AN: Creative liberties were obviously taken on this, given the time period.

She was only fifteen. Something about those amber eyes told him to stay away, but he couldn't avoid it. Elizabeth Hawkeye had the temper of a flame, and notably so because of her father. She feared him, and it was probably within good reason. Though Roy lived with the family, he had never seen Berthold raise a hand to his daughter. Yet for some reason, she was still terrified of him.

Always quiet, vigilant, and knowing her place, Elizabeth (affectionately adopting the term Riza from Roy), was every bit a woman. Despite her age, she acted like a lady, which may or may not have been due to her mother's upbringing and her father's negligence in her life.

Roy stayed away from her at all costs. The agreement was that if he studied under Berthold's command, he wasn't allowed to fall in love with his daughter. And he was very careful about making sure not to do so. How could he? She was so cold to him anyway.

Almost three months after moving in and starting to study under Berthold, Roy got a wild idea to go on a hunt for some herbs. He vaguely remembered seeing some down by the creek on Rochester road, but there was a sign that read "no trespassing". He would have to go alone; there was no reason to drag anyone else into this mess – regardless of Maes Hughes offering his help.

What he wasn't aware of was the young blonde following behind him, keeping her distance, and quietly observing his actions. She had been curious; Riza wasn't allowed to leave her house. Her father never allowed her to go out. Roy wouldn't have asked her to go with; why would he? He didn't like her anyway. Her amber eyes followed him, observing the sign before seeing him carefully climb over the fence and into the yard.

She stopped at the top of the road, watching him as he sauntered into the garden. "You're going to get in trouble!" She shouted, glaring down at him. "Daddy's gonna kill you!"

"You're supposed to be at home!" He screamed, scared to death of the sudden voice in the darkness of the night. "Go home, Elizabeth!"

"No! If I got home, you'll get into even more trouble! What are you doing down there, anyway?" Her eyes landed on the cluster of flowers in his hand. Herbs. "You could have asked daddy to let you into his herb garden!"

"If you're going to keep drawing attention to me, then come down here where we won't get caught!" She carefully climbed over the fence, her shirt getting stuck on the top. He grumbled something and climbed up the hill, helping her over the gate. "You're so clumsy. Why did you follow me?"

"…I was bored." She shrugged, following down the hill. "What are you gathering anyway?"

"Thyme and sage. I need them for…cooking purposes." He frowned and looked at her, seeing her stifle a giggle. "Don't laugh at me. I like cooking."

The flash lights shining down the hill shook her from her thoughts. Up on the road, a few foot soldiers had started to do rounds, having heard the commotion. Damn girl got him in trouble again! He quickly put his hand over her head and pushed down slightly. "Stay down. You're not going to jail with me."

"Jail? Why would you go to jail?"

He looked up, motioning to the large grounds ahead of them. "This is the Furor's mansion; didn't you notice where you were?"

"I've never been outside…except to go to the market…" Her amber eyes gazed at the mansion in shock. "It's huge."

"We know you're down there!" The foot soldiers yelled, shining the light at her. She jumped slightly, but he held her down again. "Come out and you won't get in trouble!"

"Roy, what do we do?"

"Stay quiet and they won't notice us. Maybe they'll think it's just a rat."

"We saw you go down there!" The first one shouted again, shining his light in Roy's general direction. The gate was opened in the next instant, and in what seemed like only a few minutes, the soldiers were closing in on them with nowhere else to run.

"Run!" Riza whispered with authority, shoving him towards the gardens. "Just…run! I'll come up with something – say I fell or something. Just go. Daddy will kick you out if you get in trouble!"

"You're delusional! I'm not leaving you here. He'd kill me!" A pause. "Shit, what am I going to do?"

A few breaths passed before she looked at him with worried amber eyes. "I'll distract them."

Before she could get up to react, he grabbed her wrist, pulling her towards him. "You'll do no such thing."

"Then run! They're going to be here any minute, and I'm not bailing you out of jail!" She shrieked.

"Go back up the hill, try to outrun them. I'll take the hit. You can't afford to." Before he could move, the two soldiers were standing in front of them, cuffs dangling from their hands. "I, uh…hi, officer." His blue eyes turned to the left where Riza had just been standing, but she was already darting off towards the road. He almost considered cheering her on, until one of the soldiers tackled her down to the ground. He winced as they put the cuffs on him, suddenly worried about her.

"I'm just a kid!" She screamed her voice shrill in the stillness of the night. "I'm only fifteen! Come on, let me go and I promise it won't happen again!"

The officer threw Roy into the car first, glaring at the blonde who was fighting back. "Mustang, you sure caused a ruckus this time, didn't you?"

He leaned forward and smiled; "Call Christine and have her pick me up…or Selena. One of them will be up at this hour, I'm sure."

"Not your first trip in a cop car, I'm assuming." The other officer inquired, looking to the blonde and pushing her toward the door. "I'm not surprised; your name carries a lot of misdemeanors.

"What can I say, a kid gets bored."

"Weren't you supposed to be doing community service with that Hawkeye guy? Why did you run away from this house?" Then he studied the blonde. "You must be Hawkeye's kid."

"I promise it won't happen again. Just let us go. I'll keep an eye on him, I promise. Please just let us go. I can't afford this on my record; I'm trying to get into school." Riza pleaded. Her attempt was in vain as the officer helped her into the car. Leaning out the open door, she tugged on one of the officer's sleeves. "Hey, I saw you were smoking. Can I bum a light off of you? Might as well add that to my list of things I did wrong tonight. Become a rebel, you know?"

In the next instant, the door slammed shut, leaving the two in silence while the men discussed how to handle the situation.

"…misdemeanors." She murmured, looking towards Roy.

The older boy shrugged. "I'm eighteen; I was orphaned for ten of those years. I've done a lot worse than breaking and entering."

"Like what?" She inquired, leaning back slightly. If she was in this for a while, she might as well get comfortable. "Anyway, I thought you hated me, why did you try to protect me?"

"You thought /I/ hated /you/? I thought it was the other way around. You were always so…bitchy towards me. Like you owned the place or something. I wasn't overstepping my boundaries by moving in, I hope, because you acted like I was a stray off the street. Like your father did this all the time." When she asked why he protected her, he smirked. "You're only fifteen."

"I'll be fine," She grumbled, amber eyes slanting at him. "I can't believe I got arrested."

"I'm sorry." He sighed. "You didn't deserve this."

A series of giggles erupted from her lips as she leaned forward, laughing hysterically. "Are you kidding me? This is the most exciting thing I've done since mama died. I don't think I've been outside sine she died. Daddy wasn't going to let you move in, but he said I needed a good /positive/ influence in my life. I really don't think you would be the one to bring that to my life."

"You're laughing."

"Yeah, because you're so dumb sometimes, it's painfully funny." She replied, stifling a giggle.

"Dumb! I would say I'm pretty damn smart. If you hadn't interrupted me, I would have gotten away with that, too." He folded his legs and leaned towards her. "And you're just a stupid girl."

"A list of misdemeanors and the worst you can come up with is 'stupid girl'? Be creative. We're already in handcuffs, might as well add to our list."

"Are you always like this?" He inquired, poking her with his elbow. "You know, taunting people and trying to run away from the law…despite your father being the law?"

Her amber eyes zoned out a bit and she frowned. "I wasn't always reckless, no. But I figured if I had a partner in crime; why not give it a shot? I didn't think you'd let me be arrested, but I can't say it was all bad."

"Elizabeth Hawkeye, you are one crazy lady."

"Think of the stories we could tell." She laughed again. "I'll take the first guy if you take the second one. I bet we could do it. What do you think? I'll kick his shins and then sock him in the jaw."

"No. Plus, once the doors are closed, they're locked. So we're stuck in here until they let us go." He /did/ know that from his experiences with the law before. He smiled ever so softly at the girl, knowing that he was too far gone to even let her get into trouble now. Even if he had to make a plea bargain with the Furor, he wouldn't let her go down with him. She was too…sweet for that.

"Rats. Well, I guess we should just enjoy our night in the slammer, then." But before she could get comfortable, she heard the door open on his side. The officer pulled him out rather roughly, but Roy didn't seem to pay much mind.

"Christine says she'll pick you up at Hawkeye's house. If it happens again, you're going to prison. You're eighteen; we'll try you as an adult."

Roy gave a thumb up and nodded to the officer, his famous grin on his face. "Got it, officer. What about the girl?"

"They're letting her go because she's Berthold's daughter, but if she does it again, she'll spend the night in prison. We won't be notifying her parents. You're both free to go."

As they took the cuffs off, Riza began to walk towards the house. Roy followed shortly after, having been lectured about his willingness to get a child arrested. He stopped beside her, his blue eyes staring at her. "You were really going to take the blame for me?"

"Yeah, I knew they'd let me go. But you'd get arrested again. I was just gonna tell them you were trying to get me out of trouble," She shrugged. "But they let us both go anyway."

"Thanks." He smiled ever so gently.

"I'd follow you into hell if you asked me to."

"Well that was random." He switched so he was walking in front of her, walking backwards as he watched her.

"Now is probably a bad time to admit I have a crush on you…and that's why I followed you."

"Aww," He ruffled her hair. "How adorable, mini Hawkeye. Yeah, I'll keep you out of trouble if you keep me out of trouble. Deal?"

She smiled and offered her hand. "Deal. Let's break into somewhere else!"

Shoving her towards the house, he shook his head. "No, no we shouldn't."

And that was the story of how Roy Mustang fell in love in the back of a cop car.