#royaigarbage

Okay. So before I begin, did you know there’s a song called “Magnetic Field” by Lights? And literally one of the lyrics is “this fullmetal alchemy just brings about the best in me each time?” Because there is, and I got so excited by this ask/prompt.

But anyway, the summary.

Magnetic Field - angst/fluff/smut multi-chapter summary

The entire fic would revolve around an underground crime syndicate. The leader is Berthold Hawkeye, a cold-hearted, cruel, and miserly man who is paranoid and ill. His daughter, Elizabeth, is the perfect heiress to his dark empire, except that secretly she loathes her father and all he stands for with every fiber of her being. While she plays the part of the classy, stunning ice princess, she’s actually lying in wait for the day her father goes down or dies so she can escape from him.

Enter Roy. He is a high-ranking underling to the boss, trying to work his way up, or so it appears. In truth, he is an undercover agent for Amestris’ secret service trying to bring them down from the inside. Elizabeth, who is far more observant than any of her father’s men suspect, figures out his game, but rather than reporting it to her father, she begins to help him, leaving him messages and tips going by the names “Riza.” Things begin to heat up the longer their secret correspondence goes on—both of them developing feelings for the other, though Roy is completely unaware that the beautiful girl he’s falling for is the same one feeding him information.

The truth comes out when Riza walks in on him rummaging through her father’s desk in the middle of the night. At first, he’s in a panic, certain she’ll scream for Berthold, ending with his immediate execution. But she doesn’t. Instead, she runs to him, much to his surprise, and he finds she’s been crying. It doesn’t take much for him to figure out what’s happened. Her father beats her, only leaving marks in places hidden from view, such as her back. In her moment of distraught confession, she reveals he beat her mother too, and not just physically. The verbal and emotional abuse drove her to suicide, something Roy never knew. After comforting her through the worst of it and getting a handle on his absolute need to put a bullet through her old man’s head, Roy helps her back to her room. In the shadows of the hallway, he’s tempted to kiss her, but she steps back suddenly and slips into her bedroom.

Then ensues a lot of pent up intimacy frustration because he thinks he’s putting her in danger, and she thinks she’s the dangerous one, and neither of them want to risk the other, BUT at the same time, they are both wildly attracted to each other.

And then the day comes when there’s a huge break is made in the case against Hawkeye, and Roy is called away. A raid is planned, and when he returns to Hawkeye Manor, he tries to find Elizabeth to warn her, but she’s missing. On Roy’s signal, the agents hit the estate with full force, managing to take the whole place by surprise. Within forty-eight hours the entire syndicate has been dismantled with most of its members awaiting arraignment hearings for various charges.

But Elizabeth is nowhere to be found.

For weeks Roy searches for her, using agency resources and contacts for any information he can get on her as well as hiring outside investigators, following any lead he gets. After six months of nothing, he’s almost given up when one day he gets a call. A woman’s voice he doesn’t recognize says, “She’s in Aerugo,” and then hangs up, leaving him no room to ask questions. It takes another three months for him to fully track her down.

When he arrives at her apartment door, she immediately begins crying—out of shock and fear of being found as well as relief of finally seeing him again. After he makes it clear he isn’t there to take her back, and that there was never enough evidence of her actually committing a crime, she relaxes.

She confesses she knew about the raid due to a friend within the agency (read: Rebecca) who tipped her off. He stays with her for a week in Aerugo before he has to go back, but only with the promise that she’ll follow soon.

And she does. And they live happily ever after with their two children Maes (even though this would be a Hughes Lives AU probably…or he would die because of Hawkeye and fuel Roy’s hatred of him) and Noel (named for his foster mother).

Summary: Roy Mustang is a lonely apprentice, and Riza Hawkeye could use a friend.

or

A young Royai character study spanning the length of Roy's apprenticeship with Berthold Hawkeye

Rating: T (this might change as the story progresses)

Snippet: The air in the outskirts of East City was warmer than the air in Central. It carried a fleeting calmness that contrasted starkly with the industrial hustle and bustle of Roy Mustang’s hometown. And as he stepped off the train, hauling in tow a suitcase that was half his body weight, he couldn’t tell yet if that fact was comforting. The train station was eerily quiet, and only one other person had gotten off on his stop. He knew his destination was rural, but he hadn’t expected such an extreme. Nevertheless, he wasn’t here to lament the loss of his city life. He was here to become an alchemist.

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Happy early FMA day! Young Royai fic in the big '25. I've wanted to write a young Royai multi-chapter fic for years (let's just ignore the one chapter I wrote of one in 2018), so I'm glad I get to finally put this out. I I've been working on this for a while now, and I'm ahead on chapters, so expect frequent updates.