Riza got up and slipped out of bed. As she slowly walked out the door of her bedroom wearing almost nothing she heard a sizzling. It dawned on her that Ed was here "Ed" she called out.
"Yeah I'm awake already and breakfast is almost done so hurry up and get ready" he called back.
"Of all people, how are you already awake" Riza asked groggily from the hallway.
"Well I wanted to thank you for letting me stay with you for now" Ed replied "Oh and I hope you don't mind that I just took the ingredients out of your fridge" Ed told Riza.
"Ah no it's fine, I didn't even know I had stuff in my fridge" she replied licking her lips. She would get groceries just in case, but generally ended up giving them to her neighbors before they went bad.
Ed put the eggs, bacon, and hash browns on two plates and set them on the table. Riza walked in and pulled her hair back out of the way. She noticed Ed was staring at her and his face was beet red. Riza realized that all she was wearing was a shirt that came down a little higher than mid-thigh and showed quite a bit of cleavage.
"Oh crap, lemme go change" Riza said as she quickly turned and ran towards her room.
After a few minutes Riza came back out to see that Ed had waited for her "I thought it would be even more awkward if I ate and just sat here staring at you" he said grinning.
Riza laughed "Well at least you know how to make things less awkward," she responded "anyways sorry about that, I don't normally have company so I don't think about what I wear to bed or once I get up" Riza chuckled. "Well thanks for making breakfast" Riza said "I normally just pick something up on the way to work"
Ed chuckled "Yeah I normally do as well, but I figured cooking couldn't be that hard" he replied with a big grin.
"How many times did you restart" Riza asked, a smirk appearing on her face.
"None actually, I learned to cook from Pinako since I figured she couldn't cook us every meal while we were traveling, plus I picked up some tips from Sig and teacher and the time I spent training on the island, but I guess cooking just isn't the most convenient thing for me" Ed explained.
"Well I think it's sweet" Riza grinned.
"Oh and don't worry, I already fed Black Hayate" Ed said, taking a breath from eating. "Wow Ed, you're being really sweet, especially for you" Riza said, unable to prevent herself from taking a jab.
"Haha" Ed replied glaring. "I just seem the have this empty feeling inside... Work helps" he explained, leaning back in the chair. "Ever since my mother died I haven't stopped moving, Al and I have just been going forward to reach our goals" he said, dropping his head into his hands. "We worked to get our mother back and we screwed up so badly trying. It's just odd to stop now"
Riza went around the table to sit by Ed "I'm not going to argue with you about that, but at least Alphonse's body hasn't suffered the abuse yours has. And don't worry about Al. He was always following you, so while he may have had a strong drive, I think it'll be a lot easier for him to settle down" Riza said trying to comfort Ed, but failing.
"I, I just don't know what to do anymore" Ed replied. "I've put so much focus into achieving my goals, I just don't know what I should do anymore" he explained. "I mean hell, I lost my alchemy and all I can do now is fight" he added with a frown.
"You can cook for me" Riza said, trying to cheer him up a little.
Ed chuckled a bit at her comment. "But I can see what you mean" Riza responded. "Someone being so driven, when you lose that drive after such a long time it can leave you at a loss" she said. "But you always wanted to protect people didn't you" she asked. Ed raised his head and nodded. "Well you can still help people, make people's lives better and safer" Riza said.
"Besides, if you wanna learn how to lose that drive to work, hang around the office sometimes. They can show you how to stop working, in fact they seem to be experts at not working" Riza said irritably.
Ed laughed "If you don't mind, can I stay here for a while" Ed asked, his head now resting on Riza's shoulder with her arm around him.
"Sure, I wouldn't mind the extra company since mostly everything has died down now" Riza replied. "I guess there will be a lot less military work now, just the standard cleanup and reconstruction stuff" she added, resting her head against the side of his.
"Just don't expect me to pay for everything" Riza said with a small grin.
"Don't worry, it's not like I'm poor" Ed replied. "I mean almost all my train tickets were free, provided or reimbursed later on, as were the rooms we stayed in" Ed said smiling. "Come to think of it the only thing me and Al paid for ourselves was the food, and half of the time people gave us food" he said grinning "oh yeah and my automail, you wouldn't believe what Winry charges, but I always used my research grant" Ed added with a grin.
"I know state alchemists make a fair amount more than normal soldiers, but you're saying you've just had money piling up in your account for the last three years" Riza said standing up.
"I guess, in all the confusion they haven't even been able to revoke my state alchemist position either" Ed replied grinning and holding up his watch "or they just don't care" he added.
"Ugh you probably have more money than me" Riza complained.
"Yeah, but you should be nicer about that" Ed said smiling "I mean since I'm staying with you my money is pretty much yours."
There was a pause in the conversation for a few minutes as they sat together. Eventually Ed let out a sigh "You know I still wish I could of at least gotten my arm back, no amount of money can fix that" Ed said sadly.
"You're amazing you know" Riza said. "First you lost leg trying to bring back your mother, which as even you know now was a mistake and you paid for" Riza said "then you gave up your arm to save your brother and bond him to that armor" she said "and finally you gave up your arm after you got it back and your alchemy as well to give your brother a chance to have his body back" Riza said. "Not to mention you gave up your childhood to do all of this, you've given so much you don't know what else to do now, do you" she asked.
Ed got up and walked over the the couch "What about you, I can't really believe that your just done with Mustang" he asked.
"No, you're right" Riza replied "we've been through far too much for me to just be done with him, and I still believe in him and what he's trying to do" she finished moving to sit down across from Ed. "Doesn't stop him from pissing me off though" Riza added annoyingly.
"I may not know him as well as you, but I thought becoming the Fuhrer would cause his ego to pop and come back down to earth" Ed chuckled.
"Yes but I fear it has now just grown beyond the capacity of this small world" Riza responded with a smile.
"Anyways did you wanna go to Liore today" Ed asked.
"Ugh no, some people actually follow the military rules" Riza replied pulling her hair up and clipping the same way as always.
Ed chuckled "You should leave your hair down" he suggested.
"Yes and you should follow military protocol and wear the uniform" Riza replied with a grin.
"Why don't you wear your hair down" Ed asked putting his feet up.
"Because it gets into the way in a fight" she responded, knocking Ed's feet off the coffee table.
"I'll come with you" Ed said, tossing his red coat on. "I do actually ask for leave" Ed glared, seeing her expression.
"What, to work" Riza asked, her eyebrow still raised.
"No, I need my automail repaired as well" Ed laughed. "Of course we could just go as a type of outreach thing from the military, I mean we are Colonel's, I doubt anyone would question it" Ed suggested.
"I'd still get permission" Riza replied.
"Ugh, Mustang promoted me so I wouldn't bother him about this stuff" Ed complained.
"Yes and I got promoted so I could do the job that I used to do for Mustang" Riza said pouting about Mustang's laziness. "But I do actually get paid more now so at least it's a little better" she added smiling.
"Yeah, and since I'm a state alchemist and now a Colonel I get paid even more than you" Ed grinned.
"You can't even use alchemy anymore though" Riza argued.
"I'm still a talented scientist that can help other people out with their alchemy" Ed replied sticking his tongue out at her.
Riza fell silent for a moment. "Ed" she said after a few moments "I'm proud of you, you signed up to be a dog of the military to get your bodies back, and even through all that has happened you managed to keep yourself from becoming someone like me" she said softly.
"It's too late for regret now Hawkeye" Ed said. "As long as you learned from what happened and will stand up for those people if anything like that happens again, there's nothing more you can do to be a better person" he said "and I couldn't have done what I did without you, so I don't care what you did in Ishval, I wouldn't be the person I am now without you" Ed finished.
Riza smiled "Ed" she started.
"No, let's stop now" Ed said cutting her off.
"Honestly talking has been good, but now I'm starting to feel weird about it" he said "we've been talking about our feelings for too long now" he grinned. "Besides the food's getting cold."
Riza grinned back "I guess so, but you always did tend to express your feelings, and normally very loudly so everyone could hear" she said "so loudly in fact that no one could ignore you" she finished laughing.
Ed grinned "What can I say, I'm dedicated to speaking my mind" he said chuckling,
Both of them quickly ate their breakfast, eager to get going. Though neither would admit it to anyone, they were both looking forward to spending time with each other.
"Let's head on out if you wanna tell Mustang we're leaving for Liore" Ed said picking up his red jacket off the couch. Riza nodded and went into her room to finish getting ready.
After finishing getting ready, Riza and Ed started walking to Central command. "Ugh not again" Riza moaned seeing the men they bumped into last night.
"Who are they anyways" Ed asked, keeping his eyes on the men.
"You remember Kimbley right" Riza asked. Yeah how could I forget, he pretty much impaled me with a beam" Ed responded, lifting up his shirt showing the scar that had formed even after he had healed it.
"God I hate this, you're still a kid and you already have battle scars that would have killed most trained and skilled soldiers" Riza said turning her head.
"Small price to pay" Ed replied softly, his mind drifting to Resembool. "Anyways back to those men" Ed said in a slightly demanding voice.
"Well in the war some of the soldiers shared Kimbley's cruel traits, and that being their personality they weren't exactly... polite to women" Riza finished.
"Did they ever..." Ed started.
Riza laughed "Ed, between Hughes, Mustang, and myself do you think I had troubles with them" she asked grinning. "I guess they just hold some resentment about having their asses kicked repeatedly" Riza said sighing.
"Well if they do anything this time, well I'm pretty sure I would be able to not kill them, but I have no qualms about severely injuring them" Ed said giving an evil smile.
Riza sighed "You're still mad about them calling you a pipsqueak aren't you" she said dropping her head.
"WELL I'M NOT A PIPSQUEAK, I HAVE GROWN" Ed yelled angrily.
"Well that is true you're my height, but now we have their attention" Riza commented. Ed looked over and saw the men walking towards them.
"Well I was saving this as a present because I know you like guns, but" Ed smiled, reaching into his coat. Riza was much like Winry in this way, if there was an awesome gun out, she wanted to get it. "It's not really military approved but I could get tell them it was my doing" he said tossing Riza the gun.
Riza's eyes lit up "Oh thank you Ed, this gun is so expensive that I wasn't actually planning on buying it, but you do realize that if I shoot them with this, it'll probably literally take off an arm right" Riza said raising an eyebrow at Ed.
"And" Ed replied grinning.
"Well if it isn't the guy who we ran into last night" the lead man said. Ed noticed that the man didn't call him pipsqueak, probably because it's would be even more embarrassing calling Ed small and then losing to him.
"What, wanna embarrass yourself even more" Ed asked with a sigh. The men in front of him all started to pull out their guns "I have a request" Ed said quickly. "We are in a public place, stray fire might him a civilian and that would bring the military punishment upon you, not just a beating from a kid, so let's go to somewhere more private" Ed suggested. The lead man grunted and nodded more confused than angry at this point. Looking at Ed, Riza sat down on the nearest bench.
Ed smiled as they reached the alley "Well time to pull your guns now isn't it" Ed asked pulled out his sword. The men pulled their guns and quickly started shooting. Ed easily dodged the bullets as he ran forward and with a few quick slices all of the men's guns fell apart. "Now for the people" Ed grinned. All of the men looked upon Ed with fear and ran away.
"Ok Riza, I really doubt they'll bother you as long as you're with me now" Ed said pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the fleeing men.
"Oh my hero" Riza replied in a high pitched voice, hugging Ed and lifting one leg back.
"A little overly girly" Ed commented with a grin.
"Anyways thanks, I'm glad that no one has bullet holes in them, and I'm serious about that" Riza said giving a small smile.
"What was with you acting like a girl" Ed asked. Riza raised an eyebrow in response "I mean like a girl girl, I mean you're really pretty you just don't normally act like a, I'm gonna shut up now" Ed said quickly lowering his head. Looking back up he saw Riza grinning "You didn't have to be so mean about it" Ed said grumpily.
"Well maybe you should be nicer to someone so pretty" Riza mocked.
"Come on let's just go so you can get permission" Ed responded grumpily. Riza laughed as she caught up to Ed, who had already walked away at a decent speed.
Ed and Riza walked up to Central command "Ugh I don't want to talk to Roy" Riza complained.
"Yeah neither do I, so I'll just wait out here" Ed responded sitting down on the steps.
Ed felt himself being dragged up the steps "If I'm going to talk to Roy so I can go with you then you have to come with me" Riza demanded.
"Well you don't have to come with me" Ed replied.
Riza stopped walking "Why am I going with you, I was supposed to bring you here and make you relax" Riza said realizing that he had convinced her to let him keep working.
"Well it isn't like I would be working, working. I was just gonna help them rebuild and hang out with the people there or something, I mean come on you can't just cut me off from working all at once that could kill me" Ed yelled.
"Wow first time I have ever heard someone complain about having me trying to stop them from working" Riza chuckled. "And you can't treat this like a drug, you can stop if you want" she added.
Ed sighed "Well I guess your company would be nice as well" he said quietly.
"Aww Edward how sweet" Riza said as she helped him stand up. "Well I guess since everything has ended I have been a bit lonely myself since our group was constantly working as a team, and now... yeah" she added. "Well let's get going we have to get to Liore soon" Riza grinned as she started dragging Ed again.
After reaching the Mustang's office Ed broke Riza's grip "Come on, I don't need Mustang trying to tease me anymore" Ed said dusting off his coat.
Riza opened the door to Mustang's office "Oh Fullmetal, I was just about to send for you" Mustang said behind from behind his desk.
"Wow it actually looks like you're working" Ed joked.
"Yes being Fuhrer actually makes me work, and I want you to go to Liore, they have some sort of problem and I don't need the extra paperwork. I figured you'd want to go" Mustang said gritting his teeth.
"Sir, we were planning to go to Liore anyways" Riza started.
Mustang looked up with a grin "Got a hot date" he asked snickering.
"No sir, a relationship with a sixteen year old at my age is frowned upon in general, also a relationship with another officer is against regulations unless the proper paperwork is signed and approved by you, sir" Riza said.
Mustang frowned "You have to take all the fun out of teasing don't you" he complained.
"Yes sir, I count that as one of the benefits of my job" Riza replied with a slight grin.
"Ok well Liore has been having troubles with some weird desert people or sand monsters or both or whatever" Mustang said while going through his papers.
"Ugh, you know Bradley did even less work than me. All he did was work on trying to take over the world or whatever it was their plot was" Mustang groaned as he shuffled the paper in front of him away. "Anyways here's the file, now go make out on a train or something, I need to find a few assistants" Mustang said as he picked up the phone to call someone to find him a assistant that was good at this whether it was male or female.
Ed and Riza left Roy's office "Wow, he must be serious" Ed commented.
"Yeah I know, he didn't specifically ask for a female assistant and not a male one. He said either" Riza replied with a grin.
"Wanna go get some lunch" Ed asked.
"Why, we had breakfast like an hour ago" Riza replied with a single eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, a whole hour and we walked here" Ed said loudly, his body starting to droop.
"We can get something on the train" Riza said. "With the new tracks they built to Liore, it's a long train ride so they'll definitely have real food on the train" she explained, seeing how Ed had drooped even farther at the mention of eating train food.
The new tracks surprised a lot of people. The government hired several alchemists as civil servants to make the foundation tracks. They were kept on for maintenance of the tracks so the sand wouldn't erode to much of them.
"Let's go tomorrow" Ed said. Riza smacked Ed in the head causing him to straighten out again. "Since the train goes so far and it's a route that's not traveled by a whole lot of people, and we already missed it" Ed told Riza.
"Since the next train is tomorrow we have the rest of today to do whatever"
Ed sighed "And apparently that whatever is going to be beating up the same guys repeatedly" he said, seeing Riza's aggressors again except in larger numbers now. Riza groaned, she couldn't just pull out and start shooting — everyone would start freaking out.
Fortunately the Fuhrer's office was right above where Ed and Riza were standing. Ed picked up a few small pebbles and started throwing them at Mustang's window.
After a few seconds Mustang came out to meet them "What is it" he asked, the anger practically radiating off of him.
"Can you get a some officers to arrest those guys, they've assaulted us twice today" Ed asked.
"That's what you made me come down here for, you couldn't have gotten the officer's yourself" Mustang asked bringing his glove up and getting ready to burn Ed.
Ed saw the movement and spit on the glove "Can't start a spark not can ya flame boy" he mocked as Mustang stormed away.
"Hey Ed, that was kinda gross" Riza said trying to bite back her laughter.
Ed and Riza ran out of sight and headed around a different way to avoid the thugs. As they went back into a walk, Ed noticed that a few teenage girls were looking at him and giggled when he made eye contact with them.
"You're Edward Elric right?" one of the girls asked.
"Yeah" Ed replied with a smile.
They made small talk for a few minutes, the girls laughing at jokes that weren't funny, and prodding way to much into his personal life.
"How did you get that automail?" one of the girls asked.
"Sorry girls, I'm going to have to take the Colonel away from you. We have work" Riza said, seeing Ed getting uncomfortable.
The girls frowned, but Riza ignored them. After a few minutes Ed chuckled. "Thanks for saving me there."
"What else are friends for than saving each other from attractive members of the opposite gender." Riza said with a slight smile.
"You know I just find it amusing, I've been so concentrated on getting me and Al's bodies back that the only girls I talked to multiple times were you, Winry, Maria — though she was my guard — and a bunch of like five year olds" Ed explained.
"Yeah I suppose you can concentrate on being a teenager now"
"Meh too late" Ed replied.
Riza started to laugh "Let's go get something to eat, I forgot you can't just wait until the train ride tomorrow to eat" she offered with a small grin.
After wandering around for about a hour Ed and Riza found a place to get lunch — the place being the cafeteria at command. "Well, when I thought of going somewhere to eat I wasn't really thinking of this" Riza commented with a chuckle.
"Yeah but it's somewhat decent food and there's a lot" Ed replied shoveling the food into his mouth. Riza, deciding that Ed was eating too fast, pushed his biggest enemy towards him. Ed stopped eating, and his eyes locked onto the bottle of milk.
"Ok Ed if you don't slow down I'm going to pour this milk on all of your food" Riza threatened.
Ed paused for a moment "Eh, I'm just about done eating anyways" he said pointing to his nearly empty plate.
Ed and Riza got up and left. "Let's head back to my place, don't really know what to do now that all of the stuff has been wrapped up" Riza said. "I mean there's clean up work, but that's basically what we're going tomorrow" she added with a sigh.
Ed and Riza reached her house. Riza opened the door and Ed walked in behind her and plopped down on the couch. "Ed you know you should probably carry a gun" Riza told him.
"Why, I can beat most people with a sword" Ed replied putting his feet up on his coffee table.
Riza knocked Ed's feet off the table. "Well you have been used to using alchemy at range as well as fighting at close range with that monkey like style of yours" Riza said chuckling a bit at Ed's fighting style. "While you still fight like that, you've lost the alchemy and if you need to cover a distance" Riza started to explain.
"If I need to cover distance I can throw my sword or run at them, the Armstrongs branded the quickness into me and gave me a few pointers on fighting, and Olivier is scary with that sword of hers" Ed said remembering her attacking him. "I mean I'm quicker and faster than her, but all she has to do is look at me in that scary way and she wins" Ed added. "Although most of my sword skills were helped by Ling" he said thinking back to right before Ling went back to Xing.
Riza sighed "You're getting off topic" she said. "If I'm at the end of a hallway, what would you do if I had a gun" she asked.
"I dunno, you always have a gun so I guess I'd just walk by" Ed replied.
"Ok say I'm an enemy at the end of the hall with a gun, then what would you do" Riza asked.
"Run for my life, even if I had a gun I wouldn't be able to beat you with it" Ed replied. Riza sighed and knocked Ed's feet off of the coffee table.
"Just carry one, don't use it if you don't want to, but at least carry it. For me." Riza pleaded.
Ed gave a resigned sigh "Sure why not, I can look cool with a gun" he said grinning.
Ed put his feet up on the coffee table only to get them knocked down by Riza again. "Hey, would you stop it" Ed complained.
"I have a foot rest if you want to put your feet up, just don't use the coffee table" Riza said. "You know it's always kind of funny to watch you fight hand-to-hand, you bouncing all over the place is surprisingly interesting" Riza said remembering how Ed would do several flips, jumping over around, and diving under his enemies, and pretty much much anything that would benefit him in a fight.
Ed got up off the couch "I miss having something driving me, and have someone next to me striving for the same goals" he said sighing.
"You miss Al don't you" Riza Stated more than asked.
"Yeah, I also miss the traveling" Ed said softly "being in stuck in central kind of sucks" he added.
Riza gave a small smile "You know, I've only really been to eastern, central... and Ishval" Riza said, her voice growing quiet at the end.
"You know unlike a lot of people I didn't join the military for any reason like wanting to save Amestris or helping people, or even for the money" Ed said. "I joined so I could get Al's body back, and with luck my own" he finished. "Though no luck for me" he added with a small chuckle. "I'm thinking about quitting".
Riza looked at Ed in shock "Ed..." she said softly.
"Honestly, there isn't any reason for me to stay part of the military now" Ed explained. "I became a state alchemist because I needed access to research materials that I couldn't get otherwise".
Riza shifted uncomfortably. "Ed you have friends here, and it's a job" Riza said trying to convince Ed to stay. "Plus with Mustang as the Fuhrer, people will be protected from things like Ishval. I've seen the way you react to what happened in Ishval, if you stay with the military you can also prevent that from happening" Riza finished.
Ed chuckled "Geez Riza, why don't you just start begging — it wouldn't be a huge leap" he joked.
Riza smacked Ed playfully "You're a good person Ed, even if you didn't join for those reasons I know that you can't ignore them" Riza said.
Ed nodded "Man after that how could I say no" he said.
"I'm sure Mustang will let you do whatever you want, you'll be able to travel whenever you want" Riza said.
"I'm gonna go to bed now" Ed told Riza as he got up. Before he left Ed turned towards Riza, who had also gotten up "Thanks" he said as he stepped forward and gave her a hug. "I've never really talked to someone like this" Ed explained before he left to go to bed.
Ed took off his shirt in the hall, letting Riza see his body. Riza winced when she looked at his back, he should of died ten times over, but he seemed to have worked right on through his injuries. When Riza saw what Ed was doing for himself and his brother, for the people they met, and for Amestris as a whole, she realized he couldn't have die. He hadn't had the time for it.
Riza slipped out of her military clothes and slipped into her pajamas. She went to sit down on her bed. Riza sighed, all she could think of was Ed. She knew that Ed didn't see anything wrong with the way that he lived for the last four years and even before that, but it was painfully obvious to everyone around him that the way he been growing up wasn't any way for a kid to grow up. It wasn't a way anyone should live.
She still couldn't believe that the military had let a twelve year old join — not that she didn't want Ed to accomplish his goals. Riza sighed it was too late now, Ed had grown up with this life he chose and somehow came out on top in almost every way possible.