Silence had once again fallen over the small safe house, sitting on the outskirts of Welosl, not far from the edge of Amestris' border with Aerugo. Secluded from the city limits but a safe distance from the boarder still. It provided the perfect place for Riza and Roy to lay low while Roy recovered and Riza worked to plan out their escape from Amestris into Aerugo. Sometimes the silence was comfortable and welcome. That silence came in the moments they shared, sometimes with Roy's head resting in her lap, sometimes laying together bed. But this... this wasn't that comfortable silence. This was the silence that tried to suffocate. Tried to drown you.
It settled over her as she sat in the chair beside the bed, her amber gaze looking over to the man who slumbered in the bed, watching the gentle rise and fall of his chest. His wounds were slowly healing with her careful attention to tending to them, but the work would be much better suited for a doctor. Sure, she had general knowledge that she had learned before entering the war, in case she ever needed to save herself or a fallen comrade, but it would never compare to a doctor's care. Guilt crept in, fearing she wasn't doing enough. Her hands grasped at the papers resting in her lap; ink mapping out the research she had been chasing after so diligently now crumpled and wrinkled on the pages. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth as the guilt bubbled from her stomach and rose up her throat.
'You can't fail him. Not again. You've failed him too many times now.'
Tearing her eyes from Roy's sleeping form, she forced them to focus on the writing on the page before they fell shut. Riza was met by the sight of his crumpled body atop the staircase to the Fuhrer's mansion. His blood pooled beneath him, consequence of her shortcoming. Of her failure. She hadn't arrived in time. He lost his eye... Nearly died because of her. The sight was burned into her memory, creeping back on her sometimes in the most unexpected ways.
Her amber eyes reopened, her breath trembling as she took a breath. Her fingers gently ran over her writing, as if the words would someone absorb the pain. Even after his reassurance... his tender words...
'The world's not perfect, but it's there for us trying the best it can. That's what makes it so damn beautiful.'
Her gaze shifted back to him for a moment, locked upon his face and the eyepatch that covered the proof of her failure to him. She had been so sure the day she had awoken to a empty bed, staring silently at the space Roy had occupied the night before, that he had left without a word because that failure had broken his trust and his faith in her and he could no longer pretend that it hadn't. The man she loved, her best friend, disappeared from her life in an instant, and she had to go on with her life as if it hadn't ripped her heart from her chest for three years. When their paths finally crossed again during the other worldly siege of Central, there was finally an explanation. He continued to trust her. He continued to trust in her ability to work at his side and protect him. And then...
She failed him again.
While she worked the day, guiding and instructing the team in Roy's absence while he was being tortured beneath her feet. And she hadn't a clue. Riza hadn't been there for him. Hadn't been there to help him, to save him... Her hands abandoned the pages in her lap, her face falling into them. Her face was already wet from tears she hadn't even realized she had started to shed. She was supposed to protect him. Her. It was her job and she failed him. AGAIN. And yet somehow she still caught how he sometimes looked at her with a moment's reflection of love in his eye. He still seemed to trust her; didn't once insinuate or declare he wished to severe ties with her. Riza couldn't understand it. Why? Why did he put so much trust in her when she had failed him yet again? He nearly died twice due to these failures.
It wouldn't happen again. She simply couldn't allow it.
She threw herself into her task of serving as his caretaker. She threw herself into her researching and planning. This escape had to be flawless. But how? They had no money beside what she was managing to scrounge up taking odd jobs in the nearby town. It was like her childhood all over again. What she earned she split between food, supplies, information and saving for the boarder crossing.
She was pulled from her thoughts by the familiar sensation of a cold, wet nose nudging at her leg, followed by the soft whine of her beloved canine companion. Black Hayate. Her hands pulled from her face, reaching out with a weak smile as she reached out to ruffle the Shiba Inu's ears.
"I'm alright, boy... Don't worry."
Riza tried to reassure, though if she was truly trying to convince the pup or herself, she was unsure. The feeling of his fur and the way he pressed his head into her hand drew a soft smile to her lips before her eyes shifted back to the now wrinkled pages in her lap. Her gaze locked upon a name she had taken down. Gregora. To anyone else, it was just a last name. To Riza, it was a missing link. Known to no one but herself and her grandfather, Riza was not just Amestrian; she was a quarter Aerugoian on her mother's side. As a child she remembered her mother speaking fondly of her Aerugoian heritage and the times she would visit her grandparents; Riza's great-grandparents. She had been spending a great deal of time tracking her family tree in archives, hoping with some luck maybe... maybe she had family in the other country.
She spent multiple days searching public records, digging for instances of her mother's maiden name, Grumman, that coincided with Gregora. Until she finally found it in an obituary. Terézia Grumman nee Gregora, preceded in death by her daughter Zsófia Hawkeye, survived by husband Hershel Grumman and daughter Erzsébet Laskaris. The search into her aunt was what she had needed. She had married an architect, living just outside of the city limits of a town in Aerugo. A mother of three. A grandmother. Her gaze shifted now to the small kitchen table where a stack of books rested, an envelope peeking out from between two of them. Her breath shook. The small bookstore she had been working at here and there to make money for them must have slipped it there.
Setting the pages on her lap over to the nightstand, she carefully rose from the chair and crossed the room to the table, carefully pulling the envelope out. In neat writing it was addressed to Elizabeth, sent to the bookstore's address. Return address in Aerugo. Riza's eyes widened. She had written a letter, sending it to the last known address that records had shown her aunt had lived. She was still there. And she had responded. Delicately opening the letter, she shifted her gaze to the bed to check on Roy before she looked back to the letter to read.
'Dearest Elizabeth,
Surely you must know the surprise it was to receive your letter, but I must tell you that I most certainly know who you are. Though I never got to lay my eyes on you in person, I assure you that your mother spoke almost entirely of you in every letter she sent me. I wish that things hadn't been so strained between my sister and our parents. She was always so free spirited, something I almost envied, and I regret every day that I allowed myself to drift apart from her when she made the decision to leave home to be with your father. But this isn't about all that. It's all in the past, and we have to look to the future.
I'm sorry to hear you have found yourself in quite a frightening situation, and I understand and respect that you are unable to explain the specifics. That being said, I'm glad you were able to find me and reached out. You and your partner's safety is of the utmost importance, and my husband and I are in agreement that getting you over the boarder as soon as possible is a necessity. There is more than enough room for the two of you here, as well as your Black Hayate. It's just Clayton and I here now that his parents had passed. The in law suite has been vacant for years now, and I believe you would find it perfect for you. Of course, if you would prefer, you are also welcome in our home, it's entirely up to you.
Words cannot express how happy I am to have the chance to meet you. As I mentioned before, getting you across the boarder out of Amestris is our top priority. As lovely as it has been writing, I must insist that you call me as soon as you can so we can discuss details. The sooner we get you and your partner into Aerugo, the sooner we can get him in with a doctor. Not that I doubt your care taking skills, but we just want to make sure he gets as much care as possibly. I await your call, dear. Please be safe, Elizabeth.
Sincerely,
Aunt Erzsi'
Beneath her signature was a phone number. Her hands trembled reading the words. A way out. A way to safety and to make sure Roy would be entirely taken care of by doctors. Her face was wet again as she lowered the letter, setting it to the table. Her heart felt a little little, weight lifting a bit from her shoulders. When he woke she would give him the news.
She wouldn't fail him. Not this time.
