Ch 1- Welcome to the Opera Populaire Part One
Riza was enamored with it. The lights, the decorations, the colorful costumes, live music and performance. But what she loved the most was the white masque and the beautiful face behind it. Which is when she found out that it was back in town, she couldn't help but feel possessed by it. The music and the story were engraved into her head and she was driven to sing the lyrics. It was no surprise that the people she associated with at work found this odd. She usually never did anything like this. She was so possessed that she was even slacking off on her Taisa, which confused him greatly. Despite being possessed, she didn't tell a single soul there what was causing her unusual behavior. So when her Taisa finally asked one day, the day before it came, she burst.
"Oh Roy! It's the most wondrous and enchanting thing! The Phantom of the Opera is coming to town, well actually it's already here the first showing is tomorrow, but I'm so excited about going to go see it I can't contain myself! The lights, the music, the chandelier, the Phantom! She sighed with her hands over her breast.
Roy was stunned. First off, she had used his name at work which is something she has never done in the history of their time together. Second off, he couldn't believe that all her behavior was all caused by a play.
He had apparently said the last half out loud because Riza said "It's not a play. It's a musical! Have you even ever heard of The Phantom of the Opera?"
"No, I'm afraid I haven't."
Riza's jaw dropped for a second but she quickly composed herself. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped. Then, her face lit and Roy saw an imaginary light bulb over her head suddenly turn on.
She breathed in and exhaled deeply and she regained her normal composure. "Sir, I'm going to the performance tomorrow evening with my Father, Grandfather, and three family friends. I was going to bring my best friend but she's in Xing right now so I have an extra ticket. If you're not busy tomorrow evening, would you like to come?"
Roy was stunned. Here was his First Lt. Elizabeth 'Riza' Hawkeye asking him out somewhere! Not to discuss plans for becoming Fuher or just bumping into each other on accident and going out to restaurant. No, she wanted to go to the theater with him. As is it were a date. No! Roy inwardly shook his head. That was not a battle that he wanted to arouse with his heart. He looked at her fully and was surprised. He hadn't noticed but during her unusual behavior her cheeks had become rosy, and there was a sparkle unseen before in her ebony eyes. She had become less stoic and she had given everyone a glimpse of the other side of her visage. How could Roy have not seen this before? And how could he refuse such a woman?
He blushed and scratched the back of his head looking down, partially to hide his blush and partially to look at his calendar. He had a date the next day but he could cancel. She was one of many girls in Central and Riza was the Diamond in the Rough. There was no way he could let this chance pass.
Roy looked at her straight in her eyes and answered, "Riza, nothing could make me happier than spending my evening with you." He was going to give her his famous Lady-Killer smile to try and get out of his paperwork but when her cheeks became rosier her and the biggest smile he had ever seen on her face appeared, he turned to mush and he had never heard his heart beat so hard in his life. He at some point asked her what time he should pick her up and she replied around 5, as they were going out to dinner before hand. His work seemed to melt into one large paper that required one signature and he was next to Riza as she drove him home, happily humming to herself. The next day, Saturday, he laid in bed until around 12 just thinking of her and all that had transpired between them ever since she found out that Phantom was coming to town. All he kept seeing was her pure visage, painted with a rosy red on her cheeks and the gem like ebony that made her eyes. He groaned to himself as he trudged over to his phone. He had fallen hard for her. He dialed the familiar phone number and heard the voice that he oddly actually wanted to hear.
"Hello! This is the Hughes residence, Maes speaking."
"Maes, I need to talk to you."
"Woah. You sound serious. What happened?"
Roy tried to speak but the words that he wanted to say dissolved on his tongue.
"Do you need me to come over and talk to you?" Maes's distant voice asked.
Roy somehow managed a "Yeah." and said hung up after Maes said he would be right over. He went over to his couch and collapsed. His thoughts were clouded of nothing but his First Lieutenant and he had no idea what to do.
After what seemed like an eternity, the doorbell rang.
"Come in!" Roy called and he heard Maes speak as he let himself in. "What's going on Roy?"
Roy groaned. "I don't know. I need tea." He sat up and rubbed his face. He felt his friends hand on his back as he rubbed it comfortingly.
"I'll get you some tea alright. Just lay back down." Maes gently pushed Roy back over and Roy silently complied. Roy heard the clinking of the glass and the swishing of the water filling the kettle. As he heard Maes rummaging around for tea bags Roy remembered that Riza likes to drink lemon tea and then he wondered if he had any lemon tea. He was about to ask Maes if there was any lemon tea but he caught himself and groaned again loudly.
"Maes I can't take it anymore! I've fallen hard Maes. I never thought I would fall this hard. I didn't even know it was possible to fall this hard!" The sound form the kitchen stopped and Maes asked the question Roy had been trying so hard to avoid for the past years.
"Roy, are you in love?"
"I don't know! You tell me! And what makes you jump to that!" Roy shouted more exasperated than angry.
"Well, first off, you asked me to make tea. The last time you asked me to make tea, you had gotten dumped by Eliza back home. Then you kept saying that you had fallen and you don't have any physical wounds so I assumed it was a girl." The tea kettle whistled and the apartment was silent with the exception of the pouring of water and the clinking of the mugs. Roy saw Maes come over and he set the mug on the coffee table in front of Roy and he sat on the other side of the table.
"So, who is she?"
Roy covered his eyes. "The one woman that I can't ever have."
"I knew it! Oh yeah, go me! Go me! I knew it was Riza! I knew you liked her! Yes! And now your problem is that while you've always liked her but you were able to push it to the back of your mind but now it seems that her recent behavior has revealed a new side to her and that new side combined with the old is driving you insane. Am I right?"
Roy heard Maes take out the tea bags and get up. He didn't respond and he heard the clinking of spoons and the cupboard open. Roy uncovered his eyes and saw Maes come back with two spoons, sugar, and honey.
He sat up and decided to answer. "I don't know what's come over me. It's just in that one moment everything became a blur and all I could thin about was her. Just seeing her so happy and her smile, augh! It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen! Just think, it was caused by me because I said yes! Just from one simple word."
Roy took a spoon and the sugar and he began to put sugar in his drink as Maes stirred his.
"Roy, what did you say yes too?"
"She told me that the reason why she had been acting so strange was because The Phantom of the Opera came to town and she is in love with it. I mean, I've never seen her so excited before! She said she had an extra ticket for tonight and since I haven't seen it, she invited me to go."
"Wow. The Phantom of the Opera is amazing. It's no surprise that she's in love with it."
Roy finished stirring his tea and took the spoon out of the mug. "You've seen it?" he asked surprised.
"Once. Theater mostly comes from the Southern parts of Amestris and Gracia and I honeymooned in the south. I'm not surprised you haven't seen it. The plays usually don't come up to Central. And when they do, tickets are crazy expensive. She must come from a rich family to be able to afford tickets on opening night especially."
"Actually, I think I remember her saying something about her family from the South once."
"Mmm, it's a whole different world down there. Their style of life is completely different."
There was a comfortable silence between the two friends as they sipped their tea. When Roy was about finished, he broke the silence.
"Maes, what should I do?"
"What should you do? You mean when you go to pick her up? Well, get her flowers, and don't worry if your tongue tied when she first appears."
"Why?"
"Because if your face says 'You look so beautiful that you're making me loose my voice' then you've given her the best compliment she could ever receive through words."
"Pah! I may have been in a daze since yesterday but I never get tongue tied on a date!"
Maes opened his mouth but then laughed. "Alright, I'll make a bet with you. If I win, I won't bother you with my pictures of Elysia and I won't tell you to get a wife. If I win, you have to endure me with out threatening to burn or maim my pictures or me."
Roy was intrigued. "Go on."
"I bet that you will be tongue tied when she first opens the door."
"Hah! You're on Maes!" Roy laughed as he held out his hand. He looked at his clock which read 1:54. He turned back to his friend and asked "Hey Maes, will you help me pick out some flowers for her?"
Riza had never been more excited. This is what she had always dreamed of; Roy paying attention to her for once. She hadn't slept the night before in anticipation of their "date" and was paying the consequences for it now. Even though it was twelve in the afternoon, she headed back to bed and as soon as she hit the bed, she was out.
She awoke to the barking of Black Hayate who was also on top of her. She sat up and glanced at her clock. She yelped out of surprise and leaped out of bed.
"Oh no, oh no! I've got one hour before he comes to pick me up and I'm still in my pajamas! Hayate! Make my bed! I don't have time to do it myself!"
She pulled out the dress that her Father had sent her just for tonight. It was a French style dress that was light blue. The sleeves had a ¾ cut and there were white frills on the end. The dress was well fitted to her body and it was a bit low cut with white lace attached to it. She put curlers in the ends of her hair and pulled on white stockings. She looked back at her bed and kissed Black Hayate who was faithfully sitting next to her.
She smiled grimly as she made her way into her closet and threw the doors open. A mess of all kinds of unused shoes laid on the floor along with the many unworn clothes her best friend Deej had given her.
"Alright Hayate, here I go." She said as she lifted her dress and plunged into the forest of her closet floor. Black Hayate barked encouraging his mistress and she yelled a muffled "Aha!" and reemerged holding on light blue pump. She set it down next to Hayate, who sat up straight as if he was guarding the shoe with his life. With a deep breath, Riza plunged back into her closet. She soon reemerged with the other pump in her hand.
"Good job Hayate! Two shoes ready to go!" Hayate stood and barked happily, wagging his tail in agreement. Suddenly, there was a 'ding dong' coming from her living room.
"He's here!" Riza scrambled up and ran to the door. She opened it and then slammed it shut and shrieked "I'm still in my curlers!" She dashed to her bathroom and took them all out and went back into the living room.
"Come on in Roy!" After she heard the door open, she went back to the bathroom and yelled to him as she flipped her hair over and began to brush and spray the ends of her hair.
Roy looked around her living room, set the flowers down on the kitchen table, and gave a slight smile. Nothing had changed from the last time he had been there which he was hoping for. The room was full of pictures of friends and family and he loved to look at them. Not to mention that her forest green loveseat was quite comfortable.
"I'm sorry I slammed the door in your face! I was still in my curlers!"
Roy turned his head towards the direction that her yelling was coming from. "It's alright, I came a bit early!" He called back. He noticed a small crack in the door and peered from a distance to try and see her but all he saw was an occasional swish of blue.
"No, no! It's my fault! I slept too long!"
"Don't worry about it Riza! It's okay to be fashionably late! Take your time!"
He looked back at her living room and noticed some new pictures on her large mahogany bookshelf that was as wide as the loveseat. He walked over to it and first noticed the book titles.
"Summer of Love? Thinking About You? Unspoken Secrets?" He began to pull one of the books out of the shelf but quickly put it back. "Who knew she'd be the type to read cheesy romance novels? Ah well, she is a woman." He took his attention off of the books and looked at a picture on the right side of the shelf in a silver heart frame. It was a picture of Riza and Black Hayate giving each other Eskimo kisses. Roy smiled and looked at the picture on the other side of the shelf. Surprised, he picked it up. The frame was a simple black border but the picture was nothing like it. There were two girls sitting on a white couch with a white background. To the left, Riza had her arms together in the shape of a gun pointing it downwards. Her blonde hair was down and her ebony eyes held a cocky look and she had a slight smirk on her face to match it. But that's not what astonished Roy. What astonished him was that she was in a white spaghetti strap dress that was flowy and, if she were standing, ended at her knees. Since she was sitting though, her lower thigh was exposed and Roy considered himself a very, very lucky man. Roy's eyes traveled down her legs where they met a silver anklet and strapped sandals. After staring at her picture for a few minutes he glanced at the other side of the picture, mostly to avoid a nosebleed. There was a light brown skinned girl with her hair in a small but curly afro and her chocolate eyes and lips held the same look Riza's did. Roy traveled downward and saw that she had a white tube top that showed a bit of her belly. Her right arm was propped up on the back of the couch and her other arm was propped up on the arm holding a long silver sewing needle like it was an opium pipe. Her legs were crossed and her chunky Go-Go boots were mostly hidden by her white flared pants.
"I'm almost ready Roy. I just feel like I'm missing something and I can't figure out what it is."
Roy turned and opened his mouth but nothing came out. The dress looked absolutely stunning on her. What made him mute though was her face. She had applied blush lightly over her cheeks and light blue eye shadow over her eyelids and she wore small diamond dangly earrings that matched her diamond heart necklace. The ends of her hair were curled slightly and part of her hair was tied back with a light blue ribbon.
"Well, erm, ah…….." Roy tried to ask her what she thought she was missing but words dissolved on his tongue.
She looked at him and then down slightly as she blushed. Roy noticed the flowers on the table.
"Oh! Erm, these are for you, Riza." He said shyly as he walked over to the table and handed her the flowers blushing.
"Thank you Roy. They're lovely." Riza brought the bouquet delicately to her face and inhaled their sweet scent. As she took the empty vase from the table over to the sink, Roy realized that he still had the picture frame in his hand.
"Hey Riza, who's sitting next to you in this picture?"
"One moment." She said as she filled the vase. She unwrapped the plastic that the flowers were in and set them in the vase. She then walked over to him and he stiffened at her proximity as she took the frame from him. He relaxed as he smelled the familiar scent of gunpowder underneath a light layer of lavender.
"Oh, this was done last spring break we had. This is my best friend Deej. She's a famous clothes designer and she loves to get me to model for her. This was a picture for fun to test her new photographer. It was my favorite shoot partially because I didn't have to get dolled up in makeup and partially because I actually got to choose what I wore that reflected me." She said as she fondly set the frame down in its place.
Roy's senses had gotten over the shock of seeing her and he switched to his Lady-Killer mode. He moved up behind her before she was able to turn around and he slid his arms around her waist. He lowered his head to her ear and breathed "You mean, sexy but deadly?"
He felt a shiver from the chill he gave her, which pleased Roy. However, it was shortly lived as he quickly found the barrel of her gun pointed in between his eyes and her usual seemingly cold stare coming from her eyes.
"I would prefer it if you didn't hit on me Sir." Riza said coolly even though inside she was burning.
Roy raised his hands in surrender. Riza lowered the gun and walked by him to the table, where she set the gun after putting the safety on. Roy walked over to her curious.
"So what are you missing?"
"I'm going to find that out right now." She replied and she began to stick her hands in the perfectly concealed pockets. She pulled out at thin wallet and set it next to her gun and studied them, lost in thought.
"Riza, are you bringing your gun with you?"
"Of course! I never go anywhere without one." She said still looking her gun and wallet.
"And you're still missing something?"
"Yes! It has something to do with the dress but what? I'm going to look at myself in the mirror. It might jog my memory." She put the items on the table back in her pocket and he followed her into her room.
Her room was just as Roy expected. Her bed was made and there wasn't a single piece of clothing on the ground. There was a simple dresser on the side opposite from the window and there was a large mirror above it on the wall. On top of the dresser was an assortment of boxes but the one that intrigued him the most was the one in the middle. It was a large pink box with a picture of pink Pointe shoes on the lid of the box. He quietly opened it and he found a pair of grayish- white Pointe shoes. He hesitantly reached out to touch them and he threw a glance back at Riza, who was observing herself trying to remember what she was missing in her long mirror on her closet door.
He picked up one of the shoes and touched the laces and felt the smooth but strained silk. His fingers moved to the actual shoe and he ran his fingers along the rough texture, trying to think of a time when Riza might have worn the shoe. There was a smell on it that was oddly familiar and he brought it to his nostrils. He was surprised to find that it had a dying scent of gunpowder. He set the shoe back in the box and closed the lid and turned around to find Riza counting her fingers, still trying to remember what she was missing.
"Number One was the tickets but Father has those, Number Two was my gun and I have that, Num-"
She sighed and plopped down on her bed. Roy smirked and stood in front of her. He leaned over to be at eye level and flipped his Lady-Killer switch on again.
"So Riza, you never told me you were a ballerina." His words came out of his mouth like someone gliding on ice and he was pleased to find that his words and proximity to her caused her to flush. 'Proximity makes her blush. I'll remember that one.'
Then, Roy inwardly raised an eyebrow as her face slowly changed from embarrassed to a flirtatious one but it changed suddenly as Roy saw the imaginary light bulb in her head light up again.
She pushed Roy gently away from her so she could stand and she walked over to her closet. "I remembered what I'm missing! I knew it was important!"
He stood behind her as she looked up on the shelf up top for something. "Riza, what are you looking for?"
"A white box. I know it's up here somewhere... Ah! There it is!" She pointed to a long box almost hidden behind the door frame.
Riza reached up to grab it but she couldn't reach it. She tried again on her tippy toes, but she was still having no luck.
"Here, I'll get it." Roy said and he easily reached up and grabbed the box. He took the box down from the shelf and gave it to Riza, who told him 'Thanks' as she went to her dresser. Roy looked at his hand and brushed off the dust that had stuck to his hand when he grabbed the box and walked over to where Riza stood.
She blew the dust off and lifted the top. Inside of the box was a fan? Roy didn't understand it at all. Why was a fan so important? She spread the fan open and the white lilies on the blue background reflected itself in the mirror as she gave it a wave. She snapped it shut and turned to him.
"I'm ready now. Sorry for taking so long Sir, erm Roy." She quickly used his name before he could correct her. He smiled and gestured for her to go in front of him. She walked past him back into the kitchen and grabbed her dark blue cloak out of the closet. She spun it around herself around her back and attached the top of the cloak together with the golden clasp that bore a blue H. Roy opened the door and offered her his arm. With a quick kiss for Black Hayate and the promise that Furey would be by later, Riza slipped her hand around Roy's arm.
For Readers Info- If you do not know the story of The Phantom of the Opera, I will be explaining it as the story goes along.