Calculated Risk-Taker
By Nicole StormSong
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist.
Summary:A series of short RoyAi vignettes, each detailing a moment together in their…timeline. All are musings about Riza. All are Roy POV written from third person.
A/N: Roy 22, Riza 19. This takes place during the Ishval war. A moment on the battlefield.
Vignette 2: Pact
Her eyes, solemn as they were, in their ruby color, stared into space. The blood from the wound on her upper arm ebbed and flowed down satin skin as she carefully, meticulously took off her overshirt to turn into a wrap for him.
"You're bleeding" he said, his onyx eyes looking up into hers. Blood ebbed in delicate patterns down her arm, and a her fair hair, the color of sunflower petals, was slightly stained.
"You're bleeding as well. We are not in the position to state the obvious." She said calmly, coldly. It wasn't like the little girl he had known. She wasn't that girl anymore. She had turned into the visceral creature, as deadly as she was cold.
"Look, I'm not going to watch you bleed to death trying to help me." He replied in kind, his voice etched in steel. She blinked twice, then carefully, calculatedly, ripped a piece of fabric from his shirt.
He would have blushed at the brazen display. At least it would be brazen if they weren't fighting together. This was a lone wolf's war, them against some unspeakable evil they couldn't name or understand. They couldn't place it in the faces of those he killed…he couldn't place it. It was
She pushed herself up and cocked the safety of her gun back. It made a fine "click" that sounded so inhuman. The concentration on her face mirrored something primal. A wild woman with desparation and discontent. She made a well-placed shot…all clear.
"Thanks." He said numbly, not knowing that it would be one of the few moments he ever said such things.
"Don't mention it." She treated him like just another comrade. Where was the closeness, childlike but true, that had been there mere years ago. At their last parting they had hugged, as only two people who had gotten used to each other can. Then he left her behind, not knowing they would meet again, and in a hellhole such as this.
"You haven't changed a bit." She said coolly as she helped him to his feet. He looked at her, studying where time and harsh circumstances had sharpened and thinned. Her eyes were really Hawk's Eyes now, looking into the distance, watching. For what he couldn't understand but the knowledge she was around comforted him more that she knew. It would be one of the few moments she would talk to him so candidly, a mirror of the girl he once knew.
"You have." He replied, eliciting a glance.
"I know. I'm not the little girl anymore." She said, and for an instant he saw that little girl again. Opening up while still keeping secure behind the walls gradually built up. How many letters had he written to her those years apart…not many. They didn't keep in touch. Did she think he had betrayed her? No…she wasn't that petty. The last missive he had sent was to announce his passing of the State Alchemy Exam. She had replied that she herself had entered the military.
They met once again on the battlefield, at the climactic moment when he had shed the first innocent blood. The two doctors…they were brave souls, being unbiased in their treating of both sides. But to a heartless government, paranoid and racked with exhaustion, they were double agents. He killed them both in a blast of flame…so quick it seemed but a blink of an eye. She had seen him do it, and for a brief moment, horror flashed in her eyes.
He considered suicide after that incident, but she met him again just before he pulled the trigger on a gun he had barely used. She slapped it out of his hands and swore she would turn a gun on him herself if he even tried. She seemed to see him at his worst, showing a man demonic…and a man broken.
They couldn't trust each other with words any longer. No words could be exhanged as they ran out, shooting and burning and killing…murderers in a game where there could be no 'right thing'. How could you comfort someone who had killed without reason to? How could you say "it's okay" to someone who had spilled innocent blood? Everything was wrong and nauseating. Hell and death and pain and this long drawn-out military campaign.
Together, they were still children…young and confused. They exchanged looks…plaintive yet strong. It spoke a myriad of words. "Sorry." "Nice to see you again." "This is hell." Phrases they would never speak aloud for the fear of getting close. Of getting caught. Of getting caught being close. They could never be those two children again. It would never again be the same. And nothing could be changed.
Nothing could be improved. At least, not now.
It
was in the heat of the Ishvallan afternoon that Roy Mustang promised
he would reach the top, to make it somewhere where he would never
have to do something so inhuman just to follow orders. To change
things. And it was also where Riza Hawkeye swore she'd be right
alongside him to back him up. And for a moment, they were those
children again
Nicole's Notes: This time there's a bit more RoyAi…but not enough for you fanatics I'm sure. Deal with it, it's the best I can do.
