Chapter 2

"And there he is…finally." Maes commented as he met Roy in front of the entrance of the university. He wanted to say more, but the purple bags under his friend's eyes that were the proof of an exhausting night, drew his attention. "You spent the whole night in the pub again?"

Roy rolled his eyes. They had had so much to study during the last few weeks that he could hardly remember how the pub even looked like. "Considering the nerd you are, Roy, I bet that, in fact, you wrote essays the whole night." He added and laughed amused by the serious expression upon his friend's face as they were walking down the long corridors crowded with students.

"Yes, I did." He lied. There was no way he could tell Hughes about the fact that a young woman was sleeping in his flat. He would assume all kind of things which Roy couldn't tolerate because of the mood he was in. There were just so many details to think about-

"Short answers, huh? You're a terrible liar. What were you up to last night?" Hughes questioned him further and punched him in the shoulder.

"I've been studying, Hughes." He replied with a hint of annoyance.

"What exactly?"

"The chapter that deals with bullet wounds." He answered quickly realizing that it wasn't a lie at all. Maes scanned him circumspectly.

"Whatever. You need a break and you are fortunate enough to have me as your friend. How about we watch some movies, order some pizza and drink all you have in your fridge tonight?" He suggested excitedly as they entered a large course room.

"Why has it to be my fridge? We can stay in your flat as well." Roy replied trying to suggest that there was no way they could use his place.

"Well, let's see why. Your flat is three times bigger than mine and most of your neighbors consists of cute girls."

"Are you always thinking about girls? Wait. Don't answer to that." He stopped him. "What are actually the chances of you having a relationship with Gracia?"

"Well, they would be totally zero if we spent the night at my place. I will be at 8 at your door." He added with his usual smile spread across his lips. Roy sighed as he took a seat in his desk and buried his head into the book that was opened in front of him. He had to keep Riza as a secret. She wouldn't have liked either that other people knew where she was.

During his way home he kept rehearsing how to tell Riza that one of his colleagues was visiting that night. He didn't want to make her feel bad or awkward for being there. He opened the door of the apartment and his thoughts vanished as the warm and delicious scent of a cooked meal met him. Food? He was monthly buying things necessary for cooking but he was never using them. Since he had started the university he had kept himself alive by eating semi-prepared foods…but this?

He entered the kitchen and found Riza stirring in a pot.

"Hi." He said taken aback by the food that was laying on the table.

"Oh, hi." She flinched taken aback by his return. "I hope you don't mind that I…"

"No way, but you needn't have done all of this, you were supposed to rest." He said as he closed the distance between them and looked curiously at what she was cooking.

"I owe you a lot for…uh…last night so here's a part of my appreciation, I guess." She added awkwardly.

"Thank you, Riza." He said as he sat down and noticed that she was about to leave the room. "Where are you going?"

"Umm, well, you might-"

"Need someone's company? I do." He ended her phrase and gestured to her to join him. Aside from the occasional nights with his friends, he was feeling quite lonely in that big flat. He wandered if that could be the reason for not eating cooked meals. Probably they would make him feel even more lonely. She complied shyly.

"I wanted to ask you…if it's not too much, to drive me home to take some clothes and money. I don't want to use all your T-shirts." She replied looking at what she was wearing. It had conferred her the feeling of security though.

"No worries, but can we do that tomorrow? This evening a friend of mine is coming here and I really tried to stop him from auto inviting himself but-"

"You don't have to explain that to me. Just because I'm staying here doesn't mean that you have to shape your life around that, but I know what you're getting at. For the moment I don't really want people to know where I am."

"Yeah." He agreed. "That's why I will ask you to stay quiet in my bedroom. We'll stay in this area." He said gesturing to the kitchen and the living room. She nodded. She knew how to be quiet.

"Riza."

His eyes met hers. Just as empty as yesterday. She was going to be safe with him, she shouldn't have doubt that, he simply knew it. "I missed your meals." He said and showed her one of his warm smiles.

"Thank you." She averted his eyes from his. The safety and appreciation were feelings that she still wasn't used to, so she didn't really know how to react to them.

"You can take this in case you got bored of that." He handed her a new shirt and some loose pants. "Maes is going to be here in five, so, I'm sorry to leave you alone."

"Stop apologizing." She replied and added something that he didn't understand. Seeing his arched eyebrow, she cleared her throat and explained. "I said that this room makes me feel safe."

"Oh, nice." He added taken aback by her comment. She was expressing what she was feeling. That was an improvement. He left the room and soon she could hear faintly the loud noises of Roy's friend. Thing that reminded her of Rebecca. She had to call her, but her phone was home, full of missed calls and texts from her probably.

She decided to take a shower. She needed to clear her mind after the last 24 hours. Yesterday by this time she was lying in her own puddle of blood and now here she was. The bedroom had its own bathroom aside from the on from the hallway, so she didn't need to go outside the room. She stepped into the shower and shivered at the feeling of the hot water against her body. Of course, Roy had mentioned before that if she wanted to take a shower, to be careful about her wound because it was still fresh. Even though he was most of the time trying to be funny, talkative and seemed quite childish, he became very serious when it came to anything related to medical stuff.

After a time, she stepped out of the shower and dried herself with the towels that Roy had earlier given her. She examined her back in the mirror across the bed. How ironic it was that the bullet had missed the tattoo. She sighed and without realizing it, she picked up his shirt and buried her face into it. She flinched awkwardly at her own gesture, the subtle scent of aftershave remaining imprinted on her mind.

She dressed up. Of course everything looked loose on her, but she couldn't care less. She closed the distance between herself and the window and took a look outside. She heard the two boys laughing loudly. The city was sparkling brightly into the night. She could tell that she was indeed far from home, but somehow didn't miss it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the creak of the door. She froze staring at the intruder and he did the same, his cheerful expression slowly turning into a confused one. The memory of the murderer who had broken into her house a day before flashed through her mind and she hugged herself instinctively

"W-who are you?" Maes finally decided to speak. Riza shook her head and stepped back until her back was pressed against the cold window. "Hey, Roy, did you know that there's a blonde girl in your bedroom?" He shouted to his friend down the hall.

A second later, Roy was standing in the doorframe with a panicked expression upon his face. "Weren't you going to the bathroom, Maes?" Was all he could murmur and sighed thinking about what he was supposed to say.

"I got lost." He replied. "Won't you introduce the lady to me?"

"Oh, yes." Roy said as an idea flashed through his mind. He walked towards her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, careful not to touch the wound. Riza wondered if he was obsessed with aftershave as she resisted to free herself from the grip against the side of his body. "This is my cousin, Elizabeth."

"Who-" She murmured and froze the second time that evening.

"Oh…your cousin? Why are you keeping her closed here like Rapunzel? Why didn't you tell me she was here?" Maes scolded Roy playfully as he presented himself. "I'm Maes."

She shook his hand reluctantly, her body still being pressed against Roy's one.

"She's staying here for a while. And I didn't want to tell you about her because you want every girl you meet to become your girlfriend. She's my cousin and I couldn't allow you to think of her like that."

Riza resisted the urge to roll her eyes. How could he invent a whole story in less than two minutes?

"Well, that makes sense." Hughes admitted. "Join us for a drink."

"Sorry, I don't drink." She moved Roy's arm away from her shoulders. "You two can return to your stuff." She tried to suggest friendlily.

"Yeah, right." Roy replied as he guided Hughes out of the bedroom. "Good night." he whispered with a glimpse of apology in his dark eyes.

"See you around, Elizabeth!" Hughes shouted from down the corridor after the door was closed. She sighed feeling something heavy crushed upon her. She sat on the bed and hugged her knees to her chest. Elizabeth? Huh, it was better anyway than having someone else knowing who she was and what she was doing there. How nice of Roy to invent such a story only because he knew she would feel safer. Soon, she rested her head on the pillow and fell asleep still hearing the cheerful noises from the other room.

When she opened her eyes sleepily, she noticed that the whole room was flooded with light from outside. She was surprised that she had slept for so long as she searched with her eyes the clock on the wall. 10.30. After all, she shouldn't have been so taken aback. She had had so many nightmares last night that she had managed to fall asleep soundly only at 5 o'clock. She went towards the bathroom to wash her face and teeth and then headed towards the kitchen.

He was for sure at courses at that time. She noticed one of his medical books on the kitchen counter and before she could start making coffee, she picked it up and looked through it. She arched an eyebrow at something that caught her attention. On the corners of the pages there were all kinds of alchemical symbols and through some pages, there were even notes that didn't have the medicine as topic.

"' morning."

The book fell out of her hands as she heard Roy's voice coming from the doorframe. She looked at him with widened eyes just like a child who had been caught eating cookies from the jar.

"Sorry…" She apologized quickly as she picked up the book and put it where she found it and stepped back until her back hit the counter.

"No, I'm sorry for scaring you." She was so tense, damn. "You can look through my books if you want, it's not like they are personal or something."

She nodded shortly. What the hell was he doing home? And how stupid could she have been not to see him sleeping on the couch in the living room when she walked through to reach the kitchen?

"You don't have classes?" She asked not wishing to sound at all as if she was scolding him for being in his own flat. He frowned and ruffled his already messy hair.

"It's Saturday. Or at least, I hope it is." He answered shortly. She pressed a palm against her forehead. She wasn't even able to tell what day it was, great. A total mess. She wanted to scold herself. How could she, the organized, mature and responsible Riza Hawkeye not know what day it was? "Sorry, I swear I'm not always like that." She replied as she was preparing the coffee. She didn't even know why she was apologizing to him.

"That's fine. It's nice to see human sides of you sometimes." He added before he could stop himself. He just wanted to turn back the time and take back all he had said. During his apprenticeship, he had never seen any kind of emotion upon her face or any kind of character. She was a quiet girl that was simply obeying all that her father was saying. She used to show no emotion at all or to seem sad, but something beyond the usual sadness. She totally wasn't as cheerful and noisy as the girls of her age. And now, like an idiot he was, he had pointed that out to her. "I didn't mean to offend you, sorry, it was stupid of me to-"

"That's ok." She sighed. "It's strange for me too to remember that I'm human. I can't blame you." She added as she shrugged and watched the coffee heating up on the stove. He didn't want to open such a sensitive topic, mainly because she still wasn't over the incident from two days ago.

"Also, I'm sorry about Maes. I know you didn't want to be discovered."

"I wasn't." She replied as she poured the coffee in two mugs. "Your cousin Elizabeth was."

He huffed amused as she handed him his mug. Their finger touched and she averted his eyes from him. He spoke again trying to make the awkward silence vanish away. "I'll drive you home so you can get your things, alright?"

She nodded.