Disclaimer: I don't own FMA:B. If I did, Izumi would teach Yoga on the weekends.

4. Quills

He was going to find whoever had convinced him that porcupines were friendly. He was going to find them, and he was going to kill them.

"It really doesn't hurt that badly, Mustang," Riza commented with forced nonchalance. She didn't move, though. She couldn't. Sores, left by quills that were moments ago embedded in the bottoms of her feet, prevented any attempts at a quick retreat. Watching her trembling chin, he suspected she had to hate being rendered immobile even more than she despised being doted on.
"Do you want Berthold to think I'm totally useless? He'll kick me out for letting you get beat up by a porcupine." The damp rag found its way to her heel, soaking away any residual aches. It was a pathetic attempt at helping her feel better, he was sure, but Roy felt personally responsible for the girl's well-being. Squeezing her hand, he yanked the last quill from her soft, little feet. "You didn't have to follow me, though. I would have been fine."
Riza grimaced at the sudden pain. "But you'd never seen a porcupine before, and those boys had convinced you that the quills were soft and that they made good house-pets. Though I don't get how you could believe that in the first place, you know they're mad that you got chosen as his apprentice, so really, anything they tell you is probably some form of sabotage...and you need your hands for alchemy, so if they had gotten injured by the quills, father would have kicked you out anyway for being useless. I'm not important enough for him to worry about, so it's really better tha–"
"Okay, okay, fine." Sighing heavily, he began to wrap the offending wounds. Hopefully, there wasn't an infection. "And as a result of all that, you followed me and kicked the porcupine away from me before I could grab it. Thanks, I guess. I still wish you hadn't have gotten hurt, though."
"...wait," He looked up, questioningly, meeting tense, amber eyes. "Did you say you're not important?"

The adamant stare faded and was hidden behind thick golden eyelashes. "Well, he doesn't needme, and I'm not good at alchemy, so yes. It's not a big deal."

Roy stared at her incredulously before cupping her pale cheeks in wet hands. "Don't say that."
"Don't say w-"
"That you're unimportant. I think you're important."
Midnight black settled on a honey-wheat field. Riza struggled for a moment against the sudden embrace, but Roy refused to pull away. "We're friends. I don't care what your father thinks." He said firmly.

"You're important. You're important to me."

Author's Comments: LITTLE ROY AND RIZA -screams- Y U SO CUTE THO.
I didn't have Riza call Roy "Mr. Mustang", because this was presumably before he left for the military. I feel like she probably started calling him that after he returned from training as a symbol of how far she felt from him all of a sudden. Cries.
Before that, it was probably "hot-head" and "horse-boy".

Reviews are appreciated.