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It was a rare morning that Roy woke before Riza, but as he felt her deep, even breaths against the arm he had wrapped around her, he knew she was still fast asleep. It was early, but even after the sleepless night he had had before this one, he was restless enough to gently peel himself away from Riza and slip quietly out of bed rather than risk waking her as he struggled to fall back asleep. He put on a clean pair of boxers and went out onto the balcony to stare out at the water, still grey in the early morning light from the sun before it rose above the mountains.
He leaned on the railing; the sea air and the sounds of the waves didn't make him as sleepy as he would have hoped. With a sigh, he went back into the room to dress properly, giving one last look at Riza—now hugging the covers to her in Roy's absence but still very much asleep—before heading downstairs. The smell of freshly brewed coffee surprised him, but as soon as he reached the kitchen, he realized he shouldn't have been surprised at all. Maes took a second mug from the cupboard when he noticed Roy.
"Is something the matter?" he asked.
Roy shook his head. "Just couldn't go back to sleep," he said, accepting a mug and holding it tight.
"It's more than that," Maes prodded. "Riza's not the only one who can read you, even if she is the best at it."
He was right, of course, but Roy wasn't about to start talking until he had at least some coffee in him, so he took a long, scorching sip before saying, "She figured it out, Maes."
"Riza?" When Roy nodded, Maes continued, still somewhat puzzled, "What did she figure out?"
"About Gracia." Roy wasn't willing to admit that he'd confessed it to her, but it was at least partway true. "Said it was funny she didn't order a drink with dinner last night."
Maes grinned. "Lots of people refuse drinks. Maybe she's got something to tell you herself."
"No, no, that's definitely not it. She's very smart, you know. And besides that, we've been careful. Hell, I'm not even sure she'll say yes when I propose even if I told her upfront I'm anticipating a year-long engagement. There's no way we're ready for a baby." Roy downed another painful gulp of coffee.
"So you're still going to go through with that?" Maes said. "It's about time you did. Are you sure she hasn't found the ring?"
Roy nodded. "It's under a crumpled tissue in one of the pockets of my suitcase. She'd have thrown it out before finding the ring."
"How romantic," Maes said. "I can't see why she hasn't agreed to marry you already."
"I said crumpled, not used," Roy grumbled.
"And cheerful, too."
"I haven't finished my coffee yet." Roy drained the last of it and slammed his mug on the counter, knowing perfectly well it didn't help his case when it came to looking cheerful. To his relief, however, the one thing that could improve his mood happened before Maes could say anything. He saw Riza coming down the stairs. He jumped up to make another pot of coffee and she settled into a seat one away from Maes, looking positively radiant even if she wasn't completely awake yet.
He leaned over the bar to give her a quick kiss. "Morning," he said.
"Morning."
"There it is," Maes said, watching them with amusement and a very smug grin.
"There what is?" Riza asked.
"I don't think coffee is Roy's coffee," Maes said, waggling his eyebrows at her.
"Coffee helps, too," Roy said, pouring some into a mug for Riza.
Riza nodded solemnly and took the mug. "You should've seen him when our coffeemaker broke. Nothing I did could help, short of running to the store in my pajamas to get a new one."
"And she tried everything," Roy said, earning him a subtle frown from Riza. For all her willingness to annoy Rebecca and Jean the night before, he'd almost forgotten how much she hated references to their sex life. He felt a twinge of guilt over talking about babies with Maes. This hadn't been the first time they'd discussed it. Back when Gracia had first gotten pregnant, Maes had joked that Roy and Riza should try for a baby, too, so their kids would be the same age and could be a second generation of best friends. He'd never mentioned that to Riza, lest he and Maes both receive an earful, but he had a feeling she could see it in his face now because her expression had turned even sourer.
The coffee softened her face somewhat, and when she had finished, she said, "I was thinking about going with Rebecca today, if that's alright with you."
"Sure it is!" Roy said. "Gracia won't mind, will she?"
"Of course not," Maes said enthusiastically. "It's been a while since we've hit the town together."
"Sounds like a perfect plan," Roy said, grinning over at Maes.
"Great," Riza said, moving away from the counter. "I'll see you later then."
"I love you," Roy said.
"Love you, too." And with that, she disappeared up the stairs again, likely to wake Rebecca. If it was anyone but Riza planning to do something so dangerous, he might have started the funeral arrangements already.
Turning to Maes, he said, "How is Gracia?"
Maes gave a half-shrug. "She's feeling a little tired today. I told her to go back to bed, and she'll probably just want to sit out back and read once she wakes up."
"Perfect. Does this mean we finally get to try bodyboarding?" Roy asked.
"Better to ask for forgiveness than for a preemptive lecture on how dangerous it is," Maes agreed.
"Why don't we do this more often?" Rebecca said once she and Riza had sat down to brunch in a seaside restaurant.
Riza stared at her over a glass of orange juice. "Because you never get up in time."
"Fair enough." Rebecca took a long drink from her own glass and wiped her mouth. "I've missed you this summer. I can't even remember the last one we spent apart."
"We were very little then, weren't we?" Riza said, smiling at the memories of carefree days with her best friend and at the hope that there would be many more to come.
Rebecca grinned. "I still remember that time in kindergarten when Jean tried to kiss you and you punched him in the face."
"Remember the look on my mom's face when she came into the office that day?" Riza asked.
"I think so. Was I really sent to the office too?"
"I believe you kicked Roy for asking if he could try next."
"That's right. Sometimes I wish I'd kicked him harder and higher but I guess he makes you happy for some reason, so I try to remind myself of that." Rebecca gave a tiny, wistful sigh.
Riza was feeling wistful herself, thinking of the shock and then the laughter on her mother's face. Apparently the principal hadn't told her why Riza had punched one of her classmates, only that she had. She'd had the day off work and told the principal she'd take Riza home and talk to her there. Riza had been delighted to learn that, by home, her mother had meant out for ice cream. Looking back, it was a shame Rebecca and Roy had never been able to get along even though she and Jean had repaired their friendship by the end of the month, thanks to Jean having learned not to touch anyone without her permission, least of all Riza Hawkeye.
And then, for a moment, the noisy restaurant faded. The voices dulled and the clattering of plates turned to a steady beep in her mind: a sound from her memory that always turned her blood to ice. She and Rebecca stood side by side in a hospital room, looking as much like sisters as they felt with their matching braids and shoes and feeling oh so grown up at the age of six. Rebecca had taken Riza's hand the moment she noticed it was shaking, and for once, Roy, who hung back sheepishly in the corner of the room, didn't say a word. At so young an age, his silence had been hard for Riza to understand. She had brought her two best—and loudest—friends to keep her company, to keep this room from feeling like a graveyard prematurely.
She had dabbed at her eyes with the end of her braid, not wanting to cry in front of him, but it was so hard not to when her mother looked like a skeleton already. Her mother made some joke about having been in this room a thousand times already, and how she just had to stay in it a little longer this time now that she was the patient instead of the nurse. But Riza had known deep down that she was trying to reassure them both that she would be fine, and that, yes, she would make Riza that birthday cake with the lady knight fighting the dragon to save the handsome prince. (Whom she had described as dark haired, dark-eyed, and definitely not Roy Mustang—where'd you get that idea, mom?)
But Riza's birthday had been spent with Rebecca and Mrs. Catalina, shopping for black dresses, and she had come home to an empty house with her father still at work. It had been Roy who found her on the porch, hunched over her scabbed knees and sobbing in the way she hadn't let herself at the hospital. He had sat beside her and held out a plate of brownies because he didn't know how to frost a cake without Christmas's help and she had told him there wouldn't be time for one to cook and cool before she had to leave. According to Roy, as soon as the brownies had come out of the oven, it had been entirely up to him to help Riza's birthday not suck.
They had eaten the brownies on the porch and he had told her that it was okay to cry, because sometimes he still cried when he saw pictures of his parents, and that he was sorry Riza's mom had died because she was so nice and always smelled like antiseptic and strawberries. And then she started to think that, while she definitely didn't want to kiss him, she might want a hug from someone other than Rebecca, and he had obliged.
"Riza? Riza, are you okay?" Rebecca's voice snapped her from the sticky July evening in an instant, though her heart still felt as heavy as it had that day.
"I'm fine, just a little lost in memories right now. I don't think I ever thanked you back then, did I?" Riza asked.
"Back when?" Rebecca said.
"The first summer when we were friends. You went to the hospital with me every day. I—I don't think I could have gotten through that without you."
Rebecca reached across the table to pat Riza's hand. "That's what friends are for. I know you'd have done the same for me. I promise we'll do this kind of thing regularly once I'm back for school. As much as I adore Jean, I'd never shut you out just because I'm finally with him."
"I'd like that," Riza said, smiling. "It doesn't even have to be brunch. I think I've still got a few more years of midnight bowling left in me."
"You've got an apartment, too. You should kick Roy out for a night every now and again so we can watch our period romances on a real TV for a change. Get some wine and paint our nails. It'll be like our old sleepovers."
"Funny, I don't remember having wine at a sleepover before," Riza said.
"Grown-up sleepovers then," Rebecca said. "We make a nest in your living room so if you feel bad about kicking Roy to the curb all night, he can keep the bed."
Riza laughed, feeling much more at ease just having Rebecca here and keeping her in the present. "I'm surprised you've accepted that I live with him now instead of suggesting he take your dorm for the night."
"He helps pay the rent," Rebecca said with an innocent shrug. "And he'll suffer more knowing we're cuddling downstairs and he's not allowed to join in."
Somehow, Riza didn't think he would be all that upset, but Rebecca's enthusiasm had worn off on her and she smiled as she shook her head.
It wasn't until early afternoon that Roy realized he'd forgotten to reapply his sunscreen, but by that point, he wasn't sure if the pain he felt all over his skin was from the sun or the sand. He and Maes sat next to each other on the beach, their rented boards at their feet. The only solace he found was in knowing that he looked enough like hell that he was certain Riza would take pity on him.
"I guess it's safe to say we're shit at this, huh?" he said.
"I'm surprised the water isn't coming out your ears after that last run," Maes said.
Roy tried to brush sand from his chest but the skin was still too raw to touch. "Nope. Just every other hole in my head. I feel like someone shoved a lit match in my sinuses. How are you holding up?"
"I'm going to have to tell Gracia about this, so how do you think? She'll be happy I'm alive, but I'm not so sure she'll be pleased to learn this child is going to be our only child," he said miserably.
"Relax, you'll be fine again in no time. At least you'll still be able to cuddle with her until you are. I think I'm going to have to sleep sitting up, and how am I supposed to propose to Riza looking like a lobster?" Roy asked, gesturing to his bright red chest for emphasis.
"We'll get some aloe vera on the way back. She'll never even know," Maes assured him.
"She won't, will she?" Roy said. "Were you planning on rubbing it on my back?"
"Look, Roy, I love you, but not like that. You're on your own there."
They both looked back out at the waves, watching the much more skilled body boarders with envy as they dreaded their less-than-triumphant return. Roy dreaded the shower in particular, but there was no way in hell he'd ask Riza for a sponge bath. Even though he knew she wouldn't say a word, he'd feel "I told you so" in every stroke of the washcloth. He felt another twinge of guilt when he realized she was out on a day of pampering with Rebecca, and she'd come home with shining hair and skin only to find a hardboiled boyfriend in her bed.
"Before we get that aloe, let's stop at a bar. I could use a drink or three," Roy said.
Maes nodded in agreement, and after they returned their boards, they walked up the street looking, Roy imagined, like Hayate when he'd shredded Roy's slippers on the first night in the new apartment. With shame radiating off of them, it was no wonder they attracted ill fortune as well: Rebecca and Riza, looking as radiant as he'd imagined, were headed home. He watched helplessly as Rebecca nudged Riza and pointed toward him and Maes. Riza turned to Rebecca for a moment before running toward Roy.
"Are you alright?" she asked, stopping just short of his arms. Even from that far away she'd known better than to run into them. He had become her own personal stop sign.
He scratched the back of his neck, winced as he remembered it was also burned, and said, "I was an idiot."
"Did you have fun?" she asked, and he was happy to find there was nothing sarcastic in her tone even after a day with Rebecca.
"I did until this happened."
She looked him over, shaking her head sympathetically. "That's not the healthiest way to get a tan. Come on—let's get you cleaned up so I can put some aloe on you." Behind her, Maes was wiggling his eyebrows and Roy scowled at him.
Riza almost put her arm around his waist until she looked at just how red the skin was and wrapped her arm around his hips instead. It was a little awkward for her, but he appreciated the gesture all the same. He hugged her back, grateful that his arms, at least, had escaped the worst of the sunburn. He'd wait to tell her the whole story until Rebecca was busy with Jean. He didn't need to hear her crowing over his bad decisions or Riza sticking up for him. It was bad enough that Rebecca was already giving him a withering look.
"I guess we'll get those drinks after Riza takes care of you," Maes said. "If you're still up for it."
"I will be," he said.
"Make sure you drink plenty of water before you go," Riza told him. "With a sunburn like that, you'll make yourself sick if you don't."
Feeling sheepish, Roy realized he hadn't had anything to drink since breakfast. It was fortunate he had Riza to remind him of that before he ended up woozy, blistered, and hungover. "You're right. Let's head back."
"I wonder if Gracia's feeling better," Maes said. "I bet she missed me as much as I missed her."
Roy nodded automatically, glancing over at Riza to see she wasn't even looking at him for a shared eye roll. Rebecca had a finger in her mouth, pretending to gag, and for once, Roy found himself sympathizing with her. Riza looked back at him then, still smiling from Rebecca's reaction, and he leaned over to kiss the top of her head. He could hardly even remember a time when he'd been without her, and even after all these years, there was no one else he would rather have at his side.