DISCLAIMER: All recognizable material belongs to Hiromu Arakawa.

A/N: Wow look how nice I am, all these updates :P

This one's dedicated to my lovely friend under the penname al-star :D

~Girls~

Roy Mustang didn't know a damn thing about girls.

Sure, he lived with a tribe of them, but in no way did that make him an expert. After living with Madame Christmas from the time he was two – a grand total of 14 years – all he'd gathered about the opposite sex was that they were all certifiably insane. His sisters were the loudest, most hormonal creatures he'd ever encountered – there had been times when he was certain they did not belong to the same species as himself.

So when Roy knocked on the front door of the Hawkeye manor to find not a middle-aged man but a girl several years younger than himself, he had to bite back a yelp.

He had not been told that his new sensei had a daughter. He had not been told anything about the man, really, save his address in order for Roy to be able to find him. The last thing he had been expecting was that he had children.

The girl was small, at least half a foot shorter than him, with bright yellow hair and large eyes the color of honeysuckle. She stared up at him in confusion for a long moment before understanding dawned on her features. "Are you Roy?" her high-pitched voice intoned.

He blinked. "Yeah," he answered lamely. "Who are you?"

The girl blushed but didn't answer. Instead, she stepped aside and opened the door wider, letting him into the house. "My father is in his study," she informed him quietly. "I'll go fetch him."

Roy stayed where he was on the porch for a long minute before following her in, watching her thin frame ascend up the staircase. He clutched the handles of his suitcases, suddenly filled with anxiety. Surely Master Hawkeye had known he was coming today?

When Berthold Hawkeye finally sauntered down the stairs, his timid daughter trailing behind him, his expression was one of aggravation, as though he had been interrupted from something extremely important which required his rapt attention. The man eyed him almost suspiciously.

"You're Mustang?" he barked.

Roy swallowed nervously and nodded. "Yessir."

His beady eyes pierced him; Roy squirmed uncomfortably. "You don't look like much," he concluded after a long moment of observation. Before the boy had a chance to respond, he asked, "Have you got the money?"

Roy froze for a moment before dropping his suitcases on the ground and diving into one of them, tearing through his packed-away clothes in search of the envelope his foster mother had handed him on his way out. He could feel the man's stare boring a hole in him as he frantically searched for the item. He hadn't been here five minutes and already the man terrified him.

"I got it!" he proclaimed, waving the envelope in the air triumphantly. He handed it to his sensei with a slight bow. Hawkeye grumbled something unintelligible before traipsing back up to his study, barking over his shoulder that his alchemy training would begin at dawn the next day. The boy had a feeling he and his master weren't going to be the best of friends.

Roy suddenly felt awkward, unsure of what to do with himself. He looked desperately at the girl, hoping to get some sort of indication of his next move. He didn't particularly want to stand in the entryway until morning.

The girl looked at him and sighed. "Your bedroom is upstairs, down the hallway from mine," she told him, motioning for him to follow her. Roy quickly snatched his luggage off the ground before she led him up the staircase, aiming for a long corridor to the left. She turned towards the first room on the left of the hall, extending an arm into the open doorway.

"Th-thanks," he stuttered, disappearing into the room and shutting the door.

Several hours later, the girl called him for dinner. He poked his head out of his bedroom nervously, practically tiptoeing his way downstairs. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, his head whipped around as he realized he had no idea where anything in the house was. His master's daughter hadn't exactly given him a tour of the place.

"In here," the girl's voice called. He turned to the right to see her waving at him. Grateful for her help, he strode towards her, trying to be inconspicuous about his peering around in search of Mr. Hawkeye.

"He's not here," she told him. Her sharp eyes hadn't missed his survey of the dining room. "Father never eats with me," the girl said simply, by way of explanation.

Roy didn't know what to say to that. His head ducked a little and he sat at the table, watching the girl serve him a bowl of soup. The entire scene struck him as very odd; she couldn't have been more than twelve, yet she seemed to be the one running the house. Even more odd was that she wasn't bouncing off the walls and chattering his ears off like he had been raised to believe girls were wont to do. No, she was the opposite of everything he'd ever known about the opposite sex: she was very thin, almost unhealthy – his foster mother and sisters were all sizable, busty women – and she was quiet and composed, in contrast to the loudmouthed girls he'd grown up with. Never having gone to formal school, Roy had been very limited in his knowledge and social experience. This girl was almost foreign to him.

"Why are you staring at me?"

Roy blushed, snapping out of his reverie. "Was I staring?"

"I wouldn't have asked if you weren't."

He could feel his face get darker. "Sorry… I just…" he cleared his throat. "What's your name? You never told me."

The blonde girl stared at him for a long moment. "My name is Riza," she finally answered, her eyes drifting away from his. She picked up her spoon and began taking small bites. "Riza Hawkeye. I'm your sensei's daughter."

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

Roy nearly choked. "What?" How… she was so small!

His shock must have registered on his face, for Riza frowned. "Go on, say it. Call me little. I know you're thinking it," she murmured. If Roy was reading her correctly, there was an infinitesimal amount of hurt in her expression. He bit his tongue; he hadn't meant to insult her.

"You're…" he trailed off, searching for a way to fix his mistake. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head; it made him blush. But his foot was already in his mouth, right? What could it hurt? Besides, it was true.

"You're pretty."

Riza's eyes widened, and her cheeks turned pink. Her eyes immediately fell back to her soup, avoiding the boy's gaze.

Roy might have been hearing things, but he could have sworn he heard her mutter under her breath that boys were crazy.

A/N: Reviews are appreciated!