I Wanna Be Just Like You
by Prettywitchiusaka
"Here you go," Riza said, holding cup of water out to an elderly man sitting on the sidewalk.
"Thank you."
She watches him take the cup and gulp it down like he hadn't seen or had water in days.
She couldn't blame him, though. The apartment building he escaped from had caught fire not even twenty minutes ago, and was currently going up in smoke.
Lives, homes, belongings, they were all being ruined.
The good news was that she and her team happened to be passing by, and stopped to help the tenants evacuate the building.
"How's it coming?"
She looks up to see her boss, Colonel Roy Mustang standing above her. "Everyone seems to have gotten out," she answered. "Did you get in touch with the fire department?"
"Yeah, they should be here soon," he replied.
"My baby!" Riza and her Colonel turn their heads and see a young woman being held back by a young man. "My baby is still in there!"
Riza's heart breaks as she watches the hysterical woman flailing about. It reminded her so much of Ishbal, of the screaming, frightened women running back into burning buildings to rescue their sons and daughters.
This woman was no different, she realized. Another mother trying to break free of the grasp the young man had on her, doing whatever she could in a desperate attempt to save her child.
She knew what she had to do.
She got up and bolted for the burning building. In the distance, she could hear the Colonel shouting "Lieutenant! Lieutenant, get back here!" but she ignored him for once and made her way through the front door.
The first thing Riza was greeted to as she ran into the lobby was a huge cloud of thick, black smoke.
She coughed and placed a hand to her mouth. Looking around, she realized the whole lobby was covered in thick smoke. "Shit!" she cursed. She had to find the child and soon; at this rate, they'd both drop dead from smoke inhalation in a matter of minutes.
"Hello? Is anyone in here?" she yelled, walking past the stairwell. "Hello?"
Riza stop; she can hear the faint, and distant whimpering of a small child coming from the floor above.
Now knowing where she needed to go, Riza carefully made her way up the stairs and onto the second floor. She follows the whimpering and makes her way towards the last door on the right.
She runs in and sees a little girl about four or five years old, with red hair and big, blue eyes red from tears…and the giant plank of wood that'd fallen onto her leg, leaving her trapped inside the burning structure.
Riza ran over to the girl and crouched down to her level.
"Hey, are you alright?"
"I…I went back in to get my teddy bear and I-"
She put a hand to the child's shoulder. "Shh. It's okay. Just try to relax," she said. "Can you stand?"
She shook her head.
"Okay, I'm gonna lift this beam off your leg, then I'll carry you out of here, okay?"
"Okay."
Riza smiles.
She quickly lifts the heavy beam off the little girl's leg, a simple task for someone with impressive upper body strength such as hers and gently scoops the girl into her arms.
They were just about to leave when all of the sudden, a beam that'd caught fire came crashing towards them. Riza sprinted out of the way in time…only to yelp as the end of the beam banged her arm.
She stumbled around in a bit of a daze, wincing at the heat she can already feel seeping its way into her skin.
She was hoping, even praying her jacket wasn't on fire. But then she remembers the little girl in her arms, hears her wailing in fear and, without a second thought, made her way for the stairs. If she was injured she could deal with it later.
She sprints down the stairs and darts through the smoky hallway, doing her best to cover the child from the toxic air around them.
Moments later, she feels the warmth of the sun on her face and the gust of an early autumn breeze brush up against her cheek. She opens her eyes and smiles upon seeing the clear, blue sky. At last, they were safe.
"Michelle!"
The girl's mother runs over, crying tears of joy. The little girl jumped right into her mom's arms.
"Mommy!"
She embraced her mom and she does the same.
The mother never thanked Riza, but she didn't mind; she was just happy to see the little girl out of harm's way.
"Lieutenant!"
Riza turns to see Roy and her teammates form in a circle around her, looking more than a little relieved to see her in one piece.
"Are you okay?" Roy asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "But I think I need to see a doctor."
She shows them her injured arm and receives collective gasps from her colleagues.
The Colonel takes her arm in his hand and begins examining the wound, looking to determine its severity.
"Lieutenant Havoc, take her to the hospital immediately," he ordered. "Tell the doctor she needs treatment for a second degree burn."
"You got it, Chief."
Before Riza can say another word she is being escorted to the car, leaving her with only a guess as to how that little girl was holding up.
…
Four Hours Later…
Riza glared at the back of Jean's head, hoping that if he could maybe feel the death glare behind him he'd stop giggling like a school girl.
To be fair, she did get why he couldn't stop laughing.
The doctor's orders were to clean the burn wound daily and to use her arm as little as possible.
Not a bad thing; the wound was on her left arm, but she was right handed so activities like writing and filing wouldn't be an issue.
But her daily visits to the shooting range? Yeah, she could kiss those goodbye for awhile.
An expert sharp shooter who couldn't shoot, irony at it's finest. Who wouldn't find that a bit funny?
Still…
"Well, looks like you and Hayate are gonna be spending a lot more time together, huh?"
"I can still use my other hand, Jean."
"Yeah, but I doubt Mustang'll want you straining yourself for a while."
She sighs.
"How is Mustang?"
Jean shrugged. "Tired, he said he might take a nap once we get back to the office."
Riza rolls her eyes; why did that not surprise her?
Jean started chuckling again, infuriating her.
"You should've seen him though; he was so worried about you!" he said. This earns him a raised eyebrow from his confused colleague. "He didn't say anything, but you could tell from the look in his eyes that all he was thinking about was how you were holding up."
"I know, that's why I asked," she said, unable to hide a smile.
Riza looks up again, and stops dead in her tracks when she sees a gold placque with the words "Room 102" in white lettering. That was where that little girl was staying, at least that's what the nurse she'd talked to told her, anyway.
"Havoc."
He turns to face her.
"Tell Colonel Mustang I'll be out in a bit, I'm just going to check in on that little girl."
Jean smiles.
"Okay. Good luck."
He leaves and she turns to face the door, suddenly overcome with a sense of hesitation. She quickly brushes it off, though and knocks.
"Come in."
Riza opens the door and is greeted to the sight of the little girl in a cozy hospital bed, her leg in a cast and her mother sitting beside to her in a plastic chair.
She smiles. "Hello."
"Oh, you're that soldier from earlier," the girl's mother said.
Riza closes the door and makes her way towards the bed. "Yes, I came by to see how your daughter was doing."
The woman smiles.
"Oh, that's so sweet of you. Isn't that sweet, darling?"
The little girl hid her face in her hands without saying a word. Her mother chuckled. "I'm sorry, she's a little shy."
"That's okay. I was a bit shy too when I was that age."
Riza notices the girl staring at her from the corner of her eye; she turns to her and asked "Is something wrong?"
"You're really pretty."
Riza was, admittedly taken aback by the little girl's sudden boldness, but only because she wasn't used to receiving compliments from children. At least her shyness made sense now.
She smiled and sat on her knees. "Thank you very much, Michelle."
Her smile widens.
"You remembered my name!"
"Of course I remembered your name, it's a very pretty name."
"Thanks!" she said. "What's your name?"
"My name is Lieutenant Hawkeye, but you can call me Riza."
Michelle gasped in excitement. "You're a Lieutenant!? That's so cool! My uncle used to be in the military!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, he was only a Corporal, though."
Riza chuckled.
"There's nothing wrong with that. Soldiers are people just like you, trying the best they can to help their country." A smirk makes its way across her lips. "Only we get paid for it."
Michelle giggled.
And sure enough, the Lieutenant's smirk transformed into a warm smile.
It's always moments like this that reminds Riza of why she likes children so much.
This girl almost died today in a blazing inferno, but here she was, sitting in a hospital bed and smiling like nothing happened. And drawing her, apparently.
At least that's what it looked like, anyway.
Riza leaned in to get a better look at the picture and sure enough, it was her Michelle was drawing.
"Is that me?"
"Uhuh!" she said. "The doctor wanted me to hold still while he put the bandage on my leg, so my mommy gave me some paper to draw on and I started drawing you."
She held up the paper and pointed. "See? That's you and that's me."
Riza smiles. It was crude looking, like anything made by a five year old would be, but she
loved it none the less.
"It's very good."
"Thanks, you can keep it if you want."
"Really? Thank you, Michelle."
"You're welcome."
Riza chuckles and takes the drawing.
"You've really had quite on my daughter, Lieutenant. She hasn't stop talking about you since we got here."
Riza raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I wanna be just like you when I grow up, Miss Riza!"
Riza gasps and falls silent for a moment. She regained her composure shortly after though, and said "Do you?"
"Yeah! I wanna save people and help bring peace to the country, just like you and those guys you were with!"
Riza, ever the professional forced herself to smile at the little girl.
"Well, I'm sure if you work hard and get a good education you can enlist in the military when you're older."
"You really think so?"
"Yes, I'm sure of it. You'll make a fine soldier, someday," she replied, doing her best to hold back the tears she knew were threatening to fall down her cheeks.
…
The first thing that Riza saw when she walked outside was a military car parked across the street. Roy was sitting in the back seat, staring ahead as if he were lost in deep thought. And Havoc? He was leaning against the car, a lit cigarette dangling from his mouth.
She walks over to the car, opens the back door and gets in.
"Hello, Colonel."
Roy snapped out of the daze he'd been in and turns to her. "Lieutenant!" he said. The surprise on his face quickly becomes a small, genuine smile. "That was quick."
She sighs. "Let me guess; you and Havoc were betting on how long I'd be in there, weren't you?"
He chuckles earnestly.
"No, I just thought you'd be in there for a lot longer than twenty minutes, that's all."
She shrugs.
"I guess."
Havoc soon got in the front seat and they drove back to Eastern Command in silence. Riza observed the drawing of her and Michelle, replaying her visit with the girl over and over in her head.
Her mind's eye shows her a fully grown Michelle saluting in a military uniform. Only every scenario ends with her lying dead in a ditch, somewhere; just one of many soldiers who'd
died "honourably" for their country.
She sighed and closes her eyes for a bit.
"You okay?"
She opened her eyes and stole a glance of Roy, noticing the subtle concern in his eyes.
"I'll be fine, Colonel," she said, rubbing her forehead. "I'm just tried."
Roy sighs.
"You're telling me!" he replied. "I could really use a nap right now."
She smiles briefly, wondering quietly to herself if she should ask him for a swig of whisky from that "secret" flask of his when they get back to the office? Or she could always just swipe a swig when he wasn't looking, she really didn't care at this point.
"What about the kid?"
Riza gasps. She stays silent for a moment as she figures out how to answer his question.
"She's fine."
"Really?" he said. "You don't sound happy about it."
"What me? No, I'm ecstatic!" she replied. "I mean it's not every day I inspire little girls to become dogs of the military, you know!"
And just like that, the entire car went silent. She didn't say anything to him; he didn't say anything to her, and Jean said nothing as he drove them all back to Headquarters.
She knew that neither of them needed to because they understood.
War Criminals don't exactly make for good role models.
The End