Once home, Roy didn't bother settling in to relax for the night. Instead he wound up going over several personal files on himself and his friend that he kept just for funsies. Or rather in case there was ever anything that someone else could use against them.
Among the papers in each of their files was several pictures of Angel, decked out in her little black shirt and pants and combat boots with her black hooded cowl draped over her shoulders to hide the weapons that she usually concealed beneath it.
In one of the pictures, Roy was sitting on a piece of large stone with Maes leaning over his shoulder with a goofy grin on his face while Angel rested in Roy's lap. Her little head just underneath his chin, and her eyes were closed in restful slumber. The horrors of the war hadn't reached her then.
But then again, the full horror of her situation hadn't touched their minds either. It wasn't until months later after the war that someone had come to supposedly 'claim' her body. The man had assumed that she had been killed during the war and presented himself as her father.
However the more they searched for her remains, and talked to the man- the more something had seemed incredibly out of place with him. He didn't grieve like a loving parent should have. He hadn't even asked how she had come to find herself in Ishbal. And when they had told him their nickname for her- the man had scoffed and simply said, "Whore's can't be angels."
Maes had been the one to punch the son of a bitch before he could, however it was Roy who had forced the man to confess just why he was there supposedly searching for the girl's corpse.
The man had confessed to having debts that he couldn't repay, and selling the child into sexual slavery. He had even told them that an untouched cunt was a precious commodity that many would pay to make use of.
Roy had killed the man the moment that those words had left his lips with a well placed bullet between the eyes that he and Maes had blackmailed a lot of people into saying was an accident. Afterwards, he and Maes had asked their superiors to be sent back to Ishbal to 'help' with the recovery efforts now that the war had ended.
They had every intention of doing what they could while searching for the girl. She was after all an Amestian like themselves- they had even pointed out that it would be bad press for the military to allow an Amestrian child and citizen to be killed as collateral damage.
Needless to say, they were practically shipped out overnight. Their superior's had been non too happy with them, but they had conceded that the two had a definite point. They couldn't allow a child, one of their own citizen's, to be killed during friendly fire if anything else were to happen.
Roy and Maes had spent the better part of eight months combing the ruins of Ishbal in an effort to find their little Angel. Maes had just married and spoken to his wife about adopting the girl so that she would have a decent home and good people to raise her right instead of merely leaving her to her own vices. They had both even sat down a time or two to look into schools and stuff.
Roy had helped as much as he could. Offering to be the girl's godfather or weird uncle (just in case something were to ever happen) that way she wouldn't be left without a home and someone to care for her.
However none of their plans had come to fruition since Angel had supposedly disappeared without a trace. So at the end of the eight long months, they had gone back home. Defeated.
Brushing his thumb over the picture of Angel resting in his lap, Roy studied the picture before coming to an nerve wracking conclusion. Angel- no, Sara was his.
She had been his from the day that they had met in Ishbal. He had ignored that fact due to her age, but there had always been something there. A strange sort of spark that simply heated his blood in ways that no other female had managed to do in these past ten long years.
And now that she was grown, there was no reason to ignore what he felt any longer.
Sighing because he knew Maes was going to die of shock on him, he resigned himself to the fact that he would have to contact him and tell him what he was going to do if he planned to get as much help as possible from the hopeless gossip. After all, who better to help him retrace Sara's steps than someone who excelled in gathering information on others?
Walking over to the phone that he kept on the corner of his desk, he picked up the receiver and dialed Maes phone number and then waited for his friend to pick up.
And when he did, the only thing that Roy seemed able to say was, "Well, my friend. It seems as if you finally get your wish. I'm planning to finally marry..."
There was silence for a moment, and then a loud thud that made him quickly remove his ear from the phone and hum in thought. It would seem that Maes was either so overcome with joy or simply so overwhelmed by shock that he had fainted on him.
The idiot.