The Seed of the Fire- Chapter 18: "The Red Glow" (Mustang x Hughes)
Title: The Red Glow (The Seed of the Fire- Chapter 18)
Author: SeaweedOtter
Pairing: Roy Mustang x Maes Hughes
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: AU, Set before the anime started, while Maes and Roy were roommates at the military academy.
Author Note: The story will mostly follow the manga, but it may have a bit of both.
Summary: In a flash of flame, one man's life is changed forever.
I have the awesome johns_elizabeth as my advisor.
Read all of the chapters so far HERE!
Roy felt like he needed a shower after meeting with Grand, that psychopath Kimblee, and Marcoh. Out of all of them, the Crystal Alchemist was the hardest one to figure out. He seemed just as reluctant as Roy to go along with their commanding officer's orders.
As he walked to his little tent, His mind wandered back to that meeting, and his eyes slipped down to the ring that he now wore over his salamander array gloves. If he didn't fear what it did, he would almost have called it pretty- a gold band with a round set, blood red stone. But he knew better than that. He knew what he was going to have to do with the stone. He only had a few hours before his first mission, and then he would have a front row seat to the devastation that the Philosopher's Stone could cause.
"Hey, Flamey." Roy wasn't sure if he should be amused or pissed, so he settled on the middle ground, flat indifference.
"Maes, I told you not to call me that, damnit."
The taller man was stretched out on his low slung cot, his arms behind his head, trying to provide at least a little more padding that the flimsy pillow the military supplied. The ends of his long legs dangled off the other end, and Roy was suddenly glad that he was several inches shorter. At least he fit on the thing. He tried not to laugh at the comical figure that this man cut, then his mind wandered back to Armstrong, and he wondered if that gorilla of a man even bothered to use the cot, or if he just slept on the ground. It couldn't be that much less comfortable that those government issued beds.
Maes sat up, his boots kicking up a little bit of dirt and sand when they hit the ground. "We don't have long before we move out." His face was as serious as Roy's, which surprised the younger alchemist. "I don't know about you, but I want to at least try and relax and think about something else before we have to go out there." He stuck his thumb towards the flap of the tent, and the city beyond.
Roy nodded. With a grunt, he collapsed onto his cot on the opposite long wall of the tent from Maes. He closed his eyes and rolled over to his side. "Get me up when it is time." he mumbled, sleep already starting to claim him.
He had no sooner closed his eyes than he felt Maes shaking him awake. "Roy, get up, you lazy bastard!" He yawned sleepily and blinked a couple times, looking at his tent mate through half lidded eyes.
"How long as I asleep for?" he asked huskily.
"Three hours. We are gonna be in deep shit if we don't get out there, Roy!" Quickly Roy got up and ran a quick comb through his greasy hair. Showers were a rare luxury, even in the couple of days that he had been there he hadn't been able to get the dirt and sand out of every part of his body. He hadn't even bothered to get undressed when he laid down, and he really didn't care how wrinkled his uniform was. He stood up and stepped into his black boots, grabbed his sidearm and his pack, and followed Maes out of the tent.
They were just in time to fall into line with the last of the soldiers lining up in front of Colonel Basque Grand. He had been facing away from that part of the line, and both of them breathed a sigh of relief that they had snuck in unnoticed. No sooner had they made it to the line then Grand turned around, faced his soldiers, and addressed them.
"Okay, ladies. We have an easy job for you for your first time out. I want you to patrol the outside perimeter of the camp, make sure that there are no weak points in our defenses, and eliminate any enemies or enemy encampments that you find within 1000 yards of the outer perimeter. Do you ladies think you can handle that?"
"Yes, sir!" a chorus of voices went up in time with a crisp salute from each person
in the company.
"I want half of the infantry men first." He swept his hand in front of a group of soldiers. "Mustang, you will be in the middle, as you are the sole alchemist. The rest of you will fall behind to cover the rear. Hughes, since you seem to think that you
can sneak in here at the last minute, you are on point. Those glasses should be good
for keeping the sand out of your eyes, so I expect you to keep sharp at all times."
"Yes, sir." Maes saluted, his posture falling a bit. Point was practically a death sentence if they ran into enemy fire. First in line will be the first one aimed at. Roy shot him a worried look, but all Maes could do was shrug. It wasn't like he could refuse the order. They would just have to hope that they found the enemy first.
"Fall out!" Grand ordered. The soldiers shouldered their packs, and formed the line with Maes at point and Mustang in the middle and headed towards the entrance of their encampment.
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"This isn't too bad." Maes called cheerfully back towards the middle of the line, where a hot and miserable Roy Mustang trudged along. They were already more than halfway around the perimeter, and so far they hadn't seen anything.
"Keep your eyes open, Maes. That is a sure fire way to-" Roy's next words were cut short when he heard gunfire. There was no real cover to speak of, so everyone either flung themselves behind a rock or a piece of rubble, or flattened themselves against
the ground.
After the moment of panic, Roy looked up to see Maes kneeling and grasping at his shoulder with one hand, his other hand still on his rifle. Even at a distance he could see blood seeping from between Maes' fingers.
"Maes!!" Roy yelled. He started to stand, but he felt a hand on his shoulder, pushing him roughly back down to the sandy ground.
"You idiot. Do you wanna get us all killed? Stay low!" Roy didn't know who the solider was, but he outranked that man Roy opened his mouth to tell him, when another round of fire came in on their location. Roy desperately looked around, trying to see where the gunfire was coming from. He could see an abandoned building a few thousand yards from their position. It was the only place it could be coming from. Unfortunately, he knew that there was no way he could launch an attack with his flame from as far away as he was. He knew that he had to get closer.
"I have to go in. Are you gonna cover me or not?" Roy growled to the man who had pushed him down a moment ago.
"Yes, sir."
Roy used his arms and elbows to propel himself forward on his belly, like a snake. Almost right away, he was very glad that he didn't have a rifle, like the man behind him. The other solider was much more of a sitting duck, making a lot more noise shifting that gun while he moved, and it slowed his movements as well. Roy had to wait for him to catch up a couple of times.
It seemed like hours before he finally got to the front of the line, where the soldiers had already dug in as best they could and were returning fire towards the building. One of the soldiers had drug Maes behind a large chunk of concrete that used to be part of a wall.
"Maes, Maes, can you hear me, bud?" Roy stopped for a moment to take a look at his friend. He didn't look too bad, all things considered. the wound in his shoulder had stopped bleeding, and it didn't look deep. There was another shallow wound on the outer, fleshy part of his thigh that had just grazed him. But he was pale, and his eyes were glassy and unfocused. Somehow, through all that, his glasses had managed to get only a little scratched and bent.
"Rrrrf. I feel like crap, Roy." Maes groaned, opening his eyes wider for just a moment, before shutting them again.
He put a hand on Maes' other shoulder. "Just stay still a few minutes, Maes. We will get you back. I just.. need to take care of something first."
All the other soldiers stayed back from the alchemist after that. They saw that fire that was burning in those onyx eyes, the hatred boiling under the surface of his steely face. Roy started back towards the building again. He still was not quite close enough, but the closer he got to the building, the more cover there was, and he was able to advance faster than he had before.
It wasn't long before he had covered the whole distance, and was only a couple of hundred yards away from the building. He had felt the heat of bullets as they grazed past him. He knew he had been spotted, but he didn't care. He had to do a job, and Hell itself wasn't going to stop him.
Roy could see some of the people as they stuck their heads out just enough to take a shot at the pinned soldiers. This was the first time he had seen an Ishbalan, and their dark skin and red eyes both scared and fascinated him at the same time. They were humans, but they weren’t the same.
That didn't make them any easier to kill.
He brought his hand up, index finger and thumb together, in a position that had become second nature to him. He waited for another head to come around. As soon as one did, he snapped.
The blast knocked him off his feet and sent rock shrapnel flying around his hiding place. He coughed, desperately trying to get a lungful of non-sandy air into his burning lungs. His eyes stung with the sand and dirt and rocks that limited his vision to almost nothing. Shakily, he got back to his feet, and after a few moments, the dust cleared enough for him to see what he had done.
There was no more building.
It was a flaming and smoldering pile of rubble and ash. Flames licked around pieces of concrete and metal bars. There were the faint sounds of moaning coming from inside the rubble, but those stopped after just a few moments.
Roy's hands shook. He looked at the ring on his finger. It seemed to glow for just a moment, or maybe it was a glint of sunlight- he wasn't sure- before it went back to it's dull red hue.
"What... did I do?" He looked around, dumbfounded. His world seemed to slow down, and he was vaguely aware of a dull, throbbing pain in his side. His whole world started to swirl, and he held onto the piece of wall he had been standing behind to steady himself. Roy heard voices, but they sounded like they were far away..
"Sir.. Sir.. Are you okay? Why don't you sit down for a second?"
"Okay.." he was vaguely aware of nodding and then somehow maneuvering himself into a sitting position before his head swam, and suddenly taking a nap seemed like a good idea.
"Sir? Sir?" was the last thing Roy heard before he succumbed to darkness.
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"Mrrrr.... No... NO!!!" Roy called out in his sleep. "Ahhhh!" With a jerk, he sat up in bed. His face was covered in sweat and he was panting like he had just ran a marathon. His eyes were wide open, pupils dilated. He groaned and rubbed his face with the back of his hand.
He looked at the clock. It was just past 0200 hours. His gaze moved to the beside table. There was still a little whiskey left in the glass he had left there hours before, after Maes had left.
Roy rolled over to the other side of the bed. His face went into the empty pillow, and he breathed in hard. It still smelt like Maes, that aftershave he loved so much and the weird floral scented shampoo that he still used. Roy guessed that his girlfriend had picked it out for him.
"Damnit." he muttered. rolling back over to his side of the bed. He knew he would never get any sleep on that side. He pushed himself almost off the bed, as far over as he could go, until he was almost falling off the edge. He closed his eyes and hoped that the nightmare would leave him for the rest of the night.
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The next thing Roy remembered was waking up back in camp. He tried to sit up, but a deep pain in his side stopped him, and he dropped back down to the cot. He looked around. The place reeked of death and blood and medicine. He knew he was in the medical tent. He looked down at himself and saw that his shirt was off and he had a bandage wrapped around his stomach. There was a little bit of blood seeping through the wrappings on his side.
"Hey, you are awake!" Roy didn't stop the smile from filling his face when he saw Maes standing next to him. His shirt was off as well, and he had a small bandage on his shoulder, and he could see from the thickness of one of his pants legs that he had a
bandage around his thigh as well.
Maes looked at himself, then back at Roy. "They didn't get me too bad. Not enough to send me home, unfortunately. This will heal in a couple of days, and I should be fine. From what the doc told me, you are lucky. When that building exploded, there were chunks of rocks flying everywhere. Apparently you got a nice little pebble in your side, but nothing too bad. They got it all out, and you should be back on your feet soon. Sorry to tell you the good news, but you have to stick around here as well."
"Maes.. I... I exploded it all. Everyone in there.. just gone.. with a snap." The smile on Maes' face dulled, and he pulled up a stool and sat next to his friend.
"I know. I saw it. One snap, and it was over. I have seen your work, but it has never been that powerful before. I saw that you were wearing a ring, but I never asked you about it before. I am guessing that had something to do with it?"
Roy nodded and closed his eyes. As soon as he did, the moment replayed over in his head- the flash of light and heat. the sudden smell of explosion and death, the noise and dust and dirt and blood. He quickly opened his eyes again, his heartbeat raced and he started to sweat.
"I... can't close my eyes, Maes. I see it, I see them all.."
Maes put a hand on his shoulder. "I will get the doctor, Roy. I think you may be delirious." He stood up.
"No, Maes.. It isn't that.. I see faces.. I hear them screaming.. I can smell them as they burn.." He was vaguely aware of Maes standing over him with a doctor next to him. they seemed to say something, then Roy felt a small burning sensation in his arm, and nothing more.
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Roy woke up again, sitting up straight in bed. sunlight was streaming in the room. He could see the sun peeking over the horizon through his window. He sighed and blinked a couple of times, then stood up and stretched.
"Another day." He grumbled while walking to the restroom to take care of his morning duties. He didn't even bother to shave, he just relieved himself and splashed some water on his face, then walked back out into the bedroom and threw a shirt on, not really caring if it was dirty.
He grabbed a mostly empty glass and refilled it with whiskey, then slumped in a
chair, his head in his hand. His head ached, although he wasn't sure if it was from the alcohol, or lack of sleep, or some combination of the two. He ran his hand through his unkempt, dirty hair and sighed, picking up the phone that sat on the table next to him.
"Hughes' residence." The voice on the other line was deep and thick with sleep. Roy regretted calling for just a moment, knowing he had woken his friend up.
"Maes."
"Oh, Roy. What is it?" The voice on the other side of the line brightened considerably.
"Maes. I need to talk. It happened again."
"Alright, buddy. I will try to be over as soon as I can. Just.. don't do anything rash, okay?"
"Okay."
"See you soon, bud."
"Goodbye."
Author: SeaweedOtter
Pairing: Roy Mustang x Maes Hughes
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: AU, Set before the anime started, while Maes and Roy were roommates at the military academy.
Author Note: The story will mostly follow the manga, but it may have a bit of both.
Summary: In a flash of flame, one man's life is changed forever.
I have the awesome johns_elizabeth as my advisor.
Read all of the chapters so far HERE!
Roy felt like he needed a shower after meeting with Grand, that psychopath Kimblee, and Marcoh. Out of all of them, the Crystal Alchemist was the hardest one to figure out. He seemed just as reluctant as Roy to go along with their commanding officer's orders.
As he walked to his little tent, His mind wandered back to that meeting, and his eyes slipped down to the ring that he now wore over his salamander array gloves. If he didn't fear what it did, he would almost have called it pretty- a gold band with a round set, blood red stone. But he knew better than that. He knew what he was going to have to do with the stone. He only had a few hours before his first mission, and then he would have a front row seat to the devastation that the Philosopher's Stone could cause.
"Hey, Flamey." Roy wasn't sure if he should be amused or pissed, so he settled on the middle ground, flat indifference.
"Maes, I told you not to call me that, damnit."
The taller man was stretched out on his low slung cot, his arms behind his head, trying to provide at least a little more padding that the flimsy pillow the military supplied. The ends of his long legs dangled off the other end, and Roy was suddenly glad that he was several inches shorter. At least he fit on the thing. He tried not to laugh at the comical figure that this man cut, then his mind wandered back to Armstrong, and he wondered if that gorilla of a man even bothered to use the cot, or if he just slept on the ground. It couldn't be that much less comfortable that those government issued beds.
Maes sat up, his boots kicking up a little bit of dirt and sand when they hit the ground. "We don't have long before we move out." His face was as serious as Roy's, which surprised the younger alchemist. "I don't know about you, but I want to at least try and relax and think about something else before we have to go out there." He stuck his thumb towards the flap of the tent, and the city beyond.
Roy nodded. With a grunt, he collapsed onto his cot on the opposite long wall of the tent from Maes. He closed his eyes and rolled over to his side. "Get me up when it is time." he mumbled, sleep already starting to claim him.
He had no sooner closed his eyes than he felt Maes shaking him awake. "Roy, get up, you lazy bastard!" He yawned sleepily and blinked a couple times, looking at his tent mate through half lidded eyes.
"How long as I asleep for?" he asked huskily.
"Three hours. We are gonna be in deep shit if we don't get out there, Roy!" Quickly Roy got up and ran a quick comb through his greasy hair. Showers were a rare luxury, even in the couple of days that he had been there he hadn't been able to get the dirt and sand out of every part of his body. He hadn't even bothered to get undressed when he laid down, and he really didn't care how wrinkled his uniform was. He stood up and stepped into his black boots, grabbed his sidearm and his pack, and followed Maes out of the tent.
They were just in time to fall into line with the last of the soldiers lining up in front of Colonel Basque Grand. He had been facing away from that part of the line, and both of them breathed a sigh of relief that they had snuck in unnoticed. No sooner had they made it to the line then Grand turned around, faced his soldiers, and addressed them.
"Okay, ladies. We have an easy job for you for your first time out. I want you to patrol the outside perimeter of the camp, make sure that there are no weak points in our defenses, and eliminate any enemies or enemy encampments that you find within 1000 yards of the outer perimeter. Do you ladies think you can handle that?"
"Yes, sir!" a chorus of voices went up in time with a crisp salute from each person
in the company.
"I want half of the infantry men first." He swept his hand in front of a group of soldiers. "Mustang, you will be in the middle, as you are the sole alchemist. The rest of you will fall behind to cover the rear. Hughes, since you seem to think that you
can sneak in here at the last minute, you are on point. Those glasses should be good
for keeping the sand out of your eyes, so I expect you to keep sharp at all times."
"Yes, sir." Maes saluted, his posture falling a bit. Point was practically a death sentence if they ran into enemy fire. First in line will be the first one aimed at. Roy shot him a worried look, but all Maes could do was shrug. It wasn't like he could refuse the order. They would just have to hope that they found the enemy first.
"Fall out!" Grand ordered. The soldiers shouldered their packs, and formed the line with Maes at point and Mustang in the middle and headed towards the entrance of their encampment.
___________________________________________________________________
"This isn't too bad." Maes called cheerfully back towards the middle of the line, where a hot and miserable Roy Mustang trudged along. They were already more than halfway around the perimeter, and so far they hadn't seen anything.
"Keep your eyes open, Maes. That is a sure fire way to-" Roy's next words were cut short when he heard gunfire. There was no real cover to speak of, so everyone either flung themselves behind a rock or a piece of rubble, or flattened themselves against
the ground.
After the moment of panic, Roy looked up to see Maes kneeling and grasping at his shoulder with one hand, his other hand still on his rifle. Even at a distance he could see blood seeping from between Maes' fingers.
"Maes!!" Roy yelled. He started to stand, but he felt a hand on his shoulder, pushing him roughly back down to the sandy ground.
"You idiot. Do you wanna get us all killed? Stay low!" Roy didn't know who the solider was, but he outranked that man Roy opened his mouth to tell him, when another round of fire came in on their location. Roy desperately looked around, trying to see where the gunfire was coming from. He could see an abandoned building a few thousand yards from their position. It was the only place it could be coming from. Unfortunately, he knew that there was no way he could launch an attack with his flame from as far away as he was. He knew that he had to get closer.
"I have to go in. Are you gonna cover me or not?" Roy growled to the man who had pushed him down a moment ago.
"Yes, sir."
Roy used his arms and elbows to propel himself forward on his belly, like a snake. Almost right away, he was very glad that he didn't have a rifle, like the man behind him. The other solider was much more of a sitting duck, making a lot more noise shifting that gun while he moved, and it slowed his movements as well. Roy had to wait for him to catch up a couple of times.
It seemed like hours before he finally got to the front of the line, where the soldiers had already dug in as best they could and were returning fire towards the building. One of the soldiers had drug Maes behind a large chunk of concrete that used to be part of a wall.
"Maes, Maes, can you hear me, bud?" Roy stopped for a moment to take a look at his friend. He didn't look too bad, all things considered. the wound in his shoulder had stopped bleeding, and it didn't look deep. There was another shallow wound on the outer, fleshy part of his thigh that had just grazed him. But he was pale, and his eyes were glassy and unfocused. Somehow, through all that, his glasses had managed to get only a little scratched and bent.
"Rrrrf. I feel like crap, Roy." Maes groaned, opening his eyes wider for just a moment, before shutting them again.
He put a hand on Maes' other shoulder. "Just stay still a few minutes, Maes. We will get you back. I just.. need to take care of something first."
All the other soldiers stayed back from the alchemist after that. They saw that fire that was burning in those onyx eyes, the hatred boiling under the surface of his steely face. Roy started back towards the building again. He still was not quite close enough, but the closer he got to the building, the more cover there was, and he was able to advance faster than he had before.
It wasn't long before he had covered the whole distance, and was only a couple of hundred yards away from the building. He had felt the heat of bullets as they grazed past him. He knew he had been spotted, but he didn't care. He had to do a job, and Hell itself wasn't going to stop him.
Roy could see some of the people as they stuck their heads out just enough to take a shot at the pinned soldiers. This was the first time he had seen an Ishbalan, and their dark skin and red eyes both scared and fascinated him at the same time. They were humans, but they weren’t the same.
That didn't make them any easier to kill.
He brought his hand up, index finger and thumb together, in a position that had become second nature to him. He waited for another head to come around. As soon as one did, he snapped.
The blast knocked him off his feet and sent rock shrapnel flying around his hiding place. He coughed, desperately trying to get a lungful of non-sandy air into his burning lungs. His eyes stung with the sand and dirt and rocks that limited his vision to almost nothing. Shakily, he got back to his feet, and after a few moments, the dust cleared enough for him to see what he had done.
There was no more building.
It was a flaming and smoldering pile of rubble and ash. Flames licked around pieces of concrete and metal bars. There were the faint sounds of moaning coming from inside the rubble, but those stopped after just a few moments.
Roy's hands shook. He looked at the ring on his finger. It seemed to glow for just a moment, or maybe it was a glint of sunlight- he wasn't sure- before it went back to it's dull red hue.
"What... did I do?" He looked around, dumbfounded. His world seemed to slow down, and he was vaguely aware of a dull, throbbing pain in his side. His whole world started to swirl, and he held onto the piece of wall he had been standing behind to steady himself. Roy heard voices, but they sounded like they were far away..
"Sir.. Sir.. Are you okay? Why don't you sit down for a second?"
"Okay.." he was vaguely aware of nodding and then somehow maneuvering himself into a sitting position before his head swam, and suddenly taking a nap seemed like a good idea.
"Sir? Sir?" was the last thing Roy heard before he succumbed to darkness.
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"Mrrrr.... No... NO!!!" Roy called out in his sleep. "Ahhhh!" With a jerk, he sat up in bed. His face was covered in sweat and he was panting like he had just ran a marathon. His eyes were wide open, pupils dilated. He groaned and rubbed his face with the back of his hand.
He looked at the clock. It was just past 0200 hours. His gaze moved to the beside table. There was still a little whiskey left in the glass he had left there hours before, after Maes had left.
Roy rolled over to the other side of the bed. His face went into the empty pillow, and he breathed in hard. It still smelt like Maes, that aftershave he loved so much and the weird floral scented shampoo that he still used. Roy guessed that his girlfriend had picked it out for him.
"Damnit." he muttered. rolling back over to his side of the bed. He knew he would never get any sleep on that side. He pushed himself almost off the bed, as far over as he could go, until he was almost falling off the edge. He closed his eyes and hoped that the nightmare would leave him for the rest of the night.
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The next thing Roy remembered was waking up back in camp. He tried to sit up, but a deep pain in his side stopped him, and he dropped back down to the cot. He looked around. The place reeked of death and blood and medicine. He knew he was in the medical tent. He looked down at himself and saw that his shirt was off and he had a bandage wrapped around his stomach. There was a little bit of blood seeping through the wrappings on his side.
"Hey, you are awake!" Roy didn't stop the smile from filling his face when he saw Maes standing next to him. His shirt was off as well, and he had a small bandage on his shoulder, and he could see from the thickness of one of his pants legs that he had a
bandage around his thigh as well.
Maes looked at himself, then back at Roy. "They didn't get me too bad. Not enough to send me home, unfortunately. This will heal in a couple of days, and I should be fine. From what the doc told me, you are lucky. When that building exploded, there were chunks of rocks flying everywhere. Apparently you got a nice little pebble in your side, but nothing too bad. They got it all out, and you should be back on your feet soon. Sorry to tell you the good news, but you have to stick around here as well."
"Maes.. I... I exploded it all. Everyone in there.. just gone.. with a snap." The smile on Maes' face dulled, and he pulled up a stool and sat next to his friend.
"I know. I saw it. One snap, and it was over. I have seen your work, but it has never been that powerful before. I saw that you were wearing a ring, but I never asked you about it before. I am guessing that had something to do with it?"
Roy nodded and closed his eyes. As soon as he did, the moment replayed over in his head- the flash of light and heat. the sudden smell of explosion and death, the noise and dust and dirt and blood. He quickly opened his eyes again, his heartbeat raced and he started to sweat.
"I... can't close my eyes, Maes. I see it, I see them all.."
Maes put a hand on his shoulder. "I will get the doctor, Roy. I think you may be delirious." He stood up.
"No, Maes.. It isn't that.. I see faces.. I hear them screaming.. I can smell them as they burn.." He was vaguely aware of Maes standing over him with a doctor next to him. they seemed to say something, then Roy felt a small burning sensation in his arm, and nothing more.
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Roy woke up again, sitting up straight in bed. sunlight was streaming in the room. He could see the sun peeking over the horizon through his window. He sighed and blinked a couple of times, then stood up and stretched.
"Another day." He grumbled while walking to the restroom to take care of his morning duties. He didn't even bother to shave, he just relieved himself and splashed some water on his face, then walked back out into the bedroom and threw a shirt on, not really caring if it was dirty.
He grabbed a mostly empty glass and refilled it with whiskey, then slumped in a
chair, his head in his hand. His head ached, although he wasn't sure if it was from the alcohol, or lack of sleep, or some combination of the two. He ran his hand through his unkempt, dirty hair and sighed, picking up the phone that sat on the table next to him.
"Hughes' residence." The voice on the other line was deep and thick with sleep. Roy regretted calling for just a moment, knowing he had woken his friend up.
"Maes."
"Oh, Roy. What is it?" The voice on the other side of the line brightened considerably.
"Maes. I need to talk. It happened again."
"Alright, buddy. I will try to be over as soon as I can. Just.. don't do anything rash, okay?"
"Okay."
"See you soon, bud."
"Goodbye."