AN:hey so i did NOT expect this story to take off like it did and receive this kind of response so thank you so much frmo the bottom of my heart I LOVE YOU 3

here is the [thrilling?] conclusion! i hope you all enjoy it! this has been a true joy to write and thank you to the anon who sent me the prompt for this on tumblr 3 you the real mvp 3

"They… They've…"

"Shot?" Breda exclaimed before Roy could formulate his sentence.

No. No, they couldn't have been shot. That wouldn't happen. They were working a simple case just gathering evidence. They wouldn't get shot from doing that. That would be ridiculous. He'd just been talking to Hawkeye a few hours ago and she was fine. She hadn't been shot.

Then why was there so much blood on Catalina's uniform?

"What happened?" Havoc asked, staring into space. His voice was quiet and dazed. Roy watched as he swallowed, the Lieutenant's Adam's apple bobbing twice.

"Where are they?" Roy cut in. Reasoning cut through the haze that had formed over his mind after hearing that news. His brain had stuttered a few times but was now whirring as it processed Catalina's announcement at a mile a minute.

Catalina's gaze flicked to Roy's, holding it for a moment longer than he could bear. Roy opened his mouth impatiently, about to demand that she tell him right now, but she eventually answered.

"Grumman is on his way to the hospital."

"And Riza?" Roy asked desperately, sensing there was a big "but" coming.

Catalina looked uncomfortable before she answered, and Roy felt a shiver run up his spine. "Still at the site of the shooting."

"What?" The whole team's gaze snapped to hers.

Catalina swallowed, taking a shaky breath. "We got Grumman out. They sent him out. Riza's still in there though –"

Roy wanted to vomit but his brain hadn't caught up with the current conversation yet. He was saying words but wasn't taking much of it. He picked up certain words and that was enough to piece together what had happened.

"Who sent him out?" he asked, beginning to walk towards the door.

"It's a hostage situation, Roy." Catalina's eyes were large and worried. She rung her hands in her lap, fidgeting to try and control her emotions. "They won't let her leave. I don't know who they are," she added, sensing his next question. "But… It's bad. I'm so sorry."

"Let's go."

Before he could take another step there was a tough restraint on his hand. Roy spun, coming face to face with Eve.

"Roy," she whined, batting her eyelashes at him and pouting. "But we have dinner to go to." His gaze snapped down to her eyes, burning with such fury that Eve paused, no longer swinging their joined hands together.

"Is she for real?" Havoc asked loudly to the room.

Eve glanced around at everyone's thunderous expression, seeming to shrink in on herself.

Good. It's what she deserves after that behaviour.

"We're done," Roy told her, voice deathly calm. He snatched his hand from hers, striding out of the room.

"Roy!" she cried, sounding like she was going to burst into tears. "Don't go!"

"Seriously, who even is this bitch?" Catalina asked furiously, stopping to look back at Eve. Judging by the look on her face Catalina was ready to fight her there and then.

"Nobody," Roy stated, tearing open the door to his office with force.

"If you leave right now, I'll –!"

Roy spun on his heel, face murderous as he approached his former girlfriend. "If you think for one minute you are more important than Hawkeye being fucking shot, you're delusional." He was mildly surprised when her face twisted in anger.

"I knew there was something going on between you two!" she accused, raising a finger and poking him hard in the chest. It just made him angrier. "You bastard!"

"There was nothing," he growled. "And I don't care for the accusation. Our friend is currently being held hostage and you have the balls to tell me not to go? That we need to go out to dinner?" He scoffed. Despite the anger on her face, the longer Roy spoke the smaller she seemed to become. He wondered to himself what he ever saw in her if she had an attitude that stunk to high heaven like this. He wondered how he hadn't seen it sooner.

You weren't thinking with your head, Roy boy. That was true.

"Get the fuck out my office."

"No, let's settle this right now!" she exclaimed. He didn't have time for this bullshit. "Pick. Me or her. Know that if you –"

"Easy." He turned on his heel and breezed past the rest of the team, who begun to move without question, following him to go and help Hawkeye. Not before he got the satisfaction of seeing Eve's mouth drop open in pure shock.

Of course, he would pick Hawkeye. It had always been Hawkeye for him.

"This isn't over!" Eve screeched.

"Breda?" Roy barked.

"On it." He remained in the office, approaching Roy's desk phone and dialling security. Breda would remain with Eve to ensure nothing went amiss and that security escorted her from the building. While Roy hated to do it to him at a time like this, Roy also couldn't have her snooping through the office or trying to tear the place apart in a fit of rage as an act of revenge.

Dealing with Eve came second for Roy right now. Hawkeye was first.

"It's dead," Breda stated. "The line, it's dead."

"How had that happened?"

"Doesn't matter right now. Fuery, get security." They heard Eve squeak the word behind them in disbelief, but Roy ignored her. "Once it's dealt with both of you meet us there."

"Sir!"

"What happened?" he asked Catalina as he marched out the office. "Tell me on the way," he ordered.

When they arrived, the street was in chaos. Roy barked out orders to officers to connect to Fuery's communication network and allow them all to talk efficiently to one another. He set up a perimeter, stationing soldiers around the jewellery store so any chance of escape would be stopped. These people needed to pay for what they'd done here today, and Roy was set on the warpath to make sure that happened.

They had both been inside the jewellery store when the shots were fired. Roy could see the window the bullets had pierced, the evidence in the fractured glass. Catalina had run in to help after the snipers had been immobilised – there had been two. A man had entered from the back room, holding her at gunpoint and telling her to step back from them both. Both hands raised, she'd done so and been forced out the building before the enemy barricaded the doors, sealing them in.

After she'd rushed back to the General's car and called in the situation, the doors had opened and she saw Grumman's body fall out, hitting the ground with a loud thud.

"A parting gift!" the man had yelled, followed by laughter.

Cautiously, Catalina had approached the body to find him still alive but losing blood. A lot of blood. It was pooling easily on the concrete beneath him, so she hoisted her commanding officer up and dragged him to the car. MP's had already begun to flood in, and she passed Grumman over to the paramedics, rushing him to the nearest military hospital.

Riza, however was still left inside.

Unable to do anything further – and because Mustang wasn't answering his phone in the office – Catalina drove straight to HQ after she'd gotten Grumman sent off to hospital, but as she'd left, she'd heard screams. A woman's screams.

Roy's face was set somewhere between seething and grim the whole time he listened to Catalina's tale about what had transpired.

"Fuery?" he asked into the communication device in his ear. "You there?"

"Here, sir."

"Get me through to the phone in there."

"Understood, sir."

It rang seven times before someone picked up.

"Well, well, well boys. Who do we have here?" a confident voice purred into his ear. His stomach tensed in response, ready to punch the confident smirk that was no doubt on this man's face. "Could it be the infamous Colonel Mustang here? Ready to swoop in and save his precious woman?"

Those words jolted him back into a memory. They were underneath Central. Riza bleeding out on the floor, throat slit. The gold-toothed doctor grinning over her. And Roy… Roy restrained and unable to help her. He'd begged her with his eyes, tears collecting in them as he strained to be close to her in that moment, to help her, to hold her, to save her.

"What do you want?" he snarled.

"Just walk on in here and we'll get this all sorted out."

"Colonel!" he heard Riza scream. "Don't –!" There was a pained yell, the silence. Roy began to move.

"Roy!" Catalina shouted, restraining him with a hand on his chest. "You can't go in."

He glared at her. "Like hell I can't! Did you not hear that?"

"I did," she replied, and Roy paused for a second, noticing the tears in her eyes. "But what happens if you storm in there? They will probably kill her. We can't lose her. You can't. Not like that. Not again."

Catalina was right. That's why he was ready to dive head-first into this because after almost losing Riza Hawkeye on the Promised Day, Roy vowed he would never let something like that happen again. And here they were, a few months down the line, and it had.

He couldn't go through that again. The reason for it bubbled just under his skin – an emotion that he didn't want to acknowledge because if he did, he felt like he might shatter. He definitely would if this all went to hell and Riza didn't walk out of that store.

"Think," she urged. "Just think about what you're going to do right now."

The voice in his ear chuckled. "That's right, Colonel," he crooned. "Think. Think about those flames you want to cast to consume us. But you can't use them today, can you?" he asked, appearing disappointed that this was the case. "Because if you do, you might hurt the dear Lieutenant. She's already had a taste of fire. Let's see if she wants another?"

Roy felt his world stand still as a gunshot echoed through the earpiece. Everyone seemed frozen, time slowing to a standstill as they all processed what they'd just heard. He was the first one to move though. This time Catalina didn't try to stop Roy as he surged forward. Another gunshot went off and the MPs and officers trained their weapons on the door to the store.

Havoc and Breda had their weapons out and ready to fire behind Roy and Catalina. Fuery brought up the rear, abandoning his communications post and joining them. He had his back to the store, eyes scanning rooftops in case the man inside had any more friends.

It took a few tries, but Roy and Catalina kicked the door down. Roy burst through it, vaulting over the furniture used to block it easily. His head whipped back and forth frantically, hand raised and poised to snap. Oh, he would barbeque those men if they'd done anything to Riza.

He rushed around a display case, stopping short when he spotted Riza.

She was alive.

His breath caught in his throat and tears sprang to his eyes.

Her face was swollen on one side. The eye barely visible. A cut ran over her cheekbone, the skin bruised and a clear sign she'd been struck multiple times on the face. Riza was leaning heavily on her elbow, one arm resting across her midsection. The latter arm was drenched in blood, the fabric around her wrist dripping with it. However, he noticed the material on the shoulder of her bad arm had been torn away. That's where Catalina said she'd been shot.

And where a gunshot wound should be, there was a large scar. The skin was blistered and red. It was a burn.

"She's already had a taste of fire."

Before Roy's world could turn completely red, he watched her sag back against the wall behind her, head hitting it painfully.

"Riza," he breathed, skidding to a halt on his knees beside him. Anger later. Riza first. "I've got you. You're okay." He pulled her body against his, arms wrapping around her sore arm gently while the other snaked underneath and held her midsection. It was an awkward hug, but Roy needed it.

Again, he was transported roughly back to the Promised Day. Roy shuddered.

It had happened to her again and he'd been powerless to stop it.

Riza had shot the two men. The gun in her good hand was still smoking when he'd entered. But what would've happened if it had been the opposite? She'd have been left to be murdered by these two men, alone.

There was a reason they let Grumman go, Roy theorised. They didn't need him. For whatever reason, these men were specifically targeting Riza either just for her, or to get to him. The latter made bile rise in his throat. Too often had she been used like that. And he'd let it happen again.

"Colonel," she managed to get out, her frame shuddering as he held her.

"Are there any others?" Riza shook her head but then whined in pain during the action, her head stilling as her face contorted. "It's all right," he soothed, kissing the top of her head as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Sorry, don't move." He lifted his head and peered over the display cases, removing the hand from her injured shoulder to press it gently against the side of her head, clutching her even closer to him. The paramedics were running their way, directed by Catalina. Havoc and Breda were already removing the injured and groaning men. Fuery entered through the back room to scope it out and check it was safe. But even though there was all that action, all Roy could hear was Riza's laboured breathing. Nothing penetrated their little bubble.

"It was… It wa…"

Her body went limp in his hands.

"Riza?" he asked quietly, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. "Riza!"

The paramedics shoved him out the way as they loaded her onto a stretcher. They were out the building and away in the ambulance in record time – before Roy could even rush in after her.

"I'll drive," Havoc stated and the whole team squeezed into the one car. Car safety rules be damned today.

The wait at the hospital was agonising. Over and over again in his head Roy thought about what could have happened, what he could have done differently to prevent this from happening in the first place.

Maybe you should have worked on the case together like you planned all along and not let yourself get distracted. Her downfall is on you leaving her to pick up your slack.

His inner voice was always right.

Another thing that was bothering him was how had this even happened anyway? They were visiting the site of the case to give it another once over. Now that Riza was on the case it would make sense for her to visit so she could get a feel for what had happened. How had those men known she'd be there? That Grumman would be there? And who the fuck were they?

These thoughts gnawed at him, eating him alive as they all waited in silence. He just wanted to know she was okay. If he knew that he could function and discover what the hell had happened today.

The overwhelming feeling that he'd ran out of time washed over him and Roy lowered his head to his hands, letting out a shaky breath as he tried to calm himself down.

Don't waste another minute with her, he'd told himself after the Promised Day.

Crying won't help Riza. You've got to be strong. For her.

"Riza Hawkeye?" a doctor called quietly into the room of waiting soldiers. Each's head snapped up and the woman appeared taken aback by the sudden movement.

"Yes?" Catalina asked, desperate for an answer. They all were.

"Riza Hawkeye is out of surgery," she announced. "She's stable at the minute but not out of the woods yet."

Roy closed the door of Riza's hospital room quietly behind him. His heart ached to see her hooked up to every machine like this. Wires were draped over her torso as they monitored her vital signs. An IV went into one part of her arm while another went into another vein, this time with blood. A tube was connected to her nose to give her oxygen.

Sitting heavily on the chair by her bedside, Roy grasped her hand tightly and squeezed. He bowed his head, lifting her hand to his forehead and he held it there as he took in a shaky breath.

"Oh, Riza," he whispered. When he lifted his head, his heart constricted painfully all over again, taking in the sight of his strong Lieutenant and bodyguard looking frail and ill in a hospital bed.

You vowed that after the Promised Day you wouldn't waste another minute with Riza Hawkeye. Where was that vow in the last few weeks? When Grumman specifically asked you to involve her in the case, and you got so caught up in it yourself then abandoned her to do it alone? With another woman, no less?

Bastard.

Shame washed over his entire being and Roy heaved a breath, feeling like a complete and utter failure. If only he hadn't left the other night. He didn't even have the energy to think about Eve right now. She was so far off his radar after today that she meant nothing. All those weeks wasted with the woman who suggested going out to dinner after finding out his oldest and dearest friend had been shot and was being held hostage.

She always did have an uncanny ability to interrupt any moment he tried to share with the Lieutenant –

No. Today she was Riza. They were so far beyond superior and subordinate right now. Especially with the way he was feeling.

Don't think about it! You'll only make it worse for yourself.

But that's what he deserved after how he'd been treating Riza recently.

He loved this woman lying before him, but he despised how it took her getting shot for him to realise it. Roy supposed he always had. No, he knew he always had. But putting a name to it made it real and while under the scrutiny of the homunculi he couldn't put Riza in danger like that. Eve was a distraction, if anything, to subconsciously tell himself that everything was all right and as it should be between them.

But you did put her in danger today, asshole, because you abandoned her.

He couldn't look at the bandages on her injured shoulder just yet. Burn scars. It made him too angry. She'd already been tainted so much by fire thanks to him, and now it had happened again. The bastards had cauterised the wound to keep her awake and alive for longer, so Riza could play along in their little hostage charade. He was glad she'd shot them.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, the tears finally falling. His entire frame shuddered as he cried, continuing to press their joined hands against his forehead. "You can't leave me," he begged. "Not like this. We still have so much left to do. I…" He trailed off, trying to compose himself. "I have so much to tell you. I… I love you, Riza Hawkeye. With my entire being. So please…" His voice cracked. "Please wake up."

There was no answer from Riza. Just the steady beeping of the heart monitor beside her bed.

Roy bowed his head once more, letting all the emotions pour out of him the in the dim hospital room. In his grief, he didn't notice a figure by the window of Riza's door, peering in and watching his suffering.

"Riza Hawkeye," Roy told the nurse when she asked what the patient's name was. "She's just recently been moved from the ICU." They'd just gotten the call two hours ago that she'd woken up for the first time and was being moved to a ward and out of intensive care.

She was getting better.

Catalina had come right here while Roy was in meetings regarding Ishval with Havoc and Breda, that's why he was late.

"Oh yes, of course. She'd in Ward 4, Room 20. Oh, she'll be glad to have some more visitors," she announced brightly. "Her sister arrived about half an hour ago."

Havoc and Roy shared a look.

Riza didn't have a sister.

Roy took off like a shot down the corridor, eyes frantically scanning the sign on the wall for Ward 4. It was on the third floor. They were on the ground.

"Call security to that room," Havoc ordered the nurse. She seemed baffled, flummoxed at such a command. "Do it now!" He caught up with Roy just as he begun to move towards the stairs. They both took two at a time, bursting through the door of the ward, much to the surprise and outrage of the patients and nurses, respectively.

"Sir! You can't run like that in here –"

"Get security to Room 20!" Havoc called back to her over his shoulder.

When they entered the room, Roy felt his world slip out from underneath him.

Riza was there lying in bed. Her face was peaceful, the pillows around her rumpled like they'd been moved just recently but not put back to make her comfortable. But what drew his attention away was the loud solid tone from the heart rate monitor beside her bed.

"No," Roy muttered shaking his head.

Nurses pushed past him, shoving both Roy and Havoc out of the door as they chattered, barking orders at one another. The door slammed in his face and Roy blinked at it, that beep still managing to escape through the cracks, grinding painfully right into his very soul.

No, this couldn't be. That sound was wrong, right? That wasn't what was supposed to happen. She was on the mend. She'd been moved out of the ICU. She was getting better.

"Clear!" a nurse shouted and the sound pierced Roy's ears painfully. There was the sound of the pads jolting a body, the bed squeaking as a body moved on it.

Riza's body.

The tone continued.

Roy backed away, shaking his head vigorously, muttering the word "no" under his breath repeatedly. When he hit the wall behind him, he paused, ears straining for that steady beep to return that meant her heart was beating.

Nothing. Just one tone.

Roy slid down the wall in time with the tears tracking down his cheeks. He didn't notice Havoc running down the hallway at a sprint away from him. He didn't notice Catalina running past him to follow Havoc. He didn't hear Breda calling his name, didn't feel the gentle shake of his shoulder.

Just that one, single tone.

The door opened, letting that tone free and filling the hallway, Roy's mind, his entire soul.

She can't be gone.

"Fuery!" he heard Havoc call distantly. "Get down here!"

He couldn't bring himself to care that Havoc was shouting.

"Breda!" Havoc called.

The shadow to Roy's left passed over his body, Breda taking off at a run towards his comrades.

Roy didn't care what was happening.

All he could care about was the woman he loved, the person who'd owned his heart for years – he'd just been too dumb to realise it and too scared to admit it when he did – was gone from this earth, leaving him behind.

The door before him burst open, a pair of bare feet hurrying towards him, but stumbling on the way. Two hands gripped his face, wrenching his head up to meet their gaze. Whisky coloured orbs stared back at him earnestly, their mouth moving as they called to him, but no sound penetrated the fog of losing the woman he loved.

He hadn't even gotten the chance to tell her.

"Roy!" a familiar voice shouted – but it was faint. The hands on his face continued to reposition as they desperately tried to get him to listen. Sound began to return to him as he began to recognise that voice and those eyes streaming with tears.

"Roy," Riza Hawkeye begged before him, sobbing. "Come back to me," she whispered, pressing their forehead together.

"Riza…" he whispered. Then he realised. This wasn't a ghost. He could feel her hands on his face, the thumbs stroking his cheekbones, the fingertips in his hair.

She was… alive? But…

Roy surged upwards, wrapping his arms around Riza's body, squeezing her tightly. He buried his face in her neck, inhaling her scent as he felt her body shaking with her tears. His own wet her skin too. His body felt ten tonnes lighter as he held Riza Hawkeye, the woman who'd come back from the dead.

That was twice now.

"No!" a woman shrieked down the corridor. Roy pulled away and turned his head, confused, and saw Eve trying to escape Havoc's hold. She thrashed but she was no match for the towering Havoc. He just watched her struggle, wincing as she clawed at his bare arms with her catlike nails. "Get away from him!"

Roy shifted, shielding Riza from view, which was slightly more difficult as her arms were still looped around his neck and Riza didn't want to let go of him.

A doctor walked up behind Eve, pricking her neck with a needle. Before long, she went limp. "Just a sedative," he explained, sweat forming on his brow after witnessing that exchange.

But Roy didn't care about Eve. He spun in place, feeling like he was coming face to face with a ghost.

"You're… okay?" he asked in disbelief, gaze roving over her body to make sure she was still real.

"I'm all right, I promise," she whispered, gripping his face again. "I'm alive. I'm so sorry for that, but I'm alive –"

Roy silenced her by crushing his lips against hers.

"I overheard the men talking," Riza explained, voice still quiet and weak. "Eve had organised a group of hitmen to take me out." Her gaze flicked to Roy's to see him staring at the floor, gaze hard and his entire body unmoving. The anger rolled off him so easily that everyone in the room had picked up on it. Riza thought that if anyone were to touch him, he would shatter into a million little pieces. That's how tightly he was wound right now.

Riza was part of the reason for that, and she felt guilty because of it. But it had to be convincing for her plan to work and there was no way of knowing how compromised he was after spending time with Eve. If she'd planned the group to take her out – which, coincidentally, included her brother who seemed very on board with making the Flame Alchemist suffer after some incident years ago back in the East – then she may have set up a bug of some kind to keep tabs on Roy. It wasn't an insane thought. She did always have the uncanny ability to find out exactly where he was at any time of the day.

As Riza lay feigning unconsciousness after waking up from the men cauterising her bullet wound, she listened to them talking, discovering Eve's whole plan. Eve had finally had enough of her that she'd sent the hitmen to take her out. She'd somehow found out she'd moved to work for Grumman and taken it from there.

Riza was still baffled that the woman was willing to take it this far. One thing Riza knew for sure was that this woman was a psychopath. Straight up. That was already obvious to Riza in the way Eve had treated her whenever she saw her, but this was taking it to a whole other level.

Riza had feigned sleep when Eve had entered her hospital room. She'd anticipated an event like this. If her men couldn't do the job – not to mention the fact Riza had shot her brother – then she would do it herself.

"It was supposed to be me," she'd growled at Riza in her hospital room, ripping a pillow out from underneath her head. Suffocation. How creative. It took every ounce of her self-control, not to mention supressing years of military training, to remain still in that bed while Eve muttered to herself about who Roy was supposed to love.

Obviously, she was jealous of Riza's relationship with him. But… there was no relationship. That was the kicker. Eve just didn't believe Riza when she told her. Eve was adamant there was. They cared about each other, sure. They shared a strong bond because they'd literally been through hell together multiple times. But there was no romantic relationship.

No matter how much you want there to be.

As if he loved her.

She was his teacher's daughter, the shy girl who barely spoke a word to him growing up unless he managed to coax it out of her.

But that kiss… The way he'd held her… The look on his face when he realised that she was still alive.

Did she dare to believe…?

"Want a job done," Eve had muttered under her breath. "You've got to do it yourself."

Under the bedsheet Riza pulled at the chord of the electrode stuck to her chest, leaving the machine to let out a loud tone that could be heard down the corridor. Eve had panicked, shoved the pillow back under her head and bolted.

She thought Eve had returned when Roy and Havoc burst in. She had her eyes closed before she saw her next visitor, assuming it was either Eve or the nurses, but was shaken to her core when she heard Roy's heart-breaking denial that this was happening.

A tear rolled down her cheek as the door slammed shut. They continued when she was helped out of bed by a nurse. She hugged her body as they pretended to use the defibrillator to bring her back to life.

When she couldn't bear it anymore, she burst out the room. Seeing Roy broken on the floor, tears streaming down his face, and looking positively devastated, Riza's breath caught in her throat.

"You… faked your own death," he choked out. Riza's eyes found his again.

"It was my idea, sir," Catalina interjected, raising her hand. "I knew there was something wrong with that woman." She gestured towards Roy with her head. "She fucking told you to go to dinner after finding out Riza had been shot and was being held hostage." Riza watched as Roy's eyes flashed at the memory. Riza almost laughed. Why did that not surprise her, coming from Eve?

"Riza told me what she'd overheard in the store this morning. I knew it was Eve that initiated it all. So, we took a chance and it worked. I really am sorry that we kept you out of it, but we had no idea if you'd been compromised by Eve by a bug of some kind. Seeing how far she was willing to go it wasn't hard to hypothesise that bugs were a possibility."

Roy sighed, rubbing his face tiredly with his hands. Riza felt her stomach flip as she watched him. She hadn't wanted to make him suffer like that, but it had happened now, and their plan had worked. Eve was now in custody beside the two men who had kept Riza and Grumman hostage.

"Leave her to stew there a few days," Havoc scoffed, showing no remorse for the woman.

Roy nodded. "I'll need to until I feel calm enough to talk to her."

A few hours later the team said their goodbyes and left for the night. Roy, however, remained in place, staring at the floor.

"I'm sorry for doing that to you," Riza whispered, breaking the loud silence that had settled over them both. "I am so sorry. I didn't know it was you. I thought it was her," she added, looking down at her clasped hands. Every time her fingers moved there was a twinge of pain in her shoulder, but not enough to bother her. When she'd thrown her arms around her commanding officer – her cheeks turned pink at the memory with a tinge of embarrassment at her misconduct thrown in there too – that had set her injured shoulder on fire, but it was worth it. It was what she'd needed.

Roy scrubbed his face, spine straightening in his chair. He moved from sitting opposite the bed to the chair by her bedside, Riza watching him carefully as he did so. Surprised, Riza saw him grasp her hand tightly.

"I thought I lost you today," he murmured, examining their hands entwined together. Riza wold never admit it, but it looked and felt right. "Twice. That was a lot for me to go through." Riza nodded in sympathy. She remembered when she thought she'd lost him to Lust underneath Laboratory Five. "But it did help me realise a few things."

"Oh?" Riza inquired when he didn't elaborate.

"I love you, Riza Hawkeye. Have for years." Her jaw went slack as she stared at the obsidian eyes burning into her soul. "After the Promised Day I vowed I would never waste another second with you, but because of my own insecurities I did. I was too scared to bring up what had happened that day because I didn't want to upset you and I didn't want to ruin what we already had." Riza gave his hand a quick squeeze in comfort. "So," he began, taking a deep breath. "Here's to no more wasted time?" he asked uncertainly. There was worry in his eyes, thinking she might turn him down.

As if.

"I love you too Roy. Here's to no more wasted time." Riza raised their joined hands like it was a toast, tears clouding her vision. They fell once Roy kissed her softly, solidifying their agreement.