Before letting you read this story, I just wanted to tell you English is not my first language so if you find any mistake, please send me a PM!
A big thanks to WargishBoromirFan who fixed my many mistakes! (I can't thank you enough even if I tried my all life! And I'm sorry for all the horrible nightmares you had because of my mistakes… ) Go take a look at her fanfictions too!
I hope you'll enjoy this one-shot and see you at the end!
The rain was falling loudly on the windows of the Eastern HQ. Distracted, Captain Heymans Breda and Second-Lieutenant Kain Fuery hadn't finished their first report of the day. But their minds were less distracted by the rain than by the empty desk at the end of the room. It was 7:30 am and Major-General Roy Mustang was still missing.
They glanced at Major Riza Hawkeye. The blonde was at her desk, her eyes on the documents intended for their commanding officer. She was sorting them silently, putting the important ones aside. Mustang's lateness of half an hour didn't seem to bother her.
Breda shrugged his shoulders and got back to work. They couldn't waste more time!
Fuery was wondering what his colleague was thinking. The new commanding officer of the Eastern HQ – well, he was since Grumman became Führer after the Promised Day more than a year ago – had the reputation of being an inveterate lazy man when it was about doing paperwork. Only Hawkeye could force him to do it, ignoring his complaints. However, he had never been late. Was Hawkeye worried, just like him?
The lieutenant's reflections were cut off by Captain Rebecca Catalina."I can't wait to hear the earful she'll give him!"
Even if he had been promoted to first-lieutenant, Vato Falman knew he wasn't about to return under Mustang's command yet. Jean Havoc had to complete his reeducation before being able to come back. Given the lack of his usual hands, Mustang had to recruit some new members to help them to deal with all the paperwork that had been building up for some weeks now.
"It's not so interesting, capitain," Fuery said. "It seems strange but the major never raises her voice when she reprimands him about that kind of thing."
"Captain Catalina, I would appreciate it if you'd get back to your work instead of distracting the second-lieutenant," replied Hawkeye without raising her eyes from the document she was reading.
"Ooow! I thought you were like a sort of 'little family'! By the way, major, let me tell you you looked nice with your long hair. You really should let it grow again."
Laying under his mistress's desk, Black Hayate opened an eye. The shiba-inu raised his black ears, curious. Hawkeye sighed mentally. Why had she suggested her friend to Mustang to help them? She should have known the brunette would distract them. Hawkeye already told her she cut her hair because it was getting in her way when she had to go in Ishval. The strong wind always untied it no matter what she did to keep her strands firmly pinned back.
Well, Rebecca was about to be transferred to Central. Orders from the Führer! Grumman knew very well her talent to gather information. It was also to thank her for her help during the Promised Day. After all these years, she would finally live in the capital city!
Hawkeye was about to call her to order when the door opened, revealing Mustang soaked to the skin.
"Major, do you know if there is a vet nearby?"
In his arms, there was a furbag as big as Hayate, carefully wrapped in his dripping black greatcoat. Its white body was covered with blood. It had some wounds on the head and seemed unconscious.
"The one who takes care of Hayate is not so far," she replied, quickly grabbing her own coat.
She wrapped the dog in the dry clothing while Mustang grabbed his keys, under the stunned look of their colleagues.
Two hours later, the two soldiers came back with the dog. Large bandages were wrapped around its abdomen, neck and paws.
"It has been hit by a car," Mustang explained while laying it on a pillow from the staff room. "It was barely conscious when I found it."
"Poor thing!" Fuery said, leaning on the white shiba-inu, sleeping under a blanket.
"The vet said it had lost a lot of blood. It is weak but it will survive," Hawkeye declared.
"What will you do, sir?"
"He wants to see it again in some days. Until it has fully recovered, could someone take care of it? My apartment is too small and ..."
Mustang made a displeased face.
"… Dogs don't like me," he finally admitted, as if he was about to cry.
"I would like to but I'm still living in the dorms ..." the younger soldier answered, saddened he couldn't do anything for the animal.
"Count me out!" Breda cried from the door he was hiding behind.
"Are you really afraid of a dog that can't move?" Rebecca asked. "That being said, I can't take it either. You can't imagine how hard it is to find housing in Central since the Promised Day!"
"Don't look at me like that," said Hawkeye. "I can't take care of two dogs, especially if one of them is hurt."
Curious, Hayate came closer to the other dog. The hurt animal moved a little, making the black shiba-inu jump.
"Sir, judging by the state of this poor dog, I don't think the lack of space in your apartment, and antipathy towards you will be a problem," Hawkeye pointed out.
Mustang took a better look at the white shiba-inu. It was at this moment he noticed how it was thin compared to Hayate. The tail, usually delicately curled, was dragging weakly on the pillow. Its pointed ears were drooping lifeless on its head, covered with scarlet scars. Laying on the side, the dog had an exhausted face. The alchemist could do nothing but accept.
After three days, the dog's condition had improved. Its wounds didn't allow it to do more than a few steps but it was eating well. From its dog basket, which was nearby Mustang's desk and at the opposite of Breda's, the stray dog watched the soldiers working of a wary eye.
Its interactions with Hayate were still limited. Hawkeye let her pet go near the new one but made sure he didn't show any hostile signs. Hayate didn't like the other one and, as it was growling when the black dog was too close, it was mutual. Most of the time, the two shiba-inus contented themselves with staring at each other from their dog baskets.
The soldiers, when they weren't dealing with the paperwork, talked about what they would do about the white animal. Mustang couldn't keep it too long. Havoc was still in rehabilitation and his parents had already enough pets. Everybody agreed they shouldn't give it to Falman. Who knew what Olivier Armstrong could do to the poor animal?
Their friends in Central were bursting with a lot of trouble. The bandits were taking advantage of the damages caused during the Promised Day. Rebecca even heard they were looking into a matter of drugs. Asking to the Elric brothers was useless: they were about to start their new travel.
"Anyway, I don't think it can be adopted right now. I don't know how you can touch it, general."
The moment that Fuery tried to pet it, the stray dog growled, staring at him with glowing eyes. Since it was still weak, it felt threatened.
"Simple: if it bites me, I bite it in return. I had to cancel two dates because of it. It owns me some respect!"
"If you don't want to cancel more, you should go back to work," Hawkeye said. "These documents need to be signed by today and can only be by you."
The alchemist seemed about to fall into pieces when he looked at the stack of documents that collapsed in front of him. He tried to take his usual begging face but the woman saw it coming. Without glancing at him, she told him the only one she was pitying at the moment was the white dog. That last had raised its head, hearing the redoubtable documents entering the battlefield.
Even if he appeared hurt by her response, Mustang gave a faint, impish smile. Sometimes, he did that kind of things just to make the queen of his team show some emotions.
The dog was getting better each day. It was now using its four legs to explore the room it
spent most of its time in. It had already memorized the smells of all of Mustang's team members.
As a matter of security, it kept its distance. Despite that, the soldiers had to convince Breda the dog was only watching them.
Fuery tried to explain it shouldn't come near the food lover. The animal seemed perplexed, as if it were wondering if it could trust the young soldier. Nevertheless, it made sure it was always watching Breda from (very) far away.
Rebecca didn't seem to be a source of interest for the dog. Sometimes it glanced at her, sometimes she did the same, but that was all.
"Unlike Hayate, it doesn't look at me as if it was waiting for something," the brunette said when Fuery pointed at she never tried to pet it.
As Hawkeye's desk was in front of its dog basket, it wasn't rare to see the two shiba-inus staring at each other for some time. When it was the case, everyone in the room could feel the tension between them.
The white dog rubbed its paw against the door, sat and turned to face the soldiers. It was Hawkeye who opened the door.
Like with Fuery, the animal acted somewhat shy with her. Some members of the military weren't really surprised. The blonde always wore an inexpressive face and was known to always say everything the way it was, especially to their commanding officer.
"You're so cold and stern that even this dog doesn't know if you're an ally or a foe," he teased her.
"If you were in its position, you wouldn't trust anyone, like it," she just answered.
When it had returned, the shiba-inu just sat in its basket. It raised its head when Mustang began to write. Of all the humans in the room, he was the one the dog watched the most attentively.
It was understandable. The Flame Alchemist had saved it and was taking care of it. They lived together, even if it was just temporary.
Mustang noticed he was surveyed. "What?" he said.
The stray dog kept looking at him. Then, it just turned away and put its head on its paws. The alchemist raised an eyebrow. "I really don't understand this dog. First it stare at me without moving, as if it was waiting for something from me, then it ignores me!"
"Fuery, haven't we received any call about the dog?" Hawkeye asked, watching the animal eating its food.
"No, major, and yet the phone number on the posters is right."
"Why are you so surprised?" Mustang asked without raising his eyes from the report he was writing.
"It's well trained for a stray dog: it doesn't pull on the leash, never barks and is housebroken... Even if shiba-inus are know for being particularly neat, don't you think it's strange for a stray dog to go outside to do its thing each time?"
"Do you mean it could have an owner?"
"I can't think of anything else."
The Flame Alchemist put his pen on the desk and leaned against his chair. One week before, they put up a lot of posters with a picture of the dog in the city.
"I found it fifteen days ago now and nobody contacted us yet … it was probably abandoned…"
"I hate people who do that!" Fuery grunted.
"… Losing our temper is useless. Let's finish our damned paperwork."
The younger soldier lowered his head. Sometimes, the general could be cruel. He would like to throw all theses papers away and search how to help the poor animal.
"This way, we'll be able to find it a new owner," Mustang said.
Fuery's face lit up. He happily went back to work, without noticing a white creature was watching him, perplexed.
Papers in hand, Mustang headed for Breda's desk. They were talking when the captain let out a scared cry. After taking shelter behind the coat rail, he pointed at his superior's feet. The white dog was standing just behind him.
For some days, it had taken the habit of following the alchemist like his shadow. When he was looking by the window, when he went to the canteen or to check he didn't leave his keys in his coat, Mustang always heard the dog's paws clicking on the floor.
At first, he had turned around to know what the animal wanted from him. The latter just stared at him with its strange look. As he didn't understand what it was wanting from him, Mustang had kept on walking, like it was nothing. The clicking started again, more and more oppressing.
"It seems it likes you. Though I don't know why," Fuery told his superior.
"Me?"
"It's not common to see a dog following someone it doesn't know well like that."
"Are you sure?" Rebecca asked. "I mean, we all know how much dogs like the general."
"Each dog is different."
"Why are you making that face, general?" the brunette inquired with a mocking smile. "You've finally found a dog that wants you as its owner."
"Even if it was true, and I doubt it is, I can't keep it."
Fuery was disappointed. He had hoped the general would adopt it if it was showing him some interest. The soldier glanced at Hawkeye. The woman closed her eyes, telling him she would do nothing. Their superior's private life was none of their business.
Hayate's nap was interrupted by the oddly calm voice of his mistress and the poor excuse Mustang was inventing to try to soften his subordinate. As always, he didn't sign any paper of the day. Because of that, and despite his whining, Hawkeye forbade him to leave the HQ before finishing it.
"Please! Just for today!" he whined.
"You know very well there will be the same amount of documents tomorrow," she told him with a scary, calm voice. "Winter is coming so we can't fall behind schedule."
Humph, it was the regular 'argument'. Hayate yawned. Then he noticed the other dog was staring strangely at Hawkeye. It probably felt she was angry at Mustang. That it thought this feeling was for it or not, Hayate didn't know and didn't care.
He didn't like the way the other was looking at his mistress. The black dog didn't trust it. Hawkeye had told him to behave at work. He stayed in his basket, but he kept an eye on the stray dog, ready to go against his mistress's orders if it were needed.
"But I have a very important date!" Mustang's voice was sad, scared, begging.
"I said 'no', general. You'll go home when you'll have finished your paperwork, like everyone else."
"Grrrr!"
Everybody turned over. Hayate had drawn back his chops, Mustang had stood up, Rebecca and Fuery had stopped their work, and Breda had seemed to have turn into a statue. Still laying in its basket, the snowy dog was letting out a threatening growl, its glowing eyes on Hawkeye.
It surprised her at first. Now she was slowly coming closer to the basket. The dog stood up, showing its teeth. Hayate barked.
"That's enough!" Mustang ordered. The two shiba-inus stopped. A strange silence fell on the room. "Let's do this stuff and go home."
Without a word, he got back to work. Mustang had given up the idea to go on his date. Obeying his order, the soldiers did the same. Satisfied, Hawkeye imitated them. She thanked Hayate for wanting to protect her but reminded him he had to behave.
The threat driven away, the stray dog laid down again, still watching her. The two most high-ranked soldiers didn't miss this strange behavior.
Hawkeye put the leash on Hayate. Behind her, Mustang was reading the last document he had to sign, the white dog sitting at his side.
"It seems I found a guardian angel to protect me when you scold me, major," he said.
"You know very well it won't keep me from doing it," she answered.
"You're right, I'm not that naive."
"But you're naive enough to think I would have let you go home even though you still have some work to do. By the way, you would be gone already if you didn't waste so much time speaking like that."
"Erf! As always, you have your head screwed on right. Have a good evening, major."
"You too, general."
Finally, Mustang signed this damned document before turning to the dog. It was still staring at the door Hawkeye closed, as if she were about to suddenly reappear, a weapon in hand.
"It's the way she jokes," he told it.
The dog looked at him with its strange expression.
"She has an acerbic sense of humor, and as she's always stoic and stern, she seems cold and distant. But deep inside, she's really kind."
For the first time, Mustang had the impression of seeing some sort of surprise in its eyes. It was like the animal was saying 'I don't understand'. It unsettled him for a moment so he changed the subject.
"You don't have to growl when she scolds me. She is not threatening me, nor you. And I don't want any fight between you and Hayate! He will try to protect her if you attack her."
This time, the alchemist thought he saw a sparkle in the dog's eyes. The animal was looking at him with attention. Not as if he was waiting something. It was as if the shiba-inu was thinking about what he just said.
The days passed one after another. It seemed the dog had understood what Mustang told it. It didn't let out a single noise when Hawkeye had to scold her superior for not doing his paperwork. However, she knew it was watching her every time she made a movement towards it or Mustang.
The moment she took the gun the alchemist was handing to her, she knew the dog tensed up. Whatever. Being watched by a dog wouldn't prevent her from doing her job. She could settle that later.
The blonde took the gun to pieces, searching for a damaged part or anything else that could explain why Mustang heard a strange noise when he had it in hands. When she had repaired it, Hawkeye slid the barrel open to make sure the bullets were in the right place.
The click made the dog's ears shiver. It got up straight away. Hayate saw it and did the same, ready to attack. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mistress come forward Mustang, the gun in her hands.
She was about to give him his firearm back when the stray dog pounced on her. The blonde had seen it and turned on her heel, avoiding her arm being torn apart by the dog's fangs.
Hayate jumped the moment it was about to attack again. The two of them rolled on the ground, biting and scratching one other. Hayate whined when the white dog's fangs sank in his neck. He managed to throw his opponent away with his back legs, bringing out three red lines on its stomach. But his enemy came back and scratched him on the muzzle.
It was at this moment Mustang and Hawkeye finally managed to grab and pull them apart. Hayate calmed down immediately. The other shiba-inu was still struggling like a madman, so much that Mustang was having trouble to hold it back.
"ENOUGH!" Rebecca would have bet all of HQ had heard him. The white dog immediately stopped moving. Lips drawn back, the two dogs were staring at each other while growling badly.
"I said no fight!" Mustang shouted to them.
"I'm sorry, sir," Hawkeye said while giving her pet a furious look, "I should have known Hayate would do that."
The black dog sadly tilted his head as if he were sorry too. He didn't like it when she scolded him. It made him sad to know she was upset because he did something wrong.
"Don't be, it's not your fault. Hayate just wanted to protect you."
He turned to the stray dog he was still holding. Mustang knew that if he let it go, it would rush at Hawkeye.
"I told you I didn't want any fight! From how you looked at me, I thought you had understood."
"W-w-we should get rid of it!" Breda stumbled from behind the door, ready to run for his life.
"You're heartless!" Rebecca exclaimed, "it's obvious this dog is just scared! Don't you remember? It growled when the major was scolding the general the other day. Even you, you wouldn't make her angry!"
"I think Captain Catalina is right." Fuery spoke, "shiba-inus are not really sociable but they're smart. They rarely attack without a good reason, moreover rarely so violently. This one has probably been beaten before being abandoned..."
"That's why it feels threatened when the major comes too close," Mustang finished.
Hawkeye had put Hayate in his basket and was examining his wounds. Hopefully, they were superficial. She would take him to vet anyway. A wound on the muzzle could be serious.
Then she looked at the other shiba-inu that was still staring at her while showing its fangs. The soldiers watched the blonde put all her weapons on her desk with a surprised look on their faces.
She came near to the dog, which began to growl again.
She ignored the warning and slowly squatted down in front of it. Ears on the back of the head, the animal barked fiercely.
Breda thought he was going to have a heart attack. The woman held her hands out to the dog, palms upwards.
"Are you crazy? Step back, major!" Mustang ordered.
Hawkeye acted as if she hadn't heard. The dog was struggling harder, trying to bite her fingers, but the alchemist was holding it tight.
"See? I'm not going to hurt you."
The ways she just talked to the animal left everyone speechless. With her usual inexpressive face, she had talked to the dog with a gentleness her colleagues never heard. Her voice was warm and comforting.
Mustang wondered if he ever heard her talking like that. Even in his memories of the time he was learning alchemy from her father, the time she used to show her emotions a little more than now, he had never seen her using a so kind voice. It would have appeased anyone. So he chose to trust her and stayed quiet.
Seeing she was sincere, the dog calmed down. It stopped barking and hid its fangs. The Flame Alchemist waited a few moments before losing his grip bit by bit until he fully released the animal. He stayed where he was, just in case.
Hawkeye slowly stood up and went to her desk to pet Hayate, thanking him for staying in his basket. The other dog didn't move for a few moments. Then, it shook itself and laid down in its basket. It glanced at Mustang before licking its wounds.
"If I had stepped back, it would have thought it had won, so it would have do it again." Hawkeye explained, seeing the perplexed look her superior was giving her, "the only solution was to wait it calmed down itself, seeing I wasn't threatening it."
"What if it freed itself from me?"
"It would have never succeeded."
Mustang let out a big sigh. Honestly, what carelessness!
As Hayate had been hurt too, the alchemist offered to Hawkeye to take them to the vet too. He had chosen to listen to Fuery's suggestion and tell the vet about the incident. If they wanted to find a new owner for the dog, they had to learn more on it.
"Would you like to reproduce what happened?"
Hawkeye took her gun. The white dog didn't move. The vet, who had moved aside, knew very well how some dogs reacted when they saw a firearm. Despite the lack of reaction, the man knew the shiba-inu wouldn't stop staring at the weapon from now on. Again, the click of the chamber seemed to be a kind of signal to it. The animal stood up immediately, without making any noise.
"Hum… Could you aim at the wall behind it?"
The soldier complied, placing the barrel at the left, as she was about to fire. No reaction.
"Now, aim at it."
When it saw the gun aiming at it, the dog growled and showed its fangs, its white fur bristling. Mustang pulled the leash slightly so he could draw back the dog if it attacked. Hayate was watching this strange scene with a watchful eye. Just in case, Hawkeye had tied him.
The vet then asked to the blonde to aim at Mustang. She moved the barrel to the right. Even if it wasn't threatened anymore, the dog's attitude didn't change. After aiming at the different walls of the room, the vet asked Mustang to do the same.
The dog didn't show any sign of hostility towards the alchemist when he aimed at it with his gun. It just look at him, as if it was wondering what could possibly be going on in the man's head.
The next tests were more surprising. The animal bared its fangs when Mustang aimed at some innocent wall. Even the one behind it. Seeing that, Hawkeye thought about something.
"You don't think it..."
The vet sighed.
"I'm afraid yes, unfortunately. To think that quitting my job as a military veterinarian wouldn't allow me to never see it again… What a twist of fate."
He looked at the animal with sad eyes.
"This dog was probably a war dog."
Mustang thought he didn't hear well.
"It's impossible! The military registers all the information on each war dog since its admission in the formation center. These animals are well educated: those which escaped can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And they were all found again. Moreover, if one of them had disappeared, I would have known, even if it was from another HQ!"
"Did you ever read a file saying a war dog died of old age?"
The two soldiers exchanged looks.
"I haven't. Now that you mention it, all the ones I had in hand said the dogs died on the battlefield."
The vet sat down in his chair, as if he was exhausted. It had been years since he learned the sad truth. And each time, he still felt the same pity for these poor animals, and some hatred toward humanity. He told them the fate of the war dogs.
"You should know better than me how harsh being in the military can be. The war dogs are seen as objects they throw away when they became 'useless'. These animals are judged too dangerous to be adopted by civilians. So they are abandoned or euthanized. The military erases them from their files, as if they had never existed.
"They are selected depending on their breed, their genes then their behavior. You can say they're nearly 'born for this job'. The only good answer to an order they know is its perfect execution. Of course, they are petted and well treated. You can't say they are unhappy. But when they aren't able to do their job anymore, they're thrown away, as you put an object in the bin.
"I even heard that fifty years ago, dogs were trained to destroy tanks. They hide food under replicas. They kept them hungry so once on the battlefield, they sneak under tanks, thinking there was food. The bomb on their back detonated upon contact with the target, killing the dog too."
Hawkeye sadly looked at the dog. She knew what the vet was going to say. The animal was still staring at her. Calmly sitting here, nobody would have thought it had a so awful past. It probably didn't know itself it had been trained just for that. Actually, it was just doing what it has been taught: to stand guard and survey the enemy.
It probably understood what they were talking about. Hayate always understood – in his way – what was going on around him, she knew it. He comforted her when she was sad or anxious. When she was wondering how the heck Mustang could find so many ways to appear like a spoiled child, he put his muzzle or his paw on her leg and looked at her with a sad face. It was rare her superior irritated her to the point the she needed her shiba-inu to calm down. When it was the case, Hayate always knew when she needed to keep her temper, and when he had to let her give a good telling off to the alchemist.
Hawkeye gazed at her superior. He was staring at the ground as if he was somewhere else, yet she was sure he didn't lose a single word of what the vet just said.
"You should have been forced to do things you didn't want to, to obey at wrongful orders and to commit awful things. Perhaps you weren't ready for that when you enlisted. But you, you can still leave the military. Not them. These dogs save hundreds of lives on the battlefield. They put their lives on the line, just out of loyalty. And that's how we thank them: by throwing them away, abandoning them on a street when they can't fight anymore."
He began to write down how to treat the wounds of his two patients.
"It's still young – it has the same age as Hayate, probably – so I think it's suffering from PTSD. Its trauma seems to have been caused by a firearm since how it reacts when it sees a gun. Lucky for it, it probably will never be able to return on the battlefield."
The soldiers left without a word.
"Do me a favor, general," the vet said. "Make sure no war dog unable to fight will be treated like that in the East City HQ."
He didn't wait for an answer and closed the door, leaving the soldiers in the dark night with the dogs.
Seeing that Hayate was shivering, Hawkeye took him in her arms and wrapped him up in her coat. That seemed to bring back Mustang to reality because he opened his car. After putting the white dog on the backseat and securing it, he took place in front of the wheel.
After a few moments during which they stayed silent, the woman asked, "What will you do?"
The traffic light turned red.
"I already told you, I can't keep it. But neither will I put it back on the street. Not after learning all of that. If we search in the archives, we should find an old dog handler who will take it."
Hawkeye looked back at the day they finally left the destroyed land of Ishval. When they joined the convoy, they had seen a man crying in a car. He was squeezing with his only left arm the bloody corpse of a German Shepherd, calling it and asking why it wasn't moving again and again.
At the moment, none of them had felt any pity for this man. They were soldiers and they had taken a lot of lives unfairly. After having killed so many innocent people, how could they have felt anything for those who had made the same decisions as them?
But, while they were following the car, their bags on their shoulders, they had watched the lifeless corpse of the dog with sad eyes.
Even if they had never talked about that again, each of them knew the other had been as saddened by the German Shepherd corpse as them.
"You're right. Dog handlers are certainly not the one who would think to abandon their dog. Not after all they lived through together… I sincerely doubt we will find one who will take the dog, knowing what happened to theirs…"
"… It doesn't matter," Mustang answered.
The light turned green. The car moved again. They stared at the road full of cars. On the sidewalks, people were coming and going in front of the shiny shop windows, the restaurants, bars and movie theaters. The alchemist turned down a less lively street before talking again. "I'll make extra hours alone if I have to but I will find this dog a new owner. No dog of the military deserves to be thrown away like that!"
The blonde glanced at him. His eyebrows were slightly knitted and his look was straight. Hawkeye smiled in her head. That was the face he made when he had to deal with a problem he took very seriously.
He dropped her in front of her building. Before closing the car door, she told him, "If all the dogs didn't reject you, I would almost think your speech on why dogs are our slaves was one of these lies meant to mislead our enemies."
Mustang gave her a mocking smile. "If you truly had thought that after all these years, then it would have meant you don't know me so much."
For once, he didn't say anything on the smile she was wearing on her face. She watched the car move away, whispering to Hayate they were going to come home later starting tomorrow.
Rebecca rubbed her eyes before looking at the time. It would be 10:00 pm soon. Soon she could finally go home. She was going to continue her reading when a sandwich appeared in front of her.
"I'm surprised you're still here, helping us to find a new home to this poor dog," she told Breda, accepting the sandwich he gave her. "I thought you didn't like dogs."
Mustang, Hawkeye and Fuery were searching in another room. The brunette could talk with her colleague to all her heart's content.
"It's not because I'm afraid of dogs that I don't like them," he explained. "And it's an order."
"Don't pretend you wouldn't have stayed even if Mustang didn't ask you anything."
"If I don't give them a hand, we're sure to find them dead in two or three days."
"What do you mean?" This time, Rebecca was serious. When something mattered to Riza, the brunette knew her friend usually put her well being aside. She did that for her work sometimes, Rebecca knew it.
The blonde wanted to help that dog, okay. But Breda wasn't someone to use this kind of exaggerated metaphor without a good reason.
The soldier glanced at the room and whispered, "Since he knows it's a war dog, Fuery secretly takes some files with him when he leaves the office. I also know Mustang and Hawkeye stay about half an hour after our leaving in the archives."
Okay, that was acceptable. Rebecca couldn't really say anything for thirty minutes and it was just for some days, to help a poor dog.
On the other hand, Mustang and Hawkeye, alone at the HQ, late at night, was interesting information. The brunette promised herself to tease her friend with that one day.
'It will be my revenge for not taking much care of herself!' she thought.
"Well, I guess I'll begin to take some files to my home too," she said. "I don't want Fuery to do too many sleepless nights, like these two."
The young soldier entered the room just at this moment, followed by Mustang who had to ask something to Breda. Obviously, the white dog was with him, always taking care to stay some steps behind him. Rebecca looked at it until they leave again.
"I wonder why it's so obedient toward Mustang…"
"It's just a supposition but perhaps it thinks of itself as a soldier who has to follow his superior's orders," Fuery said. "As the general is the commanding officer of this HQ, the dog probably understood he's the one with the higher rank here. But I have the impression that sometimes, it's a little confused when the general gives it an order..."
"It's probably because Mustang never uses a commanding tone when he asks us to do something," Breda said, preparing to leave. "The dog shouldn't be used to receive orders with so much kindness."
Mustang rubbed his eyes when he saw that even Hawkeye had left for some time already. It was time to go home for him too. It was only now he noticed a discreet noise.
"Why does it have to rain the day I didn't take my car?"
He would be completely wet when he arrived at home. He hoped he wasn't going to catch a cold. It really wasn't a good time to be sick.
He noticed the dog was standing at his side and was gazing at the wonderful, dark streets under the freezing rain. The animal was looking at the drops with sadness. The alchemist thought the storm must remind it of the cold and humid nights it had spent on the streets.
Under the porch, the rain seemed to have gotten worse. Of course, it wasn't the case but that was the impression Mustang had. Really, he didn't like this weather. The dog had sat down, as if to protest against the idea of walking in the rain. That too was probably false.
"I hate rain. Because it makes me useless."
The shiba-inu looked at him. The Flame Alchemist was trying to cheering him on by telling it it wasn't the only one that weather was remembering bad memories.
"When it's raining, I can't protect anyone, not even my subordinates."
He sighed.
"Come on, let's go."
After a few moments, the dog stood up and followed him, running under the freezing drops.
Two days after, only Hayate and the white dog came out of the general's office. With deep dark rings under the eyes, the five soldiers were doing their paperwork as if they were robots.
It awakened the curiosity of the other soldiers. Some said they were spending the nights making parties, some others insisted that they were sleeping in the HQ because they were too busy. The soldiers even organized some bets on how long they would keep up this strange behavior.
The five friends knew what was going on in the HQ but didn't pay attention. When they were heading to the archives, Breda stopped, immediately imitated by his colleagues.
It was snowing. This time, winter was really here. Snow was rare in East City so they took a moment to look at the powder slowly covering the streets. The snowflakes were gently landing on the frozen ground. It was so relaxing.
The redhead thought of Falman. In the North, in Briggs, it had began to snow a few weeks ago.
"… This dog's really unlucky," he said. "If it had been born in our neighbor, in the West, it would have never knew the life on the streets nor the war."
He explained that, over there, white animals were revered. A legend said a white beast had saved the country. It had walked for one month in the blizzard, without eating just to save its inhabitants. Its breath had annihilated the parasite that was ravaging the wood.
"Since then, when it begins to snow, they organize festivals in honor of Shirayuki, the white beast that saved them. That's what some soldiers said after the army attacked a village during the ceremony. The inhabitants shouted that the beast of the sacred color would come from the blizzard to avenge them."
They looked at the dog with sad faces. Seeing Mustang turning over it, the animal slightly moved its head, telling him it was ready to execute his orders. The orders, always the orders.
Speaking of war gave Hawkeye an idea.
"Fuery, did you see any war dogs on the battlefield when you where in the South?"
"No, I don't think so. Why..."
Guessing what she meant, he didn't finished his sentence. The soldiers glanced at each other. She was probably right. The white shiba-inu was suffering from PTSD. As it had kept its war dog habits, it shouldn't have spent a lot of time on the streets, one or two months at most. And the only place in Amestris where there was still war was in the South. Immediately, Mustang ordered them to find all the files about this conflict.
After about an hour of research, they discovered that, since its beginning, about four thousand dogs had been or were still used in this war. Officially, two hundred eighty-one died in combat.
"Some dogs should be at least ten years now but we didn't find anything about them," Hawkeye summarized. "No certificate, no information, nothing. The vet was right: when they're judged useless, these dogs are simply erased from the files."
"I checked those of the Eastern HQ," Rebecca added. "There's nothing but some numbers that don't match the files we have. The deaths are declared just to justify the training of new dogs."
They stared at their superior. Mustang stood up and approached the animal, which was laying against the wall. Hearing the alchemist, it sat down and glanced at him with its usual strange look.
The man leaned and looked at it too. The dog didn't move, paying attention at all his movements. Waiting for orders, again and always. Not a caress, nothing. Just an order or, perhaps, a sign of hostility. The soldier focused on its eyes. They were emotionless, as if the animal was just a machine without any soul.
"… I'll take it."
"What?" His colleagues would not have been more surprised if he had told them the Earth was going to explode.
"I'm the one who will take care of this dog from then on," the alchemist repeated without turning toward them.
"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Breda asked. "You know dogs don't like you."
"This one seems to be fine with me."
"But I thought your apartment was too small!" Rebecca said.
"I'll just have to find a bigger one. With my salary, I can take care of a dog."
In the face of this so-simple answer, the brunette couldn't keep herself from laughing. When he heard that, Fuery was about to hug his superior. Hawkeye just smiled. A simple, discreet but big smile. Breda also let out his white teeth. Rebecca pointed out the office was looking more and more like a zoo. Offended, the alchemist defended himself by telling them a war dog could help them.
"Won't it be a problem?" Fuery asked. "I mean, Hayate is male..."
"So what? Why it would be a problem?" Mustang asked.
"What do you mean? Did you not know? This white shiba-inu is female."
The alchemist seemed to turn into a statue.
"You really don't know anything about dogs, do you?" Rebecca said. "Everyone knows only males raise their legs to urinate."
"I'm sorry I don't have the same center of interest as you," he mumbled.
"I don't think it's going to be a real problem," Hawkeye said to come back to the subject. "They don't like each other and she seems to have a strong personality. I doubt she'll let him approach her easily. Anyway, my dog his well trained. If I call him, he will move away."
"If necessary, I'll leave her at home."
"Why don't you just sterilize her?" the brunette asked.
Hawkeye answered it was risky, even for males. That's why the war dogs weren't sterilized if it wasn't necessary.
Mustang looked at his dog and noticed it was still snowing.
"The first snow of the year huh… Since I don't know the name the military gave you, I'll name you 'Shirayuki'."
The dog blinked, as if to tell him she understood. Another dog would probably have tilted its head but she wasn't an ordinary dog. Her new owner said nothing. Only time would let her forget the extreme strictness the military had taught her.
"It suits her very well: she's entirely white, like snow," Fuery said.
"A lady's name has to be as beautiful as her after all," Mustang answered with a smile.
Mustang and Hawkeye were the only ones left. Their friends were too happy to go home and get some sleep to stay any longer.
The woman took her time on purpose so she could be alone with her superior. She knew he wasn't always honest, even with their friends, especially when it was about the Ishval War. In their team, they were the only ones that had participated in this conflict. And she knew him enough to know he wasn't the kind to confide easily.
He understood what she was doing. She knew he probably suspected she was going to ask him a question, and what this question would be.
"You choose to keep her because of her past, don't you?"
He stood still, the hand on the handle of the drawer he just opened. His look told her he was thinking of the past.
"She's like us," he finally whispered sadly while continuing his tidying. "She has known the horrors of war… She saw people dying, she heard the gunshots and explosions, she smelled the air full of blood, sweat and tears… And she killed. Just because it was an order."
He paused.
"Now, she wakes up at even the smallest noise; she even has nightmares sometimes… And what's worst, it's that she never asked to be part of the military, unlike us.
"Despite all of that, despite being abandoned because she had become 'useless', she did her best to survive. She was in the South and she came here by herself, just with her four legs. The strength to live, she found it all by herself when in our case, we had to find something to hold onto to not throw away our lives ourselves. Like us, she's still moving forward despite all the horrors she saw."
A genuine smile lit up Hawkeye's face. Not all people would say of an animal it was like you, even if it had lived the same things as you.
She looked at Shirayuki, who had understood it was time to go home and had stood up. The blonde was sure Mustang would take good care of the dog.
"It's not because she's very obedient that you have the right to treat her as a slave," she told him while they were crossing the corridor.
"I'm sure you won't let me do that," he answered with a smile. "By the way, you could have told me she was female!"
"I wanted to see your reaction when you'd have discovered the truth. Moreover, letting you think she was male was funnier."
She wished them a good evening and left, Hayate walking at her side. Mustang watched her move away while thinking she had tricked him well. Having been manipulated by his major almost made him laugh.
He turned to his new comrade.
"Let's go home too."
Two months had passed. When they had less paperwork, Mustang had begun to search for a new place. He was about to leave when Hawkeye gave him a paper about an apartment. She had found it by chance, on the wall of a shop.
He thanked her and took his coat. Then he noticed the white shiba-inu was holding her leash in her mouth, shyly wagging her tail. Mustang petted the snowy fur of her head while smiling at the new member of his family.
"Perhaps you were right," he told Hawkeye. "Perhaps that, in the end, deep down, I never really thought of dogs as our slaves."
"We have known each other for years. I know you're too kind to think pets are our servants," she answered. "Dogs know that too, but they don't like it when you look down on them. It doesn't bother Yuki because she thinks of herself as a soldier. Maybe it even helped her."
They glanced at her. Bit by bit, Shirayuki's look, 'Yuki' for short, was beginning to change. It was becoming more lively, more expressive. She didn't follow Mustang everywhere anymore. Bit by bit, she was letting people pet her, even Hawkeye. Now, the alchemist had the impression she was making fun of him when the woman scolded him. Hayate and her still didn't like each other but they stopped fighting. Bit by bit, maybe they would learn to like each other, maybe not.
Bit by bit, Yuki was recovering from the war.
- Law of November 2, 1917-
proposed by Major General Roy Mustang
Each war dog has to be the object of monitoring from its entry at the training school of the military to the end of its life, no matter how it ends.
If it is judged unable to complete its work, regardless the reason, each war dog that passes the behavior test can be adopted by civilians.
Those that didn't have to be taken in care by the military to train new dog handlers, or to perform some minor tasks, according to the state of the animal.
In no case can a war dog be abandoned out of respect toward all the help it brought to the country with its life on the line. Euthanasia has to be done as a last resort.
I. Finally. Finished. This. Fanfic! It was supposed to be a one-shot but judging by how it turned… =w=
Hawkeye and Mustang are my favorite characters so the flashback on the Ishval War really touched me. I think I've never been so sad while listening to a story on a war than I've been when I watched FMAB.
I had the idea of this fanfic when I thought about the expression 'dog of the military', that is used a lot in FMA, and when I thought of Hayate coming with Hawkeye in mission in spite of the dangers. So I thought "Arakawa did a wonderful job telling the horrors of war and its consequences. We see civilians and even soldiers suffering but not the animals that take part of the conflict."
So I decided to make the mysterious white dog we see at the end with Hayate, a war dog. I had to find an excuse for Mustang to adopt her and I wanted to talk about the fact that animals can suffer from PTSD too. I wanted to show that war affect the war dogs, and the animals used in war in general, as much as it affects the soldiers. So I made her a war dog abandoned because she couldn't fight anymore.
Unlike you could think while reading this fanfic, I am not criticizing the use of animals in wars. They are not abused or thrown away like an object when they cannot do their job anymore. Dog handlers grow very attached to their dog. Some owe their life to their dog and some dogs owe their life to their handler.
If, despite my poor skills in writing short fanfics, you felt some compassion for Shirayuki, like you did for Mustang, Hawkeye and the other characters of FMA who have taken part of the Ishval War as soldiers, then I succeeded in paying a little tribute to the animals who died during war.
Perhaps I'll write a second chapter telling the same story but from Shirayuki's point of view.
I wanted to write a fanfic that follows at best what these animals live. So I made a lot of research before writing this and I hide some information I gathered in the fanfic:
Shirayuki: it means 'white snow' in Japanese. Shirayuki was the horse of the emperor Hirohito. It became the name of a Japanese destroyer. All the members of the military are named after a military vehicle, vessel or weapon, even Black Hayate (and Izumi and her husband). So I made the same. Moreover, 'Hayate' is the name of a military japanese airplane.
PTSD: post traumatic stress disorder.
The dogs used to destroy tanks: yes, they really existed! During WWII, they were used by Russia against Germany. Hopefully, it wasn't a success so they quickly changed their tactic.
The war dogs killed when they became useless: it didn't really happened but the Vietnam war is the only war in which the survivor war dogs were all euthanized.
The date of the law proposed by Mustang at the end: it's a combination of multiple real dates:
_2: a reference to September 2, 2014: the Dickin medal has been given to the horse Warrior. It's a reward to all the animals who took part in WWI. (I wanted to use a pigeon's date or Diesel, the RAID's dog who died in 2015 but FMA is taking place during WWI)
_November: it's in November 2000 the law that allows the retired war dogs to be adopted by civilians if they pass a behavior test was adopted.
(1917 doesn't have any particular signification)
The numbers 4000 and 28: the number of dogs who served in the US units during the Vietnam War, and the official number of dogs who died on the battlefield during this war. It is assumed they and their units saved more than 10 000 lives.
Sources : Wikipedia, K-9history website