Disclaimer: I do not own FullMetal Alchemist or any media related to it.
Riza Hawkeye was not a woman easily caught by surprise. Being the bodyguard of the formerly most targeted military in Amestris forced her to have senses that could be called by some people as not human. However, she had yet to feel the presence of bloodlust when an unknown person slung an arm over her shoulders as she paced down a hallway to deliver some files. They must not want to live, she thought.
Faster than a person could blink, she pulled a firearm from her uniform onto her mark, jabbing it in the pit of the person's stomach. As her eyes slowly traveled up the familiar blue military uniform, they finally landed on a strong chin, surprised blue eyes, and blonde hair. Her fingers lost their grasp on the firearm and she could hear it clatter on the floor. "Havoc!" she said, her face nearly betraying the surprise at seeing her formerly paraplegic subordinate. Even at gunpoint, the man had yet to lift his arm from her shoulders, an action she had yet to mind since Ishbal.
"Lieutenant, how are you doing?" Havoc asked, grinning. With closer inspection, he said with a slight frown, "You cut your hair."
The close contact was familiar ever since their Ishbal days. Before meeting with the Brigadier General, she had been assigned to the same unit as Havoc, both of them sharing similar skills with weaponry. He had always been a person that became familiar with a person even if they had known each other for only a day. However, times were grim in Ishbal, and even before meeting the Brigadier General, she had reached close to her breaking point. Nevertheless, it was thanks to Havoc, she had regained a little bit of humanity to live on.
When they reunited as part of the Brigadier General's unit, they give a look of recognition when they lined up in front of Mustang to receive their orders. After their relocation, she could remember countless times where Havoc slung his arm around her shoulders in a playful, sibling manner. Sometimes it was accompanied by a coffee in the other hand that he would give to her, or an offer of a cigarette. However, he had always made sure that his lighter was deep in his coat pocket and cigarette free before coming in close contact; it was impossible to make him quit, but she always appreciated his consideration.
"It's how you like it, right?" he would say to her when he first tucked away his cigarettes years ago.
Smoothly, he took his arm off her uniform and stepped in front of Hawkeye to speak to her properly. "I'm doing fine, Havoc. It's wonderful to see you're walking again." He could see the corners of her lips quirk upwards as she gave him a once over.
Havoc grinned. "Thanks, Lieutenant. Breda and Ross pushed me during my rehab, so it wasn't long before I could sign up again. It's some good luck that we ended up at the same headquarters with the Colonel—oh, wait, Brigadier General. Well, for me, maybe not you, right?" Hawkeye gave him a pointed glare as she continued marching on ahead.
"You know I didn't mean it like that, Hawkeye." Havoc pleaded, walking faster to match her pace. After a few more steps, Hawkeye turned to look at him, and handed him the files in her grasp. Seeing that he was forgiven, he smiled back, taking the bundle of files without complaint.
Hawkeye suppressed a smile as she watched his back, his arm giving a lazy wave, before returning to her office.
-o-
She could smell the faint scent of cigarettes that clung to his blue uniform, alerting her to her new company. However, with the added weight of another arm around her shoulders, she knew who the person was.
"Lieutenant," he addressed amiably. It had been a few months since she had last seen her former subordinate after he alerted her he would be stationed with Falman in the North. "I'm back." He gave her a wink, which was promptly returned with a light slap on his face.
"I hope you turned in your report to your commanding officer." she told him plainly.
Havoc sighed; there really was no love in her. "Yeah, yeah. Can you believe Ross is now my C.O.?"
Hawkeye glared at him with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, I can. She's my sparring partner after all." she said sharply.
He gulped visibly, regretting his words, as he continued to match her pace. However, when he turned to look at her he noticed that her hair had grown longer so that the ends now reached shoulders. "You started growing your hair again?"
"Yes, I have. Now I would appreciate it if you would let go of me and return to doing your job."
Her words always had a habit of acting like a knife, and immediately did their job as they cut to Havoc's light-heartedness. However, nothing could get the man down as he gave a sloppy salute to the blonde woman and strutted down to the opposite end of the hallway.
-o-
It was several months later when she heard a familiar voice call out her name. Through the pouring rain, she could make out an outline of a man walking towards her. And, in no time at all, a heavily drenched Havoc stood under her umbrella next to her.
"I didn't expect it to rain so much," he explained when Hawkeye led him back to her apartment. It was the closest place for him to dry off, she elaborated, she wasn't planning on walking the opposite direction of her home in order to drop off an unprepared man that cannot make heads or tails of the weather.
Hawkeye merely nodded as she handed him another towel to dry his blonde locks. In front of him, Black Hayate laid sedately in front of the heater. Both adults were still dripping from the rain and any scurrying from the Shiba Inu would cause the entire floor to be slippery.
At her small kitchen, Hawkeye asked her guest, "Do you want some tea or coffee? I can put on a kettle while you go change."
"Anything's fine," he replied as he looked up at her back as she prepared a kettle of hot water. The Hawk's Eye, the sniper with inhuman accuracy, looked so domestic as she tied an apron to protect her white blouse and black skirt. Her hair, he noticed, grew so it was almost to the length he had grown to love before. He could note his disappointment almost a year ago when he had reunited with her at Central Headquarters, seeing her hair absent of its usual clip.
With a slight grunt, he got up from his spot in front of the heater and made his way to the bathroom as directed by Hawkeye. He was a little surprised when he realized he had been followed by his host's ever-faithful dog, and smiled down at it. "If only it were your master instead of you," he said, regret tinging his voice, while giving the dog a pat and shooing it out the door as he began to take a hot shower.
Havoc was a little taken back when he saw that the clothes that Hawkeye set out for him fit him perfectly. Had she and Mustang gotten so close as to leave each other's belongings behind in each other's houses? "Thanks for the clothes," he muttered as he took a seat in front of her.
"Was there something wrong with the water?" she asked, sensing his drastic change in mood.
"No, it was fine."
"Is it the tea? Would you have preferred coffee?"
"No, the tea's good. It's nothing. Just—" Havoc's voice trailed off.
It was surprising for her to see Havoc so distressed. Ever since she had known him, he was known for his cool, sociable persona, and usually the mood-maker in their old unit. With piercing amber eyes, she gave Havoc a good look over. Then it hit her. The clothes.
"The clothes were something my landlord gave me. They were her son's and she thought that I could use them for cleaning."
With that simple explanation, the man's face became relieved as he downed the rest of his tea with a slight smile. After they both finished, with him offering to do the dishes as part one, as he called it, of repaying her kindness, Hawkeye sat peacefully on her couch playing with Black Hayate.
"You know," Havoc began. Hawkeye turned to look up at him, his arm in constant motion as it dried one of the mugs with a towel. "Your hair got longer. It's almost as long as before."
Hawkeye gave a thoughtful look as she paused to observe some strands of her hair. "Is it? I suppose it'll start getting in the way again." While she agreed that long hair did look good, or at least she believed so, it did come with its setbacks such as when it drooped onto her paper work.
"That's why I got you something." Havoc set down the cup onto a towel, before walking into the bathroom briefly to produce a box. "Consider it a five-years-worth birthday present." He opened the box and pulled out a beautiful lacquered wooden clip. He knelt down behind her and carefully set her hair in its infamous style.
Hawkeye turned to look back at him. "Thank you. It's very thoughtful of you." she said, a real smile on her face. Havoc quirked his lips in a similar fashion, handing her the case for the clip.
"It's from Xing. And, uh, thank the secretaries for letting me practice on them." He added, imitating styling one's hair with a clip.
Riza Hawkeye laughed softly, getting up to give Havoc a peck on the cheek. "I love it, Havoc." She walked past him to set the box down on her nightstand before looking into Havoc's blue eyes.
"You can call me Jean. You've known me for how long?"
"But that's unprofessional." She looked at him, her cold, stone gaze set in place.
"We're not at work, Riza. And besides," he took a step closer, bursting into her personal space like a tank. He leaned closer, his eyes set and determined. "I've been in love with you since Ishbal." He didn't move any closer; rather, he took a step back and allowed her to breathe.
"Havoc," she started. Acting as if he couldn't hear her, she corrected, "Jean." They're eyes met and Riza had to remind herself to breathe. "I can't." she said hesitantly. "I can't."
Jean Havoc sighed, knowing he had lost another woman to Roy Mustang. Hanging his head in defeat for a second, he lifted it once more to greet Riza with a reassuring smile. He placed a muscular arm over her shoulder and in the close proximity; they looked at each other knowing their relationship would never go as far as this.
"I know." he said softly. He took in a deep breath. "I just wanted to make sure that you knew I was an option, but I guess you can't date your siblings right?" She responded with a small laugh, and he knew that things had gone back to its status quo.
They spent the rest of the night waiting for the rain to stop and competing in games of dissembling guns and reassembling them and her catching him up on stories of their Brigadier General.
The next morning they reported for work, he had stumbled across the lieutenant walking with a pile of files in her arms, looking attentive. Releasing a sigh of defeat, he walked up to her, a cup of coffee in his left hand, his cigarettes in his pocket, and placed his arm around the first lieutenant's shoulders.
"That clip looks good on you." he told her with a smile, handing her the cup of coffee. "Just the way you like it."
Unbeknownst to him, she had grown out her hair for him, just the way you like it.