I've had some time to think about you
And watch the sun sink like a stone
I've had some time to think about you
On the long ride home

~Long Road Home by Patty Griffith

Silence of the Sound — XIV

Riza wasn't sure how long she sat with her elbows rested on her knees and her face buried in her hands before she felt another, larger hand rest itself on her forehead. She jumped a bit, jerking up to look at Roy, who was standing over her. "I think your fever's starting to break," he commented after a moment, resting his free hand against his own forehead. "How do you feel?"

"I'm all right," she sighed, carefully twisting away from Roy's touch. Now seemed like as good a time as any to address the issues hanging in the air around them.

"Roy—"

"Riza—"

They cut themselves off as they spoke at the same time. Amber eyes met obsidian, hesitation apparent in both pairs. "You first," Roy finally said. He really wasn't sure what he was going to say anyways. Riza sighed, scooting over a bit so Roy could sit next to her.

"We um…we need to talk about all of this, don't we? I mean…Maes, and everything." Roy couldn't help but wonder what "everything" was. "I know you said you want to help with Maes, and I'm sure you want a relationship with him, and I don't blame you, and I certainly can't stop you, you have every right to want to know him…and he wants to know you too, I can't keep the two of you apart. So I was thinking…school's going to be starting soon, and you work during the week anyways, but if you wanted he could spend the weekends with you, I think he'd like that, getting out of town for a couple days, going somewhere new—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Roy held up his hands, effectively putting an end to Riza's rushed, uncertain words. "You really wanna shuttle him back and forth?" Riza didn't answer. "When Hughes and I were at the academy together, he told me his parents were separated and he was constantly going back and forth between them. And he hated it. Do you want to put Maes through that?"

Riza sighed. She'd never really thought it was a great idea anyways. "Well if you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it." Roy hesitated. There was always Maes' idea of all of them living together. But there was absolutely no way he was going to suggest that to Riza. He wanted her to be the one to present the idea. If it even occurred to her.

"Maybe we can just…sleep on it," he finally suggested. "It's been a long day and you need to rest, you're still sick…"

Riza ran a hand through her hair, closing her eyes. Yeah. The idea of dragging this torture out sounded just great. She couldn't argue though. Despite the fact that she'd slept most of the morning and late afternoon away, she was exhausted now, both physically and emotionally. She really didn't want to have to think about this now.

Roy frowned at the look on Riza's face. She looked almost…defeated. It worried him. "Riza?" He murmured, reaching over to take her hand in his; he squeezed her fingers lightly, and she raised her eyes look at him. "Are you okay?"

She pulled in a deep breath, swallowing hard. She wasn't really sure how to answer that question. Her head felt like it was spinning. Roy made a face, moving so he was closer to Riza. He was surprised when she stiffened just a little. "What's wrong?" He demanded. He was starting to get a bit worried.

"Nothing, nothing," Riza assured him, lifting her head so they were facing each other. "I'm…just…"

When had he gotten so close? There was barely any space left between them, all she would have to do was lean in just a little…

Apparently Roy had the same idea. They both moved of their own accord, closing what little space was left between them, they're lips barely inches apart…

Ring-Ring…

Moment. Broken. "Son of a bitch," Roy growled, jumping up and whirling around, grabbing the phone, yanking it up to his ear in one, furiously swift motion. "What do you want?" He snarled into the receiver.

"Excuse me?" Rebecca's furious voice shot back. "Who the hell do you think you are talking to me like that, what the fuck are you even doing over there? And why didn't Riza answer the phone, did something happen?"

Roy muttered a string of obscenities under his breath as he held the phone out to Riza. "It's your harpy," he informed her coolly. Riza gave him a slightly reprimanding look as he took the phone and held it to her ear.

"What's going on Rebecca?"

"Just calling to check on you. I ended up getting out late, I knew I wasn't going to be getting out there to see you tonight. What the hell is His Royal Ass-ness doing at your house?"

Riza tried very hard not to smile at the insult. "It's a long story…"

Roy sighed as he wandered out of the living room, giving Riza some privacy to talk to Rebecca. He made his way down the hall, stopping first to check on Maes. The boy was already sleeping soundly, his legs sprawled out over his bed, the covers kicked off. Roy chuckled as he walked over to the bed, picking up the covers and throwing them over Maes again. They'd probably be thrown off again before the end of the night, he thought with a smile as he backed out of the room again.

Somehow, Roy found himself in Riza's room. He hadn't really gotten a good look the last couple of times he'd been in there. Not that there was much to see. It was a simple room, white walls and white sheets with a blue blanket. The kind of room you'd expect Riza Hawkeye to sleep in. The only thing that set it apart from all the other simple rooms in the world were the three framed pictures that sat on the bedside table. Roy sat down on the edge of the bed to examine them.

The first was a picture of the entire team, taken not long before the transfer to Central. Roy smiled a bit. On the far right was Havoc, grinning at the camera, a cigarette dangling between his lips. In front of Havoc was Fuery, who was grinning widely. To Havoc's right was Breda, giving the camera a cocky grin, and then Falman, staring stonily as if he had absolutely no interest in what was going on (and he probably didn't). Next to Falman was Roy, smirking faintly at the camera. In front of Roy was Riza, who was betraying no emotion, but was probably annoyed that they were taking time away from their work to take a ridiculous picture. Roy smiled at the picture, still remembering how much hell he'd gone through to convince Riza to take it. She'd been very unwilling, the photo-phobic person that she was.

The second picture was of Riza and Maes. Roy couldn't tell where they were, though if he had to guess he'd say the living room of the house they were in now. The picture wasn't that old, probably on a couple of months, if Roy were to hazard a guess. Maes was being held in Riza's arms, grinning widely, and even Riza had managed a smile. She really looked beautiful when she smiled…

The third picture surprised Roy quite a bit. It was one of him and her together, though admittedly very old. He actually remembered the day it had been taken.

"Look, all I'm saying is if people are going to hate you, they should at least have a legitimate reason. You deserve that much, don't you?"

Riza just shrugged. She didn't seem too interested in what Roy was saying. But as they passed more people who continuously shot Riza unreadable, annoyed glances. "That's just the way it is. People don't like my father because he's an alchemist, which equals them not liking me. Can't change it, no point in whining about it either."

"You're not your father."

Riza stopped walking and turned to look at Roy, raising an eyebrow. "Why do you care so much? If it doesn't bother me don't you think you should be able to rise above it as well?"

Roy made a face, but didn't bother responding as they began walking again, turning to cut through the park. "Well aren't you two just the cutest couple," a voice cooed suddenly. Riza sighed as she and Roy turned to look over their shoulders at an older, gray-haired lady approaching them. A camera was clutched tightly in her hands.

"Hello Mrs. Conrad," Riza replied, a bit reluctantly. "We're not a couple. He's my father's alchemy student, I'm just showing him around town."

The woman — Mrs. Conrad — smiled faintly. "Well I think you're just adorable together. Here, get together, I'll take a picture of you both."

"But, but…" Roy started to protest, only to have Riza cut him off.

"Don't bother arguing," she muttered, dragging him to stand under a tree. "She'll just keep pushing until we agree, might as well get it over with now."

Roy sighed as he did what he was told.

They were both smiling tolerantly, giving the crazy old woman what she wanted. But looking at it now, it was the most beautiful picture Roy had ever seen.

"Roy?"

Roy's head snapped over to look at the adult incarnation of the tolerantly smiling girl in the picture. "Sorry," he said quickly, standing up. "I didn't mean to…um…sorry. I was just trying to give you some privacy with Rebecca. I'll just…um…yeah." He gestured to the pictures, in particular the one of the two of them. "I can't believe you still have that."

"You mean you don't?" Riza asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah…but I'm sentimental."

Riza smiled a bit, walking over to the table and picking up the picture in question. "Well, about ninety-nine percent of my happiest memories involve you somehow, so it really isn't too odd for me to still have this as well, right?"

Roy chuckled. "Fair point." No need for him to admit that his happiest memories all involved her as well.

"Anyways…" Riza sighed, rubbing her head. "It's late, you probably have work tomorrow. If you don't feel like going home you're welcome to stay here…I mean, you don't have to, if you'd rather go—"

Roy couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Riza so uncertain and so uncomfortable. It was kind of cute, if not embarrassing for her. "Maybe I should just crash on your couch," he said, saving her the trouble of having to come up with more words to say.

"You can have the bed if you want," she mumbled. "I've fallen asleep on that couch plenty of times, I know how uncomfortable it is—"

"So what, you're going to sleep there instead?" Riza didn't answer. Roy hesitated before presenting his next idea. "You know…it's not like we've never shared a bed before."

"It's different when you're twelve and fourteen," Riza pointed out, correctly identifying the memory he was referring to; the time when the ceiling had come down on her bed during a bad storm. Even if Roy had been able to get up there and fix it (and with the rain coming down the way it had been, that was an impossibility in itself), her bed was soaked. Completely incapable of being slept in.

"Not for the fourteen year old it isn't," Roy said with a slight smirk. He was surprised when Riza laughed.

"You're so perverted."

Roy grinned, as if that had been the highest kind of compliment. And to him, it had been. As Riza's laughter died away, he held out his hand, palm up, fingers outstretched. An offering. Riza smiled tiredly as she stepped forward, resting her palm on top of his.

"…I have a son."

Okay, so it probably wasn't the most appropriate answer to Maria Ross' question of, "are you feeling all right sir?" And considering the looks of utmost shock his words received, it certainly wasn't the answer anyone had been expecting. But as Roy had thought more and more about the events that had transpired over the last two days (not to mention the fact that Maes had happily chirped "Bye Dad!" as Roy had left the house that morning), the shock had really begun to set in. He had a son. He had a son. Holy hell, he had a son!

"Um…sir?"

Roy snapped back to reality and raised his head to look into the dark eyes of his lieutenant. "Sorry, Lieutenant Ross. Did you say something?"

Maria seemed too baffled to answer. "Did you just say…you have a son?" Fuery finally voiced the question ringing in everyone's minds.

"No surprise," Breda spoke up, though he too looked shocked. "Guy's slept around so much he probably has a whole platoon of children running around."

Now that was insulting. Sure, Roy slept around a lot, but he always used protection. Unless he was drunk. And he'd only had drunken sex once.

Ironic.

Maria's mind seemed to be working overtime as she put two and two together. Roy had a son…Riza had a son…Maria's eyes lit up as understanding dawned on her. "Lieutenant Hawkeye…?"

Breda's and Fuery's mouths hit the floor as Roy nodded. Suddenly he really needed to get out of the office. "I'll be back in a few," he muttered, standing up and crossing the office in a few long strides and yanking the door open, stepping out into the hall and letting it swing shut behind him. Breda, Fuery, and Maria exchanged bewildered glances.

"General Mustang…and Lieutenant Hawkeye…?"

Roy wasn't really sure where he was going…until he ended up down at the shooting range. Rebecca was shooting, of course. Probably imagining the target was a certain bastard general. "Catalina." Roy greeted her dryly as he walked over to where she was laying. She tilted her head up to glare at him before pulling the trigger again. "I'm sorry about the way I answered the phone last night, okay? It was just…bad timing."

"Was I interrupting something?" Rebecca asked sarcastically.

"Not what you're thinking, no." Roy sighed. He didn't really know why he felt the need to apologize to Rebecca. He technically hadn't done anything wrong…but he needed Rebecca to not hate him so he could run this next idea by her and get a somewhat unbiased response. "She doesn't love me."

Rebecca looked surprised as she lifted her head to look at Roy again. Finally she stood up, tossing the rifle strap over her shoulder. "Walk," she commanded, turning and starting to walk away. Roy knew better than to argue as he followed. "Now why the hell do you think she doesn't love you?"

"Because she's had plenty of times to reciprocate." Roy launched into the story of the events that had taken place yesterday afternoon. Rebecca listened with some amount of interest as they walked into the office. She leaned the rifle against the wall near the door, closing said door behind her. She walked over to the desk and hopped onto it, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees, leaning her chin against her interlocked fingers.

"Just because she hasn't said it yet doesn't mean it isn't true," Rebecca said when Roy was done. "Did you ever think maybe she's scared? A lot's happened in the last couple of days, you know."

Roy frowned, looking at the ground. "Maybe…I don't know. What if you're wrong though?"

Rebecca was surprised. "You're really worried about this, aren't you?" Roy didn't answer. "Wow…I never thought I'd see the day when Roy Mustang was lovesick. It'd be cute, if I didn't think it was sad that you're so blind you can't even see how much she loves you."

Roy really wished he could find it in himself to believe that. He reached into his back pocket, pulling out the picture Rebecca had given him. Rebecca smiled when she saw it. "I can completely see you with a framed picture of the two of them on your desk, you know. Do us all a favor and make it happen, okay?"

Roy chuckled weakly. "I'll see what I can do."

"So you're leaving?" Maes asked, frowning, as he tilted his head up to look at Alphonse, who smiled sadly as he patted the boy's blonde hair.

"Yeah. My family's waiting for me. I have to go." Maes pouted. "But I'll tell you what," Al quickly went on with a small laugh. "I'll come back and visit really soon, okay?" Maes' eyes lit up, and he nodded happily.

"'Kay!"

Al chuckled as he straightened up to look at Riza and Havoc, who were both smiling softly. "Thank you so much for everything," he said, shaking first Havoc's hand then Riza's.

"Of course," Havoc responded at once. "Don't be a stranger."

"Be safe," Riza added, leaving no room for an argument.

"Aw, you know me," Al cracked dryly. "I love the quiet life."

Riza and Havoc laughed. Maes made a face, clearly confused by the comment. Al smiled as he bent down to pick up his suitcase, giving the trio one last wave before starting towards the door. Before he even touched it though, it flew open. He wasn't completely surprised when Roy walked in.

"Oh — sorry Alphonse." Roy eyed the suitcase in Al's hand. "Finally going home?"

"Yeah. See you around." He saluted Roy, surprised when the man returned the gesture.

"Take care of yourself."

"And you."

Oh yeah, Al reflected dryly as he made his way out onto the street. He was definitely coming back. He wanted to see what happened with Roy and Riza.

Riza raised her eyes to look at Roy, who gave her a tentative smile. "Hi Dad!" Maes chirped, breaking the moment. Of course. Havoc raised an eyebrow at Riza, who shook her head. Roy chuckled as he patted Maes' head.

"Hey Maes. You staying out of trouble?"

"Yup!" Maes nodded happily. Roy chuckled. He highly doubted that, not that it was his place to question it. Instead he turned his gaze to Riza.

"You got a minute?"

He wanted to get her away from people. Away from Havoc and Maes and phones with raging harpies on the other line…

Riza looked at Havoc, who nodded (almost a little too enthusiastically, in her opinion). "Maes and I can take care of the store, right bud?"

"Yeah!" Maes nodded eagerly. Riza smiled faintly as she walked over to where Roy stood, following him out the door. Maes and Havoc exchanged conspiratorial grins. They both wanted that walk to end the same way, though for admittedly different reasons.

Riza's mind was racing. She hadn't thought any more about how they were supposed to work out this custody thing. Or how she was supposed to approach the idea of telling him he was off the hook with any obligations he thought he had to her.

"You're out."

The words came out of nowhere. Roy stopped walking and looked down at Riza, bewildered. "…What?"

Riza sighed, tugging a strand of her hair and twirling it around her finger. "About…what you said yesterday…" Roy had said so much. It took him a minute to realize exactly what he was referring to. "If you want to…I mean, I know you want a relationship with Maes, but us…we don't need to…I'm not going to hold you to anything you said yesterday, in relation to us. I'm giving you an out. You're free."

She found herself unable to look at him as she continued to speak. Instead she dropped her eyes to stare at the floor, shifting her weight from foot to foot. She could feel Roy drilling holes into her with his gaze. "You…don't believe I love you?" He asked finally, his voice strangled with disbelief.

"I believe you said something in the moment. Whatever feelings you have for me…no, I don't believe they're love. A strong friendship maybe, or—"

Riza was cut off as Roy tucked his fingers under her chin, forcing her to look up at him. In the same movement he leaned in, pressing his lips against hers and effectively killing anything and everything she'd been about to say. Her eyes widened for a moment before slipping shut, her lips melding against his.

They didn't pull apart until breathing became absolutely necessary. Riza pulled in a deep breath, trying to ignore the fact that the scenery around her was spinning. "Um…" Was all she could manage to say. Roy, however, seemed to know what he wanted to say.

"I love you, Riza." His tone left no room for argument. "I have loved you for as long as I can remember. You are my entire world, you have been for as long as I can remember. I'm not saying this out of obligation or because I'm confused about my feelings…I'm saying it because I'm in love with you. I love you Riza Hawkeye. Period."

Riza still felt as if her head was spinning. She blinked a couple of times, pulling in a deep breath and just staring at him. Her mind was basically blank. Except for one thing she knew had to be said.

"I love you too."

Havoc clapped a hand over Maes' mouth to keep the boy from yelling out-loud as Riza and Roy leaned in to kiss again. Maes was practically over the moon; he jumped up and down in Havoc's grip, his yells muffled by the large hand covering his mouth, making them inaudible to Roy and Riza, who were clearly too wrapped up in each other to notice anything anyways.

Note to self: Call Rebecca later.

Well, Havoc reflected with a large grin, things could only get better from here.

Author's Note: Aaawww…next chapter is the epilogue. Sad face. Review please! — Sam