Disclaimer: Still not owning Hagaren. If anyone still thinks I do at this point, they need to get a catscan.

I would like to apologize severely for how long this one took me. It was hard to come up with something for it... plus I spent a week at my beta's house without the file on hand. xx I fail at drabbles, 'cause I'll be leaving for a week in Japan on the eighth, then not really available until the 22nd or sobecause of Otakon. I'm gonna try and get eleven (and possibly twelve) out by tuesday... my beta is going out of town on the third and will have no internet access. Anyone who's willing to possibly beta anything I can come up with in her absence, drop me an email.

Anyway... here's theme ten. Enjoy, and please review!

45 Roy/Edward Themes

Theme 10. "Station".

Edward had never made mention of the image that had projected itself on the train platform that afternoon. Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes had died the evening prior, and had appeared to wave a final goodbye to the blond alchemist as he munched away, oblivious, on a slice of pie his wife had made. Clairvoyance wasn't something particularly common, nor appreciated in the world of alchemy.

In the same sense, Roy had never made mention that he had been fighting an unpleasant nagging the entire night of Hughes' demise. There were certain things that even lovers didn't share with one another.

But when the subject was brought up over breakfast one morning, Roy hadn't missed Edward's sudden shaky behavior as he almost dropped the steaming pan of eggs from his hand.

"All right, FullMetal?" he asked casually, lightly resting his fingertips on Edward's forearm from below. He cast a mildly concerned look at the boy, who refused to make eye contact.

"…yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Recovering quickly, Edward spooned some of the scrambled yellow protein-filled edibles onto Roy's plate, then moved away to put some on his own. Roy's eyes followed him.

"…so as I was saying," he continued, equally as casual in tone as he had been when he inquired about the boy's well-being. "…I must say, something had been nagging at me the entire evening. It was almost like Maes was saying goodbye even though I was miles away."

Edward nearly dropped the pan again. Roy's eyebrows knit together. Twice on the same subject had the boy visibly flinched. Something was wrong.

"FullMetal, is there something wrong? You're jumpy." he stated, lifting a glass of juice to his lips to sip at, his dark eyes transfixed on Edward.

The older of the Elric brother forced a smile as he set the pan in the sink and ran cold water over it.

"Nahh, I'm fine, taisa. Why do you ask?" he looked from the pan to Roy, back to the pan, to Roy, and back to the pan again, all within less than a second.

"I just said," Roy set his glass down. "You're jumpy." He smiled coolly, wondering if perhaps his constant gaze on the boy wasn't causing him more disease. It amused him that his watchful eyes seemed to perturb the Elric, when the attention was not wanted.

Edward shuffled back to the table, and slumped into his chair, picking up his fork. Roy's eyes never left him.

Chancing a glance across the table as he lifted a tiny forkful of food toward his mouth, Edward hunched his shoulders when he noticed Roy was still staring. Roy quirked an eyebrow and smiled almost cynically.

"Something's bothering you," he stated, and turned his attention to his breakfast. Edward suddenly felt transparent.

"…what makes you say that?" the blond asked, trying to sound calm. His voice came out surprisingly steady.

Roy's eyes slid up to meet Edward's again, and he set his fork down.

"Edward, is there something about Hughes' death that bothers you?" It was obvious that Edward wasn't going to give in unless Roy got straight to the point. He suppressed a grin when the younger alchemist flinched.

"…aside from it was mostly my fault, not really…"

Roy scowled.

"It was not, Edward. Maes worked in the Investigation Department, it was his job to find out if things within the military were awry. And that's not what I meant," his voice was mild, yet still held enough authority to make Edward refuse to look up from his eggs. "I meant that you've been twitchy since I mentioned I felt I knew something was wrong the night it happened. Lieutenant Hawkeye and myself were the closest to Maes, but I believe he saw you and your brother as surrogate sons. Perhaps you felt something similar?"

Edward gawked. How did he do that…?

He shoved a forkful of eggs into his mouth to prevent having to respond. Roy waited patiently.

"…well?" the dark-haired man inquired after a moment.

"…I saw him." Edward stated, then assaulted his plate with his fork, filling it with another mouthful of eggs.

Roy's eyebrows moved toward his hairline.

"…saw him, you say?" That was odd… FullMetal was nowhere near the area when Hughes was killed…

"…the day after. Winry 'n Al 'n I were on the train going off to Rush Valley," He paused to shovel his forkful of eggs into his mouth, and chewed thoughtfully. "…Mrs. Hughes had made an apple pie for Winry, and she gave me some."

Roy quirked one eyebrow. What did that have to do with "seeing" Maes?

"…and?" he was curious, now.

"…and, I looked out the window and he was standing there waving at me and smiling like he always did." Ed's voice quivered as he spoke.

Roy's thoughts of Ed's jitters being because of his sleep-deprived ride eradicated themselves from his brain when he heard the boy's voice shake. Edward wasn't one to lie about such topics, and why would he get so jumpy about it if he were only making it up?

He leaned back in his chair, drumming his fingertips on the top of the table. The train of thought running through his head escaped his lips at the same time Edward's did.

"Like he were saying goodbye…"

Edward looked up quickly to meet the somewhat startled gaze of Roy, for having spoken the same thought at the same time. His shoulders slumped slightly, and he stood up to take his plate to the sink. Suddenly, he wasn't hungry anymore.

"It's not a bad thing, you know." Roy said softly, finishing off his eggs. Edward didn't look up from washing his plate. "Maes was fond of you and Alphonse. You're lucky he actually came to say goodbye…" he trailed off, somewhat bitter that Hughes hadn't said a word about the investigation, and gotten himself killed in the process.

With his eyes set in a scowl on his eggs, Roy didn't notice Edward as he briskly made his way to Roy's chair and wrapped his mismatched arms around the older man's neck. He started at the sudden contact, and slid his dark eyes to him.

"…Edwa--"

"It should have been me," the blond said softly, face buried in the hollow of Roy's shoulder.

Roy snaked an arm around Edward's waist and pulled him forward, resting his other hand on the back of his head.

Sometimes Roy had to wonder who was more pained by a man's death. His closest friend, or a boy who looked to him as the father he never had.

Author's Notes: xx again, I apologize for how long this one took me to post. This one... really fails at drabbles, at ... 1100 words, last I checked. Goodness.

Anyway. Like I said, I will be going out of town on the eighth of this month, and will then be unavailable until the 22nd or so. My beta is leaving the third to go to Oregon, which will thus render me useless in the department of theme-ing unless someone is willing to beta anything I can produce between now and then. So drop me a note if you're interested... I may have internet access in Tokyo so I may be able to work on things there as well. Either way, if anyone wants to try this, do let me know. Thanks

-Hitsuji