I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to comment last chapter. I'm really glad you're liking the story so far.
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Object of Gossip
2
Rumor Mill
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A little public scandal is good once in a while. It takes the tension out of the news. –Beryl Pfizer-
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Roy yawned then reclined back in his office chair and rested a foot on one knee as he read the newspaper. He hated Monday mornings...
"I'm going to get some coffee downstairs, would you like some as well?" Hawkeye asked when he yawned again.
He nodded and watched her go. At the same moment, Kain Fuery walked into the room with Vato Falman. They were always the first ones there for the Monday morning meetings, and they always came together since they both lived in the dorms.
"Good morning, sir," Falman said, taking a seat, then opening a newspaper of his own.
"Morning..." Roy said with another yawn.
"Uh... morning..." Fuery said, then looked down at his shoes as he sat, not meeting Roy's eyes.
Odd... Roy thought as he returned the greeting, but he didn't have time to dwell on it as Breda and Havoc walked into the room. Now that was even stranger than Fuery's behavior, Roy thought as he looked at the time. They were not only on time, but they were early.
"Good morning, boss," Havoc said with an exaggerated cheerfulness. He plopped down on the couch and said with a grin, "Have a good weekend?"
Roy had actually spent the weekend at home researching, mowing the grass, trimming the bushes, doing minor home repair, reading, and other various things. No matter how much Roy had enjoyed the time alone and the feeling of accomplishment at getting things done, that probably wouldn't fit into Havoc's idea of a 'good' weekend.
"I wasn't here was I?" Roy asked dryly.
"No."
"Then it was a good weekend." He yawned and wondered idly why they only got two days in a weekend and not three.
"How's Ed?" Breda asked, sounding unusually interested.
"Dead, if he misses another meeting," Roy growled. He was tired of Ed either being late to their weekly meetings, or missing them entirely. So far he'd been rather lenient, but if he didn't start shaping up soon, Roy was going to have to write him up.
As if he could hear Roy's thoughts, Breda said, "Maybe he's just too exhausted from the weekend or from specific... night time... activities?"
Roy stared at him in utter bewilderment, but all his other subordinates seemed to understand whatever Breda was referring to. Havoc grinned manically, Fuery's head lowered a fraction more, and Falman lifted the newspaper closer to his face.
He opened his mouth to ask what in the world they were talking about when there was a dull thudding on the door. As if eager to escape the conversation Fuery rushed to the door and opened it. Hawkeye stepped inside with a bland look on her face. She was carrying a box of doughnuts with a magazine on that and two coffees balanced on top.
"My hero!" Breda announced, bounding to his feet and picking the coffees up so that she could put the box down on the table. She grabbed the magazine—some tabloid called The Daily Gossip—gave Roy a curious look that he completely didn't get, then took the cups from Breda and set one on his desk.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," he said, taking a small sip from the opening in the lid. "Now that we're all here, I think we should start."
"We're not going to wait for Edward?" Hawkeye asked. Roy folded the newspaper and set it on his desk. Waiting for Ed would be a waste of time as it was a good chance Ed would miss the meeting completely.
"No, I don't think so. I'll just fill him in later," Roy said, then frowned as his staff gave each other meaningful looks. He was on the verge of asking what was going on, but decided against it. He didn't like being out of the loop, but he didn't like people knowing he was out of the loop just as much. After the meeting he'd find a way to figure it all out, but right now it was time for work.
0-0-0-0
"Brother, don't you think that you should be at headquarters?"
Ed took a bite of his breakfast and said, "Why? I'm already late."
"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full," Al protested, his voice belaying the disgust that his face couldn't.
If Ed had been five years younger, he might have opened his mouth to show his brother the chewed up food, but at seventeen, Ed was much to mature for that kind of behavior. Instead, he swallowed then muttered an insincere apology as he watched Al walk to the door.
"Where are you going?"
"To the store. The food doesn't magically appear in the cupboards you know."
"It doesn't?" Ed asked in mock shock. "And here I was thinking all this time that you must be doing some sort of forbidden food alchemy."
Al laughed. "No, see, this is how it works. You go earn money and I spend it on things like food and stuff to keep you alive so you can earn more money."
"Ha!" Ed exclaimed, dropping his dish in the sink. "I see how it is. He pulled on his jacket and walked out the door after Al. "How about you work, and I buy the food."
His brother stopped and stared at him for a moment, then said, "Remember the last time I let you do the shopping?"
"No," Ed lied.
"You were sick for days. You're a horrible shopper."
"Okay fine," he conceded, not wanting to hear another 'I told you so' from his younger brother. "I'll go to work. See you at the library later today?"
"Yep! If you're good I'll even bring you lunch," Al said then they parted ways. Ed watched his brother go and gave a small sigh, wondering when they would reach their goal. Al was missing out on way too much in his life...
He thought about that as he walked, but after a while he started to get the feeling that he was being watched. Ed glanced around, but no one was looking at him. It was just the normal morning crowed. People at cafés for breakfast reading over their newspaper or other reading material. The same with people waiting for busses. No one was looking at him, but...
Ed hurried across the street with the masses with a deep frown. He just felt like someone or many someones were watching him. When he reached the sidewalk, he moved next to a building to get out of the way and looked around. He though he caught a couple of ladies looking his way, but when he glanced at them, they quickly looked away or back to the magazine they were reading.
Odd... So very odd...
0-0-0-0
Riza Hawkeye glanced at the colonel as he worked and wondered, not for the first time, if she should bring the subject up with him. What he did in his own personal life was one thing, but if it affected his work...
She thought of the article in the tabloid. It wasn't as if anything definite had been said, but that Hawkins woman had a lot of open ended facts and had left a lot of questions unanswered. And then there was that picture and the fact that someone had seen them.
At first, she couldn't believe it, but the more she thought about it, the more that it would sort of make sense. The colonel was a little lenient when it came to Edward. She'd always thought it was because of Ed's age and the fact that maybe the colonel felt some sort of paternal instinct toward him, but if the rumors were true...
Riza pulled the tabloid out and stared at it. She needed to know because it was important for her job. It had nothing to do with the fact that she just wanted to know; that she was curious. No. That wasn't it. It was completely job related.
Completely.
Taking a deep breath, she got up and started for the colonel's desk.
"Colonel, there's something that I would like to talk to you about," she said.
He looked up from the document he'd been going over and gave her a look of mild interest. She was about to speak when the door burst open and Ed came rushing into the room.
"Nice of you to make it," the colonel said, then glanced at his watch and added, "Two hours after you were supposed to be here."
"Sorry," Ed said unapologetically, then added, "I think I'm being watched..."
"If that's your excuse for being late—" the colonel began, but Ed cut him off.
"It's not. I just..." He trailed off, then muttered, "Never mind."
The colonel looked at him for a moment in consideration, then said, "Lieutenant, could you leave us alone? I think Fullmetal and I need to have a talk."
Would it be appropriate to leave them alone in his office? What were they going to talk about? Was it actually work related, or something else? Not that it was her business or her place to refuse his request, but...
"Yes, sir," she said, walking out of the room and taking the magazine with her. She headed toward the break room where she saw Havoc, Breda, Falman, and Fuery, along with Maria Ross and Denny Brosh all gathered around one of the tables.
"Hey, just saw Ed rush by," Breda said. "He seemed in a hurry."
"Maybe he saw this," Denny said, holding up a tabloid identical to Riza's.
"It's possible..." She glanced behind her, then at the group. "The colonel asked me to leave while he talked to Edward alone."
0-0-0-0
Havoc smirked and looked at Breda. "Tell them what you told me," he said, then looked at Hawkeye. "I don't think everyone's heard it."
"Heard what?" Hawkeye said, taking a seat next to Maria Ross.
"I was there, at the library, when that librarian called The Gossip," Breda said knowledgably. "I saw her talking all excited on the phone and the other library chick told me that it was because she found out about them sleeping together."
"Are you serious?" Ross asked.
"Cross my heart," Breda said, making hand movements over his chest.
Havoc glanced from Ross to Hawkeye who were now looking at each other as if carrying on a silent conversation. Hawkeye raised an eye brow, to which Ross smiled a little and raised her own eyebrows, to which Hawkeye smirked.
"Would you like to share your thoughts with the rest of the class?" he asked irritably. Why was it that women could do stuff like that? Did they share brain waves? Where they linked in some sort of way as to confuse the male population?
"Well, it's just sort of..." Ross began, then looked at Hawkeye before finishing, "hot."
"Hot?!" Brosh echoed in disbelief. "Are you serious?" Havoc felt the same way. What was so hot about the colonel and Ed?
Hawkeye shook her head and said to Brosh, "What do you think of two women together?"
"Uh..." Brosh said, red tinting his cheeks a little. She looked to each of them as if posing the question to them all.
"Two hot babes together is sexy," Breda volunteered. "But that's different."
"How exactly is that different?" Ross asked, eyebrow raised.
"The colonel and Ed aren't hot babes. They're two dudes," Breda pressed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world—which it was, to all those of male gender in the room.
The women shook their heads as if dealing with children who didn't understand. "Colonel Mustang and Ed are both good looking specimens of the male species," Ross said. "I'd actually never really thought about Ed in those terms, but... well..." She blushed lightly. "He isn't exactly a child anymore, is he?"
"I can't handle this anymore!" Fuery suddenly cried out. They all turned to see that his face was a deep red. He stood up and walked to the door. "I can't handle listening to all this perverted stuff." And with that, he was gone.
"Poor guy," Ross said pityingly.
"Some men just can't handle the thought that women enjoy the thought of men together..." Hawkeye said.
Havoc stared at them in disbelief. Truthfully, he'd never thought about women getting together and talking about men in the same way that they talked about women. It would have never occurred to him that a woman might like two men together in the same way that men often enjoyed two women together.
It was just so... strange...
He tried to imagine the colonel and Ed getting it on, and found that he couldn't really stomach the thought. Was that how women felt when they heard men talking about two women together?
"I have just been enlightened," he said suddenly as the thought sunk in. They all looked at him as if he was crazy, but he didn't care. "This is brilliant insight into the female psyche!" The mysteries of the universe were being opened to him! The more he knew, the easier it would be for him to land himself a woman! He was about to explain how amazing this new revelation was, when Ed stormed into the room.
"What an asshole," Ed growled. Ross pulled the magazine out of sight before Ed could see it. The teen plopped down in Fuery's empty chair and said, "Can you believe he said he was going to write me up if I wasn't 'there and on time' next Monday..."
Havoc stared at him, along with everyone else, and thought that Ed was such a brilliant actor. He really did look pissed, but he doubted that was so... unless they had a lover's spat. After all, the colonel wouldn't write up his lover, right?
When no one said anything, Ed glanced at them all and said, "What?" There were instant answers that nothing was wrong as they all looked anywhere but at him.
"Fuck... you all are crazy," Ed said irritably, then got up and stalked out of the room.
"Do you think we should have said something?" Ross asked after a long moment of silence.
To that, no one had an answer.
Hey! A week since the last update. That's not too shabby! Hope you enjoyed it!
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Comments are always welcome. :)