alternate ending for the series. consider Ed didnt manage to do what he wanted at the end, after Al's alchemical stunt. SPOILERS, by virtue of the setting for this one-fireun
Roy Mustang was not a man that was easily frightened, was not one to avoid confrontation or strain. But as he neared the silent door, mug of tea in each hand, his steps slowed a bit, faltered even, and he paused. "Elric" the sign explained in awkwardly blocky letters. A long-term tenant, this room's occupant got a semi permanent nameplate on the door, not a hand written piece of paper.
It was that name that seemed to work like some sort of warding charm, keeping Mustang at bay. His eyes slid shut and he sucked in a deep breath, trying to gather some sort of courage before entering this quiet battlefield. Snapping his back into a parade formal straight, he pushed open the door, deftly juggling mugs.
The tableau presented as he maneuvered his hip to push the door shut was one he had grown unhappily familiar with. Edward sat in bed, propped against pillows, face turned to look out the window. His hair was loosely confined in a sloppy braid, and where it had pulled loose was lank and dull. Almost as dull as the eyes really, which stared out over the street, sometimes blank, sometimes almost anxious, as if he was waiting for something.
And damn if Roy wouldn't have done anything at all to produce what the young man was waiting for. Instead he settled onto the chair waiting at Ed's bedside, set a mug of tea on the stand, and tried to paste a sort of smile onto his face.
"Roy…"
Roy leaned forward, trying not to seem as intent as he was. It was so rare for Ed to actually initiate conversation. "Yes, Ed?"
"Do you think, maybe if I had tried harder…maybe if I had been better…"
There were some things that not even a fake smile could handle. Roy felt his face fall as he slumped back into his chair. "Ed…"
"I didn't try hard enough. I wasn't strong enough. Again."
He sounded so broken…Roy pulled himself upright and leaned over, taking one of Ed's unresisting hands into his own. "It's not that, Ed…"
"Then what the hell IS it?" Ed yanked his hand away and whirled to glare at Roy. Then the moment passed, and Ed's energy seemed to vanish between one heartbeat and the next. He slumped back, stared down at his hands, clenched them. "I have what I wanted. Everything I wanted." His listless stare fixed back out the window. "Everything but the person I wanted to smile with when we won."
There were no words Roy possessed that could ease such a deep hurt. Humans were finite things after all, and wear and tear sometimes got the best of them, be it body or soul. Roy coaxed Ed to take the cooling mug and sip some tea, and he sat there with him, offering the quiet comfort of another presence.
It was all he could do.