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For all he went through in Ishval, he really thought he'd seen it all. He didn't believe there was anything about war and death he hadn't already witnessed or experienced first hand. He always assumed when he died it would be in a spectacular fireball of his own creation or a quick, unexpected strike. He never expected he'd end up watching his life slowly drain away, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop it, but he was prepared for it. What he wasn't prepared for was the unimaginable darkness that facing your own mortality could bring.
He should have been relieved. He should have been happy to survive when all the odds were against him. But no matter how he tried, no matter what he did, he couldn't shake the darkness that hovered over him like a hand grabbing him from the grave. It affected his entire world, infected his thoughts and over shadowed every bit of color in his life, washing it all out into hues of faded blue and shades of dirty grey. He was lost and he couldn't even name the reason why. But he didn't have to. The light found him anyway.
With one kiss Ed planted a seed that for all intents and purposes should have withered away and died on that battlefield in Central. He was too far gone and even when he survived there was nothing left of him to cultivate. He was halfway to the grave in his heart and his mind, but Ed's never been the surrendering type. Day by day he fed his soul with a light that shimmered like a star at first then grew to a brilliant sun he still basks in to this day. He made something grow inside him that he never dreamed could flourish in the barren wasteland of his heart.
A smile touches Roy's lips as he looks out into the night that now sparkles with life and colors he never dreamed he'd see again. Living was something he thought he lost to the consuming darkness that used to fill his heart, but Ed's light found him in a place he never thought anyone could reach. He gave him a second chance on far more than he ever deserved and this time he won't be so quick to let it go.
A soft shuffling of feet near the door of the dark study lets him know he's not alone and he smiles a little more. He doesn't need to turn around to know what he would see. Even in the darkness his light is blinding and Roy feels the smallest remaining shadows in his heart melt away. He gazes through the window into a night filled with promise and softly whispers his thanks to the one who will never let him get lost in the dark again.