Buried up to the neck and suffocating.
Characters: Maes Hughes and Roy Mustang.
Location: Training grounds.
Rating: PG? PG-13? You know what, no. Everything's going to be happy. Smack a G on this thing.
Time: August 27th, morning.
Description: A dead man and his old friend Hughes meet again. Not under the planned circumstances.
( For lack of a better thing to say: continue. )
Location: Training grounds.
Rating: PG? PG-13? You know what, no. Everything's going to be happy. Smack a G on this thing.
Time: August 27th, morning.
Description: A dead man and his old friend Hughes meet again. Not under the planned circumstances.
( For lack of a better thing to say: continue. )
"It thought it did, for a bit."
For those six months, he hadn't felt more alive in spite of the fact that his body was nearly broken beyond repair. It had still been possible to justify the fact that Hughes was gone, had died for a proper cause. There had still been a military force - a dream - to walk back to, once he was able.
"I knew it wasn't going to be as simple as taking Bradley down. I knew, but... I guess I hadn't expected his influence to run so deep, even after his death ( ... )
Reply
It'd been why he'd agreed to make sure to clean things up from below, rather than above. Having to deal with the upper brass and lower unrest, after an assassination of the Fuhrer...... Who might not have been a homunculus, in their world, but had still been incredibly powerful. You didn't become Fuhrer without being powerful ( ... )
Reply
Those were three words that Roy had always hated. It was initially because he was loathe to admit to any uncertainty (a matter of pride? Sometimes, for the sake of keeping up appearances), but now it was because he simply didn't know, and that was more terrifying than he'd ever be prepared to admit. It was one of the principle reasons why he read through practically everything on the network, took every opportunity to be visible and out there, and asked all of those questions to whoever the hell might have an answer.
The truth of the matter was that he was perfectly all right with not returning home - he firmly believed that his Amestris didn't need him anymore. What he wasn't all right with was the fact that the rest still had things to do and battles to end. If fighting witches in Death City meant getting them back faster, then he was willing to risk his neck and maybe his sanity attempting to end the war ( ... )
Reply
"You can't think about it too long."
Another absently voiced bit, but that sort of comment-- that sort wasn't off-handed at all, and Roy had to of remembered that, even after... a year.
A full year.
Forget the dew. He was taking a full seat next to the (obviously tired, obviously worn, hopefully not defeated) man, legs crossing.
Reply
"I've always thought about things a little too much for my own good, remember?"
The smile on his face at that moment had a twist to it, in as much as he hoped that it didn't.
Sometimes, realizing just how broken he really was was more devastating than it should have been.
Reply
There was a sigh attached to that, somewhere in it all. He had a sharp peripheral eye on the other, and what he was seeing just--
- Went without saying.
"Does this mean you wouldn't mind me dropping by the Agency some time, though? I heard you spend a lot of time there."
Reply
And part of him - a really selfish part of him - wanted to see Hughes more, painful and difficult and surreal as it was. Lost him once; couldn't bear the thought of having the man out of his sight again.
"The network has a lot of information floating around. I've taken to reading it when I can, but I don't have the know-how to access everything just yet."
Speaking of information and access.
"There is one thing that you need to know, though, about why I helped put the Agency up in the first place."
Reply
"Filters, right?" Slightly musing, running a hand through his hair absent-mindedly. If there were ways to set them up, there had to be ways to take them down. Like tapping a phone, probably...
... His eye were sharply focused, when they turned to the side to look up at the other.
"What's that?"
Reply
Still had a bit more of this cigarette to enjoy, it seemed. He wondered what Hughes would think of him if he had another after this.
"I want more information. Shibusen's changed recently, and has agreed to be more transparent with whatever they know about the war and what's happening with BREW, but I don't think that'll be enough. I'm trying, as well, to set up... something. I don't know if it'll be an organization that runs alongside Shibusen. Maybe just people committed to looking for answers, compensating for the rest who, for whatever reason, won't join this fight, or can't do nearly as much to put an end to this."
A thoughtful pause. He wasn't too sure if he was making sense; it was one of those ideas again, the same sort that had pushed him to aim for the top in what now felt like centuries back.
"I might leave the Agency soon - keep my operations separate and all. The arrangement suits me for now, though."
Reply
Amestrians were typically well-meaning, too. The big wigs were still secretive.
"You're thinking about taking on a whole entire sub-group of people, alongside hunting down information that they're not being free with? You should know I can find information perfectly fine, given a bit of time to figure out the way around, but what's coming out of it..."
Smile, lopsided.
"Still under works?"
Reply
Much less if he was just going through the motions, doing things that made him feel a little less powerless, a little more useful, a lot more in control.
"I'm not even sure, either, if this is the right way of going about it."
Reply
Or did he mean advancing on Shibusen in the first place?
- Egh, well, this was why he asked (too much time missed in Death City to catch up so fast).
Reply
Of course, Roy Mustang was the sort of guy who had problems believing in institutions in general, especially ones with militaristic tendencies.
"...I might be too cynical, as well, about the people we have coming in. Just because the majority of them won't be able to fight doesn't mean that I'm going to have to find a way to compensate for them all."
Reply
"Even if... it might not turn out in the end." Pause. "You've met a lot of people here?"
Reply
Oddly, this conversation was becoming easier and easier with each passing moment. It did not change how surreal the situation was, nor the fact that there were a lot of things that neither of them were staying. Still, it could have been so much worse.
Reply
... For some reason, a smoke was sounding like a good idea. Maybe the weight of everything else was hitting him a bit, the more they got into business. He'd just never been very good at not confronting those things - ah, well.
"The BREW sure made it all interesting for us."
Understatement.
Reply
Leave a comment