- Punishment -

It started with a practical joke and another typical late night stay in the office with tons of paperwork waiting to be done.

The headquarters was practically empty then, with the exception of two people fooling around in an office. Colonel Roy Mustang and first lieutenant Riza Hawkeye had locked the office door shut and were busy joking around with each other.
It was a rare sight to see Hawkeye being this carefree to some but not to Roy. Only Roy could see the other side of Riza and tonight, when no one was watching them, the two had started fooling around again instead of doing work.

The pale blonde woman plopped herself onto Roy's chair and shoved stacks of assignments and reports into the handsome flame alchemist's hands, ordering him playfully to complete them. Roy just gave Riza a smirk before snapping his fingers gracefully, burning all the papers into ashes.

Riza's eyes went wide as the stack of important papers went down in flames. Feeling a tad bit pissed off, she whipped her gun out and pointed it towards the flame alchemist's head, growling at him.

"Do you want me to do the same thing to your brain?" Riza practically yelled.

There was a pause and silence flooded the room. Suddenly, the atmosphere shifted to a tensed situation. The kind of situation which one could tell that something bad is about to happen very soon.

Roy looked at Riza and smiled, putting his hand gently on the hand Riza was holding the gun. "Kill me then, Lieutenant."

Riza's fingers seemed to tremble, both in fear and in anger. "Don't...give me that look, Mustang!"

But Roy just continued to look at her, this time his dark ebony eyes were clouded with a sudden sense of sadness. "Kill me...Edward left me so there is no meaning in life anymore.."

"You mean to say that life has no meaning for you since Edward left you!"

That uneasy silence danced around the room again. It seemed like eternity before Roy opened his mouth to reply.

"..Kind of.." He said. "So what are you waiting for! Waiting for me to snap my fingers at my own self!"

This seemed to anger Hawkeye as she brought the gun into her hand and slapped it against Roy's face, giving him a red mark on his cheeks.

"If you do that, I'll shoot myself!" She yelled.

Roy didn't think she was that serious as to take her own life if he were to do so in front of her right then. Slowly, the flame alchemist raised his gloved fingers to his head and at the same time, the lieutenant raised the gun to her own head.

The two exchanged a silent glance, each pleading silently in their own hearts that this was just a nightmare, it didn't have to end like this...right?

Yes, it did have to end like that because Fate stated so.

In a blink of an eye, before Riza could have the chance to react, Roy snapped his fingers and a loud snap reverberated throughout the room, the sick, acidic smell of flames and burning bodies mingled amongst the once crisp, clean air.

There wasn't any much time for Riza to scream. Her slender fingers pulled the trigger of her gun back, releasing the bullet into her head, shutting her circulation of life off. Amongst the smell of flames now lay the smell of gunpowder floating through the air side by side, polluting the air with their imperfections.

Just like the forbidding scent of gunpowder and flames, Riza's dead body slumped down lifeless and limp right beside Roy's one, her hands on top of his.

They didn't look dead...

It was as if they were in a never ending slumber together...

The last thing he remembered was being burnt down by his own flames. Pain flooded every bit of his senses as he got up and walked around.

Wait...

He found that he wasn't walking!

He was floating!

"Suicide is sinful." The cold voice of a blonde haired, green eyed Shinigami spoke, his gaze piercing through Roy's confused looks.

The spirit of death was beautiful...it reminded Roy of Edward in a way for some odd reason. But Edward was never that cold to him...was he?

"Are you bringing me to be punished by those I killed in Ishbal?" Roy questioned the spirit right before him.

"...Yes and also due to the fact that you took your own life for a selfish and stupid reason, your punishment will be doubled for suicide is sinful." The shinigami then began to float out the window, "You shall roam around the Earth for eternity without any memories of the past, present or future. That is your punishment," He stated before disappearing into thin air.

Without any memories of the past, present or future...Roy thought to himself. That would mean that all his precious moments and thoughts as Roy would be erased too.

So this was how it was going to end.

But wouldn't that be better..?

He would eventually forget about Edward and he would be able to move on.

Looking out the window, he apologized to the passing wind. "I'm sorry Hawkeye...I...I still love you Edward..."

The former flame alchemist looked back at the wrecked office and then at his former body which lay close to Hawkeye's body. Tears spilled out of his eyes...he hated it when sadness overtook his heart.

Spirits do not have hearts...do they?

The memories of Edward spilt out along with those tears. Roy realized that even though he would finally forget about Edward, the feeling of loneliness, guilt and regret could never lead him for he had committed a crime and this was his punishment.

"..Forgive me.." He whispered before disappearing.

From the darkest corner of the office, the ghost of the former lieutenant watches as Roy whispered out the name she never wanted to hear.

Was her sacrifice in vain?

He never loved her to begin with!

"...That's ok..." She smiled to the emptiness of the room. "I'll wait here...I'll be waiting for you should change your mind. There is no one left for me but you..."

And wait is what she did. She knew Roy would never remember her again and she knew that in time to come, she would never remember who Roy even was. All she knew was that she must wait for someone to come back to her and say the words she longed to hear...

- The End -