A/N: Day 2 of Royai Week is here, so I have even more fluff to post! Thanks to zeldamaniac44 on tumblr for reading over this a while ago, and I hope you get better soon!
Thanks so much for the positive feedback on yesterday's fic, I hope everyone enjoys this one too!
A quiet breeze rustled the leaves adorning the treetop Riza was sitting in. She loved climbing the large oak near her house in order to find a quiet place to read. Leaves provided her with shade, but their cover was sparse enough that breezes found their way through the cracks and blew Riza's hair all over the place as well. Overall, it was one of her favorite places to be on the Hawkeye property, and allowed her some much-needed privacy to rest in.
As Riza flipped the page of the novel she'd become immersed in, she didn't notice the footsteps of someone else coming up to the tree.
"Hi, Riza. So that's where you read all the time," Roy Mustang, her father's young alchemy apprentice, and the one who had given her the novel, had walked up to the trunk of the study oak and was looking up with a smile.
"Hello Roy," Riza replied. She was very glad she could call him that now, instead of the long and formal 'Mr. Mustang', "And yes, I do read here a lot. It's quiet and peaceful and closer than anywhere nice in the woods."
At her mention of the forest, Roy laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. The two of them had gone on a hunting trip about half a year ago, during which Roy had suggested they trespass on unfamiliar property and had gotten them lost. The two had eventually come out of the event together perfectly fine, but Roy still got a little awkward whenever anybody brought the subject up, "Yeah, that makes sense."
"I'm really enjoying this particular novel. Tell your sisters they made an excellent choice," Riza called down. Roy had asked his older sisters to send him books periodically for him and Riza, after Riza had gotten bored with the ones already in her library. It was one of the nicest things he'd ever done to her, and Riza was incredibly thankful.
"I'll be sure to mention it in my next letter home," he replied, and smiled again. The breeze shifted, causing branches of the tree to move and allow sunlight to hit Roy's face. He brought his hand up to shield his face and squinted. Poor Roy; if Riza was going to talk to him, he shouldn't have to stare into the sun like that.
"Could you step back some? I'm going to jump down," Riza called, and Roy immediately stepped in the other direction. Riza closed the book and tossed it to him. Luckily, this time she caught him on guard and he caught it with minimal difficulty. She climbed down to the lowest branch she could before she had to jump off, and paused. Riza swung her legs off the edge to sit on the branch and in doing so, realized she was in a dress that day, "Could you also look away? My skirt is going to fly up."
Moving fast, Roy brought the book up to shield his eyes, "Thanks, Roy," Riza replied, and hopped down the last five or so feet to the ground, "You can look now," Roy brought the book down and handed it back, his face still tinged pink. Why was he blushing? He didn't do or see anything.
"So how do you like the book? I know Aubrey's obsessed with this one but she hasn't let me read it until now," Roy had just turned seventeen about a month ago, but Riza was still stuck at fourteen. If Aubrey hadn't wanted a sixteen-year-old Roy to read the novel, it didn't make much sense for Roy to give it to his younger friend before reading it himself.
"Why didn't Aubrey want you reading this? I haven't even come across anything very bad about it," Riza mused, and the two teens stepped into the sunlight.
"She just said 'I wouldn't get it until I'm older', whatever that means," Roy rolled his eyes, then looked down at Riza. It was unfair how short she was compared to him. Roy'd had a second growth spurt recently, and was now almost a whole head taller than Riza.
"Well whatever she was talking about, I'll find out soon enough," Riza shrugged as Roy kept his gaze on her face for a little too long, "What is it? Did I get dirt on me?" She asked quickly, hoping she wouldn't embarrass herself in front of Roy. Even though the two of them were becoming good friends at that point, Riza still worried about seeming normal to him.
"No, there's nothing wrong, it just…" His face turned a deeper shade of pink, and Riza was close to being mortified as to what could be on her face.
"It's just what?" Roy looked away into the distance.
"The color of your eyes is like leaves at the end of autumn, the last signs of life before winter," he said slowly, causing Riza's brown eyes to widen. That was all he had to say that was causing all this commotion?
Any proper responses eluding her, Riza replied with the first thing that popped into her mind, "My eyes are the color of dying plants?"
"What?" Roy's head snapped back around, looking nervous, "No! I mean… technically yes… But you shouldn't think of it that way! That was supposed to be a nice compliment!"
Riza felt a small blush creep its way onto her own face, "Sorry, Roy. I just… I don't know what to say to that. Nobody's ever said something like that before to me," She lowered her own gaze and focused intently on the cover of the novel in her hands.
"What? Really?" Roy asked incredulously.
"Yes. I mean, it's not like everyone who meets me decides to stare at my eyes," Riza tried to deflect any further embarrassment. It wasn't the best thing to have admitted that she wasn't very well-liked by the boys in town.
"Well they should. I like your eyes," Roy replied, "In the sunlight, they look like leaves, and when we're inside, they look more mahogany, or rust colored," How often had Roy been observing her eyes?
"Oh, um, thank you," Riza's blush was definitely visible at this point. She didn't know exactly why; Roy was just a friend, and he was three years older than her now. There was nothing weird going on between the two of them.
"You know," Riza looked up into Roy's eyes, "At first I thought yours were black, but the light brings out a little bit of blue in them."
"Really?" It seemed as if Roy had just noticed the fact now as well as Riza.
"Yeah. I think your eyes are just so dark blue that they just look black most of the time," She replied.
"I guess so…" Roy trailed off, and the two teens began walking back to the house. Roy talked about how his alchemy training was going, and Riza just listened. He always got so into whatever he was learning. It was a little cute, really, how much enthusiasm Roy had for alchemy. Riza's father was completely immersed in it, but he never babbled on about how cool it was that he was now able to fix whatever he wanted to, or talked about how alchemy impacted historical society at the dinner table. Father's face never lit up when he entered an animated conversation with someone about new formulas and equations they'd come up with. But Roy did, and his excited presence in the household helped make things a lot less lonely.
"And did you also know that Nicholas Flamel, along with perfecting a transmutation circle that carried out the chemical reaction necessary to bake a cake, was rumored to have made a philosopher's stone?" He asked, and Riza became interested.
"Father says that's just a myth. Some old bat from two hundred years ago couldn't have made that mythical gemstone," Riza was also skeptical of the validity of Flamel's findings, but it was fun to think about.
Shrugging, Roy continued on, "That wasn't his most important contribution to alchemy, though. In his second published research journal, he shared a transmutation circle that eventually led to a great population boom at the turn of the 18th century ," Roy gestured at a field nearby with a few bales of hay scattered around the edges, "His circle allowed alchemists to just activate it, and make perfect hay bales in seconds. This allowed farmers to make their crop a lot faster, and ended up having more time to grow and harvest other crops, as well as hay to feed all their animals. It led to a lot more food being produced, and subsequently, a population boom."
"Wow, Roy, I didn't know that," Riza smiled. She really did like it when he talked about history and his excitement about alchemy. The awkwardness of earlier melted away and both teens were smiling.
"You know, talking about that gave me what I hope is a better compliment than before," Roy looked down again.
"Oh, really?" Riza managed to keep a straight face this time.
"The color of your hair reminds me of the bright gold wheat that's waving in the breeze. It's basically as bright as those hay bales over there," He gave one more smile, and Riza tried again to find a good response.
"What is with you and the dead plant metaphors?" Roy's eyes widened and he stammered.
"Well... That- That was a simile! Not a metaphor! Similes use 'like' and 'as' whereas metaphors use direct comparisons!" He was blurting out words again; Riza had likely embarrassed him again without meaning to. It was strange for Roy to just babble something out without thinking about it even one bit.
"Sorry!" She blurted back. They both made it back to the house in silence, and walked inside. They took their shoes off, and Riza was the first one to speak up when she offered to help start dinner.
"I want to help too," Roy replied, and Riza reluctantly allowed him to accompany her to the kitchen. He was a guest, and she'd also just insulted his compliment skills, so she should really be the one cooking for him.
Riza set him to chopping the vegetables to go into a soup, and she picked up her resolve to make things right. It wasn't like he had meant to insult Roy, but her comments about the dead plants earlier had made him uncomfortable.
"Roy," she said, and the boy in question looked up.
"I'm sorry I insulted your compliments earlier. I know you didn't mean them in a negative way. I just don't know how to respond to them very well."
Roy smiled at her, "No, I'm sorry I kept comparing you to dead and dying plants. I thought I was being smart and suave at the time," He admitted, chopping carrots perfectly like Riza had taught him, "You don't need to apologize. Neither of us were seriously insulted or anything, so it isn't that big of a deal," He set down the knife, "The biggest issue I see here is that you haven't been complimented enough."
"I told you, it's fine," Riza replied. She wasn't used to anyone complimenting her, and she hadn't really had problems with it until today. She doubted she'd have lots of problems with it in the future.
"But it's not fine. You deserve to be complimented a lot more. And real compliments, not me just comparing you to the color of dying plants," he smiled at her and stepped a little closer.
"You're really smart, and you always seem to enjoy talking about things like history and literature, which not many people, even adults, can do," Roy smiled as he talked.
"You're insanely capable. You can shoot guns really well and hunt and cook by yourself, and you can do lots of housework and chores that I had no idea about before I came here," Riza looked up, still in silence. Her heart beat increased as she kept listening.
"You're great to talk to, because I know I sometimes just keep blabbering on about alchemy, but you listen anyways. In fact, I'm talking a lot right now, and you're still listening," Riza just went ahead and put down her own knife. Her heart was beating faster and she wanted to focus more on Roy's words.
"And Riza," Roy was blushing for the third time that day, "You're actually very pretty. I know your dad would likely kill me for saying so, but it's true and you need to hear it more often. I'm trying to come up with more ways to say it than comparing you to dead plants, but I guess those metaphors just come easily to me."
"Um, thank you," Riza squeaked, completely awestruck at hearing such nice words come out of Roy's mouth. Well, that was a bad way to put it. Roy was nice all the time, but Riza was amazed that he thought she was smart and capable and even pretty.
"I think you're smart and capable and pretty, too, Roy," Riza blurted, "And you're really nice."
Roy's eyes widened, and his "Thank you" was about as awkwardly squeaked out as Riza's. He really was cute sometimes, Riza thought.
Riza felt incredibly nervous all of a sudden thinking about exactly how cute Roy, in fact, was. His messy black hair that stuck up everywhere when he was frazzled, and his soft, yet strong jaw were very endearing and attractive. Despite being a slightly pampered city boy, Roy had somewhat muscular arms, and the one time he'd been shirtless around Riza, she'd seen some pretty good looking abs. Riza slowly picked her knife back up in her right hand and a potato in her left. She really shouldn't be thinking about this.
Both Roy and Riza's faces were red as tomatoes as they went back to chopping vegetables, and Riza's blush didn't fade away for a long time as she realized she had a big crush on her father's alchemy apprentice.