Hello!
This OS is what I wrote for the last day of Royai week 2020. I was inspired by the picture prompt, were there is a couple on a bench facing the sea and the sunset. There's no sea here, but Royai on a bench under the sunset. It's fluffy and sweet.
I hope you'll enjoy it!
A happy moment
When Roy Mustang's team had been dispatched through Amestris, if someone had told him that less than one year later, they would be together again, he would have laughed at their face.
He had lost his subordinates. Falman in the North, Breda in the West, Fuery in the South, Havoc discharged, and, not the least, Riza kept by Bradley and the Homonculi. He couldn't breathe, thinking about his queen in the hands of the enemy. Should he seem threatening, she would be the first exposed to the Führer's blade, the first to fall. Bradley knew that the bond they shared was strong, and he took it for his advantage.
However, Riza was still full of resources and used every opportunity to give precious information to Roy. Scar's return in Central, Selim Bradley's true nature, and the date of the Promised Day, he'd known all of it thanks to her.
When the fight against Father was achieved, when the threat had disappeared, then he had thought about taking some rest.
His stay at the hospital had decided it would be otherwise. There, his new battle began, a battle longer than before. He wanted to reopen the land of Ishval and allow its people to come back from their exile. The relationships with the neighbouring countries had to be re-established. Last but not least, his intention to make Amestris a democracy again had never been stronger.
He had another project, though, a more secret one that only a few people were aware. He owed it to Riza and didn't want to live this relationship in secrecy, to keep his feelings hidden when they were in public. Therefore, they had spoken together about it, and the surprise visit of Grumman at the hospital gave them the opportunity to tell him the truth.
"Since when?" The future Führer had asked, visibly moved.
"Since he left for military academy."
The smile that bloomed on Riza's lips had been one of the brightest Roy's freshly healed eyes had ever seen for years.
III
"Hayate! Come here!"
The curious dog had run away to explore the park, and his meeting with a stocky mastiff seemed to take a bad turn. When Riza called him, he obeyed right away and retuned near his owner after a last growl for the other dog.
Riza smiled, and like all the other times she blinded Roy. He knew he would never get tired of it. The last thing he wanted was to make her happiness disappear from her face. For a few months now, he had had no doubts. He would change the world if he had to, but he would make the best future that was possible.
Roy took Riza's hand and led her to a bench.
"Don't you want to sit for a moment? We walked a lot, and I think you need to rest.
— Don't you too? Are you already old?"
Her eyes shone with a mischievous light, making him smile.
"I'm only 35, I'm a promising general, and I'm not the one that saw his belly inflate to three time its normal size." He replied.
Since the day of their wedding in East City with their close friends, Roy had rediscovered the Riza he had known during his apprenticeship years, when she always had the last word of their debates, walked far ahead of him during their hikes on their days off, taught him life in the countryside, and inspired him to be useful, one way or another, to his country. Back then, he hadn't had the idea of climbing the steps of the military, but he wanted to protect Riza, whose smile was already everything for him.
Riza eventually agreed and sat without grace on the bench, one hand on her belly, the other still in Roy's. He sat beside her.
"People look at us a different way when we're not in uniform." He noted.
"Most of the time, they see the uniform, not the men and women wearing it," Riza answered. "Between a general and his subordinate and an expecting couple, there is a big difference.
— And yet we're both.
— And I'm happy about it."
Suddenly moved, Roy put his arm on her shoulders. She leaned on him, sighing with contentment.
"I'm happy too."
In this park of East City, under the beautiful sunset, near wandering people, near Hayate who was running after a butterfly, with the weight of Riza's head on his shoulder, Roy repeated to himself the words he had once said on a chilly autumn morning to a young girl on a station platform. "I want to always think about you, to be at your side, to take care of you. I want you to be happy and I'll make all I can to make it happen."
His wish was now reality. It was his life, after his biggest and hardest fights. And he was happy.
