Word count: 750, not counting author's note.
Author's Note:
Written as a giftFic for ssadropout, whose birthday is this month. She requested a blind!Roy Royai fic, possibly set in the world of my fic "The Toll."
Can be seen as happening between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of my fic "The Toll", but can be read without it.
Forms of Address
The first thing Riza did when she woke up was to look over at the Colonel in the hospital cot to her right. He was obviously concentrating very hard on something, sitting up on the bed, cross-legged, eyes shut and very still.
Good, she thought. Major Sergeant Fuery got someone to change those bandages. It would be a wonder if his hands didn't get infected from wearing the same field dressings for almost an entire day.
She was still weak and a little woozy, blood loss combined with pain killers. Still, she was able to sit up if she moved slowly enough. Then he startled her when he spoke.
"You're staring at me, aren't you, First Lieutenant?" He'd been concentrating on what he could hear and had picked up the sounds of her movements in the bed.
"Yes I am, sir," she said. He moved his head to face her. She was sitting up.
"And I'll continue to stare until I can look at you and think 'Roy-san' first instead of 'blind,'" she added forcefully.
He smiled at her then and there was laughter in his eyes. It was amazing how expressive they still were. "Roy-san?" he said. "That sounds pretty good. Roy-kun would sound even better."
Was it finally possible? wondered Riza. If he were discharged from the military ... He'd need her protection more than ever. And they'd have to figure out some way to keep things moving in the right direction.
"Do you have any ideas about what you'll do after your discharge, Colonel?" she asked.
Roy had mixed feelings about her immediate return to the usual formal address. It sounded good to hear his name from her lips, but the "Colonel" gave him hope that he wasn't out of commission quite yet. Why did his duty and his love always have to be mutually exclusive? "Ishval," came the mocking answer in his head.
"I talked to Major Sergeant Fuery while you were sleeping," he said. "He's getting everyone together. I'll decide what to do after I talk to them."
There was silence for a time then, each of them lost in their own thoughts.
Roy felt increasingly frustrated by his inability to see her face to get an idea of what she was thinking. Add that to the list, he thought sourly. Can't tell night from day, can't read people's expressions. And I bet I get to add "can't walk without running into things" once I start trying to move around again.
"Colonel," came her voice again. "If you are discharged ..." Her voice trailed off.
Roy caught his breath. Yes, indeed, if he were discharged ... Wouldn't that mean he had done all he could? Not that he deserved her, but then he didn't even deserve to be alive. That wouldn't stop him.
"I would still do whatever I could to make this a country where what happened in Ishval could never happen again," he said, deliberately misconstruing her question.
"Of course," said Riza. He was certain he would be able to do something. The man was incapable of giving up. So she wouldn't either. Even if it meant they would have to keep waiting. And yet, perhaps what they wanted and what they were bound to do were not so opposed anymore.
"You'll just be doing it as a civilian," she continued. "Should I stay in the military then, or would I be more useful to you if I were a civilian too?"
He wished he could see her face, but he could read the question in her voice. Was the waiting really over?
"Let's hear what the others have to say," he answered. "But in any case ... "
He swung his legs over the side of the cot. With his eyes closed, he could pretend he was just moving in a dark room and he walked carefully toward Hawkeye until he touched her cot. Then he knelt down and folded his arms loosely on the bed. He lifted a hand to reach for her face but quickly lowered it again when the throbbing started up.
She held his hand gently in one of hers. It wasn't her face, but it would do for now.
"If I am discharged and we can still do what we need to do, Riza, do you still want to marry me?" he asked.
She laid her head down on the bed next to his fingers, so he could feel her smile and her answer. "Of course, Roy-kun."
Author's Note (again!)
Roy-san, if I understand the Japanese honorifics correctly, would be the most everyday formal way to address someone by their first name. Roy-kun would a form of address from a superior to an inferior, or as I use it in this case, between two friends or colleagues of the same rank.