Morphed

Chapter Fifteen

Hey guys. So, um...

It's been, like, six months since I updated.

So yeah...

Anyway, there won't be a very quick update after this one, and I can't promise when the next update will actually be, but once I realised how long it had been since the last chapter I realised I had to post this one because oh my godfather six months is a long hiatus.

Anyway, here's chapter fifteen, hopefully sixteen will be up sometime soon, and...Hope you enjoy the rest of school holidays. (What's even left of it? Like, four days? Damn that went way too quick)

Enjoy. :3

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Close your eyes
Drive away the cloud that hides the light
And leave the pain behind
Dead alive
Find a way to bury all the lies
Escape the hate inside
'Cause I don't want to fall or let you go

~Hollow (Breaking Benjamin)

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Riza watched as Lieutenant Colonel Hughes and Edward ate lunch. Not for any particular reason, really, but she liked watching Ed. Liked watching the small, hurt boy learn each day that he wasn't alone on the world. That there were people he could depend on, people who loved him and would help him. She liked that he had finally figured out that it was okay to let others in.

She watched as Hughes at all of his food like a starving wolf, and Edward picked at his meagre meal, pushing it all around with his fork. She could see from Hughes' expression that he did not approve, but the man kept his mouth shut, instead trying to engage Edward in completely irrelevant and pointless conversation about whatever it was that he was rambling about. She could see the fight in golden eyes as the young boy tried to pay attention and seem interested, but his eyes kept wandering, becoming distant and inattentive. Maes pretended not to notice.

When the bell that signalled lunch break was over rang, Riza realised she hadn't gotten round to actually getting any food for herself. Shrugging to herself, she made her way back to the office, deciding she would just have to go without. Her stomach rumbled slightly, but she hit it lightly with her fist to shut it up. She wasn't exactly sure how that trick worked, but somehow it did.

She was, as usual, the first back in the office when she arrived. Sitting at her desk, she pulled out the case files she was working on and laid them out in front of her, scanning them - again. She had pulled out these exact files ever single day of the week since Hughes had handed her the case files and asked her to find whatever she could. She had promised him she would do everything she could to uncover the truth, whatever that may be. So far, she had looked at the pictures the file contained, found evidence of military involvement in three of them, and the rest of them...nothing more than sights that made her want to vomit up her breakfast. The written content of the file wasn't much use to her either, it was mostly the alchemic process of making Ed what he was, and how they had trained him to use his new...gift, for want of a better word. If she couldn't find anything else over the next day or two, she was going to have to admit she'd found nothing useful and give the papers to Mustang to try and decipher the alchemic parts.

Rubbing her temples, she studies the papers again as the rest of Mustang's staff -and Mustang himself - trickled in, all of them taking out their own work and getting started. After an hour of study, with still no new results, she put her head in her hands, closing her eyes and relaxed herself in an attempt to fight of the ache that had manifested in the front of her head.