A/N: Welcome back, everyone! I could have posted this yesterday, since I got all the edits done, but I decided to wait until today because, well, it's FMA Day, of course. I didn't get to do anything last year (as last October 3rd was the exact day I finished watching Brotherhood), and Donjusticia literally just got into the fandom a few weeks ago. So, yeah, happy FMA Day, everyone.

I don't want to hold you guys up any longer, so I'll just say that we still don't own Fullmetal Alchemist.

Enjoy!

Donjusticia's A/N: HAPPY 3RD OF OCTOBER! OH SAY CAN YOU SEE!? BY THE FLARE OF MUSTANG'S BURNING LIGHT! THE SERIES THAT SO PROUDLY WE HAILED, AND HONOR IN THIS FANFIC!

Yeah, I'm glad there's no audio on this website. That we you guys can imagine my voice to be as grandiose and beautiful as you want. But all jokes aside, happy feast of FMA or whatever this FMA holiday is called! Sky and I worked hard on this so enjoy it… or break our hearts and stifle our ambitions by not enjoying it… your choice… I mean… I can't tell you what to do…


Chapter 3 - "Is everything going to be okay, or do I need to prepare for the worst?"

"Maes!"

Roy feels the scream tear through his throat before he's consciously aware that he is awake in a bed. The scream is ragged and rings in his ears along with the rapid pounding of his heart in his throat. He blinks repeatedly, trying to slow his heartbeat, but his chest hurts and the mask on his face isn't helping and he can't be sitting around, Hughes is in danger—

Wait. Am I in the hospital?

White walls. Overly sanitary smell. IV in his arm, and the mask on his face. Definitely a hospital. But why…?

"Owww…"

Roy's head snaps over towards the other bed in the room. He can't see anyone, but the sheet is pulled haphazardly off the one side, like whoever was on the bed fell and tried holding onto the sheet to stay on. Roy tries to speak, but the mask over his mouth muffles it. He takes it off and tries again. "…Maes? Are you there?"

A familiar head of black hair pops up from the other side of the bed, lacking his usual glasses. Hughes shoots him a glare. "Geez, Roy, if we ever end up in the hospital together again, I'm requesting a different room if you're gonna scream like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack!" He looks down then, and sighs with exasperation. "…And it looks like you owe me a new pair of glasses, too," Hughes adds, holding up a pair with the frame bent out of place and one of the lenses cracked.

If it had been any other day, Roy would have retorted with some sarcastic comment that the two would have laughed off. Instead, Roy sinks back against his pillow, grimacing slightly as his lungs twinge in pain, and covers his eyes with his arm. Just a dream. It was just a dream. My subconscious was just messing with me. Hughes is alive.

"That bad of a nightmare, huh?" Hughes asks, once he climbs back into bed. He absentmindedly scratches at the sling on his right arm. "…Ishval?"

Roy lowers his hand, eyes dark. If only it had been memories of the war. He's grown almost used to those memories haunting his dreams. While they can and will keep him up at night, they haven't completely terrified him in years. "I wish," Roy admits, staring at the ceiling instead of at his friend.

Hughes doesn't say anything for a solid minute or so, still picking at his sling. He breaks the silence with a cough and turns to glare at Roy again—this time actually angry. "Okay, enough beating around the bush. What in the hell did you do two nights ago, Roy? You showed up out of nowhere coughing up blood and still tried fighting that shapeshifter person who attacked me. Don't get me wrong, you saved my life and I'm grateful for that, but you almost died."

I was out for over a day?! Roy's eyes widen slightly at that thought. He tries thinking about what happened before he passed out at the phone booth—it's honestly mostly just a blur of screaming and the smell of burnt flesh and he doesn't remember passing out or coughing up blood, though that certainly explains why his chest feels so tight. …Almost died, huh. I wonder if that's my equivalent exchange; I change the flow of time too much and it rebounds on me. I'll have to think more on that later. "…Sorry for worrying you, Maes. I guess I was so caught up in keeping you safe that I didn't stop to think about myself."

Hughes raises an eyebrow. "You 'guess'?"

"I remember a lot of screaming and burning and not much else," Roy says, knocking against his skull a few times as though that would help him remember. "What… what happened, anyways?"

"I pushed you down when that guy tried charging one last time and threw one of my knives into his throat," he replies. "He didn't get back up, so I tried waking you up, but I couldn't." Hughes stares at his hands, trembling. "There was—there was a lot of blood, Roy, and you were choking on it all and I couldn't—"

"Okay, you don't have to say anything else," Roy interrupts—he's glad to see Hughes alive again, but not like this. "I'm… I'm sorry."

Hughes sighs. "No, I should be the one apologizing. If I hadn't disobeyed my orders to stop looking into the Philosopher's Stone, I wouldn't have been attacked and you wouldn't have been hurt, either."

"Then we're both sorry. Equivalent exchange," the Flame Alchemist says, with a hint of a smile on his face.

Hughes rolls his eyes, exaggerating a groan. "You alchemists and your 'equivalent exchange' this, 'equivalent exchange' that. What if I don't want your apology? What if I just want to know what on Earth you were doing in Central to begin with two nights ago?"

Roy freezes, gripping the sheets on his bed. Dammit, of course he wants to know. What am I supposed to say? 'Oh, I found out how to transmute time and send myself to the past after I was killed by Riza, and in the timeline I came from, you were murdered in that phone booth so I had to save you'? I doubt that anyone will trust me if I try saying that. Hell, they'll probably think I went off the deep end or something. He lets his hands relax when he turns to face his friend. "I told you over the phone that my transfer to Central is almost official. I thought I'd surprise you and we could celebrate over drinks."

Hughes stares back with squinted eyes. "…And you just so happened to stumble upon that shapeshifter pointing a gun at me. And knew that that guy wasn't really Second Lieutenant Ross. And knew that he could regenerate his body somehow."

"I fired a warning shot first; the disguise blew off when—" Roy catches himself, he isn't supposed to know the homunculi's names yet and was just about to say Envy. "—the shapeshifter was blown back. So I continued burning him." He doubts Hughes is going to believe him. He certainly wouldn't believe himself if he was in Hughes' shoes. "It really was just a stroke of luck. I'd even go as far as call it a miracle."

Hughes snorts. "I thought alchemists didn't believe in miracles."

"No, we don't. But…" Roy trails off. "…I'm glad you're alright, Maes. Who else would I have to help push me up in the ranks?"

"Well I'm glad you're alright too, Roy." Hughes stops for a moment, picking at his sling again. "Although, speaking of ranks—"

Whatever Hughes was going to say is left unfinished as the door to their room slams open. Both of them look up to see a small blur run and jump at Hughes—Roy instinctively goes to snap even if he isn't wearing his gloves, until he realizes who the blur is.

Three-year-old Elicia clings to her father as tight as she possibly can, head buried in his shirt. "Daddy! You're okay!" she cries. "D-Don't leave us, Daddy! We haven't done anything bad!"

"Ah—not so tight, Elicia," Hughes says, wincing at the spike of pain through his shoulder. He shifts his daughter around to his left side and returns the hug. "There, there, I'm not going anywhere, Elicia. My arm's just hurt really bad. It'll get better soon."

Elicia sniffs, drying her eyes. "Y-You promise, Daddy?"

"Of course, you're my darling little angel, I wouldn't leave you for anything in the entire world," Hughes assures her with a smile. "And speaking of angels…" he trails off, squinting at the door, and sighs at the sight. "Oh, Gracia, not you too. Please don't cry, I'm alright."

Gracia dries her eyes before walking to her husband's side, sitting on the bed next to him. "I'm sorry, Maes, I'm just—the doctors wouldn't tell us how you were doing at all—I'm so glad that you're alright," she says, voice shaky from her recent crying. She gingerly rests a hand on her husband's good shoulder, eyes narrowed at the sling. "Is… is that your only injury? How bad is it?"

"Yeah, this is my only injury," Hughes replies. "I won't be able to move my arm all that well for a week or so, but… well, it definitely could have been worse, if Roy hadn't been there to save me."

"Roy?" For the first time since entering the room, Gracia looks at the other bed, and gasps in surprise. "Oh! I didn't realize the two of you were put in the same room! Forgive my rudeness!"

"…It's nothing," Roy says, finding it hard to speak all of a sudden. "I didn't want to interrupt. You… looked so happy." His heart aches when he thinks of the past. The funeral, specifically. It's… nice to see the three of them happy together, again.

Gracia laughs a little. "Well, you're not wrong there. Although, I don't see why you'd be crying…?"

A hand flies to Roy's face and he almost scowls when he finds it to be wet. Dammit, that's the second time I've cried since the transmutation and haven't even realized it. I'm not turning into a softie, am I? …What should I say?

Hughes saves him from having to respond when he gives an overdone gasp. "What's this? Roy Mustang expressing an emotion other than anger or boredom?" he says, eyes wide as though he's in shock. "Of all the times for my glasses to be broken! Gracia, take a picture for me!"

Roy is glad for the shift in atmosphere—just another reason he's glad he was able to save Hughes, since the man is so good at brightening up a room. He mock-glares at Hughes. "You better watch it, Hughes. Unless you want your collection of pictures to 'mysteriously' go up in smoke."

"Aw, and how are you going to do that, Mr. Useless When Wet?" Hughes taunts with the biggest smirk on his face. "Really, what are you gonna do, cry on them?"

"I'll have you know that I am not entirely useless when wet. I can just split the water molecules and boom! All I need is a flame," Roy retorts. "Besides, it's hilarious that you're calling me the useless one. You're the guy who can't tell the difference between a trash can and a person without an inch of glass in front of your eyes." Truth, he's missed this sort of banter.

Hughes' face turns bright red as Gracia chuckles. "That—that was one time and you swore never to speak of it again!" he loudly protests.

Elicia pokes her head up. "I wanna hear what happened, Daddy!"

Roy grins almost maliciously, but before he can go into detail for Elicia (and before Hughes can scream at him to stop), there's a knock on the door. A plain-looking doctor with a clipboard in hand. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything," the man says, "but, now that you're awake, you'll have to come with me for some tests, Colonel Mustang."

Roy groans; that's the one thing he hates about hospitals more than the food. The tests. Tests mean questions and he doesn't even know if he'll be able to answer half of them. "Ugh. Fine, might as well get things over with," he reluctantly says, standing up.

…Only for his knees to promptly buckle under his own weight, giving him a taste full of tile and the fall forcibly ripping the IV out of his arm. He attempts to stand back up, but the strain is too much. This is just great. I'm never going to hear the end of this, Roy thinks disdainfully, forced to remain lying there until Gracia helps him back onto his bed. Hughes is very obviously trying to stifle some laughter.

The doctor shakes his head, turning to leave. "I thought as much. I'll be back with a wheelchair in just a moment."

As soon as the man is gone, Roy shoots a look at his friend. "Not a word, Hughes."

"Aw c'mon, that was—"

"Not. A. Word."

Hughes hmphs, and pouts like an upset child. "You're no fun."

When the doctor comes back with the wheelchair, Elicia worms her way out of her father's hug, running over to her mother's side without a word. She pulls something out of her mother's purse and presents it to Roy: a stuffed animal in the form of a tortoiseshell kitten. "This is Mimi," Elicia explains. "Mimi'll be your friend, and you can hug her if you feel scared and she'll make you feel better! Okay, Uncle Roy?"

Roy eyes the stuffed animal with the best neutral-looking expression he can manage. "…Heh. Okay, Elicia."

He doesn't have the heart to tell her that he hates cats.


The tests all produce positive results, but no answers as to where the injuries came from in the first place. Despite this, the doctor reassures Roy that he will recover quickly. Roy nods and pretends to be happy about the news, but really, he isn't happy in the slightest. Every minute he spends still in this hospital, every moment wasted by these examinations, every second a nurse has to push him around on a wheelchair, it all reminds him of just how powerless he is. He's being forced to sit around doing nothing while his enemies have all the time in the world to prepare their next move.

He wants nothing more than to rip the IV out of his arm, throw away the bedsheets, and blast his way out of this damn hospital. Of course, he can't do any of these things—forget about the implications of those reckless actions, he knows that the best thing he can do right now is let his body heal quickly. The faster he recovers, the faster he can return to the field. And at the very least, the doctors are only keeping him cooped up in the hospital for one more night.

But do I have to be stuck in a room with him?

Gracia and Elicia are gone by the time Roy is wheeled back into the room, meaning that Hughes can and will gush about them for hours on end. At least he doesn't have any pictures and with his arm in a sling he can't get as touchy-feely as he normally would, but it hardly keeps his mouth shut. "Isn't Elicia so precious?" Hughes practically squeals, holding up a stuffed dog. "First she gives you Mimi to look after you, and then she gives me Frou-Frou to keep me company! Oh, and did I tell you? She made Gracia give my shoulder a kiss because, and I quote, 'Mommy's kisses make the boo-boos go away'? It's just too cute~!"

Roy groans, debating about throwing a pillow at his friend to shut him up. "Yes, Hughes, this is the second time you've said that in the past five minutes. I didn't save your life for you to drown me in daughter stories."

"Hey, you're the one who called me the other day asking for some," Hughes smugly retorts.

That's because I thought I'd never hear one again. Roy shoves the thought away, instead replying with, "That was to get away from doing paperwork. You don't see me doing paperwork now, do you?" His gaze drifts to the foot of his bed, where Mimi the stuffed cat rests. It unsettles him not because of his dislike for cats, but its endlessly staring eyes remind him that the homunculi are probably monitoring his every action right now. He grabs the stuffed animal and tosses it to Hughes. "…Anyways, here. It's touching and all, but you know I hate cats."

Hughes tosses the cat back at him. "Uh-uh, Roy, you're keeping Elicia's gift to you."

Roy shoots him a glare and throws the cat back at him. "Then at least trade stuffed animals with me."

"And give up Frou-Frou?" Hughes melodramatically gasps, squeezing the dog between his bad arm and his chest. "Never!" he shouts, chucking Mimi back at Roy again. "Elicia gave Mimi to you, so you're gonna love it! It's the least you could do after you and the Elric brothers got me demoted!"

Roy is caught off-guard by the words, and Mimi hits him in the face before falling onto his lap. "You were demoted? When?"

"Yesterday. That's what I was trying to tell you about before my family came to visit," Hughes replies. The look on his face darkens. "The Führer came to visit me, when you were still unconscious."

Roy's eyes narrow at the mention of Wrath—not that Hughes knows the truth. "The Führer came to visit you? Really?"

Hughes looks away, scratching his chin. "Yeah, well, he'd kind of given me the direct order to stop looking into the Fifth Laboratory and Philosopher's Stones, which I totally disobeyed. He demoted me on the spot and said I'm going to be transferred somewhere as soon as my shoulder's healed up—although he said I won't have to move, so I'm assuming I'm just being transferred out of Investigations and put somewhere else in Central. Guess they can't have someone smart enough to uncover something they shouldn't in a position like that, haha…"

Roy grimaces; he shouldn't have expected his friend to get out of this mess scott-free after being rescued. The homunculi probably still want him dead, and the transfer is probably going to put Hughes in the perfect position to be offed at any time—or worse, they'll find an even more unpleasant way to silence him. "…I'm not going to ask what you discovered that almost got you killed, Maes. Just, promise me you'll be more careful from now on."

"Oh, I will be. Next time I step out of line I'll be court marshalled—can't have that happening, you know," Hughes says, resting back against his pillow with a short chuckle. "It's kind of ironic, though. I was trying to call you that night, tell you what I figured out. Thought it would be your ticket up the ranks. Now you don't even want to hear it, and I've gone down the ranks."

That's because I already know everything. "I probably upset enough people by showing up here unannounced, I'd rather not push my luck learning something like that," Roy replies.

"Yeah, I suppose it's probably better that way. I don't need someone else getting on the executioner's block because of me."

"…Someone else?"

Hughes' grip on the stuffed dog tightens, as though he's in pain. "Second Lieutenant Ross. They're pinning the entire incident on her, even though we both know that's not true. And you know the military doesn't take assault against a superior officer very lightly. Against two superior officers…"

Dammit. She's getting thrown under a bus again—only much earlier this time. I don't have all the pieces in place to pull off the same thing I did before, but I still have to do something, surveillance or no. "I see. Do you know when the nurse will be back?" Roy asks.

The change of topic rids the room of its dark atmosphere as Hughes grins—almost maliciously. "Ooh, needing some 'special care' from someone in particular?" he teases. "I know that brunette might be willing to give you a 'thorough examination'—and of course I promise to keep it from Riza if she ever gets suspicious."

Roy rolls his eyes; his friend never seeks to get on his nerves like this. "Shut up, Hughes, I don't need you to keep anything from her."

"Oh, so you've that sort of understanding with her. I getcha. Your relationship must have really advanced for you to reach that point." Hughes smirks, scratching behind the ears of Frou-Frou as if it were a real dog.

"That's not what—you know what? Never mind," he grumbles, shaking his head. There's just no arguing with his friend. "You can believe whatever the hell you want to about my love life." He turns his head to the door. "Hey, nurse. NURSE!" he shouts.

A flustered brunette enters the room. "Y-Yes?" she stammers. "Please, don't shout so loud, sir. There are other patients sleeping."

"Oh, right, I'm so sorry, miss. I just really needed to see you," Roy sheepishly replies, rubbing the back of his neck for extra effect. He has to resist shooting a glare at the dumb smirk Hughes proceeds to give him. Not one word, Hughes.

"Yes, what is it?" the nurse asks, looking a little nervous.

"Oh, I just want to contact some friends back east," Roy admits. "I wasn't able to contact them when I first made it to Central and now I've been in the hospital for two days. I'm sure they must be worried about me, you know? So, if you could be a dear and wheel me over to the phone across the hallway, I'd love that."

The nurse shifts nervously, playing with a loose strand of hair. "Oh, um, well… I'd love to, but… I was told that you need to keep resting and, well…"

Just a little more. "Oh, don't worry, it'll be just one phone call. And besides, if anything happens, I'll have you there to take care of me… right?" He adds a wink for good measure.

"…Only one phone call?" the nurse asks.

"It'll be quick, I promise."

The woman continues playing with the strand of hair while she thinks it over. After a few moments, she sighs and says, "I suppose I can allow that, but you'll need to come right back here to rest afterwards."

Roy beams at her, making sure to catch a glimpse of her name tag. "You're the best, Karen. Thanks."

When he's in front of the phone, he hesitates for a split second. Word of what happened has no doubt made its way to Eastern Command by now and he's sure that Riza is going to kill him as soon as she hears from him. He wishes he can go back again, and come up with a better excuse—or at least not screw up big time by using Hughes' codename. But he can't change those things now, and to that end he has to put his plans into motion ASAP.

The telephone rings hollowly in his ear. He taps his fingers impatiently. How many times is it going to ring? It's taking longer than when he'd called Hughes, but that's not right, he's sure Riza would be in his office right now and she wouldn't hesitate to answer. Come on, Lieutenant, answer already. I don't have anymore time to waste.

"Hello?" the tired and angry voice of a different lieutenant than Roy had been expecting answers. "This had better be good…" Havoc continues. He sounds impatient.

For a moment, Roy is thrown off-guard by his Second Lieutenant answering the phone; he'd run out of the office without seeing or speaking to anyone other than Riza, and hadn't really stopped to think that Havoc isn't crippled anymore after realizing that Hughes was still alive. He pulls himself together in an instant with a sigh of relief. "Now, that's no way to address your superior officer, Havoc."

"Colonel Mustang?!" Havoc exclaims in shock, loud enough to make Roy hold the receiver away from his ear for a moment. "Hey, guys, the Colonel's on the phone!" he shouts, likely to the rest of the team. "Man, what happened to you? We've all been trying to get answers from Central Command, but they won't say much of anything!"

Roy can hear the voices of Fuery and Breda in the background, shouting their own questions over Havoc's back. He goes to answer when a different noise fills the background—someone stomping, and loudly. His eyes widen and he preemptively draws his head back from the receiver.

"COLONEL! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Riza screams from the other end, loud enough to scare the nurse and nearly blow out Roy's eardrums despite not having the phone to his ear.

Yep, I knew she'd be mad at me. "Look, Lieutenant, I—"

"Don't give me that!" she cuts him off, voice quivering with fury. "I don't understand how going to see your sister 'Matilda' in the hospital turns into you almost getting yourself killed saving Hughes! Why didn't you call us sooner—no, before that, why did you go off on your own? What the hell did you do?"

Roy pinches the bridge of his nose with his free hand. "Calm down, Hawkeye, I didn't call earlier because I couldn't. I'm fine now, though. In fact…" He taps the mouthpiece twice in rapid succession. "I was just about to tell you the entire story. Are you listening?"

There's a pause and some movement on the other end until he hears the telltale sound of a pen tapping a desk, twice in a row. "I'm listening," Riza says, sounding much more attentive and less angry now. "So, what happened after you left East City?"

"Well, when I made it to the train station, I ended up getting stuck waiting an entire hour for the next train. The ticket seller was a kind woman—Felicia, I think her name was? Well, anyways, she made sure that the train wouldn't be delayed. While I was waiting for it, I met this woman named Isabelle. She had a kid named Nathan—the boy wouldn't stop crying over his favorite toy top, which he'd broken. Guess he wanted to give it as a gift to a friend of his named Danielle or something."

"Ah, did you fix the top for him, sir?" Riza says. The sound of a pen scratching against paper is audible in the background.

"Sure did, alchemy's amazing like that. Although my demonstration did catch some unwanted attention; these three kids, Ben, Alice, and Robert saw what I did and thought it was magic or something. Robert in particular was extremely annoying; he refused to leave me alone until I fixed some book that belonged to a friend of his named Yolanda."

"Yolanda?" Riza asks.

Well I'm sorry, I don't know many names that start with the letter 'y'. "Yeah, it's a pretty interesting name," Roy continues. "I couldn't fix the book, unfortunately, but Isabelle and Nathan were so thankful for me fixing the top that they let me sit with them on the train. I ended up spending more time talking to this nice couple that sat across from us, though. If I remember correctly, their names were Caroline and Eric? …Anyways, Nathan played with their son Tracy for like, the entire train ride. Robert and Alice from the train station showed up too, with a different friend of theirs named Lucy. Lucy was a sweet girl—looked a lot like Isabelle, even though they weren't related."

He stops for a moment, noticing that his nurse has started staring at him. When she realizes he's looking back at her, she flushes and ducks back around the corner with a hasty apology.

"Everything alright, Colonel?" Riza asks.

"Oh, yeah, that was just my nurse, Karen," he replies, just now realizing how absolutely convenient it is that his nurse has a name like that. "Guess she wanted to make sure I'm not just pretending to be on the phone to not have to go back to my room. That sounds like something Edward would do, don't you think?"

Riza chuckles a little. "Yes, that does sound like him."

"There's no way Alphonse would let him do something like that, though." Roy pauses for a moment, catching his breath. He's been talking almost nonstop since he's woken up and it's really starting to hurt. But he has to finish the message. "Well, anyways, back to the story. So, Lucy brought her brother David along to play with them. Alice liked him a lot, but he and Nathan bickered for a good ten minutes until this older man who reminds me quite a bit of General Grumman whacked them both over the head and told them to shut up."

"Are you sure that sounds like General Grumman, sir? It sounds more like what you want to do to Edward on a daily basis."

"Well, Edward usually deserves a head-slapping for all the trouble he causes me," Roy counters, absolutely thankful that Riza had worded her last response in that manner. "Robert was a lot like him in that regard, causing a bunch of trouble for his old man Oliver. I feel for the guy and his wife, U… Ue… something with a 'U', I couldn't pronounce it if I tried. She and this other passenger, Susan, spent the whole ride chatting about how Tracy kept being rude to Eric and Lucy. At least, he was rude to Lucy until she threatened to show some box to a girl named Hailey—that shut him up faster than Isabelle could keep her son from sneaking food out of Mary's bag."

"Sounds like you had quite the ride," Riza comments.

"Oh, I'm not done yet. Tracy decided he was going to prank Oliver before the ride was done. Caroline caught him, Alice, and Lucy planning it out and was going to stop them until Lucy decided to throw Mary's purse at her face. That caused quite the scene. I managed to help get everything under control, but those kids were just too rowdy. Eric even grounded his son for his role in the whole thing."

"What happened after the train ride, sir?" Riza asks, the sound of her pen moving no longer in the background. "All we've heard is that you saved Lt. Colonel Hughes' life, but not much else. Especially not how you were injured."

Roy sighs; he'd actually enjoyed telling that story because it kept him from having to answer this part. "I'm afraid I can't tell you; I don't remember much of what happened two nights ago. Just know that I'm fine now." He snaps his fingers twice suddenly. "Oh, but that reminds me! I need you to schedule an appointment with Dr. K for my regular check-up. Tell him to meet me at the regular time and place."

"Got it," Riza replies. "Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"Make sure the guys stay in line while I'm not there. I don't know if I'll be going back to East City for a while; doctors said I shouldn't be taking any long trips while I recover. Oh, and tell General Grumman I'll be giving him a call as soon as I'm out of the hospital. I can't really think of anything else right now… although, you know, maybe after the transfer is finalized, we ought to go spelunking one day. I hear the mountains near Briggs have some great underground caves—I bet Falman or Fuery would love to see them."

"I'm sure they would, sir." Riza stops for a moment, hints of a worried sigh coming through the line. "…Before you go, Colonel, please, answer me one thing."

"Of course, what is it?"

"Is everything going to be okay, or do I need to prepare for the worst?"

Roy's grip on the phone tightens. "Prepare for the worst, just in case. But don't worry—I don't intend on dying anytime soon. I'll see you soon, Lieutenant." He hangs up before she can reply and lets out the anxious breath he'd been holding in the entire call. That's the most he can do for now. He has to trust that she'll know what to do, and he has to be ready for when she does.

"Are you done, sir?" the nurse asks, poking around the corner again.

Roy smiles at her. "I am indeed. Although… could you do me another favor, once I'm back in my room? I haven't had a thing to eat since I've woken up and I am starving!"


A/N: Hughes is such a fun character to write, just saying.

Fun fact for this chapter, Donjusticia was the one who wrote the second scene originally, based on a few idea I gave him, and he surprised me by coming up with that coded conversation… which I then had to rewrite almost completely from scratch because the message didn't work. And I got so into rewriting the conversation that the next thing I knew it was almost 3 a.m. Monday morning. I really need to stop doing stuff like this. Other fun fact, I wrote the scene where Elicia gave Roy the stuffed cat on a different day but still at 3 a.m., and the first name that popped into my head for the cat was "Mimi", the nickname for an OC of mine that Donjusticia loves. And the name stuck.

Anywho~thanks again for reading this story, and I hope you all drop a review!

Oh! And before I forget, any fellow Ed/Winry shippers out there, I put up a really short and cute one-shot about them as another way for me to celebrate FMA Day. Check it out if you want to! It's called "Like Father, Like Son"!

Donusticia's A/N: Watch out for Mimi and Frou-Frou. They will be more relevant to the plot of this story than you think. Or am I thinking about 4Koma Theater?

(A/N: Definitely 4Koma Theater.)