Royai Collection
Chapter 7
Memories
"I made you more coffee." Riza walked into the dark study and saw Roy's head lying on a book. His eyes were closed, his mouth slightly open and a light snore escaped his skinny body. She frowned at her father's apprentice who was struggling to work out some theory and gave up on sleep in order to do so by the deadline her father had set. She set the carafe down and went over to pick up a blanket from the shelf, then walked over to drape it over his scrawny shoulders. She looked down at the old text and realized that he was drooling a little on the old brittle pages, her father would pitch a fit if he saw water stains on his precious books.
Riza slipped her hand under his forehead and lifted him up so she could slip the book out from under him. Successful she set him back down on the table and blew gently on the book to help it dry. Thankfully none of the older ink was blurred and the young alchemist would avoid another lecture from her father about being careless with priceless books. She set the book down on the table and blew out the light.
Roy blinked awake as soon as he smelled the smoke from the extinguished candle. He groaned and felt a blanket around him and someone standing next to him. "Riza?"
She put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Sorry, I didn't want the candle to burn down."
He sat up and felt the crocheted blanket that draped over him and then looked in the general direction of the candle. "Someday, I hope I can light that damned thing without having to remember where I put the matches."
"It's daylight." She informed him. "Most intelligent and thrifty people just take advantage of the windows for light."
He rubbed his eyes and sighed. Riza was three years his junior but thanks to this life she always seemed to be older and practical than him; her life of self-reliance and doing whatever necessary to make ends meet in a run down old home with a emotionally dead Father. She had to grow up too fast and when he wasn't standing beside the young girl looking at her youthful features, it was hard to remember she was only thirteen. Her life revolved around making the best of what they had, working during daylight and conserving things like candles because even those had to be made.
"I brought you coffee." She offered.
"Thank you." He said. Coffee. Something else he had taken for granted. There was always a fresh pot brewing at Madam Christmas's, the girls never wasted money or time on spirits. They needed caffeine. However it was one of the first shocking revelations when he came to the Hawkeye's for his studies; there was no coffee. Coffee cost money as it could not be grown here and this was a self sustaining farmstead. Whatever could not be grown or made, had to be traded for and coffee was not a necessity. Well maybe not to them, but it was right up next to Oxygen on the list of things he needed to survive. So he did little errands for the general store manager in exchange for coffee when he was in town with Riza.
"I can make you breakfast?" She offered in an attempt to lure him out of the cavern of books and manuscripts.
"Sounds great." He never heard her bare feet make a sound as they tread across the floor, it was always the creaky floorboards that gave away her presence. The foundation of the Hawkeye home was shifting and eroding, thanks to the lack of gutters and grading around the home. One more thing Riza tried to fix when she wasn't canning, hunting or managing the estate. When he could he tried to help her but it was always painfully obvious who the city boy was. The nimble and crafty Miss Hawkeye could climb into the rafters and patch roof tiles, slip under the floor into the crawl space to repair pipes and milk the cow as well as tend to it's basic vet needs. He generally stood and watched, feeling useless as he didn't know any worthwhile alchemy to do more than repair broken dishes and re-craft rusty nails into usable ones. His studies were beginning to suffer since he was doing more research into helping make her life easier than into whatever Berthold Hawkeye was trying to teach him about the noble elements. Hence his lack of sleep, his work was due tomorrow and his teacher would not be impressed with his wheel barrow repair or berry picking prowess. "Did you need help with the garden today?"
Riza opened the door and let the light from the hall flood into the room. "If you will stop eating half of the crop, sure."
He stood and let the blanket fall off his shoulders, then picked up the coffee carafe. "In my defense you didn't provide adequate instructions for the 'taste testing' aspect of my raspberry picking."
"Mr. Mustang, next time you eat half my garden you should remember how much raspberries stain. Your hands were stained red."
"I ate the overripe ones!" He walked over to the door and smirked at her. "It was…a service."
"Maybe I'll just have you pick lettuce instead." She said and turned to walk down the hall to the kitchen. "Or zucchini."
"I think I figured out how to fix the milking stool." he said proudly. Carpentry wasn't ever one of his interests but once he researched the composition of wood he figured out how to repair the broken leg of the stool. It only took four hours to complete the array in his pocket.
"It's 9 am." She said and pointed to the bucket of milk in the sink. "I already fixed it with a broken broom handle."
He frowned. Some days he hated her ingenuity. However he should have known better, it was how she survived out here. Master Hawkeye seemed to be of the opinion that things just magically happened in order to provide them with meals and heat.
"I'm sorry, you wanted to fix it with alchemy didn't you?"
"No, I wanted to milk the cow again and have her tell me I was mishandling her teats." He slumped into the chair and set his coffee down as a soft blush grew on Riza's face before she turned away and started to heat up a frying pan. "I know you can handle everything on your own Riza, but as your friend I really want to help you. I like studying with you and I don't think it's fair that you have the chores of an entire family on your shoulders when you should be concentrating on your studies."
"There is plenty of time to study in the winter." She informed him. "You'll see. However when the summer is here I have to get as much done as possible or we be without in the winter."
"I know."
"However when it's January and you want to help, I'll wake you at 5 am and let the cow tell you how much she doesn't appreciate your cold hands on her teats."
He snorted and poured his coffee into the chipped mug waiting for him. He had technically heard that one before but in a different context from one of Christmas's girls.
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Colonel Roy Mustang managed to drown out the excited and obnoxious chatter from the Elrics as they sat in the diner awaiting their order to arrive. He looked out the window at the street vendors selling produce and some farm carts traveling up and down the street filled with the day's harvest. It was a nice small town they had stopped in, and it reminded him of the one that the Hawkeyes had lived in. Hence the reason he was staring out the window recalling days of his youth and the structural issues of the Hawkeye homestead.
Riza sat at the table listening intently to the stories the Elrics were sharing about their recent trip home. Roy had zoned out a while ago, about as interested in automail and Resenbool as he was in doing paperwork back in the office. She however was enjoying their stories about their Granny, Winry and an adventure with a amputee dog and a skunk. Then however the waitress arrived and placed a pitcher of milk in front of Ed.
"Here you go young man." The waitress smiled at the blond boy as he stared at the white substance in the pitcher. "You should listen to your Dad, drinking milk will help you grow up big and strong."
Ed began to twitch as he looked at the disgusting milk in the pitcher. Mustang had a habit of ordering milk for him when he bought him food, refusing to pay for anything else. Traveling with Mustang and Hawkeye always got them the comments about being family and the Colonel just took it in stride and found a way to piss him off with it. This however was downright disgusting! Not just a glass of milk, a whole damned dairy full of it in a pitcher in front of him! He clenched his fists and shook with rage, trying to come up with something to say before that bastard turned and opened his mouth to casually insult him.
"Say thank you kid." Roy could feel the waitress hovering at the end of the table and turned to look at Ed. "Someone had to get up at 5am and milk that cow to provide you with that nutritious and delicious beverage. Someone, unlike you, who knew how to properly handle a pair of teats."
Riza turned to stare at him in disbelief as the waitress overfilled her coffee cup. Then Roy's smug smile announced he wasn't quite finished.
"Especially with that automail hand of yours, I mean…who wants cold metal hands on their teats?"
Riza wished he wasn't wearing steel toed boots, she would have broken his toes for that.
Ed exploded. He stood up and slammed his fists into the table, kicking the chair out from behind him. "Damn you Mustang…."
Roy only had time to wince as suddenly a pitcher of milk was flung into his face. He heard the gasp from Al and the waitress, then the snicker from Riza as he wiped his eyes off with his now milk soaked gloves.
"Look who's useless even with a pitcher of milk in the morning!" Ed snapped. "You ass!"
Roy casually ran his fingers through his milk soaked hair and brushed it back out of his eyes. "Ingrate."
"Don't talk about milking and teats….I told you Winry is just my friend! You disgusting old bastard!" Ed screamed and it was quite possible Winry heard it several counties over.
"I was talking about dairy farming and quoting a friend of mine." Roy stood up and looked at the mess around his chair. "Isn't that right Lieutenant? Tell the runt who the real pervert is here."
"Hardly the appropriate place for nostalgia, sir." She said as he gave her a pout and she knew what was coming next.
"Well now I have to go to our hotel room and change. Perhaps you can help clean up this mess while you wait for your breakfast Fullmetal?" Roy gave a dramatically heavy sigh and watched Riza stand and give him the disapproving cock of her eyebrow. Clearly she wasn't as amused as he was at his clever way to use their hotel room alone for a little while. Only one small bed and breakfast here in town and one vacancy left the four of them crammed into small room with one twin bed a couch and a roll away cot. Now, however, he had an excuse to use that twin bed with Hawkeye before the maid came to clean the rooms. No points for romanticism, but several points for tactical manipulation.
Ed stammered and looked at the restaurant manager coming with a mop and bucket as the Colonel and Lieutenant left the restaurant. "Son of a bitch!"
Al chuckled. "Yes, brother, what exactly were you thinking about?"
Ed growled. "Shut up Al."
