A/N: I would love any feedback you have, as I am always trying to improve my writing! I own nothing!
Also, they are in Japan, which isn't super important but yeah. Enjoy!
The wind made the leaves rustle and the hair she had so neatly arranged behind her back fly into her face. Riza placed her bag on the low wall surrounding the garden beside her, and quickly pulled up her long, blonde hair in to a low pony tail. Picking up her bag and resuming her walk home, the only things that accompanied her were the wind and the clicking of her heels. When she reached her building, Riza said a polite hello to the attendant as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. As she stood in front of her door digging through her bag to get her keys out, she heard whining from inside.
"Hold on, Hayate," she smiled. Even if she did have to walk home alone, she always had someone to come home to. Riza opened the door, and her small black puppy came out, yipping as his tail wagged furiously. "Shh, boy, I'm home."
After Hayate had calmed down, she fed him and let him out, then made dinner for herself. After she ate, Riza plopped down on the couch in her sweatpants, glasses, and hair in a messy bun. As her eyes started to close, her phone buzzed on the table. Flipping it open, she saw it was only a text...though it was from him. 'Can I come over?', it said. 'I need to talk to you.'
'Alright.' she replied, clicking the phone shut.
The doorbell rang only a few minutes later, and she stood up slowly to answer it. Opening the door and revealing the man in from of her, she said "Hello, Roy."
"Hello, Miss Hawkeye," he said as she rolled her eyes at his continued to not use her first name. "Sorry for inviting myself over at such a late hour, but I need to discuss something with you."
"Come in," Riza opened the door wider to let him in, closing and locking it as he made his way to the living room. She found Roy sitting in a chair, Hayate settled in his lap. "So, what did we need to discuss?" she asked as she sat back down on the couch.
"Ah, yes," he said clearing his throat. "I had a meeting with my boss today. He wants me to transfer to a branch in America. I would be getting a new team there, meaning I can't take anyone with me. Not Breda. Not Havoc... not you."
Riza tried to keep any of the emotions swirling around in her head from showing on her face. She couldn't fully wrap her head around what he had said. He'd be gone. Roy would be gone. "So, what is there to discuss?" She asked again after a minute of silence, not understand why he told her this, why they needed to talk about it.
Roy was a little stunned, her reaction not being any of the hundreds he thought up on his way here. "Well... should I do it?"
"Why are you asking me?" she said quietly." You are my boss! Not the other way around!" Riza couldn't keep the anger out of her voice, she couldn't think, couldn't get 'not you...not you...' out of her head.
"Because I trust you," he said quietly, looking down at his hands.
"Because I thought you were more than just part of my team. Because I thought..."
Riza took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes, trying to stop the tears that were threatening to fall. "I'm sorry. That was...childish of me. I think you should do it." Those were the last words she wanted to say to him. Of course she didn't want him to go, but ever since they met in college, and he told her of his dream to work his way up to the top of the company, everything they had done was to help his goal. "This will help you achieve your goal. That's what we've both been working towards, haven't we? Letting an opportunity like this slip past would be stupid." The words spilled out of her mouth as she thought of the miles and countries and oceans that would be between them if he went.
"I see," Roy responded cryptically. "I suppose you make a good point. This will help me achieve my dream. I'll go to America, then."
He lifted Hayate off his lap and stood up. "I should be going, then. I don't want to take up anymore of your time." He walked to the door and before walking out, he paused and said, "Goodbye, Riza."
When the door closed, all of her self-restraint vanished and the tears came in thick, heavy streams. The thought of being without Roy, being without the one constant in her life, was too much to bear. He was there when she was ready to give up, convincing her that there was so much more to experience in life. He was there when her father, the last member of her family, died, and he became her family. With Roy being thousands and thousands of miles away, she would have no purpose. But, her goal was to help him achieve his dream, and this would almost guarantee his rise to the top.
With these thoughts taking over her mind, she dragged herself onto her bed, and waited in the dark for the sleep that wouldn't come to take her away.
The week before Roy left were the hardest days that Riza had in a very long time. Seeing him around the office just stabbed another hole in her heart, and hearing one of the many people congratulate him on the big transfer made her want to crawl under her desk, never to emerge.
The day that he was leaving was a Saturday. Normally, Riza would do laundry and run errands on the weekend, but she couldn't bring herself to do anything other than lay in bed and watch the dark clouds gather in the sky.
Finally, she managed to put on some real clothes and make a cup of tea. She was sitting at the table watching the steam rise off the hot beverage when she heard a knock on the door. Her head snapped up. Hardly anyone ever came to visit her. Slowly Riza walked to the door, and opened it to see Roy standing there. For some reason, he was the last person she expected to see standing there. He was already gone to her.
"Roy?" she whispered, not trusting herself to say anything else without her voice cracking.
"I had to say goodbye, before I left," he smiled, but she could tell from his eyes that his heart wasn't in it. "So, goodbye."
He pulled her into a hug, and she could smell the usual musky, smokey scent that was so Roy. She wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes, trying to memorize the way he felt, the way he smelled, everything she could fit into her head about the man she loved. Too soon, he let go.
"My train leaves soon," he said quietly. "...goodbye, Riza."
As he turned to walk away, Riza thought she saw tears in his eyes, though it may have just been her own tears that were distorting her vision. "Goodbye, Roy." she whispered as he disappeared down the stairs. Turning back to her apartment, it felt empty. Though she had lived alone all of her adult life, she had never minded it. Now, her own home held no appeal to her. Riza walked to the window, and watched as the grey clouds overhead started to release rain drops the mirrored the tears on her face. The world outside was grey and empty, just as was her heart.
'He is gone, I am never going to see him again, he will forget about me, I have nothing left, I can't live without him.' The thoughts swirled around her head like the wind had on the day he told her he was leaving. "I can't let him go! I can't!" she yelled. Riza thought about the way he said her name, the way he held her, the tears in his eyes as he left her.
With sudden resolve, she ran out of her apartment, down the stairs, and into the rain, not caring that she didn't bring an umbrella. She had to shield her eyes to keep the rain out, so much so that she could barely see as she ran towards the train station. Just when she thought she'd never find him, Riza ran into something, or someone.
"Oh! I'm so sorry! I - Roy?" she asked, as she realized who it was that she had run into. "Roy!"
"Riza? What is it? What's wrong?" she could she how concerned he looked as he turned to face her. "Why don't you have an umbrella?"
"There was no time. I had to find you!" Riza could feel the rain streaming down her face, mixing with the tears that were still falling from her eyes. "I can't let you leave. I want you to follow your dream and reach your goal, but there is nothing for me in life without you and I can't let you go. You are always there for me and I wouldn't be here without you. I can't let you go because -"
"I love you," he said at the same time she did. Her eyes widened and her mouth hung open. "When you said I should go my heart broke into a million shards because I thought you didn't feel the same way-"
Now she was the one to interrupt him by pressing her lips to his. The umbrella fell out of his hand as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling the woman he loved even closer to him. The rain poured down on them for a long time before they parted.
"Promise me something," she said.
"Anything," he replied almost instantly.
"Please don't leave me."
"I'll never leave you, I promise."
