A/N: Wow...over a year since my last update. I feel terrible.

I will admit that this fic has little if any Royai in it. I got the idea for this one day while reading about Caesar ciphers and I couldn't figure out a way to add in any romance without it sounding forced so I eventually gave up and wrote the story as is. I apologize to anyone who was expecting a cute fluffy story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Full Metal Alchemist or any of the characters.

Hidden Message:

Isabelle Hawkeye couldn't believe her eyes.

Her workaholic husband was sitting on the couch with a large book in his hands. Sitting on his lap with the biggest smile on her little face was their six-year-old daughter.

Miracles do happen, she thought to herself. She was about to walk up to them when Berthold suddenly spoke up.

"Now Riza, if you use this cipher key to replace these three letters what word do you get?"

The little girl studied the book for a minute before finally proudly shouting "Dog!"

"That's right! Now what about this one?"

"Ummm….Ball!"

"Very good!"

Isabelle frowned. That was not what she was expecting. She walked into the room, her footsteps echoing loudly in the sparsely decorated room. Both Berthold and Riza looked up to see who had disturbed their bonding time.

"Riza darling… It's time for bed," Isabelle told her daughter.

"But Mommy…" the little girl protested.

"No buts," she said firmly. "You know the rules. Your two can continue the lesson tomorrow."

Pouting, Riza slid off her father's lap and ran up to her. Isabelle bent down and brushed a few stray strands of hair from her daughter's eyes.

"You go on ahead ok? I'll be right with you shortly. I just want to have a little chat with your father first."

The little girl nodded. "Goodnight, Daddy," she said before running out of the room. Isabelle couldn't help but smile as she watched her scamper up the stairs to her bedroom.

She seems so happy to be spending time with her father.

A shuffling sound interrupted her thoughts. Turning around, she saw Berthold placing the book on the desk in a corner. She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him.

"What?" he asked gruffly. "You asked me to spend more time with her so I am."

"I was expecting you to play with her or read stories to her. Not teach her to decipher codes!

He waved her off. "If I'm going to spend time with her I might as well make it productive. It's pointless filling her head with stories of princesses and castles and happily ever after's. You know as well as anyone that dreaming about those foolish fantasies are a waste of time and precious brain cells."

"It's not foolish. It's called a healthy childhood!" retorted Isabelle.

Berthold laughed. "What's so healthy about waiting for some prince to rescue her? Or do you actually expect some Xingese prince to show up one day and carry Riza off into the sunset on his white stallion?"

Isabelle huffed and stormed out of the room. It was pointless arguing with her husband. A man like him would never understand the importance of having hopes and dreams to strive for. As she climbed up the stairs to tuck Riza into bed she hoped her daughter wouldn't grow up to be as jaded as her husband.

11 years later…

Riza stared at the clock on her wall, trying in vain to ignore Roy's gentle touch on her back. He'd been studying her tattoo for days now and she sincerely hoped he would be finished soon. It was really awkward lying on her bed, half-dressed while he hovered over her trying to decipher her father's research. Sighing a little, she closed her eyes and wondered why her father had to choose this method to hide his research. Surely there had to be plenty of other methods that didn't require tattooing his own daughter. What really frustrated her was that he never told her in advance what he was going to do. He had simply asked her if she could help him with his work and she blindly said, "Yes," before she realized that this was what he meant by help. And now, because of his own selfishness, she carried the burden of protecting his secret. As a result, she could never let anyone get close to her for fear of the research falling into the wrong hands.

While she was imagining how different her life might have been if her mother was still alive to keep her father in check, Roy leaned over her to get a closer look at an inscription written on her back. She felt a shiver go down her back as she felt his breath on her skin.

"Hmmm…this is weird."

"What?" she asked, opening her eyes.

"This portion here," he gently touched her lower back where she knew was the bottom of the tattoo. "I've deciphered the code but it's still a bunch of nonsense."

"Maybe Father used a different encryption key to make sure it wasn't easily solvable."

Roy shook his head. "The rest of the tattoo uses the same style of encryption. It doesn't make sense for him to completely switch all of a sudden for this small part only. If anything, this part here…" he gently tapped her left shoulder blade, "…would be a more likely place for him to switch since it has the most critical information."

Riza thought for a moment. Memories of her father's lessons in cryptanalysis all those years ago suddenly came flooding back.

"Can I see it? Maybe I can help."

Roy looked somewhat confused by her request but he wrote down the code on a slip of paper and handed it to her. She looked at it and immediately recognized the pattern.

"Could I borrow a pencil, Mr. Mustang?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh sure," he said, handing her his pencil. She quickly went to work decoding the message.

"Do you know how to decipher it?" he asked, looking over her shoulder.

"Yes. I don't know why but it's written in a code that Father and I created together while he was teaching me how to decipher codes. He used to write encrypted notes to me and I would have to try to solve them. Even Mother didn't know the key so it was sort of our secret way of communication. Unfortunately, after Mother died the lessons stopped abruptly and Father became even more obsessed with his research." She placed the pencil down and read the finished message in its entirety. As she did, tears began welling up in her eyes.

Riza, I'm sorry for not being there for you all these years and for placing this terrible burden on you. Please forgive me for all the suffering I may have caused. I just wanted to give you a better life. I'm sorry.

"I forgive you, Father," she whispered while the tears ran down her face. Roy quickly pulled her towards him and she quietly sobbed in his arms.

A/N: I promise the next fic will have more Royai.