When Roy was collecting his things and getting ready to leave, he took a look around his office. He felt guilty about shouting earlier. He apologized to Havoc before, still he wanted to apologize to everyone, but there something stopping him. It felt as though if he apologized to everyone, he would be taking back what he had said. He hadn't not meant it. He was sick and tired of everyone prying into his personal life, concerned or not.
As Roy left the building, he didn't pay any mind to Breda, Falman, Fuery, or Havoc and simply strode out. On his way to his car, he thought he had spotted someone...
"Colonel!"
The lieutenant was getting out of her own car when she spotted Roy. She had seemed almost surprised to see him leaving, as if he didn't work here.
"Lieutenant," he said, getting closer to her. "Didn't think I was going to see you today."
"I know, sir," she said. "I just had to run into grab something."
"Mmm," Roy hummed. If she wasn't going to be honest with him, he felt no need to continue the conversation. "Alright then, Lieutenant."
Roy brushed past her and moved towards his car.
"Sir?"
He turned his head around to see the lieutenant looking uncharacteristically nervous.
"I just wanted to say—" She suddenly cut herself off. "Oh, you're on your way to the lieutenant colonel's."
"Yes, but it can wait." Roy folded his arms. He wanted little to do with the lieutenant right now and his irritability must have been evident to her. "What did you want to say?"
"Never mind, sir. It's not important."
"Lieutenant—"
"I should be going," she said too quickly, turning around. "I'll see you, Colonel."
Roy was too stunned to say anything else or call out to her. He turned on his heels and got into his car.
Clearly she was keeping something from him. That much was obvious now. The only reason the lieutenant hadn't lied about where she was today was because she hadn't even provided an excuse for where she was. Roy had half a mind to rush back into the office and demand she tell him where she was during the day.
Though, if the lieutenant wanted to be the one to drive a wedge between them, then so be it. Roy wasn't going to force her to stay close to him.
Roy stopped home to shower and change from his uniform. He tried on four different outfits before settling on one; they all seemed to not look quite right. Before he left to Hughes' house, he had a cup of coffee and read the newspaper he had ignored in the morning. He was so tired and seeing even Hughes seemed tiring.
Once he was on his way to Hughes' house, Roy felt his stomach doing flips. He wasn't looking forward to sharing a meal with him whatsoever. Never mind not wanting to eat a full meal (and knowing Hughes most likely wouldn't let him wiggle his way out of it considering he was losing weight again), Roy had the nagging feeling that there was something Hughes wanted to discuss. He knew Hughes was probably itching to talk to him about his eating habits again.
As he was pulling towards Hughes' home, he could see Elysia and Gracia walking towards Gracia's car. He ducked his head, stupidly forgetting that Gracia most definitely knew what Roy's car looked like.
Gracia had waited outside her car for Roy to get out of his car. "Roy," she said softly, "Hello."
"Good evening," he mumbled. "Where are you and Elysia going?"
"To dinner," she replied simply enough. "I thought I'd let Maes and you have a night off."
Roy forced a laugh, if only to seem to ask innocently: "A night off?"
"Yeah. A night where Elysia, or me, won't be bothering you."
"Oh, you know you're not—"
"It's alright, Roy." Gracia smiled, "Maybe I'll see you later if you're still here."
With that, she got in her car and Roy watched as she backed out of her driveway. Roy turned around and slowly walked towards Hughes' front door.
He knew it. He saw it a mile away. Hughes wanted to talk to him about his eating habits. He already knew that. Who the hell knew what he was walking into? For all he knew Hawkeye and Hughes could've been talking this while time and she could've been here all day instead of at the office. Roy knew she was lying to her and was letting her get away with it. Why hadn't he just demanded Hawkeye she tell him where she was?
With a lump in his throat Roy knocked on his Hughes' door. He had a key since Hughes had gotten the place, but Roy always knocked.
"Roy!" Hughes greeted Roy with a wide grin. He was leaning on only one crutch. "I thought you'd be here much later."
"Well..." Roy awkwardly slipped past Hughes. "I'm here now. Unless you wanted to me later."
Hughes closed the front door and followed Roy as he walked to Hughes' living room.
"Why do you keep getting the feeling I don't want you around?" Hughes frowned. "What would make you feel that?"
"I was...uh, I was kidding..."
Hughes narrowed his eyes at Roy but shrugged anyway. He sat down on the couch with a soft groan and Roy sat where he always sat—across from him on a chair. Hughes smiled at Roy. He made the same face he always did whenever Roy came around, the face that said: "Alright, tell me about your day".
Roy wanted to admit that he was concerned the lieutenant was lying to him, but before he could say anything he realized she might've been with him.
"I've been thinking about Havoc a lot lately," Roy said quietly, knowing he was probably walking into the same minefield as this morning. "I'm worried about his smoking."
"Mmm," Hughes hummed. "What made you start thinking about that?"
"I don't know..." Roy trailed off, already regretting bringing up Havoc. "Never mind. Forgot I even said anything about it."
Hughes made a face. "Sorry," he said dryly. "I...I didn't mean to make you upset?"
His tone made it sound like a question. Evidently, Hughes was confused as to why Roy had brought someone up and then irritably dismissed it. Roy felt poorly about ruining (or what felt like ruining) what Hughes wanted to be a nice night. He was just so anxious about what Hughes would talk about.
By the way Hughes was looking around and rubbing at his bad leg, he was clearly feeling the awkward air. The two of them were getting good again...why did Roy always have to ruin things?
"I think you'll like the place I picked for dinner," said Hughes, clearly trying to get himself to smile. "It's where I proposed to Gracia."
Roy snorted, "Are you planning on proposing to me?"
Hughes laughed and Roy felt himself relax. Hughes began to talk about his day, what Elysia had said or done that day, and things of the like.
This is why Roy had always been drawn to Hughes. The two had always been able to get along no matter the circumstances. Moreover, Hughes was as good as a best friend could get even if Roy wasn't. Roy had always thought that was due to the fact that Hughes married; he had somewhere else to get the things he was missing from Roy (and clearly much more). On top of that, Hughes understood Roy's ambition and was more than willing to aid him to get there.
Roy sat back; all he had to was allow himself to banter with Hughes comfortably and try his best to appear calm. If Roy were to be outwardly anxious or nervous, Hughes would pick up on it and start on Roy's slipping eating habits in no time.
It was a little hard to concentrate on what Hughes was saying when he was trying to figure out what Hughes was going to say to him. It wouldn't be crazy to think that Hughes probably could tell Roy was lying about eating at home and therefore was actually eating less than he had before. Considering Roy wasn't putting on any weight (and was slowly doing the opposite), Hughes probably wanted to talk with Roy about things.
Never mind how weird Hawkeye had been the past couple of weeks...it was obvious she was hiding something from him. Roy wasn't sure how crazy the idea of Hughes and Hawkeye talking behind his back was. Did Hawkeye know what Hughes wanted to talk about?
Roy sat up suddenly, receiving a quirked brow from Hughes. Although Hughes continued talking after giving Roy a look, Roy still found himself distracted.
Hughes had never even mentioned talking to Roy about anything. All he had said was he wanted the two to have dinner someplace nice. Roy had worked himself into thinking there was going to be some type of big confrontation. He had always been aware that Hughes would never purposefully confront Roy in public. Hughes had always been the type of person to wait until someone was in a private place to speak to them about something important; Roy knew that, always.
What had given him the impression that Hughes was being anything less than sincere when he said he wanted the two to eat dinner somewhere nice?
Roy had been less than sincere. For a while now he had been so used to hiding things from everyone around him...was it possible it was making him think that everyone was hiding something from him? That seemed likely, but it felt almost...irresponsible to assume everyone had pure intentions...even if it was his best friend.
Hughes had stopped talking, trailing off when he realized Roy had not been paying attention. "Roy, are you alright?"
"Yes," Roy replied awkwardly. It wasn't actually a lie. He felt better now that he was able to tell himself that dinner was simply supposed to be a nice thing for him and Hughes. "I'm just distracted by work. What else is new?"
"Well, it's not like you haven't heard about my family before," Hughes chuckled. "What are you distracted by?"
"Nothing in particular," mumbled Roy. "Never mind it. How was this morning?"
"Oh, with my leg? Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought..." Hughes' hand went to his soothing his leg, rubbing above where the cast was, a small habit he had developed. "My leg is just so damn itchy all the time."
"I'm sorry, Hughes," said Roy. "I feel bad knowing I can't do anything."
Hughes waved his hand, "Please. What's an itchy leg if it means I can see my daughter all the time?"
"Sure..." Roy trailed off. His mouth felt dry. "Well, anyway—"
"Let's get to dinner, yeah? I'm starving."
Roy nodded and pulled himself up. He helped Hughes up and the two walked to Roy's car quietly. Roy had half a mind to say, "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot I had something to do back at the office". He wanted to just be able to enjoy his time with Hughes without all the worrying.
After helping Hughes into the car, Roy got into the car. The drive was mostly silent, other than Hughes mumbling directions.
At least he had barely had lunch today. Plus, Hughes seemed to sincerely just want a nice night between the two of them. If anything, Roy supposed he could always excuse himself after the meal if he really wanted to do. There was at least that.
Roy lowered his gaze briefly to his hand. Maybe there wasn't always that. Roy wasn't sure how to explain it away if someone other than Hughes were to mention it, but there wasn't a way for someone to guess what he was doing. Who the hell would think Roy was sticking his fingers down his throat and throwing up his food.
Roy heaved a sigh, which granted him another look from Hughes. He was so tired of thinking the same things over and over (and over and over) again. It was exhausting to go around all day thinking of the same things each day and getting anxious over each of his meals; never mind how exhausting throwing up each day was. It felt like each day of his life was the same thing over and over again.
It was so nice to see Hughes in the evening each day. Roy looked forward to it all day. All he had to do was lie and say he had dinner already and then he could enjoy his time with Hughes. Sometimes Gracia would sit with them, and that was very nice too.
Once the two were walking into the restaurant, Roy's nerves were beginning to wear thin. He would give almost anything to sit with Hughes over a cup of coffee at his house instead of going for dinner.
"Are you feeling okay?" asked Hughes once the two sat down.
"I'm alright," said Roy. "I'm just a little tired."
Hughes only frowned before looking down at his menu. Roy did the same, feeling his heart thump harshly in his chest. He felt himself glancing back and forth from Hughes to his menu. What was he going to get?
Did it matter? Not really. Roy liked to be the one eating less (he usually was), but there wasn't much chance of Hughes getting something lighter than him. Well...
"What are you getting?" Roy asked.
"I think a steak," said Hughes. He leaned in and spoke quietly, "Just between you and I...Gracia can't make a good steak to save her life."
"I know," Roy mumbled half-heartedly, wondering how hard steak would be to get back up. "You've said."
"She gets worried about red meat and doesn't want to leave any of it raw...I've just had to tell her I didn't like steak all together." Hughes could see Roy losing interest. "Anyway, what are you getting?"
Roy looked up from his menu. Hughes seemed to be asking the question innocently, but it still made the hair of Roy's neck stand. He wasn't sure what Hughes would do with the answer. Would he take it and mull it over? Would it just listen to the answer and move on? Or...
The idea that Hughes and the lieutenant were talking behind his back came to the forefront of his mind. It wasn't as if it had never happened before. When the lieutenant had tried to bring up his weight and eating around the time when Roy first had a meeting for Lior, suddenly Hughes was asking about Roy's weight the next day. How odd was that. Moreover, Roy knew that the lieutenant wanted to be right so he didn't believe that if she had brought up the issue to Hughes that she would just drop it.
"Well...I think..." Roy's eyes hovered over the menu anxiously. "I might get the salmon."
"Gracia likes that," was all Hughes said, with a smile.
Roy nodded and put his menu down, not wanting to look at all the options anymore.
When the waiter came, Hughes ordered wine for both himself and Roy. Roy wasn't going to interject; he needed something to calm his nerves. Hughes then ordered for himself and looked to Roy. Roy ordered and felt somehow the waiter was judging him for his order. He let out a sigh of relief when the waiter left.
"Alright, Roy, there's something I wanted to discuss with you," Hughes said. "I've been trying to decide the best way to tell you."
He knew it! Hughes did want to discuss something, but...it didn't sound like the topic of conversation was going to be him. Roy racked his brain for whatever Hughes would want to talk to him about. Maybe he was more injured than he let on? It hadn't really looked like it; never mind he left the hospital pretty quickly.
"Okay," said Roy slowly, with a dry mouth. "What is it?"
Before Hughes could go on, the waiter came back with wine for the both of them. He then went on and on about the year the wine was made and droned on about the favor. Hughes was smiling softly and nodding along while Roy was practically writhing in his seat with annoyance. He had half a mind to tell the waiter to leave them alone.
Finally the waiter was done and went on his way. Roy took a gulp from his glass, willing himself to relax.
"Remember how the Fuhrer came to my room after you stopped by?"
"Yes...?"
Hughes cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. "Well, I...well..."
"Well, what?"
"Well," Hughes started again, "He waited until I woke up and...well...he spoke to me about Lior."
Roy was beginning to get irritable. He wanted grab ahold of Hughes, shake him, and shout, "What? Spit it out!"
"I could figure that," he said instead. "What about it?"
Hughes paused. He rubbed his eyes under his glasses.
"I don't know how to explain it..."
Roy's heart was ready to burst out of his chest. His was bouncing his leg under the table anxiously. Though, he didn't want to let on to Hughes that he was beginning to get antsy and irritable. He tried to speak as calmly as possible.
"It's alright," he said. "Take your time."
Hughes heaved a sigh and spoke again.
"Well...he came in, thanked me for my service in Lior, then he...well...he offered me..."
Roy was slipping off the edge of his seat. "Offered you what, Hughes?"
"He offered me a promotion. To Brigadier General."
Well that certainly wasn't what Roy thought Hughes was going to say.