Chapter Text
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Is this
Is this recording?
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Your name and date of birth
for the record
please
XXXXXX born in XXXXXX
at XXXXXXXX Amestris
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Should I
Should I start now?
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Should I just speak or
will you ask questions?
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The first day we met, I was at the library. I was thirteen back then, merely a child. It was my last year of middle school and I was always cramming at the library. I love books. I always had. So, when I wasn’t at school, I was at the library. I was a discreet, solitary kid. Books were my best friends. Until he was.
I was thirteen back then, merely a child. A small child. Not very handy when I wanted that one book on the highest shelf.
“Is this one you want?”
I saw his hand before I saw his face. Firm and confident, pulling out the book from this high. I saw the cover of the book and his fingers before I saw his face.
“Ah yes” I remembered I blushed, I wasn't at ease around people “Thank you, mister…?”
It was then I turned my head to look at him. And I saw.
Beautiful.
Beautiful was the first word that came to mind when I saw him. His dark eyes, his dark hair, unkempt, messily falling before his eyes, his smile. I remember he was wearing classy clothes too, I can't describe them so many years later but I know the tie surprised me.
“Roy” he giggled and shook his head and the word (beautiful) echoed in my mind “I'm not old enough for you to call me mister” he smiled and his smile was so warm and spontaneous “It was a pleasure, my lord.”
In a story, we would have bonded some more. Shared a table. Talked. But we were five years apart. He was a busy young man and I was just a child. So our first encounter ended on the brightest smile from the first person in my life who called me a lord.
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I saw him around. Now I had acknowledged the beautiful classy Roy, I couldn't not notice him when he was around. Most of the time, I don't think he saw me. There were always so many books on his table, he was frowning and rubbing his chin while reading, frowning and rubbing his forehead while writing. I looked at him. A lot. I was finding him fascinating. Not because of his looks. But because of the complicated books he was studying. I never learnt or practiced alchemy. But all the symbols and strange knowledge were so interesting.
Beautiful.
Smart.
But, sometimes, he noticed me. And when he did, he always had a nice word, a little time to spare. He talked to me about his alchemy studies, taking time to explain, I was telling him about the stories I had been reading. I don't know what he was thinking of me. Five years are such a huge gap between thirteen and eighteen. I was a child, he was a man. He wasn't looking at me the way he was looking at the women his age.
But he always called me his lord. Always.
This isn't a romance novel. No love at first sight. It took us time to bond. Months. Almost a whole year before I started to think of him as a friend. And when I graduated from middle school, he enrolled and started his training at the Military Academy.
I thought I was getting closer. But he was just walking on his own path.