WARNING: FIC CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE END OF THE SERIES! Basically, Ed is just realizing a few things about Roy. It's a FRIENDSHIP fic, but I guess it could be Yaoi if you really wanted it to be. I don't mind.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Accuse me of such and I will track you down and have Roy burn your socks.


I'm sitting here now, watching as the ice cubes bob slowly up and down in the amber drink in my glass. Wasn't it you who always said I was too young to drink? No matter. I bring the glass to my lips and tilt it back, grimacing as the cool liquid burns down my throat. It's funny...I don't even like the taste of alcohol. But you've driven me to drink. You, Aru, Winry, and all the others. Why? Because I can't be near any of you anymore.

"Ha..."

My laugh is more of a self derisive snort, the grating laugh of a man who's seen too much. A few months ago, I would have hated to be within twenty feet of you. And now I can't seem to get you out of my goddamn head. And you know why that is?

It's because I've realized something.

I don't hate you after all. I never did, in fact. Quite the contrary...I respect you. Back then, I was too blinded by my own ambitions to see that every move you made was to help me. When Hughes died, I was so angry...I thought you didn't care. He was your best friend and you tossed his death aside to continue on your way. But it wasn't like that. In the end, you were willing to throw away your dream, the one you'd been working on for years, to get revenge for his death.

"Revenge, hmm? You turned out to be quite the hypocrite..." I say to myself.

After all, hadn't it been you who told me revenge was wrong? That it could only lead to more pain? This revenge was different though. I know that much. That day we last spoke, you tried to shake my hand as though it were the last time we'd see each other...and I gave you a cocky high-five of sorts. That was my way of saying we'd meet again. Though, now I'm starting to really wonder.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing I've discovered is...you and I are the same. We're not the pure and innocent white, but we're not the dark and heartless back either. No...you and I are shades of gray. Caught somewhere in-between the light and the dark, working to fulfill our own crusades.

"Stop it. Stop crying, dammit. Just...stop..." I sob.

Tears stream down my face, despite my efforts to stop them. If you could see me, you'd probably laugh at me for crying over such a stupid reason. Call me a "child" or something along those lines...

Everything that I took to be you meddling in my affairs or simply hating me was in actuality something completely opposite. You were my ally. I'm sure if I were to examine my life over the past three or four years, I would be able to pinpoint places where I should have been arrested, or messed up, or anything along those lines, and none of those things happened, merely because you were there to defend me. I've been so stupid. I could have just as easily lost Aru, my own brother. But you kept our secret, at your own expense.

You were my friend. My ally. My rival. My protector.

"Not "were"..."are." I say firmly to myself.

Because I can't admit defeat. Not yet. I will see you again someday. I'll see Aru and all the others. And do you know why? Because caught between the dark and light, the shades of gray stand together.

Forevermore we stand together, so we say, we shades of gray...

OWARI


Well, hoped you liked it. Hmm...maybe that turned out a little more Yaoi-ish than I planned, but...meh. xD