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He catches sight of her almost the moment he strides onto the scene, the young girl with the blanket wrapped around her shoulders and tears staining her face. She looks so similar- for an instant, Roy thinks he’s seen a ghost, one of his past sins come back to haunt him- that he falters in his step.
Then he remembers her.
The Rockbell girl. He’s met her once before, but seeing her hasn’t gotten any easier with the year that’s passed.
“Sir?” Hawkeye questions softly, stopping at his elbow. “Is something wrong?”
“It’s nothing,” he says quickly, but he doesn’t move. He can tell the moment Hawkeye notices her too, can hear her soft inhalation just behind him.
“Oh,” she says and he knows that she understands.
When he changes directions, it’s like his feet moved on their own. He’s here to see his subordinate, to assure himself of Edward’s safety with his own two eyes.
He’s not here for this girl, but if he turns away from her now, he’ll lose what little respect for himself he has left.
“Hello,” he says once he’s approached her and the soldier, recognizing a superior officer starts to back off, but Roy beckons for him to stay. “Miss Rockbell, I presume?”
There’s no hostility in her eyes when they meet his, unlike last time, but then that could easily be a symptom of the circumstances of their current meeting. Somehow, that does nothing to ease the pressure on his chest.
She should hate him.
She would if she knew the truth, but she doesn’t know the truth and she won’t because the loathsome creature that is Roy Mustang knows that he won’t be able to bring himself to tell her.
“Oh,” she says and she drops her gaze. “Mr. Mustang.”
There’s a quiver to her voice and Roy notices for the first time that blood on her arms, the red marks around her wrists.
It’s been a long time, but he knows the marks left behind by chains.
He frowns.
“You’re looking for Edward, aren’t you?” she continues, without noticing the way she’s taken his breath from him completely. “He’s right over there.” She nods in a certain direction, but Roy finds he’s not paying any attention to where she just directed him.
Her eyes, when they finally meet his again, are so like her mother’s.
It’s like a punch in the gut that leaves him winded and struggling for air.
“I see,” is all he manages to get out, but he makes no move to leave. It’s like he’s been frozen in one spot.
Are you alright? burns at the tip of his tongue, but he can’t seem to speak.
Hawkeye’s fingers brush his elbow, gently. A reminder.
Both of where he is and what they came to do. It’s time to see Fullmetal.
“I’m glad to see you're alright, Miss Rockbell.” Her father is present in the slope of her nose. Roy blinks, hoping to clear his vision. “Call me if you need anything.”
He has no idea why he made that offer.
Only that it felt right.