Chapter Two
Riza was speechless, completely dumbfounded by the fact she had been led on and betrayed by the only man she cared about, the only person she truly loved. The thing she didn't understand was how he had managed to deceive her as well as he did. She prided herself on her excellent judgement and her ability to read people like a book, but now she wasn't so sure of this talent.
"Riza, don't blame yourself! Actually... do, it will make this whole thing a hell of a lot more interesting for me." It was as if the Colonel had read her mind, to be honest she wouldn't have been surprised if he could.
She hung her head, not in shame but because she felt a dull throbbing beginning to beat behind her eyes. She tried not to wince as it became more forceful, however, Roy had noticed her pain and had began to quietly chuckle to himself. He sighed, rose to his feet whilst stretching and began to move purposely toward Riza. He stopped just a pace or so away from her chair so she couldn't lash out with her feet which were bound together but not to the chair. Roy hadn't had enough rope to tie each leg individually to it, nor did he have a pair of scissors handy.
"Do you know what this is?" He asked in his 'normal' voice, the one Riza was used to in the office. Roy put his hand in his pocket, whipped out something and flung it right in her face. She flinched away slightly from the aggression of his movement, she opened her eyes again and was met by the sight of a small packet of white powder.
At first, she thought it was some form of illegal drug, which may have been the source and explanation of Roy's complete mood change, but she noticed some black print on the plastic. The dark-haired man noticed that Riza had to squint to even try to read the label, so with a slight smirk he moved the bag right back up into her face. Ignoring him, she furrowed her eyebrows trying to work out what the words fitted together to say, and then she widened her eyes as if she had just realized something she should've worked out a while ago.
"Gamma-hydroxybutyrate, eh Roy? 'Date-Rape Drugs' I do believe... That would make sense of my lack of memories from last night's 'date'. Also how I got out of that awful dress and into normal clothes. Oh, and not forgetting how I got home and tied up on one of my own dining room chairs!" Headache completely forgotten, Riza had a mad glint in her whisky eyes. She knew she was right and so did Roy, she hadn't lost her touch quite yet.
"Very good Lieutenant! So I guess you don't remember admitting your undying love to me either?" It was Roy's turn again to look smug, it finally dawned on Riza why she had been greeted the way she had when she woke up a short while before.
Riza felt like an idiot walking home from the office that evening. It wasn't just the fact the her cheeks were flushed from the invitation that the Colonel had given her that just before she left the , Headquarters, which she had bunched in her fist. It read;
'Miss Riza Hawkeye, I am formally inviting you to formal dinner for two beside the river at 7pm tonight. Wear the clothes provided, a car will be at your apartment at 6:45pm.
R.M'
He was being unusually organized, she wished he put this much thought into his paperwork as well as he did his 'dates'.
The other reason Riza wished she could crawl under the nearest hedge in shame was the fact she was holding a gift bag. Usually that wouldn't a problem, but since this gift bag was not exactly small, she couldn't just put it in her large brown satchel she took almost everywhere. Also it was a hideous shade of pink. Don't get me wrong, Riza was partial to a touch of pink here and there, but this was a shade too far in her opinion.
She finally reached her apartment block, relieved, she let herself into the building and started walking down the corridor toward the stairwell that led up to the first floor. She slowly ascended the stairs, exhausted from chasing up the Colonel's errands he should've done himself hours before she had to do it for him.
Riza lifted her foot up the last step, she felt as if her military boots were suddenly made of lead and her bags were full of rocks. She slowly made her way along the corridor looking at the apartment numbers as she went, even though she knew which door was hers.
'One-hundred and thirteen, one-hundred and fourteen, one-hundred and fifteen...'
Riza stopped outside the next door, it was marked 'one-hundred and sixteen'. She rummaged through her brown leather satchel to find her keys to get Into her apartment, and her fingers found metal. She pulled keyset out of her bag, found the right key for her door and unlocked it with a dull click. With a sigh of relief she pushed the flimsy wooden door that separated her cosy sanctuary from the bitter world, she stepped over the threshold and shut the door softly behind her.
The brown satchel and obnoxiously pink gift bag she was carrying were quickly discarded when Riza heard claws clicking on the wooden planks that floored the whole apartment. Black Hayate came to meet his mistress and welcome her home from her hard day at the office, babysitting the Colonel. She fell to her knees and gave the Shiba Inu a well deserved fuss, she'd been out the apartment for the last ten hours and left him to guard it.
Riza looked up from Hayate, who was on his back and wanted a tummy rub, and she looked at the clock that was hung on her wall. It read '5:15', she had an hour and a half to get ready.
After fussing Hayate for a little while, Riza picked herself off the floor and shrugged her navy military jacket off and put it on its peg next to the front door. She picked up her bags off the floor and took them into her bedroom, with the little black and white dog trotting closely behind.
The bedroom door slammed in the poor dog's face, so he snorted and lay down just outside the room to guard it from possible intruders for his mistress. Riza on the other hand, had just collapsed on her bed out of exhaustion, she let her body feel the aches and pains from the day and she groaned.
She sat herself up and reached down the side of her bed for the gift bag she dumped there and took the tape off that was keeping the bag sealed and safe from the elements. Riza opened it and rummaged around in the tissue paper that was the same offensive colour as the bag. Her fingers brushed fabric, her hand grasped the soft material and pulled it out carefully. She put the item on her knee and just sat and admired the colour, it was a deep red, like a rose, like the tattoos that defaced her back, or like the dried blood of her victims...
She shook her head, and moved the folded article off her lap so she could remove her heavy military boots easier. Riza kicked off her last boot and sighed, now she felt that the work day was over, she smiled. She stood up slowly, her face screwed up in pain from her aching feet, wincing she turned around to retrieve the dark fabric off her bed and she waved the material to unfold it. It tumbled toward the floor like a stream of red wine being poured from a height by a barman who was trying to show off to his customers.
Riza gasped, the dress was even more beautiful now she could actually see it fully. It was an elegant and long evening dress, which meant she had the choice to wear comfy shoes under it if she wanted to and it had the capacity to hide a gun under if she felt it nessacary. It also had a full back meaning she wouldn't have to worry about people seeing the abnormality that was there and questioning her about it continuously during the evening. The only issue with it, in her opinion, was that it was a little low-cut around the chest for her liking but she wasn't too bothered about it.
Riza decided that it would be best if she got ready pretty soon otherwise she'd leave it until the last possible moment, not unlike when she used her sniper to take a life.
Riza hung the dress over her arm and found the small black cardigan she only wore on special occasions, she had only worn it a couple of times before. She walked over to her en suite so she could get changed where she felt safest.
She slipped the dress over her head with ease, she was pleasantly surprised that the Colonel had managed to get it in the right size without any guidelines. She pulled the fabric so it fell gracefully from her curves and all of the creases smoothed out. Riza walked cautiously over to the mirror, so she didn't trip over the hem of the dress which was swishing across the floor as she moved.
She decided that she would close her eyes just as she approached the mirror so she could see herself in the dress for the first time when she had reached the mirror. Her outstretched arms in front of her, Riza made tentative steps in the general direction of the mirror. Finally, her fingers brushed a cold surface, her eyes snapped open from surprise and gasped at her reflection.
Standing in the bathroom parallel to Riza's was a woman of average height with her arms outstretched and a genuinely shocked expression on her face. The woman's arms lowered to her sides which were covered by a well-fitted burgundy evening gown, that flattered each and every one of her curves. The dress tickled the floor with its hem, as the woman turned her torso so she could see her back, the skirt also moved and lifted slightly off the floor, as if it was floating.
She adjusted the thick straps so they sat on her shoulders comfortably, she also attempted to pull the neck of the dress upwards so less of her chest would be shown, but to no success. She frowned slightly at this but the overall look of her in the dress quickly brought a full smile to her face.
She knew she looked beautiful, the colour of the dress complimented her shining whisky brown eyes and her bright blonde hair, which was still in her work bun. Her slim, yet slightly muscular, frame was enhanced by the material and unlike most of the dresses she had worn, it didn't restrict her movement.
The woman seemed to have had an idea, her hands moved slowly up, toward the back of her head. A small click came from where her hands were and her blonde hair began to tumble out of its clip and down her back. She ruffled her waistlength hair to get some of the tangles out of it, she nodded. She was ready.
Riza had never felt this beautiful in her life, people had always told her she was 'a natural beauty' and she hadn't believed them, until now. She smiled again, eyes sparkling from pure happiness and confidence in her appearance. She moved back into the bedroom to finish off getting ready.
Riza felt reckless, she hitched up her dress and went over to her wardrobe and stuck her arm right into the back of it. She felt around and picked up a pair of shoes. They were black, and very impractical with a three inch heel. These were the only 'fancy' shoes the simple and practical Lieutenant owned, and they were beginning to gather dust, Riza prayed they would still fit her.
She threw the heels onto her bed, she made her way across the room and sat on the end of it next to the shoes. She picked one of them up by its straps and studied it carefully. We meet again, she thought and bent over to fasten it to her foot, it was a bit tight but nothing she couldn't cope with. She put the other one on and stood up carefully, trying not to topple over. Riza had forgotten how hard it was to walk in heels, the only upside to wearing them, other than to complete her outfit, was that the heels could be used as weapons if she found herself in a spot of trouble.
She turned around to retrieve the discarded bright pink gift bag that the dress was in and she attempted to crumple it in her hands but something in the bag was stopping her. Puzzled, Riza opened it and tipped out the contents onto the floor. She heard a soft thud and she knelt down, moving the tissue paper from where the sound came from. She saw a dark brown, nearly black, strap, she picked it up and allowed herself a small laugh, that man had thought of everything.
It was a leather holster she could fasten around her thigh so she could discretely hide a gun under her dress. Riza fumbled around with the skirt of the gown so she could put the holster on. She closed the buckle on the strap, and dropped the dress back into place. All she needed now was a gun to go into it.
Riza sat back on the bed and took the heels off. She thought she might as well give her feet some time without any shoes before she had to put them into the most restricting shoes she owned. After wiggling her toes for a second to get some feeling back into them, she stood and walked over to where she kept her holster she wore to the office. She opened the pouch where her handgun was and removed it. She fumbled around with the skirt again and put the gun in her new holster, she was prepared for the night ahead. All she had to do now was wait for 6:45 to roll around.
And it did, soon enough. She had been busying herself with chores around the house, they were made quite difficult by the fact she was wearing a floor length dress. She was pulling her heels back on just as she heard a sharp rapping on her front door.
"Coming!" She shouted to the person waiting to take her to Roy. It may have even been Roy, that thought made her speed up a little.
She ran unsteadily to the door and answered it breathlessly, "Hello? Hello, I'm ready!" She was caught slightly off guard by who was on the other side of the door, she grinned.
"Jean Havoc, fancy seeing you here." The blond man smirked in response to this, and held his arm out for Riza to hold.
"Fancy seeing you in a dress... And heels! Riza Hawkeye, you have really out done yourself for the Colonel this evening!" Riza blushed a little and ignored the arm Jean offered her and started walking down the corridor, obviously unused to walking in the shoes she was wearing. She heard her front door shut, she'd forgotten to shut it from the embarrassment from the compliment her teammate gave her, and running steps followed.
Riza found the stairs a challenge to climb down, at this point she wished she took Jean's arm when he offered it, but it was her decision not to so she had to deal with the consequences. Relieved, she reached the bottom of the stairwell and walked outside of the building, Havoc followed a few feet behind her.
She paused, trying to work out which car Jean had come in, then she spotted Roy's black car.
"Yes, he lent me his car. Its not like I can't afford my own I just choose to spend my money on stress relievers!" And as he finished speaking he pulled one of his 'stress relievers' out of its packet and lit it.
"You better put that out before we get in the car, I don't want to smell like cigarette smoke during our..." Riza faltered and Jean laughed.
"Yeah, yeah, fair enough." He quickly sucked on the cigarette butt a few more times before stubbing it out on the bottom of his shoe. He started making his way toward Roy's car, he beckoned for Riza to follow him, she hitched her skirt up and started to walk behind him.
Jean opened the front passenger door for Riza to get in, which she managed not too gracefully, it must be said. The blond chauffeur shut the door on the woman and ran around the front of the car to the driver's side and jumped in.
As he pulled out into the road and sped off into the winding roads of East City, Jean said, "Your prince awaits!" Riza narrowed her eyes at him, but then laughed at how uncomfortable Jean looked.
"So, who gave you my address, may I ask?" Jean looked slightly less unnerved now Riza was talking to him, and not giving him a look which said 'I will stab you with these shoes'.
"Mustang, of course! No one else in the military actually knows your address, minus the Senior Management Team and the Colonel." Jean seemed proud of himself because he knew knowledge that barely anyone else knew.
"Good to know its still that much of a secret... Also, Havoc, that doesn't mean you and Roy can come to my apartment at ungodly hours in the morning, black-out drunk and expecting a bed. I won't hesitate to shoot the pair of you on the spot." Riza said coldly, Jean knew better than to assume she was joking, because she wasn't.
"Anyway, we're here." Jean said churpily, still with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. Riza nodded her thanks to him as he came to let her out of the car. She managed to successfully unfold herself out of the vehicle without falling out onto the pavement, she brushed herself down and stood up straight.
"Someone made an extra special effort tonight, didn't they, Lieutenant?" Riza's eyes sparkled, that voice, she spun around and her suspicions were confirmed. Roy Mustang stood in front of a small restaurant in a suit, with the shirt buttoned all the way up, Riza was pleased to see. The thing that made her smile the most was that he hasn't slicked his hair back in that stupid way he does, it made him look really formal and unRoy-like. "Hello, Sir. I wasn't the only one who made an effort, I can see. And thank you Havoc for the ride." She flashed the blond chauffeur a smile, her cheeks slightly flushed from the cold, she had forgotten her cardigan.
"No problem, Hawkeye! what do you want me to do with your car, Sir?" Jean turned his attention to Roy, blue eyes gazing into charcoal black ones, that seemed to be planning something.
Roy snapped out of thought and replied, "Oh! Just leave it where it is, thanks Havoc. See you tomorrow in the office." Jean nodded, saluted the pair and began to walk down the street.
"We'd better get inside, its cold out here and your only wearing a dress." Roy stuck his elbow out to Riza, taking her by surprise but she took it gladly and the couple walked into the restaurant. They walked up to podium which had a 'Please wait to be seated' sign on it, and did what the sign said.
"Hello, I am your waiter for this evening, Yoki. But not for long, I will be in charge of this establishment soon and will wring it completely dry of all its money!" The Colonel and Lieutenant jumped out of their skins at the man's silent approach. The moustachioed man laughed very loudly at his plan, or was it at their surprise..?
"Unfortunately, your table isn't ready quite yet. Would you care to visit our bar and I will call you when your table is ready." Roy nodded, and he followed the waiter to the bar with Riza in tow.
As they reached the bar, Yoki wandered off to take care of something else, and left the two of them to their own devices. Riza motioned to Roy that she was going to go to the bathroom, he understood and she walked toward the door that was clearly labeled 'Ladies'.
She came out of the toilets to see that Roy had already got them drinks, alcoholic ones at that. Riza rolled her eyes, he knew she didn't drink, so why did he always insist on buying her drinks she won't drink?
Roy saw Riza's non too happy expression and said, "Please, just the one? Its only a Martini and lemonade, promise." His smile melted her heart, how could she refuse him that? She sipped at the beverage, the salt around the edge of the glass mingling with the taste of the alcohol, she smiled. Maybe she could drink just the one, for him.
"It all makes sense now... But still, when did I confess my 'undying love' for you?" Riza whispered half to the dark haired and half to herself, Roy smirked at the mixture of confusion and realization on his captive's face.
"You are being really slow today Lieutenant. It appears the alcohol and drugs haven't worn off fully yet." He laughed at this, she narrowed her eyes and huffed at his cockiness.
"Well, let me tell you a little something about alcohol..."