a/n Shelby speed writes a cute little stupid little gross little fluffy cream puff ficlet
because her multi-chapters Counting and Teacups are getting way too sad.
But, hey, this little event actually happens in Counting.
Or does it? Watch out for that. I don't only write total despair. Maybe I do.
Comment, favorite, follow, talk to me.
The secret came out at Winry's bachelorette party.
It was calm and sweet, innocent.
They sat in a circle,
passed around sweets
and talked about boys.
Riza hated talking about boys,
So foolish and silly and useless.
But, Winry was such a sweet soul.
She brought up the subject to make sure
her friends were on the track to true happiness,
for which she believed was true love.
Riza choked on her cake, suddenly having a knack for wolfing it down,
while Rebecca ran hot and cold gossiping about Jean Havoc,
and the young girl named Paninya explained
she wasn't quite interested in pursuing such matter at the moment.
Riza nodded a little bit to herself,
commending her quietly,
boys, men, silly, fluffy feelings and such were complex
and painful and gave Riza quite a migraine on a daily basis.
She tended to focus on Hayate.
She scratched the pup's ears as he was curled at her feet
in the middle of the circle.
Even so, Pinako knew nothing of Riza's headaches, particularly the one coming on right about now, and continued to share too much about her history with men. And, not anything about fuzzy feelings, mind you.
Riza stuffed sweets into her cheeks,
downed champagne and,
inevitably, was called upon,
worse still, they skipped the casual, subtle, inquiry:
what about your love life, Riza?
Instead, the cut to the quick.
Yes, here comes the headache.
"What about that General of yours, Captain Hawkeye?"
Pinako puffed her pipe.
Riza kept her face still as stone,
Very well prepared to answer this particular question,
Rebecca made sure she
had enough practice.
"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you there," she said,
"We have only ever been colleagues."
"That's not true," Rebecca scoffed into her flute of champagne.
Riza looked to Black Hayate for back up.
He perked up his ears and tilted his head,
waiting and watching for which excuse,
which tall tale she would tell this time.
The little pup could be so cruel sometimes
in the softest way.
"No offense, Ms. Hawkeye," Winry mused,
"But you did seem quite taken with him
when you two first met Ed, Al and me"
"Only dedicated to a similar mission,"
Riza said frankly, genuinely.
Most often those inquiring about her relationship
with General Mustang would stop there.
She was quite believable,
a little bit of an actress in her own right,
Also, she was rather frightening at the same time.
Most often those inquiring didn't press any further.
Riza often relied on the fact that she was frightening.
But, Winry was most different than that of the usual suspect,
sweet and kind and innocent and encouraging,
and she knew Riza was softer than she appeared.
Winry so wanted it to be true,
some sort of love story between
she and the General.
She could tell just by the look in her big blue eyes.
Riza's heart broke a little,
When she knew very well it wasn't.
"I have someone to protect, I believe you said?"
Winry dreamed a little too much,
hearing words where there weren't,
"Sounds a tad more than a shared mission."
She did have someone to protect,
But not necessarily for the preservation of a true love.
Riza cleared her throat.
She wasn't a foolish woman.
She had a job to do, a calling,
And so she answered the call.
End of story.
"I'm sorry, Winry. But, the truth is much less riveting"
"She's been telling me for years they've never touched each other,"
Rebecca side eyed Riza, evaluating her.
No way even the Flame Alchemist
could resist such a woman like her best friend,
"I don't believe it."
"I don't think I do either," Winry
sheepishly agreed, knowing she was implying
a bit too much, stepping over a line.
Riza picked at her cake, sliding all the icing onto the fork,
and eating it all in one grand bite, sucking it clean.
She watched the circle stare at her.
Suddenly, she was the entertainment.
Suddenly, she felt she owed her sweet,
golden-hearted young friend a wedding present.
She tapped the fork on her lip,
then thought to the ceiling fan,
"Well, there was that one time he slammed me up
against a wall and kissed me passionately."
Winry choked on her cake.
Rebecca spit out her champagne onto poor Black Hayate.
Wise Pinako only snickered into a teacup,
and Paninya observed the group breakdown
with wide eyes and pure confusion.
"Wait, who did? Your General?"
Rebecca didn't let anyone answer Paninya,
but instead turned to her best friend and started barking.
"Riza Louise Hawkeye-"
"Not my middle name," Riza deadpanned and bit into a strawberry.
Chocolate was her favorite, but shortcake was a close second,
she hummed, unfazed by her friend's fit,
the burst of chaos within the circle.
Riza Louise, indeed.
How dramatic.
Rebecca didn't much care about her real middle name.
She needed drama, she needed emphasis.
Her screaming was just enough emphasis,
thank you very much, Riza sighed
"What the hell, Riza?"
Rebecca squeaked,
and Riza started to regret extending Winry's invitation to her,
attempting to fill Princess May's spot until she got back from Xing,
attempting to add to the young bride's celebration,
"You have never once mentioned this."
Actually, that was a lie.
Riza had started to regret bringing her
much much earlier in the conversation.
"Must have slipped my mind."
"Slipped your mind?" Rebecca growled.
The group was in an uproar while Winry pressed continually,
desperately trying to get a word in before Rebecca
strangled her only hope for answers.
"Ms. Hawkeye, what exactly happened?"
she said over the noise.
Something told her General Mustang wouldn't elaborate all that much,
as it would force him to admit that he was totally in love with her.
Which he was. Winry knew.
She swore she could tell.
But, Winry was actually at least half way incorrect,
for when Riza finally answered,
shushing the group into shock,
"Exactly what I said. He lifted me up,
pushed me into a wall and kissed me passionately."
That's when Roy walked in,
and to Winry's astounding surprise,
confirmed the event.
"I remember that,"
he said casually, totally nonchalant,
stepping to the fridge and grabbing several beers,
that little blonde pipsqueak (nearly taller than Roy now)
punishing Roy for his bride-to-be's strict order to offer him
an invitation to his little bachelor party.
After all he had done to save his hide, Roy grumbled,
Fullmetal still pretended to hate him with a passion.
They needed to prepare, Edward argued,
before the train ride to East City where they could go to a proper bar,
sending Roy in like a servant to fetch them supplies.
The boy was certainly drunk on
having finally reached the legal drinking age.
"Excuse me?" Rebecca finally choked out,
the first one to stop gaping at the General
as he popped open a bottle
and met his Captain's blank stare.
He nodded, "Quite clearly."
Astoundingly, Paninya sat stunned,
and shockingly captured by the most eligible bachelor in Amestris.
Her eyes were nearly hearts.
Riza licked her fork free of
homemade ice cream.
She couldn't stop eating,
Sugar always seemed to stop her thoughts,
she supposed.
It did nothing for the blood
pounding violently through her ears,
unfortunately.
"Well, how'd it go?" Paninya asked.
Pinako barked out a laugh as Roy smirked
and Riza swallowed a dollop of whip cream,
She didn't look up when
Roy utterly bragged,
"Very well"
It was much easier to admit
that here and now, strangely.
He kind of couldn't help answering as such,
admiring Riza Hawkeye in a pretty blue high-back sundress,
Long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle,
and her blonde hair draped over her shoulders.
He knew she would cut it before
they moved to the desert.
But, he couldn't help but be fond
of the endless stream of yellow gold.
More to tug on, only during his daydreaming, of course,
procrastinating transfer paperwork in the best way possible.
Perhaps he would have to beg her, he wondered.
The short hair was good too, he countered to himself,
it was always soft, perfect to run fingers through.
Oh, yes, he remembered the feeling,
it had gone very well indeed.
And Roy imagined the outcome would follow suit if
he grabbed her right then and pushed her up against
all the walls in the room one at a time.
But, he watched Riza shrug.
She actually shrugged.
"Moderate at best," she said.
Roy glared at her when she met his eyes,
cold and stoic. She plunged her fork in
for another piece of cake,
"Quite difficult to breathe."
Roy frowned and downed his beer.
Yes, he would need something stronger
to numb the sting of that comment.
"I may die of shock."
Rebecca declared frankly, looking from
Riza to Roy, Roy to Riza, weighing the possibility that
they may be in cahoots on one large practical joke.
Riza cleared her throat.
"Most likely won't happen again."
"Ruthless," Roy muttered to himself,
whipped the door open and didn't even
look over his shoulder when he called out,
"Have a good night, ladies."
All four of them sat stunned,
Riza still picked at her desert,
A cream puff this time.
Too much silence had passed,
Riza wanted to move on from the subject,
Her little prank, her little joke.
Her little secret.
"It's really not all that interesting," she said to the circle,
waving away the notion, "We were young. We were different people"
"How young?" Winry asked lightly.
"I was 18?" Riza tilted her head
and counted the years.
"You were not that different at 18."
Rebecca rolled her eyes.
Riza met her head on and countered,
"Civil War and a military coup can change a person."
Rebecca was shamed to silence,
twisting her lips, studying her friend.
"Well, you've known each other for quite awhile."
Long enough to develop a very deep love,
Pinako was suggesting.
Riza lifted her chin,
ready for the challenge.
"15 years truly isn't all that long."
Riza said, knowing it certainly didn't feel that way.
Pinako raised an eyebrow,
"Sounds long enough to me."
Rebecca, finally worn out,
filled with doubt, denial, shocked to the core
interrupted Pinako's all-knowing power play.
Rebecca knew it was a prank,
She just knew.
"You're bluffing," she grumbled to the group, "She's great at lying,"
"She's always been a stupendous liar,"
Rebecca angry-chugged the rest of champagne in the bottle.
Perhaps she was in love with her commanding officer.
Rebecca was quite certain she was absolutely correct on that count.
But, here and now, Riza Hawkeye must have been
pulling her leg, having some fun at the expense
of her ardent romantic nature.
Winry, however, had not yet given up.
"Is it true, Ms. Hawkeye?"
She pleaded, so hopeful, so good willed.
Riza smirked a little, very much feeling just a tad evil,
to be so cryptic and conniving on the young girl's wedding week,
The beautiful young girl only wished for Ms. Hawkeye
unadulterated love and happiness, regardless of her past.
But, this was her only defense mechanism,
and, truthfully, quite entertaining.
"I suppose you'll never know,"
Riza reached over to Rebecca's porcelain plate,
stuck her fork in the middle and stuffed her face
with another unusually large piece of strawberry sponge.
"You're too cruel, Riza," Rebecca sighed,
her most precious mental romance novel
slashed to ribbons once more.
Riza smirked smally at her, and in that moment,
accidentally glanced toward the window,
She caught Roy's gaze,
climbing into the little taxi.
He winked.
She rolled her eyes.
then fought off a smile
into her next bit of cake,
treacherously wondering in the back of her mind
how well it would go if she stopped the car before they left,
and asked the General to kiss the whipped cream off her lips.
Quite well, she imagined.
Very well.
Like this? Like me? Love Royai?
Follow me on tumblr and ao3,
myrhymesarepurer all around.
If you want more of me,
check out my newest stories
Home, ting-a-ling, and The Great Pretend.
Leave me with your parting thoughts.