AN: Hi guys I'm back! (but not really). Since ChelentheMelon can't get to a computer right now *cough*LAZY*cough* I'll be uploading this chapter. We've been trying to stick to the daily theme for royai week but its getting harder to accomplish without changing the story so we've stopped (even though I think the 'no firearms in the bedroom' theme is genius). Daily updates will continue from ChelentheMelon this week (this is the first she's heard of it ;) oh well...) but I will return on Monday for the beginning of the new arc *hooray*. Apologies for long authors note! In the meantime enjoy the next chapter! ~EmpressofBread
Wait! I have to write for Sat and Sun too? I'm not sure what I'm gonna do because my arc is pretty much done. ~ChelenTheMelon
Yes, you knew I was busy! Just think of some comic interludes (it's mustang that should be easy enough) until I can continue the arc on Monday... ~EmpressofBread
"Roy, oh my god are you okay?" Riza dropped to her knees next to Roy who was still lying on the short brittle grass of her make shift shooting range.
"I'm fine Riza really, I'm Roy Mustang I dodge bullets for fun." Roy sat up and smiled at her, the left side of his mouth upturned. As he propped himself onto his elbows, Riza relieved threw her arms around her half naked friend. The whole point of the shooting was to protect the people she loved like Roy, but instead she had been about to kill him. Riza took up shooting so that she never felt vulnerable ever again like every day with her dad, but instead she had become a hazard to others.
"Miss Hawkeye, please can you remove your arms so that I can get changed." Roy mimicked Riza from earlier.
"Shut up." Riza punched him playfully, blushing. Restraints now gone Roy got up shakily, he had tried to put on a brave front for Riza but his body had betrayed him. His body still full of adrenalin shook on his legs and he fell straight back over again.
"Roy!" Riza went out to catch him but missed.
"I'm fine just a bit wobbly," Roy smiled reassuring Riza that he was ok. Making another effort to stand up. "I mean you did just nearly kill me."
"Oh my god, I'm such a mess. I can't do anything probably, I nearly killed you Roy. I nearly killed you."
"You couldn't kill me even if you tried Riza."
"I know my aim is so bad, my target was that piece of paper over there." She pointed to a circular piece of paper roughly three meters away from where Roy was.
"No, I mean you could never shoot because I'm too cute." Roy made a V with his hands and placed beneath his chin. Riza burst into spontaneous laughter at his ridiculous face. Seeing Riza happy, Roy joined in with the manic laughter until he stopped suddenly remembering what he needed to find. The blonde haired girl immediately stopped laughing upon seeing her friends face, dark and determined. He walked with pace back to the house, Riza trailing behind him. He walked in through the back to heading towards his room.
"I'm going to get changed Riza." He called, climbing the stairs up to his bedroom. He entered his small room surveying the bed by the small window and desk opposite piled with books, paper and littered with pencils. He walked past to his chest of drawers taking out a clean set of clothes and dressing quickly in a pair of brown trousers and a white shirt, kicking the trunks off. He called down to Riza while looking for a pair of shoes.
"Can you grab a screwdriver out of the tool box please?"
"Okay." The voice downstairs replied, confusion laced in her one word. Slipping into his shoes he ran down the stairs where he met Riza, tool in hand. She passed it to him.
"Why do you need this?"
"I'm reclaiming the Sheck."
"No Roy, father's using it now."
"What about all your stuff though?"
"It's gone Roy."
"It's not gone Riza he's taken it somewhere."
"No, you don't understand. He burnt it. He burnt all of mum's stuff." Her voice cracked on the last word. Riza forced herself to not cry, crying didn't help anything, water with enzymes would not bring her mother or the pictures of her or her book back. Roy remembered the page in his trunks upstairs, not all of the book was gone. A thought dawned on Roy; if that page had survived it was possible that others had too. If he could find the page, the next time he went to central he could get someone to make a new book for Riza but with a few of the old pages pasted in. It would make a great present. He looked up to the girl who was staring at him bemused. He imagined Master Hawkeye finding Riza in the sheck, furious at all her mother's possessions. He would have grabbed her and shouted at her again…like the last time.
"I thought I told you not to keep this stuff. I thought it was gone just like she is. Riza she's gone, forget her. And never go against my orders ever again. You must learn your place." Master Hawkeye's voice resonated in Roy's mind.
He would then have dragged her out of the Sheck, her struggling. Him shouting still. Master Hawkeye would have cleared the Sheck of its contents. In his mind he saw Riza clutching her mother's book protectively, Master Hawkeye ripping it out of her clutches; catching her skin with one of his sharp fingernails. Still immersed in his thoughts he looked down to Riza's forearm which had a couple-of-days-old scratch just below the inside of her elbow. Master Hawkeye would have then tossed it on the pile, handing his daughter a lit match and a wodge of photos and letters belonging to her mother to start the inferno. "Thermodynamic." Roy muttered to himself. He would of course made Riza burn all the things she held so dearly. He could imagine Riza empty standing beside her father with his hand on her shoulder, proud of the burden he had lifted from his daughter. The next day he would have dragged Riza back into the sheck, now empty, diseased with Master Hawkeye's sadistic tattoo parlour with the promise of only one design: The Flame Alchemy Research. Roy hated it but he knew there was no way for him to help Riza at all. He felt angry that he couldn't help her, it was Master Hawkeye's decision and Roy needed to stay as his apprentice to follow his ambition. To become a state alchemist, to protect his country and all the ones he loves inside of its boundries, and to keep it safe for future generations (of his own?).