A/N: Slightly longer chapter, with more action. I don't own anything

A year later, Roy was sitting at his desk in a far fouler mood than he had been before. They were losing more soldiers to the Five by the day, to the point Roy was losing track of who was on their side and who was on his. On top of that, it had been raining for a whole week.

"Good Morning, General." Hawkeye came in with her usual morning briefing. "The Ishvalan agriculture representative wants to speak with you about another canal he wants to build, the Fuher has sent you an invitation to the Amnestras day festival next month, no, I will not go on a date with you, and our Five infiltrator has stated no new developments in their plans."

Roy looked up at her in annoyance, "Aren't you even going to let me ask before you completely reject me?"

"You've asked me every day since my promotion to Captain. I figured we could get it out of the way and move on with our jobs." He angrily picked up the briefing and read the Representative's report.

"Another canal? Isn't there enough damn water here?"

"It's a desert sir." She raised an eyebrow at him. "The rain has been welcome here as a sign of hope from God. The Ishvalans are thinking of holding a celebration."

"Well they better not expect me to join. I hate the rain." He grumbled as he continued to read the report. "This festival allows me to bring a guest. Would you-"

"Absolutely sir." He looked up at her in surprise. She had just rejected him, was she actually accepting the invitation? "As your subordinate, I can't simply let you travel to Central and back with all of the Five activity. It would be irresponsible. But I will not be there as your date."

He shrugged. He hadn't really expected her to accept, but it would have been nice. He looked out the window, willing the rain to disappear. All he saw was a pair of off-duty officers walking down the street.

Suddenly two more figures jumped out of an alley and attacked the officers. "Captain," He said, pointing down. The Captain, perhaps sensing the urgency in his voice, looked down where he was pointing. She reached the window just in time to see the boots of one of the officers being pulled out.

"Five." She said , pulling out her gun. "I'll go get them,"

"I'll come with you." He said, but she stuck out her hand to stop him.

"You can't sir. Rain?"

He scowled in frustration, but then he pulled a gun out of his desk. "I'm not as good as you, but I've been practicing." She looked hesitant, but he didn't care. He pushed past her down the hall, calling a couple other officers down with him.

"General, just because you've been practicing doesn't mean you can do better. Just send me down with a couple of officers, and we can get them back."

"I know you can, Captain." He walked so fast she had to practically run to keep up. "Please don't believe that this is because of any doubts of your abilities. I simply feel a duty to the officers under my command. If the Five have caused them any harm—" He shook his head.

"But sir," she whispered so the other officers didn't hear her. "You really can't be that much u-"

"I won't be useless again, Captain!"

It really was a simple task. Thankfully, the men the Five sent were not very clever, nor good shots. Hawkeye, predictably took the first person down instantly with a shot to the leg, and Mustang did manage to take the other down. It was only as they were recovering the poor kidnapped officers did the General realize he had been winged in the left arm.

He went with the recovered officers to the hospital. He was prepared to drive their himself, but Hawkeye insisted they call down an ambulance. He began to protest, but she insisted it was for the other officers, not him.

"They came to us a week ago, sir." One of the officers said as he interrogated them from the opposite ambulance bed. It was very squished on the ambulance with three patients, Hawkeye and the doctors. Hawkeye had to sit shoulder to shoulder with Mustang, but he didn't particularly mind. "The both of us, right Dale? Someone was commenting on how all the orders from Central were only getting in the way with what we're doing here in the East."

"And how did you respond?" Mustang asked.

"We said no right on the spot!" Dale said, but the other officer shook his head.

"We did say no sir. Honest, but they didn't seem to listen. Oh, they were subtle, but I've played enough poker to tell they were bluffing. So I pulled Dale and we got ourselves the hell out of there."

"We went out for a drink." Dale said, "and out of nowhere,"

"They attacked you." He finished. "You did well, both of you. I putting in a recommendation for a promotion for both of you." They nodded. Neither had been seriously injured, but the doctors insisted on making them rest in case there was some internal shock.

Mustang's left arm was being treated by one of the doctors. The wound wasn't deep and he had seen far worse. What was concerning his attention at the moment was his right arm, the one that was squished next to Hawkeye. In the tight area of the ambulance, no one had noticed that Hawkeye was squeezing Mustang's hand to the point where he was losing circulation.

He knew her too well. She had only squeezed his hand like this after she found out he lost his sight, although no one else had noticed. She was trying to silently convey a great deal of information to him. She did not think he was useless. She did care what happened to him. Care did not necessarily mean love, but it was a start.

"Captain," He whispered to her as the doctors lectured the officers, "Once we're all done here, let's go get a drink." She hesitated at first, but nodded. He had expected her to protest that he had just been shot, but maybe she understood that that was a part of why he needed a drink. It wasn't a date, but it was something.