Living on Borrowed Time
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Author's note: And here I thought this story would end 4 chapters ago. The end feels a little cheesy/fluffy to me, but it was the best I could do, you might notice the refrence from chapter one, if you can remember that far back kind of 'I'm always too late' thingy
Chapter 33: Epilogue pt. 5
"Has anyone seen the Colonel!" Hawkeye shouted as she dug through the crashed remains of the enemy airship. The airship was fairly intact, but the Colonel was no where to be seen.
"No one has seen him." Havoc replied. The men were just standing around as she furiously trudged through the rubble. "I don't think he's here."
"He's here." She told Havoc sternly, "he has to be…" she added beneath her breath.
"Here let me help you." A male voice said just behind her.
"Thanks." She said passing him a large pipe without as much as a glance. "Put that in the other pile."
"Sure, but what exactly are we looking for?"
"Colonel Mustang. He's about 5'8", black hair—" she started, but something stopped her; something familiar in the man's voice. Slowly she turned to see the one and only, Roy Mustang. Riza was too stunned to even breathe. It seemed like a dream, he was barely inches away from her face, his coal black eyes staring deep into hers.
"I'm sorry I'm late. I had to take care of something for the Elric brothers." He said giving his trademark smirk.
Riza's heart seemed to lift out of her chest and she just wanted to melt into this arms. That little smile had always been so hard to resist and now was no different. It was even more striking because it'd been absent from her life for over two years.
The rest of the old squad stood a little ways off watching the scene unfold. Havoc turned to Breda with a smile, "I'll bet you 10 bucks she kisses him."
"I bet 10 he kisses her," Fuery said throwing his hat in the ring.
Falman decided to get in on the action as well, "I'll bet you 10 that they kiss each other."
Breda shook his head at his comrades, "Nah, Hawkeye's too formal for that. They won't kiss at all—at least not here." Havoc turned to Armstrong, wanting to see if he'd like to get in on the action only to see the big lug had tears in his eyes. "It's so beautiful!" he shouted. "True love conquers all!
Roy and Riza couldn't help but laugh at their comrades, Armstrong especially…well they were laughing until Armstrong pulled them both into such a tight hug neither could laugh, let alone breathe.
"So does this mean I win?" Breda asked.
"Of course not!" Havoc said, "There was Armstrong intervention!"
--
After the two had finally scraped Armstrong off them and had finally had the chance to be alone they went for a walk through the streets. Everywhere people were trying to clean up the debris from the earlier battle. "You were amazing…for a moment back there you seemed like the old Colonel." Hawkeye said.
"Please don't call me that." Mustang replied.
"Why not?" she asked, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, "What did you want me to call you?" She asked studying the ground intensely. She was fully aware she was back to being his subordinate and she couldn't bring herself to open up and try to be like they once were.
Roy gently lifted her chin with his thumb and forefinger. "Call me Roy, like you used to."
"I only did that a few times—those were special circumstances. You're my superior again, it's only appropriate—"
Roy sighed, "Screw what's 'appropriate'. Can't things ever be that way again?"
"I—" she started, and forced herself to look away from his handsome eyes, "I don't think so."
"I'm sorry." He said.
"You've said that three times." She replied.
"I am sorry. I wish I'd never left. I wanted to stay so badly—"
"Why didn't you?" she asked finally looking him head on. Her eyes held all the hurt from the past two years and just looking at them made Roy stutter slightly.
"I—" he started and then smiled a little, "To tell you the truth, I thought I didn't deserve to be with you."
Riza swallowed hard. He hadn't left because he didn't want to be with her, but because he didn't think he deserved her? It was probably the most romantic thing she'd ever heard. She couldn't help but smile.
"I see you got the earrings." He remarked gently fingering her earlobe.
"You sent them?" she asked surprised, "but the card said—"
"I love you." He finished. The moment the words released themselves from his lips he felt like he was walking on air. All the weight that he'd carried around for his entire life seemed to just float away on those three little words.
Tears glistened on the surface on Riza's eyes and one snaked its way out of the corner. He wiped it way with his thumb, "Why are you crying?"
"Because I love you." She said her voice cracking just slightly.
"I'm sorry it took so long for me to say it…I just wanted to be sure."
"You've already said 'I'm sorry'." She commented smiling.
"I'm sorry," He smiled and eased in closer to her lips, "let me make it up to you." She smiled in return and leaned her face forward just slightly. His lips were so warm, they took her breath away and made her lips tingle with excitement. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer into the kiss. Soon it wasn't a kiss anymore…it was heaven on earth, and nothing could make them come down.
Just two hundred yards away four men stood watching the scene. A man with white hair put his palm out in front of the other men and said, "You each owe me 10 bucks."
--
"So tell me again what happened to my apartment?" Roy asked as he followed Riza back to her place that day. Apparently he didn't have an apartment to go back to.
"Your lease was up about 5 months after you left and I couldn't help it. I can't barely pay for my own apartment, much less keep up the rent on yours as well." She explained unlocking the door to her apartment.
"So what happened to all my stuff?" Before he could finish his sentence, it was answered. Riza opened the door to reveal several of his clothes and belongings packed neatly about her living room.
"I couldn't afford a place to store them, so they've been here." She said slightly apologetically. "It should all be there. I had Havoc help me move. You're welcome to stay here as long as you like you know."
He turned and gave her that little smirk again, "Really? And where should I sleep?"
Riza almost let herself blush, "I'm sure we can find you someplace."
--
The bed was so warm that Riza was reluctant to open her eyes. She rarely slept late, but with Roy beside her she couldn't bring herself to really wake up. Sleepily she rolled over to face him, only to find he wasn't there. Her heart seemed to rip its way out of her chest. 'It was only a dream…I knew it was too good to be true.' A little part of her could almost smell him on her sheets.
"Good morning sleeping beauty." Riza jolted up in bed to see Roy standing in the doorway holding a breakfast tray. "I thought since the last time we were together you were serving me, I'd repay the favor." He said placing the tray in front of her. She could have cried she was so happy. 'It's really real.'
"Thank you." She said and smiled when she noticed an apple on the side of the tray. "Would you like an apple?" she asked picking up the knife and beginning to peel the fruit. Roy couldn't help but smile. All he ever wanted was for the rest of his life to be just like this.
After breakfast and more than one too many 'dessert' kisses, they began to talk. "So what's your plan?" she asked, a little afraid to know.
"I think Central command wanted all able body soldiers to help clean up the debris today—" he started.
She shook her head at him. "You know that's not what I'm talking about. I mean what are you going to do? Are you—going to leave again?" she asked, trying desperately to hide the disappointment in her voice.
"Never again." He said. He started to move in to give her a kiss but she put a hand on his lips and stopped him.
"Are you really sure?" she asked, "I—I don't know if I could stand to wake up to an empty bed again and know you left without a word. I waited for two years…if this is going to turn into anything I don't want to be afraid that any minute you're going to up and leave."
"I love you. I'm not going anywhere." Roy assured her. "You spent the last 12 years waiting on me and I'm tired of making us both wait. Life's too short to put things off. I want to wake up every morning to your smile and lay down every night with you in my arms." She smiled that smile for him again and he melted into her. Life is short, but it's better late than never.
Now its time for smm's Moral section in which she tells you all the sappy sweet disgusting morals that she tried to hit you over the head with during the story.
Morals:
(1) Never tell someone you love them unless your sure.(2) Don't lead someone on if your not really interested, it'll only hurt them in the long run
(3) If you're sure you love someone, tell them. You may not get another chance
(4) Bad things happen, but the best you can do is accept them and move on. The world only turns in one direction and the future is the only thing you can still change.
Explainations of strange things that you may have noticed
As you may have noticed, this story line is focused mainly on the anime, which means that if someone has a failed human transmutation the result turns into a homunculus. If you wondering why there isn't a Riza homunculus, it's because Roy didn't fail. And if you really want to think of it as any transmutation the person becomes a homunculi then Roy's equivalent exchange was taken to the gate and Wrath took it like he took Ed's arm and leg (which gives him 10 years, which would be his age)
If you're wondering why Ed never attempted to do a transmutation the same way Roy did, its because (1) Ed was afraid that if he tried to break the bond on Al's armor and put his soul in the homunculus Al's soul would disappear or something. Roy didn't have that problem because Riza was already dead, it couldn't really get much worse. Soon the bloodstains would be gone and so would she. (2) Al's soul was attached to the armor, making it more or less unmovable because he's really fixed to it. Riza was just sort of loosely tethered to Roy also, she wasn't using Roy as a body like Al is using the armor. Besides it's a little different when it's a living being and when its an inanimate object. ---If you don't like those explanations you come up with one yourself ;)
THE END (finally)