Author's Note: This is about 5% serious fanfic and the other 95% is silly sexy domesticity injoke fic written for my friends. Consider yourself warned?
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Riza has spent the past several minutes trying to puzzle out an 6 letter word for "becomes visible," curled up on the couch in her cozy living room, when a key turns in the lock. Hayate jumps up from his spot in the corner and barks twice, tail wagging furiously. There's no doubt who it is.
Roy steps in a moment later, shrugging off both overcoat and jacket and shooting her a grin hello before bending down for obligatory doggy greetings. She watches, amused, as Hayate rolls over onto his back, paws in the air, so Roy can give him proper belly scritches. The dog wriggles happily back and forth on the floor.
"Have you eaten?" he asks after a minute, straightening.
"Mmhmm." She gestures vaguely at the delivery bag on the coffee table. "Six letter word for 'becomes visible'?"
He hums thoughtfully as he drops on the couch beside her, beginning to poke through her leftovers. "Appear? Manifest — no, that's seven. Emerge?"
Riza nods at the last one, penciling in the answer. "That works."
Roy abandons his quest with the takeout and leans back into the cushions, sliding his arm around her shoulders. She looks at him sideways, not setting aside the newspaper quite yet. The smirk on his face is none-too-subtle, but then, it rarely is.
"So. Did you have any… plans for the evening?" he asks, his voice lowering an octave into what is undoubtedly supposed to be a very sexy drawl. On one hand, it's utterly ridiculous, but on the other, that's never really been a turn off for her where Roy is concerned. He edges closer, his chest pressing warm against her shoulder.
"Oh, none in particular," Riza says, smoothing the folded newspaper against her knee. She tilts her head to the side, her fringe falling across her eyes, pretending to focus on the next question. His thumb traces looping patterns against her arm and she is almost ready to give up the ruse already.
Roy leans in, resting his chin on her shoulder, his nose pressed into her hair. "I might have a suggestion or two," he murmurs, nuzzling closer to nibble the stretch of skin between her jaw and her ear. Biting back a grin, Riza bends down and places the crossword and her pencil on the floor, then twists so she can press her palm to his chest — Roy shifts back so he can see her face, still smirking.
"So are you going to be the vampire this time, then?" she asks, utterly straight-faced, but the edge of anticipation in her voice gives her away.
"Well if the lady prefers," Roy begins, drawing his arms down to circle her waist, "I could always be a dashing pirate, come to sweep you away to sea."
"Sadly, after last time, you left out your very dashing eyepatch and Hayate found it."
Roy's face falls immediately and he takes a moment to glower across the room at the offending canine, curled up asleep and oblivious in his doggy bed. "You didn't tell me about that…" He sulks for a moment, mouth curled downward and eyebrows pinched, until an idea seems to strike him — she'd know that look anywhere. He turns back to her, eyes narrowed and sly. "Fortunately, there's always an old favorite to fall back on, Captain."
Her breath catches a little, unbidden. "Oh?"
"Oh yes." Roy reaches behind her and snags the uniform jacket she'd left draped over the sofa arm. Looking far too smug for his own good, he settles it over her shoulders, sleeves hanging free. His voice is low again, but husky now. "I think you'd appreciate my idea, Lieutenant."
An old favorite indeed.
"Very well, Colonel." she concedes, already slipping into the game, though this one in particular isn't half so silly as the others. It doesn't matter that on her epaulettes, the wrong number of stars are glittering in the lamplight, or that he has been a General for nearly two years now. This is something they will always go back to, the years stretching between them in a bond far too resilient to break. Roy smiles, softly now, his fingers threading gently into her hair. She swallows hard at the look in his eyes. "I'm listening."
He kisses her then, drawing her towards him, and in his mouth are a thousand words still unspoken, but Riza understands every last one.