Summary: At the right angle, in a line of sight, one might wonder why he never stopped staring at her for so much as a second.

Theme: 045. Awakening

Dedication: Charlie, thank you!

Disclaimer: If I owned Full Metal Alchemist, Chris Mustang would be married to Lust.

Angles

045. Awakening

Her hand slid over the sheets.

When you are alone, you learn to do so many things, such as learning sleeping routines. When you crawl into the empty space, devoid of any other human warmth or life and your hands slide over the plain white sheets. You learn to sleep in the middle of the double bed. You learn that crumpled pillows can be made into mountains for you to cling to, and the sheets become the closest thing to a person you have. They can even become the closest thing to the person you love when you wind them around your body as you roll in your sleep, reminiscent of crinkled hands that created heat creeping over your skin.

Riza depended on that crumpled pillow man to be like he had been. She needed the heat of it to encapsulate her body like a cocoon, to hold her where nobody could see her until daybreak and her awakening. Because when that time came, she would once again need to heave herself away from him, and tear their bond together once more until she could return to his silky embrace. Tangled in between his material arms, safe and protected in her home. He would never let any harm come to her.

But on rare days, she did not see the crumpled-sheet man, with his face without features creased into her pillow. Instead, rough hands replaced the sleek sheet caresser, careful in their small touches. The pillows changed from mountains and featureless faces to being fleshed out and skinned, with tanned skin and rosy red cheeks that were full of life. The bald silk was replaced by a full head of clean raven hair, smooth and tamed, but wild under her fingers and she tangled it with her touch. Chapped lips crinkled and became smoother, tamed by spit into two moist rose petals pushed together. The warm breath the new man emitted would spread over the pillow, heating her more than the capturing limbs of the sheets.

Then when the time came for her awakening, she wouldn't have to force her eyes open with sheer willpower. She did not awake to a fairytale, with gentle rays of sun flitting lines over her face through the shafts of the plain white blinds, and a Prince by her side. No birds sung as her reddish brown eyes gazed upon the world, but instead she felt that she was greeted with a much more pleasant sight. The man with closed eyes, warmth emitting from his body that stay as still as a stone, right beside her, one arm usually draped over her waist, just clinging to her like a life raft to stay afloat. Like she was the only thing keeping him alive.

In those times, her hand would no longer slide over the sheets, and she wouldn't need to sleep in the middle of the double bed. Just like her clung to her, that man of flesh and blood, she would cling to him. She would no longer need to trap the sheets in her fist, and for that short amount of time she didn't need the sheet man and there really was a person next to her. With their limbs wound around one another, they would never need sheet men and women again, especially when their eyes finally met. Roy knew that just as well as Riza did, and so he tried not to leave her to the fake man, made of whispers and distant dreams then materialised in spun silk that circled around her body. No, instead Roy would hold her. Then sometimes, he could wake earlier then she did, and see her sleeping peacefully.

Then see her smile at the time of her awakening.

A fluffy little piece.

Preview: Her nights were filled only with innocent intentions.