Disclaimer:
I do not own FMA.
He wasn't worried
It was a stormy monday morning when Roy Mustang entered his office at exactly 0759 hours and smiled at the empty desk of Lt. Riza Hawkeye. He didn't smile at the empty desk because he loved to smile at empty desks. He also didn't smile at the empty desk without noticing that it was empty because he was an idiot or something like that. Well, actually there are a few people in the military who use to call Colonel Mustang an idiot. But they do that because of personal reasons. If you look at him objective you have to admit that he isn't an idiot. He's perverted, yes. He's sometimes impatient, yes. He has a big ego, yup. But he is not an idiot.
Like already said, he didn't smile at the empty desk because he was an idiot. He smiled at the empty desk without noticing that it was empty because unfortunately he had forgotten his umbrella that morning. Perhaps he hadn't exactly forgotten it but just decided that it was...well, unmanly to carry an umbrella. However, he didn't have one.
You may ask yourselfes now: „How the hell is an (wether on purpose or not) forgotten umbrella connected with smiling at an empty desk?!"
That's evident. If you remember it was stormy that morning. It's a funny thing with storms: There are such that are dry and there are such that are wet. Wet because water is coming from above. The clouds, you know? Have you ever wondered why both things, though apparently different (remember: one's wet and one's not) are called storms? Seems like some kinda matter of definition. Well, this morning the storm was a wet one. A very wet one. In fact, you could call it more a waterfall than a storm. So when Roy Mustang exited his nice, warm appartment that day without an umbrella it wasn't that difficult for the waterfall to hit his bare head. Unfortunatly Colonel Mustang wears his hair in a way somewhere between short and not so short. He probably thinks that he looks good this way (and in fact most of the female beings at the headquaters seem to think the same way). Of course, all of you know what happenes if a waterfall hits a head with a haircut somewhere between short and not so short: The hair decides to make it's way to the eyes. So the reason why Mustang didn't notice that the desk he was smiling at was empty was that his wet hair was hanging into his eyes.
Like already mentioned, Roy Mustang isn't an idiot. Most people (except from those who call him an idiot for personal reasons) even use to call him clever. And of course there is no way for a clever person to let his hair in his eyes while being on duty. So he put his hair away. And when he put his hair away he immediately noticed that the desk he was smiling at was empty. He stopped smiling.
Not because he was annoyed. It was more that he knew that there was no point in smiling at an empty desk. He just decided to start smiling at the desk again when it stopped being empty. That is where the problem began.
If you happen to know Lt. Riza Hawkeye, you know that she is a punctual person. There is nothing that she hates more than being unpunctual (besides from a certain Colonel not doing his paperwork). So it wasn't very surprising that Colonel Mustang, who happened to know Riza Hawkeye for a long time, was a slightly irritated when her tardiness outran five minutes. Don't forget, he was just irritated. He wasn't worried.
Roy Mustang is a growen up man (At least more than Edward Elric, he uses to reassure himself. Matter of definition, too, I guess). A growen up man always knows how to keep himself busy. So he went in is own buro, pulled out his paperwork and started to read through the files (unusual enough!). Files, as well are a funny thing. Some of them are interesting and some of them are not. Unfortunately most of them belong to category two. This category two is very tricky: sometimes you can concentrate on it though the file is boring. But sometimes you just can't, how hard you ever may try. It was some kind of bad luck that Roy happened to read those. There is just no way to concentrate on a report about an officer who missed the begin of his duty ten times in a row. At least not when every single day of failure is described over two pages. So when Roy reached page number five he decided just to sign the („bloody" to use his words) report and took another one. But right when he reached for the next file he caught eye of the still empty desk of Lt. Riza Hawkeye trough the half open door. He grunted. He scrached his head. He drumed on his desk with his fingers. He scrached his nose. He stood up. He went outside his buro and eyeballed the other room. No matter how he looked on it, she wasn't there. Not that he was worried, he told himself. He just wanted to make sure that the nap he was going to take right now wasn't interrupted by a shower of bullets.
Roy Mustang went back to his desk (not without opening the connection door as wide as he could) and sat down on his chair. This way he had a perfect view on the still empty desk. He didn't want a good view, because he wanted to see her as soon as possible, hell, no! He just wanted to be alerted the very moment she stepped into the office, so he could act busy. No way he wondered if something happened on her way to the office. After all it was storming. It was storming very hard. In fact it stormed so hard that the trees started to reach the ground. So, you see, there was no need for Colonel Roy Mustang to wonder if Riza hadn't been blowen away.
After years of sleeping with open eyes, while his face turned to a certain desk (just something he wanted to practise, he told himself) he stood up and went to the coffe-maschine. You have to now, not only files and storms are funny things. Coffe-maschines are, as well. Have you ever heard rumors of dogs and computer scenting fear? Well, I'm not sure about the dogs but computer certainly do. The problem with coffe-maschines is, they seem to do it, too. They just don't do what you want them to do. Usually, Roy got his coffe by forcing one of his subordinates to bring him one, but since he was alone that morning he had to get it himself. Fuery was on vacation, Breda was hospitalized because of a broken leg, Havac and Falman were on a mission. And Hawkeye...perhaps he should call her? After all, probably she had some documents that he had to sign urgent?
The coffe-maschine howled and spit out some brown liquor on the floor. Of course not into the cup. Roy sighed. „You have to close this little door there." A voice explained from the door. A rather young voice. Roy looked up. And sighed again. „You...what is it?" A blonde boy entered the room and dropped himself onto a chair. „Reports, Colonel Flame. It's not like I'm enjoying your company." he grunted.
„Annoying dwarf..." Roy murmured quiet. Still not quiet enough. Edward Elric hears suprisingly well everytime anybody makes a comment about people's hight. Especially about his hight. He jumped up and started to bounce up and down in front of the poor Colonel, waving his both hands. „WHO DO YOU CALL A MIDGET SO MICROSCOPIC SMALL THAT HE WOULD DROWN IN A FLYS SPIT? WHO DO YOU CALL A SHORTY SO TINY THAT HE COULD NOT BE SEEN WITH A MAGNIFIER? WHO DO YOU..." he yelled furious. Roy backed away a few steps. „Get a hold of yourself. I didn't go so far. But, of course if you insist..." He dodged a strike of Ed's metal arm and grinned. Nothing better to get in a good mood than to tease this guy. Unfortunatly his jink ended with him tripping about a big, armoured leg. „You shouldn't always tease brother like that." Alphonse Elric whispered, while helping the fallen man onto his feet again. After a few minutes which Ed spent with sulking, the atmosphere in the buro calmed down. Al looked around irritated. „Where are all of the others?" His hollow voice asked out of the armour. Mustang sighed for the third time. „Vacation. Hospitalized. Mission. Late." he answered. Ed grinned. „Who's late?"
„Lt. Hawkeye." Roy answered a bit absent. „Really?!" Ed cried out. „Well, that's strange. Still, there's..."
„I'm not worried!" The Colonel yelled. The Elric-Brothers stared. Ed started to giggle. Al started to giggle. Roy started to blush very very deep. „I thought you were to say 'there's no need to worry', stupid." He made an attempt of explanation, that caused the brothers to giggle even more. „I always knew it." Ed chuckled. „Yeah, I was pretty sure, too." Al nodded.
„What the fuckin' heck are you talking about!!!" Roy slammed his fist on the table. The whole situation started to annoy him beyond every limit.
„Isn't that obvious, Colonel?" Ed's annoying finger swung up and down infront of his face.
„Perhaps he didn't notice it himself?" Al asked thoughtfully.
„Sounds like the idiot he is." Ed nodded. By the way, here is an example for those people who call Colonel Roy Mustang an idiot out of personel (hight connected) reasons.
„I don't have a clue what you two brats are talking about. Probably you got the rest of your brain, IF you ever had one, beaten out of your useless heads on your last mission!" Roy yelled, now more than annoyed.
„Right, the mission. Here's the report. But I don't think the whole thing was any good." The older Elric pulled out a file. Rather crumpled by the way. Mustang shot him a glare. „That's not your decision, Fullmetal. Dismissed." The young alchemists stood up and went out of the door. Roy had just lent back in his chair enjoying the silence, when Ed's annoying head appeared in the open door. „By the way Colonel, I was going to say: 'Still there's this bothersome storm outside' when you interrupted me. Even Al had difficulties with walking in it." He said, more serious this time. „In the radio they said that there are a lot of traffic jams because of accidents. Probably Lt. Hawkeye just got caught up in one of those. But..." he told his superior officer. „However. I don't care anyways." Roy grunted. Edward's head vanished and a few moments later the Colonel heard how the office door was closed.
He opened the report the kid gave him. Though he always shouted at him he had to admit that Ed's reports were mostly from the first catergory, means they were interesting. But this time he didn't manage to concentrate on it. To help himself to focus he started to take notes, but still his thoughts continued to drift away. Yeah. Probably Hawkeye was caught in a traffic jam. Most likeley. But those traffic jams were caused by accidents. Oh, however. It wasn't like he was worried. No, not the tiniest bit. Not at all.
He turned on the news. „Todays storm caused a unusual chaos on the streets of central city. Over 20 traffic jams are reported, caused by objects on the road. Several trees which were unable to sustain the enormous wind crushed cars, standing and driving ones. Reportedly there are already six dead and 18 life-threatening injured persons. The situation is..." the neutral voice of the announcer said. To translate in common language: outside was friggin' hell. For the case Ed hadn't annoyed Roy Mustang to dead already, at the latest now, he was really pissed of. Not because eventually a little thought of Riza Hawkeye in the middle of those chaos had slipped into his mind. Because if it had slipped into it, Roy surley had been worried. But he wasn't, right? No, he was pissed because he thought about all the paperwork that he would have to do when the storm was over. Chaos always causes chaos. And the inkarnation of chaos is- of course, paperwork. Quite evident, isn't it? You see, he even didn't think about his leutenant that moment. After all he had better things to think about. Like Fullmetal's report for example. He turned his attention back to the papers and his notes. He chewed his pencil. He turned the pages. He read the words one after another. But somehow he couldn't bring sense into it. „Screw this midget. This is complete rubbish. Doesn't even manage to write a proper sentence." he growled. On he other side...Edward Elric's reports were usually not the worst. In fact they were rather good written. Perhaps Roy himself had caught some strange illness that caused a temporary dyslexia? Yeah, his reading ability was definitely affected. Because when he looked at his notes the only thing he saw was something very strange scrawled all over the page. And since he was sure he didn't write such a thing he had to be sick. Perhaps all the problems caused by a certain midget and an armoured guy had driven him crazy finally. Yeah, that had to be it. He was just...he had no clue what he was. He just knew one thing for sure: He. Wasn't. Worried.
Because he said it himself. And it didn't suit a Colonel to lie. So he wasn't worried at all.
The door slammed open. „I'm sorry, Colonel Mustang, Sir, there was a traffic jam on my way!" A familiar voice shouted and a drippy Riza Hawkeye appeared in his view. „I hope you accept my deepest apologies."
Strangely enough Roy felt some kind of relief when he saw the woman. Just a bit. What seemed to be strange, because he hadn't been worried, had he? To fell reliefed, after all, you have to be worried in beforehand, don't you? „Sir, are you alright? You seem a bit spaced out." Rizas face appeared infront of his. „Er, everything alright! There's no need to worry!" he replied and accumulated the papers on his desk. Unseen by him, a single white sheet of paper flew down to the floor.
The rest of the day was spent like always. Paperwork. Surprisingly enough, Hawkeyes appearance seemed to have cured the Colonel of his dyslexia. That, however, didn't stop him from skipping a big part of his work. Like already said, everything went like always.
So it isn't very starteling that it was Riza Hawkeye who happened to be the one who left the last. Because of this she entered the empty buro of Roy Mustang to turn of the lights. Because of this she saw the sheet on the floor. Because of this she bent down and fetched it. When she read the text that was scrawled on it, however, her eyebrows raised. It said: I'm not worried.
A/N: This is my very very first FMA-fanfic. I'm not sure if it's OOC. I'm not sure about the whole thing. But if you like it (and write so in you reviews) I will make this a One Shot-Collection, I guess. If you wanna flame me without proper justification, I'll just ignore you. If you wanna critizize me constructivly I'm going to be very happy. So, now your opinion is wanted: It's in your hands wether I continue writing or not!