AN: Hi guys! Thanks so much for the reviews! And for being patient with me! Yes, I know some of you are wondering; I am in fact still alive. Just REALLY busy. I mean, REALLY, REALLY busy, (and that's an understatement) I go to school, then come home for about 20 minutes, then go to work, then get off work at 10 pm, THEN come home and do homework. So yeah… can you see the reason for my none-updating-ness? Hope so! I'm really sorry! It's not my fault! I hate it and I want to quit but my parents won't let me. Sighs.
Oh, I know I said I was going to rewrite this chapter… well… I'm not. Sorry again. I tried, but I just don't have the time too. If you REALLY don't like it, then say it in a review, depending on the numbers I'll see if it REALLY needs to be redone. If it does then I'll remove it and rewrite it… whenever I get a chance… and I dunno when that will be so… yeah… So yeah people, I know Riza is WAY over the top in this chapter, that's why I wanted to rewrite it. Don't worry though. She's A LOT better in following chapters!
Warning to the readers, Riza will be a little out of character in this chapter, maybe a lot depending on the reader, but when it's that-time-of-the-month isn't everyone out of their usual character? Keep that in mind and please don't gripe to me that she's out of character, I already know. Blame it on the mood swings. I also hope everyone reading this is old enough to know what I'm talking about. I really don't want to have to explain it that could get a little messy, lol.
The Way to a Man's Heart Isn't by Crushing His Ego Chapter 20: 'That Time' Always Comes at the Worst Time, Doesn't It?
"Here we are," the driver said as he stopped in a not-so-nice looking area. It really was the outskirts of town. The way, way outskirts. The ground was nothing but sand and the buildings were all old and falling apart, they were a blast from the past, all made of wood. The place was clearly abandoned by all intelligent forms of life. No sighs of life or worse, electricity anywhere. Central was so far off only the biggest and widest buildings shown on the bright horizon. It was very hot, the suns rays where bouncing off the sand and back into their faces.
The driver let Roy and Riza out. He helped them unload their gear. Medical supplies, food, canteens of water, you know, the usual for a mission in the 'pit' as it was often called. After it was all unloaded he got back in his car and rolled down the window. "I'll come back when ever the Fuhrer tells me too," he said, then rather quickly, drove away. The sand was being kicked up everywhere from the spinning car tires, making a mini sand storm.
"How is the Fuhrer going to know when we are done here?" Roy shouted, but the driver was already gone. An annoyed expression appeared on his face as he looked around for a good spot for their makeshift home. The 'pit' was set up like an ordinary town. There were buildings on both sides of them, the paths of sand behind and in front of the buildings were streets at one time. The buildings were all junky. Some had caved in. All the windows had been blown out. Some others were still standing, but had gaping holes in the roof or sides.
What am I supposed to do now? Riza wondered as she looked at her surroundings. This 'no electricity' thing was really going to be a problem in her 'current' satiation. No flushable toilets. Just as she began thinking about it, the pain began coming on, a sharp pain in her lower abdomen. She put her hand on the lower part of her stomach, rubbing it, trying to get the pain to leave. Cramps are probably the most annoying apart of this whole thing. She thought to herself. Once Roy glanced back at her she quickly removed her hand. There was no way she was going to confess if she didn't have to. She knew Roy; he'd just laugh at her.
"Is something wrong?" he asked. Riza was acting strange. The 'not talking' thing was just the beginning, now she was making weird hand gestures and trying to hide it once he looked at her.
"No," she replied as she stared back at him. Her face remained calm though she wanted to flinch a little from the cramping pain. Oh, why did it have to start last night? I hope he doesn't do anything I'd normally get annoyed with. When this sort of thing happens I have a very short fuse and I've often found I can't control myself. Accursed mood swings. She whined to herself, but she wasn't showing Roy any hint of weakness. She was much too strong to let a few cramps get in her way. "What would you like to do now, Lieutenant Colonel?"
Roy looked around a little more. "Let's find a stable building. We'll make that our home for the time we are here," Roy said as he picked up his black suitcase, then he walked over to Riza and was going to take hers, the brown suitcase that sat at her feet.
"Uh!" Riza snapped and snatched the suitcase out from Roy's grasp. There's no way I'm letting him see what's in there. Riza thought. Inside her bag held all her 'personal' items. (I dunno if they had these particular 'things' in their time. So I'm not going to complex with this, just a simple pad, no wings or super absorbency, or maybe a specially made rag if they didn't have those 'things' back then, lol. Why am I telling you this?) They were the things she most wanted to keep away from Roy's hawk like eyes. With the way he acts, they'd turn him on, and that was the last thing she needed.
"What's you're problem?" Roy asked. He didn't ask in a rude way or anything. He was just curious, but that little bit of curiosity was enough to set Riza off.
Her eyes began flaming as she glared at him.
"Uh, problem?" he asked, a little nervous. He had no idea what he had just done, but he could tell Riza didn't like it.
"How dare you ask a woman that?" Riza snapped at him. Her personality changed from calm to flaming mad in a total of 3.5 seconds.
"Ask what? If you were ok?" Roy asked. Now he was really confused. He was about to say something else and find out what was wrong with his Second Lieutenant when he saw her slowly drawing her gun from the corner of his eye. "GAH!" he jumped back a little bit, but didn't lose his cool. Soldiers never lost their cool. He quickly slipped his white gloves on. He wouldn't burn her, he'd just do enough to defend himself. With all the wood around his flames would prove quite useful. "Hawkeye, get a hold of yourself! What did I do?" Roy asked. He demanded to know what was the matter. Why is she acting this way? Did all the stress get to her and cause her to snap? This isn't the same woman I've been fighting with the passed few days, and I hate to say, but this version is a lot more annoying.
Riza pointed her gun at Roy, her eyes still flaming. She wanted to shoot, but for some reason she couldn't come to pull the trigger. Did she still have a little bit of control? This is what she hated the most about that-time-of-the-month. It felt as if she had a whole bunch of different people living inside of her, each one desperate to escape. She had to do everything in her power to restrain them.
"Hawkeye?" Roy asked as she stared at him. Eyes flaming mad but face calm. He noticed she was hesitating to shoot. Does she really hesitate? Roy wondered. I never would have guessed.
Riza stared at him. Her hands began shaking; she tried as hard as she could to regain control of herself. After a few seconds she lowered her gun, her gaze lowering to the sand along with it. Her face disappointed. She cursed herself. How pathetic is this? I can't even control my own emotions. How absurd. She sneered then glanced up at Roy. Her eyes calm once again. "I'm sorry, sir. I don't know what got into me," she said her voice was serious as usual, but her facial expression wasn't.
Roy just stared at her. He was so confused. He didn't know what to say. He was afraid anything he said would cause her to snap again.
Riza glanced up at him again. Her eyes irritated. "Aren't you going to say anything?" Her eyes became more and more annoyed with every passing second. The grip she had on her pistol tightened.
"Uh?" Roy stammered in his words. What was he supposed to do now? She got mad when he said something, and frustrated when he didn't. A sweat drop appeared on the back of his of his head. "Lieutenant, I don't know what's going on here but-" Roy began but the flames in Riza's amber eyes skyrocketed and she cut him off.
"BUT THIS!" she shouted angrily and brought her gun up, firing at him.
"HEY!" Roy snapped back and jumped backwards, just missing the bullet. The soft sand underneath him wasn't solid under his feet, causing him to fall backwards on his butt. "Lay down your arms!" he demanded. This sense of not knowing what was wrong was really getting on his nerves. He should know everything. He was the highest ranking officer here after all. Plus, Riza acting in this strange manner was making him worry. He'd never seen her like this before, not even when they were fighting back at the office.
"I will once you lay dead!" Riza snapped and fired two more bullets.
Roy turned tail and ran, slipping around on the sand. Riza ran over the sand with grace, she didn't falter once. "Stop this nonsense right now, Hawkeye!" he said as he ran, glancing back every few seconds to see how close she was. "WHOA!" he shouted with great surprise when a bullet whizzed passed his head and punctured the building in front of him. She's really serious! He thought and tried to run faster. He glanced back again and saw Riza pulling out bullets for a reload. He knew he had a split second now. If she was reloading, then her attention wasn't on him. He waited until her mind was fully concentrated on her gun, then he ducked into the nearest building.
He sighed with relief when he heard the sound of muffled footsteps run passed the opening of the building. He leaned back against the wall and caught his breath. What's wrong with her? Is she sick? This is not the same Riza I met at the bank. He thought to himself. It may be hard to believe, but he was really worried about this. He was picking his brain trying to come up with a way to snap her out of this. He couldn't even think of using his flame. Not when Riza was in this messed up state of mind. It was clearly clouding her judgment and he didn't know if she'd get injured if he tried or not.
Suddenly a chill was sent barreling down his spine. Someone was towering above him. He glanced up and saw Riza's eyes glaring down at him. "Nuts," he murmured and got up again.
Once he stood up and scrambled away she fired again. The bullet just missed hitting his back. He ran deeper into the destroyed building, bullets whizzing by him at all angles. He began to wonder if he was really lucky? Or if Riza was playing with him and missing on purpose. "Hawkeye!" he shouted again.
She returned his shout with a bullet.
"That's it, I'm tired of this," he said quietly as he ran through another room, he grabbed his wrist and was preparing to use his alchemy. All he could do was pray Riza had enough sense to avoid it. This had to stop. The gangsters would find them easily if this kept up, and if that happened who knew what they'd do? Then an idea popped into his head, he smirked.
"Are you giving up?" Riza asked when she noticed Roy's pace slowing.
He sped up suddenly. He was trying to make just the right amount of distance between Riza's body and his own. "Nope!" he shouted and turned around fast. His body was facing Riza's as he snapped his fingers.
Riza stopped suddenly when she saw the flame coming toward her. She quickly covered her face with her arms, preparing for the blaze. Just before the blast of heat hit her she felt someone's arms wrap around her small frame and push her out of the way. Her eyes popped open. She looked up quickly and saw Roy in front of her.
Just as he had snapped his fingers Roy ducked under the flame and darted on the left side of it. By the grace of God he made it there before the flame did. He quickly grabbed Riza and pushed her to safety.
Riza fell backwards with a thud. The warmth of his arms still embraced her. She looked up, Roy's face was mere inches away from her own, and his arms still wrapped around her. One of his hands was behind the back of her head, protecting her skull from the fall.
What? Riza wondered what happened when her angry emotion faded with confusion. She looked behind Roy's body, there was a small fire eating up the area of wood behind them.
"Are you ok?" Roy asked as he stared into her eyes.
"…Yes…" she replied as she gazed back into his. She wasn't really sure what was going on, and then the image came flooding back to her. She remembered running through the building and then seeing a huge flame coming straight towards her. She closed her eyes in fear then felt his arms wrap around her. Did he just save me? She wondered.
They stayed like this for a few moments. Roy lifted off her body then glanced over her, making sure she had no wounds or burns. That was way to close. I shouldn't have made the flame that strong. Roy thought to himself. And the landing wasn't the softest either.
"Are you ok?" Riza asked as she sat partway up. Her elbows were on the dirty ground, holding her weight up.
"Yeah," he replied. He was sitting upright, but was still on her lap. He was about to get off when Riza grabbed his wrist. He just looked at her questionably. Her facial expression was strange. It was one he'd never seen before.
"Thank you," she whispered. Damn mood swings. She cursed once again. This is crazy. I'm like a high school girl with a crush. Now I suddenly feel the need to kiss him.
She lost control of her emotions once again. She pulled Roy toward her, still holding his wrist. "Uh?" Roy replied. He wasn't sure what to make of this. But his confusion quickly faded as he became lost in her gaze. Her amber eyes where calm and gentle. It seemed as if they were searching through his soul, and began taking over him, making him very relaxed and at peace.
They glazed for a few seconds more, and then leaned toward each other. Roy's soft lips were about to embrace hers when a loud crash was heard. They quickly snapped out of their passionate moment.
What was that? Riza wondered as she stared at the empty doorframe.
Oh-no, not now. I was so close. Roy pouted to himself as he looked from the door back to Riza. Her eyes still held a hint of passion. After a few moments of silence they stared back at each other. "It was probably just a cat," he replied.
Riza nodded she fell back on her back for a moment, thinking. Do I really want to do this? It's not justified. Soldiers are not supposed to have a relationship. She glanced back at him again. His arms were so warm and comforting. She gazed at him, tracing his face with her eyes. His expression was loving an peaceful. She felt he'd protect her no matter what. It was a very nice feeling. Her passionate side took over once again. She sat up, her eyelevel even with Roy's. He just smiled back at her. This was clearly not a time for words.
She returned his smile; this was not your normal everyday smile. It was deeply loving and gave you a feeling of relaxation and happiness you never imagined possible. She wrapped her arms around him, slowly. She was a little nervous as to how he'd react to her embrace. When he didn't flinch or pull away she became relaxed again and gazed back into his dark black eyes. He then put his arms around her once again.
They leaned in toward each other once more. Riza closed her eyes, waiting for the feeling of his lips against hers. They were about to touch once again, mere centimeters away. They could feel the heat radiating off each other's bodies.
Suddenly an ugly man burst through the door. He was tall, fat, and ugly. He had long black hair pulled back into a ponytail. His hair was greasy and unwashed. His eyes were an ugly milky shade of blue. The stench coming off his body was rancid and sour. He grinned evilly at them. His teeth were yellow and destroyed from decay and lack of brushing.
Another one of his buddies popped in. This man was very tall and muscular. His hygiene was just as bad as the first man's. He had red hair that was cut short, his long beard was tangled and matted, pieces of food tangled in with it.
The dogs just stared at them. Then Riza's eyes began flaming again. She let go of Roy and pulled out her gun. She pointed it at them harshly.
"WHOA! The chick is loaded!" the man with black hair shouted as they took off. Riza fired; the bullet missed and lodged itself in the door frame.
"Why you!" Riza grumbled and darted off after them. The sound of the men's screams and shots being fired echoed through the empty building.
Roy was still sitting on the floor. A blown away expression was plastered all over his face. No, why, I was so close. He cried to himself. "What the heck is going on here? Hawkeye! Wait!" he said as he scrambled too his feet and followed the sound of gunshots.