She was bent over the microscope, squinting her dark brown eyes in concentration at the sample she was taking a noticeable interest in. She stepped away from the table, blew her fringe out of her face and stretched, a man with jet black hair walked in, he was pulling on a pair of crisp white gloves as he entered.
"Any ideas on what it could be yet, Hawkeye?' The man asked softly, not wanting to destroy the silence but he wanted to get rid of the awkward feeling he was getting in his stomach.
'No.' She said shortly, she tucked the hair that had strayed out of her bun behind her ears sharply, and narrowed her brown eyes at the man.
'Um, do you want a coffee or anything...? Fuery and I are going to the Starbucks next door, and we were just wondering...?' He felt super awkward now, he knew he was Riza's superior but he couldn't help but be a little frightened of her.
'Cappuccino, thanks. And Doctor, Don't forget to bring extra sugar back this time unless you want one of those scalpels over there through your knees.' She said this so calmly it terrified her boss, he nodded and quickly sped away.
Doctor Roy Mustang could see how his lab assistant, Riza Hawkeye, used to be a First Lieutenant in the Armestrian Military. She had the manner and mindset of one of their dogs, but he would never even dream of willingly saying that to her face since the biology lab they both worked in was basically crammed full of weapons that could be used in his execution.
'That woman has something about her.' He mumbled to himself as he ran down the last flight of stairs to meet his lab technician, Kain Fuery. He had no idea why he couldn't get the blonde ex-soldier out of his head. Fuery caught sight of Mustang and beckoned him over, the men exited the building side by side.
Back in the lab, Riza rubbed her aching back, she had been leaning over the same table with the same microscope and sample for the last 3 hours, not that she was complaining. She loved her new job in Armestris' new Fifth Laboratory, even though her boss, or so called lab partner who never actually did anything unless she forced him to, was really annoying and tried her patience on a regular basis.
The biologist decided she deserved a break so she walked over to the immaculate bookshelves she had lovingly stacked that very morning and gently brushed her fingers along the spines of the mixture of ancient and modern textbooks. She enjoyed taking time out of her day just to read some of the old theories and experiments the 'alchemists' of the past did.
Riza's wandering finger stopped on a musty velvet covered encyclopaedia of all the extinct plants in Xing, a country to the far east of Armestris. She pulled the book loose from its shelf and started flipping through it on her way to Doctor Mustang's desk to read it properly. She had just made herself comfortable in her boss' deskchair when she heard the door to the lab slide open, she rose from the Doctor's desk, leaving the book on it.
'One cappuccino for a miss Riza Hawkeye! Not forgetting the extra sugar!' Came Fuery's cheery voice from the far side of the room, Riza rolled her eyes.
'Thanks Kain, how much do I owe you?' She reached for her purse, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks.
'My treat.' Roy smiled down at her. She sighed audibly, in obvious distaste of the idea, but she wasn't about to turn down a free coffee. Riza brushed the doctor's hand off her shoulder and took her Starbucks cup to the microscope she was using previously, she hoped that her short break would have helped clear her mind.
Another hour or so had passed, Riza surveyed the lab with a practised eye; Roy was sat at his desk, supposedly doing paperwork and Fuery was nowhere to be seen. She glanced at the clock just above the door.
'Doctor, it is six o'clock, shouldn't you be leaving now?' Riza asked, half wanting him to leave and half wanting him to stay with her, she didn't know why.
'Oh, so it is! And yes I shall be going soon, you will be okay to lock up the lab won't you?' He looked up from his work, she nodded slowly, obviously annoyed by his still skeptic view of her. Roy began putting books back messily on the shelves and stacking documents on his desk.
'Good night miss Hawkeye, tomorrow will be the day you and your intelligent mind will crack the mystery of sample 23, I can feel it in my bones!' Mustang laughed softly at his own jibe at Riza as he pulled his lab coat off and replaced it with a long black trench coat.
'I would like to think so too, good night Doctor.' She replied flatly. When she heard the door click shut she felt her cheeks begin to flare. He had complimented her, he never did that, ever, he thought she was a military dog and that was all.
Riza carefully stowed her research away in its storage container and washed her hands thoroughly at the sink in the corner. She took her lab coat off and put it back on its hook, readjusted her black turtle-neck shirt and pulled her pale blue jacket over it. Riza took out the chunky brown clip that was keeping her hair securely in a neat bun on the back of her head and her bright blonde hair fell naturally straight half-way down her back. She walked over to the door, strode through and locked it behind her, a hint of red still lingered on her cheeks.
She usually arrived at the lab half an hour or so before her boss, so Riza Hawkeye was genuinely shocked when she saw Roy Mustang sat at his desk filing documents.
'I must be dreaming.' The woman muttered under her breath as she put her safety gear on, ready for the day ahead. Doctor Mustang raised his head from his work and smiled at his colleague, Riza's lips moved of their own accord and smiled back at him. She turned away quickly and blushed slightly.
'I'll get straight to work then, you won't do it and it won't do it itself.' She announced this to the Doctor, trying to stop herself from going any redder than she already had. Roy made a noise of agreement, Riza walked stiffly over to her work bench and took her research out of the container she put it in yesterday, and began squinting at it through a microscope.
'Here, I found this on my desk you may find it useful, I don't know.' Riza jumped, she didn't even hear him come over, she was probably too engrossed in her work. Roy placed the encyclopaedia she was looking through yesterday on her workbench.
'Thanks.' Was the short, sharp response she gave. Her boss was acting very strange today, and she didn't understand why. Riza decided to give her tired eyes a rest from peering down a microscope for 10 minutes to have another look through the book.
Head cupped in hand, the blonde biologist sat, slowly flicking through the pale yellow pages of the encyclopaedia, completely fascinated by the now extinct Xingese plants and their properties. She was nearing the end of the book when her eyebrows furrowed, her whisky brown eyes fixated on something. She frowned slightly and speed-walked towards her microscope and inspected the specimen even more closely. Riza gasped audibly, Roy's head snapped up in concern.
'What's up Hawkeye?' Roy asked, kind of afraid of the answer he may receive. She looked at him with an emotionless expression on her face, she looked away and let her head droop.
'It can't be... Its impossible... We only found it a few weeks ago...' Riza quietly murmured this to herself and spun around to face Roy. His dark eyes had grown wide with fear, his skin tone matching his white gloves.
'Riza... what is it?' His voice trembled, frightened of the answer that was coming. Riza's expression changed. She broke into a broad grin.
'Doctor, your face! Its whiter than your lab coat! Nothing bad has happened, we have found a species that went extinct in Xing over five-hundred years ago, but apparently moved over to Armestris to survive!' Her dark brown eyes sparkled with the uncontrollable laughter she was experiencing, Roy began to laugh shakily, relieved nothing had actually gone wrong.
'You are a wicked woman, Riza Hawkeye! That was cruel, but nothing could stop my love fo-' He stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth had moved faster than his brain. His face felt hot and had gone bright red, he looked down at his lap shamefully.
After a long pause, Roy looked up and saw his assistant's face, as red as his, she began to approach his desk. Unnerved, he stood up quickly and started to back away from her. Riza quickly gained on him and had him backed against the bookshelves. She was less than a metre away from her boss, her arm shot forward and grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled it towards her, this must've been difficult on her part since the doctor was a good few inches taller than her.
'What were you saying about your love? For who, me?' Her voice ice cold, Roy hesitated and closed his eyes when he saw Riza's other hand begin to rise.
He flinched as he felt the hand cup his chin and pull it forward, towards Riza. Soon enough his lips tingled with the sensation of hers upon his, and like that, she pulled away. Roy's eyes flickered open in complete disbelief of the previous event, and smiled wanly when he noticed Riza's satisfied smirk.
'Lucky for you, Mustang, the feeling is mutual. With that out of the way, where do we need to send this fine, supposedly extinct, specimen?' She said it so dismissively it caught Roy off guard, he just shrugged and smiled.