(Not any update of substance, I just rediscovered this on my lj and decided to transfer it.)

This is the first real fic I ever wrote, and I'm thinking now that this little brainfart gave birth to Convergence (which is a FMA/ HP crossover, but was not published in the Crossover category because it didn't exist then, and I don't feel like republishing it. That would mean keeping up with two identical stories at once, and I'm lazy.).

Could be treated as a companion piece to Convergence, but it doesn't have much to do with the plot of the aforementioned story, so whatever.

--

They were always there. Wherever there was pain, suffering, death. Roy had grown to either ignore or cherish them (it varied with the situation) during those hard times. Sometimes, they were a comfort, nuzzling and poking like a curious dog. At others, Roy wanted nothing more than solitude, shooing them away irritably. This, however, was the former.

The battlefield in Ishbal absolutely teemed with them, as the casualty numbers grew, so too did theirs. Roy knew he wasn't hallucinating, he had caught others with their eyes fixed on what would otherwise be open air. They must have thought themselves mad in the end, as not a word was uttered about the things. There were times when, as he slept on his cot, the stench of burning flesh stifling the air, drifting from the fire where the dead were burned, that one would wander in and absently lick the encrusted blood from his unwashed hair. They were never touchy creatures, always docile and sweet, Roy found himself comparing them to dogs on more than one occasion.

Now, standing alone before the tombstone that bore his best friend's name, though there was no blood, the skeletal, winged black horse bowed it's head and nudged Roy's stomach. Idly, Roy scratched it's ears (that seemed to be the 'sweet spot' for all of them) and sighed. The horse lifted it's leathery-skinned head again and nipped at his face this time. Roy couldn't help grinning slightly as he scolded it halfheartedly. "I should get going, shouldn't I?" His thoughts drifted to Riza, waiting patiently in the car no more than two hundred feet away.

He patted the horse's nose. " Keep him company for me."

As Roy turned to leave, there was a hard shove in the small of his back that nearly toppled him over and he turned again. It had lain down like a deer, with it's front legs curled underneath it's body, and gazed at him with sharp, boring eyes.

"Thank you."