Story 14:

A New Life

"I ended up under Major Lancer, how about you?" Rebecca asked, carrying her tray over to an empty section of a table.

Riza only flashed her a small smile and set down her tray.

"No way!" Rebecca slammed her tray on the table before swinging herself into her chair. "You were assigned under him?"

"I think he might have requested it." It would explain the way he acted, as if there was no doubt that she's watch his back. "He made me his lieutenant."

"What?" An evil look formed in Rebecca's eyes. "Well, the seductress strikes."

"What, may I ask, are you implying?"

"Oh, just that you enjoy working under him." Her smile twisted into a smirk.

Riza burst out laughing. "God, your not going to let that go, are you?"

"The reigning joke for the rest of your life." Riza sighed before Rebecca added, "And how come I haven't met this man yet?"

"Well, we've been in school, in the war, I don't think those are the best of circumstances."

Rebecca huffed and rested her head on her hand. "So when do you officially get promoted?" She asked, taking a bite of the slop they call food.

"Tomorrow."

"Oh," Riza turned at the sound of his voice. Roy stood across the table from her, holding a tray of food. "May I sit here?"

Did he have to ask? "Of course." Roy took the seat across from her.

Rebecca wiggled with excitement. "Soooo," Crap! Riza had forgotten about her friend sitting there, filled with knowledge she did not what Roy to know about. "This is the infamous Colonel Roy Mustang."

Roy cast a look of confusion at her.

Rebecca leaned into the table and spoke in a fake-whisper. "Riza's told me all about you."

"Ok."

Riza shot a glare at her friend when Roy ducked his head to take a bite of meat. Rebecca made a Tch-noise.

"Who are you working under, Rebecca?" Riza asked.

She rolled her eyes and made a huge exaggerated sighed. "I told you not even five minutes ago." They stared at each other blankly for a few moments before she continued. "You'll never believe who got promoted to Major!"

"Havoc?" Riza joked.

"Not on his life. It's that bitchy instructor from when we first started at the academy!"

"Lancer was promoted?" She spoke carefully, the mention of his name brought back bad war memories for the both of them.

"No wonder, he was a wonderful asset on the battlefield." Roy added.

"Speaking of wonderful assets," Rebecca nudged Riza in the side, causing her to jump . . . And bounce.

Roy's eyes widened.

Riza's face reddened and she kicked Rebecca from under the table. "You were saying earlier that you wanted to see that movie,"

"What movie?" Rebecca protested only to receive another kick from under the table. "Oh right, King Kong." She threw out the name at random.

"You must be thinking about Planet of the Apes, King Kong's no longer in theaters." Roy corrected. Rebecca glared.

"Really? Hmmm, I guess it is. You must go to movies often to know these things, Your girlfriend must be happy."

"I don't have a girlfriend." He glanced quickly at Riza before he spoke.

"I heard that you're a real ladies ma-" Riza kicked her again. "-man."

"I haven't dated anyone recently." Rebecca glanced at her friend and nodded towards Roy mouthing 'he's free'.

Riza kicked her again.

"I don't like him." Her friend answered plainly.

Riza brought her hand to her forehead and sighed. "And that's why you made fools out of us."

"Havoc did that all on his own." Rebecca recounted when Havoc sat next to them only to jump up and spill food all over himself in his attempt to salute Roy.

"I'm not talking about Havoc." They stopped at the door to Lancer's office. "And why don't you like him?"

"Because I don't." She answered before turning into the office. "See you later!"

Sometimes, well, most of the time, Rebecca was a real pain. One doesn't get to choose their best friends.

Riza packed up her things, her first official day of work hadn't been too bad. "Riza," Roy started once everyone else left the room. "What are you doing after work?"

"Nothing." They started out of the office towards the locker rooms.

"Would you like to do something?"

Was he…asking her out? But before she had the chance to answer, she felt someone slap her on the back. "Hey, Hawkeye!" It was Havoc.

She winced, her knees buckled and she started toward the floor. Both Roy and Havoc caught her by the arm.

"Sorry!" Havoc exclaimed. "I forgot, you injured your back in the war."

Riza cast Roy a quick look to keep him quiet before flashing Havoc a smile. "Don't worry, it's fine. Guess you don't know your own strength huh?"

He smiled and laughed. "Yeah I guess." He spotted Roy for the first time and snapped into a salute. "Oh! Colonel Sir!"

Roy sighed. "At ease, Sergeant."

Havoc relaxed. "Okay, well see ya later, Hawkeye!"

"Bye."

He dashed off.

Roy gave Riza a stern look. "That shouldn't have effected you that bad by now, have you been taking proper care of the burn?"

Riza stared at the wall to avoid his eyes. "Yes,"

"No,"

"Well, I don't know what I'm doing!" Riza defended. "And how am I supposed to reach all of my back!"

"You could have asked for help!"

They walked together in silence until Riza muttered, "I want some help."

"Then when your done in there," Roy pointed at the girls locker room. "You can come with me."

Even with the circumstances, Riza couldn't be more happy. While it wouldn't be the most 'normal' night, it was getting somewhere and at that moment all she wanted was to spend a normal day with him.

Changing from her uniform to a pair of man's jeans (briefly wished she would have worn something a bit more feminine) and a blue army sweatshirt in a matter of seconds, Riza found herself waiting outside the locker rooms for Roy.

Of course, Roy came out wearing clothes of a man with money. Yep. He was gorgeous.

She really wished she had worn something more flattering.

"It's a good thing I keep burn medicine at home, right?" He smiled as he joined up with her.

"Yeah, thanks." People starred at the two of them as they made their way out of Eastern Command side by side.

"So, how have you been?" Roy asked, "I haven't had the chance to ask yet."

"Good! After Ishbal I met up with my friends from the academy, you met them today at lunch, and finished off the rest of school that we missed from being in the war. A lot of people dropped before completing so we only had about a hundred people graduate."

"Understandably low, I bet you and your friend were the only girls too, right?"

"There was another," Riza corrected.

They walked down the sidewalks of the big city, to Riza it was a sight. Though the academy was in the same city, she had never left campus and East seemed completely new.

"Then I was put here and here I am," she finished.

"All I've been doing is mounds of paperwork," Roy sighed. "There's still so much from the war."

"Mounds?" Riza leveled her hands at eye level."

"Mounds," Roy raised his hands up above his head.

Riza began to laugh, only to have a dog leap into her. "Hey there, guy!" She awkwardly pat the dog on the head while pushing him off.

"Sorry about that!" A woman ran up to get the dog.

"It's all right," Riza smiled.

The woman blushed. "Ah yeah okay…"

Once she was out of earshot Roy burst out laughing. "She thought you were a guy!"

Riza blushed. "I get that a lot…" She mumbled. Roy went mad of laughter. "Well, why don't you just roll on the ground!" She exclaimed in annoyance.

"I would,"

"Do I really look like a guy?"

Roy stopped laughing and glanced at her. "Nah, she just didn't get a good look at you." He started to speak again but then stopped. "This is my building."

They headed up the stairs to the fifth floor. The hallways even looked like a better place to live than Riza's apartment. Being a state alchemist and a Colonel in the Amertrian army had it's perks.

Roy dug out his key and lead her inside his place. It was huge, a main area for a living room and dinning, a kitchen in the back, two rooms to one side and one on the other. Everything was white, why he chose that color of décor, she had no clue. Also…it was clean!

"Nice place," Riza murmured. It was pretty much the exact opposite of hers'.

"Thanks, so you can get comfortable, and stuff. And I'll, well uh just a sec,"

He hurried off to on of the rooms on the left, probably the bathroom.

Riza glanced around before taking a seat on his perfectly white couch.

After a flush and the sound of running water, Roy came out again with a tub of medicinal cream for burns. He placed it on the coffee table and sat down next to her. "Let's see what I'm working with here,"

She pulled off her sweatshirt and tucked her feet between her and the arm of the couch so that her back faced him. The second she began peeling her undershirt off, Roy could smell it. Blood. His suspicions were confirmed at the sight of the blood soaked bandages that appeared to be many days old. "God, when was the last time you changed these?"

"The last time I saw you."

"You haven't done anything?"

"I thought we already established this."

Roy sighed and started on the wrappings that he did a little over a month ago. The bandages were loose from age and slipped off easily at first, hard with dried blood. Once he got closer to her skin it was sticky with both wet and dry blood. He had to work to peel it off, taking with it pieces of skin that should have been dealt with a long time ago. Every once and a while Riza would flinch from him pulling too hard at them.

Roy felt like crap. He did this to her.

Every flinch sent a pang through his heart until Riza spoke in a sarcastic tone, "Your going to have to wash it now too, aren't you?" as he finally finished with the bandages.

"Yeah, that is an important step."

Riza laughed, "Can't you knock me out first?"

They both wished Roy had taken that offer. After the first time he lightly pressed the wet wash cloth to her back, Riza involuntarily made it impossible for him to do it again. "Sorry," She exclaimed as she jerked away from him anytime he got close. Frustrated, Roy wrapped his free arm around her waist. "What are you doing!"

"Holding you down!" This way even if she tried to flinch away, he could still clean the wound. After a second thought, Roy added, "and don't even say it!"

"I wasn't going to," Riza assured. Still, she had to make him squirm, if only a little."Pervert," She muttered.

Roy ignored her comment and went back to cleaning her wound. After that was finished he applied the burn cream and re-bandaged her back.

Then after that they had dinner because she was already there and they 'might as well'. He even offered to walk her home.

While it hadn't been what she hoped, This new life was good enough.

I have no idea why this took me so long to write. Or why it came out so terrible _

oh, well

Please review!