Title: High on the Hill
Genre: Romance/Angst
Pairing: Roy x Riza
Summary: Roy loved a place on the hill.
Disclaimer: Don't own.
High on the Hill
Dedicated, again, to Iris for her birthday. I really do think you've got the message by now, Iris, but still, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
When he was young, Roy's parents used to bring him up on to the hill near their home. It took a long steep climb to get up to the top of the hill, but it was worth all the hard effort. The view from the top of the hill was amazing. Endless green fields and wide plains, stretching out and far away into eternity. Sometimes he felt like he could just grow wings and fly, soaring high above the green land. On fine days, he would lie down on the grass, breathing in the fresh sweet smell of that simple green plant as he looked up at the beautiful blue sky. Sometimes he liked to watch the clouds changing shapes. How interesting those shapes were! He saw animals, from cute little puppies to fearsome lions. He saw many other different things in the clouds: trains, stars, people even. The hilltop was his playground. He went there whenever his parents were free to bring him up there. He wasn't allowed to go up the hill alone because his parents were afraid that some accident might happen to him.
As he grew up and went into military school, he had to leave his parents and the countryside, and adapt to the busy, dull life of urban cities. He was allowed to go home twice a year, once for Christmas and New Year, and one in the summer just to take a rest. Each time he returned home in the summer, he would go up on to the hill, where he retired from the outer world. He would relax and take a deep breath from his difficult life, and forget about his worries for a short while. The hilltop was his own space, a place where he could be free, where there was no military officer to shout at him for his slightest faults.
During the time of the Ishbal war, when he was trapped inside that unbreakable shell of darkness and death, he often dreamt of his time on the hilltop. The happy old days when he seemed so alive. Those lively days to him seemed impossible as he fought for his life and his country. How could he have once been a merry little child, laughing and playing in the embrace of Mother Nature? It could not have ever happened. If it really did happen, how did he end up here, in this dark old dump, worn out and full of misery?
Even so, he endured the terrors of the war and survived. One of the first things he did was to go home, or at least, the place where his home once stood. His home had unfortunately been destroyed by war. But his favourite place on the hilltop was untouched by the menacing evils of war. It remained the same, his safe shelter from the nightmares of reality. As he stood there on the hilltop, looking down at the beautiful land unfolding before him, he couldn't help but smile. It was a tired smile, but it was a true smile of happiness from his heart. The hilltop was a place of history, preserving memories from long ago, memories of childhood, memories of youth. It was his other home. It was a place where he could dream his dreams, where he could think and plan quietly without being disturbed. It was there when the first thoughts of becoming the Fuhrer of the country sprouted in his mind.
Now the hilltop had another beauty, for he was sharing it with someone else. She was standing behind him silently, as she always did. Watching him and smiling. The sun was shining brightly above them, as if it was smiling at them too. The clouds were smiling at them, everything else was smiling at them; Mother Nature was welcoming them both into her embrace. Everything he could see was radiant, shining, and giving them blessings. His heart was bursting with a joy he had never ever felt before, all the times he had been on this hilltop. He had never imagined how great it would be to share this view with a loved one, the person most important to him in his life--
Riza Hawkeye.
A/N: Inspired by some random song I sang in my singing lesson at school. I really like that song. My writing's really got a bit rusty. Must get more practice. I wrote another piece for Iris because I know she likes Royai more than RoyEd. Happy birthday again (for the fourth time), Iris!