courtyardhound asked: Roy Mustang <3< Olivier Armstrong
It’s too dark for Roy to see the general’s expression as he settles down on his bedroll. “The men are restless,” he says. “They think the Drachman court gives a good embassy.”
“Not mine,” the general says. She balances her sword on its blocks, and stands to find her whetstone. “They know the mettle of the fight.”
Havoc’s wine has made Roy’s limbs loose. He settles back with his head against the tentpole, his eyes drifting closed. “They ought to temper it with sense. They fight for such a king as they depose.”
The general hmphs. “Thou talk’st like a boy, all prattle and no point.”
Roy opens one eye. “And if I spoke the simple strain of truth? What would thou do? I am as I have said. In peace I am a ram; in war, a bull. As many men as thou hast laid to rest, I set to flame in Ishval. Twice that number in their children and their wives.”
The sliding sound of a sword on its whetstone.
“The land could not endure a second war,” Roy says. “When I am king, I will at last be king, and all ends king; and what of then? What wilt thou do when I tell thee to go and bring a province, ashen, to my feet?”
The general bangs her sword against the stone, jolting him upright. She looks levelly at him. “Think’st thou I take thy cause to make thee king?”
“And why else?”
“Then add fool to your catalogue of sins,” she says. “I’ll take the throne myself, or else have none.”
Roy smiles, slowly. “Wilt thou?”
“Aye, boy,” she says. “Wilt thou take it from me?”