Royai Week 2022 Day 6: Free-For-All
Word Count: 419
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: T
Characters: Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye
Warning: NA
Summary: The Promised Day was a free-for-all. So, too, will be the future going forward. Roy and Riza talk about this.
Notes:
Free-For-All
The room was finally quiet. Or, at least, as quiet as a hospital got the night after a major battle. Roy still couldn't see a thing, was still blind, and the realization of it being permanent was still settling in, but without all of the noise of the day everywhere he felt like he could finally think again.
"…Cen for your thoughts?"
A soft, weak voice came from the other side of the room, and Roy automatically turned his head that way. Technically, he and Riza probably shouldn't be in the same room, but their team had managed to work it out. He wasn't sure exactly how, but he was grateful for it.
"Just enjoying to quiet," he said. "I hadn't realized how noisy things were until all I could do was listen."
"That bad?"
"Like someone put a free-for-all of radio shows next to my ear. Its hard to actively listen to twenty things at once."
Riza hummed. "Free-for-all is a good description for today."
Roy snorted. "Yeah, I suppose it is. Everyone was trying to take down everyone else, there were those white doll soldiers, and then the battle at the end…" He brought a hand up towards his face, lightly touching it with his fingers. The damage to his hands was making them throb when he moved them too much. "I couldn't see it, but it sounded like everyone was throwing everything at that creature. Like it really was a free-for-all against him."
"It was," Riza said. "Everyone, everything, anything to stop him. It was a battle for our lives." She paused and Roy waited, sensing she wasn't done yet, but had to stop for the sake of her neck. "…I don't want to be in a battle like that again."
"Hopefully none of us will be," Roy said. "Although the battles from here on out might be more political than physical."
Riza laughed, a wispy, rough sounding thing, but Roy could hear the mirth in it, nonetheless. "I think that politics might be just as much as a free-for-all," she said.
Roy thought for a second and then let out a small chuckle of his own. "Between myself, Grumman and Armstrong, plus anyone else who crops up, you just might be right," he said. He paused. "Riza… I… I have no right to ask this but—"
"I'm staying by your side," she interrupted him. "No matter what comes. Smooth or free-for-all."
At that, Roy relaxed. "Good. Because I wouldn't want it any other way.