Sin

Chapter 5

Collectively, they knew nothing, because there was nothing there to know. Sin didn't know where he came from. Wrath had run away (and they had now sent forces out to search for him), and Al had only been the one to find him.

With Roy gone, everyone had looked at their feet and glanced at each other when it came down to getting things done, so she had taken control of the situation. She was leading the casual interrogation, but there were no answers for her to find. She sighed and rubbed at her temples. Her underlings stared at her, surpised at the open display of fatigue.

It was exhausting to need to know things from someone who can't remember anything.

"So what are we supposed to do, now?" Fury asked. "We can't just sit here and wait for clues... can we?"

"By the way things are going, I'd say we don't have much of a choice," Havoc observed, puffing at his cigarette from where he was positioned at the other end of the room, spinning around in Roy's chair, his feet knocking things off of the desk.

Sin was sitting in his place next to Al, once again experiencing the empty feeling he did when he was talked over. It was hard to understand why his appearance was so significant.

Al glanced at him frequently, as if he wanted to say something, but he never did.

"So?" Havoc asked impatiently, his voice getting softer and louder as he spun. "What are we going to do with him?"

"Leiutenant," Hawkeye ordered firmly, "please get out of the Brigandier-General's chair."

Havoc pouted, but did as he was told and he stood, spinning the chair around with his hand and making no move to clean up the things that he had knocked onto the floor.

"I think we need to give him to Gracia," Hawkeye stated simply, folding her hands on her lap.

"Whoaaaaa," Havoc said, stopping the spinning chair as he turned to stare at her, and chose instead to lean up against it. "Are you sure that's such a good idea, Hawkeye? Maybe we should talk to her about it first. Make sure she's ready and all that stuff."

"She'll never be ready," Al sighed. He spent a lot of time at their house in Central, and he knew just what happened there everyday.

Hawkeye nodded slowly, "we would be better off just forcing her to accept it, because I can't imagine him staying with anyone else."

"He could always stay in the hotel with me," Al volunteered.

"Thank you, Major, but with Alicia missing, I don't think Gracia would appreciate spending much time alone." Hawkeye pointed out. "She could use some consolation."

And this was how Sin ended up being pawned off onto Gracia Hughes. They drove him there and told him to wait in the car while Hawkeye, Al and Armstrong - who had finally realized that Sin's eyes were the wrong colour and had sulked for a while - went inside to speak with Gracia. Sin stared out his window at the beautiful house as they went inside. He barely got a glimpse of the woman as they went inside, Al casting him a supportive smile over his shoulder.

"I can't begin to imagine how confusing this must be for you," Havoc said suddenly, piercing the silence with his voice and inspiring Sin to look up at him. "Hughes was a great man, and now you get to live by his rules and limitations because you resemble someone who died a long time ago." Havoc finally turned to look at him out of the corner of his eye. "How do you feel about this?"

"Helpless," Sin replied honestly. It was the first time in a while that someone had actually asked for his opinion.

"I imagine I would, too," Havoc said with a strange half-smile that Sin couldn't read as he puffed on his cigarette and tapped the ashes casually out of the window. "You haven't even been here for a day and we're already throwing you into his shadow by having Hughes' wife take you in." He sighed and breathed in the smoke once again. "By the way, I should apologize on behalf of the Colonel. Roy probably didn't intend to be rude, walking out on you like that. He and Hughes were very good friends."

"Who was this man?" Sin asked quietly, gazing at his empty hand as he leaned against the dirty car window.

"Hughes? How could I begin to summarize Maes Hughes?" Havoc sucked on his cigarette yet again, gathering his thoughts. "He worked in the military for Roy's sake - more or less, doing research and all that good book-stuff, but man was he ever good with daggers. He was better throwing daggers than a war veteran is with pulling triggers. Even so, he was a family man with a wife - Gracia - and a kid - Alicia. He never stopped talking about them. It was kind of annoying to me at the time, but now..." Havoc sighed nostalgically. "He was a good man. He was great at everything he did. He was only shot because he learned too much while doing his job." While Havoc spoke, he reached a hand into his jacket for a moment and pulled something out, presenting Sin with a picture of himself and a little girl. Sin stared at it for a long time. "He was a big part of our little community within the military," Havoc continued. "That's why people swarmed you. Everyone adored Hughes."

"I see..." Was all Sin could think to say. He wasn't very good at talking much.

"Gracia was his wife," Havoc continued, staring out of the opposite window. "And Alicia - his daughter - went missing, as you may have heard. Gracia is beside herself with worry. Depending on how she reacts, having you nearby might be a huge weight off of her shoulders. I'm sorry for putting you through all of this," he said, taking another puff of his cigarette. "We're forcing you through so much..."

"I don't mind," Sin said quietly. He mostly just didn't care. "I wouldn't have known what to do with myself, anyway. Especially seeing as I can't very easily go out in public."

"Yeah," Havoc sighed, a wry smile on his face and his cigarette in his hand close to his lips. "Human beings are pitiful things, but we will never stop trying to replace the things we miss."

Gracia successfully managed to compose herself enough so she wouldn't faint when Sin finally stepped into the doorway. But that didn't stop her from holding a handkerchief close to her face as she tried to control her emotions. She was an attractive woman in her own humble way, but Sin had a hard time meeting her gaze. He was uncomfortable with the thought that people thought they knew him, and now he was standing in front of that man's wife.

Hawkeye cleared her throat after a few long and awkward moments, but she hesitated, skipping Sin's nameless introduction. "...this is Gracia, Hughes' wife."

Gracia tried to smile at him, but she failed. Her tears were spilling out over her cheeks, and her lip trembled under her handkerchief. Sin just couldn't stand the idea that it was possibly because of him, and before he knew it he found himself kissing the fingers of her empty hand. "Don't look at me with those eyes," he said in such a warm way that he could hear the military people behind him ease significantly.

She smiled, authentically this time. "I'm sorry," she murmured.

"I understand," Sin replied.

"We'll leave you two alone now," Al said, beaming. He cast Sin a fond look over his shoulder as he moved to the door, and he left with the military personel following closely after. Armstrong closed the door softly, the last to leave.

"I apologize for my rudeness," Gracia said with a sigh, wiping her eyes with a smile. "I can't even explain how it feels to be going through what I am right now."

"Everyone is going through things right now," Sin said with a sigh.

"Well..." she nodded and hesitated a moment. "I'm certain that I can't begin to comprehend what it must be like in your position."

"Maybe," Sin said dismissively, turning to scrutinize the huge collage of framed family pictures that hung in the stairwell.

"I wasn't expecting company for dinner, but I'm sure I could whip something up quickly for the two of us," Gracia planned, speaking loudly so Sin could hear her as she moved into the kitchen. "Do you like spaghetti?"

"Sure," Sin couldn't really remember, but he turned away from the pictures to call back out to her. "Thank you very much for everything."

"It's no trouble at all," Gracia said. "I'll get started."

"Ohhhhhhhhh!"

"Awwwwwww!"

"Did you see that?"

"I did!"

"True love is found, and a family is born, only to be ripped asunder!"

"A mysterious man appears from nowhere, bearing a perfect resemblance to the dead husband!"

"A new true love is born!"

"Please stop," Hawkeye grunted, glaring bitterly at where Armstrong and Al were spouting romantic stories with each other. "Think of the situation here for a moment. I don't think it's very pleasant."

"But... True love, Leiutenant-Colonel! They're meant to be together forever! Don't you see!"

"This isn't a time to be happy," she sighed.

No one could ever begin to understand what a man has to go through as he walks through a beautiful house and stares at pictures of himself with a wonderful family. But when he looked at those faces, he felt nothing. There was a picture with himself and Roy Mustang, very happy and apparantly drunk. There he was with a blonde boy and a suit of armor. There were many pictures of himself with his co-workers in the military - the same people he had spent the afternoon talking to. But all of these were overwhelmed with the pictures of himself with Gracia and a little blonde girl, who he concluded to be the missing Alicia Hughes.

He didn't know what he was supposed to feel, but he found himself worrying conciously about the well being of Alicia as well as Wrath.

Sin listened intently as Gracia told her stories over dinner, recalling things about Hughes that no one else would know. By the time dinner was over, she had realized and repeatedly commented on how his clothes didn't fit him very well, and she insisted on dressing him in the garments of her husband.

In spite of everything, they were both equally surprised about how well they fit him. Disgusted with the similarities, Sin stared at himself in the mirror and could swear that he was Maes Hughes. Embarassed as Gracia looked him over, Sin shifted uncomfortably as he was forced to stare at the man everyone wanted him to be. After seeing all the pictures in the stairwell, it was hard for him to believe that it was actually his reflection there. Gracia peered over his shoulder at him with a smile. "A perfect fit," she commented.

He shifted awkwardly in the snug clothes, a strange change from the baggy cheap garments he had been clothed in before. He turned away from the mirror so he wouldn't have to look at himself, and Gracia smiled politely up at him. She took his arm and led him down the stairway once more and sat him down on a couch in the family room. She took a moment in the kitchen to prepare tea, and came back with enough for both of them as she began to speak again about she used to do this and that with Hughes, and how every one was a unique experience since Hughes was just that kind of guy.

Hearing about Hughes had been fine at first, but it was becoming more unpleasant for Sin with each passing moment. He listened to respond, but stared absently out the picture window as she shuffled about her basic chores around him. He once asked if there was anything he could do, but she just shook her head and continued her stories.

She finally sat down to enjoy her tea - which was then cold - when the family room was just as clean as she wanted it to be. She apologized for the mess, and he told her he didn't mind.

"His daughter Alicia disappeared on her birthday two weeks ago," she sighed. "If Hughes was still here, he would have forced every meandering staff in the military to such under every rock for her, all over the world. That just goes to show how little I can do here on my own."

"I think you've done quite a bit already," Sin said. "You've survived without his help for this long."

"I suppose," she sighed into her tea, inhaling the scent, "...but my life will mean nothing if I don't have my daughter."

"We'll find her," he said.

"I hope so."

He ran a hand through his hair to discover he was tired, but he said nothing to Gracia. She had already taken out pillows and blankets for him to sleep out on the couch. She sipped her tea thoughtfully and said nothing.

...But Sin stiffened as she leaned up against his shoulder and sighed.

"Maes..." she sighed, her voice practically silent. "I wish you were really here."

And he felt awful.