The beach - Saturday Morning

[light_a_spark]

Roy hadn't slept since he'd talked to Molly - he wasn't counting the unplanned nap he'd taken on Thursday before getting hug-attacked - and now that apparently he had the freedom to, he was too awake.

He found a quiet spot along the beach and sat down in the sand. Even the morning sun already felt warm on his dark blue uniform and he dug the heels of his boots into the sand. He remembered this kind of heat, but it wouldn't turn as blistering as it had in the Ishbalan desert. The beach was very different from any desert and the scent of the ocean was one he rather liked. It was nothing like Amestris and right now, it was good to be reminded of that.

If radio was right, then the students had dealt with the threat themselves. Roy grimaced. Somehow he kept failing to keep people safe and children, too young to have to deal with these kind of horrors, kept having to pay the price for it. It didn't help that as far as he knew, he might not have been able to stop this guy either. Not with just a gun and not even flame alchemy would have worked.

If alchemy worked here. Ed's theory about the flow of energy had made him wonder, but it felt strange that Alphonse wouldn't have told him. He slowly started drawing a simple array into the sand. It was meant to simply reshape the sand beneath into whatever sort of sculpture he could think of. Roy stared down at it. It was one of the simplest principles of alchemy: take the material and give it a new form. Deconstruct and rebuild, yet somehow he had managed to take these two base principles and make his whole life about the deconstruction.

His stomach roiled at the thought and he remembered too many faces, too much pain. His hand was shaky as he rested it in the sand, inches away from the transmutation circle before he erased it from the sand with one angry sweep.

((So I got wordy. Post is open, but he is in a mood.))

Comments

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Aly walked slowly along the sand, lost in her own memories of home until she saw the figure ahead. She paused, not wanting to interrupt if he was looking for privacy.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

He didn't notice her right away, his gaze fixed on some point on the horizon. When he heard her approach, he turned his face towards her. The smile he gave her didn't reach his eye and he gave her a small nod instead of his usual teasing greeting.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

She nodded back with a small smile and took the greeting to mean she could approach. "Sheriff Mustang," she said quietly.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"Miss Alianne," he replied automatically and he smooth his hand over the sand again, making sure there was no trace of the array left.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"How do you do this morning?" she asked, glancing at the sand and wondering what he was hiding.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"Enjoying the view," he said quietly, not trying to hide that there was more to it. "How about you? I see that you're in one piece at least. I think."

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

She tilted her head, not quite buying it. "Why wouldn't I be in one piece?"

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"Students throwing bombs?" he reminded her, wondering why he needed to clarify this one.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"Ah," she chuckled. "That I am. Luckily it was in the Danger Room. And the student won't be doing that again any time soon."

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"I'd hope not," he frowned at her. "Danger Room?"

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"I don't pretend to understand the science, but it's a place where you can simulate different environments," she explained. "And it won't allowed anoyone to be injured."

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"That's interesting," Roy said slowly, not sure how any of the would work. "This world's science is beyond me. Some of the technology is similar to what we have in Amestris, but most..." He shrugged.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

She smiled. "It's beyond me too. I vaguely understand that there's theory involved. But beyond that..." Her shrug echoed his. "It works?"

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"You seem to be in one piece," he agreed.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"Which I will always be a fan of."

She took a seat next to him in the sand, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Did I interrupt something?"

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"No," he said quietly and drew up his left knee, resting his elbow on top of it. He could almost still feel where he'd drawn the array beside him in the sand. "I was just thinking."

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

She took a glance at him then looked back out over the water. "Should I find a chess board so I can ask what about?"

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

He let out a short, soft laugh and bowed his head, looking down at the sand. "It might help."

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Aly smoothed the sand between them with the palm of her hand then drew the squares of a chessboard in it. She plotted a few pieces to have her knight take one of his pawns. "There."

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

Roy watched her draw the chessboard and gave her a slightly amused and exasperated look. "Have you ever been to the desert?"

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "The country I grew up in - to the South is a desert that recently became a part of our Kingdom."

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

He nodded and reached down, taking a bit of sand in his hands. "My first real assignment was to the South East of Amestris to stop an uprising. We spent months there, I never thought I'd ever really get rid of all the sand. The sand here is different, still annoying if it gets stuck but the sea makes it different."

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"The sea changes everything," she agreed, watching him out of the corner of her eye. "Was your assignment successful?"

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

His shoulders tensed and he wiped the sand off on his pants.

"It was successful," he said in a rough voice.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

She looked back out at the water, listening to the waves roll in for a long moment and gave him some space before she said anything else.