A/N So the first time I posted this, the formatting was completely screwed up. The problem should be fixed now, so I hope everyone can enjoy!
The doorway to the bar opens, forcing a chilly breeze to travel to where you are seated. A small bell on the door rings, alerting the bartender. A plump woman, with a cigarette constantly between her lips immediately starts pouring a whiskey for the man that has entered. They must know eachother. You've been to this bar a couple times before, but have never seen this dark haired gentleman.
The man sits down on an empty stool, and starts chatting with the woman on the other side, who has already delivered the whiskey to his seat. It isn't loud enough for you to hear very well, but the bartender calls something into the open doorway behind her. Another woman, who is younger and wears a tight dress with a deep neckline that shows off her breasts bounds out, and hugs the man. You still cant hear very well due to all the other customers chatting, but it sounds like she squeals, "Raaaaayy!" He smiles back at her, and she sits down in the stool to his left. A few seconds later, some more women, dressed similarly to the first, run out and hug "Ray". He smiles, sipping his whiskey, and rattles off hello to what is presumably a long list of names.
The girls all either sit or crowd around him, not bothering about how close they get to either Ray or the others. They laugh, meddle with Ray's scarf, and a couple even go as far as stealing sips of his dwindling whiskey. Many times, the women whisper things into his ear, and he smirks or looks shocked. Ray, meanwhile seems to relish the attention. His lips are drawn into a practiced smirk, and his black eyes shine whilst laughing along with the plethora of women throwing then selves at him. Don't they realize that Ray is using all of them? They can't possibly all think that they have a chance. The more Ray's smug, confident mouth opens to speak, the more you hate the cocky asshole. Who the hell does he think he is?
You look down at your half-finished beer, and the paperwork you brought with you to finish filling out. Ray's been wasting your time too. Not wanting to have to work at home, where your heating is broken, you turn to the small stack of papers that suddenly seemed to have multiplied in the time you were distracted. Hopefully your remaining half-pint can get you through the rest of this.
You begin to write down numbers and figures, filling your papers with dull, useless - seeming knowledge. Why do people care so much about such small, insignificant business details? It didn't matter. You get irritated at your irrational boss, and find your eyes wandering to Ray. He's still entertaining the crowd of oblivious women with a smirk on his face.
You don't know why, but looking at the scene in front of you unfold piques your interest. The simple strangeness of Ray and the women surrounding him seemed like a scene specifically designed to be looked at. Most men were not such obvious and public womanizers.
The bartender steps closer to Ray, and they start talking again. He had finished his drink, and she takes his glass away. Once she comes back with the bill, she smirks at seeing the annoyed look on his face. She holds her hand out, and he begrudgingly hands her some crisp bills. If he ordered so much, of course it would cost a lot. He can't expect everyone to give him special treatment. He then begins to say goodbye to all the girls, one by one. Strange, considering how none of them were going with him after all the drinking and flirting they had done.
Ray walks towards the door, towards you, and you hear the bartender shout to him in her gravelly voice. "Next time don't even expect me to give you half-off, Roy-boy!" Oh, so his name is Roy.
"Come on, Aunt Chris, give me break! Haven't I been kind to you in the past?" Aunt? Roy's Xingese looks don't resemble the bartender's at all. But that relation does explain why the two were so friendly.
"Have fun on your date." Another date?
"Ha ha." The dry, sarcastic laugh escapes Roy, "I hope you know that she and I actually have to get back to the office now to finish paperwork due at midnight. Like I would date her..." this next scathing comment comes out of his mouth as he rolls his eyes, pushes the door open, and looks over to a figure leaning on the outside wall of the bar. Another woman. One you guess Roy doesn't even like very much. So that's why he drank and flirted here. He can't with the one in the dark coat outside.
His face breaks into a smile as he steps next to her, and she pushes off of the wall. She starts walking away, and Roy begins walking next to her, close enough to see that they're walking with eachother, but far enough away that at most, they seem like coworkers. In fact, the woman seems like she wants to be as far away from Roy as she can without being too rude. Roy doesn't seem to be getting any closer either. Definitely coworkers.
Their backs grow smaller, and disappear behind a corner. You turn back to the pile of papers sitting in front of you. Now that the distraction is gone, you can get get something done.
By the time you leave the bar, it's almost 11:00. It's become even colder outside, and you wish you'd've brought gloves.
But despite the temperature, it's still a beautiful night, so you decide to take a walk. With that new plan in mind, you head toward the center of the city, hoping to see the giant fountain that's been decorated for the winter solstice.
You get there after a 10 minute walk, and once you reach the popular square which hauser the fountain, you quickly buy a hot cinnamon pastry, warming your hands up and providing a nice scent that almost covers that of the water.
Speaking of the fountain, that is the next place you head towards, instantly in awe of the shimmering blue lights adorning the dragon sculpture in the middle. The dragon spews water out of it's mouth, but the way the colored lights had been rigged behind it, the dragon looks like it it's spitting out fire. In the pool of the fountain, the lights on the bottom change color from purple to green, and then to blue.
All around are happy couples and artists sketching or painting the scene. You see one pair sharing a cinnamon pastry much like the one in your hand, and another who lean against eachother, looking warm and about to fall asleep.
You sit down on the edge of the fountain pool, and take in the scene. You smile at the sight of all the different couples, and you eat the sweet spiral of dough that's been warming your hands. It truly is a lovely night, you think maybe you should work outside of home more often for things like this.
You're almost finished eating when you hear a familiar voice and turn around.
"Keep your eyes closed. I told you this was a surprise," He's here again. Roy and his mystery coworker. They walk on your right towards the fountain.
"I know where we are, sir. I can hear the fountain and the festive music on the radio," The woman next to Roy says curtly, with her eyes closed and one hand holding his gloved one; still at such a distance that they could seem like close friends. Roy meanwhile, is staring at her with an excited grin on his face, looking like he wanted to step closer to the aloof woman.
"Come on, Riza. I promise you that this will be amazing," Roy tells her, now looking at the fountain they were about 10 feet away from. He stops walking. "Open."
Riza openw her eyes, blinks, and then drops his hand to put hers over her gasping mouth. She laughs, and runs closer to the water, her black trench coat billowing behind her. She then spins around, taking in her surroundings, a new smile appearing on her face, making her look 10 years younger.
"They look so beautiful! I... didn't know they lit them up yet!"
"You mentioned that you'd never seen them before, so I decided to finally show you now that we're back in Central," Roy grins, and his lopsided smile matches Riza's in terms of how evident his joy is.
"I think I mentioned that once in Ishval. And you remembered after all these years?" Ishval?
"You mentioned it twice actually. The time in Ishval, and once when we were teenagers," Roy and Riza now look completely different than they had before. The way they look into each others' eyes now is a stark contrast from the way they seemed to hate eachother earlier.
"I can't believe you would remember something as small as this," Riza brushes her bangs out of her eyes, then begins to faintly blush as she wraps her scarf around her tighter. Roy walks up to her, and takes both of her hands in his. Riza steps back, the smile melting off of her face.
"This is wrong." She breaks away and turns back towards the fountain, folding her arms around her. In an instant, the distance returns between them.
"Riza, there's nobody around paying any attention to us. Besides, even if they were, we don't know any of them," Roy steps beside Riza, trying to peer into her eyes with a reassuring look. Riza's gaze remains in the fountain pool in front of them.
"It's not alright, Colonel. If we even look like we're interested in each other, your reputation could be ruined and one of us would be court marshaled," you can barely hear Riza now, as her voice had dropped to almost a whisper.
"It's been a long time since we've been serving together. I think you deserve at least one happy moment," Roy replies, nudging Riza's shoulder so she'll look at him. The earnest smile had returned to his face, and his dark eyes reflected the blue lights. Riza turns her head towards Roy, but at the angle at which you were sitting, all you can see is her long blonde hair secured at the back of her head by a clip.
"Sir, I can't do this with-" Riza begins, but is cut off by Roy grabbing her hand.
"Riza, we have been through so much together. Too much. There have been so many perfect nights like this ruined by people who don't want us to be together. Your father, the military, hell, even ourselves. I have known you for fifteen years, Riza. Half of my lifetime and over half of yours. All of those nights, those 'almost' moments need to amount to something. I am damn tired of keeping quiet, keeping everything pent up inside. I know how I feel about you Riza, and I think I can read you well enough to know how you feel about me. Nobody here knows us. We're off duty at this hour. I think you deserve at least a little happiness. Just trust me, Riza." Riza doesn't move. She keeps looking at Roy, who now has a determined, resolute look on his face. While his smile had disappeared, his obsidian eyes shining bright with passion. Without smiling, Roy still looks at her like she is everything. The intensity of his gaze proves that he and Riza weren't just coworkers.
It seemed as though minutes pass before Riza pulls Roy into a tight embrace. He looks stunned, but soon hugs Riza back, and smiles. They stay like that for at least one minute, until Riza pulls away.
"Thank you for tonight, sir. I'm glad we were able to complete the paperwork in a timely enough fashion for a walk," Riza salutes Roy, and he awkwardly salutes her back.
"Me too, Riza," Roy replies, and seems to reach for her hand, before seeing her put both of hers into the pockets of her military trench coat, signaling that she didn't want to touch him.
How did she do a complete 180 that fast? "Bye Riza."
"Goodbye, Colonel Mustang." Riza turns away from Roy, and you see her expression. Her face doesn't seem expressionless, as it had before. Instead, she looks like she's holding back tears, and she walks briskly past you.
Roy looks crestfallen, and he puts his gloved hands in his own pockets before turning around and walking in the opposite direction as Riza.
So the two are coworkers? In the military? If so, then you aren't surprised that Riza's trying to stay out of a relationship. Just the other day in the paper, there was an article about how a second lieutenant got fired for an elicit affair with one of his superiors.
It seems like Roy and Riza obviously care about each other, so maybe Riza's doing them both a favor by letting Roy down easy.
After the couple has departed, you realize that the only reason you stayed glued on your seat was watching the couple like some sort of dramatic picture show. While you did feel a twinge of guilt in your chest for doing so, the couple was acting like one in a drama.
You take the bag your now - eaten pastry used to be in, and you throw it in the trash bin as you walk out of the square and towards your apartment. You have work tomorrow so you shouldn't have stayed out so late anyways.