Otp: Hello again

RE-UPLOADED 10/12/08

Chapter 3 Investigations, Explosions, and Underwear

Roy and Riza had finished their breakfast and were now washing the dishes. Riza was drying and Roy was washing. Even with the most trivial things, they made a perfect team.

"Are you sure you don't know who is responsible for all this Riza?" Roy asked, handing her another plate to dry.

Riza took the plate and shook her head, "I honestly have no idea who it might be and if I did, I would have told you already." She held out her hand for another dish as she had finished the first one.

He frowned and turned to look at her, his gaze intense, "Do you think the homunculi are involved?"

Her gaze faltered, she hadn't thought of that as a possibility. She thought for a minute then shook her head, "No, I don't think they are the ones behind this. The Elric's disposed of 5 of them and you dispatched two more and from what Edward told us, there was only seven. They are gone and I don't think they will be coming back anytime soon."

Roy was still frowning, "True, but you never know and it's better to be safe than sorry. Here, let me finish this up and you can go get dressed." He took the towel she was using and pulled out another dish and began to dry it.

Riza looked as if she was going to argue, but she nodded and left him to get her things.

Hayate was sitting next to him on the floor, wagging his tail with an expectant expression. Roy looked down and grinned. He dried the last dish and dried his hands. He knelt down and scratched the dog behind the ears, "Can I trust you to protect your master from this creep who's after her Hayate? We can't let anything happen to her."

Hayate barked in agreement and Roy stood up. He walked down the hallway to his bedroom to change. He closed the door and pulled on a clean, white dress shirt over his undershirt. Going over to his closet, he pulled out a fresh uniform. he pulled on his pants and shrugged on the jacket.

Roy then sat on the end of his bed and pulled on his boots. After that, he opened his door and walked out.

Riza had finished changing and was now sitting on the couch, waiting for Roy to return.

"Bring Bring!!" she jumped at the sound of the phone and hastily picked it up.

"Hawkeye speaking."

"Hey Riza, it's Maes. I'm at your house right now with the rest of the gang. We just got here and we're waiting for you so we don't have to smash the door down." Maes' tone was serious.

"Good, the Colonel and I shall be there momentarily, he's…"

Roy waltzed into the room and grabbed the phone, "That you Maes?"

"Of course it is, who else would it be? I'm at Riza's place right now so get your butt down here."

Roy sighed, "Calm down, we're on our way now. See you there." Then he hung up the phone and turned to Riza.

"Are you ready to go?"

She nodded and picked up Hayate, who started to squirm in her hands. Roy smiled, "You can leave him here if you want. It would be much easier that way."

Riza smiled back, "Thank you Roy, are you sure you don't mind?"

He laughed and walked to the door and grabbed their coats, "If you are going to be staying here anyways it won't really matter now will it?"

"No, I guess it wouldn't." she took her coat from him and watched as he de-alchemitized the door. When that was done he undid the locks.

He cautiously stepped out onto the porch and scrutinized his surroundings with his eye. Seeing no immediate danger he turned back to Riza, who stood in the doorway with her hand behind her. Roy knew it was on her gun and she was ready to pull it out at a moments notice.

"It's clear, you can come out." She slowly walked out and her eyes roved around and Roy locked the door again.

They started to walk down the path and Roy watched her with his good eye. She was tense and her eyes were darting left and right as if searching for something. "Do you see anything Riza?"

Her eyes turned to him, "No, but I still have a feint feeling of being watched."

Roy frowned at this news and covertly slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled on his ignition gloves. "Let's hurry and get to your house before something happens."

She nodded and they quickened their pace.

Soon enough, they had arrived at her house to find it surrounded by MP's. They saw Maes running up to them, "Way to take your time you two. Come on, we have to start investigating."

Roy and Riza followed Maes to the front of her house and Roy asked, "Besides us, who is helping us investigate? Is it going to be some of those MP's?"

Maes laughed, "No, the MP's are only here to secure the area and crowd control. I brought better people for the investigation part. Besides, I don't think Riza wants anyone she doesn't know to be going through her things."

"Quite right, I don't want some nameless man rooting through my personal items. Where are the others, you said they were here with you?" she said firmly, looking around.

"We're right here chief." Havoc said as he walked up to them with Breda, Falman, and Fuery close behind him.

Roy was satisfied with the arrangement and began to converse with Maes while the others guestioned Riza.

"Was your house really broken into Lt.?" Fuery asked.

Riza smiled at his concern, "Yes, Fuery. My house was broken into and nearly everything was destroyed."

Havoc laughed, "Who in their right mind would dare break into the 'Ice Queen's' house?"

Riza glared at Havoc, "Indeed, who." He quickly backed off.

"Did they take anything?" Breda asked.

She shook her head, "No, nothing was stolen. Everything was just broken."

"Hey, get over here! We haven't got all day to just stand around and talk. We have to get this done." Roy called down to them from Riza's porch. They hastily joined Roy and Maes.

Maes turned to Riza, "Can you open the door please?" Riza strode forward and pulled out a key. She then opened the door.

Everyone's eyes widened in shock as they gazed upon the horror within. The whole house seemed to be immaculate. Nothing seemed to be out of place and it was completely spottless.

Riza stepped forward and looked around in shock, 'This can't be…it wasn't like this last night…I know it…'

"Didn't you say that your house was in shambles Lt.?" Falman asked as they stepped inside.

Riza nodded, "Yes, and I'm sure it wasn't like this when I left last night. But how could someone clean it in such a short amount of time and make it look as if nothing happened?"

Roy walked towards the bookshelf and pulled out a book, he had a theory and he was going to see if he was right. He opened the book and the others watched him intently.

He held up the book for them to see. It was blank, "I have a theory about what happened and I think I just confirmed it. Hawkeye, did this book have anything written in it before?"

Riza frowned and walked over to join Roy. Taking the book and looking at the cover she nodded, "Yes, this was one of my favorite books. Why do you ask sir?"

Taking the book back, he explained, "There are two things that could have been done to explain this. One of them being replacing the books with blank copies, but to do that you would have to know what the books were and get an exact copy of the cover and that might have taken a while to do. The second theory is using alchemy. You cannot transmute words in a book unless you know what it said. That might be the case and along with that, there are minute signs of alchemy present."

Almost everyone in the room were confused by what he had said and were looking dumbly at Roy. He glared at them, "What are you all just standing there for? Spread out and see what else you can find." He ordered.

They all quickly rushed off to search the house. Breda and Havoc were investigating the kitchen, Falman and Fuery were in the living room. Maes was left with the interesting job of looking through the bathroom and laundry room. Riza and Roy were in her bedroom.

Roy was searching near the drawers next to the closet. Riza was on the other side of the room and she was down on her hands and knees looking under her bed.

It puzzled her to no end how the culprit had managed to clean up without a trace of what she had seen the night before. She was also beginning to get annoyed by this person, she knew he was just playing with her and she didn't want to think about what might happen if and when he caught her.

Riza was torn between being angry and being thankful for Roy stepping forward to explain a few things. It had saved her from the embarassment of looking like a fool in front of her co-workers, but when he did that it made her look even worse.

Sighing, she pulled herself out from under the bed and she stood up. Her eyes widened when she saw what Roy was doing.

"Roy, get your hands out of my underwear drawer before I shoot you." She said icily. She was blushing furiously from anger or embarassment she didn't know.

Roy wheeled around and laughed nervously, all the while disposing of the article in his hands back into the drawer. "Hehehe……sorry bout that Riza. Did you find anything? I found a few traces of alchemy here and there."

She rolled her eyes, "Don't try to change the subject Roy and no, I didn't find anything."

"Since when were you two on a first-name basis?" Maes was standing in the doorway with a huge grin plastered on his face. At this comment Riza and Roy both began to blush.

Riza was the first to recover, "It doesn't matter at the moment. Did you find anything? The only thing we could find were small traces of alchemy."

Maes was still grinning when he answered, "Nothing, but I wonder if the guys did any better. Let's go find out shall we?" Riza nodded and followed Maes out into the hallway.

Roy was still standing by the drawer and he slowly reached out to open it again, "Roy, don't even think about it or I'll make you wear another eyepatch."

He gulped at the threat in Riza's voice and took one last look at the drawer and quickly vacated.

Maes was giving them both a questioning look, "What was that about?"

"Oh, nothing, the Colonel just got distracted by my underwear drawer." Riza said forcefully.

He started to laugh and Falman and Fuery came running towards them with a piece of paper in their hands, "We found something! But we don't know what it means!"

Roy took it out of Fuery's hands and opened it. Breda and Havoc walked in while he was reading it.

His eye widened and he crumpled it up and yelled, "Dammit! Everyone get out of here now!!"

They all caught onto the panic in his voice and they ran for the door. They got halfway down the path before the explosion knocked them off their feet.

Debri flew in every direction as Riza's house exploded in a cloud of smoke and flame. The whole area was silent for the next few seconds other than the crackling of fire and falling debri.

Riza sat up, coughing and looking at the place where her house once stood. Nothing was left of it. She coughed a few more times and looked around for her friends. She yelped as a pair of hands grabbed her arm. Looking down she saw Roy. He too was coughing and she pulled him to her feet.

"Are you alright Roy?" she asked worridly.

Roy coughed once more, "Yeah, I'll be fine. Is anyone hurt?"

She shook her head, "I don't know. Where is everybody?"

They began to look around and they soon found Maes and the others. The MP's were helping other people caught in the explosion and they were calling for medical assistance.

"Damn, that was a little too close for my liking." Maes said, rubbing the back of his head.

Havoc was wiping off his uniform, "What the hell happened?"

Breda was helping Fuery to his feet, "If this was some kind of joke they have the wrong idea."

"It was a bomb of some sort and their target was me." Riza said quietly. 'Dammit, why were they involved? This guy is really starting to piss me off if he thinks he's going to get away with hurting my friends he's sorely mistaken.'

"This person has one hell of a grudge against you Hawkeye. I can't wait to turn him into ash." Roy said scathingly. Riza and everyone else turned to gaze at Roy with surprise mixed with fear. They had never seen him like this before.

"Woah, calm down Roy. We'll catch this creep ok? You don't need to get angry." Maes said in an attempt to calm Roy's fury.

Roy's blood was boiling, "How can you not be angry? This guy tried to kill us and is stalking one of my subordinates!"

Maes reprimanded him firmly, "We can't get to the bottom of this if you're angry. You will rush into things without thinking. Now, calm down and let's think."

"You told us to get out when you read that piece of paper you stuffed into your pocket and we don't know what it said so let's head back to Central HQ so we can discuss it. This isn't exactly the best place for this matter." Riza said firmly.

Roy calmed down slightly at her comment, "Fine, we're going to HQ. We'll figure out what to do when we get there."

Everyone nodded and followed Roy down the road that led to HQ.

A shadow was perched on a ledge overlooking the scene and he smiled after the little group, "You have fallen into my trap my little bird. It won't be long before you are in a cage where you belong. All I have to do is wait for the right opportunity." He smirked and disappeared.

Otp: Well, I hope everyone likes it

Riza: My house……

Roy: Don't worry Riza, you can live with me

Riza: No way and I still remember what you did with my underwear.

Roy: 'sweats nervously'

Otp: Anyways, I hope everyone reviews yay. Until next time pplz!