In no way, shape or form do I take credit for creation or ownership of the Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (Fullmetal Alchemist) series. The original manga is the property of Hiromu Arakawa and the anime is the property of Bones animation studio.

Riza hid the grin threatening to break out on her face behind her large clipboard as she followed behind Roy. She had always thought he looked incredibly handsome in just his shirtsleeves and with the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled to the elbows, the top two buttons undone from the heat, he looked especially alluring. His ebony hair, as tousled as it always seemed to be, was shining in the bright sun and waving ever so gently in the weak breeze that would blow by every so often. The image he presented was irresistibly delightful and made it difficult for Riza to draw her eyes away from him long enough to stay on top of her work. The fact that he was radiating joy at working outside instead of behind his desk made him all the more appealing to watch as he laughed and joked with their crew, his visible eye sparkling with mirth and joviality whenever he would turn his attention to Riza.

He'd discarded his jacket before they'd even gone to lunch, stating that he would be moving around a lot and drawing a lot of transmutation circles, insisting that it would inhibit his work; an explanation that Riza had been all-too-willing to accept before they had departed the office together. She certainly wasn't going to force him to stay in his jacket as they worked in the much more relaxed environment presented to them outdoors with Alex Armstrong. She hadn't been able to help herself and had spent their lunch break surreptitiously stealing glances at him out of the corners of her eyes. Having caught her in the act a few times, Havoc had nudged her foot and smirked at her when the others weren't looking no less than 14 times during their meal as the others caught them up on what they had done for the day, and told Roy stories about life in general in Central over the past few months. She kicked him back covertly a few times to get even, but not very hard. Fortunately for Riza, he'd been the only one to notice her watching their superior during the meal. She knew that the only reason he'd even seen her was that he knew to look; surely the others didn't know that she would ever be so girlish as to steal secret glances at their superior, whatever their thoughts on their relationship may be.

Even including her footsie war with Havoc, lunch had been an enjoyable affair; less about their work repairing the city and more about what Roy had missed out on in the gossip chain during his sabbatical to the north. Havoc had been particularly happy to point out that he and Sheska had dated for an entire month before their vastly differing work schedules had forced them to admit that for the time being, a relationship would be too much work to maintain than they could afford. Breda had made a crack about her liking her books more than Havoc, but Feury had come to Havoc's rescue, pointing out that they still went out to dinner a lot for a pair of people that weren't dating. Havoc had practically beamed, blowing a lungful of smoke in Breda's face in retaliation for the previous snarky remark.

At Roy's confusion over the situation, Falman described to him in great detail the legislation doing away with the fraternization laws, citing various passages from memory for the Flame Alchemist. Glancing up from her lunch during the oration, Riza found Havoc smirking at Roy, who seemed deep in thought and delighted at the same time. If she'd looked away from Havoc or her food, she would have seen that Roy was suddenly stealing as many covert glances as she had earlier once Falman had finished explaining everything for him. Feeling Havoc's boot nudge her foot once again, Riza stepped on his toes as she went back to stirring her steaming cup of tea calmly. The wince she saw out of the corner of her eye had been enough for her to consider her vengeance upon her friend achieved.

Riza smiled fondly at the pleasant recollection of their earlier meal, realizing it had been a long time since she'd truly had that much fun at lunch. Hopefully, their team would continue eating as a group as time went on; it was one of the few times they could be so relaxed and casual with one another. All too soon though, Havoc and the others had left to return to the office as she, Roy, and Breda had exited the building to put in their shifts with the repair crews.

Working with Roy and Alex Armstrong had been even more fun than she had first anticipated it would be, as the overall mood in their group was lively. Of all the crews, the alchemical ones had the advantage of seeing the most in terms of results and it made keeping morale high while working impressively easy. Already, they'd managed to restore an entire block and a half on both sides of the street and they hadn't been out working for very long yet.

At the moment, she'd already passed on instructions to her workers about what the next set of houses they were working on repairing had been composed of, and the men were gathering materials while Roy was drawing out transmutation circles and Armstrong was pleasantly sparkling and flexing away while talking with his foreman, her "partner" of sorts.

She was seated on a newly fixed stone fence, some distance away from the rest of her crew as they talked amongst themselves and joked with one another. She was pleased that the men were so jovial as they worked out in the heat, but she needed a bit quieter surroundings for reading through the lists she was responsible for checking and following.

So far, keeping on top of things had been fairly simple, even with her constant visual distractions and given the fact that they were well ahead of schedule. They were still waiting on some supplies to arrive for some of the houses, but taking care of shipments to the site was the concern of Armstrong's aide; Riza merely organized things for their half of the crew. Immersing herself in the relative quiet, Riza caught up on updating her forms to indicate the finished buildings and the materials used in each one, making sure to keep the architectural plans for each location organized as well.

A shadow came over the paper she was reading and looking up, she found Roy hovering at the end of her clipboard, less than two feet away from her. "How are things going?" he asked conversationally, rubbing at his sweaty forehead with the back of his wrist. Her eyes desperately wanted to trail down towards the inviting skin bared by his opened shirt, and she lied to herself yet again that she was feeling so warm because she had kept her jacket on out in the warm sunshine. Steeling herself against the many temptations Roy presented, she forced her attention elsewhere, at least for the time being. Catching a glimpse of his hand, she noticed that the chalk he was using was starting to get short again and reached into her pocket with her free hand; a quick count reassuring her that she still had plenty with her to last him throughout the day.

"Things are flowing along ahead of schedule so far, Sir. Both halves of our team are working at a wonderful pace." Roy nodded in response as she studied him for a few moments, her attention drawn to his careworn features. "Sir? You're not pushing yourself too hard are you? We can slow down if you need to rest more between houses."

Roy waved her off with a flick of his hand. "It's not that. Aside from feeling a little warm in this heat, I'm fine."

"Then, what's bothering you, Taisa?"

For long quiet moments that seemed to stretch on forever, Roy stared at his shoes before directing his gaze back up to his assistant. "Were things really running better without me in the office? You avoided answering earlier, Hawkeye. I need to know if I'm going to hinder our team more than help it."

Sighing deeply, which was rare for Riza to allow herself to do while working, she locked her gaze with Roy's. "I told you, we're glad to have you back, Sir."

"You're still avoiding actually answering my question."

"No, you will not have any negative effects on the team by returning." Her annoyance at his continued questioning of the topic was obvious in her automatic, thoughtless answer.

"Chuui." He tried looking pitifully to get her to her to answer him seriously.

"It's fine, Sir." She really didn't want to get into this at the moment with him.

"Hawkeye." He was looking at her now with an expression like someone had kicked his dog, despite the fact that Riza was the only member of their team with a pet. She idly wondered how he had mastered such a pitiful expression before uncharacteristically sighing a second time and scowling at him.

"Taisa," she said irritably.

"Riza." Now, it apparently was a puppy, and had been kicked into traffic, judging by his overly-dramatic look of distress as he stared his subordinate down.

Riza slumped her shoulders in defeat, never moving her gaze from Roy's face. She knew that he wouldn't let up if she kept avoiding the issue, because it seemed to be bothering him a great deal. It was rare for him to act this exceptionally pathetic when needling Riza about anything. With a small huff, she placed her clipboard on the bench beside her and placed her hands on the shoulders of the man leaning down in front of her to be at her eye level. She took a deep breath and then let it out in another sigh before finally launching into her explanation. "A large portion of the heightened worth ethics in the men was a matter of distraction. If everyone was working diligently, we wouldn't focus on the missing part of our team, on the fact that man we all respected and followed loyally was no longer among us. If things go back to how they were and your bad work habits influence the others again, that's ok with me, Sir. If we have to stay late every night again, that's ok with me too. If things are no longer filed on time and I have to go back to making excuses for your late reports because I'm not in charge anymore… that's all okay with me, as long as you're back, a part of our team again, Roy Mustang." Slowly, she let her hands fall from his shoulders. "If you're back, none of that matters…"

Roy caught one of Riza's hands in his as he finally spoke. "Hawkeye… Riza, I think that–"

"Miss Hawkeye, is your team ready!" Alex Armstrong called out from half a block away, the cheer in his voice audible over the distance and the level of volume making Roy cringe. Riza almost chuckled as she felt his fingers twitch around her hand and was glad for their companion's sake that Roy's gloves were safely within his pocket and not currently adorning his hands.

"I think that I'm going to torch that man, and his sparkles, some day." Roy said with a sigh of frustration; squeezing Riza's hand once before letting it go and rubbing his palms over his face angrily. "We'll talk about this later."

Nodding, Riza began jogging over to where Armstrong and his assistant, one of his old subordinates that Riza had met only once or twice in passing, were going over their charts together. "Sir, things are almost finished with the first few houses, but we're still waiting on some materials for the remaining half," Riza supplied, handing over their own set of charts to the other foreman to examine.

A quick glance over her tidy records, and the man returned the clipboard to Riza was a nod and friendly smile. "I see. Well, why don't you two go ahead and start on the houses that are ready whenever you want. It seems that we're also having trouble tracking down materials, so we're going to be a bit delayed on starting our next set."

Clapping his hand on the shoulder of his assistant, Armstrong smiled cheerily, but the man flinched under the force of the blow. "Weiss here is going to go investigate the hold-up on supplies and I promise we'll let you know what's going on as soon as we can contact some of the moving crews and get things straightened out."

"Yes, Sir." Riza replied with a nod, trotting off to the first house on their list. Roy was already there and was looking over the list she had left with the men that were setting up. As the crew did a double check to make sure they had everything they needed, she quickly brought Roy up to speed on the materials situation.

"So, they just want us to go ahead and get these first few houses done?" Roy was idly popping his knuckles as he checked over his transmutation circle once again, making sure there were no errors in the drawing. Nodding an 'ok' to the men, they began moving their meticulously stacked materials into the center of the ring, carefully avoiding the lines on the ground. All of this, Riza watched with vigilant eyes, checking the materials on her written list and looking over the circle critically.

Her father had taught her a great deal about alchemy in her younger years before taking Roy on as his student and as a result, she was quite adept at recognizing different components in alchemical circles and what each one did. Despite the distance that eventually formed between her and her father, and her mixed feelings on alchemy after Ishbal, she still retained her knowledge on the subject, allowing her to serve as a fail-safe for Roy in the event that he had mistaken his drawings. He didn't have the luxury of specialized material-transmutation gauntlets that Armstrong wore and had to draw each circle by hand, a practice he'd not done regularly in a long time. So far, there had been no trouble. It seemed that time did not wear down Roy's skills, even if he was used to working with air and gases rather than solids.

Finally giving the signal that everything was prepared, the men stood back and Roy slipped his chalk into his pocket, looking to Riza for the ok to continue. Nodding, she took a few steps back from Roy's side and watched as he knelt and placed his fingertips to the outer rim of the circle.

The men gaped as they had been doing all afternoon as a house slowly built itself from the ground up out of the precisely placed materials. After a few moments, the light from the transmutation cleared and a completed building stood where there was once rubble strewed across the ground in the wake of the attacks.

Roy paused to catch his breath before finally standing, his wrist wiping against his forehead again unconsciously as he surveyed his work. Smiling proudly back at Riza, he motioned for the team to begin setting up for the next house. "See, no problem," he said in allusion to her earlier worries over his health. "It's just going back to the basics. I've been doing this stuff for years now, a lot longer than I've been the Flame Alchemist."

"I know, Sir." Riza said as she began going over the schematics for the next building. "I was there when you were learning it, if you recall."

Reading the list over her shoulder as the men began laying things out in the pre-drawn circle, he brought a hand up to rest on her shoulder. "I seem to recall Sensei having a quiet little daughter that helped me study sometimes, that everyone told me was spirited and boyish, but stand-offish when left to her own devices. Both are far cry from the serious gun-slinging woman standing before me." Riza could feel the heat of his breath as he spoke, the slight tickle as it blew stray hairs against her neck and cheek into movement.

"Sir, I haven't really changed that much over the years. Different people got to know different parts of me better than others, that's all. I'm serious in the office and on missions because we're working. Around the lot of you, someone needs to stay focused." She diligently kept her eyes on the papers in her hands, trying to push the thoughts about the body heat she could feel through her coat far from her mind. "I've never been terribly outgoing, but once I am comfortable enough with a person, opening up to them is much easier. Surely you know this by now, better than anyone. I enjoyed spending time with my mother before she died, but after that I was left to my own devices as father worked on his studies. Hence, my interests shifted from the feminine things I did with my mother to things that I could do alone, many of them away from the house and a sight more eventful than cooking and sewing."

Pausing from her recollection, she began inspecting the layout of materials and the drawing of the circle, then discovered that Roy was still following her, his attentive silence indicative of his desire for her to continue as he darkened a few of the lines in the circle beside her. "I never felt any desire to get close to the children I had attended school with, nor did I try to become friendly with the people in town that did nothing when my mother was ill, or when my father died. Thus many of the people that have opinions about me see me as being a loner. I do have friends though, so I don't push everyone away."

"And what about me?"

She looked at him for a few moments before finally answering. "When you first arrived, you were merely another distraction for my father, so you had no real effect on my life for the most part. Then we got to know each other as we became older, due largely to the fact that we shared the same living space."

Raising an eyebrow, Roy watched her. "Friendship through familiarity?"

Casting him an annoyed glance with an expression that practically audibly said "honestly," in a chastising tone, she pulled one of the pieces of chalk from her pocket and handed it to him, plucking the tiny stub that had been in his fingers away from him before continuing her exposition. "Sir, the level of understanding we now have has little to do with getting to know you better because we were spending time together. There are many people I would say I know well that I do not trust, not in the way I have committed myself to you and your goals. When we were finally becoming comfortable around one another, if I had not seen something then worth trusting, I would never have given you my trust in the first place. I would not still be following you now, years upon years later either; especially considering the large number of troublesome messes you've managed to get me into, directly and indirectly." Finally looking up at him, she saw that he was, as she had suspected he would be, staring at her intently, the new piece of chalk forgotten in his hand. "Sir, if you're ready, everything is in place for the next transmutation." Handing him her clipboard, she pointed to the schematics for the house they stood before.

After studying them for a few moments to commit them to his memory, he returned her clipboard and set to work in a similar fashion to the last house, and all the others they had done so far that afternoon.

Waiting for the men as they worked on setting up the next house for him, he went back to his questioning with his assistant. "So tell me, Hawkeye, what did I end up doing to deserve your trust?"

She looked up at him curiously, seeing only intrigue shining in his bright onyx gaze. "In all honesty, Sir, it started on its own. It began before you left my father to join the military. Even if I hadn't been consciously aware, part of me recognized that you were growing into a good man." Watching the men work, she leaned against one of the pillars to the front porch of the house Roy had just transmuted.

"Really?" Roy asked, watching her as he leaned beside her.

"Yes. It was starting before you left, when we were both older, some time late in your studies, once we'd begun spending time around one another more. One day, we were talking about something, I can't even recall what the conversation started with anymore, and I realized that I was beginning to trust you. I became aware of that fact that I was tentatively forming a bond with you similar to the connection I'd once shared with my mother, without having fully noticed it before then." She could hear her voice tremble ever so slightly as she relayed the intimate admission to her superior officer and almost jumped when she felt him take her free hand in his, the motion hidden from view to a casual observer by the way they were situated.

"That was the day you told me about your mother, wasn't it?" Roy asked, looking at her with concern. Riza nodded. "I remember that afternoon. It was one of the first times we really spoke to each other."

Riza nodded again. "You told me all about how your mother met your father, and about your family. You gave me a set of your mother's old robes from Xing that day, too. Her old robes that you'd brought with you from home to remind you of your family. I've still got them." She paused for a moment and took solace from the feel of his warm hand, gloveless for a change, encompassing hers. It was rare for them to speak freely about the past like this with one another. So often had they communicated wordlessly in the passing years, that at the times words had been needed to explain something, they'd never come. "By the time you came back and father died, and you stayed and helped me deal with all that, I realized that I trusted you enough to put faith in your dreams and I gave you the secrets to father's research. I believed in your dream enough to contact the military academy and join up, in order to help make that dream a reality. …I never expected Ishbal to happen."

Gripping her hand more tightly in his, Roy closed his eye in a vain effort to fight off the painful memories the mere name dredged up within him. "I don't think anyone expected that to happen…" he said, his voice a harsh whisper.

"Up until then, the military for me had been tame; the limits of my excitement were keeping Jean Havoc and our other friends out of trouble and learning that I was a natural gunner with impeccable aim. Ishbal was a living nightmare that no one could escape from. By the end of it all, I was left hallowed and disillusioned. As everyone was celebrating the return home, I was raging at myself and angry about everything." Returning his tight grasp, she glanced over at him. "You know this, I told you then, when we were preparing to leave."

Roy nodded. "You weren't alone. It was only because Maes and I realized the path to become Führer lay before me, if I wanted to truly make my goals a reality, that I was able to stay sane and focused after the killing was over. That's why, when I discovered that you had remained in the service after I… after we dealt with your father's research, I knew that I could trust you to join me on the road ahead. I knew that you would stay on watch, to keep me and my men safe and to keep me in check and cut off corruption if it ever began. I knew that I could put my life in yours hands." Grazing his thumb over her knuckles, Roy finally opened his eye again, his gaze still unfocused with recollection. "I knew that I could trust you to help protect my dream, even if it was from myself."

Letting her fingers slip from his comforting grasp, Riza pushed herself upright and dusted imaginary debris off her uniform where she had been propped against the building. "By the time our paths crossed again back at Eastern Headquarters, I could see your ambition and motivation in your eyes once more, and gave your dream another chance. It wasn't long before I was a believer again, reunited by chance with you and with Havoc and falling into place as part of a group of individuals that were all quickly becoming believers too. Since that day, my trust and loyalty have not wavered in you, Sir." Realizing as she made her back over to their team that Roy wasn't walking behind her, she stopped and turned, seeing him staring hard at the ground a few feet away from her.

Looking up, his gaze pierced her and her breath caught in her throat at the intensity. "Riza, you and the others, your belief in me, has made coming this far possible. Knowing that all of you are behind my goals gives me the ability to keep going, to make it as far as I can, so that we can help as many of the people of Amestris as we can reach."

Returning his stare evenly, Riza finally smiled warmly. "I know, Sir. That's why we're all still here."

Roy returned the warm look and finally detracted himself from his spot on the porch, following Riza in comfortable silence to the next home. As they had been doing all afternoon, she was checking the list as he was making last minute touch-ups to his transmutation circle and soon, everything was in place for another work of alchemy to occur.

As Roy was kneeling on the ground, staring at the finished building while he caught his breath, he realized something and started to laugh. Riza watched him curiously for a few minutes while he chuckled before finally giving in and asking him what he was doing and what was so funny.

Bracing his hands on his knees, he pushed himself up and stood, still laughing a bit as he answered. "This. Us. What we're doing."

"Sir?"

"Look around, Hawkeye. We're finally using my alchemy talents purely for the good of the people of Amestris. This is what I'd planned when I first became joined the military, and when I later became a State Alchemist. We're finally helping the citizens of Central."

Letting the smile the thought invoked come to her face, Riza let out a few good-natured chuckles of her own. "It's about time."

"No," Roy said as they both made their way with the team to the next site. "It's long overdue." A comfortable silence reigned again until Riza examined her records, clicking her tongue against her teeth in a small noise of frustration. "What's wrong?"

"It appears, Sir, that we've run out of houses to which we have all the necessary materials. We can't do anything until Weiss is able to get back to us and we can get the problem straightened out."

Cupping his hands over his mouth, Roy addressed their half of the crew. "You men heard Hawkeye-Chuui. Until we can get the rest of our necessary supplies, we're stuck. I guess that means we're on break until we can get more things delivered." The cheer that resounded after the fact was excited and good-humored as the men started talking amongst themselves, some walking back up and down the street to examine the finished houses more closely. "So," Roy began, bracing the backs of his wrists against his hips as he directed his attention once again towards Riza. "What are we supposed to do in the interim?"

"We're on break too, Sir. There's nothing else for us to do, because we're ahead of schedule, even with the hold-up."

Placing a hand against her back, Roy began to lead Riza over to one of the empty carts littering the street where they were working. "Come and sit with me then, and we can continue talking." Letting him guide her, Riza followed Roy and sat beside him on the back of the wooden cart, her booted feet dangling above the ground once she was seated. Ever the work-minded one while they were on duty, Riza automatically began looking through the charts for the remaining work for the day, updating her notes of what had been finished and what was in various stages of completion up until then. For almost twenty minutes, Roy was content to sit and just watch her work.

However, eventually Gracia's comments from the night before and Falman's discourse about inter-office fraternization drifted back into his head as he was admiring the sunlight shining off her hair and before he realized it, he was speaking. "Come to dinner with me, Riza."

Setting her clipboard down in her lap, Riza slowly turned her gaze toward him. "Sir?"

"I mean it. I want you to go out to dinner with me sometime."

After blinking a few times and staring, Riza finally replied, "Why?"

"Because I want you to," Roy answered automatically. Seeing Riza's look, half confusion, half amusement, he continued. "I want to be able to spend time with you outside the office. I want to take you out. Come have dinner with me. Please don't say no again."

By now, she was starting to smirk at him, and he was beginning to realize that for all the hordes of women he'd dated, he sure was having an awfully difficult time not looking stupid as he spoke to Riza. He was just saying things as they came to mind, his usual abilities to sweet-talk having failed him. He had resorted to rambling in short phrases. "Sir, are you asking me out to dinner, as in a date?"

She wasn't making this run any more smoothly, he noted to himself. He grimaced at her as he noticed her delight. "Dammit Riza, you're not making this any easier. And stop calling me 'Sir.' It's making this even more awkward. I already feel 15 again."

"Sorry, Taisa," Riza answered, grinning. She knew that was right up there with "Sir" as detached military addresses and far cry from what he wanted to hear as he tried to talk her into coming to dinner with him. She couldn't help but let her mirth as the situation show.

Roy couldn't believe it; she was actually grinning at him, and teasing him. She was getting entertainment out of seeing him squirm as he tried to ask her out. This was unfair or so many levels. "Riza," he groaned, partially menacingly, mostly pitifully as he leaned forward to try to emphasize the "menace" part more.

"Roy," Riza said back at him, imitating the way he'd drawn out her name as she too drew closer.

Closing the distance, Roy leaned his forehead against hers, trapping their bangs between them as he looked at her intently. "Will you please come to dinner with me, Riza?" he asked, his voice quieter now that they were so close. One of his hands reached out and took one of hers as he awaited her response.

"I don't see any reason why I shouldn't," Riza finally whispered back, enjoying the feel of his thumb as it began to idly stroke across her knuckles. She was really beginning to form an attachment to the feeling of the pad of his thumb caressing her hand.

"Tonight?"

Riza shook her head, mostly a tilt side to side as it was still resting against Roy's. "Even working as quickly as our team is, we'll probably be working late tonight, and we'll be tired. We have tomorrow off. Let's do it then."

"Really?" Roy asked happily, pulling back to look at Riza's entire face so he could take in her expression.

She laughed at him. "I said yes, didn't I? Why would I back out thirty seconds later?"

"I had to fight to get that yes, you're relentless."

"Sorry, just a bit of fun." She directed her attention to their hands for a moment and just watched as the pad of his thumb moved across the back of her hand. It was almost as hypnotic to watch as it was soothing to feel. "I'm not used to adorably fumbling Roy Mustang. The Taisa around the office had confidence to spare when it came to women."

Leaning forward once more, Roy brought his mouth close to Riza's ear and whispered, "He was an idiot." Just as his lips were about to graze her cheek, a hearty "Miss Riza!" from Armstrong startled the pair and they jerked apart a few inches in shock.

"I've just gotten news from Weiss!" Armstrong said happily as he neared them from the other side of the cart, oblivious to the tender moment he'd just interrupted. "The next shipments of supplies should be arriving in a few minutes and we'll be able to get back to work." The man cheerily moved on to inform the crewmen, not that they hadn't already heard his exuberant shouts, leaving an almost tangible trail of sparkles and mirth in his wake.

Roy's fingers on his right hand were twitching once again with the urge to snap, despite his gloves still being in his pockets. "I swear, if he does that one more time when I'm talking to you, or in this case, about to kiss you, I'll fry him."

Riza's cheeks pinked at his words and before Roy knew what was happening, warm lips were pressed against his cheek in a kiss and Riza was smiling shyly as she pulled away from him. "We need to get back to work, Roy." Hearing his name instead of "Sir" or "Taisa" he grinned goofily as he stood, lending Riza a gentlemanly hand and assisting her down from the cart, even though she didn't really need the help to jump down the few inches to the ground. Neither felt keen to point out her capability at such a mundane thing as they held one another's hands yet again. Their fingers lingered together for a few more moments as their eyes met before finally releasing their clasped hands as they went to rejoin their team.

"I guess we can always sort out the details later," Roy said as he followed his assistant back over to where the men were waiting for them and for the arriving wagon filled with building materials. "For the moment, let's get back to putting alchemy to good use," he said as he grinned giddily down at Riza, his hand finding its way to the small of her back as they walked together. He couldn't do a thing about the smile threatening to split his face, but really didn't are. Things were looking a lot more positive than they had in a long, long time.

I appologize if there's any glaring mistakes in this. Every time I tried to read through it, I kept adding to it and tweaking things, and it got to the point where I would think "Oh, idea would go perfectly here" only to find out that I'd already thought of that before and had added that section a paragraph later. After about twenty revisions and additions, I'm finally just going to step away from this chapter and post it.

It may be a few days before I update again, because I'm now in a slight writing rut. I had almost the entire chapter 10 finished, and then decided I didn't like it at all, so I'm going to rewrite it from scratch and see if I can get a better scene in my head this time around. Sorry for the upcoming delay. -K