Enigma
By TeriyakiPrinces
Rating: Mature because blood and a lot of swearing which makes fanfiction net want to kick me out.
Warnings for the chapter: Alcohol, reference to blood, medical jargon (kinda), Roy Mustang, also angst.
Disclaimer: Not mine. To see original content, look up Hiromu Arakawa.
A/N: Woah, sorry for the extreme and unexpected hiatus. College applications and school in general have been keeping me busy. This is short, but I wanted you guys to get something after the months of waiting.
Please leave a review if you enjoyed!
"Alright. This time, Mr. Mustang, you are getting absolutely wasted right alongside me. No exceptions or excuses! And after this, I swear I will never bother you again for another drink."
Dark eyes gazed from just-a-bit-too-long bangs at the tall figure, uncomprehending. Was this her way of making friends? He knew a lot of people with atrocious social skills, and he was absolutely not one of them, thank you very much, but what the hell was up with her?
She couldn't just expect him to agree outright to –
"I'm paying~..."
Without another thought as to how easily she had him grabbing his coat and moving out the door of his hotel room, they were on their way to a bar.
They swiftly navigated the streets, and soon found themselves entering a shadowy joint that was most definitely on its way to being seedy, but not quite there yet.
"So, why exactly did you drag me out here, Miss Maurer?" They sat down in one of the farther booths, and leaned against the tabletop on his elbows.
"I didn't drag you here," the young woman drawled, leaning back into the old booth as if she did so every night. And maybe she did.
"You seemed to be perfectly fine walking here on your own, Mr. Mustang." She called over one of the waiters, then, and he refrained from making any comments.
"So, anyway, to answer your question, you were kind of the only person I knew that I could count on who would come with me to get shit-faced without tattling on me." Did he really give off that impression, he wondered, and promptly winced at the memory of the day they met. He could concede defeat on that point, if reluctantly.
"Yeah, well, no self-respecting man would turn down a drink from such a pretty lady." He grinned at her across the table as the waiter set down their drinks.
She scoffed. Scoffed.
"You'll have to try harder than that, you cheapskate. I know I drank you out of most of your monthly salary, so don't try to cover it up behind that charming smile of yours, Colonel." Her smile broadened into a devious grin, and Roy almost choked on his pint.
"You did no such thing!" Dammit, he didn't remember her being such a devious manipulator. He needed to figure out his priorities, he thought as he stared down at his glass.
Gaia Maurer ordered a round of shots, and he got his answer. The only way to survive this encounter was to drink as much as possible and hope he forgot most of it by the next day.
"Mmmhmm," She downed a shot of Drachman moonshine as if it was water, and Roy had to actively keep himself from gaping at her.
"Anyway, hot stuff, as I said, I'm paying for everything, so drink up." He chose to ignore the lewd nickname.
"What's the occasion?"
Maurer barked out a loud laugh, and it sent a shiver down his spine.
"The end of the world!"
Winry quickly unhooked the phone from the wall, already expecting the voice that would come over the receiver. But the voice she heard was not one she recognized.
"I don't -hic- think this is a good idea." The man's voice was faint, so he wasn't the caller.
"Sure it is! Otherwise, she'd come here to murder me for ignoring her weekly call." The slight slur to Gaia's voice indicated that she had been out drinking. Was that why she hadn't called today?
"Gaia?"
"Ah! Little sister, there you are. How's work been treating you?"
"I've been well, but what have you been up to?"
"Oh, you know, the usual. Helping Gracia out around the house, doing odd jobs here and there- alchemists are in high demand everywhere I go, it seems. It's very helpful, being helpful for money. Also, I've been –"
"Drinking?"
"Well, yes, but –"
"Have you been taking your medicine?"
"Yes, of course –"
"Then you shouldn't be drinking! You know what kind of side effects there are when you mix alcohol and aspirin, stupid!"
"Don't worry, I've timed it perfectly so that there isn't any aspirin in my body while I'm drinking alcohol. Completely safe."
That meant that she had been planning on drinking. This had happened once before, when she was seventeen and going through a rough patch. She would calculate the perfect time to ingest massive amounts of alcohol without getting any of the bad reactions with her medicine. It wasn't pretty, and she'd been chewed out by Granny, who had made it clear that she was never, under any circumstances, to do so again.
"Bleeding. From. The. Stomach. Ring a bell?" Winry gritted out, wishing she could get her wrench in her sister's stupid face.
She could practically hear the wince Gaia reacted with. "A very distinctive bell, yes." A heavy sigh, and the facade was dropped. "Winry, I – I called you to tell you that everything was alright, but... it isn't. I'm sorry that I ever thought lying was an option. I feel like I've betrayed you and your intellect, thinking I could pull that off." Her voice was deeper, more tired. The slurring of her words was more prominent. Winry waited with bated breath.
"Sis, I want you to promise me one thing – just one – and I want you to believe me when I say that everything I do is to keep you safe."
It took a few seconds for her to reply, breath hitching. She wondered if this was anything like what Gaia felt like every morning, the shortness of breath, the heavy feeling of her lungs.
"I, yes. I promise, whatever it is."
A pause, the shuffling of fabric and the static of silence of the public phone.
"Do not ever come back to Central. No matter what, stay away. Stay in the south, go back east. Whatever happens, whatever you hear, whoever tells you anything. Do. Not. Come. Here."
Winry shook at the finality of those words. A sense of great foreboding fell on her.
"W-Why?"
"Relay my message to the Elrics, too. It's for everyone's safety, alright? Just follow my instructions, and everything will be alright."
"Gaia, wait, please –"
"Goodbye, Win. I love you."
Winry stared at the phone for a long time afterward, feeling cold and alone for the first time in years.
Roy leaned against the side of the phone booth, watching as Gaia Maurer walked out a few minutes after her conversation with her sister had ended.
She looked wrecked.
"I've made a lot of stupid mistakes, but I sincerely hope that wasn't one of them." Her voice shook, but she looked nonplussed as she looked out at the lamp-lit street.
"You'll just have to wait and see," His voice slurred, and he cursed himself again for his vices.
"Wait and see. That's what I've been doing for my whole life. The one time I try to do something for someone else, he dies and I can't do anything to stop it, despite everything I know." She looked at him for a moment before grabbing his arm around her shoulder, supporting his wobbly body.
"Let's get you home, colonel lightweight."
He mustered up an offended grunt, and they were on their way. Neither spoke the whole way, and the silence seemed like a fitting end to their night of boisterous drinking.
One thought bothered Roy more than any other as he lay in bed that night.
The end of the world, huh?