Pain was an inevitable piece of life, was it not? It was one of the prices. The constant groaning and aching. The sharp and dull. It all hurt. It was all pain. It was inescapable.

There were so many kinds of pain. Physical pains had almost no limits. Mental pain was far different. It was uncontrollable. Other pain could be controlled with numbing medications. But some pain was impossible to ignore. Grief is among those.


Roy Mustang was a procrastinator. That was a well known fact around the office. It was something that he had unintentionally been labeled as. So, now, he sat there with a ticked First Lieutenant Hawkeye staring him down while he filled out his paperwork. Paperwork that would, with no doubt, be the death of him. If his death didn't come from Riza's gun.

"Sir, I have seen you write faster than that," Hawkeye prodded in her usual "down to business" way.

"Of course, but that was when I was writing to pretty girls." Hawkeye's gun was pulled from its holster and emptied in record time. The bullets met with old scars in the wood of Mustang's desk. Also compliments of his First Lieutenant.

The whole crew jumped. One would think after so long they would learn not to jump, but they must have jumped because they never knew when, if ever, Hawkeye would finally just snap and shoot the annoying, procrastinating womanizer. The Colonel jumped because of how close the bullets were to his own person. Who wouldn't jump if their very life was at risk?

"Get to work, Sir."

There was nothing to be said. The Colonel did his work, and he did it faster. Soon the seconds turned to minutes and the minutes to hours. The end of the work day rolled around and the paperwork on Roy's desk was still not finished.

Hawkeye didn't make any move to leave the office, but the others were all gathering their own belongings and "cleaning" their desks. The sound of farewells filled the air as the occupants filed out. Soon the office was completely silent, all except for the scratching of Roy's pen and the clock ticking away on the wall. It was about three pages through that Roy looked up to see Hawkeye sitting there reading a book. The flip of a page, and Roy went back to work.

Again, the time inched on. Roy felt the need to say something to his First Lieutenant. What he was supposed to say was lost to him, though. He went back to writing. Taking a glance at the clock every few minutes, genuinely annoyed at the fact that time seemed to be crawling at a snail's pace.

"Lieutenant, head home while you can still sleep tonight." Roy was actually surprised he had said that. He had said that, right?

"With all due respect, Sir, I don't trust you not to run for it as soon as I leave."

"Hawkeye, I am insulted that you would think I would do that." Roy honestly would run if he wouldn't have to do all the work the next day. Because he would have the work the next day, he didn't feel like running out. "Also, I know very well that this paperwork isn't going anywhere. There is no reason for you not to get any sleep. I mean, who will keep me in check tomorrow if you are exhausted?" Roy actually didn't know if Hawkeye needed sleep at all. She seemed to always be like a machine running on command. He knew that wasn't actually all that accurate. Riza showed emotion, kind of, where machines couldn't.

He was waiting for the inevitable no that was surely coming his way. "Keep to your work, Sir. I'll see you tomorrow."

What? She was actually going?

She closed the book and cleaned her desk. The woman had her desk in order and her things all together so she was soon leaving Roy behind in the office. "Finish your work, Colonel. Good night."

Roy Mustang wasn't sure if it was Hawkeye's oppressive atmosphere or something else, but now the paperwork was almost through. He was sort of relieved that he was nearing the last of the so deeply despised sheets of paper.

The door burst open and the lights were flicked off. "Whoa, who's there?"

"Colonel? What are you doing here so late?" A familiar child's voice asked.

"Fullmetal?"

Then the door blew off its hinges.


Edward's nightmares were prowling in his subconscious mind. He had just needed to get away. That was why he was walking around the streets at this late hour of the night. He had left Alphonse back at the dorms so that he wouldn't have to explain anything about the things that haunted his mind.

The streets were quiet, not empty, but quiet. A few people were milling about, maybe on a late night date with their lover or possibly a wasted and stumbling about drunkard.

Something out of the corner of Edward's line of sight shifted. He subtly glanced in the direction. Nothing. It was likely a stray or one of the drunks. Edward kept on after that. He had no destination just a departure point that he wasn't ready to return to yet.

Again, something shifted. Edward ignored it, not because he was not curious about the thing. Just that, if it turned out someone was following, staying in his peripheral view, he didn't want them to attack where someone else might get hurt. Yes, he wasn't always the most careful of fighters, but he didn't want anyone else to get involved.

Edward decided to head in the direction of headquarters. At least, there he would likely run into some officers. The only problem was that there was a stretch of lights that were all out. Some bad fuse, or something. That wouldn't be a problem except that it discouraged people to walk through there, meaning just Edward and the possible stalker, which wasn't too bad. But it would be very dark.

Edward went into the direction of the darkness. He hoped that this movement hiding from his vision was nothing or, at least, something that he could easily handle.

Edward saw the dark patch on the road. It was not far away. No one was around so he had to be prepared. Edward was now entering the more shade filled streets that steadily grew in darkness.

"Kid," Edward shivered. He turned to face the speaker. It was much too dark to see the man properly, for it was a man. The voice and silhouette gave that away.

"Yes?"

"What ever are you doing at this time? A strange time to take a walk." That was exactly what Edward had been doing.

"I don't think that is something you need to know," Edward hissed as he moved forward, away from the man. Put distance between us, he thought.

"Eh, don't bite my head off, kid. I was just wondering what someone so young and..." The man seemed to scan Edward.

Call me small. I dare you!

"...little."

Edward twitched. "I'm not small." He was trying not to have a fight, but if the man mentioned his height again, it might turn ugly. If he so much as hinted at it again, it might turn ugly.

"I got it, kid." Edward felt a familiar chill crawl up his spine. The same chill he always got when fighting creeps. Something was seriously off.

Edward started backing away. He kept his eyes locked on the man.

"Don't leave yet, Fullmetal. We have so much to discuss."

"Who the hell are you?!" Edward brought his hands together, clapping them in order to reform some object to his advantage.

"Oh, no, no, no. We can't have that." The man pulled a gun from inside of his coat, a smirk robbing his face. Before the trigger was pulled, Edward dropped. He brought his hands down smacking them onto the surface of the cobblestone. A huge wall of stone was built up in a matter of milliseconds, taking the bullet in Edward's stead.

"Now, killing me wouldn't be very nice. I mean, we only just met. We should get acquainted first!" Edward clapped his hands and pressed them against the wall he had formed. It was decomposed, ripped to shreds, then pieced back together as a collection of twisting spears.

The man wasn't there, though. He was gone.

But he was only just there! Where is he? Where did he go?

Edward felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise in alarm. "Well, first, I'll introduce you to my gun. After all, it's only polite."

Edward jumped back as the man's gun and whole person appeared next to him. He went to clap, trying to build up another wall like the first, but there was no time. The trigger was pulled.

Bang!


A/N: Here I am, starting another story. I should be working on the others, but this one has been sitting half finished I'm my document manager for forever.Thank you for reading! Please review!

-UNAU/IME