Story: Sometimes, Silence is Best

(Just a one shot I wrote for a school project in Personal Finance.)

Hope you enjoy it for what it is, even if it has some unnecessary explanation.

I don't own FMA.

Summary: Roy is having a bad day, and is feeling overwhelmed, but it doesn't take him long to figure out that he's not the only one.

...

Roy Mustang, Military Colonel at Eastern Command was up to his neck in paperwork. His eyes were weary from fatigue and restless nights. The entirety of the building was in an uproar due to the recent serial killings at the hands of unnamed man they had simply labeled as Scar, defined by the scar on his forehead. Man after kept storming into Roy's office, bombarding him with more and more stress.

"I can't take this anymore!" Roy sighed, exasperated, slamming the door after a particularly fussy General had stormed into his room, nagging at him about not having turned in a maintenance report.

The man had finally stepped out, leaving Roy to thank the heavens he had left. Mustang was good at putting on a smile and acting when he had to, but by no means was it an easy feat. He felt like his anxiety was spiraling out of control.

"Maybe you should take a break, sir." His Lieutenant, Riza Hawkeye, suggested.

Roy had become the youngest Colonel in the military at the age of only 26 because of his deductive skills and reasoning. But even up to his current age of 31, the job never got easier or less stressful for him. He knew he had to persist and motivate himself to keep pushing forward, so he could work his way to the top and become Fuhrer to change the corrupt system from within.

He could never forget the lives he had been ordered to take in Ishval and would forever have his hands stained with blood, so he knew it was the only way he could atone for at least a few of his sins.

Riza understood and respected Roy. She'd sworn to follow him into hell if she had to, because she too had been in Ishval.

Both of them had been ordered to kill people that they, in reality, knew they should have been protecting. They had been traumatized by it. There were so many casualties in the war, of both civilians and military alike. Some people tried to justify it by claiming that the Military was in the right, since the Ishvalans had initiated numerous uprisings, but Riza and Roy didn't agree with that notion. It didn't matter who 'started it', because nothing could justify the massacre of an entire race of people.

Roy had been hardened by his experience in the war and was sometimes harsh in his ways of thinking towards others, but Riza chose to stay by his side, because, even if she didn't always agree with his actions, she knew that Roy had the best intentions in the end.

"To get to the top, sacrifices have to be made," he had said on several occasions in the past, but if all Roy cared about was getting promoted, Riza and Roy's other men certainly wouldn't have followed him so willingly.

Riza had joined the military in the first place, because she wanted to support him in his goal to protect the nation, but it was only after the war that Roy had truly made up his mind.

Furthermore, Roy trusted her with his life. He had once told her that she was to shoot him without hesitation if he ever strayed from the right path. In some cases, she kept him straight; kept him from becoming a monster. He was a logical thinker, but he sometimes let his anger cloud his judgment, she was the rational one who helped him calm down in times of stress; The one who helped him cope with his trauma and guilt from the war. In turn, he did the same. They completed each other in a certain sense.

Riza usually enforced him to finish his paperwork, but she could tell that he was too stressed to properly function at the moment and would probably end up doing something he regretted if he didn't get away for at least a little while to calm down.

Roy looked up at her, a bit hesitant, but after a few seconds of silence, he let out another sigh.

"Maybe you're right…" He decided. "I'm going to the breakroom... If anybody comes here, tell them I'll be back in about thirty minutes."

"Understood." Riza said, holding a hand to her forehead.

As Roy had reached out and started to open the door, he uttered in a low and pained voice something that took Riza by surprise. "Thank you… Lieutenant…"

Before she could respond, he had already left the room.

He quickly made his way down the hallway towards the breakroom, feeling his heartbeat increasing due to his anxiety.

When he reached his destination, he was surprised to find that the room was empty minus one person.

Upon closer inspection, he was surprised to see that it was Edward Elric, one of his subordinates. Edward was the youngest person in the military at an age of only 13. Roy had been able to pull some strings after the boy proved himself to be incredibly skilled. The Fuhrer had been impressed and had made an exception to the rule.

Even though Edward was a child, he was equivalent to that of a major.

Something that Edward and Roy had in common were that they were both State Alchemists.

Alchemy was the science of understanding the structure of things, deconstructing and reconstructing matter into things of equal mass. However, there was a taboo amongst alchemists. One must not try to bring back the dead. Edward and his younger brother, Alphonse, had tried to bring back their mother when they were younger. As a result, Edward had lost his left leg, and Alphonse lost his entire body. Edward had sacrificed his right arm to seal his brother's soul into a suit of armor, and now they were paying the price. Edward had joined the military, so he would have the funding and resources he needed in hopes of one day getting their bodies back to normal. Edward's missing limps were given prosthetic ones as replacement.

Even if the job wasn't enjoyable, and in many cases it was incredibly dangerous, Military work sure was high paying. Roy could vouch for that much himself.

Roy walked over to the sleeping figure on the couch when he noticed what looked to be tear streaks on the corners of his eyes.

"Fullmetal." He called out in a bit harsher of a tone that intended.

'Fullmetal' was the code name Edward had been given when he had joined the military. It was short for 'The Fullmetal Alchemist'.

After a moment, Edward's eyes opened, and he squinted to see Roy standing above him.

"Colonel? What time is it?" he asked.

"It's after 2. I thought I sent out a message for you to come by my office earlier." Roy said not hesitating to remind him of his short-comings as a solider.

"Well, I forgot." Edward muttered.

"You need to sharpen up, take initiative. You've been missing a lot of meetings, Fullmetal."

"Yeah, well, you're the one to talk, Colonel. I've heard the rumors some of your paperwork mysteriously 'vanishing' in the past."

Roy couldn't come up with a retort to that and instead changed the subject. "So what were you crying about?"

"I wasn't crying." Edward said defensively.

"Then explain the tear stains on your cheeks." Roy challenged.

"…I was thinking about mom." Edward finally mumbled underneath his breath, not feeling up to arguing back.

Roy could understand a little bit of what he was feeling. His own parents had died in an accident when he was a child.

"Ever hear back from your father?" Roy asked.

"That man isn't my father." Edward growled out.

Edward's biological father had abandoned him and his family years ago. Ever since, Edward had hated him, even blaming him for his mother's death.

"I'm sorry." Roy suddenly found himself saying without knowing why. Edward was surprised to hear such a thing from him.

"Why are you apologizing, Colonel?" he asked.

"You… Probably have a lot on your plate. I shouldn't have probed." Roy muttered.

"No… 's not your fault. Just forget it. By the way, you don't look too well yourself, Mustang."

"I'm not. Being a colonel is honestly hell sometimes." Roy said bitterly, sitting down on the end of the couch.

"If you wanna talk about it, I can lend an ear just this once." Edward offered with a wry smirk.

"No… Just focus on yourself, kid." Roy gave a small smile in return.

Both of them were going through rough times. Both of them were stressed. But they knew they had to keep pressing forward or they wouldn't be able to reach their goals.

For the next thirty minutes, the room was silent.