Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal. It may, however, own me.

A/N - This one turned out quite silly. I'm not totally happy with it, but I thought it might amuse.

083. Crowd

Riza felt more than a little tired of pushing her way through the hordes of people flooding the streets. She was not exactly comfortable in crowds and she had been bumped into and pushed aside more times than she could count as she attempted to make her way back toward her apartment from the clogged shopping center. She wished that she could pull out the small gun she had concealed in her boot and fire a few rounds into the air just to clear herself a path. She had to keep reminding herself that it would be wrong, but every time someone stepped on her toes her fingers got closer to the trigger.

"Bloody holiday," she cursed, extracting herself from the flow to take a seat on nearby bench so that she could check that her parcel had not been damaged in the crush.

"Quite a crowd today," said a voice from behind her and she felt a hand run through her loose blonde hair. Without even thinking, she pulled out her gun and spun to point it at the speaker.

"Easy, Hawkeye," said Roy, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

She breathed an almost imperceptible sigh of relief and made room for him to sit beside her on the bench. She tried not to take note of how good he looked in his civilian clothes as he leaned back and crossed one lazy leg over the other.

"What brings you out here on a day like this?" he asked. "Didn't you know the streets would be packed?"

"I ran out of food for Black Hayate," she answered, casually drawing her bag close to her, trying to hide her parcel.

"Really?" he asked, eyeing the package. Damn him, she though. He knew her too well, knew all her little movements.

"Yes," she answered, trying to keep on her professional face despite the glaringly obvious fact that neither of them were in uniform. She felt exposed in her knee-length green skirt and white blouse. She caught his eyes wandering over bare legs and she wanted to hide them.

"I don't believe you." He sat still a moment, looking at her with suspicious amusement. Then, like a shot, his hands reached out and grabbed the package from her unsuspecting hands.

"Hey, give that back!" She reached out and grabbed for the bag but he held it just beyond her reach. She tried to ignore his mischievous smiling eyes as she leaned across him trying to reach the bag. In her desperation to retrieve that which she could absolutely not let him see, she didn't notice his free hand sneaking up her back and into her hair until it turned her face toward his and pulled her into a kiss.

She lingered for a moment, their mouths touching, before realizing what had happened and jumping back away from him, her face turning bright red. She was caught between the horror of him opening the package and seeing what was inside and the fear of falling into his grasp again and not having the willpower to pull herself away.

He continued to smile like the cat who ate the canary, seeing her eyes dart confusedly as they avoided him. He toyed with the handles of the bag, mercilessly teasing her with the possibility of revealing her secrets, but he relented as he saw her agitation mounting and handed her back the bag.

She grabbed it like a starving man grabs at a loaf of bread and held it tight against her chest. She felt as if all her good sense had run away from her the moment he had shown up, and she inwardly cursed him for the embarrassment he had caused her. Still, that kiss . . .

She shored herself up, trying to regain her composure as she sat up straight as a rod and looked out ahead of her, trying to block him out of her peripheral vision. Then, with a closed fist, she swung at him and landed a blow to his stomach.

"Good lord, Hawkeye, what was that for?" he asked, half laughing as he doubled over.

"For," she started, "for kissing me in front of this crowd." As she said the word, she was reminded of the feel of his lips against hers, the smell of his skin, and she blushed. The blush only served to make her angrier. She stood and started to walk away.

She heard him jump to his feet behind her, grunting a little from the lingering pain in his abdomen and she allowed herself a small smile. But then he grabbed her retreating elbow and spun her around, pressing his lips to hers again and all her anger dropped away and she was left defenseless against him.

"I don't care if the whole world sees," he whispered, his soft breath brushing her skin. He stole one more quick kiss then retreated, losing himself in the crowd before his lieutenant regained the presence of mind to pull her gun on him.

He had gotten what he came for, and he wandered into the crowd with a Cheshire cat's smile. And, when he had bent over her shoulder, he had caught a glimpse the little box of black and red underwear she had been so desperate to hide from him. She really would kill him if she ever found that out.