IMPORTANT A/N AT THE END IF YOU'VE NEVER READ ME BEFORE. EXPLAINS EVERYTHING.
The office was as bare bones as it had always been. Roy Mustang put the phone down, hanging up after a long conversation with Scar, and turned his attention to the documents before him. The intricate renseijin before him were labeled in ancient Ishbalan, an Eastern language named Hebrew. He sighed, massaging his temples. Learning Ishbalan history was tough, but he would need it for when he became Führer.
There was a knock on the door. Roy raised his head.
"Enter," he commanded, his voice masking the exhaustion he actually felt.
The door opened, and Lieutenant Hawkeye stepped in, in her hands a pile of papers half an inch thick. She saluted.
"Chuui," he said, pushing the documents he had been looking at off to the side.
"Sir!" She walked forward to his desk. "Report on the state of affairs in the west from the Hagane no Renkinjutsushi."
"Ahh," he said. He stood up. "Leave it on the desk. I need to bring out the key. His codes are too difficult to memorize."
She did as he bid, and saluted, turning to leave. Tired as he was, however, he stumbled, crashing into her and pushing her against the wall. He twisted at the last second to avoid hurting her as her back slammed against the wall.
"Oomph." He pulled back a bit, cursing, the hand he'd slammed into the wall to avoid crushing her slightly aching. "Are you okay, Lieutenant?"
She made to say something, but instead she fell silent, and suddenly Roy found himself aware of how close they stood to each other.
He stared at her in silence. Although she usually met his gaze calmly, today a slight pink tinge touched her cheeks, and she looked away. Roy took a breath, but it didn't shake. No, a day where the Honoo no Renkinjutsushi would be nervous would never come, but he did feel he was just a hint more aware of the breath he drew today than he usually was, a hint more aware of the blood pumping through his veins, a hint more aware of his heart in his chest, and a hint more aware of the Lieutenant who stood pressed between him and the wall.
xXx
She tried to meet his gaze evenly, like she usually did, but today she seemed hyper-aware of the intensity in his restored midnight eyes, and she found her heart rate pick up. A heat rising in her face, she averted her gaze, her breath rougher than it should have been. The Colonel did not move, as calm and collected as he always was – the impeccable hero of Ishbal – everything from his expression to the way he carried himself spelling perfection. She drew another breath, and dared to glance at him again. He stared back with the same silent intensity that some would describe as icy, but that she knew held a powerful flame that could never be extinguished.
xXx
Her eyes darted to him again, and the Flame Alchemist noticed her breath catch in her throat. In response, he found his gaze setting firmer on her. His heart was as calm as it had always been, but it seemed all of a sudden that the air in the room was several degrees colder than it had been. The Lieutenant looked at him again, then bashfully away.
"T – Taisa…" she said, despite blushing, her voice as composed and professional as it had ever been.
For some reason, that made him inexplicably angry. He furrowed his brow, staring at his subordinate with a gaze few could withstand, yet she found the resolve to stop averting her eyes and meet his gaze again, for all her seeming nervousness regaining her confidence. A strange, exhilarating feeling seemed to spark where their eyes met and suddenly it clicked what was wrong.
He was uncertain.
He, the Flame Alchemist, the Hero of Ishbal, Roy Mustang, was uncertain.
Imagining the Fullmetal's smug fucking face if he ever found out made Mustang's blood boil. No, he would not be uncertain. He would not give the midget another chance to smirk at him.
Closing his eyes, he took the only way of out the situation he could imagine: not thinking, simply trusting his instincts. Before he realized it, his hand was on the wall, trapping the Chuui, and he had leaned forward, softly pressing his lips into hers.
xXx
It was unheard of for the Taka no Me to get caught off-guard. In the Civil War – or the Holocaust as the people had begun to call it – and then later against Otou-sama and his Homunculi, she had felled hundreds of enemies with her ability to react to any situation. She had brushed against death so many times, had brought it down – upon enemies and innocents alike – so many times, there was no situation conceivable she would ever be caught off-guard.
But she was caught off-guard now.
No situation conceivable. Never, in her entire life, had Riza Hawkeye ever considered it possible outside of her most secret dreams that the internationally renowned Honoo no Renkinjutsushi, the leader of her squad, the next Führer of Amestris, and the man she had pledged her life to, to follow even into the jaws of death, would kiss her.
But he did.
Her eyes widened, but his were closed, and for a moment it felt like her heart had stopped, or perhaps the lack of sleep made her hallucinate, or maybe she'd fallen asleep while working and was dreaming. The Colonel was surprisingly gentle. She felt him, felt the flame that burned inside him, the flame that drove him, the flame she lived for, but he seemed aware of it as well, seemed to control it, seemed to direct it so as to not swallow her up in the burning passion that consumed whatever he did, because it would surely leave her in ashes.
xXx
Roy drew back, no longer able to ignore the fact that his heart beat slightly faster. His subordinate stared at him, her face burning, her breath short. Roy blinked, and he found himself panting as well. If the Fullmetal ever found out how proximity to one person made him react in ways he'd never imagined, the alchemy-crippled alchemist would never let him live it down, but in that moment Roy found he could not care less for the now-engaged younger man's teasing. All he noticed was the woman before him. The tip of her tongue darted out to lick her lips, seemingly involuntarily, and Roy felt his heart pick up.
xXx
Riza saw him pull back, still looking into her eyes, his breath ragged as well – not nearly to the same level as hers, but it was a far cry from the impeccable composure the Honoo no Renkinjutsushi was known for throughout the country. Unaware of anything but the man before her, she found herself licking her lower lip, almost in shock. Her mind seemed blank, as if she really was dreaming, and her body seemed to move of its own accord, and almost before she realized, she was against the Colonel again, the kiss initiated by her this time.
xXx
Suddenly more forward than she had been all day, the Lieutenant returned the kiss she had seemed too shocked to return a second earlier, and her slender but strong arms pulled him closer. It was not altogether unexpected, Roy thought, that she would be bold. She had always been brash with him in a certain way, following him wherever he went or whatever he did, but never afraid to speak her mind. It seemed, however, that her actions were just as involuntary as his today.
He held her back, and for a second she froze. The Flame Alchemist did not break apart, and she began to kiss him again, slowly, agonizingly slowly, as if only now realizing what she was doing but like it was too late to go back now, so she tried to prolong the moment as much as she could before the raindrop that hung precariously off the metaphorical leaf inevitably fell and shattered into a million unrecognizable pieces upon the ground, so she tried to hold onto whatever she could for however long she could. Suddenly, Roy found his heart seized as if by a flame as intense as only his Renkinjutsu could create.
Taking his arms from around her and placing them on her shoulders, he drew back, and they separated panting. The Lieutenant looked at him with wide eyes, and made to open her mouth as if to say something, as if to beg an apology as though she had done something wrong.
But he pushed her against the wall and she gasped softly. He kissed her again, and she seemed to melt into him. His lips left hers and instead he kissed her jaw, her throat, her collarbone, his fingers fumbling with her jacket and casting it away with deft grace. He pulled her black shirt up, peppered her chest with soft kisses, his fingers swiftly pulling undergarment completely off and letting it fall to the floor beside her jacket.
xXx
Riza closed her eyes, giving herself to him in perhaps a different way than her oath, all those years ago, would imply, but in a way she knew she could never refuse if he ever asked because she had always been so completely his.
A jolt seemed to clear her thoughts, rooting her to the spot like a fork of electricity through her body. The Colonel kissed her throat, then her collarbone, then her chest was bare and his mouth was upon her burning skin. She could not have said for sure, but it almost felt like it was because of the proximity with the infamous Flame Alchemist that her body seemed to burn as if under a cold winter air. It was summer in Amestris, but the way the room suddenly seemed freezing they might as well be standing outside in the Briggs.
His fingers brushed her skin, his hands around her breasts even as his mouth found the pink bud on the right side of her chest, his finger meeting the other. Each touch seemed to leave an electric trail in its wake, and suddenly her hands found the wall behind her. Her knees felt weak, and there seemed a heat pooling between her legs. He was good, and she felt a stab of ache in her heart, almost as if she'd had a cold blade driven through her skin as she realized he was experienced. Her eyes suddenly seemed to burn, and she shut them tight. Logically, she knew he was experienced. Well, she didn't know, but it was a reasonable, even downright obvious, assumption, but it left her staggered as she realized it was never something she'd given any thought to before, and she knew deep down that was because it would hurt too much. She took a breath, and her heart seemed to sway as if she were hanging from the ceiling.
xXx
Roy moved from her chest downward, guided by the small sounds from her throat she did not seem to notice. His lips moved over her flat, slightly toned white stomach, until he arrived at the hem of her pants. For a moment he had the urge to clap his hands, snap his fingers, and incinerate the offending piece of clothing into scattered ashes, but it would burn her skin as well, and if there was one thing he knew, it was that his flames would never hurt her again.
His fingers deft, swift, he pulled her belt open, then hooked his fingers into the hem of her pants. He glanced upward. Her eyes were closed and she was looking to the ceiling, her breath heavy, her pink lips pursed, but he sensed no resistance from her, so he pulled her pants down, leaving her in a pair of black panties.
xXx
The world ended. It seemed like everything around her fell apart more completely than the time Otou-sama opened the Gate, and she found all the breath leave her, and suddenly her fingers were buried in his hair, holding him closer into her, and suddenly her breath left her as if she had leapt naked into ice-cold water, and suddenly she could not keep silent anymore, and suddenly she felt her heart thunder as if caught between the clouds, and suddenly had to cry out, had to gasp, because his mouth was between her legs.
"Ngh."
xXx
Her taste exhilarated him. Her scent, her taste, her sweet voice she did not even seem aware of excited him, made him feel more alive than anything ever had. Her legs seemed to shake, so he held her up, his tongue upon the delectable, delicious wet flesh between her thighs.
xXx
She threw her head back, her eyes rolling backward as the most powerful wave of pleasure she had ever felt overtook her, and her knees gave way. Her hands had no strength left, so they left his head to fall to her sides, and she began to slide down the wall, panting, her eyes clothes, her hair damp with sweat. She gave in, too tired to even prepare for the fall she knew would soon come.
But it did not. She opened her eyes, and she found he was holding her, his face an inch from hers, holding her so she wouldn't fall, and suddenly she felt overcome with emotion, and she found she could no longer keep the tears from spilling out of her eyes.
"T – Taisa..."
He closed the distance again, pulling her closer for a sweet, sweet kiss, and she held onto him as tightly as her exhausted arms would allow.
xXx
Unwilling to break the kiss for even a second, he stumbled to his desk, holding her in his arms. His lips still against hers, he laid her gently on the wooden desk on her back and stepped in front of her. Pulling himself free of his pants, he situated himself at her entrance.
Almost uncertainly, she looked to where they met.
"Ii no ka?" he said.
Are you sure?
She met his eyes, and nodded.
The Hawk's Eye was a powerful woman, and his most trusted companion. Perhaps the strongest person he'd ever worked with. If she said she wanted to go through with it, he knew she meant it. Placing his hand on either side of her, he looked straight into her eyes, and she met his gaze with hers – that sure, unwavering gaze of hers that was the only thing that gave him confidence and told him it was okay to keep going – no, that he must keep going, because if he didn't she would be disappointed, and he knew he would open the Gate again before he than ever disappointed her. As he stared into the eyes of the person he trusted the most, the person who had come to mean more to him than anything else ever had over the years, he felt a slight waver in his heart, and he could not help but dip down to place a small, fleeting kiss on her lips.
Holding his gaze like she always did, she nodded.
Looking back at her, trying to match the intensity of her gaze with his own, not blinking, feeling as if he closed his eyes for even an instant he'd miss something irreplaceable, he slipped inside her.
xXx
It was a short while before she met his eyes again.
"Ugoku yo," he said.
She nodded wordlessly, and closed her eyes. She bit her lip to keep herself from crying out because of the feeling in her heart, the feeling that was sweeter than anything she had ever experienced in her life.
xXx
"T – Taisa," she said, opening her eyes as he continued to move inside her. "Taisa… Suki desu…"
I love you.
A strange fire seemed to set into his eyes. "Say it again," he commanded.
She blushed, a flush reddening her entire body as the realization of what she'd just admitted – what she'd revealed from the deepest, darkest part of her heart – dawned upon her.
"Say it again."
But he did not seem to dislike it. So she did as he asked.
"Suki desu."
He lifted her off the table and into his arms. "Say it again."
"Suki desu."
He kissed her. "Again."
"Suki desu."
"Again."
"Suki desu, suki desu, suki desu…" she repeated, and she did not know how many times she said it. All she knew was that the Colonel seemed to accept her, holding her against him, the gesture conveying to her that she was precious to him, and she found herself crying, feeling as if, for the first time since before Ishbal – or maybe the first time ever – that maybe it was okay for her to live.
xXx
"Chuui…" he said, before hesitating. "Riza," he corrected himself, his breath panting, his pace increasing until it seemed like everyone in the building would hear them, but he found he did not care.
"Dashitekudasai…"
He nodded, and held her closer, pulling her into him as he halted, her walls contracting around him.
xXx
"You're forty!" the Fullmetal said, roaring with laughter.
The Colonel gritted his teeth. "I am not forty. I'm thirty-two. For fuck's sake… I should never have asked you. I figured you would have some experience since you've already done it."
Edward quieted, his face heating up with the memory of that train-station proposal to his now-fiancée, Winry. "It was kind of awkward…" he admitted.
The Honoo no Renkinjutsushi did not look reassured. Beside Ed, his brother sighed.
"Look, Colonel, it's not about doing the most extravagant thing ever. You could empty the treasury of Amestris on preparation and if it's not thoughtful, it won't work out the way you want it to."
"You think she'll say no?" Mustang said. Ed made to comment on the Colonel's uncharacteristic nervousness, but Al cut him off.
"She'll never say no to you."
"That's why I'm concerned…" Ed muttered.
"She'd never say no to you," Al said, ignoring his older brother pointedly, "but it won't be as special as you want to make it for her if you don't think it out properly."
"That doesn't help," said Ed.
"You don't want to ruin it for her, do you?"
"He's gonna ruin it," Ed assured.
"Look," Alphonse said. "You need to think of a place or a situation that holds some important memory for the two of you, or something along those lines. Nii-san has always been awkward…"
"Oi!"
"…so his proposal to Winry in front of a train was perfect. It wasn't extravagant…"
"Hidee na, omae wa…" Ed sighed.
"…but it was special to the two of them."
Ed smiled. "Yeah. It was awkward, but it was the best day of my life."
Mustang sighed. "Well, I'll have to figure something out, I guess…"
Al smiled encouragingly, and nodded. "Mhm! Good luck!" he said.
Mustang sank an inch in his chair.
Ahh, that felt good. See, people? This is how you write sex tastefully. Tasteful. Beautiful. This is horrible: "He shoved his huge, throbbing, pulsating, veiny, greasy rod into her tight pink slit, making her moan cutely." STOP WRITING HORRIBLE LEMONS AND TAKE LESSONS FROM SAGASHITERU-SENSEI. There's nothing wrong with writing PWP, don't get me wrong. Not every story needs to be a roller-coaster of angst, just as not every writer is a brooding emo like I am. I like smut occasionally too. Just... do it tastefully!
I tried to maneuver around the fact I have no idea how it feels to have your vagina licked, because I'm a guy… Did I do well?
I use romaji Japanese in my stories for reasons I have explained on previous occasions. Some people have a problem with this, so I urge you to please not leave angry reviews. This is simply the way I write. If it pisses you off, I apologize, but I suggest you go read someone else. There's plenty of better writers than me on this website.
A lot of the names and titles are translated from Japanese. The translations are completely arbitrary because I've only ever seen Hagaren in Japanese, so I know nothing of how these terms are officially translated. Some terms I have no idea how to say in English, so I've left in Japanese. I don't mind it, so again, please don't leave angry reviews.
If you've read me before you know I usually translate if I write Japanese dialog, but in this story I felt like it was better to leave some untranslated for the sake of subtlety and tastefulness.
One thing I want to mention is that I consider Fullmetal Alchemist an alternate history story. I don't care what Arakawa-sensei says – to me, Amestris is Germany and the Ishbalans are Jewish, hence why I referred to the Ishbalan Extermination as the Holocaust. I feel like that makes for a more tense plot. Sorry if that is a problem.
Oh, and Ishbal is technically written Ishuvāru (イシュヴァール) in Japanese, so I have no idea how you dubbed people say it. Ishbal? Ishval? I'm just saying Ishbal because as a half-Japanese person, that sounds more natural to me.
One more thing - I can write sappy fluff better than nigh on anyone. Maybe that's because I write so much of it. Basically most of my stories on here. It's funny, but you can see that fluff getting better if you read my fics in order of oldest to latest. But I'm not good enough in a lot of other places, like lemons, so I want to focus on them for a while. It's hard to admit, but I'm not where I would like to be... Not by a long shot. My lemons are REALLY not up to par.
Also, because none of my non-Japanese friends ever seem to know this, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi = Fullmetal Alchemist.
Aright, that's all!
読んでくれてありがとう！