Chapter Eleven: For the First Time (Lifehouse)

A/N: Wow. Ironic title. I'll make it work, though.

Women were an enigma. Roy Mustang was the first to admit that. And yet, somehow, he was supposed to marry one someday.

Thankfully, or perhaps not so much, his alchemy apprenticeship was to a man who had a daughter relatively close to his age.

Riza Hawkeye was not the vision of drop-dead gorgeousness that Roy would have dropped everything to marry, but she was rather pretty, and she was good around the house. She was a little quiet, and shy enough that it had taken her a week to even say "hello" to him.

After the first year or so, though, they had progressed to conversations of just about everything. He had a feeling that it was more out of necessity for her, though; her father didn't pay her much attention. He rarely came to any meal anymore, and she talked to him only when she needed to know what to shop for (in case there was anything special) or when she needed to let him know that she would be absent for something.

He kind of pitied her at first. His family, though not gigantic, was always around, and in each other's business. Roy had become so used to it that the privacy of the Hawkeye house seemed to force him to keep in whatever he wanted to say. It had been rather hard to adjust. He was used to just saying whatever was going through his mind.

Riza seemed uncomfortable, too. Perhaps her mother had been her confidant. Roy did not know. In fact, he knew relatively little of the Hawkeyes' history before he came. All he knew was what he could piece together: Riza's mother was dead, and her relatives kept their distance. That was really all he knew. Granted, he had not tried to ask, but only because he had the feeling that it was not something that Riza wanted to talk about.

Instead, they would chat about his future as a military officer, something that Roy had yet to tell Hawkeye-sensei. Riza's stance on the military was slightly more lax than her father's, but she did not intend to join, and especially not as a state alchemist.

There was a time where he had asked why she was so shy. It was a stupid question, he knew. Some things are just inherent traits, and Roy counted shyness among those.

Riza had surprised him, however. "I'm not shy. I come off as that, but I'd call it more… distrustful."

"Why?" Roy had asked without even thinking about it.

At this, Riza had quickly changed the topic. Roy did not try to pursue it. If there was something she wanted to tell him, she would get around to it, and if not, then it was off limits, no questions asked.

There were a couple other things. Riza seemed to know what her father was working on, but would not say. Anything connected to alchemy, she kept a mystery, and it was not because she did not know about alchemy. She had actually helped Roy so much that he had become suspicious as to why she knew, especially when he knew she did not want to be an alchemist.

Despite all of the tension concerning alchemy, Roy was coming to realize that there was something more to Riza. He was, dare he admit it, attracted to her. She was rather smart, and she had put him in his place more than once. (Oddly, he found that to be a good quality.) She did not have a very quick temper, and she was good at listening.

So it was not that much of a surprise to him when he found himself pondering if he should say something. His parents had not mentioned much on relationships to him. Of course, he knew how sex worked and how babies were born, but there was no way that would come into play anytime soon.

He had written his parents for advice. Their advice was to be careful, and not to overwhelm Riza. Let her father know what was going on, and wait until things had settled down (if they got bad) to mention anything to Riza. Oh, and they were so proud of him!

Some help that had been. He had quickly written a letter back telling them that things had not gone that far at all, and that he was just trying to figure out what to do.

Thankfully, both letters had been written in Xingese, as Riza had entered while he was writing both of them. Both times, she had called him for dinner and knocked several times. His jumpiness had not reassured her at all.

It was as he lay in bed after he sent the second letter that he realized he would have to tell Riza sooner or later. He had actually put forth the effort once, only to chicken out at the last second. That was when he had decided to write to his parents on the matter.

Now, it seemed, he would have to try again, and just hope for the best. Riza was not likely to react badly to it, so he knew he would live, unless Hawkeye-sensei knew.

What was he going to do?

He was going to try again and find out.

A/N: As if this wasn't obvious, I'm going with the theory that Roy is at least part Xingese. He looks it, possibly, so I'm just going to roll with that one.

This one's the worst by far. It went all over the place. I'm going to keep it, though. That way, I won't feel so bad when I post another bad one.

Please review!