Better Left Unsaid

By: Song

Summary: Some things are better left unsaid. 'I'm sorry I accidentally shot you' is one of them.

Disclaimer: -takes deep breath- No.

Warnings: Conquer of Shamballa spoilers... Royai. And cheese. Lots and lots of cheese, A cheese and onion sandwich actually, on rye bread. Oven toasted with just a hint of garlic- you get the idea.

A/U: I'm not completely happy with the beginning, but it wants to be posted... so please review and feel free to give me suggestions, I need them. Note: This isn't nearly as angsty as I usually write.


Oh how she hated the sterile smell of hospitals, the sickening scent of antiseptic, the spotless white bed linens, the absence of color and perhaps most of all the awful anxiety that one experiences just entering one of the cell like rooms.

For a moment, panic clouded her judgment. Was he alright?

Yes. Of course he would be. He was Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist.

He couldn't not be alright. He had lived through the Ishbal Massacre. One measly little bullet couldn't- wouldn't keep him down.

She had to get this over with. Pushing the curtain aside with a quavering hand she began.

And there he was, head wrapped in gauze, fatigued but otherwise unchanged.

"Sir, I-"

"Don't, lieutenant. Some things are better left unsaid."

Dark eyes met and the world melted away.

Riza could feel herself falling, down, down, down... into his gentle inferno, taking her breath away.

A moment later he had turned away allowing the life to return to her body, forcefully ejecting her out of his death hold on her heart and mind.

An air of regret hung around his stature almost as if he wanted to keep her there as much as she wanted to stay. She could have sworn she saw his remaining eye flash with sorrow.

The meaning was clear enough.

Leave me alone.

I can't be with you. You'll only get hurt, and I won't be able to live with myself if I hurt you.

Riza felt herself deflate.

Disappointment tasted like the blood of a thousand innocent, the tears of a child. The yearning in her heart tore at her insides, and she knew it was true. She couldn't live without him either.

Numbly she gave a curt bow and felt herself moving back, across the overly cleanly tiles of Central General, and out, returning into the gloom of the real world.

The sickly white door closed before her. And, not for the first Riza Hawkeye wished she had not joined the military.

Damn it.

Damn it all.

Damn the military for all of their ludicrous rules. Damn the Fuhrer for imposing them. Damn the war for deciding what was 'right' and what was 'wrong'. Damn so called 'moral values'. Damn equivalent exchange. And damn Roy Mustang for being so perfect.

But most of all, damn herself. Damn herself for falling for him.

She sighed, not for the first time wishing that she had not joined the military.

He was right, like always.

Some things really are better left unsaid.

"Roy.." She whispered. "I-I'm sorry... I love you."

For the first time in years a tear broke her defenses.

Saying "I'm sorry I accidentally shot you." to the man you fell in love with and swore to protect with your very life is determinedly one of those things better left unsaid.


Fin