Okay, so this is the first fanfiction I've ever posted on , so don't hate me if it's bad. But I would love some feedback, but if you don't want to it's still cool. You read it right? And that's what I like.
A mouse. It had to be a mouse.
Why couldn't he have been turned into something more practical? Being turned into an animal at all is already downright pathetic, but if your superior officer and partner is going to be turned into an animal, you'd want something useful. Maybe something like a tiger that's fierce, or a gorilla since they're so similar to humans.
But no, the dang alchemic witch that they were hunting just had to turn Roy into a mouse.
Riza Hawkeye stared at her once very tall superior, involuntarily inspecting his small body, white, furry ears and long tail. No one would even recognize him as once being the famous Colonel Mustang now, only Riza would know because she had actually seen him be transformed.
It had all happened so fast to Riza, though like usual, she acted formerly and swiftly throughout all of it. Except for when Roy had been changed, she had panicked then. But that's not the point, the point is that she handled everything before the transformation, very well. They had heard of a state alchemist who was beginning to use her abilities and research to transform people into animals temporarily and not through making them chimeras. She was then keeping people hostage and using them for her studies. Mustang and Hawkeye had been sent off together on this mission, imagining it to be like any other one, where they would find the culprit and put her to justice. They'd come home happy, finished and be back off to the boring, everyday paperwork.
That had not been the case of course. The witch had hidden a transmutation circle under the rug Roy had been standing on, and poof, he was an adorable mouse.
"I can't believe this," Riza whispered for the 17th time.
The Roy, now turned mouse, stared up at her with large, black eyes. Riza would have to admit that he was cute, but she admitted to herself on the inside that he was much cuter with blue eyes instead of black, lifeless ones. She missed his tall body and muscled frame, she missed those glove covered hands and devious smirk.
Riza turned her attention away from the mouse, attempting to try and distract her attention from missing him. She instead looked out at the moving window of the rickety carriage they were being pulled through across the countryside of amestris. The witch just happened to have lived very far out in a rural, isolated area, and the closest town was a few hours away. Riza had just happened to catch a carriage passing by, and now her and her mouse colonel were riding in it towards the small village, where she hoped there would be an inn. It was almost dark, and they hadn't caught the witch. They had been temporarily defeated, and Riza hated the feeling.
Riza turned her eyes away from the passing scenery to look at the mouse. Riza felt helpless, which was something she did not feel often. Riza considered herself a strong woman, and was very proud in her independance. But when her precious Colonel was gone, she often felt very alone and helpless inside, much like in that moment.
"Colonel?" Riza whispered to the mouse, in hopes he would respond. Nothing. "Colonel? Colonel Mustang?" Still, there was nothing. His nose just twitched and his black eyes just darted around the room of his small cage. Riza swallowed. "Roy?"
Nothing. She had hoped he would respond to his first name, something she did not often call him. But instead of looking at her, his eyes darted to her knapsack. Riza sighed, exasperated and defeated. He smelled the food that she was carrying inside. Riza, feeling rejected, reached into it and grabbed a small crumb of cheese, before handing it to the small Colonel. He nibbled it gladly, and Riza looked away.
"I guess you can't understand me then." There was no response from the mouse, and Riza would've normally taken that as a sign to shut up and maybe try to take a nap. But Riza continued to speak. She wanted to continue to talk to the little mouse, because for some reason, she felt that if he could not understand her, that she could tell him as much as she wanted. "Of course you can't understand me," She whispered, frowning. "You're a mouse. A goddamn little mouse that wanted cheese."
Riza sighed and pulled out the clip that held up her hair, letting the blonde locks fall to her shoulders. If the Colonel couldn't understand her, then she would do as she pleased. Riza took off her jacket, since the carriage was hot, revealing her bare arms. She stretched out in the seat and relaxed against the cushion. She let her eyes flutter closed, hoping to clear her mind and let herself take a nap before arriving at the inn. But she found herself thinking of Roy. Roy the mouse. The mouse that had caused all this trouble for her.
"What a troublesome mouse you are," Riza whispered. "You've done nothing but made our mission last longer. Not that it's your fault of course Colonel." Why was she talking to him? He couldn't understand her, he was a mouse now.
Riza leaned over and put her head in her hands, propping her elbows up on her knees. "You know, you're cute as a mouse. But I've always found you cuter when you were human." There was no reaction from the mouse, he just continued to eat his cheese. So Riza took that as a sign that she could talk all she wanted, and nothing would come of it.
"I've always found you handsome. Sometimes, at work, when you're not looking, I like to admire you. Watch you do your work, or when you try to at least. I like the way your dark eyebrows scrunch down when you're thinking really hard." The colonel looked back at her knapsack. He wanted more cheese. Riza sighed and grabbed more cheese for him, handing him a nibble.
"You've always wanted to eat a lot. Even as a mouse." Riza laughed at this to herself. "You're funny like that. You love food, though sometimes you forget meals because you're working too hard. I know you're a hard worker Colonel, even if I sometimes nag you for not working enough. I know you work. I just like to nag you." Riza smiled. "Because when I nag you, you get annoyed. Or afraid. And I find it humorous how adorable you can be with those emotions."
"You're easy to talk to as a mouse. You don't talk back. And you don't listen. But in a way, I guess you do. It's so much easier than when your human, I'd never tell you these things when you were human. But I miss you. I miss everything about you. I hope you change back Roy, because I'll be devastated if you don't." Devastated. I already am devastated. I've been devastated.
"Roy, I wish I had the strength. The strength to tell you how much I love you, to tell you things like this when you're human. But I probably never will." Riza looked away, back out towards the window. "I wish I had the strength to call you by your first name, to not be afraid of the fraternization laws. If I wasn't afraid I'd tell you so much."
The tree's outside continued to pass by, and the sky started to turn a shade of purple and red. The sun was setting.
"I'd tell you that I love you. I'd say, I love you Roy. I've always loved you. I've always watched you from afar, watched you date countless women and throw them away. And all I've ever thought was, 'Why can't that be me? Why can't I be the one that he holds in his arms and kisses?' But I know the answer Roy. I love you too much. I love you so much that I would rather watch you be happy without me and I suffer than tell you this and find out that you really don't love me back. I'd rather suffer than break the fraternization law. Because I want you to gain your dream and become the leader this country deserves. I want you to be happy Roy. I want you to live, and to love, and to become the Fuhrer. I will stay by your side forever, but I'll stay by your side at a distance, always protecting, but never speaking."
The mouse stopped eating and closed its large black eyes, curling up into a ball. It had fallen asleep. Riza swallowed down a cry, and realized that small tears had fallen from her eyes. Riza rubbed her eyes and shook her head, trying to awaken herself and push away the sadness. It had felt good to get that off her chest, to tell someone. Even if that someone was a mouse who never listened, and only ate cheese and slept. Riza smiled, and slid back into the seat, stretching out across the cushion. She draped her coat across her chest, and fell asleep.
"Miss?" A firm hand was gripping her arm, shaking her awake. "Miss, we've arrived in the village."
Riza's eyes slowly fluttered open, attempting to adjust to the light of the lantern the man was holding. "S-sorry. We're here?"
The man nodded. "Yes, to the village as promised. There's an inn right over there for you." Riza thanked him, handing him some coins, and grabbed the colonel inside his cage. She stepped out of the carriage and onto the cobblestone path, looking around at the quiet village. There was hardly anyone around, as it was severely late, and lanterns lighted the pathways, hanging from street posts. The carriage drove away, and Riza was all alone with her mouse. Her colonel. Riza smiled at that thought. Her Colonel. He would never be her colonel. Her Roy. Just her superior, and that was it.
Riza began to walk towards the inn, when suddenly she was dragged down to the ground. The cage she was holding becoming very heavy, and as she desperately looked down, she saw that Roy the mouse was continually growing bigger. It was just like when he had been transformed, only the opposite. Riza held back a scream, but dropped the cage and backed away, holding her gun out in front of her tightly. She hadn't really remembered pulling out her gun, but it was in front of her, and she felt protected behind it all the same. As the colonel began to grow, the cage itself got bigger until it exploded into billions of tiny wooden pieces. Roy was slowly growing back into the man he once was, and Riza lowered her gun as she realized what was happening.
Roy stood before her, his black hair stuck to his forehead as sweat dripped down his face. He looked up at Riza, staring at her for a split second, before those blue eyes rolled into the back of his head, and Roy fainted, falling to the ground. Riza ran to him, wrapping her arms around his body and pulling him up.
"Damn," She whispered as she struggled to pull him up. She draped his limp arm over her shoulder as she attempted to drag him to the inn. Passing through the door, she was met with a bustle of activity, people helping her carry him. Many questions were asked, a blur of sounds running through Riza's ear and out the other. She just nodded, not knowing what to do with herself. She wasn't panicking, she was just shocked. "Don't- don't take him to a hospital, he's fine. He just fainted…" She rubbed her eyes and looked around, feeling slightly dizzy. "Just, just get me a room. Bring him to a bed and lay him down."
Over the next few minutes, Riza wasn't really sure what happened. She knew that she was led to a room with one bed and a bathing area. She watched as two men lay Roy down on the bed, and she distinctly remembered them asking if she needed anything.
Riza struggled to speak. "I-I…" She gulped, and then said the first thing that came to her mind. "I need a bath."
After that, she just found herself alone, laying in a warm bath, her body stripped and her blonde hair floating across the water. A room divider separated Riza from Roy and her bathing self, which she was glad for. He was asleep of course, but that didn't matter. Riza felt her mind begin to clear while she lay in the bath, and she finally was able to notice her surroundings. A lantern hung up above her, and fresh towels lay on a chair beside her. Riza sighed, happy that everything was now calm. She sunk deeper into the bathwater, stretching out her legs across the bath. She noticed a bottle of bubbles in the corner, and happily poured some into the warm water, letting the bubbles envelope her. She would enjoy her bath for a bit longer before the Colonel would wake up, then change back into her uniform.
Riza let her eyes begin to flutter closed as she played with her wet hair that floated innocently across the water. She felt herself begin to drift into sleep, when suddenly-
"Ahem."
Riza jumped, her eyes violently opening as she looked around the room, before looking to where the sound had come from.
It was Roy. Roy, Colonel Mustang, who was grinning while looking at her through a small gap in the room divider.
Riza screamed lightly, burying herself deeper into the water to cover herself up. "Close your eyes!" She demanded fiercely, which Roy laughed to and turned around.
"Sorry, sorry," He cried, laughing still. His chuckle was playful and innocent, and Riza mentally scolded herself for not getting out of the bath sooner. She knew Roy hadn't seen anything except her bare shoulders and legs, but still, she was extremely embarrassed. Riza immediately got out of the bath and wrapped her wet body in a white towel, before walking out from behind the room divider.
"I'm semi decent, I'm in a towel. Let me just get my clothes." She pulled her hair over to one shoulder and began to wring it out before sitting on the bed. Roy moved his hand from his eyes, and smiled at Riza goofily. Riza looked up at him with red cheeks and angry eyes.
"I said I was semi decent. That means you still don't look sir."
Roy gave her a goofy smirk, and pulled Riza off of the bed, placing his firm hands on her bare, wet shoulders. The were fairly close, looking at each other in the eyes. Riza stared up at the deep blue, and bit her lip, feeling her cheeks burn from embarrassment. They were so close that Riza could have moved up on her toes just a bit and kissed him, but she wouldn't dare do that.
"Sir?" She asked him in her formal voice, not daring to show any emotion from what had happened. She knew he didn't remember anything, but she didn't want him to suspect.
"Riza, did you really mean what you said in the carriage?"
Scratch that. He did remember. He totally remembered. He remembered, everything.
"Oh God." Riza's eyes went huge as the realization hit her. He knew. He knew everything. She was going to be fired, he hated her, there was no way he would let her stay with him now. Riza covered her face with her hands, panicking. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Sir, I'm so so sorry. I shouldn't have done that, it was informal of me, and I-" Riza's hands dropped from her face, and she looked up at Roy with fierce eyes. "You. You were a mouse. You were a GODDAMN MOUSE. You wanted cheese. I don't understand! How...what…" Riza looked down and covered her face again, her cheeks the color of cherries. "I can't believe this…" She squeaked. She felt desperate. Hopeless. Everything was over. Why did she have to be so stupid and go off telling all her secrets to a mouse?
Roy laughed gently, and he cupped her face in his kind hands. He leaned down to look into her eyes, and Riza's hands dropped. "You…" Roy stared at her, and it looked like he was trying to find the right words to say. "...are beautiful."
Riza wasn't expecting that, not at all. That was for certain. Riza's mouth dropped, and so many emotions were running through her head that she thought she might explode.
Roy swallowed. "And since you've already expressed your love for me, I guess it's my turn."
Suddenly, Roy's lips were being pushed against her own. Riza squirmed, confused. What was going on? Why was he kissing her? Riza knew she should rip herself away, that she should let go. This was fraternizing. On the job. On a mission. But she couldn't do it. She couldn't will herself to break up the one thing she had been craving for so long. Instead, Riza melted into the kiss, obliging to him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and his hands still cupping her cheeks. It was so great, so passionate, that Riza never wanted Roy to let go.
When he did, Riza let out a slight breath, sad for him to pull away. "Riza Hawkeye," Roy spoke, looking her straight in the eye. "The things you said, have always been the same for me. I love you. I have always loved you. I dated those woman because I thought they could distract me from you. I've always wanted you, you to be mine. I was always afraid of the fraternization law, always afraid that you didn't think the same thing. But I was wrong. I don't care about the law, if you are by my side, if you are there for me, if we continue to be close and to be in love like this, then I know I'll become Fuhrer."
Riza smiled, and wanted to cry. Instead, she kissed him again, crushing her lips against his own. It was short, fast, and more passionate than the first. Riza let go, and lay her forehead against Roy's, their noses touching. "I love you."
He smiled. "I love you too."
"I'm in a towel."
"I know."