"you said his name is..black Hayate, right?"
"yes, but everyone just calls him, Hayate"
"ok! does he like magic?"
"I don't know, you can show him a tiny bit."
"ok!"
"Hayate...! I'm back. come here, boy."
"BAR! BAR!" Hayate barked happily, running over to Riza, then sat in front of her, wagging his tail.
Shippo cocked his head to the side in confusion. "say that again" he said.
"BAR!" Hayate barked, standing up.
"I thought that's what you said..."
"you...understand him?"
"yeah, of course I do!" Shippo smiled, hopping down from Riza's shoulder to the floor, he put his palm on Hayate's head, and scratched just behind his ear, "that better?"
"bar!" Hayate gave a short happy bark moments later.
"his ear was itchy, and he couldn't quite reach it."
"does he like it here?"
"BAR! BAR!" Hayate hopped up and down for a moment.
"mhm, he loves it! he says, "yeah! I love you, mama, Hawkeye"."
Riza gasped for a moment. Hayate knew her military name! she smiled softly, and picked the dog up. "oh, Hayate. you're so smart!" that's when she had an idea. she smirked, "Shippo, you can understand him just as well as you can understand me, right?"
"yeah!"
"ok, I've wanted to know something for a long time." she looked at her dog, "Hayate, does Roy feed you his food when I'm not looking?"
"... bar. ruff." the dog barked
"he says, yeah, a lot"
"oh, I knew it, I KNEW it. hey, Shippo. can you understand ALL animals? or just dogs?" Riza shook her head.
"I knew a cat demon named Kirara before Lord Sesshomaru brought me here." Shippo smiled
"I'm going to enjoy having you around, Shippo. it'll be nice to be able to keep tabs on Roy when I'm not around"
"you'll have to ask my mama, first"
"of course I will. besides you'd just be Hayate's translator."
"oh! well, then I'm sure my mama wouldn't mind!"
they spent the next few minutes playing with Hayate.
"let's get you back, ok?" Riza said, picking Shippo up.
"ok! I like you, you're a nice lady!"
"yeah?"
"yeah, and Hayate likes you too!" he beamed as he let Riza carry him back to the infirmary.
"...really?"
"yeah! right before we left, he told me, tell mama I said I love her"
"oh, Hayate..." Riza sighed, she didn't think her dog loved her THAT much.
they two arrived at the infirmary minutes later.
"-yelling, "WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO SMALL YOU COULD CRUSH LIKE AN ANT?!" heheh, he even once told this, Fletcher kid, "sit down, you're not allowed to be taller than me" HAHAHA." Havok laughed
"really? I didn't know Ed had such a height complex. not that I really noticed a height difference between him and other guys really."
"I'm not short..." Ed grumbled, pulling the miko closer.
"what's going on?"
"hmm? oh, Jean, here is introducing himself."
"you're not trying to hit on her, are you, Lieutenant Havoc?"
"eh? what's with the formality, Riza?"
"because the colonel no doubt within ear shot"
"...why do you have to spoil my fun, Lieutenant?" Roy whined pathetically. "I was spying on Havoc..."
"oh, I'm sorry, Sir! I was just assuming you were nearby" she laughed, "but you're in trouble."
"trouble?"
"you've been feeding Hayate when you're not supposed to, Hayate told me himself. of course, I had a little help." Shippo smiled innocently in agreement.
"I like him, he's a nice doggy!" the kit beamed
"huh? why can't I flirt with her?"
"for one thing, she's not available!" Ed glared at Jean, and pulled her against him possessively
"awww, don't tell me you called dibs..." he stared at Ed with a dejected look
"I've always loved Ed. ever since I knew him when we were little" Kagome pressed her palm to Ed's chest and snuggled into his side.
"oh..."
"we can be friends, though! but you can't smoke around Shippo. I don't know how it'll affect him."
"what do you mean?"
"Shippo, could you come here, sweetie?"
"ok! I'm coming, mama!"
"M-mama? you're a mother?"
"adoptive, geez, how many times do I have to explain that?"
"well it'd be more obvious if he knew Shippo isn't human" Ed laughed
"isn't human? what?" Havoc was confused, 'what does he mean, "not human"?'
"I'm a fox demon! do you have alchemy like my papa and uncle?"
"no, Havoc doesn't have alchemy." Ed smirked.
"woah, a fox DEMON?! that's pretty cool. and it does explain why your feet look-."
"my feet?" Shippo sounded confused as he looked at his feet. "is there something wrong with them?"
"nonononono! they're just...NEW! hehe, I've never met a fox demon. I've only seen chimera's"
"what's a chimera?"
"make something up, he'd never recover from learning the truth at his age.." Ed whispered into Kagome's ear.
"it's..."
"it's the kind of demons we have in amestris, but they're not too common, and usually not friendly, so you should probably avoid them if you see them, unless your mama says they're ok." Havok said, covering for the miko.
"oh..! ok! I'll remember that!" Shippo smiled, he hopped onto the floor and began to draw a new picture.
"your break should be over by now, lieutenant." Roy crossed his arms over his chest.
-xxXX**^Lust and Envy^**XXxx-
"Lust? Envy? why are you here? shouldn't you be keeping track of what's going on with that Fullmetal boy?" Father asked, surprised by their sudden visit.
"we've hit a...COMPLICATION, you might call it." Lust said, folding her arms
"yeah, I'll say! that miko bitch burned my hands days ago and look at them! they took until this morning to heal!" Envy growled, holding up his pink-ish, and slightly tender, hands
Father's eyes widened and he leaned forward in his chair. "why do you have such scars?"
"she's a miko, Father. she had a barrier up around her and Fullmetal. when Envy attempted to seperate the two, you can see what happened to his right hand, then he got angry and tried to punch Fullmetal, which is why his left is much more damaged. furthermore, Wrath told us she only sleeps when she's in his arms, so it'll be difficult to get her without raising alarm."
"hmm, tell me more of this barrier..." he leaned forward in his chair.
"it was selective. as you can see I am unharmed while Envy is hurt." Lust slipped off her gloves for a few moments to show she was completely unharmed
"damn wench is gonna pay for burning me"
"it's not only that. first off, Envy only tried to grab her, and she, obviously, had no intention of going anywhere with us, so the barrier burned Envy. then he got mad and tried to punch Fullmetal with his other hand, and as a result got burned even worse." Lust took a step forward then continued, "afterwards, I tried to see if it would harm me if I tried to be nice, I gave her a pat on the head, and told her I enjoyed meeting her."
"hmm, was the boy inside the barrier during all this?"
"yes," Lust nodded
"and was he not hurt?"
"not even when he got mad at Envy for calling him short."
"this is quite interesting...first things first, Envy. come here, let me heal your hands, I can't have you hurt on the job."
"yeah, sure." Envy walked up, and held out his bandaged hands.
Father stuck out his arm over them, and concentrated for a moment, red bolts come from his palm and danced around the homunculus's hands. completely healing his hands.
"the hell? how'd you heal me when my own stone couldn't?!"
"hmm, bring me this miko at once, I don't care how you do it, but I want her here, ALIVE." Father snarled, slamming his fist against the arm rest of his chair. "she must have done something with that, "barrier" of hers."
"yes, of course." Lust nodded. she and Envy left.
"see? my stone won't heal 'em either!" Envy scowled, "at least the burns don't hurt too bad right now. makes disguising myself a pain in the ass, though."
"bring me this miko at once, I don't care how you do it, but I want her here, ALIVE."
"yes, of course." Lust nodded. she and Envy left.
"I hate that little bitch so much, I can't wait to rough her up. if I'm lucky I'll get to kill her at some point!" Envy growled
"just be careful of that barrier she has." Father called out as lust and envy left.
"hey, do you think she could...you know, run out of energy?"
"...-that's an idea worth testing, Envy!" Lust smirked. "let's report back to Wrath and go from there."
"what bugs me is I thought our stones made us immortal!"
"perhaps even a philosopher's stone has a weakness..."
"I guess..!" Envy grumbled, rolling his eyes. and shrugging in irritation
"just think about how devastated Fullmetal will be when we get her."
"ohhh! yeah-hah!" Envy laughed, he loved to harass that short-tempered Elric boy.