Rockbell Residence, living room

The rest of the sleigh ride had passed by quickly. Once they had arrived at the Rockbell residence, they were eagerly greeted by Den. Him and Black Hayate seemed to have become friends the minute they had met, which was true. It is a lot easier for dogs, because they know how to listen to their instinct and relied on sense of smell. Eyes could fool you, but certainly not your nose, at least from their perspective. There had been hot soup waiting for them in the living room and they were now sitting in front of the fire place, enjoying mugs of tea with rum (in several different ways of relation to one another, one might say Rebecca was on a good way to have rum with tea).

"So, I hear you have been doing a lot to make reparations for Ishval then?" Pinako was sitting rather laid-back in her wingback chair, and her voice sounded calm but Mustang saw something sparkle in her eyes that told him she was a lot more interested in this than she wanted to make them think. He cleared his throat but Riza already answered. "There is still a lot to do but we're at least making an effort. At least this time around our people listen to the Ishvalian leaders. There is however an effort made that we military officers don't get involved too much. Or at least avoid getting visibly involved." – "Rumour has it the military is becoming a lot less visible on the home front, too."

Mustang looked positively puzzled this time. 'How the hell does she know those things?' "Ehm, it's complicated." he said "But generally, Fuhrer Grunman is moving into the direction of relieving the military of some of it's , eh, political power. Installing a different kind of government and so on. That's supposed to make Amestris a lot less aggressive, at least in theory. To be frank, that mostly means the head of state will be chosen by a parliament, who in turn is chosen by the people. It's not like now, where we are a Parliamentary Republic in theory, but actually just a Military Dictatorship."

Pinako looked at him "I'm impressed, I didn't think you would be quite so honest." Mustang shrugged "I didn't see the reason not to be. You seem to be well informed anyway." Pinako chuckled. "I can see why the boys are looking up to you." – "Nah, I'm pretty sure they hate me for using the stone." Roy's tone was light but there was something there that suggested this actually worried him. He blew on his tea and took another sip. Riza watched him intently. She knew how much Roy had debated with himself, but in the end had chosen to restore his sight. He was now working hard to keep his promise he had made to do so. A bit too hard sometimes, she thought. The bags under his eyes spoke volumes. Hell, he even did the paperwork without her having to, err, persuade him.

"Actually, Mr. Mustang, Ed and Al respect your choice." Winry looked up from Den, who had lain down on her lap. "Well, Ed might deny it but he really does. The stone had already been made, you didn't make the sacrifices. That's at least what he said to me once."

A smile crept up Roy's face before he took another sip from his mug. "Thank you, that's kind of you to tell me. And please, call me Roy." – "Winry." The two shook hands, smiling.

"Well, now that the mushy, lovey-dovey stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the important things." Rebecca emptied her mug in one gulp. "Do you by any chance have any playing cards here?" Pinako grinned and got up to get them. And also a bottle of some conspicuously clear liquid.


Later

"YOU CHEATED!" – "Never! I'm careful to end things before I start something new, I do have my honour." – "I don't care about your god damn sex escapades, but that just was a king of hearts that fell down!" – "Well, there is one in the game you know." – "BUT NOT TWO!" Rebecca angrily filled up Roy's water glass with liquor, and spilled half of it again while pushing it over the table into his hand. "Cheaters drink!"

Riza sighed and, while Roy chugged down the liquid, shuffled the cards and dealt them out again. Winry had already retired to her bed and this was starting to get out of hand. She herself even felt a bit tipsier than she liked. "Shut up Becky; next time, just cheat yourself, too." Rebecca gasped. "Why would you even suggest this? Wait! YOU HAVEN'T!" – "Ugh my ears." – "I really can't believe you Riza, I thought we were friends." With those words Catalina got up and stormed off. It surely was supposed to have looked dramatic, but, given the fact the 2nd lieutenant had had a bit too much to drink, ended up looking like an angry baby elephant taking its first steps. Pathetic and also somehow cute.

"Gosh, she sure does become a bit extreme after a few drinks." Riza shook her head "Nah," she said, "she just wants to talk to me about something and couldn't think of anything better to make me follow her without anyone becoming suspicious. But she must be super drunk, because usually she comes up with something better, really." She got up from the table and nodded towards its two inhabitants "Good night." – "Night." –"Uhhh, I better go to sleep as well." Roy yawned. "Thanks for the stuff, it's pretty good." Pinako shook her head when she watched Mustang stagger out of the room. "The youth of today just can't hold their liqueur." she muttered more to herself than anyone in particular.


"God damn, Becka!" Riza threw her pillow in the general direction of her friend. They had shared rooms and beds before, especially in academy times, but in the last years the memories seemed to have clouded a little. Riza had only remembered the hushed conversations and the fun of making up stories until late at night and so on. She had forgotten what a pain in the ass sleeping Rebecca could be. And drunken sleeping Rebecca was way worse.

Riza had now woken up several times to having her blanket snatched away, being kicked or slapped (or tightly hugged, she couldn't decide which was worse) and, worst of all, the 2nd lieutenant's snoring. She reached for her watch on the bedside table and, in the dim light of the moon, saw that it was only four in the morning. This meant they had only tried to sleep for about two hours. Well, Rebecca seemed to sleep like a baby, a drunken baby, but she was wide awake now.

"I'll kill you in the morning." she muttered, and, grabbing her blanket and pillow, made her way out of the room. I bet Winry's bedroom only has one twin-sized bed, but I'm sure that even though Al didn't need to sleep before, he sure still has a bed in his and Ed's room. She sighed. Let's hope he snores less. She tiptoed over the corridor and knocked on the door, as quietly as she could. Nothing stirred. When she carefully opened the door, she saw a small bedroom with two small beds, one right beneath the window, the other one standing in a ninety degree angle from it, on the right wall of the room. There was a figure lying in the bed right under the window, but everything was quiet. The 1st lieutenant softly closed the door behind her, and crawled into the newly acclaimed bed.