Second Entry, April 11
His first full day in the Hawkeye household had been rather a long one, and Roy was sleepy by the time he trudged back upstairs to his own room. He thought about waiting until morning to write in his journal, but he knew that now he'd thought of it, he had to write something down or he'd never be able to sleep. He'd end up thinking over everything that had happened and composing half the darn thing in his head anyway. Might as well commit it to paper while his impressions were fresh. With a sigh, he settled at the desk in his room and began his second entry.
"So by 'in the morning,' it turns out that sensei just meant 'before noon.' I ended up sitting in his study for hours before he finally came in. But I got to read some really interesting stuff while I was waiting, so I figure that counts for study time. Sophie would love to get into sensei's study—it's really more of a library than anything else. There's a desk and a couple of armchairs, but bookshelves take up most of the wall space, completely covering three of the walls from top to bottom. The fourth wall is all windows, which are hung with heavy, old-fashioned velvet curtains. Sensei has a ton of really great books, and not just about alchemy. He's got history, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and even some biographies and fiction novels too. Some of them look like first editions, and I bet a lot of them are really rare.
The big mahogany desk at one end of the room is so shiny I can see my reflection in it, so I can tell it was polished recently. But the room doesn't have that harsh, freshly scrubbed smell. You know what I mean—like when you walk into someone's house and it smells like cleaning supplies, and you can tell they've just frantically cleaned the place to impress you, and that it was probably filthy until about five minutes before you arrived.
But this place has a well-kept, lived-in feel…it smells like lemon furniture polish and the leather bindings of books. I think this library is my favorite room so far. The armchairs are really comfortable and squashy, and made for a really good place to read while I waited. And Hawkeye-sensei seemed really pleased to find me reading when he walked in at last.
Sensei went over his plan for how our lessons together will be, and told me he expects me to study hard when I have time in between lessons. He said something about needing to gauge where we stood, and that he expected great things out of me. Then, suddenly, he grabbed a heavy vase from one of the side tables and threw it against the wall.
I was totally stunned until he handed me a piece of chalk, and I realized he was testing me. So I drew the circle right there on the floor of the library, and transmuted the vase back together. When I'd finished fixing it, he picked it up and looked at it really close. He didn't say 'good job,' or anything, but he didn't yell at me either, so I guess it was all right.
Anyway, he says we're going to start lessons with the very basics. Hawkeye-sensei wants to make sure I fully understand all of the elementary concepts before we try anything bigger. It's irritating, but it makes sense, because you can really mess stuff up if you don't know what you're doing. Plus I figured if I don't complain and do as he asks, he'll be more likely to let me stay longer and then I can learn more. So we worked together for several hours, until sensei sent me off and again told me I could do as I liked until the same time tomorrow. Guess I can sleep in now that I know he's a late riser, huh?"
With a satisfied yawn, Roy closed the notebook he'd been writing his letters in and pressed his hand to his burning eyes. Speaking of sleeping in…it was definitely time to get to bed. He flicked out his lamp and climbed into the four-poster bed, and would have been asleep at once—except that he heard a noise from the hallway.
Footsteps?
Almost afraid to breathe, Roy sat up and listened intently. And heard nothing.
Darn this creaky old country house! The darkness outside of his window was so complete, it felt oppressive. There were no street lights to cast familiar shadows in through his window. The moon wasn't even up yet. There were no traffic noises, no sounds of mingled laughter and conversation spilling out of bars or restaurants nearby, nothing. Just silence. Straining to hear something, anything, in the heavy darkness, icy shards of fear lodged in his belly. And Roy trembled.
But he didn't hear the odd sound again.
Instead, his ears began picking out small, soothing, homelike noises: the ticking of the grandfather clock he'd seen downstairs, the soughing of the wind in the trees outside, the soft call of some sort of night bird. Ordinary, normal sounds.
The very stillness of the house gradually lulled him. It was an old house, after all. His overactive imagination was playing tricks on him; supplying mysterious footsteps to fit a mysterious, lonely locale. Who would be creeping around his door in the middle of the night, anyway? If his teacher wanted to talk to him, he'd knock or wait until morning; he certainly wouldn't skulk around in the dark in his own home, right? Right.
Finally, Roy managed to convince himself that he was being foolish. It's just because you're in an unfamiliar place, that's all. It's a bit quiet, sure, but that doesn't make it sinister. Quit being such a baby. What would the girls say if they saw you acting like this?
He scoffed at himself, but was strangely comforted at the idea of his "sisters" teasing him for being childish. He rolled back over on the comfortable goose feather bed, imagining condescending pats on the head and gentle feminine laughter, and was deeply asleep in seconds.
And so he heard neither the creaking floorboard, nor the footsteps that crept slowly away again.
A.N. Thanks you all so much for the reviews, follows and favorites! Updates on this fic might be a little bit sporadic, but I will try to get something up at least once a week. Maybe twice if work cooperates! :D
xoxo Janie