CHAPTER 2 : The Pair

Later that evening, Roy sat at a bar close to the base, Maes occupying the seat next to him. They had already been drinking for a while but they were only in the the first stage of drunkenness- light headed, good natured ribbing.

"So, I hear that you're getting a promotion and command. Congratulations, Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang!" Maes smiled and raised his beer to toast.

All the dark eyed man could do was shake his head and smile. "You're going to do a good job in Investigations. I didn't think Old Man Grumman had told anyone yet."

"I have my ways of finding out. But that isn't why I asked you here."

He ordered another beer for each of them, then looked at Maes. "So, why did you invite me here, then?"

"I got a problem."

Roy elbowed his best friend, almost making him spill his beer. "You've got a lot of problems, Maes."

"No, really!" It was hard for Roy to take him seriously when he was starting to slur his words slightly. "I need you to help me."

He sighed, it usually ended up being quite a pain whenever Maes asked for help. "All right. What is it?"

"Well, it's Gracia. She's a special girl. I'm sure of this now. She's the one that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Being in that desert, it puts things in perspective. I wanna start a family- have a wife and a couple of children, and I want it to be with her. So... I think I wanna pop the question. I already got the ring. It was my mother's."

Roy slapped him on the back and Maes spit out the beer he had just downed. The bartender shot them a death look and cleaned the beer off the bar with his rag, then wandered off.

"Congratulations, Maes. But why do you need my help?"

"Well, I'm not sure how to do it. I want it to be all romantic. But you're the ladies' man. How do you wine and dine them?"

"Well, I take them out for dinner and buy them a glass of wine." Roy bemusedly raised an eyebrow.

It was Maes' turn to try to punch Roy, but he wasn't holding his liquor quite as well, so he missed and spilled more beer. The bartender mumbled something about kicking them out, but he just wandered off to the other side of the bar, still quietly complaining about the troublemakers.

"Asshole. So you aren't going to help me?"

"I'm serious. Girls like it when you take them out to a nice restaurant. If it was me, I'd take the matre'd aside and explain the situation, and have them put the ring in your champagne at the end of the night or something like that. Some really fancy places have a string quartet that can come to your table and play a song just for you two."

"See, I knew there was a reason that I kept you around as a friend!" Roy just rolled his eyes and took another sip of his beer.

Several hours, and many beers later, they were both well past drunk. Maes had his arm around his best friend and had just finished a rousing rendition of "Long Live Amestris" with slightly bawdier lyrics.

"You guys have had enough. Head on out." The bartender had finally had enough of the both of them. Maes was about to open his mouth to protest, but Roy shook his head and put his hand on his Maes' shoulder.

"Let'sh go."

They propped each other up as they somehow got off the bar stools without falling onto the dirty floor and stumbled out of the bar. "Hey, Maes. Let's go to Gracia's houshe. You can propose to her."

"But... I wanna be all romantic and stuff!"

"It will be all romantic and stuff. We'll get flowers and you can sing up to her window."

"She lives with her parentsh."

"We won' wake em up. Just don't be too damn loud."

"Well, okay. As long as you're there to make sure I don' run away!"

"Deal!"

How they ever found her house, neither of them could figure out once they had sobered up the next morning. It was a two level brick house in the middle of a working-class neighborhood. Thankfully, her window was on the side, close to the back, so it was easy for them to sneak up to it quietly.

"Up there!" Maes pointed to a second story window, where the light was off and the curtains were drawn closed. There was a small tree close to the window, but there was no branch that was close enough to the window to get to it.

Roy nudged him. "Come on, go get 'er!"

Maes found a small stone and tried to throw it up to her window, but it fell well short. Roy burst out laughing, not caring how loud he was. "You throw like a girl!"

"You try, then!"

"Fine." He found a slightly larger pebble and tossed it up. It hit just below the windowsill.

"You missed."

"Yeah, but at least I almost got it up there!"

"I can hit it!" Maes picked up a stone and threw it hard up to the window. Unfortunately, it was right on the money, and there was a loud crash as the window broke.

"Oh, shit! Run!" Maes turned, but before he could go anywhere Roy grabbed his shirt collar and kept him from running away. A moment later, the light of her bedroom came on. She jerked on the curtains and opened the window.

"Who is it?" Roy nudged Maes, then let go of his collar and hid close by in a bush by the side of the house.

"It's me, Gracia."

"Maes, it's the middle of the night. What are you doing here?" Maes looked to where Roy was- his best friend silently urged him on.

"Gracia... I... um... er... I have shomethin' that I wanna tell ya."

"Have you been drinking?"

He paused for a moment. "... A little."

"Go home, Maes. You're going to get us both in trouble."

"No! I gotta talk to ya! It's important!"

"Maes, please! You can come see me tomorrow. Whatever it is, it can wait a few hours."

Maes looked pleadingly over at Roy, not sure what he should do.

"Talk to her. Climb up the tree and get closer to her."

"Maes. No. Please. Don't."

But it was too late. He was already shimmying up the tree with the ease of someone who had done this before. Roy had had to climb up trees when it came to sneaking into girls' dorms in the military academy, but the quickness that Maes had gotten to the top had put him to shame. If he'd been more sober, he would've taken notes.

"Go, Maes! Go!" Roy cupped his hands and yelled encouragement up to his best friend.

Gracia looked angrily at Roy while Maes was climbing up. "Be quiet! You'll get in trouble if my parents wake up!" She turned back to the tree, where Maes had made it all the way up. There was a small branch that went close to her window, but it wasn't even close to strong enough to hold up a person.

"Gracia Matthews, I love you. I want to live with you for the resht of our lives and have a family and lots of kids and a house with a white picket fence. Marry me, Gracia!"

"Yeah! Way to go, Maes!"

A light came on in the front of the house, then another. "Oh, shit. Maes, run! Her parents are awake!" Roy sped off into the night, heading back towards his military apartment right outside the massive grounds of Central Command.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Maes looked down just in time to watch Roy run off. "Don' leave me!" He looked back over to Gracia and blew her a kiss. "I mean it. I'm gonna marry you! I don' care how long it takes!"

"Go. Just go, Maes. Before my parents come in."

"I love you, Gracia!"

"I love you too, now go!"

Maes started down the tree, almost slipping and falling a couple of times. As soon as he was down, he yelled out one last "I love you. Marry me!" before he was off into the night, right as her father knocked at her bedroom door.

"Gracia, honey. Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Daddy. Just some random drunk from the bar down the road. I think they broke my window."

"I could swear it sounded like that Maes boy."

"No, it wasn't."

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, Daddy. I promise. I'm going back to sleep."

"Okay, goodnight, honey. We'll fix the window in the morning."

"Night." Despite being tired after that encounter with her seriously drunk boyfriend Gracia had trouble going to sleep. She was too excited thinking about how she was going to become Mrs. Gracia Hughes. There was only one problem. She had never technically told him yes.