Disclaimer: FMA belongs to Arakawa Hiromu
Notes: . . . I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out.
Ninety-seven: If I Die
After so many years fighting – whether openly in war, or behind closed doors in the peacetime – Roy Mustang did not expect to be spending his last days in a hospital. Well, perhaps he would have, if he suffered a terrible but-not-immediately-fatal wound that the doctors tried to patch up and failed. He could easily have been sent to hospital at any point in Ishbal. But he didn't expect to be in there, slowly dying of influenza.
His chest felt as though it had been stripped raw of every last inch of skin, and his lungs had had a razor dragged over them. Roy didn't remember the last time he had been able to breathe without it hurting. The doctor said he was feverish, and he didn't believe the man, even when Hughes came to visit.
"What are you doing here?" he asked groggily, through snatched breaths.
"Thought you could use some company," Hughes said, from the chair Roy hadn't noticed him sit down in.
The meaning of his question had been "Aren't you dead?" but this reply still seemed to satisfy Roy. He clutched at the sheets on his bed weakly. "Maes, I've been thinking." (The other man cocked his head to one side as Mustang coughed painfully.) "When I die-"
"If you die, chief."
"No – when. When I die. Take care of Riza."
It took Hughes a minute to answer. "What do you mean?"
Roy swallowed painfully. "Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. She's given up before when the enemy played tricks on her– but it won't-" He had to break off as a coughing fit came over him, and flecks of mucus mixed with blood flicked out over his chin. He ignored it, struggling to continue. "Won't be tricks this time. Don't let her be alone."
"Careful there," Hughes scowled, leaning forwards but not getting up. "Just because you- you think you're going to die doesn't mean you should make it happen quicker."
Roy didn't seem to be paying attention. He was too busy trying to focus on still breathing – although he didn't know why he bothered; it was only prolonging the inevitable.
"D-Do you want me to go get a nurse?"
"N-" He couldn't even finish the one word he wanted to say without coughing again. His lungs burnt, and he thought it proper that in the end he should die feeling the same sort of pain as the many people he'd killed through his life.
Hughes was up in an instant, moving before he even seemed to stand. Roy was too busy trying to stop his ribcage from falling apart with each shudder to notice that he didn't hear footsteps. Only a slight squeak of rubber on the linoleum, and a mechanical sort of whirring.
"Nurse! Nurse!"
Notes: So did anyone pick up on who "Hughes" really was? Definitely a manga character, not an anime character.