Hey guys…pls. review, review, REVIEW!
If the first chapter goes well, I'm actually planning this to be a pretty long fic…
Bullets can take away life in an instant. They can release you of your burdens in the blink of an eye or they could let you wallow in you misery for hours, howling in pain.
That's how normal soldiers, casualties, victims and anyone who's ever had the misfortune of finding themselves in the path of one have seen them. In Riza Hawkeye's case however, it is the exact opposite. Her bullet and her gun are the symbols of life, her life at least.
She was the gun she held and everything else was a bullet. Every dream she's had to let go of, every loved one she's lost, and her very duty was a bullet. He duty most of all.
A bullet only travels straight. It has its own unique but fixed path that it never goes back on. The same was true for the person she was assigned to guard. He had nowhere to go but forward. She pointed him in the right direction and pushed him forward, only forward.
This was her job and she had been contented with it. She was as happy being the person i\on the sidelines. She knew her place and, as a bullet will never return to the weapon from which it came, she had long accepted the fact that one day he would leave her behind as well.
That is, she expected him to get somewhere better. Nothing had forewarned her of this.
As foreseen, he did disappear from his usual desk and his old subordinates. He did move away from them, from her but not because he was promoted, oh no, because he was demoted.
Oh the shame she felt, after devoting her entire career to lift his, this happens! He let her down, not only that, he embarrassed her. It was as if she had put all her effort in shooting only to have the bullet swing back at her.
Another bullet.
The loud bangs as the ammo left her weapon blocked out the rest of the world. In this narrow range she was alone to wallow in her self-pity. Everything else didn't matter at the moment.
It was already a quarter past eight and she still hadn't come in for work and she still didn't show any intention of going.
Behind her the phone rang continuously but she didn't hear, or maybe she just ignored it.
He would be coming back today. He actually had the nerve to show his face again. Worse, he would be reinstated to his former position of Brigadier General. Riza didn't really feel like seeing that, at least, not yet.
"No one's answering at the shooting range, sir." A blonde young man with unusual gravity-defying bangs saluted.
"Th-Thank you, lieutenant Havoc." The dark haired man behind his desk replied.
He brushed of over-imaginative hunches to the back of his head. "Maybe she's just tired." He tried to convince himself as he leafed through the paperwork he was reunited with.
At half past nine the door to their office creaked open and the first thing they heard were the cheerful barks of Black Hayate, the first Lieutenant's beloved dog.
He felt as if everyone in the room was holding their breath as they waited for her entire figure to come into view from behind the door. She entered without even raising her head in greeting and silently headed towards her own desk. She sat down and worked wordlessly.
His eyes never tore away from her, i for some greeting or any kind of acknowledgement of his presence, any at all. None came.
He let it go, shrugging off her lack of words as fatigue, and returned to his own work.
A quarter to eleven, it was almost lunchtime. The room began to empty but she stayed to finish the paperwork she had missed all morning. He stood silently over her table, waiting for her to look up, like she used to but she didn't. He coughed a bit to get her attention and she finally let her eyes meet his, reluctantly.
"Aren't you coming to the lunch hall?" He offered amiably.
"In a while. I need to finish this." She said blandly. He only knew her to have a flat voice so she had no problem pretending to be numb.
'Good ol' Riza, always work first.' He thought as he left the room.
After a while she finally did come down to the mess hall. She sat at the table where the rest of her unit were even if he was there too.
"Argh!" He exclaimed. "There's Cecilia…She's going to bug me again…" He winced as soon as he saw that a girl, much younger than himself, with bright scarlet lock and small rose eyes was headed his way.
"Then crawl back into you little frozen rabbit hole." Riza scoffed.
He took a quick glance at her but decided to pretend he didn't hear but everyone heard.
The perky young girl was getting nearer and he couldn't spot any way he could dash off to. He was going to get in line fro some more food but it was too late, she was standing right in front of him.
"Hi General!" She said in one of the most annoying tones anyone could ever have the discomfort of hearing.
"Uh, Hey."
"I'm glad your back…" She showed her teeth and leaned dangerously forward that Havoc was worried her head might fall off, which he would be more than happy to catch, come to think of it.
"Good to be back." He said coolly.
"I was wondering…since uh…you were too busy before…maybe we could uh….." She started…oh no… she started…
"The General is still very busy Cecilia. If you would like an appointment, you should have one arranged formally." Hawkeye found herself blurting out.
No sooner after she'd said it and Cecilia had scurried away, embarrassed, did she already regret it.
'Why on earth did I do that?' She kept asking herself. '…maybe it's just out of routine.' She told herself. If only she could convince the rest of those seated at the table.
"Thank you." He said politely.
"As always…" Fuery commented.
"hmmm… As always…"
Back at their office, aside from Black Hayate, the only one talking the rest of the day was the General, rather complaining more than really talking.
"The life of a common soldier was so much simpler!" He would say after a yawn. "No paperwork! Argh! Blasted paperwork!" He would whine…
As this went on, Riza was being driven over the edge.
"Bah! Too much is expected in a position like this!" He half boasted, half complained. That was the last straw. Before she could stop herself, she found herself yelling at the General.
"If you find it do troubling her, then who don't you just...just…" She trailed away when she caught herself.
"…go back to my little frozen rabbit hole?" The man behind the desk finished for her.
Not feeling in the mood to be submissive, she decided that if she had gone this far, she ahd might as well get this of her chest. Yes, four years of questions, regrets and frustration were about to be dumped on him. He had better be ready for this.
People had seen Hawkeye pissed before. They'd seen her sick and tired and they were used to her being moody…but no one had ever seen her actually angry. Not like this anyway.
"Yes, go back to that sad sack you call a post. That's where cowards like you belong!"
"Coward?" He said, not really taken aback, more of amused.
"Wipe that smirk off you face, you idiot! You don't even deserve to be seated there!" Between pants, she found the feeling in her words and he began to spot the passion in her eyes. It intimidated him.
"Do you know...?" She said hoarsely. "how embarrassed I was when I heard you'd been demoted? Do you know how they looked at me, after you left?" She started to stammer a little, only a little. The firmness in her tone prevailed.
"I was a laughing stock! After the reputation I'd gained as your babysitter, you go and do something stupid like run away!"
"I…I was transferred."
Really, as dramatic as this scene was becoming, it's spectators couldn't help but stifle their laughter. They had missed this expression in their superior's face, the expression of sheer terror and the fact that it was brought on him by a woman was truly amusing.
"Yeah right. I know. Don't you think I'd found out? You weren't transferred, you asked to leave! You fled the city to avoid the shame you'd have to endure. That…that was just pathetic Roy. You were just pathetic." She said the last couple of sentences with such weight that the chuckling subsided and was replaced by an eerie silence.
His eyes shot at the mention of his first name. He had only heard her say it only once before, when he was lying half dead on the Fuhrer's porch. Again, he felt as if he was half dead, or dying and this time she was killing him…murdering his pride.
At the end of her speech she was panting, her disgusted expression hiding the real feeling that had overcome her-shock. Shock and awe that she had summoned the nerve to do that.
Riza slumped back down on her chair without a word. Roy looked down at his desk and everyone else pretended to get back to work when they were really still eyeing the two, expecting their superior to break out in either a mad fit a song any moment now.
Thankfully, he didn't do either. Havoc's heart jumped for joy. (The last time he broke out in a n\mad fit he accidentally burned Havoc. The last time Mustang broke into song he nearly broke his eardrums.)
The whole room was in a hush for what seemed like an eternity until a sharp ratting on the door was heard.
A familiar, gray haired older man, maybe in his late forties, appeared by the door.
"Mustang, I have a job for you and you unit."
The one addressed stood up abruptly and saluted, but kept a smirk in his eyes.
"I just got back…Sir."
"Why else do you think we decided that this was the perfect time to reinstate you? You're the perfect man for the job." The superior toyed.
"Yes sir." He replied.
"Now, come in for your briefing." He summoned and then closed the door.
The filed out quietly, still hung over by the shock of the after-lunch catfight they had just witnessed.
She was the second to the last to leave and he was the last. He held the door for chivalry's sake (maybe not for its sake alone).
"Sir…" She began, intending to make a formal apology even if she didn't really mean it.
"You are excused." He said simply, not looking at her.