Epilogue

Ed stretched his arms over his head, letting a loud yawn escape his lips. He rolled his neck around, enjoying the early morning of East City headquarters. It was his first day back after being release from the hospital, and he was more than overjoyed to be there. After three days, Ed had become sick of just sitting in bed, not allowed to get up. After a week, he was going stir-crazy.

Miscellaneous soldiers saluted Ed as he walked by, giving him greetings of Welcome Back. Ed was more than glad to be there as he headed towards the Colonel's office.

Halting in his footsteps, Ed stood outside the door of Colonel Mustang's office. He stared at the door with slight hesitation, wondering why he was exactly there. It was a rarity that the Colonel called him into his office for other than reports. Sure, there was the few moments when he had to scream and rant at Ed for screwing up or for doing something wrong. The boy chuckled to himself remembered when he had taken Roy's "little black book" from him and he almost burnt down the entire East Wing of the building while chasing Ed down to get it back.

Glancing down into his hand, Ed opened up the small piece of paper that was found on his door when he had returned from his hospital stay.

"Full Metal,

Come to my office ASAP.

-Col. Mustang"

There was nothing else to the note. No explanation of any kind. Extremely short, sweet, and to the point. Ed curled his lower lip in disapproval, 'What does Mustang want from me?' he sighed slightly, reaching out to grab the handle to the door.

Opening the door a crack, the blond haired boy peeked his head into the room and glanced about slightly. Roy sat behind his desk, his head bent over paperwork so that his eyes were averted away from the door. He was silhouetted in the sunlight that came streaming through his windows, making the man seem much more intimidating than the actually was. His pen moved feverishly across the papers, making the softest scratching noise.

"Are you going to stand there all day Full Metal?" Roy's voice called, causing Ed to jump slightly at the sound of the deep voice. Glancing up, the man gave his normal smirk, "Come in and sit down."

Ed moved quietly into the room and shut the door behind him. Moving quickly over to the couch, the boy sat and crossed his legs like he normally did. Knowing Mustang, he knew that this was probably about a mission.

"You left this for me Colonel?" he asked, holding up the note in his hand.

Nodding slightly, Roy placed his pen down upon a small stack of papers. He cracked his fingers slightly and folded them to rest his chin like he always did. "I have your next mission for you." He said in his normal cool fashion.

Ed curled his lip in slight disapproval, "Which would be?"

"I gave the information to Hughes. He's waiting for you in his office." The flame alchemist told him.

"Then why the hell did you call me here?" Ed demanded, rising from his spot on the couch. He was preparing to glare at Roy like he always did when something like this happened. And yet, he stopped his action and recomposed himself. Turning away from Roy, Ed started towards the door. "Nevermind Colonel. I think I know," he muttered.

Roy raised an eyebrow at the boy's words, "And that would be what, Full Metal?" he asked, not approving of the fact that the young alchemist was walking away from him.

Stopping in front of the door, Ed turned back to the Colonel. He placed his hands into his pant pockets, lowering his head slightly, "While I was in the hospital, I had a lot of people visit me. And yet, you never showed up once to see how I was." He began. Roy didn't react to his words and only listened. "I began to remember things before I passed out. After you came into the warehouse, I fell to the ground. I closed my eyes, just hoping that I wasn't going to die. Then, I heard you calling me. You were shaking me, asking if I was alright. Believe me, I wanted to answer you, but I just couldn't speak."

Roy placed his hands down onto his desk quietly, listening to Ed's story."You...could hear me?" he asked, loosing his professional and cool stature.

Nodding Ed looked up at Roy with a smile, "Lieutenant Colonel Hughes was right," he started, seeing Roy's expression become shocked, "I can respect you Colonel. You and I do argue like family. And I do know, even though you and I fight almost every single time I see you, you're trying to help my brother and me find what we need to find."

Opening the door, Ed started to leave, "I'm going to continue to look for the stone," he told the Colonel flatly. He paused in his steps, looking back at Roy with a small grin, "…..Thank you Colonel," he paused, "for everything." And with those as his final words, Ed stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.

For a few minutes, Roy sat in silence. He didn't know how to react to the words he had just heard. All he could do was smirk to himself, taking in everything Ed had told him. Placing his hands back to a folded position, he closed his eyes and sighed.

"Damn it Edward….you're still gonna be the death of me."

Author's Notes: Well that's the end. I would like to thank everyone that read and reviewed. Your comments meant a lot to me. I have two one-shots that I have been thinking about writing soon, so keep a look out for those.

Thank you everyone!