Note: When I published this story, I did say that it would just be oneshots from the Winter Soldier AU, not chapters which go in chronological order. With that said, this part is something I posted on tumblr a while ago but then edited and tweaked it so I could post it as a chapter here. This takes place a couple years after the previous chapter. Please review!


"I know you were the one who pulled me from the river," She stiffened at the statement, only the fingers of her vibranium arm twitching- caught between wanting to hide from the man looking at her and inching toward the window for an escape. She knew he would be fast enough to catch her if she did run, and that she wouldn't be able to hurt him even if she wanted to, but he was too close. He was looking at her, in the same room as her, and she wasn't ready to face him yet. She didn't know if she would ever be ready to face him after everything she did.

Roy shouldn't have come looking for her, because she didn't know what she still might do. She had no way of knowing how much of what HYDRA put in her head remained there, and what time the programming would rear its ugly head when she was around him. Whatever misplaced sentimentality had possessed him to come here and search for her should have been unimportant when compared to what kind of danger such action could cause. Last time they'd met face to face, she'd inflicted on him wounds she knew a normal person would have died from five times over.

Five times for the five bullets she'd put in his body.

But then again, Roy Mustang had always been like this. Always too stubborn to let go, always willing to do whatever it took to protect the people he cared about. Too blinded by his own emotions to give up on someone, no matter how hopeless their case may be. It was painful knowing that in most cases, he even made it work out in the end, but there was nothing he could do to help hers.

"Please say something," He took a step closer to her, hand empty and outstretched, and she in turn tried to control her breathing, "Please, Riza."

She hated the look in his eyes. The look that was begging and pleading and comforting- that still held the same amount of love in it as it did over seventy years ago. Love she wanted to destroy and dismiss because she didn't deserve it anymore. Not after how much she had hurt him, and how many people she had killed without even batting an eye. Not when she didn't even know if she was in control of her own mind half the time.

But it had been so long since she had seen his eyes, so long since he had looked at her with anything other than shock and pain on his face, that when he took another step closer, and then another, she could just stand there and watch him with her own wide eyes. No matter how wrong she knew it was for him to be this close to her, she had to admit to herself that being close to him was something she desperately missed. Almost a century of horrors had done nothing to change the fact that she was still in love with Roy Mustang.

She missed the feeling of his arms around her, of his heart beating steadily and his chest rising and falling with every breath. She missed the feeling of her hands in his hair, of his hands in hers, of her lips on his, and his fingers running up and down her back. She missed how safe, and content, and actually happy she felt whenever she was with him.

And with her mind caught, confused between wishing she could hold him closer and running away as far as she could in order to keep him safe, Roy made the choice for her, and closed the distance between them until she was in his arms.

"Riza…" She couldn't see his face anymore, but she could feel his hands shaking ever so slightly, and his warm breath on her neck, and her better judgement flew away, "Riza."

The logical part of her brain screamed at her to get away, but she dismissed it, selfishly wishing for more time with the man who used to be her lover. She wanted to be with him one last time before the lovestruck illusion wore off and he realized that she was a dangerous, broken-down shadow of the woman she once was.

But she would give herself this one moment. This one last, magical moment with the only person whose arms felt like home, and who had been stupid enough to seek out an assassin he'd known when she was just a girl hoping she could do the right thing for her country. What some monsters in a lab had turned her into now was far from that idealistic young girl, but for one last moment, she could pretend.

Then she could do her self-proclaimed duty of keeping Roy safe, and putting as much distance between him and her as she could. Even though being around him made the cloudiness in her memories begin to clear out, she still didn't know what she might do to him when it came back.

So she brought her own arms up around him, hands clenching tightly into his shirt, and finally found the strength to speak to him. "Roy," Her breath hitched as she said his name, the first time out loud in so long, "I'm sorry."