This was done for prompt 60 of the FMA_Fic_Contest. It didn't win. Oh well.
Title: A Father's Love
Author: Seaweed_FMA
Series: Manga
Word Count: 980
Rating: PG for some icky stuff
Characters: Riza Hawkeye and her father
Summary: For her father, she would do anything.
Warnings: Spoilers for parts of Riza's childhood.
All Riza could do from the couch was watch the flowers on the windowsill wither and die. With a chuckle, she realized how appropriate that was in her crumbling shamble of a house.
Only small fragments of memories remained about her mother- what she looked like, what she smelled like, how her smile made the room feel a little bit warmer, no matter what the location or the situation.
Her mother was dead, and her father was rotting from the inside out. Physically he was still strong. But mentally, he was dying- she could see it. He spent more time locked up in his study than eating or sleeping- she had to practically force him to eat.
And now that she was stuck on her stomach for who knows how long, she was worried that he was going to die of starvation. She was the only one who ever cooked, so she had no idea if he was even capable of making anything for himself. For now, she was stuck, trying not to move. Every tiny body shift sent waves of pain up her back, radiating to every single nerve in her body.
So she lay there still, wishing for something other than... all of this. Riza shifted a little and the pain was there, like an old familiar friend, unwanted but always around. It had only been a couple of days ago when all this started, when her life was forever changed.
She wasn't even sure why she agreed to it. He was her father, and as much as he was emotionally distant to her, he was the only family that she had, and she would do anything for him. He had explained to her in depth about what would happen, tried to prepare her. But she had already decided that she was going to say yes before he had even started. She would do anything to get her father back to the way that he was- to get him to love her again. And if her agreeing to the tattoo would do it, then maybe things could go back to the way they had been. She knew this was the desperate thinking of a lonely girl, but it was all she had.
It had almost tickled, when he drew the array on her back with some sort of permanent marker. Some little part of her had hoped that would be it, the ink would soak into her skin and then it would be over.
But it was only the beginning.
Pain, like a million bee stings clouded her vision and she was close to throwing up. The pain radiated across her back, spreading like a virus to every part of her, Her whole body felt like it was being violated, marked, scarred. She would never be able to show a boy her bare skin. She would never wear a low slung wedding dress. For the rest of her life, she would be hidden,away from the world.
It was a welcome relief when she finally passed out.
He was still working on her when she came to again, thankfully she was still groggy from coming to that she didn't startle him as she looked over her shoulder at him, and his needle stayed on course, never straying from the ultimate goal.
There was a window close enough that she could watch the sun rise, and then start to fall back down towards the horizon. And still she lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness, her endorphins having long since faded . Her body was so tired and numbed, and she was so emotionally drained, that everything was just a hazy blur.
She had somehow drifted into an uneasy sleep when she heard him announce that he was done.
"Stay. I'm going to get some ointment to rub on it, then you can sleep here." She chuckled to herself. It wasn't like she could go anywhere. She was afraid to move, even though her limbs had long since gone numb. Riza wished that he had done this in her bedroom, so she could sleep in her own bed, but she was sure that she was a bloody mess, so she was relegated to some old, raggedy blankets thrown over his father's ratty couch right outside his study.
Her father applied the cream, bringing pain back into the forefront of her mind, but it was over in few moments, and he left her again.
"Is... there anything you need? Some water?" Riza doubted that she could keep much of anything down right now, so she shook her head. Her eyes canted over to the flowers on the windowsill. They were already starting to die. She was the only one who ever watered them, and she had no idea when she was going to be mobile again. It was so hard to keep anything alive in this dreary place, but she relegated herself to the fact that by the time she could get to them again, they would be dead.
Riza shut her eyes again. It was inevitable that she was going to have to move, and the pain was going to be excruciating, but for right now, it was a dull, aching throb that was almost manageable. All she could hope was that she could drift off to sleep again, and maybe when she woke up it wouldn't be quite so bad.
Despite the dying flowers and the crumbling house.. it was that hope, even if it was desperate, that she had left.