Chapter 4

Jean gave a disinterested sigh as Roy attempted to use everyone's food as an alchemy experiment. The urge to show off had hit him and he'd declared that everyone's meals would taste much better flambéed or as Jean liked to call it burst into random flame by a pyromaniac. Unfortunately for him, Riza seemed rather amused by it, she loved watching the dancing flames and Roy was more than happy to burn anything in his path for her.

Heaving another sigh, Jean pushed the remains of his lasagna around on his plate before surrendering it to Roy. He was about to return to his sulking when Riza delivered a rather sharp kick to his knee.

"Ow." Jean winced, rubbing his sore knee cap. "What the hell was that for?"

"I thought you were going to talk to Rena." Riza said casually.

"I'm planning on it." Jean retorted.

"Well, she's sitting over there, all alone, right now. Why don't you go talk to her?" Riza suggested.

"Maybe I don't feel like doing it now…ow" Jean winced again. "On second thought, her company is probably less violent than yours."

Ignoring the face she made at him, Jean slide out of the booth he'd been sharing with his friend. Standing he paused to rub his knee cap once more before turning to look at Riza.

"You know, I think I get more bruises from hanging around you than from field training." He commented.

"Aw, come here and I'll kiss it better." She cooed sarcastically. He glowered at her teasing then stuffed his hands in his pockets and began his slow trudge over to Rena's table.

Rena was sitting by herself, as usual, dipping fries into her milkshake and pouring over some sort of monstrous book. Glancing at the book title Jean began to have his doubts again. 'What the hell is a quantum theory?' He thought as he drew closer.

Trying to push it aside, he allowed his eyes to rake over her to get a better picture of the girl Riza thought would be a good match for him. She was super pale from the countless hours spent in the library, the splash of freckles across her nose and cheeks were the only color to her face. To most people on campus, she was known as the pseudohippie libraray vegan. 'Well she can't be much of a vegan since milkshakes are dairy. Perhaps Riza's right and I should make an effort to get to know her.' Jean thought, attempting to picture her in a more romantic light.

He was trying to think of things they'd do together when he reached her table. Once again he hadn't made any plans on what to say so he now stood somewhat awkwardly beside the table trying to figure out what he should say or if he should just wait until she noticed him. He thought it was cute how she bit her lower lip gently and ran a hand over her chin length bob cut hair.

She still hadn't looked up though and he was beginning to think this was another bad idea. How much attention did this quantum theory need? She looked like she shouldn't be disturbed and just as he was turning to go, her eyes snapped up to his and a sudden blush stained her white cheeks.

"Hi." She breathed shutting her book instantly.

"Uh…hi." Jean said lifting a hand to wave but then realized how dumb that would look and redirected its course to the back of his neck. He should have planned this better. What should he say now? Why couldn't he ever think of anything to say? She was gazing at him curiously with those big green eyes and he was at a loss for words.

"Would you like to sit down. I, uh, I have some French fires if you'd like some." She offered, pushing the tray in front of her forward a little.

"Uh, that's okay. I already ate but, ah, I was wondering if, uh, I was wondering if you like ice cream. There's this great place at the end of the street that we're allowed to go to even when it's not open campus days because it's so close. Maybe we could go get some. I mean, that is, if you like ice cream It's totally find if you don't because that's cool too and I respect that you're a vegan, if you are a vegan or a strict vegetarian and …" He was babbling. Oh God, why couldn't he just shut up? Why couldn't he just be cool and smooth like Roy for once in his life? It shouldn't have been this hard. He didn't even have a crush on Rena, it was just two people going out for ice cream but the prospect of what ice cream could lead to left him a babbling idiot, yet again.

"Actually, I like ice cream. It doesn't hurt the cow to make so I eat it sometimes." She blushed.

"Cool … I like ice cream too." He said then resisted the urge to groan. What on Earth possessed him to say that? Obviously he liked ice cream; he'd just practically invited her to go out for ice cream. "Er, maybe we could go get some ice cream together, tomorrow after dinner?"

"That'd be nice."

"Yeah." Jean said with a small smile. Now what? He stood there falling back into his habit of rocking on his feet while trying to think of something to say.

"So, I'll meet you here?" She asked.

"Right! Yeah, good, um, here we'll meet, uh, well yeah, here." Jean babbled.

"Cool."
"Yeah, cool … um, see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, tomorrow."

"Okay."

"'kay."

"I'll see you then."

"Alright."

"Bye."

"Oh! Oh, yeah, ah, bye." Jean blushed, turning on his heels and making a bee line for his table. He could feel her eyes on him and he didn't dare look back. Why'd he take so long to leave? What kind of freak just stood there? He was lucky she didn't change her mind about the ice cream.

He sank low in his chair with his eyes down to ward off the third degree from his friends. He didn't really know what to say so he didn't want them asking and he didn't want Rena thinking it was a practical. He'd hate for her to think they were all sitting there laughing their asses off about how silly she'd look when she got stood up tomorrow or something equally cruel that he'd seen jerks do. He hated people like that and he didn't want anyone to ever think he'd pull something like that.

- -

After dinner, Jean had waved good bye to his friends and trudged to the rifle locker to polish until his commander either took pity on him or every rifle shined like brand new. He'd been lucky and was released early because he was "normally such a good student." He'd thought about going straight back to his room but opted to go for a quick run instead since he wasn't wearing anything special having anticipated being covered in grease by the end of his punishment.

He'd taken in the crisp, cool night air and now he felt tons better and far more relaxed than he had all day long. Unfortunately, though, in the life of Jean Havoc a time of peace was always short lived. He was now standing outside of his and Roy's door ponder the tie around the handle. He didn't get it. 'Why the hell did he leave his tie on the door?' Was Roy playing a prank? Had he left his tie somewhere and some had decided to return it but Roy was out? Why the hell was it there? Wrinkling his nose, Jean gave an irritated sigh, deciding it was some stupid Roy thing, and reached for the door handle.

"Dude, no! Bad idea!" Breda's voice shouted. Jean turned to look up the hall and saw Breda bustling towards him clad in a towel, clearly coming from the showers. "It's sad how behind you are sometimes."

"What are you talking about?"

"The tie on the door! That's a warning, bro'. Unless you want to see your roommate getting it on with your best friend I'd suggest you find something else to do for a while other than enter that room."

Jean was silent for a moment, mouth opening then closing and vein now throbbing painfully in his forehead. Breda inched back, suddenly very afraid of the impending explosion.

"WHAT?! NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Jean bellowed. "In OUR room?"

"Jean chill…" Breda tried to break in.

"NO! No, I will not chill." Jean shouted, turning and beginning furious pounding on the door. "ROY MUSTANG YOU RAT BASTARD, GET THE HELL OFF HER AND OPEN THIS DAMNED DOOR, RIGHT NOW!"

"Hey, shut up!" Breda exclaimed, clamping a hand over Jean's mouth. "You don't want to get them in trouble with the hall Nazis or worse expelled, do you?"

"The hell I don't want him expelled!" Jean shouted struggling to get out of Breda's hold and kicking at the door. "Just wait until I tell your grandfather Elizabeth Hawkeye. He'll put you in a convent!"

"Jean, shut the hell up!" Riza snapped, opening the door, grabbing his hand, and pulling him into the room. "What on Earth are you raving about?"

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!" Jean shouted, taking in the fact that she was only wearing Mustang's shirt and her undergarments. Roy, on the other hand, was lounging on his bed shirtless but still wearing his jeans. His belt was thrown carelessly on the floor though and it wasn't doing anything for Jean's rapidly rising blood pressure.

"Are you crazy? Are you out of you mind?" Jean continued shouting. "Are you completely incompetent?"

"Jean." Riza sighed.

"You could get pregnant!" Jean continued, ignoring her.

"Jean." She tried again.

"Your grandfather would kill you. I thought you had more self respect than that."

"Jean!"

"And I swear to God if you two touched my bed…"

"JEAN! Chill out. You're going to give yourself a heart attack." Riza persisted. "Will you please just calm down before you burst a blood vessel?"

"No. No, I will not calm down and I would appreciate it if everyone would stop telling me to, this is not exactly a calm down situation. It's like walking in on my little sister."

"But I'm not your sister and you didn't actually walk in on anything. If you'd take a minute…"

"That's beside the point. I expected better out of you. Everyone kept saying you guys were but I thought you had enough sense not to but just another notch on his wall."

"I have plenty of sense."

"Clearly not!"

"Jean." Roy tried to cut in.

"Shut the fuck up Roy!" Jean bellowed and Riza tossed him a pleading look.

"Right." Roy sighed snapping his mouth shut.

"I'm sorry you don't approve Jean but what I do really isn't your decision." Riza said.

"I know it's not my decision but you could have at least told me yourself instead letting me find out like this. I've been defending your honor all over campus but that was clearly a waste of my time. I thought we were pretty close but, hey, never mind. You're right, I'm not your brother and apparently I'm not your best friend either so I don't care what the hell you do." Jean ranted.

"Jean I wasn't thinking like th…" Riza's protest was cut off.

"Of course you weren't thinking. Obviously you weren't thinking because if you were thinking you'd realize game over, he wins and he can now dump you for the next slut. Congratulations, you're a whore!"

"Jean!" Riza gasped tears evident in the corners of her eyes.

"That was completely uncalled for." Roy cut in, in no way content to keep silent any longer. "I love her."

"Oh shut up Roy. You love them all and they all just fucking love you." Jean sighed, shaking his head in a defeated manner. "You know what, fuck this. Just do what you want. I really don't care anymore. Have a nice life. I hope you're happy with yourself."

"No, Jean, we need to talk about this." Riza said, following him to the door.

"I don't want to talk to you." Jean snapped keeping his face turned away from her to hide the hurt and angry tears. He knew he sounded like a spoiled child just now and he really should have known but the image of his perfect dream girls had just been crushed.

"Where are you going?" Riza begged, trying to keep her own tears from falling. There would clearly be no talking to him tonight but they could work this out once he'd cooled down.

"I don't know. I don't care, just as long as it's away from you and away from HIM!" Jean snapped, having made it back to the elevator. By now a few people had stuck their heads' out to see what all the commotion was. He sent a scowl at all of them and punched the button for the elevator behind him. It was quick in arriving and he was thankful for that. As soon as he hit the ground floor, he started running, with no destination in mind except for away.