A/N: I just wanted to take the opportunity here before I forgot to thank everyone who has me either on story alert or favorite stories, whom I have not spoken to since they haven't left reviews, so this is my giant thank-you to everyone who faved/alerted, whether you reviewed or not!

Alerts (In alphabetical order): Alasse Fefalas, Anicka, darkravenrain, don'tbreakme, Fei Ku, FLAMETAL, Kusagi, loyalsoul, MoonStarDutchess, MustangsGirl, Perennial Rhinitis, saponin, Seiftis, Shadow Dreamer 27, SnakeCharmerFoxx, TheFerryman'sDaughter, theslayerslayer, White Paper Fan

Favs (In alphabetical order): Alasse Fefalas, darkravenrain, Fei Ku, FLAMETAL, i AM the Random Idiot, Kusagi, loyalsoul, mangamaniac, Miss Mustang, MoonStarDutchess, Shadow Dreamer 27

HUGS AND CHOCOLATE TO ALL OF YOU, AND TO MY ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS! I've already thanked all my signed reviewers personally, so... ANYWAY! ON TO THE ROY/RIZA-ness!

OH! A note about the Roy/Riza-ness... I personally am a HUGE fan of Royai, but too much Royai ends with both Roy and Riza completely out of character. My definition of Royai is any Roy/Riza situation that shows Roy as being the more emotional and weaker half of the relationship. Therefore, there is little-to-no Royai. Sorry Royai fans!

Note: 'Braha' is Riza's nickname for Black Hayate for anyone who didn't know (according to my FMA: Profiles book at least!). I have it in italics because I think it's a Japanese word, and anything that is directly Japanese I put in italics (ex. Taisa, Hagaren, etc.) Someone please tell me if that's wrong!

"I'll take your coat," Riza said, holding out her hand to take it.

Roy stomped his boots against the mat outside the door of her apartment in an effort to get the water out. They had barely left the ball when it had started to pour with no signs of stopping. He brushed water from his heavy black trenchcoat. "I hate the rain," he muttered glumly, half-heartedly trying to blow his wet hair out of his eyes.

"You're such a baby," Riza shook her head and pulled the sopping jacket from his shoulders. "Hit the lights, will you?" she called from the bathroom as she hung the coat over the shower to give the water a place to drip. "The switch is by the door."

"I think the power's out," he called back. Twin thunks accompanied his words- Roy kicking off his shoes to keep from tracking water and mud everywhere.

Riza hung her dripping crimson wrap over the shower next to his coat, then exited the bathroom to be greeted by a spray of water across her face. "Roy," she grated out, slowly raising a hand and flinging water droplets. "You are acting like my Braha."

Roy smiled guiltily and stopped shaking his head to get the water out of his hair. "Sorry."

She shook her head again at his boyishness. "Try the lights again."

He flipped the switch on, off, then on again to no visible result.

Riza sighed. "Do you have your gloves with you?"

Roy gave her a look such as if she had asked whether he was a dog person- obvious yes.

"Will you be able to control a flame so I can see where I'm going? I know there are candles somewhere in this apartment."

This look suggested that she had just asked if he would rather females wear miniskirts instead of Military uniform. "Of course. I am, after all, the Flame Alchemist." He flashed her a winning smile.

"If that's supposed to send me swooning into your arms like every other woman, it is not going to work."

Roy's smile disappeared. Her voice had remained cool and even, but it was tinged with the barest hint of bitterness. It would have been impossible for most to detect, but he, who spent more hours in the day with her than anyone else, could tell when something was bothering her. "Riza... what is it?"

"What is what, s-" she had to cut off the reflexive 'sir' at the end of her question, "Roy?" One slim eyebrow rose in what could be interpreted as a challenge.

He sighed in defeat. "Nothing. Never mind." Roy pulled his gloves out of an inside pocket where they had miraculously escaped the wet. He put them on and snapped, conjuring a small globe of fire that filled the apartment with flickering light. "Let's find those candles."

-xXx-

Once the apartment was lit, Roy sat across from Riza at the kitchen table. The flickering candlelight filled the apartment with a warm, friendly glow. "Romantic," he whispered under his breath.

His former Lieutenant looked up from cleaning her pistol. "Hm?"

"Nothing." He fidgeted a bit in his chair.

"What is it, Roy?" Turning his earlier question against him, Riza didn't look up from cleaning the firearm.

"If your apartment is under surveillance by the Organization like you say, won't they find it suspicious that you're cleaning your gun right in front of me?"

She set the cleaning brush down on the already oily cloth and wiped the weapon down with another. Once any traces of excess oil had been removed, she began to reassemble the pistol. "Not at all. In my supposedly fake identity as First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, I would be expected to own a firearm." She sighted along the barrel and squeezed the trigger gently. The hammer fell with a satisfying click, and Riza appeared satisfied. She set the pistol on the table and looked at Roy. "This is not what you were expecting when I said we were going to my apartment, is it?" She stared evenly at him as though daring him to dispute her words.

Roy didn't attempt to lie to her. "No, it's not." He checked his sigh.

She stood and circled the table and came around next to him, draping her arms across his shoulders. "You were expecting something like this," she whispered in his ear, stroking the side of his face.

The kiss came with such an abrupt suddenness that he almost pulled away reflexively before stopping himself and returning the kiss hungrily, tongue gently probing for access to her mouth. He felt a rush like nothing he had ever felt before when he kissed other women, surrendering to this enigma that was Riza Hawkeye.

And then it was over. Riza jerked away, both gasping for breath from the encounter. "I hope you enjoyed that, Colonel," she whispered. "Because it will never happen again."

Roy was left sitting in the kitchen alone as Riza fled into the bedroom, slamming the door and locking it.

-xXx-

Riza laid flat on her back, doing nothing to stem the tears streaming down the sides of her face and soaking into her hair, spread out in a fan across the covers. This isn't right, kept running through her mind.

A long time ago, in Ishbal, she had finally admitted to herself that she was in love with her commanding officer. Major Roy Mustang- young, handsome, possessed of such an incredible charisma... and he was vulnerable. She knew his actions during the War haunted him, but he pushed on, regardless.

I'm going after Military command, so there will never be another Ishbal. The two stood at a train station, hearing the whistle blow and the conductor shout. Roy's onyx eyes searched her face. "Will you help me?"

Riza met his gaze unflinchingly. "I will."

If she had known the what she knew now about this man, she would still make the same choice- to follow him until death, and to sacrifice her own life if it would save his. But she was only teasing, cruelly teasing- something she wanted, but could never allow herself to have.

A relationship with her commanding officer.

A purely passionate relationship with Roy Mustang.

It was an unattainable dream that with one kiss seemed only a step away... but it was something that was denied to her. She had two choices: leave the Military and pursue her own selfish desires, or stay and protect the man she loved.

Really, there was no choice.

Which is why she laid there, crying from despair and loneliness and frustration. She heard Roy knock on the door. "Riza?" he asked softly.

Riza angrily fisted her tears away, cursing her own weakness. "I'm getting changed," she answered, trying to make her voice sound normal and hoping he couldn't hear the difference. This is your life, Riza, she told herself bluntly. You chose it- deal with it.

-xXx-

Roy paced back and forth between the living room and the kitchen, wondering what the hell he was going to say. He wanted Riza Hawkeye, more than she knew, and yet she was the one woman immune to his supposed charm. He had resigned himself to being only her friend, nothing more, but he could never keep a steady relationship with any other. The other women... none of them ignited the same burning passion deep within him that Riza did.

Yet despite all his efforts and wants, she was simply unattainable. He was her commanding officer... anything more than a purely professional relationship would be frowned upon by the Military. Hawkeye would immediately find herself transferred from his command, and Roy didn't know if he could take that. One of the things that enabled him to come to the office every day was the promise of seeing her already at her desk, working on whatever paperwork he hadn't done the night before. When she had 'resigned', it was as if a huge hole had been torn in his soul. He had then realized that she could never possibly feel the way he did.

And then this kiss threw all his logic in the trash. Why did she have to do this to him? Offering a tantalizing taste of everything he wanted, only to snatch his fleeting hope away?

What now, Roy Mustang? he asked himself, stopping his pacing to look at her locked door. Impulsively, he knocked on it. "Riza?"

"I'm getting changed," came the response through the door. Her voice sounds odd, Roy noted. Could she have been- no. Not Hawkeye. He banished the thought of her crying. He crossed his arms and put a hand over his eyes, thinking, listening to the rain pelting against the building.

When Riza finally exited the safety of her room still wearing the red dress, the first words out of Roy's mouth were; "I'm sorry," he blurted out.

She looked at him tiredly. "What are you sorry for?"

"For whatever I did to upset you. I don't know what it is, yet, but-"

"No, Colonel, I acted out of line. You are my commanding officer, and I apologize for my improper actions." Riza's face was as if a mask of stone.

Roy winced at her use of his rank instead of his name, then sighed, nodding his head in defeat. "Of course." He changed the subject, raising an eyebrow to hide the ache he felt inside. "I thought you were changing," he noted.

She looked down at herself, then at him. "I lied."

Roy could have cut the sexual tension between them with a knife, and he vaguely wondered how she couldn't feel it in the air. Their silence stretched on for several long, uncomfortable seconds before it was broken by the sounds of a distant belltower beginning to toll midnight. A candle next to her flickered, and threw Riza's face into sharp relief. He narrowed his eyes and crossed the distance between them, seeing her tense.

He gently stroked his thumb against her cheek, feeling her shudder and look away. "You're crying," he stated softly, looking into her eyes.

Riza didn't bother to deny it, unable to meet his piercing gaze.

The bell rang its last note, signaling the beginning of a new day.

"Look at me," Roy commanded.

Almost against her will, her head lifted so she was staring into his deep ebony eyes.

"You are going to shoot me for this," he whispered, cupping her chin in his hand. "But I need to know." His lips gently brushed hers, sending an electric tingle through his body that threatened to explode through his fingertips. He lingered there a moment, waiting for his Lieutenant to pull back and slap him, but she didn't move. And then he couldn't control his body any longer, wrapping his arms around her and attacking her lips with an animal passion, fueled by the heat of her body against his, warm flesh against warm flesh. His weight forced them back against the wall, she ripping open his shirt, he pulling at the laces in the back of her dress.

"No!" Riza jerked her lips free, breathing heavily. "This isn't right," she gasped.

"Why?" His eyes burned fiercer than any flame he could command. "I don't care about the Military's rules, I'm sick of playing their game. Riza, look me in the eye and tell me you don't feel the same way!" the tone of his voice rose until he was nearly shouting, his face only centimeters away from hers.

"I do, Roy!" she yelled back. "But we can't!"

"What's to stop us? The Fuhrer? The Military? They don't need to know! We could keep it our-"

"Secret?" Riza finished quietly. "I don't know if I can do that. Constantly measuring our words, acting like there's nothing out of the ordinary? Could you do that, Roy?"

"If it meant having you- yes, I could!"

"But for how long? A week? A month? A year? It would come out, Roy- these things always do in the end. Our love," her voice hitched on that word, "would be a scandal, and you would forever lose your dream of becoming Fuhrer and leading this nation to a better future. I can't do that to you. I won't," she added, so softly it could barely be heard above the rain and his own breathing.

Riza's cold logic spoke of the truth, but-

"What we want isn't always what we're given," she said.

"But we are given nothing- things must be taken," Roy countered.

"Then take me!" Inexplicably, sudden anger surged through her and she shoved him backward, opening her arms wide in invitation. "Take me, Roy, as you have with so many others!"

He stumbled backward in shock. "Riza-"

"I'll be another 'conquest' of the 'great Roy Mustang'," she continued, eyes flashing. "Another notch on your bedpost, another woman to simply fade into memory and be forgotten!"

"That's not it!" he protested, bewildered. "Riza..."

They stood across from each other, Riza panting for breath, glaring.

"Riza..." his tone was open, honest, his eyes wide. "I love you. I always have." Silence, broken only by the distant claps of thunder, and rain hammering against the windows, falling ever harder with each passing moment.

"Why are we fighting? This could possibly be our only night together; I am willing to give up my life for you... can you really think that fear of losing me career will stop me?" He paused and looked down, shocked at his own words spilling out of his mouth, but every word was the truth. "If you don't want to be with me, I understand."

His eyes searched her face, and she felt her anger drain away, and she was back at the train station in Ishbal. "I'm going after Military command. Will you help me?"

His hand was extended toward her. Hesitatingly, she took it. "But-"

"No buts," he pulled her to him. "Just forget the consequences and be yourself. Just for tonight."

-xXx-

A young woman, bound and gagged, was thrown to the richly carpeted floor. "That's the girl ye be wantin'?"

Mae'var wrinkled his nose at the rough mercenary's smell. "If she isn't, I'll summon you. Go."

The mercenary shrugged, causing a small shower of dirt to fall on the ground from his clothes. "She fits the description you gave me, and was at the address you gave me. Whether it's her or not, I want to be paid."

"Of course you do. Johnny," Mae'var nodded to the young man standing next to him.

"Come with me," Johnny offered, opening the door and gesturing for the mercenary to exit.

Once the door was closed, Mae'var was left alone with the young woman. He grabbed her long, blonde hair by the ponytail and forced her terrified blue eyes to stare into his own, transmutation-inscribed orbs. "Welcome to my home, Miss Rockbell," he hissed.

End Part Nine

A/N: The only thing I like about this chapter is the scene at the end- the rest is crap. However, I've been working on this part for five weeks, and I figure this is the best it's going to get. Sorry!

A note about the next part... I don't know how long it will be in coming: this is the last complete part I have prewritten in my notebook, so there may be some delay in uploading after this. Sorry!

And yes, that IS Winry... Let me make a few things clear: If you don't like angst, stop now. If you don't like betrayal, stop now. If you don't like Ed/Winry as a pairing, stop now. If you don't like Havoc/OC as a pairing, stop now. If I get any flames that I feel are unjustified that have to do with your dislike of any of the above mentioned things, I will eat them and send Barry the Chopper after you.

Okay, I'm done with my little rant now! Please review?

Jade Rhade