AN: Once again, I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. Enjoy!

As far as Riza was concerned, silence wasn't something that was a surprise when it came to her and Roy. A lot of their relationship, whatever kind it may be (at this point, Riza wasn't too sure), was draped in it. It was never unwelcoming or misplaced, however. Any time silence fell between the two, it always seemed to fall at just the right time, right when the colonel and the lieutenant needed it the most.

If there was a type of silence that Riza wasn't used to, though, it would have to be the charged silence that had fallen between them that night. Riza had returned to work that day and her and Roy had been forced to work late into the night to get things caught up (as Riza had suspected, not much had gotten doing in her absence). Due to the time of night, Roy had insisted on walking Riza home and, after a few failed attempts to convince Roy that she would be OK, that she was armed if she ran into anybody who meant her harm, Riza finally conceded to his offer. Now, as the two walked, this charged silence buzzed around them. The power that made this silence reside in its own category was one of hard thinking on both of their parts, of little being said verbally. The former was especially true, if Riza's small headache and Roy's unfaltering gaze at the path ahead was any indication.

Riza was brought out of her reverie by a sudden tug on her hand. She looked, her eyes widening slightly when she saw Roy's gloved hand in her own bare one, his fingers laced in her's. Riza opened her mouth, about to question his motive behind this action, but Roy beat her to it.

"Lieutenant...you know I care about you, right?"

Riza blinked, surprised by this sudden question. Still, she nodded.

"Yes, sir."

Roy smiled at her, his grip tightening just the smallest amount.

"Good."

Silence befell the two once again, this type not as charged as its predecessor. Finally, after a few moments and a sharp intake of breath, Roy spoke again.

"I care about you. So much so that I'm not going to take the coward's way out to say what I'm about to say to you. I'm not going to say this just to myself or when you're lying in a hospital bed, dead to the world and me not even being sure if you can hear me. I'm going to say this to you right now, while I still can say it and you can still hear it because-"

"Sir," Riza said, effectively cutting him off. When he looked at her in surprise, Riza gave him a small, teasing smile and said, "with all due respect sir, please spit it out. Whatever you have to tell me sounds important."

Roy gave her a half-smile and nodded. After another deep breath, Roy turned to her and grabbed her other hand, looking deep into her eyes.

"Riza Hawkeye, I love you."

Riza's heart, which had picked up speed when Roy first took her hand, seemed to stutter at his words. He said it. The words she had wanted to hear him say for the longest time had come out of his mouth. She remembered him saying those same three words to her after she had freed herself from the darkness. This time, however, the impact was greater on her. This time, she was conscience enough to appreciate them.

Still, just because she had wanted to hear those words for God knows how long, that doesn't mean she was necessarily prepared to hear them.

The shock must have been apparent on Riza's face, since Roy chuckled slightly and smiled warmly at her, extricating a hand from her's and placing it on her cheek.

"I love you, Riza. I'm sorry it took me this long to say it out loud to you...and I'm sorry I won't be able to tell you this more often. Trust me, if I could shout my love for you from the top of the tallest building in Amestris,- hell, the tallest building in the world- I would. I can say it now, though, and you can hear it now, like I said. I-I almost lost you and I realized that you or I or the both of us could die tomorrow, so...so if that does happen, at least I would know that I told you," Roy said softly. He swiped a thumb across Riza's cheek. "Sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry."

Riza, having been unaware of her tears previously, swiped at them with a closed hand and shook her head, trying to ward off any more tears that might appear.

"It's nothing to be sorry about. I'm crying because I'm happy. Roy...Roy Mustang, I love you, too. I love you," Riza repeated, the volume of her tears increasing, despite her best efforts to halt them altogether. Roy put his arms around her, holding her close. After a moment, he brought his mouth close to her ear.

"Riza, I want you to promise me something. Please wait for me. Wait until I can tell you that I love you every single day. Wait until I can profess my love from the rooftops so that the whole damn world can hear. Protect me now in caring...but remain by my side in loving. Can you do that for me?" Roy whispered.

Riza removed her face from Roy's chest to look at him, her eyes still glassy from tears. She smiled at him and replied, her voice the same quality as his.

"Do you even have to ask?"

FIN.

AN: Well, here we are. The last chapter. I know I promised ten chapters but, at the end of the day, I couldn't find any way to squeeze out another chapter of this. I don't like to force things, so that is how this ended up being a nine-chapter story.

It's really hard to believe that I actually did the one thing I never thought I'd do, which is write and complete a multi-chapter fanfiction, Royai or otherwise. This story, I feel, helped me improve a bit as a writer and made me do things I never thought I'd do in a story. It had me delve into themes that I never really considered and, in chapter three's case, had me write for a character I had never even THOUGHT to write for before. I feel an amazing sense of pride in completing this story and I also feel a little sad. I mean, I committed two months and twenty days (eighty-one days, to be exact) to this story and now, within the course of a few hours, it's done. This story was no bed of roses, no fanfiction ever is, but I had an amazing amount of fun writing it. All in all, I wouldn't trade the time I spent working on this story for anything, not even for a chance to make Royai canon! (OK...I'd have to think about it for a little bit but I still wouldn't trade it!)

I want to thank everybody for reading my story. I want to thank all the people who reviewed this story at any point, who watched it at any point, who put this story among their list of favorites at any point. Heck, even if you just read it but didn't do any of those three, thank you so much for reading it! Just...thank you. Thank you so much.

I hope everybody has a very happy new year. Until next story (or, most likely, next one-shot)!

-VA.