Peace
By craziestanimefan
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
A/N: I know cassette players were not invented by the Industrial Revolution, but it was a cute idea based off the 30 Kisses Challenge. Please bear with me. I hope you enjoy my first FMA fic!
Riza Hawkeye could not help but be a little suspicious. After dropping off paperwork for the Colonel to do, she spent the next three hours doing errands for the office. Every time she walked past the office door, she slowed almost to a halt. Was he actually doing his paperwork? She heard the slow, almost lazy scratches of the Colonel's pen across paper and even a little sigh now and then. Satisfied, she continued along her way.
Sometimes she would meet her comrades in the halls and greeted them with a small hello or nod. They made small chat, and whenever she prompted them about the Colonel, they would smile or perhaps laugh and tell her he was working diligently.
So three hours later, after she completed all of her errands, Riza stopped by the door to their office before a short tea break. She still heard the continuous scratching of pen against paper and his little sighs. This time, she frowned. Was he really still working? How very uncharacteristic of him. She opened the door.
The piles on the Colonel's table had remained the same size, although not necessarily in the same place as when she left. The four even, neat piles were now stacked a line, shielding his face from her view. Had he done nothing but rearrange for the three hours she was gone? But surely with the scratching noise he must've been doing something…
Riza walked closer to her superior officer's desk. From a distance, it looked like the Colonel was simply looking down at his papers, but his dark eyes were really closed in sleep! In addition, as she approached him, the scratching noise was getting louder! She stopped by the edge of his desk and peered closely, her keen eyes zooming in on the cassette player still playing in his left hand.
Riza did not know whether to shoot him, laugh, or sigh. This is what her comrades meant when they said he was working diligently. He had recorded himself signing papers so he could deceive her! She looked at the clock. It was already late afternoon, and he needed to sign those papers rather soon. Still, as she looked at his content smile on his face as he slept, she realized that she had not seen the Colonel this relaxed in a long while. He looked so peaceful.
She gently kissed his forehead and withdrew, smoothing out his black hair with a smile. She would let him rest, if only for a while. Her bullets could scare him out of his wits in a few hours.