A little bit of angst today. Sorry, fellows...
Roy Mustang: 24
Rachel Mustang: 10
--
Roy sighed heavily. God, he hated this, but it had to be done. He sifted his position on the couch and wetted his dry lips with his tongue.
"Rachel, could you come hear for a second?" he shouted for his sister. He didn't get an answer but after all a girl with two semi-long braids appeared from upstairs.
"What is it, Roy?" Rachel asked as she came closer to Roy.
Roy thought awhile how he should start this, and then he decided to take it slow.
"Would you sit down with me? I have something to tell you."
Rachel frowned a bit, wondering if something was wrong, but sat still on the couch next to her brother.
"Has something bad happened or why do you look so serious?" she asked.
Roy gulped and then exhaled, his breath shaking as he collected his thoughts.
"You remember I'm in the military, right?" he asked first, not quite sure why. Rachel just nodded shortly and waited for Roy to say more.
"And you know how important it is to me?"
"Yeah, you always said that you wanted to help protecting our country and that's why you joined. And you were in that alchemy training too so you would really serve a purpose."
Roy nodded to agreement.
"That's right, I did." Then he kept a little pause again. Okay, here it came now…
"Listen, Rachel..." Roy gulped again. "Now they need me. They want me with them to stand up for our country."
Yet Rachel didn't seem to see anything bad about the issue.
"What do they want you to do? Are they having some political dilemma they ask you to help with?" Rachel didn't know what that meant, anyway. She wasn't even sure if that was a right term for this kind of situation.
Roy had the hardest time to look at Rachel eye to eye. How could he possibly explain to an innocent child what was going on in the governance.
"Not exactly, Rachel." Roy swallowed hard. God just help him. "There's some problems with the Ishbalan people." Roy knew Rachel had some idea who the Ishbalans were. He knew they had dealed with them at school, at least somehow. "I… I have to go away for some time."
Then Roy paused again, waiting for some kind of reaction from Rachel. He was expecting the girl to nod again or do something else. What she did – or rather said – Roy wasn't expecting at all.
Rachel was quiet at first, she just stared at her hands on her lap, seeming to admit what Roy had just said. Then she suddenly lifted her head and started to stare at Roy with fear filled eyes. Those eyes scared Roy, he had never seen his sister like that.
"Are they… are they sending you to war?" Rachel asked quietly, her voice only a whisper.
Roy bit down his lower lip, the slight pain calming his thoughts. He had no idea Rachel could understood that much. Then again, she was a very smart little girl…
"It's necessary to send the military there to calm down the situation. They will send me back when that happens…" Roy didn't know what else should he say, that was all he could tell.
"Are you sure?" Rachel's question surprised Roy. As well as did the tears that started to roll down her pink cheeks.
"What if the situation doesn't calm down? What if something happens before that? What if you di-?"
That was too much, Roy couldn't listen any more ifs Rachel came up whit. So he cut Rachel in the middle sentence and hugged Rachel firmly againherst his chest. He could hear the girl's sobs get louder, he could feel the wet spots on his shirt.
"Don't go there, please." That was the only thing Rachel said in a long time before she broke down completely.
God help him. For her sake.
I have no idea how old Roy actually was when he was send to the war, but I don't think it really matters so much...