Rizu couldn't believe it. Erik had just laid out a set of elegant clothes on his bed for her. He'd talked to his boss, probably making up some lies about her, but he'd succeeded. She was now officially an employee of the Singing Flames, the biggest and most luxurious restaurant in all of Central, probably in all of Amestris!
"I still can't believe that you managed to get me a job here!"
Erik chuckled. "Well you shouldn't. You don't officially work here, and you're certainly not going to be paid for it. So I don't know how excited you should really be. But yeah I got you a chance. Which is more than most get."
"And I can't thank you enough for that!" Rizu bubbled at him. She let out a little squeal as she leaped forward to wrap her arms around him in a tight hug.
It was like a dream come true! She was going to be working with Erik! At the best restaurant in... well, in the whole world! This could be the best thing ever! Sure... she kinda had to die, and all of her new frie-
No!
She couldn't dwell on it. They were dead, but that was in the past. The Fuhrer was dead, but that was in the past too. She wasn't in the military anymore. She was still the Absolute Alchemist, but just like how Erik was the Flametail, it didn't matter. She was going to be entertaining guests, maybe freezing food or ice sculptures or something. She didn't need to be concerned with politics, or the military anymore. She couldn't be concerned with them anymore. Otherwise she would be drawn back into depression over losing them.
"So just to be clear. You are not an employee yet." Erik reaffirmed. "You are a temporary worker. And who knows what they'll make you do. Back when I was in your shoes, they had me working in the kitchens to make all of the stoves go continuously."
"So they're going to test me?" Great, another test. "Shit."
"Ah, there's the Rizu we know and love."
"What?" She whirled at him. "Just what is that supposed to mean?"
"You've been sad and listless ever since you showed up on the doorstep." Erik smiled. "It's nice to see you back to yourself."
"Shut up." She smacked his arm. "So they're going to test me just like the school did. Awesome. You had to keep the stoves burning all day?" She thought about that for a moment. "So they wanted to know how long and well you could keep a steady flame. Power and skill measured in an easily managed test."
"Wish I'd been quick enough to figure that out." He sighed. "When did you get to be the smart one in our relationship? Thought that was supposed to be me." He chuckled.
"I've grown since you saw me last." She grinned. "I'm a whole new Rizu you know?" She spun a quick circle, showing off her clothes. Only then did she realize that she was still wearing the black clothes she'd had on from the day before, from when she'd been thrown out by Megumi. The same clothes when she had been wearing with Pelleas. She blanched as she continued the thought. These were the same clothes she'd been wearing even before, back since their last unfortunate meeting with the Fuhrer, and later, in the sewers, with that bastard Envy.
"So uh, right, I can at least stay here right?" She asked to confirm the terms of her 'employment' here.
"Yeah, for the time being, you can stay in my room, it'll take a day or two to get another one prepared for you to stay in. They don't keep many available at a moment's notice. They usually don't even bother preparing a room until after you've finished the test period. So you'd better do a good job, because they've already started on a room for you."
"Right." She took a deep breath. "Now, you need to turn around."
"What?"
"I have to get in uniform!" She gestured down at herself. "Unless you think your boss is going to approve of me looking like scum in three day old clothing." Well, two days or something. Still, she had to reek something awful. Hopefully Erik didn't mention that part to his boss.
When he'd finally turned around, she gave him one last reprimand, "And don't look either!" before she began to pull off her old clothes.
It took her only a few moments to change from her old ratty, disgusting black clothes to the soft, silken threads of her new company's wardrobe. A pleasant fitted black dress, or at least it would be if she managed to get the job. As of right now, it was rather loose, one of the shoulders kept on trying to slide down her arm. It went down to her knees smoothly, a little longer than was fashionable, but just right in her opinion. Of course, it was probably supposed to be shorter. In this case her shortness was a blessing, giving her a few extra inches to cover up. The sleeves rolled down her arms all the way to her slender wrists. She had chosen to wear her father's gloves rather than the ones supplied with the uniform. The last part of the outfit was the footwear. Thigh highs that disappeared under the dress, and over them, dark blue heels.
"Alright," She sighed, letting him turn back around. She adjusted her dress's shoulder again, determined to impress her new boss. "Let's go make a show."
Erik smiled and offered her a hand to take. She gleefully took it. He tucked it into the crux of his arm and then escorted her down to the ground floor.
"Ah, the young ma'am." The irritating voice was immediately recognizable. A little snobby, very condescending, and a little nasally too. This was the man who had kept her from entering the restaurant the day before. Mark Voillé. The maitre d'hotel. And a master sommelier as well, whatever that was. Would probably be a lesson about that sometime in the near-future.
She'd graduated from the school at the word of the Fuhrer himself, but only just barely. And then she'd gone into the Black Hand, where they had planned even more lessons for her, with real world applications. More than anything, she wished that she had been taught about how to turn invisible.
It probably wouldn't be of all too much use for her in her current situation. But it was still a cool trick, and it might have been a way for her to seal the deal at this restaurant here.
Then of course, she was going to have to take a load of 'classes' here too, in order to learn all of the things she'd need to know at her new job. And of course, tests. She was sure that there would be more tests she'd need to pass before she was both hired to work here, and before she was a trusted employee. Which she desperately wanted to be.
But how long was she going to deal with all of these lessons and tests! She had never been very good at any of them, hence Erik's earlier comment about her not being the smart one. How long was it going to take before people stopped giving her these stupid tests!
Actually, her mind snapped to attention. Even this was probably a test too. Seeing how she could react to rude, irritating behavior. Probably important in a service job.
Had to be it. So she pasted a grin on her face as she turned to face Mark. "Yes master Mark. I'm very glad that you remember my presence. It is good to be recognized by one as talented as you. I look forward to learning under your tutelage." She finished with a deep curtsy to him.
When he smiled, she knew he had passed. She hadn't even thought of that beforehand, but it only made sense. If there was an unruly customer, she still had to represent the restaurant, which meant she couldn't just freak out on him. She had to remain calm, in control. The exact opposite of how she'd been when Megumi had been yelling at her.
She felt a twinge of pain run through her at that thought. If she had just thought further ahead, kept her calm, and then maybe she would still be there with her, helping her avenge Ayako.
Why did she have to be so stupid? She could be right there on the front lines! Giving her friend help in her time of need!
And that was where she had to pause for a moment. She had thought that she was friends with the other members of the Black Hand, but she was only there for a couple of days. Could she really call them friends? Could she really even consider herself one of them after so little time? Especially since she'd essentially abandoned the team.
She had to stop thinking like that!
No Black Hand, no friends, no abandon, nothing! She was an employee- almost- of this restaurant now! No terrorism, no military, no Homunculuses, or Homunculi, or whatever it was. They weren't her issues anymore. She was a normal girl hoping to get into a restaurant.
The manager came storming through the main hall, shouting orders in a rush to the waiting staff. It was early, but with a restaurant as splendid as theirs, customers could be coming in at any time. It was unlikely that any would be coming in this early, but it was still possible, and clearly he wanted them prepared for any potentiality. He finished his walk right in front of the pair and looked down at Rizu.
"So you're my new employee, one Rizu, who disdains to use her last name when applying for a job." He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Erik. "If you can't even use your last name with me, then I haven't the slightest idea of how you're going to impress me enough to earn a place here. But Erik has made quite an impact here and it takes very little effort for me to let you in here long enough to fail and then throw you out. I doubt we'll even get a customer before you're gone."
After delivering his reprimand, both to her for daring to come here, and to Erik for even suggesting that she might have the aptitude for a job here, he whirled around and began to walk back, starting up with his yelling again.
Rizu glared at him as he walked away. Canas flashed into her thoughts at that moment. He was an ice alchemist just like her. Or maybe he was a water alchemist, they could freeze things too? If he were here, she would bet that he wouldn't take a snub like that lying down. She doubted any of the Black Hand would, except maybe Mist.
So, if Canas were in her shoes, what would he do?
She spun to Erik and pulled him down to her mouth level so she could whisper to him. He let out a noise of protest, but still went along with it.
"Light it up Flametail." She ordered.
"What?" He stood back up straight. "There's nobody even here."
She stomped a foot and glared at him. "Just do it!"
Luckily, he did listen to her, even without a proper reason. Soon enough, there was a thin line of flame pulling away from him, streaming through the restaurant.
But that wasn't what Rizu wanted. She grabbed his arm and whipped it up, knowing him well enough to know that he liked to tie his flames to his fingers so he could be sure to keep track of them.
"Wait what are you doing?" He snapped. She could tell immediately that he'd already cut off his connection to the flame, leaving it to dissipate harmlessly, the best part about his flame alchemy. But even without his energy to supply it, it still burned, since there was always oxygen in the air for it.
Contrary to popular belief, the Singing Flames was a perfectly safe building. It lured people in with the threat of danger and the appeal of fire, making the experience more delicious and tantalizing simply with the roaring danger, and of course the enjoyable show. What wasn't advertised to the public unless specifically asked about, were the protective measures that had been taken throughout. Any uncontrolled flame would be smothered or doused almost immediately, whether by one of the many fire alchemists employed there, or one of the water ones employed elsewhere, many specifically employed just for that reason.
But there was still another.
Just in case not one of the alchemists was available, there was an engineered response too. The engineered response was simple but effective. If any flame rose high enough to reach one of the spouts on the ceiling, every spout in the entire room would begin to fountain down water like a powerful rainstorm.
That was what she wanted right now. Erik's streamer of flame flicked upward like a whip, snapping just perfect for the tip to tap against one of the spouts. Immediately, water began to pour down in a thick heavy sheet of drops.
The spraying was quite loud and obvious, and she took a deep breath, hoping that she hadn't made a really stupid decision right there.
Still, she needed to make a big impression, and hopefully, a good one. Given her particular set of skills, that meant that she needed a good supply of water for this. Now she had a great supply of water raining down all around her. It had already fallen for a full second, long enough to send the deluge almost down on their heads.
With this much water, she knew she could manage something quite spectacular. She focused all of her attention on the falling liquid and snapped her fingers, her father's gloves giving her a spark. With that tiny measure of heat, she sent a wave of heat rushing along and through the downpour.
With her own heat racing through, she left a void in its wake. A void where the heat was lacking to enough of a degree that the lack of the heat was sharp enough to bring about a cold chill. The cold, in turn, was hard enough to freeze the falling waves of water.
With water falling all around him, the manager had spun around, anger flashing across his face. But none of it had touched any employees.
She had succeeded.
Arcing high above their heads was a series of sweeping, arcing waves of ice. They hung down in graceful arches, thin and magical. Small icicles stretched all the way down from the spouts on the ceiling to just a few feet above their heads. Some were nearly ten feet long. The light playing through the ice sparkled and gleamed in a reflective maze above them, drawing the eye to keep wandering. She turned her eyes to look at Erik for a moment, before moving to Mark and then the manager.
All three of them had looks of awe on their faces. All in all, Rizu couldn't have been much happier with the results. She couldn't let it go without a snide comment. "How's that for an impact?"
"Alright..." The manager had a smile now. "I'll admit that you have some skill. Now, I want you to keep the entire thing frozen until we close tonight. Only about fourteen hours from now. Let's see if you have the stamina to back up your skills."
Rizu sighed, a mix of relief and trepidation. She'd passed one test, now for the second. She'd never really been pushed to see exactly how long she could keep this up. A week ago- hell a few days ago- she couldn't even use alchemy to do anything. It was hard to even try thinking about that long ago. So much had happened, it seemed a lifetime ago. She'd only met Ayako and his group, what? Three days ago? Maybe four? This whole thing had gone far too fast. Maybe it would be good for her where she was. She'd have time to recover, to process, and eventually, to forget what had happened.
This would be good for her. Lots of work in a restaurant, entertaining, making people happy, solving problems, maybe she'd even be allowed to work in the kitchen at some point. There were a lot of possibilities, a lot of potential here. She may manage to protect herself from the memories after all. Best of all, nobody here knew where she had gone and what she had been through except for Erik, and she knew that he'd never speak of it again unless she spoke to him first. That meant that nobody around here would ever mention anybody from the Black Hand, so the memories wouldn't strike her working here, not so long as she could keep her own mind from bringing them up.
This might take a little longer than she hoped, but she'd get there in time. No need to think about that bitch Megumi.
The first customers came in only an hour later. A rich girl and her equally rich date were the first ones through the doors, looking on in awe at the wonderland Rizu had created above their heads. Rizu couldn't stifle her smile, grinning like a fool at their excitement. She noticed a few of the hanging icicles were getting pretty narrow, ripe to drop down on top of somebody's head. She focused briefly, raising her hand up toward that section, with a loud, sharp snap, she unleashed her flame. The sudden heat racing through the air, burning away swiftly, wrapping around the already made ice.
For a moment, the ice melted even further, before the second wave came along. After the wave of heat, the air was suddenly lacking all of its warmth, quickly becoming frigid. This cold now took its turn to wrap around the hanging ice, refreezing the areas that had begun to melt, as well as building those areas up, so it would take longer to melt away next time.
She took a little time to wander the floor, taking care to examine each and every icicle to make sure that it was thick enough. She had to be careful. She wanted this job. She needed this job. And in order to get this job, she had to keep the ceiling frozen all night, until the morning actually.
She tried to walk the entire area swiftly, but she was stopped several times in order for people to talk to her, asking her how she'd been, who she was, when she started working there.
She couldn't be rude, not to them, they were, after all, paying customers. Offend them and they might go elsewhere to eat, she could be fired for that.
So she was moving carefully through the restaurant, taking many small breaks to speak with the customers, answering them as completely as possible, trying to keep watch on the icicles.
At around midnight she realized just how stupid she was. The restaurant was literally called the Singing Flames. There were dozens of alchemists throughout the building using fire alchemy. Fire alchemy which caused heat. And Erik. Erik the Flametail alchemist. Erik, whose specialty was to make thin ribbons of fire that danced around all over the place.
She literally smacked her forehead in reaction to her stupidity. How was she that stupid?
Instead of running all over the place, running herself ragged trying to play catch up, she decided to just follow them around and repair the damage from their activities. They traveled all over the place as well, so it allowed her to cover most of the room just by following after Erik.
Sure she was using her alchemy more often than if she hadn't done it like that, but at least now she wasn't fighting a losing battle. She wasn't trying to stop the whole roof from collapsing, she was just trying to counter Erik's damage now.
It wasn't easy though. There was more than just Erik running amok, and there always seemed to be another person trying to find out about her. At first, she was afraid that those interested in her were potential enemies, ones who knew about the Black Hand and might be trying to kill her, or use her to find Megumi or the others. Luckily, she didn't know anything, so she couldn't sell them out. Even luckier, it didn't seem like any of them actually were working for enemies. They were just honestly curious about her. Apparently some of the customers came here often enough to recognize that she was a new employee.
One really old man stopped her directly and started up a conversation. He didn't seem to say much, but she couldn't seem to stop him from asking her yet another question, or rambling on about something in the past. She tried to keep an inconspicuous eye on the ceiling, so she might be able to react if necessary, but it was difficult without revealing what she was doing.
She looked directly up and was momentarily horrified. The ice directly above them was actually really thin, and just barely hanging on in thin strings. She couldn't just wave her hands around to stop it though. An icicle was hanging down just over his head.
An icicle that looked sharp, razor sharp, deadly even. It was going to fall right on his head and kill him. Kill him just like that poor fourteenth hostage.
The icicle was gone, in its place was a slender woman, seeming to come right out of the ceiling. She held a long barreled machine gun clasped in her hands. Aiming it directly down at the top of the man's head. Her fingers were tight around the trigger, but her head was covered in a mask, just like those terrorists back with their hostages.
Her finger pulled back on the trigger, spitting forth a volley of hot metal aimed for the poor man's head.
Rizu didn't think, she couldn't think. The bullets were far too fast for her to think. So she just reacted. She threw an arm up, trying to pump her power, her father's fire, through the water as swiftly as possible.
A thick wall of ice burst up from the ground, rising quickly before wrapping up and over the man's head. She heard a little noise, like a pair of glasses clinking against each other, and she looked up again.
There wasn't a person sticking out of the ceiling. There wasn't anybody in a mask. There was just an old man, now covered by an icy umbrella, with an icicle sticking out of it.
Right, she thought to herself. There had been an icicle about to fall down on the man's head. Not a manic terrorist holding a gun. She'd just been hallucinating? Of course it was just a hallucination, she berated herself. People don't just randomly grow out of ceilings. She'd looked so real. Am I really that easy to fool? That gullible?
She didn't even know if it counted as gullibility. Of if she was just nervous, or scared.
No! She was Rizu Mustang. She wasn't afraid. She was the daughter of the greatest flame alchemist in history. She was the daughter of a hardened military officer and highly talented covert sniper. She was daughter of the Flame Alchemist Roy Mustang, and his 'Queen' Riza Hawkeye. She couldn't be scared. More, she couldn't be stopped by her being scared. Being scared would never stop her parents. Her mother had been fighting long and hard with alchemists, against alchemists, against homunculi, against Father, against all of these powerful, almost godly beings, while she could only fire a gun pretty well.
She'd asked her mother once how she'd done it, how she'd been able to fight against something so powerful, when she herself was so frail, so weak.
"Because there was no other choice." Was the response. No other choice. She'd been forced to adjust, to swallow her fear, to swallow her pride, to swallow everything and just continue to try to push forward.
Rizu's legacy wasn't one of fear, and she wasn't going to allow fear to rule her. So why was she here? Why wasn't she working with Megumi? Why had she abandoned the poor girl? Just because Megumi wanted to keep a secret? Because she had slapped her? She'd run away when Megumi had needed her most. She'd run away once things had changed. She needed to go and apologize.
She turned away from the confused man and ran out. She ran out of the restaurant entirely, down the street, finally ending up in front of the hotel she'd left Megumi at. But she didn't stop there, she burst right into the building and rushed to Megumi's room. When she got there though, she was disappointed by what she faced.
The room was empty. Megumi had already moved on.
Whatever Megumi had planned to do, it was going to be happening soon. Rizu thought back to their last meeting, before Megumi had slapped her, and before she had stormed out.
Octonitrocubane, fireworks, TNT. She was going to blow something up, but what? When? It was going to be a lot of explosions, clearly, but she wanted to go out and help her again. She wanted to be useful to Megumi, and more, she wanted to prove to herself that she wasn't scared. After the hallucination in the restaurant, she needed to reassure herself that she wasn't a coward.
But Megumi had already moved along, either hiding from somebody who was catching up, or moving already to try and finish her goals. The woman worked fast, it was only the day after the two of them had their fight. Maybe she really didn't trust Rizu, and thought that she would go right to the authorities and sell her out?
Was there really no trust? Rizu had grown to love the group as a family, despite only knowing them for a short while.
Canas had sacrificed his arm in order to protect her, protect the other civilians who had been in danger. Ayako had accepted her into the group, and while he hadn't interacted with her all that much, he had treated her like any other member of the group. Megumi had treated her as if she were a little sister, innocent and pure, somebody to be looked out for. Rizu had actually avoided meeting Umiko as much as possible, to her regret. Umiko had been- in her own way- a lot like Canas. The major difference between them seemed to be their acceptance of things. Canas was pretty laid back, accepting things, always working to protect the group. Umiko was like a mother bear, she cared for the group, supporting them, protecting them, she even cooked meals, apparently individualized ones! She just didn't seem to be very good at 'nice' or 'calm.' Somebody- Ayako maybe?- had mentioned that Umiko was pretty much harmless unless you were Canas, maybe it was an opposites attract scenario there. Where Canas maintained his calm, she reacted powerfully, violently. Mist was healer to the team, except for Canas. She was sweet and innocent too, looking after everybody, soft-spoken and kind. Shinon was a little bit of an ass, but he hadn't really been that bad either, just kind of self-absorbed, and other than that he only cared about Mist.
They were a family and Rizu had given up her opportunity to be a part of that. Megumi was the last active member and she was gone from here now.
Now that she thought about it, she very well might have given up her opportunity at a job at the restaurant for running out like she did. "Shit." She muttered. Erik would yell at her for that mistake. He'd put a lot on the line and she'd just thrown it away, seemingly without a real reason. She may have told him about what had happened while she was in the group, but he couldn't really understand what the Black Hand was like.
She herself didn't really understand it either. The Black Hand was a group unto itself, but intricately linked within itself to so much more. Beyond that, it was even intricately linked within itself, a family within a group of agents of the government.
She took the mask Canas had given her off of her neck. It was a little sticky with old sweat, but It was perfect for what she wanted it for. She took the piece of cloth and wrapped it around her upper arm, just above her elbow, before tying it off. Even if she wasn't going to be a part of the group anymore, if there wasn't going to be a group anymore, she was still going to remember them, at least symbolically. A black flag in their honor.
"Double shit." She muttered as she left the inn. Might as well go back and start cleaning up her room above the restaurant. It would've been nice to stay there still, safe from anybody who might have had a vendetta against alchemists.
Outside, she soon became soaked through with the swiftly rising rain that had settled over the city. "Triple shit."
Considering that she was going to be fired almost immediately upon her return, this shouldn't have been all that big a deal, but still, bad things always seemed to just pile up all at once.
"Quadruple shit." She just realized that she was still in the dress from the restaurant. Rather than fitted right now, it was more skin-tight than fitted now. The rain ran down her body in thin rivulets, making the cloth cling even tighter to her.
She also had to return the dress. Only one choice. She walked a decent speed, but nothing compared to how she had been running earlier.
She didn't need to rush, she couldn't be much more fired than she was already.
Eventually she did make it back. The restaurant was busy, as expected. What she hadn't expected though, was the reaction when she came back. They did yell at her, but not for what she thought it would be. Instead, she was yelled at for abandoning her post.
Everybody loved her addition, the frozen sheet of spears hanging down from the ceiling. All sorts of people, employees and customers alike, were busying themselves with staring at the new canopy. She was put right back to work, without even having time to apologize for running out earlier. They pointed her to areas where the ice had melted or fallen and told her to build it back up.
She didn't really know what to do, so she just went back to working, filling in the empty areas of the ceiling. From one area to the next, she moved around until she was sure that every area had something. Then it was just trekking back and forth to make sure that it didn't melt away again.
The restaurant closed at its usual time, but still nobody had come to call her out about her running out on them earlier. She just kept on looking at everybody who came near her, waiting for it, expecting it. But nothing. It was almost disappointing.
Finally she broke down and asked Erik about it.
"Well, you're not the only one coming here from trouble. Not saying we all have issues, but you're certainly far from unusual." He had been just outside of his bedroom, and looked like he was more than ready to go to sleep. She'd probably just caught him in his last waking moments. "They might be a little tough and argumentative, but the people in charge aren't exactly bad. They're nice, and they do know how to forgive. They just want to make sure people are serious about joining up here so they act worse than they really are."
"Oh." She was a little shocked at how easy the answer was, she'd expected something bigger. Or maybe that it was something in particular about her. Not that she was really upset or anything.
"Good night Rizu." Erik gave a little wave before heading into his room.
Rizu went off to her own, still thinking about Megumi and the others. She'd had such good friends there, if only she'd had more time with them. To get to know them better, to get to see what they were like, the kinds of people they really were, when they weren't on jobs. All she really knew about was how they reacted under pressure, on missions and the like.
If only she'd had more time.

I couldn't get much motivated to write this everybody, I'm sorry. Since it's set up for the future and such, it wasn't very exciting. I'm also writing up many other stories and fanfictions, starting up a Tokyo Ghoul one, and Steven Universe (instigated by others) as well as my BESM one. I have too many stories and not enough motivation for them.