CH 1

Riza looked at her dad, smiling. This would be his first year as an alchemy teacher, and she could tell he was nervous. She was scared too, though. Secondary school was great, but going off to a university was a whole other story. There would be so many new people and things, not to mention she knew very well that assignments would be in great abundance. Packing the final bag into their little car, Riza hopped into the passenger seat, and to the university they went.

It was about a six hour car ride; not bad at all. However, going back home would be exclusively for holidays. They arrived at the university and as they unpacked, Riza finally asked,

"So, dad, are you nervous? It is your first time teaching, after all."

Berthold looked at her and sighed. "As a matter of fact, I'm only nervous that my students won't be able to keep up. I am teaching very advanced alchemy after all. And the flame alchemy," he held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart, "I'm this close to figuring it out."

They registered and signed in, and looked at their assigned living space. Riza widened her eyes in clear surprise.

"But… Dad, shouldn't we be sharing the same area?"

Berthold nodded slowly before realizing, "I suppose teachers and students can't room together no matter the circumstance. At least we're close to each other. Look; I'm right across the street." He smiled pleasantly, took his belongings, and walked away.

Riza stood there for a moment, collecting herself, before doing likewise in the opposite direction where her quarter lay. She looked at the card, muttering, "West Wing A honours. Floor 3, Room 6. Floor 3, room 6…"

She got cut off from her muttering by a young man about her age with dark, black hair and focused eyes.

"Careful," he said. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, thanks." Riza replied before continuing her scurry to her room.

Once she finally managed to find her quarters, she opened the door to find that her still-anonymous roommate had previously arrived. She'd done some redecorating, too; from what Riza could tell, the supposed bunk-beds she'd expected had been placed with the headboards against one another and the desks were on opposite sides of the room as opposed to being next to the bed. 'That's probably just how all the rooms are,' she thought. 'I'll ask my roommate once she gets here.'

Thirty minutes later, Riza had completely unpacked and was putting her clothing into the dresser by her bed when something fell out of one of her t-shirts. She picked it up, and almost dropped it again out of shock.

It was a handgun.

Riza panicked. Guns weren't allowed on campus, and she'd hardly ever handled one before. She didn't even know how to fire it properly. She looked over the handgun, and there was a note attached to it from her grandfather, at the time Major General Grumman. She examined the note, which was on official military cardstock.

"Riza-

I'm sure you're excited about college! Sorry I couldn't be there for your first day. You have potential, Riza. I know you'll go far. You're going to need to protect yourself, though. Take this handgun, there's a book on how to use it properly attached to this paper. Stay strong!

-Major General Grumman, Amestris Military"

She was hardly surprised after reading the note. Her grandfather would do that. After getting over her initial shock, she put the rest of her clothing away and, with nothing else to do, looked over the handbook that had fallen on the floor unnoticed with the gun. It taught her how to clean and load it, along with how to turn the safety on and off. The gun was already loaded and came with one spare belt to use, just in case. She would see what she could do about shooting practice, though Riza wouldn't need much considering her excellently-perceiving vision. There was a rattle at the door. She quickly turned the safety on and, without anywhere else to put it, placed the gun under her pillow. The door opened to her roommate, carrying a mini refrigerator in their arms. After watching the struggle, Riza quickly decided to stand up and help get the fridge to its proper location, next to her roommate's bed. There was a loud BANG and then it was down. Her roommate, still panting, breathed a heavy "thanks" before plopping down on the bed. Riza looked up and gasped inwardly. "Hey, it's you."

"Last time I checked." The young man gave Riza a sarcastic grin, complemented by his twinkling eyes. She admitted; he was quite the looker now that she got a good look at him. His messy jet-black hair made it down to just above his eyebrows and he had an air of confidence about him.

Riza wasn't very fond of him, and rolled her eyes subconsciously in response to his remark. The young man sighed and thought, "Oh great. I get her for the next four years. This shouldn't even be allowed; don't the dorms need to be separated by gender anyway? I'll need to ask someone about this. Hey, what about her…"

The words came off more harshly than he anticipated, saying, "So this shouldn't be allowed. Why are you in my dorm?"

Riza glared at him, making her roommate uneasy. Maybe he should have chosen his words more carefully. "I guess they had an uneven number this year, they never told me I'd be rooming with a cocky black-haired playboy."

"Oh, come on. You can't have known that."

"I do now." Riza didn't know if he meant about the roommate or playboy, but she assumed he meant both. Couldn't someone fix this? Her dad, her grandfather, the dean? Riza looked at the clock on her dresser. The time read 11:35pm. She'd been here longer than she thought. Sighing, she lay down on her bed and reminded him, "It's late. We'll deal with this tomorrow, but for now let's go to bed. Classes start up for me tomorrow."

"Yeah me, too," her roommate replied, "I have this new alchemy teacher first thing. I hear he's never even taught before."

Riza laughed. "That's my dad. He knows everything there is to know on alchemy; he's even trying to figure out flame alchemy as we speak."

"Flame alchemy, huh?" he turned off the lights, so they were now conversing in the dark. "I'll have to ask him to teach me once he figures it out."

"Good luck. He hates taking on students. By the way," she yawned, "I'm Riza."

"Roy," her roommate responded. "Well, g'night Riza."

"Night."