The sequel to Three turned into like a 70 page ordeal.
I hit a really big moment and got scared.
But, someone asked me about the update and I felt a bit guilty.
Here's something to chew on while I grow a backbone and finish this sucker.

She was avoiding him like a flesh eating virus,a degree of silent treatment
she had not lowered herself to implement since she was at most thirteen.

But, he knocked.
Winry's brows furrowed, "Who is it?"

"I have a purple tie."

The blondes exchanged a look, Riza sighed.
"Say again, Mr. Mustang?" Winry asked.

Purple was a theme in the wedding, a color she picked out.
It looked lovely on everyone, and the groomsmen's ties were her idea,
but truth be told, she may have gone a bit overboard on those.

"Is she in there with you, Winry?"

Winry glanced at Riza, and for the first time
since she'd known the Captain,
Riza appeared unstable,
off-kilter

more specifically so,
she looked like she might hurl.

"Yes, she is, but-" Winry struggled.
"Meet me in the den, Sir," Riza called calmly.

Winry jumped to stop her, reach for her.
Something was wrong.
Something must have happened,

It's cruel, Winry, what you're orchestrating.

She reached but Riza shook her off, stood up,
smoothed out her dress, then gave Winry a nod in the mirror.

In an instant, Captain Hawkeye was invincible,
most seemingly fearless once more.

That is, until he looked at her

like that.

It was the wedding, she reassured herself.
That's all it was. It was the wedding.

Everyone was just the slightest bit insane. Weddings drove people mad,
sparking obsessions with happily-ever-after's and the like.

So, Riza stepped into the den,
and did her very best to ignore it.

Roy turned from the little mirror on the wall. Once yanking at his tie,
he then proceeded to forget about everything in full,
dropping his jaw, going a bit pale.

It was the wedding, Riza sighed, Still he looked at her like that.
like he might have last night, except in a way that was
the slightest bit more concerning,
permanent, dangerous.

How inconvenient.

She had seen him in suits before.
He watched her dawn sundresses all week.

But, now.
Riza was in lilac.

The dress was high backed,
with a modestly low neckline.

Pink lips, brown lined chestnut eyes. She wore pearls
in place of silver, and her gold hair up,
curled and pinned.

He tripped up a bit on the whole words thing,
so, just as more often than not, she did the work for him,

"Very handsome, General," Riza nodded formally.
He swallowed, and sighed back into his charm,

"Lovely, as always, Captain," he said and hoped
she knew he meant it. lovely
as always.

Roy, however, thought much better of attempting to explain all that
and instead huffed, whined and fidgeted with a very untied tie
knotted sloppily around his neck.

"It's purple."
"So I heard."

Roy turned back to the mirror, mindlessly pulling at the knot,
then the ends, then the knot again. It was a bow. He hated the bows.

"The pipsqueak already mocked me."

"Edward is nervous," Riza gave her commanding officer a stern warning
with a simple flick of her tone. No childish complaining, she had told him,
no incessant bickering with a boy half his age

even though he could not seem to help it this time around
for reasons deep seeded, unknown, and, therefore,
deliberately ignored.

Weddings drove everyone mad.
Riza cinched a smile despite it all.

"Also, he's almost taller than you now."
"I doubt that very much," Roy grumbled.

He pulled and prodded, sulking.
Riza's skin itched with ice and fire.
She fought hard to forget
last night
and all the years before. But, this was pathetic.
Impossible man. She snatched the bow tie and turned him to her.

"Perhaps he was mocking your form, Sir, rather than the purple"

She kept the greatest possible distance from the General. Though her commanding officer,
of course, refused to maintain such a safe perimeter, perhaps subconsciously
or very consciously inching ever near.

Roy was close.
Riza was frozen solid.

"You're always much better at these ones," he tucked his chin
and watched her fingers work, "That is quite embarrassing for you, Sir."

He grinned, glancing back up. Her eyes, lined in brown, pink lips, lilac,
"Perhaps I did this on purpose." Just so he could see her.

She glanced up and cut him a look.
He smirked, "I'm very clever, you know."

Riza refused to engage.

They had already made so many wrong moves in the past twenty-four hours.
She shouldn't have even have come out of Winry's room. He was very clever,
all too clever. She knew this.

Yet, she fell for it anyway,
in more ways than one.

I'll be back soon with the whole enchilada, I promise.