dear_mun | (Canon is Fullmetal Alchemist)

I'm sure you could rustle up a couple of familiar faces if you're feeling that lonely, Mustang.

...Ah...

You're...!

Good to see that eye of yours still works.

[There's a few moments of hesitation that he would prefer to call contemplation, but to his credit he manages to do something other than stammer in disbelief like an idiot.]

...Your eyes are different now, too.

[A sardonic smile and a helpless shrug.]

Can't get anything past you, can I?

Should I ask what happened, or would it be more pertinent to focus on who you are?

It'd be almost funny that you're the one asking that. [Almost.] Call me "Laz". Everyone does - or everyone would if anyone knew. You know how people prefer a thing like human transmutation to be swept under the rug.

[Roy gives him a careful once over, eyes never completely straying from his face, as much for whose face it is as for cautionary purposes.] Human transmutation... That would mean, in other words, that it would be an insult to his memory to feel nostalgic just by looking at your face.

[Normally good at playing cold, he makes a face; saying something that harsh, even if he's admitted to not being Hughes himself, feels unsettling.] But, you seem to have at least some of his memories...

[Laz bristles slightly before forcing himself to calm down. He hates talking about him. From how everyone acts around him, Maes Hughes sounds like a blasted saint - and Laz isn't.] Hey, don't knock nostalgia. If you weren't missing the old days so bad, I wouldn't even be here.

I've got enough of them, yeah. [And back to brusque because yep, hates that too.]

Heh... [Well, it certainly wasn't he himself responsible for the act, but the fact that it's been a consideration at the back of his mind, no matter how distant and fancifully., suddenly seems impossible to deny. He's not exactly at the highest point in his life even without undeniable proof of that sick, selfish, childish part of himself staring him in the face.] But missing something won't bring it back, after all, huh...

Apparently not. [Who's bitter...? Cough. Whatever. Brush-off get!] What it does do is make Hawkeye pissed as hell.

No, I don't imagine she'd be very thrilled with the attempt. Even if I've fallen pretty far in her eyes, I think that human transmutation could still be a new low to surprise her with...

Or the result. [A snort, though he'll definitely (if subtly) go and check that she's not around to hear it. Riza be scary, man.]

If Fullmetal and his brother were any indication, I'd be out more than an eye for the trouble. I can't imagine her being as sympathetic to those injuries.

[Slight confusion before he shakes his head. Some memories came through, but a lot more are fragments. Faces without names, or vice versa.] You survived enough in one piece to avoid too many questions. Course, I can't really imagine her being soft like that - she's not exactly my biggest fan.

[He's not really feeling it, as much from having been worn down throughout the years as for the fact that this is not the man he used to casually joke with, but he does his best to put on a cheese-eating, shameless smile.] When I was first got this injury, she felt personally responsible as my body guard. I was able to see an unexpectedly cute and precious side of the First Lieutenant for a while, up close and personal.

[He's used to Mustang faking things, pretending like things are normal. Keep calm and carry on, right.]

[He cocks his head to the side, thinking.] ...Yeah, cute and her in the same sentence? Still can't see it. But then I guess I don't know her that well, do I?

Is that right? Even if you didn't speak much as far as I know, the two of you seemed to be on the same wavelength. At your funeral, she... [Lips press into a thin line; there are too many complex feelings in all of that to linger on, jarring him like a bolt.

That Laz is not who he looks like is actually the least upsetting of those thoughts, so he runs with that one.] ... No. It wasn't your funeral, was it. At any rate, if you're another one of my mistakes, it's only natural she'd resent you too.

No. It wasn't. [Another small twitch and a clenched fist that quickly relaxes. But he grins to cover it, carefree as can be and far too much like Maes for those who've known him.] Yeah, she's a little too set on seeing somebody becoming Fuhrer to let something like me get in the way.

Certainly, that "cute" side of her vanished in an instant once I let go of that dream... [He shrugs with an overdone nonchalance, with one eye open to see if a flippant mention of abandoning that promise gets any reaction at all.]

You got a good hold of it again from what I've seen. [There's a small, annoyed frown when he says it. Roy's career being on the fast track again is part of the reason why Laz has to be kept so hush hush. Can't really have a potential Fuhrer implicated in human transmutation.] Course, I don't really get into the politics of it. I'm more of a homebody.

A homebody, eh? [Roy can still understand why he might have attempted human transmutation, but for somebody who's given up, political aspirations are difficult to remember how to justify. Laz doesn't seem interested in being Hughes, but he can't help but wonder, if he has any traces of Maes in him at all, if he tried to go home. Had he put Gracia and Elycia through this and still had the gall to aim for the top out of sheer hubris?]

As long as you weren't in one of the main branche cities, you shouldn't be a problem... Doctor Marcoh was in Haidou just south of East City itself for about seven years without being found.

Not exactly a lot of options otherwise. Can't have a Brigadier General out and about when he's supposed to be dead - leads to all sorts of uncomfortable questions. [Again with that bitterness because cooped up under house arrest cause somebody still wants to hit that top.It sucks, bro.] Eh. Most houses in Central have a basement, yours included, and that's worked pretty well so far.

Then you've been cooperative with the basement plan?

(Canon is Fullmetal Alchemist)

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