Bonds (Part 2 - Redhead)

Two days had passed since Roy and Riza became friends, but still, the primary objective of Roy was not fulfilled. He was outside the Hawkeye residence, hoping that Berthold will come out one day. Because now Riza was spending more and more time with Roy and Hikari, the white furry puppy, Matilda had no choice but to stay alongside Riza. And gradually she grew fond of Roy. Riza used to bring board games outside and played with Roy and Matilda.

On an evening, Riza was playing with Hikari on the road in front of her house while Roy was reading a book at his usual place. Meanwhile, two boys of age around 13-14, in their suspender pants and round neck t-shirt approached Riza while she was playing with Hikari. One of the boys was a redhead while the other one was a black haired.

They slowly walked toward Riza and stood behind her. Riza was so involved with Hikari that she didn't notice that two boys were standing behind her. But when Hikari acted aggressively and started barking while looking behind Riza, then Riza turned around to find out the reason. She instantly recognized the two mischievous boys who bully her whenever and wherever they find her. So, she quickly stood up and moved away few steps from them, maintaining some distance in between. Both the boys were smiling like the devil while looking at Riza. Then the redhead boy said,

"Look who it is. Where is your nanny, Riza?" He said with all the intention of making her cry out of fear

The plan of those boys was working as they expected. Beads of sweat were appearing on Riza's forehead, clearly exposing her frightened state. Meanwhile, the black haired boy slowly moved toward Riza with an evil grin stuck on his face, and with each step, he was taking forward, Riza was taking the same number of backward steps.

Hikari who was standing beside Riza and continuously barking at the two boys leaped toward the black-haired boy in order to bite him. But unfortunately, he was just a puppy, he was cute but not ferocious, even though he was trying. Both the boys started laughing when they saw the puppy's actions, and within a moment, the redhead boy held him and picked him up.

When Riza saw that, she ran to protect Hikari, but she was held by the black haired boy before she could reach Hikari. The redhead then put Hikari in a small drum present there and started poking him with a thin branch of a tree. The redhead was enjoying watching Hikari in pain.

The black haired boy also felt the urge to accompany his friend, and he left Riza by pushing her on the ground. When Riza tried to protect Hikari, both the boys blocked her to see the puppy. She could only hear the puppy's cry which was making her anxious. And then suddenly, she heard a familiar voice,

"What do you think you are doing?"

Roy was standing at a distance like a hero to the rescue. When both the boys looked toward Roy standing confidently, they stopped hurting the puppy. Now their full attention was toward Roy. And getting the chance, Riza rushed toward Hikari to save him but, she was pushed back by the redhead. She fell on the ground due to the force. Meanwhile, Roy was slowly walking toward the boys like a badass. The boys thought because they had numbers on their side, they could easily take on Roy. With overconfidence, the black haired boy tried to provoke Roy and said

"Who are you? Riza's part-time nanny?"

Both the boys started laughing after mocking Roy, but they received an even more provoking reply,

"What if I am? At least I am not some douchebag who likes to hit girls or torture puppies for fun" Roy said in a very calm tone

Roy was successful in enraging both the boys. They charged toward Roy with the thin branches with which they were poking Hikari. The redhead first attacked Roy with the branch, but Roy dodged it and punched him on his face. When he disconnected his punch, the black haired boy pushed Roy on the ground. Roy fell on his back, but he was not alone to fall. The redhead boy was on the ground and his nose was bleeding due to the damage from Roy's punch. When the black-haired boy saw the bleeding nose of his friend, he was panicked for a moment and was distracted from his fight with Roy,

"Your nose!" He said with fear in his eyes

Roy took the advantage of the distraction and punched the black haired boy on his guts. The black haired boy held his stomach. He fell on his knees, joining his defeated friend and started groaning. Roy then stood up like a hero and shrugged off the dust from his shirt while giving a warning,

"I hope you learned your lesson," He said very casually

Both the boys stood up, one holding his bleeding nose and one holding his belly. When they fled away, Riza came to Roy holding Hikari in her arms,

"Thank you, Roy," She said with a smile

"You are welcome" Roy responded back with a smile

"I wish I could fight like you" She sounded like a bit disappointed in herself

"Well I don't know much fighting, but I can definitely teach you how to land a punch though" He chuckled because of the complement

"Really?" Riza got excited

"We are now friends after all. Aren't we?"

"Yes," She said with a smile

It was already evening so, she put Hikari on the ground and ran toward the house. While leaving, she assured both Roy and Hikari to meet them later

After sometime when the sun was set and a half moon was shining in the sky, Roy was sitting at his regular position with Hikari. While inside the house, it was a rare moment when Berthold and Riza were sitting on the dining table after he finished his dinner, for some conversation. Riza never felt comfortable talking to her father, because he rarely spent any personal time with her. The only times he talked to Riza was when he was teaching her or if there was something important to discuss. He homeschooled Riza, because of which Riza had no friends of her age.

The environment in the dining table was very tense, where Riza was staring at the table and Berthold was looking at her daughter. Matilda was also forbidden to get involved when Berthold was talking to Riza, so she was in the kitchen. And suddenly, the silence broke when Berthold spoke,

"You should stop feeding that boy. If you keep feeding him, he won't leave this place and it's not like he is doing any work to deserve the food you provide him"

Riza was afraid to reply at first. But, she gathered some courage to defend the only friend she made around her age, and replied in a low voice,

"But he cleans the front of the house every day and, today he protected me from two boys who were hurting me. He just wants to learn alchemy from you, why don't you teach him… he is a nice person" She was hesitating with each word coming out of her mouth

"I think I have already made myself clear, I am not going to teach alchemy to anyone" He spoke with authority

Berthold then stood up and left, concluding the discussion then and there.

After some time, Riza and Matilda got out of the house with some food for Roy. When Roy saw them, he stood up along with Hikari, who started running around Riza's leg showing his happiness. Roy was expecting some food, but still, he tried to show some humility,

"I told you, you don't need to do this for me"

"You need strength if you want to learn alchemy from my father, don't you?" She said while handing over the meat pie and stew she brought with her.

Roy took the food and thanked her and Matilda. Matilda had some work, so she asked Riza to get inside as soon as she handed over the food to Roy. Riza patted the puppy on his head and went inside the house after saying "Goodnight" to both Roy and Hikari. Matilda locked the door with the extra key she had and left for her home which was just 700-800 meter away from there. Matilda also took leave from Roy by saying "Goodnight". Sometime later, everybody was asleep inside the Hawkeye residence, and Roy was sleeping at the verandah with Hikari beside him as usual. Roy was sleeping happily, unknown from the fact that someone was keeping an eye on him.

When the people who were keeping an eye on Roy were sure that everyone was asleep, they attacked both Roy and Hikari with surprise. They held them forcibly and closed their mouth so that they couldn't make any noise, and took them to some distance so that their voice couldn't get inside the house. There were 5 boys out of which 3 were quite tall, around 6 feet or more. The other two were the same boys who were bullying Riza that afternoon and got beaten by Roy.

One of the big boys was a redhead while the other two were dark haired. When they took Roy and Hikari near a tree at some distance from the house, the redhead boy grabbed Roy's jaw tightly while the other two were holding his hands. The redhead closed into Roy's face and said,

"So you are the one who beat my little brother?"

He then removed his hands from Roy's face and punched Roy on his face. He punched Roy 3 to 4 times more, covering the face with blood. Two boys who were holding Roy's hand left him after that. Roy fell on the ground thinking that they took their revenge, but he was wrong. All three of them started kicking him, covering him with bruises and blood. He was hurt so bad that even making some sound was difficult for him. Meanwhile, the small redhead boy spoke to his big brother while holding Hikari in his arms,

"What shall we do with this puppy?"

"Do as you please" He said with some halts as he was busy beating up Roy with his friends

The two small boys looked at the puppy for a moment and then, the red-haired boy slammed Hikari on the ground and started kicking him. The puppy was groaning in pain. Meanwhile, the big boys had stopped beating Roy, who was still conscious…more like in half-dead state.

Right at that moment, he was feeling more pain in watching Hikari beaten to death. He was continuously saying them to stop in a very low voice but, the two boys were not stopping. After some time, Roy lost his consciousness while closing his eyes looking at Hikari getting beaten by those two boys.