Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, or any of its characters. They belong to Hiromu Arakawa.


"It took quite a bit of convincing," Riza said, packing up her things, "but he finally agreed to leave the cleaning to me." Reaching into the bag she had brought with her that morning, she pulled out a bottle of cleaner and read the label once again.

Roy attempted to give her a 'don't-be-so-hard-on-yourself' look, but she just seemed to focus on reading the label even more. "Even if this 'mess' is your fault," he was sure it wasn't, "the janitors should be earning their pay, don't you think?"

"Cleaning is good exercise anyway, and a soldier should always keep themselves in peak condition." She smiled in his direction and gave the bottle another quick glance before kneading her eyebrows together. "I wonder if this will really get the blood out..." Now Roy looked at her with his eyes wide, and although he looked more shocked than anything Riza knew he was just waiting for some sort of punchline. "Due to the circumstances, I'm sure it was probably just a cow or something." She paused at the door to salute, "I'll be going then, Sir."

"Ah... yes, see you tomorrow, Lieutenant." And then he was alone, curious and just slightly worried.

--

Riza headed straight home, and it wasn't long before she stood in front of her apartment building. She exchanged a few words with her landlord, who had apparently come outside to keep her company, and after insisting that she was fine she went straight to work. In the end, it took her longer than she had expected to clean the words "I LOVE MISSY" from the bloodied brick wall.