Royai Soup

My undying promise

Riza POV

its been about a year since the promised day. but still, it doesn't make the truth any less clear. time will never make me forget the day I broke what I thought was my strongest promise to him.

A long time ago, when I first started the military, I promised that if requested...I would follow him into hell. we've been through hell, and plenty of it. Ishval, the third laboratory, witnessing Roy's madness towards Envy, almost dying from the cut across my throat. and then, the one way I couldn't follow......the moment he passed through the portal of truth and had his eye sight taken from him. the moment my promise snapped.

I never actually realised until we were in the hospital together. I had a dream, it reminded me of my undying promise. it gave me comfort, that out of all this fear and madness there was still something I could cling to. until I thought and remembered what happened that day. the undying promise that gave me such comfort, was already dead.

Days passed and I couldn't mention it. not even to Rebecca, one of my closest friends.

Days turned into weeks without mentioning it to anyone. just thinking about it made me want to choke up and cry with no mercy. how could I ever bring myself to tell him? Why on earth would I ever want to add to his burdens that crushed him all his life? I love him too much to do that.

Weeks had turned into months, which then turned into a full year with this weight clinging to my heart. I know hes noticed. I know he knows that somethings bothering me. although im good at hiding a lot of my emotions, this wasn't so easy.

After the promised day and after we started to recover from our injuries, it was Mustangs orders that we attend private counselling.(Him, Me, Ed, Al and everyone else in our team that he had control over) even then, I never told anyone about my secret. maybe he noticed right away, maybe he noticed a little later that I was acting a little strange. but I cant help but believe that I was the reason that he wanted us all in therapy.

weve become closer to each other more than ever, me and Roy. in private, we would address each other by our first names. we would sit there and talk to each other about our recovery. every now and again, I would allow him to trace my scar on my neck and I would keep telling him that it was ok and that I was fine now. the top of it sticks out from underneath my uniform so hes reminded of it a lot. it was on one of these days that he finally asked me about how I was feeling and what was bothering me.

he invited me round to his house one evening. since I never really get to have this kind of one on one time with him, I accepted with no hesitation. I walked up his driveway and knocked on his door. I waited about five or six seconds before the door opened revealing him in a blue shirt and black pants. I was wearing a white blouse and a dark indigo skirt that wrapped around my knees with black tights underneath.

"Hey, Riza good to see you." he greeted with a smile.

"Hello, Roy, its lovely to see you too." I replied with a smile as he motioned for me to come in. I took my shoes off and followed him into his living room.

"You can just take a seat on the couch over there, would you like something to drink?" he asked as he directed me to his couch.

"What do you have?" I replied

"I have that honey tea you seem to like. I used to see you drinking it all the time before everything happened." he suggested. I hadn't had that honey tea in ages. I forgot how much I loved it.

"That sounds nice, thank you" I replied sweetly. "I cant remember the last time I had honey tea."

"great, ill make a cup for you." he said as he left the room. whilst he was gone, I took the chance to glance around his living room. it was quite tidy which was surprising to me given the state of his desk at work. he had white and grey wall paper in a striped pattern with small birds here and there. it took me a moment to figure out what birds they were until I came to the conclusion that they were hawk silhouettes. I couldn't help but smile at that. he had laminate floor and a large grey rug in the centre. I let my feet play in the softness of the rug for a while until Roy came in with one cup of honey tea and one cup of coffee.

"Thank you, Roy. I appreciate you inviting me over."

"no problem, I thought that it would be a nice change for us, you know?"

"You have a lovely home." I complemented

"really? thanks. I had it done up about half a year before the promised day." he accepted. bringing up the subject of the promised day reminded me of my troubles. I think it brought him down a bit too. "Riza?"

"Yes, Roy?"

"May I trace your scar please, just for a little bit?" he requested, noticing the scar peeking out the collar of my blouse. I nodded and began to unbutton the blouse just enough for him to have access to the area. as he ran his fingers along the edge of my neck, he began his questioning. "Whats been going on, Riza?"

"Wh-what do you mean?" I replied nervously.

"You know what I mean, somethings been bothering you since the hospital, now please tell me... is it something about what happened that day, or has someone been hurting you?" he interrogated. I knew he wasn't going to stop until I had spilled everything, and I couldn't keep it from him any longer.

"My promise" I said after a quick pause. he looked confused.

"What promise?"

"The promise I made to you a long time ago... on the day I joined you in the military, I vowed to follow you into hell" I explained.

"Yes, how could I not remember? but what is this about?" he asked softly.

"I broke it, and I am so sorry" I started, "I saw you go through that portal of truth and I couldn't follow you like I promised I would... you were in so much pain and I couldn't be there to support you..." I choked as Mustang took the cup away from my hand to stop me from accidentally dropping it on myself. his arm slid around my shoulders as tears started to form in my eyes.

"But, Riza. this isn't your fault." he started.

"Yes it is! the strongest promise I ever made to you snapped just like that because I was too weak to keep it." I choked once more. his arms turned me to face him.

"Riza, listen to me," he ordered as he looked me in the eyes. tears dripped down my face slowly. "you never broke your strongest promise to me" he stated.

"Y-yes...I-I did, how-"

"Because to me, the strongest vow you made, was the day you promised me not to die. even when you were bleeding on that floor, you kept that promise to me and I will always love you for that" he spoke directly to my soul. "and don't you ever think or say that you are weak, you are the strongest person I know." I collapsed against him with tears flooding out of my face and blushing at his words so intense I looked like a cherry.

"th-thank you Roy, th-thank you...I love you." I sobbed against him.

"Why didn't you tell me before? all those times we talked about our troubles, you couldn't tell me. why?" he asked softly with a twinge of pain in his voice. "Do you not trust me or something?" my heart burst in a wave of pain at his question.

"Of course I trust you, youre the only person ive ever trusted with all my heart. I trust you with my life more than I trusted my own father." I started "I didn't want to add to the burdens you already had." he held me closer and stroked my hair. he leaned his lips close to my ear

"How could I believe you to be the source of my burdens when just being around you erases them?" was the last thing he said before ending our discussion with a kiss and letting ourselves fall asleep together in each others arms.

-The End-

AN: I really hope you enjoyed reading. I love Royai it is my favourite ship in all of the anime ive watched and I don't think ive ever made an actual decent story on them yet. anyhoo, see ya later my fellow Royai shippers

Luv yas all