The Reassignment
Part 1
Author: MoonStarDutchess
Beta: Dark Secret Keeper
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA and gain no profit from this fanfiction.
AN: Recently I've had a lot of ideas floating around my head distracting me so I decided to write them out so I could easily get back to my multichannel stuff. For those waiting on bks (My other beta Marxus Krieg has it and for those waiting on Vacuous Heart of Blood, I'm working on it and it should be up sometime next week. XD This is just a cute two part fic written merely for a need of fluff!
The Reassignment
Riza Hawkeye was annoyed, but thankful, that she had such a difficult time getting past the security at the front gate to her grandfather's home. It took a show of two of her military Id's and a threat to castrate the guard that suggested a frisk, before they let her drive up the long driveway to the fuehrer's mansion/formal offices.
She parked the car in the driveway and noted a newer model vehicle was sitting closest to the house, the shiny black metal taunting her old but reliable vehicle with its vanity.
She grabbed the basket of cookies she had sitting in the passenger seat and got out of the car. As she walked along the paseo to the door, an instant regret passed through her head and she cursed her choice to wear heels. Patches of ice smoothed the walkway dedicated there by the rain and below freezing weather of the previous night. Thankfully, she made it to the front door without falling and dispersing the contents of her basket onto the ground.
When she knocked on the door, she expected either her grandfather or Patricia, his maid, to open it, figuring that he gave the rest of his staff time off for the holidays. She nearly stepped back on a patch of ice when her Roy answered. A smile formed on his lips the moment his eyes met hers. "Good morning Lieutenant."
She tried to keep the shock from showing on her face upon seeing him there so early. Roy Mustang was rarely early for anything unless absolutely necessary. She reasoned since the get together wasn't anything work related he had a bit more willpower to get out of bed and come. Not to mention Patricia was cooking. Just that fact was enough to get any obstinately dedicated bed lover out of their warm haven.
"Good morning Sir," she said and entered the house. She saw Patricia leave the kitchen and a huge smile blossom upon her thick red lips. The women had the most infectious smile she'd ever seen and, try as she might, Riza could never resist quirking her lips back at the older woman.
"There's my girl!" The Xingese woman enveloped her in a tight hug, Riza barely had time to extend her arm and bring the basket of cookies out of the way to keep them from facing a crumbly death. Roy took the basket from her and moved the red cloth from the top. "How are you?" Patricia asked when the pulled away. "You look lovely. Oh, and you cut your hair!"
Riza reached back to finger the shorter strands and instantly felt a familiar gaze on her.
"You did cut your hair," Roy said with a muffled voice. She turned and saw that he was eating one of the cookies she made. He handed them to Patricia. "She makes the best cookies Pat."
"We'll have them with tea after dinner," she said. "I must get back to cooking for now.
"Do you need any help?"
"No, no. There's some tea in the study. Why don't you go have some with Roy there?" Patricia winked at her and went into the kitchen.
"Let me help you with your coat Lieutenant." She let him help her shrug it off, cringing as a pain spread through her neck when she stretched.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yes, my neck hurts when I move certain ways."
"Have you had it checked?" Roy asked. "The scar can't reopen can it?" He grabbed her shoulders and turned her towards him. He moved the loose collar of her sweater down to look at the scar, not bothering to ask if it was okay to do so. All of this happened before Riza could voice any type of protest.
"No but it's not the scar that hurts Sir, it's just my neck. When those fuehrer rejects pulled me by the hair, it injured me. It's really only bad in cold weather."
"I see." His voice was low as he ran a finger across the scar. She lifted her hand to his wrist and met his gaze.
"It's fine." She spoke in a whisper, not sure why, only knowing that it seemed fitting.
Roy pulled his hand away and nodded.
"So where is my grandfather? Better yet, where is everyone else? Your sisters usually come barreling at me."
"The others haven't arrived yet, apparently they were told noon instead of 10 am, and Grumman went to pick up my mother and sisters from the train station."
They walked into the study and sure enough, there was a large tea set sitting on the table with enough cups that one would think it was a wedding rather than a get together for a new holiday.
"Why do you ask? Don't you want to be alone with me?" His voice was humorous but held a bit of curiosity. Riza found that the question made her a little uneasy.
"This holiday. . ." she sat down on the couch, took one of the teacups from the tray, and continued, "I'm surprised it caught on so well."
She kept her gaze on her teacup as she filled it with the freshly brewed liquid. She heard Roy sigh and the couch shifted under his weight. "I'm not really," he said, "I know the people of this country sometimes envied the other countries with their holidays and traditions. According to the plays and other small festivals they wanted the national holidays but were too afraid to bring it up to the fuehrer."
"I understand going along with that Christmas thing, and letting the Ishbalians have their holidays but this one is a bit strange."
Roy sat back when Riza handed him the teacup. "From a professional and political perspective, it's good for the nation to have holidays like this. It unifies the country. Everyone celebrating the same thing on the same day."
"I think I'm just too set in my ways. I'm used to being alone most of the time."
"So I'm not good company? You spend most of your time with me."
"That's professionally." She felt him tense suddenly but didn't expect his next words.
"Um…do you want to spend some time with me out of the office?"
Her head jerked toward him and her eyebrows furrowed. "Are you asking me out?"
"Yeah, you know Grumman got rid of that frat rule. So many couples in the military have been dating and some even marrying. If anything, attendance and morale have doubled."
"Yes, but those couples aren't directly in each other's chain of command. It's like Havoc and Rebecca can date because she's under Grumman's command and Havoc is under yours."
He looked at her intently. "Do you trust me?"
"That's the dumbest question you've ever asked."
"Then I'm asking you to go out to dinner with me tonight and trust me on something. Grumman will make the announcement at dinner and all will be clear."
Riza ignored the looming feeling of dread at hearing her grandfather was going to make an announcement but made sure not to let it affect her outwardly. "Dinner? We're having a huge meal in a few hours."
"How about a walk alone? We'll have a lot to talk about."
Riza bit her bottom lip, a nervous habit. "Yes. Okay."
"You act like you are facing a death sentence." Roy put down his cup, lifted his thumb to her bottom lip, and stroked it. She released the bite and pressed her lips together. "You always do that when you're nervous."
She grinned slightly. "I don't like not knowing exactly what is going to happen. Especially when I know that something is going to happen."
"Come on. It's a surprise."
"I don't really care for those."
Roy leaned in closer, their lips mere centimeters apart, and smiled. "You'll love this one."
"If you –"
"Oh my god they're actually closer than a few feet!" they heard someone screech. They jerked from their positions and looked to the door. Roy's sisters were all standing there, with Christmas and Grumman looking in.
"You are annoying them. Leave them alone. " All eyes moved to the tallest sister there, Raven. She flipped her black hair back and smirked. Riza knew without a doubt she was about to counteract the purpose of that comment with more words. "Even though it did take them a long long . . . long long. . . long long time to get where they are now."
And there it was. Riza shook her head and sat down the teacup, visibly annoyed. Roy grabbed the hand she'd rested beside her on the couch and squeezed it.
"Leave them alone," Christmas said.
"After dinner you can tease them all you like," Grumman said. Riza noted the mysterious twinkle in his eye and felt her face grow cold. Something was definitely going to change and she wasn't sure if this would be a good thing or not. Usually that twinkle accompanied embarrassment or annoyance and, more often than not, barreled straight at her.
/=/=/=/=/
For her, Grumman's pending after dinner announcement seemed to overshadow the dinner itself. She didn't take part in much of the conversation around the table as everyone caught up with what was going on in their personal lives. She opted out of speaking about hers; there was nothing interesting to speak about. She was dull.
Before the dinner, she'd pulled Rebecca aside and asked if she knew anything about it. After recovering from the fact Riza didn't know the announcements topic, Rebecca revealed all she knew was Grumman would announce something important. She wasn't secure enough to ask the others in the room about it, fearing her inquisitiveness would make its way back to Roy.
Now she was sitting on a chair, legs crossed, and a small glass of punch in her hand, searching around the room and feeling rather stupid that she wasn't socializing because the only thing her mind could process was contemplating what her grandfather was going to say. She jumped when Roy sat down on the chair beside her. "Relax. You said you trusted me. You'll like his announcement. I promise."
Grumman smiled as he moved to the fireplace and everyone gathered around. Rebecca sat on the other side of Riza and leaned toward her. "Here we go. The big mystery announcement."
"Well, as I told you all before you came, I have a very important announcement to make. Before I make this known to the public, I wanted to share it with people involved and the people I'm thankful to know.
"We've all gone through a lot but no one more than Lieutenant General Mustang and Lieutenant Hawkeye so I am so thankful that I can do this for them." He smiled. "I've put this off for the past year due to everything being so busy for all of us but now I think its time to announce that effective Monday, November 29th Roy Mustang will no longer be a Lieutenant General."
Riza stiffened and opened her mouth to say something but Roy grabbed her hand and shook his head. "Calm down," he whispered with amusement.
Riza returned her focus on her grandfather, who was staring at her with a grin on his face. "Lieutenant General Mustang will now be General Mustang but shall be addressed as Vice Fuehrer Roy Mustang."
Riza laughed and a huge smile appeared on her face. Vice Fuehrer! It was one-step away from running the country. For the most part, he'd have a very large part in running things. It was wonderful.
The room instantly erupted in cheers and everyone moved to felicitate Roy with a bunch of finally's and about times amalgamated in with the gratulatory words.
Riza smiled at him. "Congratulations Sir."
"It's not over yet."
Riza looked back to her grandfather who was looking directly at her. "With this new change there will be promotions down the ranks as to restructure the best people of each job so that we can do our best for the citizens," Grumman said. "With this we need increased security. Most of the security teams for the former Fuehrer and Generals were injured or killed during the incident so we've been lacking in the structure needed. I know no one better to reorganize security than the person that was in the mist of it all. So effective Monday as well, Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye will be promoted to Captain and begin to organize the security teams needed."
Riza was stunned but within seconds of everyone starting to congratulate her, her stomach twisted. When she plastered a smile on her face, she noticed Roy's face turn to an expression of concern. Roy Mustang was always able to read her and he realized what everyone else didn't.
She didn't want the position.
AN: Hope you enjoyed it. Part 2 will be coming soon.