Riza Hawkeye sat on the floor of the study, pensively observing her father's pupil as he furiously scribbled alchemical arrays onto his notebook. She remembered not having particularly liked him at first – just another kid, another boy – probably a lot like the ones at school, she figured.

Over the course of the past year however, she had discovered that this wasn't true in the slightest. He had never made fun of her, never hurt her – and most importantly, he had never ignored her. In fact, he seemed eager to do everything in his power to befriend her. Befriend – yes, Riza supposed she could call it that.

"Hey, Roy?" she called softly from where she sat on the dusty rug, waiting for him to look up at her. He sighed heavily, pushing strands of black hair over his forehead and out of his eyes.

"Give me a minute. Master Hawkeye's gonna incinerate me if I don't finish this," he said, keeping his head bent over the papers.

"You've been working all afternoon," she remarked casually after a second of silence. He didn't reply, and instead flipped the next page of his book rather forcefully – nearly tearing it off.

"The sun's gonna set soon…" she continued, her voice as level as always. Roy slowly dropped his pencil on the desk and raised his head to look out past the window. He frowned when the sun's position in the sky confirmed Riza's statement for him.

"Okay, fine," he relented, pushing his chair back with a screech as its feet dragged against the hardwood floor. Riza smiled victoriously – she had learned rather quickly that it didn't take much to distract Roy from work. She then followed him to the door with a rather enthusiastic jaunt in her step.

"I'll wait here while you change," she told him once they reached the top of the stairs. At that Roy glanced nervously down the hall towards the door to his room – only one away from Master Hawkeye's.

"Don't worry, he took his medication – he's asleep now," Riza reassured him before he could voice a protest.

"Okay," he replied, turning to her again. "Just watch my back."

He waited until he saw her nod before making his way down the hall, all the while feeling her eyes follow his every movement.
When he returned, he had replaced his pants with swim trunks – and Riza was still standing where he had left her, watching carefully over him in case her father were to wake. Hawk-eyed indeed, Roy thought to himself. She almost looked protective when her eyes were fixed on him like that.

"Alright then," he said through a smile, "Let's go."

"Just keep quiet until we're out of the house," Riza whispered as she followed him down the steps.

"I know, I know," he breathed even as his feet sent the stairs creaking under his weight. Riza couldn't help but smile – his stubborn idiocy was quite endearing, really.

Once they had stepped outside, Roy shut the door as quietly as possible – and then they were off, running along the dirt path over the hill, and heading down to the lake hidden behind the trees. It was their retreat, their getaway – a place where they could enjoy the pleasure of being kids without Berthold monitoring their actions, dictating their time spent side by side.

There was something absolutely conspiratorial that Riza loved about it all – the way they snuck away without a sound, the way they then jumped about in the water, the way they talked and the way he made her smile and the way she managed to deadpan jokes and still make him laugh. And then they'd walk home at sundown as slowly as possible – clinging on to time until they couldn't drag the evening out any longer.

These were the tiny moments Riza remembered as the highlights of her childhood – the time spent with her father's apprentice. Somehow he managed to ward off the loneliness she didn't even know she harbored – he filled some sort of void she hadn't even been aware needed filling with his presence.

She wondered – on evenings like these – if this was what it meant to have a friend. She had never really had one before – only acquaintances of varying degrees at school – and didn't know if this was what it was supposed to feel like.
She only knew that she was happier than she had ever remembered being when he was by her side – and that she would trade anything in the world to keep him there. He made her feel complete.

Friends.

She would mull the word over in her mind, knead it into her head. It made her feel warm just thinking about it – about him. Because among the many other roles he would later take on in her life, Roy Mustang would always be Riza Hawkeye's first friend.