The Empath Alchemist {Edward Elric X Reader}

44

(A/N: Thank you all sincerely for your patience. Enjoy.)

Riza watched (Y/n) with somber eyes as she listened in great detail to the story the young girl recapped for her.

Edward and Alphonse stood about the small space in the attic, serving as both (Y/n)'s emotional support and additional voices to vouch for the credibility of the retelling of the fifteen year old's dream.

Riza's face was blank, as if she were intentionally trying not to show any reaction for the fear that it may be insensitive or further hinder (Y/n)'s already anxious quality. The former First Lieutenant's heart sank with each word that left the girl's mouth, a trembling weight shaking her bones.

Once (Y/n) fell silent, her story complete, Riza knew that it was her responsibility to provide the advice or comfort that the Mustang clearly sought from her. When she looked at the boys, they were wordlessly staring back at her, awaiting a response.

Riza was, however, embarrassingly and hopelessly speechless. She hadn't the slightest clue what to say.

In that moment, the soldier remembered a specific moment early in Roy's parenthood of (Y/n). He had expressed to Riza his worries, his doubts, his confusions about taking the role of this child's caretaker. Amidst these concerns remained the prevalent topic of her biological parents, and the mystery behind their disappearance. Back then, both Riza herself and Roy had been entirely too young and naive to think that the very government they had newly established themselves into would be responsible for something like the mass slaughter of innocent, poverty stricken civilians. No one could have possibly guessed what horrors lurked beneath their feet within Central Command back then.

Nevertheless, the abruptness of the murder of the young girl's parents had bothered Roy to an extent. There had been no record of any relative to the child that he had stumbled upon in the desert, no trace of her anywhere except in the very sand he pulled her from. It was as if any trace of existence before her had vanished, and she was the only remaining proof of a prior life.

In addition to his suspicions, Roy voiced his fear that (Y/n) would grow to resent him. Riza had asked what he meant by that, and he replied that he didn't want her to see a lack of identity within herself each time she looked at him. He didn't want to become a constant reminder of what she had lost, of the fact that he was all that she had and she would never find what had once existed before him.

Riza told him that this was ridiculous, that (Y/n) would never resent the very man who saved her life and gave her a home, a family. He ended the conversation by agreeing with her, but also admitting that he wished he could give her the answers that he would never have. Perhaps that way, if he could provide knowledge of her real parents, she could proceed living in peace, without doubt. Without unresolved pain, or an empty hole in her chest where her former life once resided.

Hawkeye parted her lips as the beginnings of her thoughts formed. (Y/n) waited before her stiffly, uncomfortably. She glanced over at Al, who nodded back at her as if to tell her that she had done right by following her gut and releasing the weight of the information she held.

"(Y/n), are you alright?" was the only thing that Riza could think to ask at that moment. Her face was still blank, but somehow simultaneously full of unspoken emotion.