In case you didn't see in the summary, spoilers for chapter 108, and end of the manga/brotherhood.
Aftershock
"Guess who we saw when we were out West ?" Havoc teased as Mustang entered the office. Roy had been having a hard day already, and after that meeting with Fuhrer Grumman and Olivier, he was kind of hoping for a short nap and wasn't in the mood for guessing games. The rest of his unit had been stationed in a small barrack out West to help with the Ishbal rebuild for most of the month, supervising the lorryloads of wood from the near-tropical forests of the West. This meant a whole month of doing paperwork by himself.
He shot Havoc a look. "Who was it?" He sighed, slumping into his cushy office chair. He hoped it wasn't some girl, otherwise he'd have to hurt someone, and it was definatly going to be the smoker. Havoc sauntered up to the desk, his cigarette unlit and dangling from his smile as he leant against the dark wood.
"It was the Chief!" Havoc laughed, and dug into a pocket of his jacket for something. "Said he was looking into some ruins or something out there. Still, kid helped us out with the materials for the re-build and found us a place to stay." With a small 'ah-ha!' Havoc pulled out a glossy piece of paper and shoved it under the now-General's nose. "The kid looked well."
Roy went cross-eyed as he tried to look at the picture, and snatched it from Havoc's hand when the other man didn't move it.
"Happy," Was the first thing that came to mind when Roy could finally see the picture.
Captured in that small rectangle, was a picture of someone obviously having the time of their life. Ed stood tall and proud, wearing an outrageous Hawaiian shirt and shorts that showed off the remaining automail. The boy had obviously mellowed out a lot since restoring his brother, all those blacks and reds replaced with bright colours. He was nearly the same height as Havoc now, sandwiched between Breda and Furey, the four of them leaning on each other and pulling silly faces at the camera. "Dear God! I hope he doesn't visit," Roy moaned mentally, "I'll never hear the end of it."
"And you'll never guess!" Havoc boomed, nearly startling Roy. Mustang gave his subordinate a sharp look, and the blond quickly put up his hands in surrender, aware that the General no longer needed a circle to flash fry someone, "Okay, okay! I'll tell you then!" The man leaned in closer, a hand up to his mouth as he stage whispered, "He's getting married!"
Roy nearly choked on his own spit, and the photo fell from his hands. "HE'S WHAT?"
"I know!" Havoc squealed, then sobered slightly "We'll, not exactly married," the man amended, "but from the way you hear him tell it, sounds like Ed just got engaged to the most beautiful girl in the world!" Roy was tempted to hit the man for how girly he was acting, "He told us that he asked just before he left Risembool, and that his mechanic girl said yes."
"He's getting married?" Roy couldn't believe it. That tiny brat (not so tiny any more) who was the only person to get under his skin (like Hughes had) was getting married. "He can't be old enough..."
"He's old enough, Boss," Havoc grinned, "the Chief's about 20 now." Roy wasn't sure what expression he had on his face and didn't really care, but his mind had turned itself into a screaming swirl of 'I'm not THAT old yet! Why the hell is Fullmetal getting married before me?'
With gleeful satisfaction at having ruffled his superior, Havoc scooped up the photo and ran to the office notice board, pinning the photo pride of place in the centre. "You know, I've never seen the kid so happy. He was even joking about with us," Havoc turned to look at Roy, "it was nice, y'know? We've also got more pictures getting developed," Havoc grinned widely, "Kid makes good blackmail material."
Roy gave a small twitch of his lips, and gave a sigh, "Looks like he's someone else's ball of bad-tempered trouble now." In his mind, Roy tried to muffle the voice that said, 'I hope he visits'. He grinned at Havoc, "It's going to be nice, being able to use the good china without the threat of it breaking when that kid slams the door open." Havoc laughed, and gave the pin holding the photo one last push, making sure it was secure. Happy his job was done, Havoc jumped back to his seat, and pulled a pile of paper work towards him.
Roy allowed his eyes to quickly roam over the notice board, scanning the picture again where it hung. A ray of light caught on the gloss, making the photo shine brightly.
There was a soft bang, and Riza was standing in the doorway, her face slightly troubled, "Roy, there's a call."
Mustang sighed and rose from his desk. He hadn't been able to have his nap since Havoc decided to fill him in on the gossip surrounding Fullmetal, but duty called.
FMA may be over, but long live the Fandom!
This was just meant to be a one-shot, but then it almost coincided with a fic idea I've been wanting to write for about a year now. The ending and a few seemingly superfluous details are my springboard into that. It'll remain a one-shot for now, however, as a celebration of FMA's glorious reign as keeper of my fanfic heart (and also because there's a certain multichapter fic I SHOULD be working on, and I'm not talking about Events...).
I hope you enjoyed this, and let's hope Arakawa does a few one shot doujins herself :D
Inuchron
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