Alright. Sorry for the delay in posting. I had an etude exam yesterday, which means I have to play two etudes on the piano... including no. 12 of this collection XD Anyway, that caused me to arrive home later than on normal Sundays, and it was already late when I finished this, and my parents wouldn't allow me to use the internet. Well, at least it's still Sunday in several countries...

Big thanks to ssadropout and TheFirstTree for reviewing, and kiyomitakada for favoriting!

Disclaimer: If FMA belonged to me, we all know it wouldn't be as epic.

Lullaby

The Hawkeye Manor was a cold, big and empty place, and it was fairly normal if little children thought it a bit creepy. Riza Hawkeye used to be a child, too, and the Hawkeye Manor used to be a place she called home, and there were certain times when she considered her place of residence to be somewhat scary. It was a very large place to have two people only, really, not to mention the house had no warm atmosphere and the rooms were big. As a small child, Riza used to think there were monsters or ghosts behind the closed doors of the unused rooms. Her mother, being half-Ishballan, used to soothe her by teaching her prayers to the Ishbala and comfort her in hugs whenever she was afraid. But the prayers stopped working since her mother's death, and it was not like her father encouraged her praying at all. In fact, Berthold Hawkeye hated any form of prayer to gods. Sometimes, the darkness of the night would bring her nightmares that would keep her awake throughout the rest of the night, but she never dared to ask for comfort from her father anymore. On these sleepless nights, the thing Riza wished the most was for her mother to be alive again. Riza hated not being able to sleep, because it made her sleepy the next day, and her father was never pleased when Riza was sleepy during the day.

Riza had not entered school yet when her father took in an apprentice. She believed his name was Roy Mustang, Roy Horse or something along those lines. Although they rarely ever talked to each other, Roy's presence brought a bit of peace to Riza. The house was a little less empty with an additional person, for this older boy was always restless and he never seemed to stop speaking. That was to Riza, at least, for Roy was the person who talked the most that Riza had ever met. Not that Riza had met a lot of people, either, but still she considered Roy the most talkative person in her little world, even though he did not talk to her. Roy's presence in the house brought back a little bit of the warmth that used to be in the house a long time ago, too.

Roy's presence did little to help her at night, though. He was in a separate room from her, although right across the hall, Riza was certain her father wouldn't appreciate it if she went to Roy's room for company at night. Being the little child she was, her wild imagination allowed her to see the things adults couldn't – the ghosts of the night, the monsters of the dark, the spirits of the past. When she was younger, just recently after her mother's death, Riza was 'brave' enough to invade her father's room to ask for protection from these creatures, but her father soon expelled her with the excuses she talked in her sleep and he rarely slept in his room at all, and didn't want anyone there without his supervision. Riza would never know if she really talked in her sleep, but she never came back to her father's room after.

It was raining cats and dogs on that sleepless night. That night, Riza heard a voice from just across the hall. It was a song, to be specific. Riza had never heard the song before, but it sounded sweet and soothing. She was instantly reminded of her mother's voice, and the thought of her mother being a ghost passed her mind. But Riza, being the intelligent child she was, remembered that her mother had a beautiful alto voice, not a soft soprano like this. Charmed and rather scared, Riza continued to listen to the song, but fell asleep before the song was finished. The song had lulled her to sleep.

Riza had forgotten about the song the next morning. She remembered almost nothing about the heavy storm last night, only that she somehow managed to sleep soundly throughout the rain. Her father's apprentice was humming a soft tune as he was eating breakfast, a foreign, cheerful tune, but she paid no attention to it, to the childish soprano tone invading the silence of the kitchen.

The song from the previous night had come back that night, and the night after, and the night after that, and so on, until Riza was ten and not afraid of the dark, nor the ghosts of the night, nor the spirits of the past anymore, until her mind had matured and left all illogical thoughts aside. Riza had never forgotten the melody sung in soprano and had always considered it a mysterious lullaby that was coincidentally sung when she had needed it most.

Little did she know that it was Roy Mustang who sang the mysterious lullaby, and he only stopped singing when puberty hit him and his voice turned into a teenaged croak before finally maturing into deep baritone.

A/n: So how was it? I can't find a really good video of this on Youtube, but among the available three, I recommend the one that shows the score (can't remember who plays it). I will post number 7 in one or two hours just so there's a gap between these two, I finished it last night, too. There might be triple-updates today so that we will be on schedule.

For now... review, please!