Title: Lifting Weights
Chapter: 01
Rating: G
Genre: Angst/Romance
Words: 1,988
Summary: Roy takes a stroll through the Rizenbul cemetery one day, in the hopes of finding two particular graves. There he encounters someone he did not expect, and then an impulsive decision turns things from bad to worse. (RoyxWinry)
Author's Notes: This is set around the time of the FMA episodes where Roy and the other soldiers go to Rizenbul (I forget the episode numbers). I decided I wanted to try writing something different, and the idea of Roy x Winry popped up in my head randomly. So, this fanfic is the result of my strange mind. Enjoy!
Oh yeah, this will have multiple chapters.

It surprised Colonel Roy Mustang that a village as small as Rizenbul had such a vast cemetery. It was filled with countless headstones stretching for what seemed like miles over great hills that overlooked the village. From where he was standing, Roy could see out over the entire Rizenbul area – it was quite large, he noted, but how could a place with so few people possibly have a cemetery of this size? Morbidly he wondered if maybe the reason for Rizenbul's lack of population was somehow connected to the large number of graves in the cemetery. Discarding that notion, he decided he preferred the thought of the community just having a long and extensive history. And maybe, just maybe, this place had a larger population than he realised.

He turned away from the scenery below him and continued his way up the hill, weaving in and out of headstones as he walked. His dark eyes scanned each stone thoroughly, searching for the two in particular that he had come out here to find. He knew it would take him a very long time to find them in such a large cemetery, but with a sigh he commanded himself to keep searching. He wouldn't stop until he had found those two headstones.

How long had it been since then, anyway? Eight or so years? He wasn't even sure if the bodies had been brought back here. But, he figured, it didn't hurt to try looking. He had needed to get out of that damned house anyway.

Almost too suddenly for his liking, the Colonel's eyes fell upon a plain, grey headstone that momentarily made him freeze where he was standing. After a few fleeting moments of just staring, his body moved again and he approached the stone. He had wondered when he would stumble upon this one. It wasn't one of the two he was seeking, but he had subconsciously been interested in finding this one too. He stood before the grave as his eyes slowly read over the words engraved in the marble.

Trisha Elric.

So this was the final resting place of Ed and Al's mother. It felt a little strange to Roy to be standing before the gloomy headstone of the woman he'd heard so many stories about. Though he had never doubted the reality of those stories, they had always seemed somewhat distant to him – similar to hearsay, only not. But now, standing infront of this weathered headstone, the woman whom he had never known seemed so much more real.

Roy moved on. He wondered if the graves he was seeking were nearby – after all, Trisha Elric had died around six years ago, hadn't she? That was about two years after the ones he was looking for. They had to be around somewhere. He strolled down the row slowly, reading each and every time-eroded stone, and finally came to a stop.

He had found the two graves with the headstones proudly displaying the name Rockbell.

He unwillingly inhaled; the full impact of seeing these two graves struck him like a sledgehammer to concrete. So the bodies had been returned to their hometown. They had been given a proper burial. Despite his discomfort, this realisation pleased Roy somewhat. It was nice to know that these people had been brought back to their loving home. And it was also nice to know that their family had some sort of closure; a place to come and reminisce about their lost loved ones.

Roy felt the familiar stab of guilt in his stomach. He still hadn't forgiven himself. He didn't think he ever would; as the years had gone by he managed to put that horrible incident out of his thoughts and get on with his life, but he knew it was always there, always lurking in the deepest, darkest corners of his mind. Occasionally it would creep out again and wrap its cold, icy fingers around him, smothering him… but he always managed to control it again. He knew, for his own sake, he had to keep it under control. But sometimes… sometimes it was so hard.

He slowly sank to the ground, sitting cross-legged on the soft grass as a cool breeze ruffled his hair. He stared at the headstones before him – they were somehow menacing, scowling at him. It was like they were judging him for what he had done. He shifted uncomfortably, then smirked at himself. How stupid, he thought to himself. They're just headstones.

But they weren't just headstones. They were a reminder. A real, tangible reminder to Roy that he had committed a crime. A sin. He had taken his gun that day, pointed it at two innocent people, and shot them. He had taken their lives away forever.

He sighed heavily and rested his chin in his hands, trying desperately to rid himself of the nightmarish flashbacks that were now rushing through his mind at full-speed. They had been doctors. On top of that, they were peace keepers. It didn't matter that a war was going on around them, they had treated anyone who was wounded, friend or foe. They had been good people. Beautiful people. But then Roy went and wiped their existence off the surface of time forever. Not even alchemy could bring them back.

"I'm sorry," the Colonel whispered soberly to the headstones. "The military asked you numerous times to stop treating our enemy… if only you had listened… then I wouldn't have had to do it…"

He sighed again and wondered just what the heck he was doing. He wasn't trying to justify what he had done. There was no way there could be any justification for it, ever. He did want to apologise, but it's not like talking to a couple of slabs of marble would get the point across. And he had to wonder why he wanted to apologise. He wasn't trying to get forgiveness. He knew he didn't deserve that.

The sudden sound of footsteps on the grass behind him wrenched him from his thoughts and he sat up abruptly. He turned around to see who was there, and froze when his eyes fell upon the last person he had wanted to catch him here – Winry Rockbell. The girl whose parents he had murdered.

She was standing perfectly still, long blonde hair swaying ever so slightly in the breeze as she stared at him with wide blue eyes filled with a mixture of confusion and anger. It was an expression that hurt Roy to see. She was a pretty thing, and so young… too young to be wearing an expression like that. He felt awful for having inflicted this kind of pain on her.

He slowly stood and turned to face her silently. He saw that she was holding a bouquet of flowers. She had obviously come to put them on her parents' graves. He couldn't find any words to say to her. Nothing that came into his mind sounded good enough to voice. Finally after a few moments it was Winry who broke the heavy silence.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in a low voice, scowling at the dark-haired man standing next to her mother's grave. "Don't you think you've done enough? Did you come just to cause more pain?" The anger was prominent in her young voice.

Roy turned to look at the headstones again. "I didn't want to do it."

"That doesn't mean a thing!" Winry snapped. "You did it anyway! But I guess that's to be expected from a lowly dog of the military."

Roy couldn't help but smile at her choice of words. "Yeah… I suppose that really is what I am."

His smile seemed to anger Winry further. She dropped the bouquet on the grass, where the flowers fell out of the paper they were wrapped in and were scattered about by the breeze. She walked briskly towards the Colonel and stopped only when she was right infront of him, looking furiously up into his dark eyes.

"Do you think this is funny?!" She asked, her voice rising. "My parents are dead because of you, and you smile about it?!"

Roy looked down into her eyes seriously, hiding his slight discomfort. He had never stood this close to her before. He cleared his throat and spoke. "I have never smiled about it. The situation never amused me, Winry Rockbell."

"You don't seem all that remorseful about it!" Winry snapped angrily.

"There hasn't been a single day gone by since it happened that I haven't thought about it." Roy explained solemnly. "Not a single day."

Winry glared at him angrily for a few moments, breathing hard in her rage, before her angry disposition broke and she lowered her head so Roy couldn't see her face. He blinked, noticing her trembling, and heard a sniffle. He stood silently, just watching her, and then her head snapped back up. She was crying now, and somehow it hurt him to see her blue eyes shining with tears. They overflowed and cascaded down her rosy cheeks, then fell to the ground below.

"You… you…" she sobbed through clenched teeth. "Why?!"

"Win..ry…" Roy said slowly, raising his hands slightly but then dropping them again when he realised he didn't know what to do with them.

"Why do you have to be the murderer of my parents?!" she cried, lowering her head again. Her shoulders heaved and her body trembled as she wept. "Why couldn't it be someone that I can hate?!"

Roy stared at her in surprise.

"When I was little… I didn't know who was responsible for their deaths, but I hated them. Whoever it was, I hated them. They took my only parents from me. They took my mummy and daddy! And they can't ever come back!" Another sob escaped her lips. She looked back up at Roy. "But now I know who did it… and I can't hate you!"

Roy was frozen. His heart was beating unnaturally loud in his ears. Somehow it seemed to have leapt up into his throat. This was the most stunning news he had heard in a long time, and while it shocked him it also gave him great relief. He felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders, a weight he had carried with him ever since that fateful night eight years ago.

"I can't hate you…" Winry cried, eyes shining with tears. "I wanted you to be a bad person. I wanted you to be horrible so that I could hold a grudge. But I can't, I… you're a good person, and I can't do it. Why…? Why?" She stared into his eyes, a desperate madness in them. Another tear trickled down her already wet cheeks. Roy gazed down into her eyes for a few moments, and then what happened next shocked the both of them. He made an extremely impulsive decision that neither of the two people had been expecting.

He raised a gloved hand, gently cupped her chin, tilted her head upward and pressed his lips softly to hers in a tender kiss. She did not protest. There the two of them stood, locked together in a moment of abrupt passion.

Roy drew back after what seemed like an eternity but had in reality only been a few fleeting seconds. She stared up at him with bewildered, wide eyes. The both of them were frozen in silence.

Then Winry's shocked face contorted with a mixture of anger and upset. Roy blinked and felt the sudden impact of her hand striking the side of his face in a harsh slap. He gazed down at the ground, frowning and rubbing his stinging cheek gingerly as Winry sobbed again and took off, sprinting down the cemetery hill.

"Go away!" she cried, and Roy winced.

After a few moments, he turned and headed in the direction the young blonde had run.

I get the unnerving feeling that I've managed to write Roy horribly out of character. Anyway, this is to be continued...