It was time to accept reality. Maes Hughes was gone, and nothing could be done to bring him back.
"Colonel, I-"
"It's alright Lieutenant. I know." Roy cut off what Hawkeye had been about to say, as they walked down the halls of Central Command. It pained him to even speak, as his heart was grieving silently, internalizing the tears he so desperately wished to shed.
Maes Hughes, a man with his whole life ahead of him. Married to a lovely woman, and who had a beautiful child, who would now be waiting every day for a loved one that would never come home.
"Roy, won't you look at this new photo of Elicia?" Maes shoved the photo into Mustang's face, as the colonel groaned in protest.
"Yes, yes, she's very cute, but I'm working right now Hughes, something you should be doing too."
"Oh, I know. There is a pile of work on my desk growing by the minute." Hughes chirped gayly, reaching into his pocket. "And here is one of Gracia. She just got her hair cut, and it looks so wonderful on her!" Once again the colonel was subjected to an hour long chatting session about the two most beautiful women in the world, from Hughes point of view at least.
Maybe it was fate. Maes was definitely a man who tempted fate. It was a wonder he hadn't died on the battlefield, what with how much he spoke of his girlfriend back in Central. That was just begging for him to tragically meet his end, clutching tight Gracia's letter. But he was a stubborn fool, and lived to see the day Gracia became his wife.
"Roy! She said yes! Gracia is going to marry me!" Hughes was ecstatic as he waved down his friend from across the hallway. "I'm going to be married!"
Roy gave a genuine smile, glad that Hughes had made it back to Central safely. "Congratulations. Gracia is a very lucky woman."
"No." Maes smiled, and corrected Roy, "I'm a very lucky man."
Roy laughed softly. "I guess you're right. Tell me about the wedding."
Fate. Such a horrible word. It was fate that Hughes would find out the truth, so long before anyone else. That he would be silenced by death, taken away from this world by one who scorned humankind.
"If it's about your daughter again, I'm hanging up…...Hughes?….." Roy began to panic, as seconds seemed to grow into hours with no response. "Hughes?…...Hey, Hughes!" He could faintly hear a noise from the other end of the line, and it sounded like labored breathing. Panic gave way to terror as the phone suddenly dropped from the other side, and Roy ran to the door. A horrific sight awaited him, hallways bathed in blood. "Hughes!" Mustang screamed, a sound that shook the very foundation of Central.
Revenge. A thought that can drive any man mad. When granted the chance, some would choose to take it, and create a cycle of pain that never ends, only to end their own. But by fulfilling revenge, that fleeting moment of satisfaction grants a chain of suffering so long that the end cannot be seen.
"Colonel, are you-"
"I'm fine, Lieutenant."
The two walked wordlessly, the tension from just moments again still hanging in the air. Mustang had come close to losing his way, bent on revenge for Hughes, and had witnessed the death of Envy, who had killed him.
"Hughes wouldn't have wanted this." Roy reminded himself, struggling to wrangle the remaining thoughts of burning Envy to death, shoving them to the back of his mind. "He would have wanted me to live a life without guilt, and hatred."
Perhaps the best people leave too soon. Perhaps fate can be cruel. But to honor their memory, live on with a smile, and face the future with no regrets.
Roy stood before the grey chiseled stone, placing bright flowers on the soft earth below. "I'm sorry, my friend, that I didn't listen to you one last time. Forgive me. I could have saved you. But I'm going to change this country, just you wait and see. You won't even recognize it by the time I'm done."
And from heaven, Hughes smiled and said, "I bet you will. Good luck with that, Fuhrer Mustang."
Subject: Nakama (A Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood one-shot) 
5th March 2018, 9:05 am
