—the day when Fuhrer Grumman had to step down from his position."
The Flame Alchemist looked up—as if it could help him to reminisce things. He noticed the sky was slowly turning red. It now has different colour from when he just reached here earlier.
"In the preceeding days, it had been quite a hot topic regarding the next Fuhrer candidates. Voices here and there said that it would be, with no doubt, General Mustang. Well, it brought me both positive and negative impacts—wasn't that good, if you ask me.
"The names narrowed down as the days passed. From tens, and kept decreasing until you could count it single-handedly. General Armstrong's name was in them—but she overtly declined it in the plenary assembly. Not that it was shocking, though.
"So let's just skip the all those weeks of backstabbing, and heated arguments and rebuts—in the end, those voices I had been hearing before turned to be true."
He smiled slightly and shook his head. "I know, Maes. This was what I had already been planning. What my hard works for. My friends' support. I hadn't been calculating every single step I took for nothing. But when the result was out, I… just found it hard to believe. All those naïve dream of a green soldier years ago, are becoming reality.
"You have to see their faces when I break this news to my men—well, I mean those rascals who had been with me since the beginning, considering I already commanded a whole batalyon by then. Even Hawkeye cried when there were just two of us."
Roy chuckled, "Yeah. I know. And don't even make me start on how people across the nation reacted to it. It was sort of like what I got when I was promoted to a lieutenant general. Just in a more tremendous scale—they even got the media coverage! The following frantic days of ceremonies and formal events didn't help, either."
The wind blew, sending chills down to his spine. Without further consideration, he put on the black military coat he had been holding before. Roy took a deep breath.
"Despite that, I am grateful of it. Really. Everything I planned for this country… my wishes, your wishes, people's wishes—used to be a blurry image inside my head. Yes, I knew what I would have to do, and I had at least two back-up plans for each of them were they didn't succeed. But then, they seemed so far away… and now that I have reached the top, those images become clear as day.
"I know, Hughes, even if I try until I die, I could never pay back all the sacrifices and supports from my comrades. From my people, who guided me as I started to stray from the right path. I would be just as useful as I am on rainy days if it wasn't for them.
"But at the very least—now that I have reached the top, I can now protect everyone below me.
Roy clenched his fists—fully aware it wasn't due to the cold air.
"And by then, having accomplished one of my main goals, I thought it was the best time to do that." The man smiled, as if he was mocking his friend.
"You kept gushing me to look for the right woman—to the whole Amestris, and even to Xing, if necessary. You know what? Shame on you, for I've known that woman since she was a little girl who wore red shoes with ribbons."
He sighed. "Of course you know her, Maes. I know it's hard to believe that that timid little girl grew up into a woman with killer's eyes we encountered in Ishval. It was hard for me, too.
"It was on my inauguration night, if you ask me. Yes, I did it in private, since she doesn't fancy public display of affection and such. Don't push me, the proposal wasn't that good. You have to experience it yourself—asking someone, who basically had always been by your side, to be by your side for the rest of her life. I don't know. My mind had been like a mayhem. Seems that I was the one in tears during that moment—please, don't laugh, I know I was being silly.
"Honestly, I was reluctant at first. For someone who had took lives of many in the past… I felt selfish. I don't deserve even the mere thought of pursuing my own happiness.
"Her innocence had been rampaged and battered by the cruel reality of this world—she had descended into hell and made it back… Deciding to go on staining her hands for a certain someone afterwards. And I don't even have to mention whose fault that was."
The sorrow in his eyes was real.
"What kind of madness is this—for a man like me to think that he deserves her…"
He closed his eyes.
"Remember that one time in Ishval when you grabbed my lapel and screamed your lungs out right on my face?"
'There's one thing I learnt from the battlefield; raising a family with the woman you love and living a normal life is a pleasure that people have everywhere—but it's the ultimate pleasure! I will do whatever it takes to obtain it. I will survive this war!
'I will take what happened here—what I've done here—swallow it up by myself! And when I'm in front of her, I will smile…
'…I swear, I will make her happy…'
Roy only shook his head.
"Even years later, I still thought you were extremely credulous. And the fact that I remembered precisely what you said is just funny. But even before I realised it, those exact words had saved me during countless times of night terrors.
"Your words echoed whenever the hesitation started creeping in. 'I swear, I will make her happy', huh? If you—being just as sinful as I am—could say that as if you were a knight in shining armor, why couldn't I?
"I am only saying this once, Hughes, so you better listen carefully.
"Thank you. Thank you, for ensuring me that even monsters like us, still deserve to strive for happiness. Thank you."
A switch flipped on inside Mustang's head. He reached into his pocket for his silver watch. Having known the time, his brows furrowed.
Finally returning the watch back to its place, he remarked,
"Tomorrow is the big day. Make sure you attend it. Anyway, you thought yours and Gracia's was awesome? Very well, then. But brace yourself for the biggest wedding in this nation—well, it's the Fuhrer of Amestris, and at the same time, Central City's infamous lady-killer who's tying the knot tomorrow. Just what do you expect?
"If you were still walking on earth—instead of lying inside it lazily—I'm sure I will gush you about my beautiful wife more frequently than you did. And my son, too, in the future. My stories about them will make your stories about your family sound plainly mundane. Just be glad that I can't rub that on your face.
"I think that's it for now. We will catch up later. Now excuse me so that I could attend yet another hours of a boring meeting." Spare me some time to throw a bachelor's party, would they? Roy pondered.
He turned around and left. But as a piece of thought slipped into his mind, he stopped his movement midway.
"Now that I think of it, Hughes, I have everything I wanted now; my accomplished goals, my position, my people—heck, even I'm going to start a family with someone I've cherished for a long time tomorrow—I almost could call it a perfection."
Roy suppressed his intention to look back—realising that if he did, he could spend another hours talking to a literal stone.
"But then you have to wreck my perfect plans by leaving us first…"
So he just walked away.
"…Idiot."
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This was supposed to be better. I hope he wasn't outta his character in this one Dx