Choices (Part 1 - Tombstone)

[Central City]

After the post mortem of Oliver's dead body, it was confirmed that the body was in fact of Oliver. Riza was devastated after losing Oliver. In those circumstances, neither the Fuehrer nor Roy wanted her to live alone for some time. So, she was ordered by the Fuehrer to stay at Roy's house where the servants could look after her.

Riza was always seen as a tough and self-dependent woman by others. But, that was only on the outside. In reality, her heart was very fragile when it came to Roy and Oliver…her little family. And the death of one of them was surely going to make her heart shatter to pieces.

Finally, the funeral day came, and everybody who was close to Roy or Riza were gathered for their son's funeral but, most of them didn't know that they had a son together until they were invited for the funeral, and Fuehrer Grumman made sure to suppress the matter so that it wouldn't reach to media. Only a handful of people were told the truth about Oliver.

As it was not a funeral of some military personnel, nobody was in uniform that day. It was midday but, heavy clouds were blocking the sunlight as if heaven was also mourning the death of a young soul. When Oliver was being buried, Riza was unable to suppress her emotions. She fell on her knees and broke down to tears. She was a mother after all, and no mother in the world can hold down her tears when she sees her child getting buried before she does.

Nobody in the funeral had ever seen the side of Riza Hawkeye which they were witnessing that day. In that difficult moment, Rebecca, Gracia, and Winry were beside her to give her some comfort by rubbing her back.

After sometime when the funeral was over, everyone was busy talking to each other and meeting Roy and Riza before leaving. Roy was standing alone under a tree near the burial site of his son. He was deep in thought, but he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Hey Colo-," Ed said, but he was interrupted by Al before he could complete his sentence. "Brother, he is a General now," Al interrupted.

Roy turned around and saw the Elric brothers were coming toward him.

"Hey General Mustang," Ed greeted.

"Fullmetal, Alphonse," Roy acknowledged with a forced smile.

Ed and Al stood near Roy, and Ed said, "I am not that person anymore, General."

"So, I heard you two are going to travel the world. Is it true?" Roy asked.

"Yes, brother and I are planning to go on the footsteps of our father, to travel the world and have more understanding about alchemy. But, we are going to rebuild our house first," Al replied.

"You two are doing a great job like always," Roy praised.

There was a small pause before Ed and Al sympathized with Roy. "We are sorry for your loss General," Ed said with a sad voice.

Roy took a deep breath and exhaled. "Thank you," He said.

"How old was he?" Ed asked.

"He was only 9. Almost the same age when I met you two," Roy chuckled faintly remembering the first time he met the Elric brothers, but one could clearly see through the fake emotions he was wearing on his face. He then continued, "He considered you as his hero, Ed."

Again there was a small pause before Al spoke. "You and Major Hawkeye have done so much for us. If there is anything we can do, please let us know," Al sympathized.

"Thank you boys," Roy said.

Sometime later, everybody had left the funeral ground and only the parents of the dead boy were left there. Riza was standing in front of her son's burial place and Roy was standing beside her.

"Oliver Mustang, born 1906, died 1915," Riza read from the tombstone and paused for a moment. Then she continued while looking at the tombstone, "Was he good at alchemy?"

"Far better than I was," Roy replied and continued after a small pause, "I always had a feeling that you knew about our alchemy sessions."

"I just didn't want to ruin your moments," Riza confirmed.

Meanwhile, Roy put his hands in his coat pocket, and said, "I have something for you." He pulled out a small badly crafted wooden dog figurine, and offered it to Riza, "He made this dog figurine using a transmutation circle once. He wanted to show it to you very badly, but I told him not to. This was the first thing he made using alchemy and he wanted you to have it."

Riza's hand was shivering when she took the dog figurine from Roy's hand. She held it using both her hands and looked at it while remembering her son. Soon tears from her eyes started dropping and were falling on that figurine. Roy didn't want to see her cry, so he averted his eyes, gritting his teeth in order to hold down his tears.

They didn't talk for some time, but suddenly Riza looked at Roy and asked a question out of blue. "Why do you love me, Roy?" She asked.

Roy still didn't look at her. "I wish I knew the exact answer to that… maybe it's because you make me feel like the 15-year-old Roy who was happy," Roy replied.

"We both are hopeless," She chuckled with a weakened voice, and continued, "Sometimes I think, if you had never joined the military, we would be a happy family… and Oliver would be alive now."

Roy finally looked at her sad eyes, filled with tears even though she was trying hard to suppress them. He embraced her with one hand and she put her head on his shoulder while both of them looked at the grave of their son.