OOOkay, this was a story i told myself i wouldn't post until it was completed to spare you all the pain of my crappy sparodic updating.....yeah, there goes that idea. Never fear though, WatR is still being updated (slowly!). Hang on...this is the exact same situation that began WatR to begin with. Oy vey (head/desk - my OTP)
Report
Roy was almost beginning to enjoy his day at the office. There wasn't much paperwork to be done, and even though it was a hot day, a constant cool breeze drifted into the room. He leant back in his chair and fiddled with one of his alchemic gloves to distract himself for a while. The paperwork on his desk only required his signature after all.
He noticed a small patch of the alchemic circle was beginning to wear away, and wrote down a small reminder to himself to get that fixed. Today has been so relaxing…Hawkeye appeared in his vision, giving the pile in the 'out' box an approving glance before moving onto the Colonel. There was a small rustle as she unloaded a few more reports onto his desk.
"I should remind you, sir, that Fullmetal is on his way." She said, hiding an amused smile at the sight of Roy's face instantly turning from carefree to downright annoyed.
"Wonderful." He sighed. "You better put a request for the plasterer in before he arrives. God knows the damage he'll do to my poor wall."
"Will do, sir" Hawkeye gave a brief bow and quietly sat back down at her desk. Roy swivelled his chair and slouched for a minute, grumbling under his breath about shrimps and the cost of wall paint when something about the first report on his desk caught his eye. He straightened and sat up, reaching for it.
"Lieutenant, what is this?" He asked, pointing at it. Hawkeye looked up from her own paperwork.
"It's a report from South City. It appears there was a minor attack on it the other week." Roy raised an eyebrow.
"Another one?" There had been a rash of enigmatic attacks on the border towns recently. It was worrying that no one had been caught yet.
"Yes sir, but they've moved on from small villages and are attacking military bases."
Roy gave her a brisk nod before his eyes began to skim over the words.
It was an alert from Southern Command.
Eagle group…splinter cell from the Ishbal Massacre…connections to the same group Bald belonged to…used primitive but aggressive chimeras…minor disruption …several injured…one fatality…no arrests.
Roy's brow furrowed at the report, and his eyes gravitated back to the name, 'Bald'.
"Wasn't Bald the name of the terrorist Fullmetal took down before he joined? The one from the train?" He asked.
"Yes, he was, sir." Hawkeye replied. "It seems the group he belonged to is now under new control and they're attempting to force their manifesto this time."
"It doesn't seem like they have enough power right now to use force. They barely managed to do any damage." Only one fatality…
"It's still worrying that they managed to break into Southern Headquarters without getting caught though, and they're using chimeras. They may now have an alchemist on their side."
Roy stared at the print of the report as if the ink itself could give him an answer. Whoever this 'Eagle Group' was, they were certainly getting bolder. When nothing came to him, he shrugged and signed his name on the bottom of the document, and placed it in his 'out' pile.
"I guess there isn't anything more we can do." He said out loud, though inside, the wheels in his mind began to turn.
A commotion from outside caught his attention, and Roy sat himself properly, smoothing down the wrinkles in his jacket in preparation for this 'meeting'. "I wish there was something we could do about this little disaster." He grumbled. Hawkeye gave him a disapproving stare before she set her sight on her work and began to write.
Sure enough, the minute Roy had taken his eyes off his first lieutenant the heavy wooden door was blasted open by a raised foot. It bounced off the pristine white wall behind it, leaving a very obvious dent in the plaster.
"Can we make this quick?" Ed growled as he stomped into the office. Alphonse snuck in behind his brother, rubbing the back of his head as a silent apology. Ed slowed to a stop as he looked around and realised that most of the Central gang were missing. "Hey," he began. "Where the hell is everybody?" Ed looked slightly preoccupied, even as he searched the room for the missing persons. Deciding to find out just how preoccupied Ed was, Roy set a smirk on his face.
"Why, Fullmetal," He said. "They're all outside in this weather. Or does the heat not reach you down there?"
"Har har, very funny." Ed growled, sending Roy into a whirlwind of confusion. Where was the outraged shouting and the amusing flail?
"What's wrong, Edward?" Asked the lieutenant. She'd snuck up on the boy and stood at his left shoulder, looking at him worriedly.
"Brother thinks he saw something strange in the courtyard." Alphonse said, ignoring the glare he received from his brother. Roy turned to the Elder Elric, his attention caught. The report about the attacks tickled the back of his mind.
"Did you, Fullmetal?" he asked.
"I don't know. It was weird." Ed said quietly, almost to himself. A hand came up and fisted itself against his mouth.
"Edward," Roy addressed the boy with his name. "If you thought it was weird, you need to tell us."
"It was something about the delivery vans." Al piped up, talking almost as quietly as his brother while looking out the window behind Roy.
"Yeah." Ed breathed, then his head shot up. "There was a man in the crowd. He was working with the people overseeing the unloading of supplies...well, I say that, but he kept staring at the walls and the vans. He had a uniform on, but it was wrong somehow…the wrong shade of blue or something… anyway, we were walking past him, when he turned and started looking at us. We've been looked at before, but he was staring. It was odd."
"Hmm…" Roy had nothing to say, but something about the way Ed's brow furrowed at the thought of the man in the uniform made his senses flare. His mind drifted again to the report from Southern Headquarters on his desk, and the several attacks on border towns.
"Well, it was only one man right?" Roy asked, lifting an eyebrow in question. Ed huffed, and removed his hand from its mid-air position to nod. Roy relaxed slightly. No one in their right mind would attack Central with only chimeras on their side. "Good, then there isn't much to worry about." Roy sank back into his chair and smirked, his worry not totally forgotten. "So, where's your report, Fullmetal?" It was time to get back to business and finally, Ed gave the right response.
"Here it is Bastard Colonel." The boy spat. "I can't believe you made me write a report on this. There wasn't even a lead! All we did was go out West, stopped in one town to 'check things out', then came straight back! What the hell kind of mission was that?!" He slammed the crumpled paper onto Roy's desk with a scowl.
"It was an important mission to the military." Roy quipped. He quickly glanced over at Hawkeye.
"Which means you have no idea either. Wonderful!" Ed stomped back to his brother and knocked gently on Al's breastplate. "C'mon Al, let's get out of here before we get sent on another 'important mission'" The sarcasm was obvious.
"Wait a second, Ed!" Hawkeye called after the boys. She'd spotted the look the Colonel gave her and knew what to do. The Brother's stopped and turned back, waiting for her. Roy secretly wished he could gain that sort of obedience, but knew there was nothing like a women's touch. "Are you two going to be around Central for a while?" She asked, giving them a soft smile.
"I guess." Ed mumbled. "Why?"
"Just making sure you boys are alright." She said, turning back to Roy. Roy gave her a nod, before making a shooing gesture at the brothers. Both boys did an awkward shuffle before giving the lieutenant a brief nod and escaping as quickly as possible.
"Sir?" She asked, coming to stand beside him as soon as the boys were out of sight. It was times like this that Roy was glad of Riza's almost telepathic ability to read his emotions.
"It's too early to figure out what's going on." He sighed, turning in his chair to watch the people below in the courtyard. "After all, it might just be me being paranoid…it might be a coincidence."
"You don't think it's that?"
"I don't. After all, it's unusual for Ed to be so concerned about a man, and all the recent attacks…" He picked up the report. "But it was only one man…" He trailed off. Out in the courtyard, people were slowly putting their jackets back on and returning to their offices.
He could see Breda, Falman, Havoc and Fuery making their way lazily to the building from where they'd been having lunch and his eyes closed.
"Get Ed back here tomorrow. I want him to tell me everything about the man he saw."
"Yes, Sir."
"And send out an alert to the guards. I want them to be on the lookout for any suspicious behaviour from anyone arriving at headquarters."
"Are you sure that's necessary?" She asked, her gaze matching his out the window. Roy didn't reply. Instead, he ignored her question and began signing documents.
"Oh yes," Roy said suddenly. Hawkeye got ready for him to say something important, and was sorely disappointed. "Get the plasterer in. That little shrimp damaged my wall again!" He narrowed his eyes at the dent in the wall and his fingers looked ready to snap.
Hawkeye rolled her eyes and set about writing up the alert, hoping that whatever had the Colonel in such a state was just paranoia.
She hesitated for a second, loaded her gun, and got back to work.
Hmmm, even though EdxWin is my OTP, i always seem to write a lot more Royai....maybe i should stop using Roy as my POV character....
Next chapter's gonna be up in a second (i already had that written, Yay!)
Give a writer some love, else she's gonna die of boredom, so please, Review!
Loves, Inuchron