His Worst Pain

His brain didn't quite register what was happening. One second he was waiting outside a bookstore together with his little boy, the next second he felt a searing pain on his right lower quadrant stomach and another on his shoulder. A window crashed in an ear-deafening noise behind him. He heard people screamed, he saw his son's eyes went as wide as possible followed by tears cascading. Roy Mustang didn't know what had happened as he collapsed on the pavement. The last thing he remembered was calling his son's name before everything went pitch black.

When he woke up, he instantly knew he was at the hospital. The distinct, pungent odour of disinfectant, the stark white surrounding and that sterile air smell. He had been in and out hospitals more than he could ever count and every time he woke up, these three characteristics of a typical ward at a hospital always hit him first thing. Roy Mustang tried to move his weak body into much more comfortable position and he groaned when pain started shooting throughout his body.

"Shit!" he cursed.

There was a sudden movement of his left. Something blonde in which it reminded him of his wife.

"Roy!"

Riza Mustang appeared into his field of view. Her face was saturated with worry, interwoven with guilt.

"What'd happened?" he muttered under his breath, still trying to ease of the sharp pain. She didn't quickly respond to his question. Instead, the General helped her husband to get into a more comfortable position; slowly and carefully moving his body. It took them almost five minutes to get Roy into a sitting position, with a pillow carefully propped behind his back, supporting his upper body.

"Are you okay?" she asked, taking his left hand into hers.

He nodded. "Yeah." Roy scanned the hospital ward he was currently in, trying to find any clues on why he ended up here. But nothing there helped. There were a few bouquets of fresh flowers with fruit baskets and few 'Get Well Soon' cards. Nothing.

"Riza. What happened to me?" his obsidian orbs looked directly into her amber eyes, holding them.

Riza squeezed his hand, and Roy felt hers trembled. She looked down, too embarrassed to see the man in front of her. Warm tears rolled down her face, landed on the back of his palm. She tried her best to stifle her cry but it wasn't working the way she wanted it. It was her fault. She was the reason her husband ended up sprawling on the pavement outside the bookstore. Shots were fired; two hit him while four others met bricks and windows. The shooter was definitely the worst sniper ever hired in the history of Amestris. But, they were lucky he was that bad. Roy's life was spared.

"You were shot…" the words came out shaky. "It's my fault, Roy! I should've been there, protecting you. But instead, I decided to go into that bookstore, and get a stupid book." By now, Riza Mustang was already on a full-scale crying her heart out. After all these years, she would still blame herself if anything were to happen to him, despite him being her husband; the one that should protect her instead of the other way around.

Roy brought his wounded right hand on top of hers, giving her a light squeeze and in a way, telling her that it was nothing to be worried about. "It's not your fault, dear. It never is and never will be. You've done your duty as my bodyguard and as your husband, I am the one that supposed to protect you. And, this happen when we were out of this office, so you are my wife, not my bodyguard at that time. There is definitely no reasons whatsoever for you to blame yourself for what'd happened to me." Roy pulled her chin up, making her gaze directly into his.

"It's not your fault, Riza," he emphasized and despite the pain he was feeling, Roy bent forward and gave a kiss on her lips. "Besides, I'm the one that refused to have our security team following and pestering us on our family time." Roy rested his forehead against hers; his obsidian eyes still locked securely on hers. He swept away the tears, leaving a light stain on the beautiful face he loved ever since he was just a young teenager.

She nodded despite the guilt that was still tugged her heart strings.

"And… where's our kids?" A huge grin resided on his face. Whenever there was a mention about their children, Roy would light up like a bulb. He adored their kids, almost at par with his best friends.

Riza smiled back. "Ryan and Elizabeth are with their beloved auntie 'Becca."

"Oh. Okay. Good." Roy laid back on the propped up pillow. Eyes closed he said "I think I'm gonna slee-" Riza didn't hear the last part of the sentence instead, a light snore was captured by her ears. Roy had fallen asleep so quickly.

Roy flicked his eyes opened once again. He was still in the ward. The pain in his body was already decreased to a mere ache. The medicine was working and Roy had no complaint about it. His eyes wandered around the room once again, looking for his wife. Riza was nowhere to be seen,but he did caught sounds coming from the en-suit bathroom in the ward. She was probably in there.

"Daddy?" a small, scared voice appeared from his right side.

Mustang turned and saw the messy black mop belonged to a certain Ryan Mustang.

"Heyya buddy!" the father of two ran his left fingers through his boy's hair.

The child grinned, identical to the one that decorated his daddy. But it was gone a fraction of second later as his amber eyes fell on the white bandage covering the abdomen of his father.

"Daddy…" he called again. His voice was so tiny. He was scared alright; almost traumatised with the event that took place three days back. He saw his daddy on the pavement, not responding to his desperate call. He saw his daddy's shirt suddenly stained with growing deep red spots. He saw his mommy came running out from the bookstore, held his daddy in her arms. He saw her mommy cried so badly for the first time in his life. He saw how mommy couldn't pull herself together when daddy 'slept'. He saw her mommy crying almost all the time as she sat by his bed in this room. He felt pain, deep inside his chest. He didn't know why but he did. He wasn't injured at all during that event, but he experienced pain as he saw the whole event unfold in front of him.

"Yeah?"

"Does it hurt?" Ryan pointed to his bandages. "Your arm and tummy. Does it hurt?"

"Yes… I think."

"Are you gonna die…?" Roy saw his son started to well up with that question.

Roy quickly shook his head. "Honey, I'm not gonna die. These are not gonna kill me. Don't worry, 'kay?"

"But…but! You said it hurts! And I saw lots of blood the other day!"

"It only hurts a tiny bit. Just a little, tiny, very small bit!" Roy almost laugh, but he knew better than to do it with stitches on his stomach. Also, he didn't want to put his son in a further state of confuse! The boy would think about weird things if he was let to.

"Don't lie, daddy! Uncle Havoc said it hurts a lot when he got shot."

Still smiling, Roy ran his fingers through his little boy's hair once again. He liked doing it. It helped to calm both him and his son's down. "No. It does not hurt that bad, Ryan. These shots?" Roy pointed to his injuries, "They feel like an ant bite. I've gone to a far worst pain that this."

With that statement, Ryan's eyes grew in astonishment. "There is something more painful than getting shot at?"

Roy nodded, remembering an incident that, despite occurred years back, it was fresh in his mind as if it just happened. "C'mon up here." Roy patted a space on the bed. Ryan glanced at him, not sure whether he should accept daddy's offer or not. "It's okay, honey. C'mon up."

The young Mustang walked around to Roy's left and carefully leaped onto the bed. His eyes never left the bandage on his daddy's tummy. He was scared if he accidentally touched it and hurt daddy. Roy put his free hand protectively around his son. Ryan laid his head on Roy's shoulder, "so what hurts more than getting shot at?" the little one mumbled.

"When I almost lose your mommy."

"Mommy?"

"Yes. Few years back, our country had a war with very, very bad guys. They wanted me to do something that's horrible, but I didn't want to. So they decided to take mommy as a hostage to make me do the bad stuff. I did not want to…" Roy winced at the memory that came rushing into his mind.

"Then what happened?"

"Well… mommy said that she would kill me if I do that awful stuff. So I didn't… and those people did something to mommy. They tried to kill mommy and y'know, when I realised that I might lose your mommy, something really painful hits me. I wasn't shot or anything, but they inflicted a huge gash on your mommy… Remember the scar on mommy's neck?"

Ryan nodded, "yeah."

"That hurts me a lot worse than anything I ever experienced. I thought I was going to lose your mommy that day. It scared me a lot. I knew if anything happened to mommy, I could never bare the pain. I would rather die than lose her."

"Oh… that is more painful than getting shot at?"

"Yes. Seeing your mommy almost died in front of me is the worst pain that I ever experienced even if that didn't inflict any wounds on me, physically. That wounded me in the heart, something you couldn't see, but you suffered."

Ryan mumbled something under his breath. He took a hold of Roy's shirt. "But mommy's okay, right? She's not gonna die?"

"She's okay and I'll make sure she will always be. I will always protect mommy, you and Elizabeth."

"I love you, daddy," Ryan muttered.

"I love you too, sport." Roy gave the boy a kiss on top of his black hair. The pair fell silence and a couple of seconds later, they were asleep.

Riza Mustang appeared from the bathroom, holding a plate with washed apples and knife. She was washing the fruits, wanting to cut them for Roy and when she walked out, she heard the conversation between the two boys she loved the most. She had been listening to the dialogue and unconsciously, tears had once again cascading her eyes. She knew he loved her, but it never occurred to her that it was until this extend. He would choose death than losing her, just like she would.

She placed the plate of apples on a table at the end of Roy's bed. She walked by his side, her gaze never left that peaceful, sleeping face. She swept a few strands of hair that fell on across his eyes. His hair went back to its original position as soon as she retracted her hand. They never stayed back without the help of hair gel. Riza planted a gentle kiss on his lips, afraid that she would wake him up.

"I love you too, Roy."

She took a seat on an empty chair beside his beg, folded her arms on the bed and laid her head on her limbs. The last thing she remembered was seeing his chest rising ups and downs in undisturbed breathing.

A/N: How's it? Thank you for reading!