I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. If I did... Well... Honestly I wouldn't change a thing. Why fix what ain't broken?
Riza Hawkeye was pissed.
Those words alone inspired fear in every person in the military. Everyone, from the lowest Private to the Fuehrer himself knew to keep their head down and keep to themselves. They also knew to stay away from the one man who could possibly get her in that mood. Yes, Roy Mustang was officially on Riza's shit list.
The day had started out simply enough, with Riza discharging a clip from her gun into the wall to 'motivate' her co-workers to actually work, and then grabbing a pre-filled out requisition form for materials to fix the wall. It happened so many times that Havoc eventually set aside a few hours every day to fill out the forms, only leaving the date blank. Riza stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey Riza! No need to waste a perfectly good 'Hawkeye' form." Ed said, a smile on his face.
"Edward?" Riza asked, stunned. "What are you doing here? Last I heard you'd settled back in Resembool."
"Yeah… Well… Paninya came to visit so I decided to make myself scarce." Edward said, rubbing the back of his head.
Riza nodded in understanding. "Is Winry still in the closet or did she finally confess?" Riza asked curiously. The first time that the dark-skinned thief had come to central with Winry, the team had been shocked. The way Winry clung to the automail-wearing girl, doted on her, and paid absolute attention to her whenever she was in the room, it was obvious that Winry was in love. Or at least crushing, and crushing bad.
"Not sure really." Ed said, tilting his head up to the ceiling, the universal signal for the team that he was remembering something. "She stopped talking about that blacksmith's assistant, but that might just mean he finally got fed up with her and her wrench." Edward stopped talking, looking almost thoughtful.
Riza looked on at the young man in pity, it was obvious he was remembering his and Winry's relationship, and eventual breakup. "So what do you mean when you say that I don't need 'waste' one of the 'Hawkeye' forms?" Riza asked, using the affectionate nickname for the forms the same as Ed had.
"Well, I figure that if I'm here, it's kinda unnecessary isn't it?" Ed said, clapping his hands and pressing them against the wall. The telltale blue sparks of alchemy erupted as the holes seemed to fill themselves in.
"Nice work Edward." Hawkeye said, putting the form back into the neat pile that was kept on standby.
"Yeah, nice job champ!" Havoc said, putting down his pen and allowing his finger to stretch from their cramped position. "That alchemy of yours sure is useful."
"Hmph. Just goes to show that alchemy will beat those guns of yours any day." Mustang said from his office doorway, smirking at Hawkeye in a half-teasing manner.
Riza felt an eyebrow twitch at that. "Not quite true sir. Unlike with alchemy, I don't have to waste time drawing a circle to attack something."
"Neither do I." Roy said, stepping fully out of his office and holding up his hand, the sewn alchemical circle stark against the white cloth of his gloves.
Riza growled mentally, but gave no outward sign of anger. She hated it when Roy flaunted her father's alchemy in her face. "But unlike with you, bullets aren't stopped by rain." Riza said smoothly, wiping the smirk off of Mustang's face.
"Crude weapons like that are the weapons of the weak-minded." Mustang retorted angrily. "Unlike the fire alchemy that I figured out and tuned to perf… ect… Shit." Mustang's sentence petered out as he felt the full weight of Riza's glare against him. He had crossed a line, a big one. It wasn't a well-known fact that Roy Mustangs' much-vaunted flame alchemy was in fact discovered and perfect by Riza's father, Berthold Hawkeye. All of those who knew this also knew that giving Roy the credit for the research in front of Riza was a sure-fire way of getting shot.
"If you will excuse me, sir, I believe that there is some paperwork at the front desk that needs to be picked up." Riza said in an icy tone, standing up. "If you will excuse me." Riza brushed past Roy, heading out the door.
And now Riza was wandering central headquarters pissed off at Mustang, alchemy in general, and especially pissed that in her anger she had left the reload clips for her personal handguns in her desk. Of course, she only found that out after she had emptied all of her guns at a Major who had failed to heed her warnings to back off.
Riza was the only person in Amestris who could get away not only with discharging her various firearms in headquarters, but also shooting at superior officers. So long as she never actually hit them.
"Hey Riza, wait up!" A voice said from down the hallway.
Internally Riza bristled at yet another person bothering her. Turning around to snap at the person, since her handguns were empty, Riza found herself stopping as she caught the flash of golden hair approaching her. "Edward?" Riza asked, curiously.
"Hey Riza." Edward said, catching up. "Are you ok? I mean, you were storming out of the office like something was majorly wrong. Was is that damn Mustang? I can throw a few punches at 'im if it'll make you feel better."
Caught off guard by Ed's statement, Riza found herself smiling at Ed's offer of assaulting Mustang for her. "I'm fine Edward. It's just… I get a bit peeved whenever Roy starts talking about his flame alchemy like that."
"Why?" Ed asked curiously.
"It's… Complicated." Riza said with a heavy sigh. "And not something that should be talked about in the middle of a busy hallway." Here, Riza offered a slight smile. The hallway was far from busy, everyone too terrified of Riza to move anywhere near her.
The two blondes vacated to an empty office, of which there were still a few. Most higher-ups were still weary of going back to the rebuilt headquarters even after three years.
"So, now can you tell me what about that bastard's alchemy that pisses you off?" Edward asked, a cheeky smile on his face. "Who knows, maybe we can form a club after this!"
Riza managed another weak smile before her face became grim. "Please Edward, no more jokes. What I'm going to tell you is… Not exactly a secret but it is highly personal."
"Yes ma'am." Edward said, stilling his expression.
"Now then, not many people know this, but Roy's alchemy isn't his."
"What do you mean?"
"Roy's flame alchemy wasn't discovered by him. It was discovered, developed, and perfected at the hands of his mentor, Berthold Hawkeye."
Ed's eyes widened, first at the revelation that the famous alchemy that put Mustang on the map wasn't his own, and then at the further revelation that the person who had discovered it was a Hawkeye. "This… Berthold. Was he…?"
"My father." Riza said in an almost monotone voice. "Such as he was. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't an abusive father, but to him I was second to his alchemy. Roy was his apprentice back when he first started studying alchemy. It's how he and I met. My father finished his work shortly after Roy joined the military. By then, he was in such poor condition from self-neglect that he died shortly after Roy visited him for the last time."
"He… Died? You… Don't think… I mean, I doubt even he would…" Ed said, trying to phrase the question delicately so as not to offend Hawkeye. Ed doubted it, but he also knew that Mustang had hidden depths that quite frankly terrified him.
"You're wondering if Roy might've hastened the process along?" Riza asked with a sad smile. "A lot of people wondered the same thing. No, there were no marks on his body and he was in a very delicate condition to begin with. He was a proud man, my father. Refused to become a state alchemist so that they wouldn't steal his research and even refused my help whenever I tried to care for him. He was even too proud of his alchemy to let it be spread. He destroyed all of his notes almost as soon as he finished it."
"Destroyed? How… How did Mustang get his hands on it then?" Ed asked, confused on the direction the conversation had taken.
"Like most people who've dedicated their lives to knowledge, my father couldn't bear to have his life's work obliterated like that. He…" Riza hesitated, clearly not wanting to continue. Nonetheless, she took a deep breath and forged onward in her explanation. "My father tattooed the completed formulae and all essential notes in his own personal encryption on my back shortly before he died."
"He WHAT?!" Ed exclaimed, bolting upright, an intense fire burning in his eyes. "That mangy… Rotten… If he was still alive..."
"Edward! Calm down!" Riza commanded, cocking her gun. It was of course, empty, but Edward didn't know that.
Edward paused mid-rant and obediently sat down. "But-"
"Quiet." Riza commanded.
Ed immediately shut his mouth.
"Shortly after my father died, Roy paid me a visit. My father had told Roy that I was in possession of a copy of his notes on flame alchemy. I allowed him to study my back. Luckily for him, he knew enough about my father to decrypt everything. After that I asked him for a favor… I asked him to burn the formulae off of my back." As soon as Riza said this, she launched herself forward, slapping her hand over Ed's mouth, blocking to scream of rage that was about to erupt from him. After a few minutes in which Riza had to continue her restraining hold, Ed finally calmed down.
"That bastard's going to die!" Ed said in a deathly calm voice, standing up.
So much for calm.
Riza ripped one her guns from the holster and pointed it at Edward, cocking it readily. "Sit back down Edward."
"Riza, I've been in the military for a long time now. I know what a loaded gun sounds like." Ed said, walking towards the door.
"So much for that plan." Riza thought to herself. "Edward wait! Please!"
Ed whirled around, an expression of rage on his face. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill that bastard for what he did to you!"
Riza found herself feeling a bit touched that Edward clearly cared so much for her, that he was ready to kill their superior for an incident from years back. On the other hand, she was beginning to feel a bit peeved that he was acting so strongly.
"Well first off…" Riza began, keeping an icy calm tone to match Ed's, "I asked him to do it. If word ever got out that those notes were on my back then people who desire the power of flame alchemy would be after me. It's also why it's such a big secret. Roy… Didn't want to hurt me any more than necessary. He destroyed only the key parts. But the knowledge that still remains could prove valuable to the right people."
"I… See." Ed said, calming down and walking back over to Hawkeye. "So you're upset because he was lording his alchemy over you, despite how much you sacrificed for it. And how much you sacrificed for him to have it."
Riza smiled. It took spelling out the whole story for the genius boy to finally understand, but she was glad that he took the time to. "That's right." Riza said, nodding her head. "But not entirely. Truth be told… I'm actually kind of jealous."
"What do you have to be jealous of Mustang for Hawkeye?" Edward asked. "You're ten times the person that womanizing bastard is!"
Riza smiled sadly at Ed. "Because, he's the one who wields my father's legacy. I've never told this to anyone… But after my father died I intended to learn alchemy. Eventually, I was going to decode the formulae on my back so that I could wield the power of my father's life's work. But Roy beat me to it…" Riza bowed her head, a look of far-off sadness in her eyes.
"Well, why not learn it now?" Edward asked. "Alchemy that is. Then Mustang can't tease you about it and you could still honor your father."
"It's not that simple Ed…" Riza sighed. "I only wanted to learn alchemy to honor my father. I honestly wouldn't mind doing that still, but Roy burned the key notes off my back."
"So what?" Ed asked. "There's no such thing as useless information. If nothing else, researching the remaining notes will give you a heading on where to begin."
"But who would teach me the basics?" Riza asked with a challenging eyebrow. "I wouldn't approach Roy with this if my life depended on it. And Major Armstrong can't keep a secret to save his life. The only other alchemist I would trust to teach me is you, and frankly I don't trust you with flame alchemy."
Ed winced at Riza's brutal statement. "What would I need flame alchemy for? My specialties are earth and bio-alchemy. I mean, from an academic standpoint I would love to study flame alchemy to see how it's done, but I have no use for it personally. Besides, from what little I DO know of it, I'd need those fancy gloves that Mustang's so proud of, and you've seen how hard I am on my clothing. Then again… If I carved the transmutation circle into the back plate and replaced my thumb with a flint then I could theoretically replicate his glove with my automail and be able to use the alchemy without having to worry about a flimsy piece of cloth. And it'd have the added bonus of being able to use flame alchemy in the rain. But I wonder if using steel and flint for the spark would affect the result explosion in any way? I'd need to test this… Maybe see if Winry can make me some spare arms…"
At the mention of the blond automail mechanic, Riza decided to interrupt Ed's musings. "No use for flame alchemy huh?" She said, a small smile on her face. Ed, at least, had the small amount of decency to look a bit sheepish at her statement.
"Sorry Riza. Got caught up in my own musings. My own… Enthusiasm aside. I would be honored if you would allow me to teach you alchemy." Ed said with a smile, extending his flesh arm for a handshake.
"As long as I don't have to worry about Winry making you any 'spare arms' I have no problem with it." Riza said after a moment of deliberation. Reaching out her own hand, they shook to show their agreement.
At that very moment, Brigadier General Roy Mustang felt a slow chill make its way up his spine. "I have a bad feeling that I just did something to royally fuck myself." Roy said with a sigh, before digging in to the mountain of paperwork that he was doing in an attempt to mollify Hawkeye whenever she came back into the office.
Hey all! I hope you liked the first chapter of my Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction! A few things about the fic: This takes place about 3 years after the promised day. Winry is in love with, or at least heavily crushing on, Paninya who is the dark-skinned girl with automail legs from the Rush Valley arc. I have a reason for this and it will be explained in good time. I've always liked how in other fics (and sometimes in the anime), Riza would use superior firepower to get her coworkers moving. So I'm making her just the tiniest bit trigger-happy in this fic. If you don't like it, I would love to hear your complaints. And finally, as I've had Ed himself point out, I'm making Ed specialize in earth and biology based alchemy. Why? Because whenever he used his alchemy in battle, he would almost always transmute either earth or metal. The only two exceptions I can think of is in the 'Seiren' episode of the 2003 anime where he dried himself off with alchemy after getting splashed by water, and in the manga after the Briggs arc where he fashioned himself a new set of clothes out of some store-bought cloth. I'm also having him specialize in biological alchemy because he's been studying human transmutation for, what? 6-7 years? And he studied under at least one chimera master. I suspect that with all he knows Ed might could be a chimera master himself if he truly wanted to be. Anyways, I hope you all liked it and will follow and review. Also, still looking for a beta reader if anyone's interested.