Disclaimer: Me not own anything. If the police come after me, me not speak English. LOL! FMA belongs to the cow!

I want to say thank you to StarCatcher1858, Hina Kita, LittleMissAngel, mebh and ssadropout for your wonderful reviews!

I also want to say thank you to ssadropout for your awesome beta-reading work!


Chapter 7 – Your Life or Your Principles

July 10th, 1917

Almost two months had passed since Roy and Riza had started on their new jobs. Riza was now used to the work in the Wilkinson house, and there was really a lot to be done. Victoria liked her home to be perfectly clean, so Riza and Hope had a lot of work to do. Nancy worked mostly in the kitchen, so she couldn't help with the laundry or the cleaning much.

Today, however, even Nancy had to help with the cleaning. Victoria had found ants wandering in her beloved library, and her reaction to that was dramatic, to say the least. Ants near the collection of books she was so proud of. That might be enough to give her a heart attack. Hope and Riza had to take all the books from the bookcases and clean everything. Harold came to look for holes in the walls and on the floor where the ants could be coming from, to fill them with some ant poison that he claimed to be his own secret recipe.

They were all busy in the library when Grandma Lorraine came, looking confused at them, carrying her empty plate.

"I'm hungry," she complained.

"You just had toast, grandma," Hope said patiently. "You don't remember? I took it to your bedroom."

"No, I didn't eat it," Grandma Lorraine said in an upset voice. "The bird ate it."

Riza told Hope she could deal with that and took Lorraine to her bedroom, promising to make her more toast.

"Thank you, you're so sweet," the old lady said when Riza brought her another plate, "but that little bird will eat my toast. It hides in my bedroom and eats my food."

Riza sighed, feeling sorry for the woman. Grandma Lorraine lived in her own little world, where many things that didn't make any sense at all happened, with the sole purpose of annoying her. Some days the world was just one big conspiracy to make her upset. And a couple of weeks ago, her confused mind had invented the bird that supposedly ate the food she couldn't remember she herself had eaten.

Riza had told her many times that there was no bird, but that approach just didn't work at all.

"If you stay here you will see the bird. It's hiding because it heard your voice," Lorraine continued.

Riza had to go back to work, but Grandma Lorraine didn't want to be alone. She thought of a way of making the lady understand that the bird wasn't real, but it would sure be useless.

"I have an idea," Riza told Lorraine. "Wait a minute."

Grandma Lorraine watched with a questioning look as Riza left and came back carrying Whiskers, Aidan's fat black and white cat.

"I'll leave Whiskers here and he'll get the bird if it comes back, okay Grandma?" she told the lady.

Everyone in the house called Lorraine 'Grandma', and as Lorraine didn't appreciate changes in her routine, even Riza called her that. The lady smiled at her, happy with the idea. She liked the cat, and Whiskers was so lazy he could sleep there the whole day.

Riza joined the others at the library. Grandma Lorraine apparently stopped worrying about the bird, because she didn't mention it for the rest of the day. Once they finished cleaning the library, they had to help Nancy in the kitchen and then do the rest of the housework, now behind schedule. Harold was busy too, because there had been a storm the night before, and the strong winds had turned the yard into a chaotic mess of leaves and broken tree branches.

When Roy arrived at the end of the day, the house was still in a whirl of activity. Riza came to open the door for him, but barely had time to say hello. Dinner would be served for the Wilkinson family soon, and Nancy was going crazy. Roy was already used to the house now. He would come every evening after work and stay for a while. He usually helped a little in the kitchen and then had dinner with the staff. Victoria didn't mind that he came. She preferred that he came in than stayed outside talking to Riza, where the neighbors might see them and start gossiping.

As Riza had just disappeared into the kitchen again, he went to the laundry room to get a towel and some clean clothes. He got a shirt and stared very surprised at the light grey cotton. All the dust from the factory that had impregnated in the cloth was gone, and the shirt had its original color back.

"I can't believe this is clean again. Thank you," he told Riza, when he met her at the hall, before heading to the bathroom.

"I can't believe it, either."

Hope walked past the two soldiers, greeting Roy in a hurry.

"That's why I love you," Roy told Riza, with his most charming smile.

"They're so cute," they heard Hope say to Harold in the kitchen.

Roy used to do his own laundry, but he didn't have much time and he could never get his clothes properly clean by himself. That's why Riza often got his clothes to wash them along with the laundry she had to do anyway. Still, Roy was slightly annoyed. His Lieutenant didn't belong in a house, cleaning and doing laundry, especially his.

The hot water made him feel alive again. Evenings were the part of the day Roy liked the most and he would spend the whole day thinking about the moment he would see his Lieutenant again. They would sit down to have dinner, chatting and laughing. Harold would make some dirty joke, and Hope would try to get Roy and Riza to leave the work for them and go spend some time alone. Their arrangement had become a little bit of a problem, since Hope seemed to think they needed a little more romance in their lives.

However, Roy didn't mind the embarrassing situations Harold and Hope would get them into. He would sure be lost without Riza. Working at the factory was too damn boring, tiresome and frustrating. Maybe Grumman was right. He would probably go crazy and go back to Amestris to blow up enemy aircrafts if he were alone.

Riza was now slicing carrots for the salad, while Nancy came to inspect the slices and be sure everything was the way she liked. Nancy was quiet and shy, but she ruled the kitchen like an empress. Riza just nodded absently as the girl told her to cut narrower slices. Why did Roy have to do that? He had gotten used to making jokes like that one a few minutes before. He would say something cute and smile in a lovely way, like he found it funny to pretend to love her. At first she didn't really mind. It was just his lousy sense of humor. He was the ladies-man, with the sexy smiles and mischievous looks that made girls go crazy. And he loved the fact that their arrangement gave him the opportunity to flirt with her without running the risk of getting shot.

Soon Roy joined their battle to have dinner ready on time. He saw the big pile of dirty dishes and pans, grabbed the first apron he found and started washing them. Harold walked in the kitchen sniffing the air, pleased by the wonderful smell of Nancy's cooking. He then turned to Roy with a smirk.

"And what's with that pink lacy apron you're wearing?" he asked.

"It's the only one I found," Roy answered.

"Did you see what your husband is wearing?" Harold asked Riza.

"Yes, very cute," she said, laughing a little as Roy turned around for her to see his lovely outfit.

"What, you don't like it?" Roy asked her, laughing.

"I bet she would like it if it was the only thing you were wearing," Harold said, before laughing loudly.

They both went back to what they were doing quickly, embarrassed by the joke. Harold was terrible. Even Roy was embarrassed by his comments sometimes. Roy turned away from the sink to cough loudly, but made an effort to stop before Nancy complained.

They had dinner a little later that night and almost everybody went to bed immediately afterwards. Riza and Roy went to sit in the hall, since the train Roy took to get back to the factory would take some time to come, and he didn't like to be waiting outside for long.

Riza got the newspaper to read and didn't talk much to him. Roy could see something was bothering her. He knew her too well and could tell when she was hiding her annoyance, but this time she wasn't even trying to hide it.

"How was your day?" he asked her, trying to engage in a conversation.

"Busy. What about yours?"

Roy sighed and started complaining about the heat, the idiots who worked with him, the boss who was always telling them to work faster, the lousy food they served… The usual. His complaints never changed much. Riza listened to him with only half of her attention, since she had heard it all many times already.

"What's bugging you today?" Roy asked her.

"Nothing."

Roy thought his Lieutenant looked cute when she was mad, but he did want to know what was wrong and do something about it. He made the best lost puppy face he could and stared at her for a few seconds.

"What? You can't tell even your husband?" Roy asked, curious to see her reaction to his adorable expression, one that he used to melt girls' hearts. Back in the army he didn't have any opportunities for this kind of joke. However, he really didn't expect her to be angry.

"Roy, there's a line… and you're crossing it," she said in a low but severe voice.

"Are you angry at me? What did I do?"

"Nothing."

"You're in a foul mood today," he groused.

He wanted to be nice to her, but she wasn't making it easy.

"Yes, I am," she said plainly.

"I work in hell, sweating like mad the whole day, breathing all that dust and getting blisters on my hands and I still manage to be in a good mood in the end of the day. I don't understand what you are so angry about," he said in an offended tone, trying to hold the cough that was coming.

Riza put down the paper. Now that was just too much.

"I don't have the right to be in a bad mood?" she stormed. "You have always complained about work, here and in Amestris, whining about deadlines, ditching work until the last minute, throwing a tantrum whenever you liked, and I never said anything. For once I am in a bad mood, and you think I have no right to be?"

Her voice became progressively louder until she finished. Roy was quite surprised. He didn't expect this kind of outburst from her. She was always so level-headed. It was more than the usual scolding she gave him when he did something wrong. She was simply angry and apparently for no specific reason.

"Maybe I should go. If you're so irritated, I can have dinner at the factory tomorrow," he huffed.

"Of course, that would be so mature of you. Do whatever you want," she said, picking up the paper again.

"Fine. I'm going," Roy said hastily, standing up and walking to the door.

The moment he set foot outside, she closed the door after him with a thud. She wouldn't slam the door because the others would hear it, but she did make more noise than necessary. Roy stared at the house for a while, that feeling of indignation still burning inside him. He could see no reason for her to just bite his head off.

As he waited for the 10 o'clock train to come, he tried to remember everything they had talked about since he had arrived at the house that night. The wind blew at him, messing his hair up. The sky was clear, and the light of the stars competed with the light from the street lamps by the train tracks. He finally heard the train whistle and prepared to jump on it. The trip to the factory would take around one hour. The train was almost there, but he took a few steps back. What a jerk he had been. The locomotive passed by him and he watched the wagons go by as well. The next one would come only around half past midnight. That just wasn't right. So what if she was in a bad mood? Everybody had the right to have an outburst every now and then, and he had only made her angrier.

Riza was now lying on her bed, still awake. She had calmed down and regretted having said those things to Roy. He was an ass some times, but she was used to that already and knew he wouldn't change. There was no reason for her to be so mad at him because of that all of a sudden. And now he was going to stay at that lousy factory, where there was no hot water and the food consisted mostly of undercooked rice, potatoes and low quality tough meat.

Click

She heard something hit the window, probably a leaf blown by the wind.

Click

The same noise again. She ignored it, but soon there was a louder 'click', too loud to be made by a leaf. She got up to check it and this time she saw what hit the window. A tiny pebble made another 'click' sound when it hit the glass. She looked at the street and saw someone waving at her from the other side of the fence. She was very surprised when she recognized Roy, waving like he wanted her to let him in.

"Did you forget something?" she asked when she opened the back gate for him to come inside.

"No. Look, I'm sorry," he said, scratching the back of his head a bit shyly, ashamed of his behavior earlier. He wasn't used to apologizing and the situation was weird for him, but he felt he had to do it. He owed her a lot.

"Roy, I'm sorry I said those things. I was just tired, I didn't mean it."

"Don't apologize. I wanted to cheer you up, but I was a jerk instead. You were right. I am a pain in the butt sometimes."

Riza found herself wondering if he had a fever or something. Roy Mustang admitting he was wrong and apologizing was the biggest surprise of the day. At least so far. Without warning, he came closer and wrapped his arms around her back, hugging her. That was something he hadn't done in many years and only now Riza realized how much she had missed it.

"Will you forgive me?" his soft voice spoke at her ear.

"You silly. You missed your train just to come here? You're going to be tired tomorrow," Riza answered, gently wrapping her arms around his neck to bring him closer.

Roy couldn't help being slightly surprised that she actually hugged him back. However, maybe there was no reason for him to be. They were so used to all the formalities of working together that they had rarely allowed themselves to enjoy each other's company like they did as adolescents. Feeling a lot more light-hearted now, he tightened his grip around her back and whispered playfully, "you know I won't let go of you until you say you forgive me."

Riza laughed at his joke, thinking that if he were actually serious about that, she might not say it just to prolong that moment.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

July 11th, 1917

Ten o'clock in the morning and the soldiers were already tired. They had been up since five o'clock, looking for a journalist who had written a very offensive article against Nymbe's policies on other countries. Havoc followed the three Nymbean soldiers along the dirt road, cursing the day Fuery had disappeared. Havoc didn't even like to think of Kain. Something bad had sure happened to him, and every time he thought of the lad, he couldn't stop himself from thinking of the torture methods soldiers from Nymbe used in their interrogatories

Without the Sergeant, there were only Havoc, Breda and Falman left. The Nymbean authorities had decided to separate them, and now Havoc was under direct orders from a certain Lieutenant Colonel Silas Averay, from Nymbe, who was really determined to find as many people from the wanted lists as possible. It was a stupid mission. They had twelve soldiers, divided into three groups of four, searching all the roads originating from a small town and only to get one man.

Havoc lit another cigarette as their group reached a village where they were supposed to rejoin the other two groups. That was when a few people came out of a small local store, looked at them and got back inside quickly. Despite their effort not to be seen, the Nymbean soldiers didn't miss them.

"Ralph Sherrard!"

They managed to get the guy and pulled him rudely to the middle of the street. A woman, apparently his wife, stayed in front of the store screaming, holding on to her two small children, who cried loudly.

Lieutenant Colonel Averay forced the journalist onto his knees, not facing them, in the middle of the road that went past the village.

Havoc raised the submachine gun he was carrying and aimed at the poor man. The other two soldiers by his side did the same. Those were the orders.

"Daddy!" the two kids cried desperately, as their mother tried to cover their eyes for what was going to be another event of bloodshed. The day that family would remember forever. The proof that their home country had abandoned its people.

"Ready!" Averay yelled. "Aim!"

Loud shots were heard and the children screamed and tried to hide their faces. The blood formed large puddles on the floor. Havoc blew some cigarette smoke in the air and took a step to the side, as the blood had reached his boots. Ralph Sherrard, the journalist, was still on his knees, staring at him, very surprised. Just by Havoc's side there were three dead soldiers from Nymbe, including Lieutenant Colonel Averay.

"Get your family and get the hell out of here. The others must be coming now that they heard the shots," Havoc said coldly.

"C-come with us!" Mr. Sherrard yelled. "They'll kill you."

"I'll hold them here so you guys have a chance to escape. Just go," he insisted, tapping the ashes from his cigarette.

Maybe this way he could atone for the Nymbean orders he had followed before. Many of the people he had helped to arrest in the last few days under those orders had been executed and were now haunting him. They all had the same look on their eyes before being taken, the look of despair of people whose nation had turned its back on them.

"I am most thankful, sir. We will never forget you."

"Yeah, yeah. Just leave now," Jean said, knowing he had probably just signed the warrant for his own death sentence.

Havoc had no intention of killing the other soldiers when they came. Most of them were just kids, about 18 or 19 years old, brainwashed by patriotic speeches and convinced that they were helping their nation by killing those poor civilians. Jean had already shed enough blood for a day, actually enough for a life time.

"What happened here?" another soldier, wearing the green Nymbean uniform, asked when the second group arrived a few minutes later.

"We were attacked. I didn't see who shot us," Havoc said in a bored tone.

The Nymbean soldiers came to inspect the bodies, trying to understand from where the shots might have come. Havoc wasn't injured, but there was a lot of blood on his clothes and bullet shells on the floor. However, it was the Lieutenant's attitude that gave it all away.

"You killed them!" one of the men yelled, as the others grabbed and disarmed him.

"Yeah, well… Maybe I did," he replied with scorn, not even resisting.

His heart was beating fast, and he started to sweat nervously as he faced death another time, but now for the last one. That insanity the country had been reduced to, took not only his friends but also his reasons to fight. A man with no reason to fight had no place in this world.

"Get on your knees, you son of a bitch!"

They forced Lieutenant Havoc to kneel with his hands on his head and stood behind him, pointing their submachine guns at him.

"Any last words?"

"Fuck you all," he scoffed, without dropping the cigarette he still had in his mouth.

Havoc heard the shots, but from a long distance, and nothing hit him. He turned around and saw three dead soldiers on the floor and a fourth one trying to fight back. Another shot hit his head and he fell. If Havoc hadn't been kneeling, he would probably have been shot too.

"What the hell…"

Soldiers in blue uniforms, slightly different from the Amestrian uniform, came from behind the trees.

"We saw what you did," a bald man with a beard said, lowering his gun.

Havoc stared at them, confused for a moment, until he finally understood.

"You're rebels."

"Someone has to fight for the people," another soldier said proudly.

"You'd better leave, before the others find you."

Havoc threw the cigarette butt on the floor and stepped on it to put it out. He wouldn't run to save his life; he wanted to do something better than that. He was no coward.

"What if I also want to fight for the people?" Jean asked them.

They looked at each other and then at the bald bearded man, who seemed to be the leader.

"Then you're welcome to join us," The guy said, reaching out to shake his hand.

Havoc knew that from now on, he wouldn't have a home to which he could go back at the end of the day. Anyway, the word 'home' didn't mean much anymore, once his life had turned upside down. But even so, he wouldn't stop fighting. If not for himself, for other people. It was a way to feel alive, to feel that he hadn't betrayed Mustang, even though the General had apparently abandoned them.


A/N: Yay, we`ve finally got some romance for the Royai fans and now you know what Havoc`s been up to. Everyone`s been asking about Fuery, so I`ll tell you that I haven`t forgotten him. Don`t worry, he`ll be back eventually. Thanks a lot for reading, reviewing, favoriting and alerting! Next Friday, new chapter! See you soon!