A/N This chapter turned out extra long, there's just so much that still has to happen! Lately I've had to think a lot about why I write fanfiction, and I've realized my reasons. Some are nice, some not so much. Hmm, but there'll be more about that at my author's note at the end of the chapter I suppose, I don't want to write it right now. But for those of you too lazy or carefree to look it up though, basically, I need some time off to deal with some... problems. My unpredictable bouts of depression are coming more often, and I've got a lot to try and figure out, so... yeah.
Lust poured herself a cup of the already cold coffee when she got back. Sloth had left a note saying that she was going to see Wrath and Dante and that Envy had left with one of her assignments. They would both be back late tonight, not for hours. Lust sipped the murky coffee, looking down at a note at the bottom of the paper, and spitting out her coffee after reading it.
P.S. You have to look after Riza all day ok? She's still in Envy's room, have fun. -Sloth
"What do they think I am, a babysitter?" She said sarcastically. Lust crumpled up the piece of paper, rethinking throwing it away and using it to mop up the majority of the coffee she'd spit out. She sighed, looking through their cabinets for food. Nothing good, at least, nothing she could cook. Lust finally found a can of chicken noodle soup, which she simply pried open with her nails and set on the stove, heating it up on an open flame. She took it off as it began to steam, grabbing a rusty spoon from the counter and taking it with her. Lust walked into Envy's room, closing the door. "Eat this," she said plainly.
Riza was huddled under a heap of blankets shivering. She made no move to reveal herself, or take the soup. "You need to eat to get back your strength, you're starving at this point." Riza didn't move. Lust set down the soup and spoon, grabbing handfuls of the blankets and ripping them away. Riza was wearing what they'd changed her into once they first brought her back, a white, somewhat stained shirt, big enough to be a rather short dress. "Eat," Lust said, handing her the can. Riza took it and started eating silently.
"Oh don't tell me you're mute too," Lust sighed. Riza's somewhat red eyes rose questioningly at this.
"…Who's mute?" she asked in a hollow voice, sipping the soup.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just someone I know," Lust replied hurriedly. "Well, you sure had an early waking. You woke everyone up with your screaming, I'm surprised you haven't lost your voice." Riza shuddered, hugging her legs closer to herself.
"When I woke up," she gulped back tears, "That, that thing had his fingers inside of me." Riza stopped there, gulping again, seemingly unable to continue.
"I assume you mean Envy?" Lust said plainly. Riza nodded. "Well that's not that bad, trust me. That man's maniacal, it only gets worse from here on in. He loves causing pain."
"Where am I?" Riza asked. After the morning, she felt so utterly humiliated and horrified she couldn't shake the shame even if she tried.
"You're in the flat where we stay. You've been asleep for, lets see, about two and a half weeks now actually, that's why you're so weak," she replied simply, sitting down next to Riza. "You're staying with us, at least for the time being, so get used to it."
"…Has Roy come looking for me?" Riza asked after a moment, "Where is he?"
"Still in the Central HQ from what I know," Lust answered, "And no. No one's come looking for you. That's all that I can tell you for now, I'm sure Envy or someone around here will mess up and let the cat out of the bag sooner or later though, so you'll figure it all out in the end I dare say. Finish eating." She got up, walking out of the room pointedly. Today was going to be dull.
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Lust looked up from picking dirt specks out from beneath her fingernails. There was a knocking, scratching sound at the door. Happy for at least something to do, no matter what, Lust got up and went to the door, twisting it open. Then she suddenly tripped over herself, falling backwards as something black and white darted into the room, speeding into Envy's room. Lust got up, following it in awkwardly. Riza was smiling, laughing whole-heartedly as a black and white dog sat on her lap, happily licking her face. Black Hayate was home.
"You know you can't keep that dog here," Lust said after a moment, leaning against the doorframe bemusedly. It was a bit of a relief to finally see the girl smiling.
"Black Hayate, this is Lust," Riza smiled, gesturing towards the sin. Hayate yipped an appreciative bark.
"…He can stay a little while," Lust sighed, "But if Envy or Sloth sees him they'll kill him. Your gamble." She left Riza to enjoy the bitter sweet company of her dog, going back to her usual procrastinating, used whenever she was left to hold up fort.
Riza checked to make sure that Sloth was gone before making Hayate sit down and getting up on wobbly legs to look around. No luck. Both paper and pen were absent from the room entirely. Riza finally just took the bottom of the sheets on the bed and bit them desperately, ripping off a strip. She then, after much more scrounging, found nothing to write with, and so resorted to another measure. Taking a knife from the desk, she slit the side of her wrist, twisting the knife inside it.
She winced, biting her lip until blood dripped into her mouth as well, and held her hand down until blood dripped down it. She took her index finger and scrawled in blood on the fabric. She blew on the fabric to help it dry, before rolling it up and hooking it into a loop on Hayate's collar. "Ok Hayate," she said, her voice soft and scared, "Think Lassie, come on boy, get this to Roy for me."
Lust stopped her pacing when she heard a sudden noise. Footsteps, in high heels, were coming. She sped into Envy's room, looking for the dog. There! "Sloth's here, get rid of that thing!" Lust whispered urgently, "She'll walk in any second now, put it out the window!" Riza took Hayate by the scruff of his neck urgently, throwing open the window and setting him down on the ground outside. Riza closed the window quickly as they heard the front door opening and closing. Lust looked to make sure Hayate was heading away, before stopping at the sight of something white hanging off of his collar. Something that hadn't been there before.
"What is that?" She whispered desperately to Riza, "What the hell have you put on that dog?" Riza tried to hide her wrist, feigning innocence.
"It was note wasn't it," Lust said. Riza flinched. "Thought so. Well that's ok then. All that depends now is what it said, tell me." Sloth opened up the door, causing both people in the room to look up.
"So what's going on in here?" she asked indifferently.
"The girl 's got a bad cut," Lust replied, getting up passively, "You know how Envy is. I was just leaving to get some bandages, could you find them for me?" Lust grabbed Riza's wrist forcefully, pulling it into sight. Sloth nodded, leaving. "As far as anyone is concerned, there was never a dog here," Lust whispered, "If anyone finds out about this little stunt it's my neck on the line."
Riza sat in silent defiance as Sloth came back into the room with a basic med kit. She handed it to Lust, pausing for only a moment before leaving. "Envy should be back in an hour or two," she said blandly, "I think he's had a bad day so you should be ready for him." She closed the door. Lust sighed, pulling open the minuscule box and pulling out some thick band-aids.
"Tell me what the note said," Lust demanded quietly, taking Riza's arm.
"Why should I? Roy'll read it and he'll come here and find me," Riza said. "I wrote 'Homunculi have me; help,' or something along those lines."
"No one will understand it or help," Lust replied. "You'll understand soon. There, that should hold for now."
"…What did Sloth mean, to 'be ready for Envy'?" Riza asked, trying to collect herself.
"He's had a bad day," Lust replied, packing up the box, "And you're the one he'll take it out on. You never know what he'll do, it'll most likely be painful, that's one of the reasons he keeps around the knifes and such. That and boredom I suppose." She got up with such a high air of finality that Riza had no heart to ask for anything else. Lust paused before opening the door. "Hawkeye…"
"It's Mustang now," she said quietly.
"…So you're just going to wait for your husband to come and save you? I'd always thought you of a different state of mind." And she left Riza to try and realize what she'd meant.
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Hughes walked down the corridor, looking at the moon. Investigations on Riza's murder were on a stand still right now; neither he nor Ed had nothing to work with. He decided to go to dinner instead of bothering the boy. A shadow watched as he changed direction, before it left the darkness and headed towards Roy's office. "Hey, is Ed here?" Hughes asked, walking into Roy's office. Ed looked up, putting down the papers he'd been working on.
"I'll be right with you," he said, stacking them beside him, and getting up to follow Hughes out the door. "Hughes, what is it? It's not a good time right now, I've still got a stack of papers to finish before heading in for the night."
"Ed, I need to know what you think of the case of Riza," Hughes asked quietly. Ed glanced around, looking at Hughes questioningly.
"What're you talking about? Did you find any news on her? Is she really still alive?" He asked urgently.
"No," Hughes said slowly, "I was just going to go over facts with you."
"Tell me if you find anything, I'm going to dinner," Ed replied, "We're still working with the homunculus theory right?" Hughes hesitated, and then nodded. Ed gave him a brief smirk, before walking down the hall to dinner, his stomach grumbling.
"Well, this sure is getting interesting isn't it?" Hughes mused, "My work day's almost done, I'd better watch the Fullmetal pipsqueak a bit longer though." He walked back into the shadows and disappeared.
Ed walked into the cafeteria, stopping when he saw Hughes just starting to eat. "Hughes, what're you doing here?" He asked. Hughes looked up.
"Eating, what else would I be doing?" Ed's brow furrowed, before his stomach grumbled and he shrugged it off, heading in to get his dinner.
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Hayate whined, scratching at the door to the Mustang house. He wandered off to the other place he'd been to before. A dog's mind is simple, but he had one thought in him now that he'd been let down by the black haired person and the blonde one. He started walking down the street, stopping only to scratch at his worn down collar. It was discolored, and noticeably old and torn. Hayate walked off, following familiar scents until he came to the military HQ. Hayate walked in, finding his way to Roy's office and nudging the door open with his nose. Fury looked up, he was the only one still there. "Black Hayate!" he said in surprise, "How'd you get in here?" Hayate bounded up and Fury patted his head happily.
"Here, Riza was going to give you this, but, I guess I should now," Fury said, his smile disappearing. He reached into the desk next to his; the late Riza Mustang's to be specific. Roy had never taken out any of Riza's things after her death, and there was an unspoken agreement that no one would touch them. Fury pulled out a collar, brand new, with a light blue color and a pattern of bones on it from one of the drawers. He reached down, unhooking Hayate's collar and setting it down on Riza's desk. He slipped on the new collar, which Hayate gave an appreciative scratch before yawning. "I'm pretty tired too," Fury smiled weakly, "Here, I'll take you back to Roy's on my way home ok? He left a few minute ago so he should be there now." Fury got up, walking to the door and leaving, closely followed by Hayate. Hughes or someone would come back and turn out the lights and lock the doors later.
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Ed walked into the office, planning on finishing the papers he'd left and leave for the night, stopping when he saw Hayate's collar on the desk. "Fury must've finally given him the new collar," Ed said to himself, picking it up. He tossed it into the trash, stopping as he saw something white red hanging off of it. Ed pulled off and unrolled a strip of cloth, looking it over. He gasped, dropping it and running out of the room. A black cat slipped in the ajar door and pawed the fabric open. It almost looked as though it was trying to read it. But that would simply be silly.
A/N I'll leave you to ponder what's happened so far. Also, I'm taking a bit of a break from writing so my updates will be much more unpredictable. Please read the newest announcement on my lookup about it, I really don't have the heart to retype it here. Poor Riza… I almost feel bad for making her feel so much pain. Oh well, such is the nature of much of my writing... Also, I'm on the fourth DVD of Witch Hunter Robin, I now love that series. Wonder what happened to Amon… and what the orbos are made of… oh the persistentquestions… well, goodnight.