Okay. I thought it would be... better to have a longer gap than two hours, so I made it a bit more than three. Thanks to ssadropout for the review, I didn't expect anyone would review that quick!

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist and all its properties belong to The Cow.

Shadows

Ever since she was a child, Riza Hawkeye had never been fond of shadows. When she was not yet three, her mother fell ill and had been covered in shadows of her sickness, living in the shadows of her room since. Although a small child at the time, Riza had witnessed her mother's health deteriorating and finally passing away. Her mother's burial had been in the shadows, too. It was pouring at that time, with the sun peeking timidly from behind a thick grey cloud, and all the people who attended the funeral had been under the shadows of their umbrellas.

After her mother's death, her father took his turn to retreat to the shadows. He became so engrossed in his research, leaving only the shadow of the loving, happy family man he used to be. He spent so much in his shadowy study, researching various subjects. Riza had hated alchemy so much at that time, because she thought it was what stole her father away, leaving her alone. The subject of alchemy had been left untouched in the rare conversations between the father and daughter, leaving it a shadowy topic for young Riza. She had never been interested in learning it, though a little part of her wished that she understood it so her father would pay a little more attention to her instead to his new student. She felt like it was her fault for not understanding alchemy, but it was too late. She had abandoned any chances of learning alchemy in the shadows, if she had any to begin with.

It was not rare Riza felt like she was trapped inside the cold, stoic stones of the Hawkeye Manor. The house was so big yet it only held three people inside, leaving only several rooms lit. The little light available had left a shadowy look to the house, and Riza hated it. She hated to be trapped in the shadows. So often she wanted to break free, but she could not, for the dark shadows of the lonely manor was the only shelter she had in the world.

Riza grew up to be a young woman, not caring of the shadows anymore. The situations had forced her to mature more quickly than teenage girls her age, who mostly spent their time partying and having fun with the other sex. Riza did not have time for that – she had to take care of her sick father, who was withering away… in the shadows. Her father's apprentice, Roy Mustang, left the house when he turned seventeen to enlist to Amestris Military Academy, after completely mastering the basics of alchemy. Though Riza now had no one to share her father's attention, she somehow missed the older boy. They had never been close, for Riza had never been interested in alchemy and it had been Roy's passion of life, but when he left, Riza somehow felt like he had left her alone in the shadows.

Three years had passed since Roy Mustang left the Hawkeye Manor, and he had returned. The intention of his coming back was to ask for the secrets of the Flame Alchemy, for he wanted to be a State Alchemist. He said he wanted to change the world, but her father had dismissed all those dreams of his. Her father, and his master, was taken away by his sickness in the middle of their heated conversation, leaving young Riza alone. She had not heard her father asking his apprentice to take care of her, but she had arrived not so long after Roy's screaming for help. Roy had been the one to take care of the burial. When he told her about his dreams for the country, a warm feeling took over Riza's body – to be able to know that there was an alchemist with good intentions felt really good, and for once, she felt saved from the shadows. Without much thinking, she gave him the secrets that he had been looking for, the secrets to the Flame Alchemy, the ones engraved on her back.

Roy did not have much time to spend in the Hawkeye Manor – he had to go back to the Academy. Riza, moved by Roy's ambitions and having no other directions, enrolled at one of the military academies as well. There, she found out that she had a special ability to handle guns and was an excellent marksman. All of a sudden, she felt free: free to pursuit her talents and free to determine her own future. In the academy, she made some friends, too, her closest friend being Rebecca Catalina. However, she was pulled out of the academy to be put on the front lines; they said they were lacking snipers in Ishbal, and her special shooting abilities would be very helpful. She could not refuse; she had no other choice.

Being a sniper in Ishbal, it meant to be obscured in the shadows at all times. She had to make herself both invisible and invincible to the enemy. The feeling of being imprisoned behind shadows came back again. She felt like a hypocrite at all times: she was very well aware of how much she hated shadows, yet she always hid behind them, not allowing the others to see the sins she had committed. She felt guiltier when she realized that Roy Mustang, the person she bestowed the secrets of Flame Alchemy to, was there as well. She watched him annihilate the Ishballans from the shadows of his flames.

Now it was years after Ishbal, after all those things that happened in her childhood, yet she still hated shadows. In fact, she recently became scared at it. The threaten Pride had exposed to her, "I will always watch you from the shadows," had only increased her hate towards the shadows. Now Riza realized, she would never make peace with the shadows.

point d'orgue

As a child, Roy Mustang used to be fond of the shadows. He had always been intrigued at the funny shapes it could create. The shadows looked really mysterious, and he felt bound to investigate what was behind it. On chilly days, he found comfort in sitting in front of the fireplace, staring at the shadows created by the light from the fire.

His opinion on shadows did not really change until Ishbal. Then, he realized how cruel shadows could be. He could see the people he had killed, the lives he had taken from the shadows. He could see the murderers in his the shadows of the eyes of his fellow 'war buddies'. These shadows haunted him to the dreams, and since then, he did not really feel intrigued by the mystery behind the shadows anymore. In fact, he started to want to get rid of it.

His great ambition to change the country had included working from behind the shadows. This was one thing he always enjoyed no matter how the shadows of Ishbal haunted him. Working from behind the shadows meant using it as protection. It meant nobody would know what he had done. It was a side of the shadows he would always appreciate and like. He liked to think this was a different side of the shadows, a good one. Maybe these shadows would help him towards reaching his aspiration.

Roy Mustang finally decided he could never like shadows anymore, no matter how much stealth it provided. It had taken his most precious subordinate, and he was not about to not do anything. He would never forgive anything that took his subordinate away!

A/n: And once more time... review, please! I've not finished the eighth one yet, and receiving a review while finishing it would make me type quicker. No worries, though, I will definitely finish it... tomorrow the latest. Number eight is rather hard to write.

EDIT: page break and minor mistake.