Chapter Text
The doors to General Roy Mustang’s office burst open and the General, who was on the phone this moment with another very important General, glanced up in annoyance half expecting Edward Elric to be standing in front of his desk; never mind that Fullmetal had, in fact, not been a part of his team for close to eight years now. Instead he met the wide, almost fearful dark-blue eyes of his five-year-old son, Maes.
Mustang could hear raised and agitated voices coming from the hall and gave his son a pointed look, wondering why the boy wasn’t in school and how he’d gotten from there to the office in the first place. Excusing himself from his phone conversation with promises to call back once he sorted the matter at hand out, Roy set the phone back in its cradle and began to ask, “Maes, what are you do –” when a large crash of thunder interrupted him. His son, who happened to have an irrational fear of thunderstorms, let out a squeak of alarm and bolted around the desk and into his father’s arms. The General picked the boy up, setting him in his lap, and smoothed back his son’s silky black hair that was so much like his own.
“It’s just thunder, kiddo. It’s not going to hurt you,” he soothed as another deep rumble shook the glass in the windows. Maes mumbled something into the breast of his father’s military jacket, his grip tightening. Roy sighed, wondering where Riza was, because surely it was the boy’s mother who took him out of school. He sincerely hoped that the school hadn’t called her to come pick the boy up because of the storm. They’d talked to Maes about the storm before Havoc came to pick him up for school, and he’d thought they’d convinced their son that he’d be safe there.
Roy glanced out the window at the swaying trees, illuminated by bright flashes of lightning, the rain coming down in sheets, leaving the world oddly colorless. Trees and power lines had been downed; Headquarters had only recently had their power returned. The storm had rolled in sometime during the night and showed no signs of letting up any time soon. The General patted the boy’s back imagining the long sleepless night he and Riza had ahead of them.
Major Jean Havoc’s head peaked through the doorway and the General was struck by the Major’s pale and rather shaken countenance as well as the sudden eerie silence from the hall.
Roy raised an eyebrow at his subordinate and asked, “Havoc, why is Maes here? And where is Riza?”
The Major came around the corner and swallowed thickly, his voice sounding oddly strangled. “There was a call, Sir, while you were on the phone with General Grey. There’s been an accident.”
The General startled in surprise, pulling his son away from him and quickly checking the boy over, having not considered the possibility that the boy’s fretful behavior had to do with something other than the storm. But Maes seemed to be in one piece, if not a little upset.
Roy looked back up at Havoc, confused.
The Major looked as if he were about to be sick and said, “It’s the Colonel, Sir. She’s gone.”
Maes sniffled and clung to his father and Roy just blinked. “What?”
“Riza’s dead, Sir.”