Disclaimer: FMA belongs to Arakawa Hiromu
Notes: Part 12 of my Future storyline arc. Finally I've finished listening to everything on my playlist through at least once. I can go back to putting on The Killers' "Smile Like You Mean It" whenever I update this series.
Sixty-eight: Songs
Riza remembered very little of her mother – the woman had died before her father took Roy on as a student, which meant that Riza had been eight or younger. She didn't know for certain, because it wasn't the sort of thing her father would talk about. What she did remember consisted of soft, blonde hair, a gentle voice, and reminders that she couldn't have a pet because her father was allergic to cat hair, and dogs took too much attention for a little girl to care for one properly.
It wasn't until she became a mother herself that she realised she remembered more than she had thought. She remembered that she had quite thoroughly enjoyed bath-time while her mother was still there to help her with it. The best part about school in those days had been coming home to see her mother's smiling face (not what it later became: a method to get her out of the way of her perpetually mourning father). Breakfast had been early every day, so they'd be able to enjoy a full day ahead, not in the middle of the morning because it had taken that long for her father to remember to feed the both of them.
Most of all, Riza remembered the songs her mother had sung to her. Quiet lullabies that calmed her when she was crying, or made her forget her sore throat when she was sick. Riza was no singer, and didn't remember more than a handful of the words, but when it came to caring for her children, she still sometimes found herself humming one of those familiar tunes.