sorry for the late update. for some reason, i couldn't get the document to upload...some sort of glitch on part, not mine, i think, since i did nothing different than usual. anyway, here it is...part 4.

I leave my daughter to you, he thought. Well, he had done a fine job of that, now hadn't he? Leaving her alone, while she was vulnerable after her father's death. That was what a stupid man would do, and he fit the bill too well for comfort.

Damn it, he thought.

The way she had looked when she came into that room, the way she had looked when had found him dead.

There was shock, there was fright, there was so much emotion—but there was no sorrow. She was sorry, but she was not sad.

And underneath all of it, he could have sworn there was a flicker of relief.

She was free.

Or so he told her as he unzipped the dress she wore to the funeral, his fingers running over her bare back. He had the horrible urge to kiss her skin, to run his mouth against the burned array, to memorize it with his tongue. But he let himself be content with just touching her gently, his brain storing what he needed to know.

She sat frozen before him, her eyes closing softly at the touch of his hands. She was frightened, her muscles locked into place, and yet there was something else there too. He wasn't hurting her…in fact, his hands were horribly gentle, running over places that she had never thought could be touched in this way. She bit her lip as he gently zipped her dress up again and turned her around.

"Thank you," he had said, and she had only leaned in and kissed him.

He was surprised…much more surprised than he should have been. Her mouth was warm on his, more innocent than her eyes had been all this time, and he could barely keep his hands on her waist where they belonged. He didn't move with the kiss, only stood completely still, letting her have her way with the softest kiss he'd ever received.

She pulled away slowly, and he watched her pink tongue come out to lick her lips slowly. He gritted his teeth as she opened her eyes slowly, and he pulled her back even as she was about to say something.

The kiss was anything but sweet.

His tongue dragged across her lower lip, demanding she open her mouth, and she did, letting his tongue in. Groaning softly, he let himself explore her, running his tongue over the roof of her mouth, her teeth, her own soft tongue. Her hands were on his chest, halfway between touching and pushing away…oh god, she didn't know what she wanted…

Tentatively, she kissed him back harder, and he accepted it, deepening the kiss as his fingers ran through her short hair, again and again and again, using it to bring her closer, pressing her against him with the other arm, holding her there so she couldn't pull away.

And when she finally did, gasping for breath, he pulled her head back to kiss her throat, grinning at the feel of her soft moan vibrating through her throat to his lips.

He wanted her.

He had wanted her for so long…with her long legs and her amber eyes, watching him like no other girl had every watched him before—there had been something so…sensual about her eyes, even when she was staring him down, he couldn't help but want her.

Her own fingers slipped into his hair, and she pushed him away slowly to look at him. Both their pale cheeks were flushed, their eyes desperate and wild, and slowly, he sighed and let go of her.

His blood was pounding through him, his body was screaming to touch her again, and of all the things to listen to, he chose his brain, telling him to back the fuck away.

"I'm sorry," he offered.

"I started it," she answered. "Why are you the one who's sorry?"

He shrugged quietly, and looked away again.

"I'm still sorry," he said quietly.

She sighed and looked away. There was an odd look her eyes--a stifled sense of hurt that he felt, even though she did her best to hide it. She would perfect hiding her emotions in the next few years. There would come a time when she could have been a serene china doll, for all her face changed. But today, it was all too painfully obvious what was going through her mind.

Maybe...maybe she hadn't wanted him to be sorry. Maybe she had wanted it as badly as he had through these long years of isolation, in a house with a girl who was beautiful as she was tormented, as hungry for love as she was cold to him. And that man, who had driven him as hard as he had driven her, until all he craved was someone to hold and lean against.

He sighed. It wrong, he reminded himself. It was wrong to make a move on a girl who had just lost her father, to kiss her like that when she didn't know what she would do tomorrow. It would be so wrong to call her back now, to tell her...tell her what? That he loved her? It wasn't true. He didn't know her, after all these years of living with her, he still didn't know her well enough to say that he was in love with her. After all, he couldn't say something like that after just two kisses. He could tell her that he wanted her, but that just sounded crude. Biting his lip, he said the only thing that he could.

"Go to sleep," he told her. "It's late."

She nodded, and studied him carefully. His face was unreadable as his black eyes always had been. How was it, she thought, that he could be so much a stranger?

"All right," she said, hesitating for a moment to give him one last chance to call her back. He said nothing. "Good night," she said. "See you in the morning."

"Good night," he said, and over the next few months, he would regret that it was the last thing he said to her for a long time.

He was gone the next morning.

She stood looking at the note, alone for the first time in her life.

Miss Riza,

You know where to find me, if you need me. Otherwise, it's best that I go on with my life, and you go on with yours. I wish you the best of luck.

Roy

That was all left, and the address with which to contact him.

How could he?

She stared at the note, not sure whether to feel angry or insulted or depressed.

How could he kiss her like that and just leave?

How could he do that to her? How could he possibly raise her up, and kill her gently?

hm...that turned out interesting. well. that was blatantly ooc, but hey, i blame it on the fact that they're young and haven't settled into the definite roles they have now. this one was really hard to get down on paper. their relationship is so damn fluid that it takes effort to write them. don't know how the mangaka does it all the time :P

if i told you reviews saved pandas, would you leave one:)