The Sniper and the flame alchemist
Chapter one: a new mother
It was a cold December day. Clouds swirled chaotically in the pale blue sky hinting at snow in the night that's was collapsing into central. The graveyard was almost empty. People hurried by griping there coats around the with snuggly gloved fingers as the rushed past the small graveyard on their way to home. Every one was moving constantly, trying to break through the cold. Even the homeless children in the alleys blew on their chaffed hands and snuggled down deeper into their piles on rags, shaking out there hands periodically. The only person who didn't move at all was a black haired child how couldn't be older that six. He stood next to a tall black haired woman who was smoothly pulling on a pair of knitted gloves but his eyes we fixed on the fresh dirt that marked a new grave. This was not the first time the child had stood before a grave. A year earlier his father had died in a carpentry accident and his mother had stood beside him in front of the grave as the coffin was lowered into it. He had asked frantically where his father was going and she had explained to him in her calm soothing that his father was dead and that he was going to move on to heaven he had turned to the grave an tried to under stand. At the time he didn't know what heaven was but the way his mother said it made him think that it was a good place and that his father would be happy there. He couldn't under stand why the other people at the funeral looked so sad if his father was going to heaven. Now it was his mother who lay in the ground at his feet she had been murdered by a drunken man who had gotten his hands on a gun. As he stood in the piercing cold he tried to replicate the calm aura his mother had radiated at his father's funeral. But his face has too sharp and fixed too be calm he wanted to ask the woman at his side if his mother was going to go to heaven but he was sure she would laugh at him. He had never known his aunt very well and he did not want to live with her.
"Roy, how long are you going to stand there, we have to leave now so we can get home before dark" the woman said awkwardly patting his scruffy mop of straight black hair she was not very old herself, only just shy of 19 and she had no idea how to take care of child who had just become an orphan but she was his only living relative. Roy looked up at her and nodded sharper "I'm ready to go" he said quietly "Already?" she asked that a child would be so ready to leave his mother behind. "She is going to heaven so we shouldn't be sad for her" Roy said looking expectantly at her "Maybe see is maybe she isn't but she is going to rise higher than any living person can go and she is going to see your father again" the black haired woman said, flustered " any way lets go before you freeze the sun is almost down and will get colder then" she continued leading him away from the grave, though the low wrought iron gate and out onto the street.
As they hurried though the darkening streets of central snow flakes began to sprinkle down and by the time they got to the small apartment that Roy would be living in from now on snow was pouring down into the dark empty streets showing it's self only when it passed through the humble yellow beam of a street light. Roy stumbled into the front hall and blinked sleepily as the woman led him up the wooden stairs to her apartment door. "Stay right here okay Roy?" the woman said as she opened the door revealing a dark room with the bulky shapes of a table and a fireplace inside. " Yes Chris" Roy said watching as the woman disappeared into the apartment and emerged with a large white towel, which she set on the ground. "Need help taking off your coat" Chris said a Roy sluggishly unbuttoned his black jacket. He nodded sloppily and she slipped the coat over his head then see pulled his snow covered boots, leaving them out in the hall with the coat. Scooping up the towel Chris rubbed Roy's head down to keep the snow from melting in it and dripping all over every thing. Roy squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head like a dog as she toweled him. "Hold still" Chris said and Roy compiled though his eyes were still shut tightly "I'm not going to hurt you" Chris said removing the towel from Roy's damp hair. Tentatively Roy opened his eyes "Rawr!" Chris said making a face. Roy jumped back in surprise and hit a wall "come on" Chris said, walking into the apartment " I'm your mother from now on so don't be afraid of me, okay?" Chris said "yes mother" Roy said following her into the apartment, his eyes drooping "Let's figure out where you're sleeping" Chris said, seeing that Roy was asleep on his feet.
A/N: this probably going to be the hardest story I've ever written but it is also some thing I've really wanted to write for a few months. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a tangled mess of plot bunnies. I meant to do this mostly from Riza's POV. But I'm going to start with Roy because his early life is a lot easier to write