2 Alphabet Drabbles (Mustang/Hughes, friendship) Q and R
Title: Peace and Quiet
Author: SeaweedOtter
Characters: Roy Mustang, Maes Hughes
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Silly, as usual, a little sad at the end (and a little spoiler as well)
Quiet
Quiet was a luxury that Roy never had enough of. He certainly never got any quiet time at work. Usually, Hawkeye was looming over him, making sure that the papers that were due that day were getting signed.
And of course, he would have the normal background conversations of his subordinates, talking about their latest date, or a really tough game of chess, or spouting on about one tiny insignificant detail of some random object.
If it wasn’t the incessant chattering of his subordinates that distracted him, then it was Fullmetal bursting in, screaming and calling the colonel every word that he could think of. Poor Al would always try to calm the boy down, but it’s impossible to rope a hurricane.
And if Maes Hughes came to visit, then *any* hope that he was going to get work done went out the window. By the time his friend was finished showing Roy the newest photographs of his daughter, and Roy was finally able to push him out of his office (sometimes quite literally), the alchemist had long since forgotten what he was doing, and he needed to take a long break to clear his head and get his thoughts in order, so he could start working again.
But then there was home. His home.
It was his sanctuary, his refuge, the place where he could finally take off the mask that he wore every day- relax with a drink, and perhaps play a record on his phonograph. He savored these moments, the brief respites of peace and quiet. They were so few and far between that he learned to treat them as if they were made of gold.
But as was usual in his life, nothing was ever constant in Roy’s world- except for change. He could never keep a girlfriend more than a few weeks, and even his job seemed to shuffle him around every few years to keep him in line.
And so it was with his quiet time as well. He learned to cringe at the sound of his telephone ringing in the evenings, shattering his peaceful world. He always knew who it was on the other line, and although he often contemplated not answering it, he knew it would be ten times worse the next day at work if he didn’t. He found that out the hard way once, and he vowed that he would never repeat that mistake. ‘Accidentally’ dropping the phone and hanging up on his best friend after he had been yakking on for a while was infinitely easier then trying to get away while behind he was stuck behind his desk.
As much as Roy hated to have his quiet time disturbed- and he would never admit it to anyone- he really liked talking to Maes. After he was gone, there was nothing Roy would have loved more than to hear his phone ring one more time.
The nights were too quiet.
Title: Rainy Day Blues
Author: SeaweedOtter
Characters: Roy Mustang, Maes Hughes
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Angsty and sad. Episode 25 spoilers, and some other character death.
Rain
Roy didn’t think that he hated anything more than he hated a rainy day.
But that was before he lost his best friend.
And what was worse, even when he had to watch- trying as hard as he could not to fall to his knees and cry- when Maes was laid to rest, the sky became overcast, as grey and dreary as he felt. That evening, after the ceremony, it had rained- not a little drizzle but a torrential downpour, like the heavens themselves were crying out in pain.
Even though he didn’t believe in God, he knew how they felt.
He sat that night, at his kitchen table. He had a bottle of scotch in one hand, and a glass in the other. And he stared out the window, into the pounding rain, his eyes glazing over, and his mind a million miles away. The wind howled and the rain turned diagonal, splattering against the glass in droplets that looked almost too large to be single raindrops.
Still Roy stared, out into the rainy darkness. Minutes turned to hours, and the darkness eventually became light. The rain slowed, then stopped, and still Roy stared, watching the first rays of the sun come into being over the horizon, the promise of a new day, bright and sunny, all the sins of the past washed away in a torrent of life giving water.
And still Roy stared.
The bottle of scotch had been empty for most of the night, and his hands cramped where they had been held in the same position for hours on end. He blinked, his eyes red and aching, but dry. He had run out of tears long ago.
Somehow, he willed himself to move. It was slow, and unsteady, but he unclenched his hands from the bottle and the glass, and blinked at the bright light of the sun. He knew he had to move, to keep going. The more he sat and thought about Maes, the less he would be able to get on with his life, and isn’t that was Maes would have wanted?
He did get on with his life, eventually. It was never easy, and there was never a day that went by that he didn’t think about his best friend, what he would have said in a certain conversation, or how he would have reacted to a certain predicament. Every time he went to check on Gracia and Elysia, he saw him in his little girl’s eyes.
And every time it would rain, Roy would get depressed, and think about the day that he lost his best friend in the world.
The day that Roy Mustang, Flame Alchemist, shuffled off the mortal coil- it was a gray and dreary day.
It rained.
Author: SeaweedOtter
Characters: Roy Mustang, Maes Hughes
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Silly, as usual, a little sad at the end (and a little spoiler as well)
Quiet
Quiet was a luxury that Roy never had enough of. He certainly never got any quiet time at work. Usually, Hawkeye was looming over him, making sure that the papers that were due that day were getting signed.
And of course, he would have the normal background conversations of his subordinates, talking about their latest date, or a really tough game of chess, or spouting on about one tiny insignificant detail of some random object.
If it wasn’t the incessant chattering of his subordinates that distracted him, then it was Fullmetal bursting in, screaming and calling the colonel every word that he could think of. Poor Al would always try to calm the boy down, but it’s impossible to rope a hurricane.
And if Maes Hughes came to visit, then *any* hope that he was going to get work done went out the window. By the time his friend was finished showing Roy the newest photographs of his daughter, and Roy was finally able to push him out of his office (sometimes quite literally), the alchemist had long since forgotten what he was doing, and he needed to take a long break to clear his head and get his thoughts in order, so he could start working again.
But then there was home. His home.
It was his sanctuary, his refuge, the place where he could finally take off the mask that he wore every day- relax with a drink, and perhaps play a record on his phonograph. He savored these moments, the brief respites of peace and quiet. They were so few and far between that he learned to treat them as if they were made of gold.
But as was usual in his life, nothing was ever constant in Roy’s world- except for change. He could never keep a girlfriend more than a few weeks, and even his job seemed to shuffle him around every few years to keep him in line.
And so it was with his quiet time as well. He learned to cringe at the sound of his telephone ringing in the evenings, shattering his peaceful world. He always knew who it was on the other line, and although he often contemplated not answering it, he knew it would be ten times worse the next day at work if he didn’t. He found that out the hard way once, and he vowed that he would never repeat that mistake. ‘Accidentally’ dropping the phone and hanging up on his best friend after he had been yakking on for a while was infinitely easier then trying to get away while behind he was stuck behind his desk.
As much as Roy hated to have his quiet time disturbed- and he would never admit it to anyone- he really liked talking to Maes. After he was gone, there was nothing Roy would have loved more than to hear his phone ring one more time.
The nights were too quiet.
Title: Rainy Day Blues
Author: SeaweedOtter
Characters: Roy Mustang, Maes Hughes
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Angsty and sad. Episode 25 spoilers, and some other character death.
Rain
Roy didn’t think that he hated anything more than he hated a rainy day.
But that was before he lost his best friend.
And what was worse, even when he had to watch- trying as hard as he could not to fall to his knees and cry- when Maes was laid to rest, the sky became overcast, as grey and dreary as he felt. That evening, after the ceremony, it had rained- not a little drizzle but a torrential downpour, like the heavens themselves were crying out in pain.
Even though he didn’t believe in God, he knew how they felt.
He sat that night, at his kitchen table. He had a bottle of scotch in one hand, and a glass in the other. And he stared out the window, into the pounding rain, his eyes glazing over, and his mind a million miles away. The wind howled and the rain turned diagonal, splattering against the glass in droplets that looked almost too large to be single raindrops.
Still Roy stared, out into the rainy darkness. Minutes turned to hours, and the darkness eventually became light. The rain slowed, then stopped, and still Roy stared, watching the first rays of the sun come into being over the horizon, the promise of a new day, bright and sunny, all the sins of the past washed away in a torrent of life giving water.
And still Roy stared.
The bottle of scotch had been empty for most of the night, and his hands cramped where they had been held in the same position for hours on end. He blinked, his eyes red and aching, but dry. He had run out of tears long ago.
Somehow, he willed himself to move. It was slow, and unsteady, but he unclenched his hands from the bottle and the glass, and blinked at the bright light of the sun. He knew he had to move, to keep going. The more he sat and thought about Maes, the less he would be able to get on with his life, and isn’t that was Maes would have wanted?
He did get on with his life, eventually. It was never easy, and there was never a day that went by that he didn’t think about his best friend, what he would have said in a certain conversation, or how he would have reacted to a certain predicament. Every time he went to check on Gracia and Elysia, he saw him in his little girl’s eyes.
And every time it would rain, Roy would get depressed, and think about the day that he lost his best friend in the world.
The day that Roy Mustang, Flame Alchemist, shuffled off the mortal coil- it was a gray and dreary day.
It rained.