Wow! Second fanfic already? Queen, you impress yourself! I love Riza, and I'm definitely going to write more stories for this pairing.

Onward! To the fictitiousness! (Is that even a real word? Meh. I don't care. I'll use it anyway.)

It started out as an innocent touch, an accidental brushing of his hand against her hair.

Riza had been sitting at her desk when it happened. She had called out to him, "Sir! I have papers for you to sign." A few minutes passed, and Roy showed no signs of standing up. "Sir! I have papers-"

"Jeez, Hawkeye, I heard you the first time. I'm coming. Calm down already." Roy stood up and stretched, coming around her desk to stand behind her chair. He reached over her shoulder and took the papers from her, his hand brushing against a piece of blonde hair that had fallen out of her clip. He shuffled the papers and sighed good-naturedly. "With the amount of work I get, you'd think the higher-ups have it in for me for some reason."

"Sir, you go out of your way to avoid paperwork, and I'm sure the higher-ups know that. If there is any extra work, it's most likely a punishment for me, as I'm the one that usually takes care of all this."

Roy reached over her head and plucked the pen from her grasp, his hand once again touching the errant strand of hair. She could feel him smirking at the back of her head. "I'm sorry. Why, I'll pick up the slack right now, and my poor, overworked, underpaid lieutenant can finally get a moment's peace."

Riza pulled the clip out of her hair, allowing it to tumble down to the middle of her back. She gathered it in her hands, attempting to clip it back into place. She wasn't sure why, but Roy touching her hair made her feel...odd. Like she had done something she shouldn't have. That was a ridiculous thought, as it had been an accident, but the feeling lingered nonetheless.

"Much obliged, sir."

.:QueenMaj:.

This continued to happen over the course of a few months: Riza would be minding her own business, Roy would touch her hair, and Riza would get that odd, fluttery feeling of wrongness in her stomach.

The first time he'd touched her hair on purpose had been at the officers' party. Riza had worn a simple lavender dress for the occasion. Her honey-colored hair was up in an elegant twist, with a few curls hanging around her face. She had entered with a group of friends, and her plan for the evening was simple- stick close to Maria, Rebecca, and Gracia; make small talk for an hour or so; and then retreat to her apartment, where she had a puppy and a good romance novel awaiting her return.

Of course, this plan went to hell the moment she noticed that Roy was also there. Any plans she made for a quiet evening alone, she had discovered, were useless when Roy was within two miles of her. He claimed that he didn't want to see his lieutenant all cooped up in her house when there was fun to be had. She protested that she didn't mind being on her own. He never listened.

Then again, did she ever really expect him to?

Roy grinned as he spotted her and quickly made his way over to her table. "Excuse me," he said to the rest of the girls. "Would you ladies mind if I borrowed Hawkeye for a minute?" He placed a hand on her shoulder.

Rebecca elbowed Gracia hard in the ribs. "Oh, of course not!" she giggled.

"No, we wouldn't mind at all!" Gracia added. She winked at Riza, rubbing her sore side.

Maria just shook her head and sighed at her friends' antics.

Riza sighed. Her friends had been trying to set her up with Roy for almost a year now, and they didn't care how obvious they were being about it. She followed Roy out onto the dance floor. He took her hand and smirked at her. "May I have this dance, Miss Hawkeye?"

She laughed and nodded, and he spun them both out. The music was relatively easy to dance to. That peculiar fluttery feeling had moved out of her stomach and had now decided to take up residence behind her ribcage. She pointedly ignored it.

"So," Roy was all smiles. "Were you planning on running away? If you spend all your time holed up in that big, lonely apartment, you'll eventually become a hermit."

Riza smiled softly. "I'm not alone," she reminded him. "I have Black Hayate to keep me company, and my friends visit all the time."

Roy brushed a loose piece of hair behind her ear, and her world froze. Just for an instant, all that exsisted was Roy and that piece of hair that refused to cooperate. Then everything snapped back into focus, and the moment was over. He grinned. "Yeah, but the majority of the time you're all alone, like some old lady!"

Riza gave into the dance and the lure of the well-worn argument, and before she knew it, the party was coming to an end. People laughed and bid each other good night, retrieving coats and leaving in droves. Roy led her to the door.

"There," he said proudly. "You spent a whole two hours interacting with another human being, and you didn't pass out or anything! Maybe you've finally gotten over your allergy to social situations."

Riza laughed. "Goodnight, Roy. I'll see you at work tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Riza."

.:QueenMaj:.

Now, the touches were becoming intentional. If Roy was within two feet of her, chances were he was attempting to touch her hair. Riza didn't mind, exactly, but the fluttery feeling persisted, and now it was accompanied by a curious tugging feeling in her chest that wasn't entirely unpleasant.

"Sir!" Riza said threateningly. This was the third time today she had caught Roy daydreaming instead of doing his paperwork. "You're supposed to be writing, not slacking off."

Roy groaned and leaned back in his chair. "But it's so boring," he whined. "Wouldn't my time be better spent doing something else?"

Riza leveled him with her sharpest glare. "Fine. If you can't work over there, bring your chair over here so I can keep an eye on you."

To her surprise, Roy obliged, dragging his chair across the room. Riza moved to one side to give him room. He uncerimoniously dropped a pile of forms onto the desk and bent over them.

Riza continued with her work, keeping watch to make sure that Roy did his. After a good while, however, she figured that it was probably safe to move her full attention to the papers at hand. For half an hour, all was quiet and peaceful, the only sound being the soft scratch of a pen or the rustle of paper as a page was turned.

Riza moved to sign her name at the bottom of the form she was currently working on, and froze. She chanced a glance to her right. Sure enough, Roy was staring in deep concentration at his packet, absentmindedly twirling a strand of her hair around his finger. She hadn't bothered to put it up today, deeming it useless as the syrupy summer heat curled through the open windows; her hair would be messy by lunchtime in this weather.

She tried to shift her focus back to the task at hand, but the deed was done; it would be futile to try and pay attention now. Roy effectively managed to keep her distracted this way until the end of her shift. She had only completed about half of what she had expected to. She scowled. Trying to work through all of tomorrow's work, plus all of today's backlog, would be hell. She'd have to come in at least an hour early.

Leave it to Roy to screw up her schedule without even trying.

.:QueenMaj:.

Roy was becoming more persistent with the touching. This problem was usually solved by making use of her hairclip and a few pins. But her hair was no longer safe in its clip, as Riza soon discovered.

Riza sighed, fanning her face with one hand. The summers in Central were beautiful, but brutal as well. The entire courtyard was drenched in sunlight. It was torturous to wear her uniform; the thick blue material made it feel as though she was wearing a winter coat. She wished that the higher-ups would allow them to wear civilian clothes to the office on extremely hot days.

She felt Roy, rather than saw him. He stood behind her and reached for her hair. Riza, used to this by now, said nothing. She did, however, say something when she felt her hair come loose and tumble down her back.

"Hey!" Riza turned to glare playfully at Roy. "My clip! Give it back!"

Roy grinned and held it high above his head, knowing that it would frustrate her: she wanted her clip back, but was unable to get it without jumping, and she'd die twice before degrading herself like that. "But I was just trying to help! My poor Hawkeye looked so hot!"

Riza blushed, although she knew that he hadn't meant for his comment to be taken that way. She hoped that the flush across her cheeks could be blamed on the stuffy heat of the office. She reached for the clip, standing on tiptoe. "Give it to me! I want it back! You said it yourself, it's too hot to be wearing my hair down."

Roy wrapped his free arm around her waist, his other still dangling the clip just above her reach. She let out a small noise of frustration and strained, her fingertips just brushing the bottom of the clip. He dropped a kiss on her forehead, and she stiffened, her hazel eyes wide and surprised. He took advantage of her distraction and gathered her hair in his hands, twisting it deftly and securing it in place with the clip. He grinned. "I still think you look nicer with your hair down."

The next kiss landed on her lips, and Riza found that she was hard-pressed to pay attention to that odd tightness any more.

Yay! That was a goddamned mission to get typed up and posted. Computer crashes, missing flashdrive, WiFi going absolutely nuts... Basically, anything that could go wrong, did. The Queen is feeling very proud of herself right about now :-) Did you like it? Hate it? Please review! (That was my shameless review plug)

But seriously, I want to know how well I write the characters. Tell me if you spot something that needs some touching up.

Oh, almost forgot! I opened up a livejournal! My username there is TheRealQueenMaj (just type in 'therealqueenmaj' and it'll come up). Check it out when you have the time!

Hugs,

QueenMaj