AN. This fic was written as a request by AnimeFallingStar to be dedicated to her friend on her birthday
"Meticulous" and Other Moderately Impressive Words
His first impression when he entered the house? It was clean. Meticulously so, in fact, and he had to say that he was extremely relieved. Having heard the rumours of books towering higher than he himself stood and an intellect that made even Falman queasy and uncomfortable, it was certainly a load off of his mind. Jean Havoc was a man of strategy, of primal instinct and of, yes, somewhat average intelligence. He was not an idiot, by any means, but nor was he Einstein- nor was he, well, Sheska.
"C'min!" Came the call as he stepped in the door- unlocked, just as Maria Ross had mentioned that it would be while coaching him for their date. He shuddered involuntarily at the memory of his so-called 'training'. He never wanted to see another Scrabble board as long as he lived.
Meticulous. He remembered. Meticulously clean. Punctiliously, even.
"Sheska?" he called out, looking around the large empty room slowly, large bunch of purple flowers held tightly by the stems at a rather uncomfortable angle behind his back.
"Uhm, just you wait a minute! Won't be long!!" came the reply.
Havoc frowned slightly at the panic in her tone and this time chose to follow her voice through the door to his right. "Sheska?" he called again.
And there she was, halfway up a large flight of stairs with an awkwardly held stack of books in her arm. Her face was flushed with natural colour that darkened as she caught sight of him staring up at her and her glasses were propped precariously at the tip of her nose and slipping more and more by the second
"I –uhh- A little spring cleaning," she flustered as she caught her breath against the barrier. "I'll just be a minute and then we can go-o-oooooh!!"
In less than half a second, she was at his feet and as Havoc followed her with his eyes he found his head jerking so quickly that his neck made a familiar and painful cracking noise, which caused Sheska to flinch from her place on the floor.
"Oof," Sheska muttered pathetically, by way of meek apology, as she sat under her pile of books and the small sound inspired Havoc to act.
"Sorry," he said oafishly as he helped her up, paying no mind to the books still piled on the floor around them as he held her much smaller hand in his own, quite large. "I'd help you bring them up the stairs, but I have a feeling that that would be fairly superfluous."
He was right. If Sheska had reached the top of the stairs the only place to leave the books would have been on the landing. As she looked up regretfully she saw for, somehow, the first time the books that were already spilling out into the hallway.
"You're right," she agreed with a sad. "Superfluous indeed." A pause, then- "Sorry, Jean," she sighed slowly, almost flinching as she continued to stare at the books piling around her upper floor apologetically. "I meant to return some of them but I just- There never seems to be the time and anyway I- Hey, what are you doing? Jean?"
Havoc paused at the door, gathered books now safely in his arms. "Putting these back in the front room- is that right?" he asked, shrugging lightly.
Sheska breathed out a rueful sigh of relief. "Yeah. I was trying to clean up, but-"
"I think it's cute."
The simple comment caused Sheska to blink in surprise, her head bobbing up and down slightly and causing her glasses to do the same- bouncing once again rather precariously on the bridge of her nose. Absently, she reached up to fix them as she followed Havoc back into her front room. "You don't mind?" she asked and she was babbling, then. "Most people mind. Most people mind a lot. And I figure that maybe some people just aren't so big on reading, but who am I to judge, right? I mean, look at me!" Her cheeks coloured again when Havoc did not reply. "You mind, don't you? I knew you'd mind, that's why I moved them."
Havoc grunted slightly as he dropped the pile of books in place, then shook his head and laughed at the look on her face. "I think it's cute," he repeated. "I don't mind."
"I think most people I date are turned off by the fact that this could be their house in a couple of years- Wait, no! It's not like I'm saying that you have to marry me or anything! I just mean, like, well, it's a possibility for any couple! I just- just-"
He wanted to say something to ease her nerves but wasn't sure how to express it in a way that she'd appreciate, so instead he reached out and ruffled her hair with a grin. "Come on, Sheska. Let's go," he said, and that was all.
Sheska blinked rapidly in her confusion, large eyes batting furiously at him as though she thought somehow that the more times the image was sent and resent to her brain, the better chance she would have at understanding it- as though his words and actions were another of her complicated texts- a mastery of language, well-considered and put together with precision and grace with every word debated and deliberated over individually before it was set to paper. He wasn't, of course. He was just "Havoc". Just him.
"Come on, Sheska. Let's go."
He was at the door again now, repeating those words. How many times had he said them to her? Three? Four? Or was he repeating them only in her mind? Still unconsciously trying to find a hidden meaning in them. She may have continued to stare unresponsively in such a way had he not suddenly moved back through the door and toward the staircase again. He'd forgotten something, he called over his shoulder and she merely nodded blankly, though she couldn't seem to recall his having brought anything with him.
While he was gone, Sheska pulled herself together. She readjusted her glasses, smoothed her hair and even went so far as to reach up a hand to ensure that her cheeks were cooling appropriately and quickly. They were. He returned and she smiled at the flowers he held out to her.
Hydrangea macrophylla.
How sweet. How thoughtful.
She immediately felt the need to say something profound in response.
"Hydrangea macrophylla," she recited, smiling warmly. "'A symbol expressing love, gratitude and enlightenment. It is said that the observer can easily get lost in its abundance of beautiful petals, and thus gets lost in one's own thoughts – propitiating higher thought and reaching enlightenment.' How appropriate!"
Now it was Havoc's turn to blink in confusion. "Okay. I'm- glad you like it, Sheska."
"Oh, I do! It's perfect!!" Sheska agreed happily and hastily. "I'm going to put them in some water and then we can go and get lunch somewhere!!"
She ran off again and Havoc began to get nervous. He hadn't even known the name of the flower- he had just thought that they were pretty and that'd she'd appreciate it on triviality alone, not on some deeper unspoken sentiment- beyond not only his intentions but also his knowledge.
"Okay! I'm ready!!"
Havoc looked up and smiled widely. She was wearing one of the blossoms in her hair now and he realised with some surprise that it was the exact colour, or close to, the colour of her lilac sundress. "It looks- you look really pretty, Sheska."
Sheska smiled too as she checked herself in the hall mirror on the way out the door- the hair that Riza had straightened and styled, the dress that Maria had chosen and paid for outside of both her knowledge and will- she looked beautiful and for the first time in a very, very long time, she felt it too.
As far as lunch went, there was brief talk of a well-known Xingese joint but in the end it was burgers and milkshakes. A casual, out of the way café that both were surprised to learn that the other frequented. An addition to the pleasant surprise and the "small world" theory that both were evolving was the sight of another couple, known to both of them, at a nearby table.
"Miss First Lieutenant!"
Riza glanced up from her meal guiltily, raising her dark sunglasses and removing her floppy sunhat as she was caught out. "Having a nice lunch, Sheska? Havoc?"
"'Miss First Lieutenant, what are you doing here?"
"Having lunch," Riza replied simply, nodding across the table toward her partner, whose face was buried in the sports section of the Central Times.
"Roy Mustang!! You sly dog!!" This, from Havoc, rather than from his date.
"What are you talking about, Havoc? You're not the only one who can get a date." And this, from the infamous Colonel Mustang as his newspaper lowered.
"Have you been watching us?"
Sheska blushed deep red at the thought.
"Sheska," Riza digressed purposefully, "That is a lovely flower in your hair, where did you get it?"
The blush deepened again here.
"Jean gave it to me," she said, not sure whether she was amused or angry with her superior officer.
"It's beautiful," Riza offered with a smile.
"Well yes," said Sheska. "But did you know that the hydrangea is a symbol of-"
"Sheska, do you wanna take a walk with me?"
Sheska blinked steadily behind her large round glasses. "Sure, Jean. Please excuse me, Miss First Lieutenant. Colonel, sir."
"You can tell me about it later," Riza assured her and Havoc could feel himself starting to get hot underneath the collar. It was just a flower dammit!!
"Just one thing, Havoc…?" Roy noted as the two prepared to walk away- Havoc, extremely quickly.
"Yeah, Mustang?"
"Why so hot?"
"I'm so grateful for today, Jean," Sheska told him as he stopped her at her door later that evening, both of them having since cooled down and walked off their mutual feelings of embarrassment. "It was lovely."
Havoc grinned widely. "No, problem, Sheska. I really enjoyed it too."
Sheska beamed at that. "And thank you so much for the flowers, Jean. I just can't get over-"
"Sheska?"
"Jean?"
"They're just flowers."
Again, she was blinking steadily as she took this in. "How do you mean?"
"I mean, that they're just flowers," Havoc said, shoving his hands in his pockets and avoiding her eyes guiltily. "I just gave them to you because they were pretty and I thought you'd like them-"
"I do like them, Jean-"
"-But they don't mean love or gratitude or enlightenment or any of that romantic stuff that you said."
Something stirred behind Sheska's eyes then but in a flash it was gone. "That's okay, too, Jean. I guess I just thought-"
"I'm a simple guy, Sheska-"
He was breaking up with her. Because she was stupid and over-zealous and desperate and because she knew too much, Goddammit. Because he 'couldn't keep up' just like all the others-
"-So, when I tell you that I love you-"
"…Jean?"
"-It's going to be just that. Plain and simple."
A small nervous smile, here.
"I love you, Sheska."
The blinking was now occurring so rapidly that it seemed as though she might faint- if not from shock, then from motion sickness. "Do you really?" she managed eventually.
"Plan and simple," he affirmed, a quirky little grin settling on his face as her face broke into a smile.
"Do you really?" was repeated again, though now more of a statement than a question. The large eyes blinked up at him brightly from beneath over-magnifying, Harry Potter-style taped spectacles made necessary by so many nights of reading late into the night.
"Love, gratitude and enlightenment," he told her simply. "No tricks, no deeper meaning. I love you, I am grateful to you, I have been enlightened by you."
"Hydrangea macrophylla," Sheska mentioned with a little smile, but he shook his head firmly.
"Love, gratitude, enlightenment," he repeated, eyes dead set and unwavering on hers. Then, glancing through the open door behind her, he smiled again. "You know, Sheska," he said to her lightly. "Your home is looking quite meticulously tidy right now."
And it was, too. Except for the one pile of books that remained where he had left it, in the middle of the floor: his footprints on her heart.
"Almost punctiliously so," Sheska agreed warmly. "Almost."