"Lieutenant?"
Riza froze. She'd left the bathroom door open. Curse old habits, procured from living alone with only a dog. She'd never had a need to close the door before now.
"Don't come in."
"Oh, sorry." She saw his shadow through the shower curtain back out of the room.
Hurriedly, she turned off the water and finished drying her hair and draped the towel across her shoulders, then stepped out of the shower. There were no clean clothes in here. Another habit. She pulled on her dirty pants and left the room.
Only to trip over someone's legs in the hallway. She fell forwards and stopped herself face-planting the floor with the heel of her palm, skinning it across the wood floor. The rest of her body collapsed on top of him.
Instinctively he tried to help her up, but he kept touching all the wrong places. She pushed his hands away and stood up herself.
"Sorry," he mumbled. Riza sighed and took his hand, pulling him up, and went into her room to dress.
She could feel his eyes on her naked body, and even though she knew he couldn't see anything, it still made her feel weird. 'He's only following sounds.,' she said to reassure herself.
"I didn't mean to walk into the bathroom, but I didn't hear you move for awhile, so..."
"I'm fine," she said, pulling out a large button-up t-shirt and a pair of loose pajama pants. She slipped into them and tossed her dirty day clothes and the towel into a basket. "Are you going to take a shower?" she asked.
"Okay."
Once he was in the bathroom and the water was turned on, she flopped down on her bed with a sigh, covering her eyes with one forearm.
How could she deal with this?
Roy Mustang. It had been about a month since the Promised Day-the day the world was saved. The day he had lost his sight. He had been living with Fuery for that length of time, but the situation changed when the little guy had stated that it would be more practical if Roy was living with Riza.
Everyone had gone silent at the comment.
"You're his eyes, aren't you, Lieutenant Hawkeye, ma'am?"
And so, not knowing exactly how she felt about it, the other guys had helped move him into her apartment.
This was their first night.
She heard a loud thud in the bathroom and noticed the water had been turned off. She got up, walked down the hall, and looked into the bathroom. "Colo-" Her tongue froze. He had fallen onto the floor, the tile slick under his wet feet. There was a towel wrapped around his waist, but not much else. Disoriented in the middle of the floor, he had sat up and scooted so that his back was against the wall.
"-nel. Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I slipped."
"I can see that."
Hayate popped up out of nowhere and started licking the water off of Roy's feet. He flinched at the touch at first, his eyes wide, but then he recognized what it was. He gave a soft smile and patted the dog on the head.
Riza leaned down and took his elbow and she helped him to his feet. The towel slid further down his hips and he unconsciously took hold of it to keep it up, at the same time that she did. Their hands met and they froze. She drew her hand back as if it was on fire and he swallowed as he wrapped the towel more securely around his waist.
'Stupid, Riza. He lost his sense of sight, not his sense of touch.'
She led him out of the bathroom and down the hall to his bed, newly installed on the opposite side of her bedroom. She opened his new bureau and pulled out a pair of pants and a shirt for him. She left him alone as he dressed, going into the small kitchen-slash-living room.
Riza took a deep breath as she leaned against the counter. His hair, still wet, left droplets running in rivulets down his well-built torso, across the large scar taking up most of the right side of his abdomen, where he had burned himself to save his own life.
She touched her throat where a straight, slightly-thick scar ran across it. In addition to her back and throat, she also had minor scars all over, including one that was still healing on her shoulder from a month ago.
So many permanent mementos of their lives. The body of a soldier was not beautiful.
But his wouldn't leave her mind.
She ran a hand through her damp hair and got started on making dinner.