A/N. More on the sniper later but I'm in a randomly good mood so I figured I'd leave all that for a couple of chapters and go on with the partay at Grumman's! Yay! Luvvles, Ri-chan

Chapter 3

Throughout Riza's next few days in hospital she received an astounding number of visitors- mostly the soldiers who had witnessed her fall at the reunion, but, of course, Roy Mustang was a constant presence. One old friend in particular, though, was especially eager to be remembered.

"Kuri! Kuri Silvers! Remember me? Do ya?"

Riza smiled at her old roommate with a familiar cross between irritation and amusement on her pallid face. "Of course I do," she replied easily.

"It's so cute how you're still with Roy, you know!" Kuri deviated happily. "Though I'm a little disappointed- we all voted you both most likely to be married by now!"

Riza, who had grown used to it, was just able to contain her blush and smiled instead. "Actually," she said evenly, "Roy and I are just close friends. It would be awkward after all, since we work together."

"You're not fooling anyone with that," said Kuri, putting her hands on her hips as her face contorted into a deep frown that Riza remembered well and took to mean that she had extremely pissed in an extremely short period of time- Kuri was officially in dangerous mode. "Roy, get outta here- me and Riza-chan're gonna have a little girl-to-girl chat, 'kay?"

Roy, who was slightly unnerved and felt rather like he should stay, avoided Riza's pleading look and agreed, removing himself from the room a moment or two later and leaving his lieutenant to her old friend.

As soon as the door closed, Kuri rounded on her determinedly. "Okie dokie, Riza-chan! What's up with you and him not havin' kids already?!"

"Uhm… Maybe that our sex life is non-existent, Kuri-chan?" Riza tried logically, but Kuri wasn't having any of it.

"Why?" she moaned overdramatically.

"Well we haven't been a real couple since before Ishbal," said Riza. "And outside of a 'friends-with-benefits' relationship, how would I be expected to have his children?"

"Okay, okay! Forget the kids- Why the hell did you break up?!"

"Listen, Kuri-chan, we just did. Leave it alone- it's been 10 years."

Kuri pouted and flopped down on the edge of Riza's bed with a long, suffering sigh. "Damn. If you and Roy can't keep a relationship going then none of us can!"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Riza. "Many of our old friends have become united since we saw them last- and they've gone further than Roy and I have, too, so why don't you go and bug them for children? I mean, Suzumiya Waters, for one, is either very out of shape or very pregnant, if you ask me- go ask if you can play godmom to her kid or something."

"It's not the same, Riza-chan! You and Roy were 'Prom King and Queen'! You were 'Cutest Couple' from, like, Pre-K to graduation! And 'Most likely to be buried next to each other!' EVERYTHING! Half of us weren't even betting on if you guys had kids as much as we were betting on how many you had!!"

"Okay, Kuri- I get the picture," said Riza, leaning back into her pillows a little, as Kuri coming closer with every word, which was kind of intimidating. "Roy and I were –are- close. Will you go away if I tell you that that's all we'll ever be?"

"No chance!"

"Then, okay."

"Huh?"

"I still like him."

"Oh my God, I KNEW IT!!"

Riza grabbed her shoulders quickly and shoved a finger to her lips, "hush hush, Kuri-chan!!" she whispered quickly.

"Riza-chan, what's wrong now?"

"He doesn't know," said Riza. "And I don't want him to know just yet, okay? But I've already made a promise to a friend that I'll try to tell him soon, so don't worry, okay?"

"Gosh! Wait 'til everybody hears!!"

"Except that they aren't going to," said Riza sternly. "I'm promising you now that I'll tell him when I've fully recovered from this nightmare, so you have to promise me in return that nobody finds out about this until I'm ready for them to, all right?"

"'Kay 'kay, Riza-chan. I promise!" Kuri paused a moment here. "…On one condition…"

"What is it?"

Kuri giggled happily and rested a hand on her friend's shoulder, "that I get to come shopping with you for the dress, of course! You always said that we would- get your wedding dress together, I mean. You know, I'm kinda glad- I thought I'd missed out already!!"

Riza nodded with a smile, "and we can't wait so long before we see each other again this time, Kuri-chan."

"Of course," Kuri agreed. "We'll catch up properly after you confess you-know-what to you-know-who, gottit?"

"Sure."

"I better go- betcha Roy's still standing outside. Make me proud, okay?"

Riza smiled but, as Kuri made to leave, she stopped her. "My grandfather's throwing me a birthday party next week," she said slowly. "It's kind of silly, but I swear that if you show up to support me, I'll tell him there."

"Call me with the details later," said Kuri, beaming, "and, of course, I took the liberty of having good old Fuery-kun, who picked up at your office, add me to your phonebook, so you won't be able to avoid it, either!"

"See you, Kuri-chan."

"You too, Riza-chan!"

She left, absolutely ecstatic with her progress, and Riza lay down, resting her hands on her stomach and staring up at the ceiling with a secret smile on her face. She didn't answer when the returned Roy asked her how their talk had gone, but he could tell just from the look on her face.

It had been perfect. Absolutely perfect. And he was glad.

-

By the end of Riza's first week in hospital, she had managed to convince her lazy but caring superior to return to work- but only because she was leaving too. With a horribly stiff back that still ached 98 of the time, she returned to work with a smile on her face, having suffered withdrawal symptoms all through the previous week and now feeling quite relieved to have returned.

"Morning, Lieutenant Hawkeye! Morning Colonel Mustang!"

"Good morning, Sergeant Major," said Riza, smilingly as she and Roy paused in the track down the hall to the office. "How has Buraha been? Not a bother, I hope- I would have kept him if I could, but the hospital had a strict policy against pets."

"No problem, Lieutenant! I love having him around- he's in the office with Breda right now if you wanna see him."

"You left him with Breda?" said Roy, chuckling a little and Fuery seemed to realise the error of his ways because his eyes widened suddenly and he threw a horrified look back in the direction from which he'd just come.

Riza only smiled, "don't worry," she said. "We'll take care of it. Thank you again, Sergeant Major."

"Great. See you later, Lieutenant! You too, Colonel!"

Roy waved vaguely and the two of them walked on into the office to find Breda standing on a table and holding a chair out in front of him protectively with a panting Hayate sitting nearby with his tail wagging.

"Buraha, come," said Riza and Black Hayate looked up and sniffed the air a little before bounding over to his mommy.

"Breda, get off the table," said Roy bluntly as he walked over to sit at his desk.

"Not until L'tenant Hawkeye gets that demon- demon- demon-thing away from me!!!"

Riza raised an eyebrow and bent down to lift Hayate into her eyes, cringing a little at the uncomfortable stretching of her wound. Roy was by her side in an instant and taking the puppy from her, shaking his head disapprovingly. "No heavy lifting," he admonished her. "The doc said so."

"Buraha is hardly heavy, sir- I can manage," Riza insisted, a little defensively.

"Do you want to open up your wound again, Lieutenant? It was bad enough the first time," said Roy, shifting Hayate a little in his arms as he squirmed towards Riza, who he hadn't seen all week. "Now, I'm going to go and see if Fuery can put Hayate with all his illegal 'Kitties of the Military', then I'll get our paperwork from the main office and bring it back. You just sit tight, okay?"

Riza huffed a little but before she had a chance to complain he had disappeared. She sat down with a sigh and looked up as she heard Breda snickering.

Now sitting at his own desk (rather than standing on it) Second Lieutenant Heymans Breda was looking extremely amused.

"What?" Riza asked irritably.

"Nothin'," said Breda, still grinning widely. "I was just thinking that you and the Colonel're acting pretty chummy lately- and he hasn't been in all week while you were off…"

"Are you suggesting that something happened between us while I was in the hospital, Second Lieutenant?" asked Riza, frowning deeply.

"Maaaaybe…"

'For goodness' sake, does everybody have to know how I feel about him?'

"Listen, Breda. The Colonel and I played several million games of chess but that is all we did- got it? We are two responsible adults with more on our minds than fanciful romances."

"Whatever you say, Lieutenant," said Breda and Riza could tell from his tone that he wasn't really agreeing with her.

"Breda," she said warningly but the conversation was ended as Havoc and Falman entered the room.

"Hey! Lieutenant Hawkeye, you're back!" said Havoc brightly, walking over to ruffle his 'little sister's' hair with a grin.

Riza glared at him and immediately reached up to fix it, not bothering to reply.

"Same as ever," said Falman, laughing a little as he took his seat, closely followed by Havoc as the safety on Riza's gun clicked off.

"You're just back, Riza-chan- you aren't already waving that gun around, are you?"

"Grandfather!" said Riza, standing up quickly and sending a terrible jolt of pain down her spine. "What are you doing here?!"

"Grandfather?!" Havoc, Fuery and Falman repeated in horror.

Riza shot them an annoyed look before turning back towards General Grumman, who was more than just a little amused by their reaction. "Is something wrong, Grandfather?" she asked, drawing his attention back to her.

"Just wanted to run the details of the birthday party by you!" said Grumman happily. "I was thinking you and your guests could take the 5pm train to the East on Friday afternoon and rest up for the night, then have the party on Saturday and go home on Sunday, be back on time for work on Monday. How does that sound? Your grandmother is so excited about seeing you again and she does apologise for not being able to make it out here but she's not feeling too well herself."

Attempting to ignore the men's eyes on her back, Riza nodded with an attempt at a grateful smile, "don't go to too much trouble, will you, Grandfather?"

"Are you kidding?" asked Grumman, grinning widely. "Your grandmother lives for this sort of thing!"

"If you say so, Grandfather."

'Of course! And we have plenty of room so don't be stingy about invitations! Here, I'll start you off, Riza-chan!" Grumman sidestepped her to address the still-gaping men. "How would you three like to attend my dear granddaughter's 26th birthday party this weekend?"

"Grandfather!!" Riza hissed, glaring a little.

"Oh, relax, Riza-chan! You're not half as old as me- no need to hide your age yet!" He turned back to the others brightly. "So how about it? Sound fun?"

"Yes, sir!!" The three men chimed.

"Good! Make sure you're not the only people coming, okay? My little Riza-chan is just too shy for her own good!"

"Grandfather!!"

"I get it- I'm leaving!" said Grumman cheerfully. "Well, I'll see you all on Friday evening! Right now I have a train to catch!"

He left and Riza sighed softly as she closed the door after him, shaking her head.

"General Grumman is your grandfather?!?!" Havoc, Breda and Falman yelled simultaneously the moment he was out of earshot.

Riza ignored them as she sat down but soon realised that Roy had yet to return with even the beginnings of their paperwork. "Oh, where is he?" she stressed irritably.

"No paperwork to hide under now, Riza," said Havoc, grinning.

"Yeah!" Breda agreed, "so since when was Grumman your Grandad, anyway?!"

"Since the day I was born," Riza replied intolerantly. "Stop asking stupid questions."

Made only more cross by the pain in her back, Riza waited impatiently until Roy returned at last with their work. "Where have you been?" she asked as the day's paperwork landed in front of her with a small thump.

"You seem grumpy," Roy noted cheerfully. "So I'm guessing that General Grumman has already told you about the birthday party next week."

"Not only that," said Riza, rolling her eyes. "But he also invited these three idiots."

Havoc, Breda and Falman waved, grinning.

"Ah, you don't mind really," said Roy confidently. "And, for the record- I'm invited as well. I passed him in the hallway."

"…Fantastic."

"Don't be so glum, Riza! You get to spend the entire weekend with your friends!"

"And, again, fantastic," said Riza sarcastically and, deciding not to test her any farther, the men let her get back to work.

-

By the end of the week, Riza's back was feeling a lot better and her temperament had taken a similar shift upwards, making her much more agreeable for Friday's long train ride back to the East. In fact, as they boarded the train, all 22 of her guests (Grumman had sent out the invitations himself when it became apparent that Riza didn't intend to ask more than 5 or 6 people to the party) were in pretty good spirits. And why not? They were about to spend the weekend in pretty much five-star accommodation, attending the birthday party of a close friend with absolutely no strings attached. It was the perfect getaway and one desperately needed by all of the military attendees.

The train ride in itself went better than expected considering its tedious duration and, except for Elysia throwing up a couple of times throughout the journey, they reached the Eastern Station without a great deal of trauma and were immediately showed towards what was practically a motorcade of large cars all set to bring them back to General Grumman's estate.

Riza, Winry, Paninya, Kuri, Maria and Sheska left in the first car and Kuri and Winry found instant friends in one another through their mutual determination to see Roy finally together with his beloved first lieutenant. It was obviously killing Kuri not to tell her about the promise Riza had made to confess to Roy at the party and Riza was close as hell to finding a roll of duct tape and taping her friend's mouth shut out of anxiety. She already had Kuri on her case about her promise- she didn't need any more squealing girls, thank you very much.

Still, not even the long trip could deter Kuri- the moment they arrived (well, after Grumman's introduction and the decision that they could sort the ten or so rooms out into pairs among themselves) she immediately sought Riza out alone, just to remind her, once again, of her promise- as though it hadn't been on her mind since they'd left and she could have possibly forgotten.

After assuring her friend of her intentions to follow through on her promise, Riza returned to the larger group, where everyone was still sorting out roommates in a manner that reminded her half of the first day of high school and half of extreme anarchy. In the end, though, it was forcibly decided for her by her friends that she would be sharing her own bedroom with Roy and when she pointed out that her room had only one bed in it, the others just laughed.

Blushing a little at their obvious expectations, Riza attempted to brush it off and shot Roy a reassuring smile before picking up her few bags and following the other guests in a slow procession upstairs.

Her room was just how she remembered it- except maybe just a little cleaner with all of the weapons cases locked (mostly likely by Grumman after he had decided that she would be sharing the room with someone). The shelves were all perfectly aligned with the books in alphabetical order by author's surname and each and every one of her childhood friends (cough-dolls-cough) were leaning carefully against the many decorative pillows that littered her four poster bed with its delicate pink canopy and mahogany posts.

Suddenly self-conscious, Riza turned back around to face Roy, blushing lightly as she watched him survey the room she had spent her summers in as a child. "I hope you don't mind," she said quietly. "It's a little girly."

"It's very cute," Roy assured her with a grin and he carefully nudged his case under the bed with his foot after she did the same.

Riza only blushed deeper, "well, I'm going to freshen up and get dressed for dinner. It's a very large house so there are many bathrooms- the nearest is the ensuite that branches off here. I won't be long so it's probably easiest for you just to wait rather than attempt to find another one and risk walking in on someone else."

Secretly thinking her bright flush was very sweet and wishing that he had a camera, Roy nodded absently and she left the room. Such was the beginning of that very interesting weekend.