A Night Out

A Fullmetal Alchemist Fanfic for AmestrianDog on dA.

A/N: Well, congrats to AmestrianDog for winning the Medieval Contest at FMA-ArtandLiterature! After this, I actually have two more fics to write for Lieutenant96 and CatsandKitties, who came in second and third. I'm really late with this one, so please forgive me. So now it's Halloween, and I have no power, but do have a laptop, so I'm typing on here. Why don't I have power? BECAUSE IT SNOWED 15 INCHES IN OCTOBER. I DON'T LIVE IN SIBERIA. WHY DID IT SNOW THIS MUCH? *sigh.* Sorry for griping. This is written in a strange style that Ivy (when you read this) will probably kill me for. Despite that fact, I can't bring myself to dislike it, oddly enough.

Ivy here. IT'S ALL MY FAULT YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN THIS YET. I'M SORRY. I AM SO SORRY. Forgive me T.T

Disclaimer: If I owned FMA, it would be living in the idea corner of my brain, never have come in contact with paper, and everyone would think I was insane for walking around going, 'Alchemy cannot create a human! Fools!'

They had just completed their latest mission – one in West City spent tracking down an alchemist who deserted – when someone – Riza couldn't remember who at this point (probably Havoc) – had decided they should all go out and grab a few rounds of drinks – together, as a team. Riza had been reluctant to join them – she hardly ever drank, and when she did, it was generally to wake up to a splitting headache – when the Colonel had given her puppy dog eyes – he looked just like Hayate when he did that, and she couldn't resist Hayate – and had said, "C'mon, Lieutenant. Let loose for once!"

She had decided to tag along for once – grudgingly, as she had wanted to spend the night with a book – and had gone with the boys – of course; she knew she would have been picking them all up anyway – to a new bar in downtown Central. It was called New Horizons – which Riza was now laughing about, thinking that it was a funny name for a bar – and the group had been shocked to find – though they shouldn't have been, it WAS called New Horizons – that it seemed to be a bar for people who hadn't had a drink before in their lives. There were kids – that one in the corner couldn't have been more than fifteen – with their friends – all acting stupid, as kids do – who were laughing, crying and shouting periodically – some were on the verge of a fist fight – and generally being loud.

The group had decided to stay – though they probably shouldn't have, they could have gone somewhere with people their own age – settled into a booth – two, actually – and had ordered a few drinks – Riza wasn't going to drink (due to the fact that she was usually the one driving everyone home), but her instincts said to have fun and let her hair down and she ordered a shot of scotch – and Havoc and Roy had decided to have a contest – which, in hindsight, should have shouted trouble to Riza. Theirs had been a drinking contest – was there any other kind at a bar? – with simple parameters – lest they forget what they had decided once they were drunk.

They had started out slowly – two drinks for each Havoc and Roy – and downed them without difficulty – though these were only the first of what Riza had then known would be many. Not even ten minutes later – not that anyone was still able to read a clock – both Havoc and Roy were slurring their speech, - not that anyone was surprised by this – and even Riza herself was starting to feel tipsy – maybe she shouldn't have had that last shot – she couldn't remember how many she'd had now.

She'd lost all coherent thought after a few shots, and was currently poking Fuery – who was apparently a lightweight, seeing as he was passed out – after his second shot, nonetheless – trying to see if he would – as she put it – 'fix Ha'te'. It wasn't hard to guess who she thought was a dog – the colonel was currently being pet on the head by his second-in-command –his voice sounded like a growl, and he was shaking his head rapidly – almost like he was a dog trying to dry himself off after being in the rain – which, coincidentally, was what the colonel did after getting wet.

The colonel, for his part, was surprisingly steady on his feet – though it really shouldn't have been surprising, seeing how often he had frequented bars after Hughes' death, after Ishval and – though he'd never admit it – after the Promised Day. He couldn't help himself – he kept seeing her – her threatening to shoot him and then herself, her pistol jamming, her bleeding out on the floor in front of him – and no matter how many shots – he had kept drinking, even when the bartender told him he should probably stop – he couldn't forget any of it. Not the blood, not anything – and the memories were eating him alive – he couldn't do anything, nothing at all, and he became that evil word – the one she called him when he tried to fight in the rain – useless. Not that he could have thought that out at this point – he was far too drunk to do that – but he had had those thoughts before, whenever he tried to sleep – and all he could concentrate on now was the fact that Havoc was still drinking – so he had to continue, too – and the felling of her hand rubbing his head slowly. The shouting people, the possible bar fight – that didn't mean much to him right now. All he could think about were Havoc – he took a shot – and her damned hand – and he wouldn't be the one responsible for whatever happened if she kept rubbing his hair.

Twelve minutes later – Havoc wasn't coherent enough to speak, let alone take another drink – and she was STILL rubbing his hair, so he picked her up – more like dragged her with him, ignoring her cry of surprise – and left the bar, off to find a cab somewhere.

Havoc, on the other hand – who was apparently well enough to realize Roy had left – declared himself the winner of their contest – though there wasn't anything to be won from it – it was now early, rather than late, and most of the bar's patrons had left – so there was nobody left to congratulate him – with the exception of a surly Breda, an unusually happy Falman, and Fuery – who was still passed out.

When the waitress came over demanding that they leave, because did they realize she still had to go to another job today – Havoc – who was apparently sober enough to realize she was a human being –– and a female one, at that – asked her out. Or tried to - but it came out something like, 'Who go ow wit mee?'

The waitress just stared at him – shocked, innately – until Falman cheerfully explained – or tried to, anyway – that "Ha'oc jus' wans a dat!" When the shocked – and probably traumatized – waitress just stood there, Havoc tried to put a – possibly consoling – hand on her shoulder, but – due to his state of inebriation – his hand landed slightly lower.

And that is the – rather pathetic, don't you think? – story of Havoc got himself kicked out of – another – bar in Central.

A/N: Like I said, can't bring myself to dislike it, even though I'm not even sure it deserves to be liked… Well Todd, do you like it? I'm pretty sure that's all that matters to anyone. XD Congrats again! Reviews, comments, criticism, all are loved.

97 HYPHENS T.T