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The bed was soft beneath him, the blankets wrapped warmly around his body, and the pillow comfortably cradling his head. Roy smiled, eyes still closed and on the verge of falling back asleep, as he reached for the other side of the mattress. All he needed for this to be perfect was –
His hand touched empty sheets, and his eyes snapped open.
The blankets were tossed back on Riza’s side, the pillow indented where her head had been, but there was no other sign of her. He frowned, lifting his head to look toward the bathroom, searching for the light from under the door that said she might be in there.
There were small sounds from elsewhere in her apartment, but Roy could tell they weren’t coming from the bathroom. Stealthily, he pushed the blankets aside, coziness abandoned in the face of strange happenings. Riza, by her own admission, rarely ever woke in the middle of the night for anything less than an alarm; if she was up and about at – he checked the clock on her bedside table as he slipped from the bed - 2:05 in the morning, something was wrong.
There was only a wall dividing her sleeping space from the rest of the apartment, stopping several feet short of the end of her kitchen counter. Hayate sat at the end of the wall, alert but silent and motionless, his dark eyes focussed on the open room beyond. He looked up and back as Roy approached, his tail wagging once before stilling again.
Roy crouched beside the dog, still halfway behind the wall, ruffling his ears reassuringly… and watching concernedly as Riza paced slowly across the room away from him.
The lights were all off, the only illumination coming from a shaft of mingled moonlight and streetlamp glow through a window, but it was enough to see her clearly. She walked with her left hand on her hip, the right arm wrapped across her chest to allow her hand to massage the back of her left shoulder. Her fingertips were lodged deep into the muscle, moving slightly as she worked at whatever knot she had found. Sympathy flooded Roy’s chest as he stood, stepping around Hayate into the main room.
“Hey, you.”
She gave a slight start when he spoke, though he kept his voice low, turning to face him a second later. Her hand immediately dropped from her shoulder, a reflexive smile appearing on her lips. “Hey yourself,” she answered quietly. “What are you doing up?”
“Could ask you the same thing,” he countered. Tucking both hands into the pockets of his sleep pants, he started across the room toward her, watching mild guilt flicker briefly across her face. “I know you’re an early riser, but this is pushing it a little, don’t you think?”
“Maybe just a bit,” she agreed, the reflexive smile more genuine now. “Go back to bed; I’ll be there soon.”
Roy stopped in front of her, watching her expression closely. “Now, why don’t I believe that?” He cast a pointed look at her shoulder. “Something keeping you from sleeping?”
“It’s just a muscle knot; I’m fine.” Her tone was patient, but didn’t quite match the look in her eyes. “It’s because of the injury I got from fighting Envy, that’s all.”
That part, at least, rang true for him… but not her insistence that she was all right. He held still, his stance still casual, his eyes still watching for any minute clue. “That would cause a problem or two, wouldn’t it.” He waited a beat, before continuing. “Although, if I recall correctly, muscle pain like this has never had you pacing the floor at two in the morning. This is different.”
“Roy, I’m fi–”
“You can keep saying that, but I’m still going to know there’s something you’re not telling me.”
She stared him down a moment longer, before looking away, irritated. Roy knew that if it really came down to it, he didn’t have a chance of out-waiting her – no one out-waited a sharpshooter – but if he could wear down her excuses enough….
“There’s… some muscle soreness across the top of my back as a result of the knot that's referring forward to my chest,” she said, not quite muttering but clearly unwilling to speak. “And over my shoulder toward my arm. I was just… concerned about it.”
“Enough that you couldn’t fall asleep?” She nodded, and that same sympathetic feeling began easing through his chest again. “Okay. Is that the only reason, or…?”
The look she gave him from the corner of her eye was evaluating, deciding what and how much to say… and he saw the moment she abandoned the idea of keeping everything to herself.
“Can you… would you mind listening to my heartbeat for a minute? To make sure it’s normal?”
The question caught him by surprise, but the sincere – if somewhat embarrassed – tone behind it kept him from asking why. “…Sure, if that’s what you need.”
Riza settled to a seat on the edge of her kitchen table, sitting straight, with her hands folded loosely in her lap. Standing close, Roy bent, placing an ear to her chest. A steady rhythm greeted him, a noticeable pause between each pair of soft thuds and the quiet rush of her breathing underneath. He had heard the sound any number of times, lying close beside her, had used it to reassure himself she was all right in the hospital after the Promised Day. He listened for several seconds, thenu straightened with a smile.
“Completely normal.”
The look she gave him was skeptical. “It feels too fast, to me.”
“Okay, well –” He bent again, and this time, kept one eye on the clock on the wall. For ten seconds, he held still, working the mental math…. “I make it… seventy-two. That’s right in the middle of the average heartrate for adults.” As he stood tall again, he paused to press a kiss to her forehead. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
Again, that skeptical look, this time partnered with a small shrug. “A month ago, in the hospital, they were clocking my resting heart rate at fifty-seven.”
“…Your normal is fifty-seven?” Roy echoed. When she nodded, he added, “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised; probably comes with being as good a shot as you are… but that’s also your resting heart rate. Seventy-two is your heart rate after -” He started ticking points off on his fingers. “– you’re overtired from not being able to sleep, with muscle pain, stressing yourself out, and pacing the floor for however long.”
He settled a hand on her cheek, leaning forward to press a second gentle kiss to her forehead. “You’re fine, love. I promise.” When he pulled back, he made sure to meet her gaze as he added, “If I thought there was something even slightly wrong, you know how fast I’d move to get you help. Right?”
Her smile was small, just on the edge of embarrassment. “Right. I suppose I just got stuck in my own head over it.” Reaching forward, she took his free hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Thanks for helping get me out.”
“Anytime.” His head tilted to one side, still watching her. “This is new, though, isn’t it? I can’t recall you ever really getting that wrapped up in worrying about yourself like this.”
Riza was already nodding by the time he finished the sentence, the motion accompanied by a rueful smile. “It’s very new,” she admitted. “Say about… ‘three times in the last month’ new.”
He felt his eyebrows raise in surprise. “So this has been going on since the hospital – no.” Things began clicking into place… and Roy began to get a sneaking suspicion of just how much she had been hiding from him. “Not the hospital stay; the Promised Day.”
Again, that nod and rueful smile. “Since about the time I nearly….” She trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence; Roy wasn’t sure he wanted to relive the particular memory anyway. They were both silent for a moment before she added, “I’ve been putting it down to it being a normal thing after an experience like that. You survive, but you start noticing all the little everyday issues you ignored before… and maybe worrying if they’re a symptom of a bigger issue.”
“Ah, I see. And so, the referred pain from a muscle knot and a slightly faster pulse becomes a concern that there’s some kind of heart problem.” His hand rested on top of her head as he bent to eye level. “I can understand that. Sometimes, if I wake up at night and it’s dark enough, I wonder for a second if my eyesight’s gone again.” He smiled ruefully. “There were a couple nights I slept with the light on, just to make sure.”
Riza nodded, his hand slipping free. “That would be worrying. I suppose we both have cause to be a little concerned for ourselves… and neither of us are very good at talking about it.”
“We really aren’t.” He stood straight, moving past her around the table. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t keep working to recover. And in the interest of that – lie back for a minute.”
“…On the table?”
He grinned. “Trust me.”
Lying back on the table, her legs still dangling over the opposite end, she looked up at him expectantly. For a moment, he just stared at the way her hair fanned across the surface, the way the faint light from the window reflected in her eyes, the slight part to her lips….
He slipped his fingertips beneath her left shoulder, probing gently as he searched for the knot… there. The supple give of her skin beneath the loose sleep shirt covered an unnatural solidness, a stiffness that, as he felt carefully toward the centre of her back, carried along the muscles.
“Oh, definitely something there….” He absently stared off across the room, continuing the gentle exploration. “This is a bad one, too….”
“You see why I was concerned,” she answered, grimacing slightly at another press. “But if – ouch –”
“Sorry.” He adjusted his fingertips against the knot. “Deep breath, Riza; I know it hurts, but breathe through it.” He waited as she inhaled, increasing the pressure for a moment before the exhale slackened it. Some of the stiffness faded out of the muscle, and he nodded. “Good. Again.”
He kept his focus on the main part of the knot as she breathed, trying not to wince along with her as he carefully dug his fingertips a little deeper in the hardened tissue. He hated the idea that it hurt… but both of them knew it was the fastest way to relieve the problem. Roy held still, watching, waiting until she was midway through the exhale before his fingers moved in a fast, tight circle.
The startled, pained noise she made was somewhere between a squeak and a yelp, and sympathy constricted his chest at the way her teeth clenched, her eyes tightly shut. At the same time, a chill crawled across his scalp at her expression; it was too similar to her grimace as alkahestry stopped the bleeding from her neck on the Promised Day.
It faded quickly, the noise of pain changing to one of relief, and she relaxed fully at last. Those brown eyes opened, looking up at him, lit by the smile that curved her lips.
“Better?”
“Much.” She sat up carefully before getting to her feet, rolling her left shoulder experimentally. “It still hurts a bit, but I think that’s just residual from the knot letting go.”
“Probably.” Leaning both hands on the table, he let his eyes wander over her body, a smirk slowly forming. “And hey… since we’re both awake anyway… I’m sure there must be something I could do to help you continue relaxing.”
“And I’m sure that we’re both going to be tired enough tomorrow without throwing that into the mix,” Riza retorted dryly.
“Which, I’ll point out, is a valid reason to not go to work.” He hadn’t moved, still watching her, although his expression had lost some of its mischief. “How about a compromise: we both get some sleep now, but you take tomorrow off with the also valid reason of taking care of a shoulder still recovering from being wounded a month ago. I’ll go in to the office, but since I’m going to be doing extra handwriting to cover my own work and some of yours, maybe one of my own injuries –” He held up a hand, showing the mostly-healed scar on his palm. “– happens to start acting up around noon and I take the rest of the day off.”
She watched him as he spoke, her head tilted slightly as she considered the idea. “…And then you would come back here?”
The sly smile returned. “If you want me.”
There were another few seconds of consideration, before she nodded. “All right. On one condition.”
“Name it.”
A small, sly smirk of her own curved her lips, brown eyes mischievous in the dark. “Buy a lady dinner, to speed recovery?”
For a moment, Roy just stared at her. “…That’s it?” He watched her nod, still not quite believing it. “That’s all it takes to convince you to take a day off?”
“It didn’t convince me, it’s just an incentive.” Riza shrugged slightly, visibly shortening the motion to avoid aggravating her shoulder. “Much as I hate to admit it, you’re right. I wouldn’t be at my best with that little sleep, and while I’ve pushed through it in the past….” There was a brief hesitation, the mischief gone and replaced by something close to uncertainty. “In light of everything that’s happened… maybe I ought to do that a little less.”
“Good.” Standing straight, he came around the table, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “I’ve been trying to get you to do that for years. And it’s an excellent reason to get dinner for you.”
“Thank you.” She started them toward the bedroom, her arm wrapped around his waist. “My shoulder already feels better, and I’m sure the rest and ‘relaxation’ –” She smiled at the repetition of his euphemism. “– tomorrow will help take it the rest of the way.”
Roy pressed a kiss to her temple, dropping his tone to the low, soft tone he knew she loved. “I promise to provide the best care possible, for a faster recovery… as many times as necessary.”
“Might take a few,” she teased.