-Get A Life Girl-
Well, after Christmas, the days seamed to fly by. Before she knew it, Riza was walking down the driveway with her family heading to the center of Central City on New Years Eve. It was two hours till midnight and as family tradition, the family was going to the first night festivities to watch performers, fireworks and the count down. No matter where she was in the world, with her family or without, Riza always made it to this festival. Out of all the holidays as a child, this was her favorite. Something about the bright fireworks bursting in the air like magic... like alchemy almost.
Riza stopped just outside of the part, holding Hannah's hand. She stared off in the direction she knew the fireworks would launch from. She thought about it. All her childhood, she thought fireworks were created by magic. When she got older and enlisted, and she say Roy's powers for the first time, She thought it was magic. Then when she found out it was a science called alchemy, it changed her perspective on the whole 'magical' world.
Everything had a truth, and magic was nothing more then science and chemistry. To make it short, alchemy. She was never found of alchemy, but she dealt with it as it was part of her every day in the military, with The Flame Alchemist as her colonel.
Hannah tugged on Riza's arm and Riza looked down. Hannah wanted to move on, after all the rest of the family disappeared in the crowd. Riza smiled and attempted to push her colonel's face out of her mind. It was getting harder and harder with each day. And just about everything reminded her of him. In the crowd, she found Andrew and the three set off to set good seats for the fireworks. Hannah, being small, wanted the best seats so they went to find them.
With only thirty minutes left of the year, Andrew was standing on the top of a hill, Riza next to him and Hannah sitting on his shoulders. She was so excited about the fireworks. Last year she missed them due to her being sick. Riza however, saw them, and made sure she wrote to Hannah explaining how they were. Music began to play at a distance, a beautiful classical piece, not related to any holiday, just beautiful music. A white explosion burst into he air as a test. Everyone cheered and celebrated. All persons in the wrong area, moved for better viewing, but Andrew, Riza and Hannah had the best spot.
Another explosion burst, and was quickly followed by red and blue bursts of color in the black night sky. It was the perfect night, no clouds and no stars. The moon was new so it wasn't out. The bright colors of the fireworks continued to burst into the air. The music in the background seamed to be matching the explosions beat for beat, almost like the fireworks were dancing to the music.
Green, white and orange burst into the air as drums hit a high note. Followed closely by bursts of blue and purple. White sparks danced on the ground as a piano took over the musical notes, included with some red and green matching the flutes and harps. It was a beautiful sight. Hannah was smiling and as Riza watched her young niece, she couldn't help but smile. She turned back to the fireworks as a burst of red, orange and yellow shot across the dark sky, lighting up the trees in the distance. As they faded away other colors came into he sky. Riza froze. Another red explosion shot across the sky.
Her mind blacked out, her eyes widened and her mouth slightly fell open. Memories of years gone by flashed into her head, blocking out the happiness that surrounded her.
FLASHBACK
The sounds of bombs exploded in the distance as military soldiers stormed into the Ishbal camps, killing anyone and everyone in their way. Riza stood, riffle ready watching the on coming Ishbal rebels. She rose her gun to fire and knocked down a few, like bowling, only with bullets. She herd something behind her and turned around and kill yet another rebel. Before she could react, she felt a gun be placed to the back of her neck. She froze up.
Was this how it was going to end. Age nineteen, single and alone in the cold night of the battle field. Before she had time to register her fear, she saw a bright flash of red shoot across the sky. the gun behind her fell to the ground, along with the charred body of the rebel. She jumped to attention and turned to face a man, no older then her, wearing white gloves, one hand held in a snapping position. He wore a red ring on that middle finger and his face showed no emotion. Rank of major sat adorned on his chest. He lowered his hand and helped her to her feet.
"You all right there soldier?"
"Yes sir, thank you sir."
"Be more carefully."
"Yes sir, sorry sir."
The man ran off leaving Riza to defend the lines alone once again. The next time she saw that Major was back in Central City when she was assigned to work under him as a lieutenant.
END FLASHBACK
A hand shook Riza's shoulder as she snapped back to reality. She looked around quickly and saw Andrew looking at her with concern. She tried to smile, mostly for Hannah's sake.
"You alight?"
"I will be."
Riza smiled once again and turned back to the fireworks. Why was this affecting her so much. Even the same year as the war, she watched the fireworks and it didn't affect her. Never had fireworks hurt her so much. It wasn't the war that was bothering her, it was the fact that Roy created fire, and fireworks were nothing more then colorful versions of his magical fire alchemy. Soon the fireworks ended, as did the music. Riza however, could not enjoy them any more. A large star hanging in the sky lit up a bright yellow. It slowly began to fall, and as it did, the color changed to red, blue, green and back to yellow. It continued to fall as the people watching started a count down.
"5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Happy New Years!"
People cheered. Andrew kissed his little girl and they cheered. Riza smiled and clapped. But, she wasn't feeling in the festive mood. The celebrating continued as Riza's mood fell for the worse. So many things on her mind. Her vacation was over, she was moving to a new unit tomorrow, and she turned twenty-four in two months and three days.
"I'm gonna head home, I saw mom over there, I'll get a key. from her."
Riza turned to Andrew as he was about to head down the hill with Hannah for more celebrations.
"You okay?"
"I'm just not feeling well. I'll see you at home."
Riza said bye to Hannah and turned to leave. She soon found her mother, got the spare key and headed home. At home, she locked the door and went straight up stairs to bed. She didn't even change, only kicked out of her choose and flopped into bed. Later that New Years day, she would leave and head home. back to her one room ranch house in the gated community. Spending Friday night either at the office doing paperwork or eating macaroni and cheese with her puppy.
She sighed as she pulled the covers over her head and fell asleep, waking up five hours later. When the sun peeked into her bedroom , she woke up and changed into traveling clothes. She packed her clothes and gifts into her suitcase and then left the room. In the hallway, she turned back around and took one last look at her bed room. The room she longed for during the war. The soft pillows, the warm sheets, the home cooked meals and love. She closed her eyes to seal the memory away and closed the door, sealing off her room for yet another year if not longer.
Down stairs, she wasn't the only one up. Shawn was there and he was standing by the tree. Arms crossed over his chest, he turned around when he heard Riza land on the first floor.
"Leaving?"
"Yeah.. long trip ahead of me."
"Don't lie, you live like and hour away if you take the train. Two hours if you walk. and it's not like you have work, today is still part of your vacation is it not?"
"Yeah..."
"Why not stay longer?"
"I just can't."
Shawn walked over and had her drop her bags. He stared into her eyes and was shocked to see the gold was gone, replaced by a darkness of sort.
"Riza, six years ago when you enlisted, I stood in this exact spot as you stood right here, holding a small bag of necessities. This exact time of day, your tried to sneak out and run away from your troubles. I let you go, you promised to return soon. Three years later, I saw you again. Your my baby sister, I don't want anything to happen to you. Tat war you were in, it tore me apart. I was blaming myself each day I never heard anything about you. The first female in the military..."
"Shawn, listen..."
"No, for once Heaven, you listen. Your not the only one your actions hurt. Andrew talked to me earlier and told me about this Roy fellow. Just because he is a jerk, that doesn't mean you need to beat yourself up over it. You need to talk to us. we can help. We have all been there and done that. Call us, ask us, lean on us..."
"I lean on no one."
Riza bent down to pick up her stuff and headed for the door. James came around the cornered grabbed her wrist and stopped her. She turned around, battle mode, and grabbed his wrist, pushing him away from her, strongly. He stumbled backwards and hit the railing of the stairs. Never had Riza ever shown violence towards her family, and they never to her. Sure the brothers fought each other often, but Riza was the innocent one, never getting hurt by them or causing them hurt. Shawn helped James up and they stared at her with shock. Riza stared back, equally shocked at herself.
Atop the stairs stood Aaron and Andrew. The stared at them shocked too. Andrew took a step down. This was all to familiar, except the pushing. The night she enlisted, Shawn tried to stop her. She walked away from him and James then showed but, making his attempt. When he failed, Aaron and Andrew tried, but before they could do anything, Riza ran out the door and disappeared.
"Riza..."
"No, just..."
With that, She ran out side. What was happening with her. Something was wrong. She reached the end of the driveway and stopped, leaning on the pillar for support. She took in a few deep breaths and wiped her face. The tough soldier exterior returned. She turned around and saw her brothers standing in the open doorway, watching her run away from her problem yet again. She whistled loudly and Black Hayate came running. He skated to a stop next to her and together they walked away. Not once looking back, Riza walked straight to the train station and boarded, heading straight to home.
A/N -
Please review. No FLAMES (Thats Roy's job only). Please look in my profile ooOAnimeChildOoo for all my other stories. And again, thanks for reading.
"Write a wise saying and your name will live forever"
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