Disclaimer: All characters and the universe they inhabit are the wonderful brainchildren of Hiromu Arakawa. I'm just playing around with them for a while. Also, makes reference to the infamous Episode 25. If you don't know why that episode is infamous, then spoilers

Right now, everything is normal. Comfortable, if not easy. Paper work is due, finished files are ready to be shipped off to various departments, and the team is taking a quick break for coffee before continuing on with what needs to be done.

In about ten minutes from now Falman will rattle off a complicated set of dates, events, and names that Breda will argue he can't possibly have committed to memory. Falman will look up at him and wonder why not. Wallets will be pulled out, bets will be made (Breda and Havoc against with Falman and Fury for), and Fury will scurry down to records to pull a few files. Checking will prove Falman right, the losers will grumble as they hand over money, and Hawkeye will wonder why they insist on betting against such a sure thing as Falman's memory. The man in question will pocket his winnings and go back to his paper work with a smug smile, which for him is paramount to sticking out his tongue.

Roy will think that if Hughes were here now, he would have already gloated to the man about stealing such a valuable officer from him.

He will be able to hear mentally Hughes' reply to that, how he would moan that Roy always got the best ones at the same time he would boast about graciously handing over a valuable support for Roy's goal. It won't be such a stretch to imagine Hughes insisting this generosity means that Roy has no excuses for the next time he's invited over for dinner, nor is it hard to imagine the pictures and compliments to Gracia's cooking that would accompany the declaration.

Then he will realize that if Hughes were here now, Falman wouldn't be one of his officers. He'd still be in investigations, rattling off dates and names to them while trying to avoid being terrorized with pictures of an adorable little girl. Will realize that while Falman might have eventually thrown his lot in with Mustang's cause, he wouldn't have done it by appearing in Roy's office pleading to be allowed to come to Central out of a need to keep investing the death of a man he admired.

And Roy will remember exactly why Hughes isn't there in colorful, vivid detail. Grief will set in.

The team will not know why, but they will recognize the signs, and the office will grow quiet as each man tries not to disturb their superior. Eventually Hawkeye will approach his desk and make a comment about all the work to be done, which Roy will snap himself back to the present to make a reply to. The atmosphere will relax as chatter, paper rustlings, and the ping of type writers pick back up. Paper work will get done, finished files will be handed off to their next destinations, and life will go back to being comfortable, if not ever easy.