Conographia

by kittu9

They never said that they were enlightened, but there was evidence about them of things unseen. [Vignettes from the Royai 100 Challenge]

39. Halves

40. Halves

Sometimes in a fit of blind exasperation she wonders what it is about him that she loves so much. He is arrogant and lazy and he makes horrible, flirtatious jokes about other women and he has never, ever, not once, treated her as much more than one of his staff.

(But then Riza sometimes thinks that instead of a love-token she carries an ideal of the Colonel close to her heart. She can bring herself to believe this because she has seen the way that he tries to protect the Elric brothers, she knows how genuinely fond he is of Hughes, how the Colonel does not really mind having photographs of Elysia thrust upon him with every waking breath.)

(Also, she knows this essential truth: should the world come to fall apart, even at that last and unrecorded morpheme of the universe, it will come down to their determined love and their dream for a brave new world.)