Calculated Risk-Taker

By Nicole StormSong

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist.

Summary:A series of short RoyAi vignettes, each detailing a moment together in their…timeline. All are musings about Riza. All are Roy POV written from third person.

A/N: I don't know the exact age Roy came to study with Riza's father. So in this story it's Roy 14, Riza 12

Vignette 1: Children

The dark-haired boy stretched out his hand to shake the hand of the fair-haired girl's. They were but children. He was fourteen, she was twelve. She led him to his bedroom, an undefined grace so aristocratic it was charming.

There were prettier girls back home. Girls his age with doe eyes and long lashes, and supple lips they already colored with rouge from their mothers' drawers. They would wave at him shyly, coyly, from across the street. He would wave back, and they'd blush. It was all part of his charm.

Yet the girl…twelve, young, grave, seemed so different it was enticing. Not in the way his hormones had defined the word…but in a way that made one want to discover the secrets locked up in those ruby-colored eyes. Still, he didn't mention anything about that. She was a tiny, twelve-year-old youngster to him, in his eyes a child. Though she deeply appeared not to be one.

It was a mystery to him how she had come to be the way she was…cold and reckoning. She shyed as far away from everyone as possible, and was nothing more than coldly obedient to her father, his master. Sure, it was not something that bothered him during his studies, but still. He never did like not knowing something, especially something that was, in his opinion, waved in front of his face day after day. Even the very way she walked, military-like and erect, confused him. At twelve, before the tragedy that was his father's death, he was still carefree and immature. He still was, to a point. But there was a different playing field open to him now. The world of women beckoned.

So what was so…so enigmatic about this little girl?

He dwelt on those thoughts for awhile…then nodded off. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow. Tomorrow there would be studies and things to bother his mind with. He knew what he was aiming for…but he was still far behind with his goals.

Suddenly, he bolted awake. There she was, wearing a voluminous white nightgown that went to her ankles. She looked at him gravely, the sad child of twelve. Her dark eyes had such a perceptive quality to them…

"What's wrong?" he looked at her. In the summer heat he had vetoed a shirt. She didn't blush about that fact, but walked towards him, her fet barely making a sound on the floorboards. Slowly she sat down next to him and looked down at the floor. When she spoke, her voice was emotionless.

"A year ago today, my mother died."

He was struck by the words she spoke, her voice deadpan. If it was him, he'd find his voice trembling with emotion. They were never that close, just the occasional tidbit of conversation across a dining table, under the stern eye of her father. But something that deep required something in return. Equivalent Exchange…an alchemic rule he thought unfair, but in this circumstance it was fitting.

"My father died too. It was summer, but it rained." He said simply. It waxed poetic in a strange way. She looked at him, and for a moment he saw her as a young adult, far advanced in years compared to him. Even if she was twelve and he was fourteen, the maturity gap went the other way.

"Ah." She said. Silence reigned for awhile. They spoke no words to each other throughout that night, but they ended up falling asleep, his head cushioned on her shoulder. Her frame leaning slightly into his.

And so began the complicated friendship between Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye

Nicole's Notes: Okay, sure, not much RoyAi yet…but there will be in later chapters. Remember this is as children, so don't whine to me about this. Flames will be mocked and drenched in ammonia.