It's been forever, I know. Writer's block. College. Yeah. XD I'm not discontinuing this or anything! I'll still be writing, but it'll be slower. :(
-OMG I JUST NOTICED. August 2 (which is today), was the same day I first started this one-shot collection! Yay~ it's my anniversary for this now. *confetti* XD

Set post-manga/Brotherhood. Spoilers if you squint… xD

Special thanks to overtlycovert, for helping me edit this. :) –and I suggest that you guys go check out her fics! Really nice. :) [GLEE! *hearts*]

Now, on to the story! :D

Fortune Cookies

"Disbelief destroys the magic."

I don't know if I'm simply being mocked, or if I should really start believing in these things. Fortune cookies, seriously? They're just random messages inside oddly-shaped (but surprisingly tasty) cookies. Who believes in these things anyway? It's not like the whole universe conspired to send that message to you, right?

"Ha! Look at this, chief! 'Now is the time to go and pursue your love interest!'" Havoc exclaimed, reading out his fortune happily. "This is great! Now I've finally made up my mind—today, I'll definitely ask Melissa to be my girlfriend!" Oh, so that's what's been bothering him lately.

"Good luck with that, Havoc." Hawkeye chuckled as she cracked open her own fortune cookie. She read it silently; a smile crept up to her lips. "Hmm. True. Makes sense," she mumbled as she nodded, mostly to herself. She must've seen the curiosity in our expressions because she laid down the strip of paper onto the table for me and Havoc to see.

"In order to take, one must first give." How original.

What kind of fortune is that? It's just the Law of Equivalent Exchange! I don't see anything prophetic about it. It doesn't even sound like advice or anything. It's just… the Law of Equivalent Exchange. They must've run out of fortunes, I suppose. Now see, that's one more reason why I don't believe in all this fortune-telling rubbish.

"Mushbe fo alchemish o shumtin," Havoc commented as he munched on a pork bun. "Must be for alchemists or something," he repeated after swallowing the piece of bread, this time a lot clearer. "Or, it could be reminding you that-that you can't get something out of nothing!" Havoc said as he took another bite into his char siu bao. (That's Xingese for pork bun.) Hawkeye merely smiled at the Second Lieutenant's attempts to interpret her fortune. "Oh! Maybe, itch youshing Hawkeye ash an inshtument to tell the General—" He swallowed again. "—that he should never forget Equivalent Exchange!"

"I've learned that much by now, thank you," I said to no one in particular. "You're really taking these things seriously, eh, Havoc?" I joked.

"Not that seriously. But there's no harm in believing in it either, right? Besides, disbelief destroys the magic." Havoc grinned.

But how can you believe in something that you can't even prove? With no concrete evidence? No scientific explanation? Even the homunculi, who we initially refused to believe existed, had an alchemic reasoning behind them. What about these fortunes, then?—I was about to ask, but I chose to keep silent as the door from the back of the small bakery opened, and in came a short, old Xingese man—the owner of the bakery, if I'm not mistaken.

"Hello," he called to us, the only customers at this hour, as he made his way towards our table. The bakery wasn't that spacious and could only fit two small tables inside, what with the large displays of almost every kind of Xingese pastry and confection you could imagine. "Enjoying your food?" he asked in his distinct accent.

"Yes, yes!" Havoc nodded eagerly, holding out his second pork bun as proof. The old man smiled behind his long gray beard. He was holding a deck of cards. Noticing this, Havoc asked, most likely out of curiosity and plain impulse more than anything else, "Playing cards?"

The old man shook his head lightly. The smile was still on his face. "No. These reading cards." He carefully sat down on one of the chairs at the next table. He then turned to Hawkeye. "I think there are things you want to know? Want to have your fortune told? I can read the cards for you, if you like," he offered kindly. I knew Hawkeye wasn't the type to believe in those things, so of course, I knew she was going to decline. Kindly, of course.

"Well," she hesitated, "All right." Well, I was wrong, then.

She finished off the last piece of her moon cake before moving to the next table to sit with the old Xingese man. Hawkeye didn't seem all that enthusiastic about it, but she appeared to be interested anyway. I guess it was more of curiosity that got her.

The old man asked her several questions first, like if there was someone she had feelings for (I both wanted to and did not want to know the answer), and I assume she must've nodded (I wasn't looking; instead I just focused on eating one of the moon cakes that were left). He then asked her to 'knock' on the deck of cards as many times as the letters of the name of that person. (I didn't hear the knocking though.) Then he asked her to divide the deck in half and to think of that person while he shuffled the cards. And then there was a long sequence of grouping the cards then choosing a set to open and then grouping and choosing and grouping and choosing—oh, and eliminating some cards in between—until there were only a few cards left. Then the old man proceeded to arrange them. Havoc was watching—and smiling—the whole time.

"Hmm… he likes you," he said happily. "Yes, he likes you a lot. Oh, and you like him too—the feeling is mutual." There was silence. "See, this Queen of Hearts is you. And the King of Spades is him. This is his heart—" I assume he was pointing to the Ace of Spades, "—and this is yours—" then to the Ace of Hearts, "King, Queen, and Hearts all have good positions here, but look at these other cards—they are the hindrances...You two both stubborn. You get along, but you two stubborn. And then… this other card, King also, is a hindrance. You like another person?" Hawkeye paused, perhaps to think, then shook her head. "Ah, then this one is authority. Or something with great power over you two. Maybe… a law or rule?" He took a quick glance at my direction. "Anyway, that the biggest obstacle." And then there was silence again. "Oh, but don't worry; he loves you anyway. You know what they say: love conquers all. Anyway, obstacles there to be overcome."

"Ah! I want to have my fortune read too!" Havoc said as Hawkeye muttered a word of thanks. Hawkeye vacated her seat and returned to our table, as Havoc sat in front of the old man.

"Quite intriguing, wasn't it?" she said. 'Yeah, it really is,' I wanted to say. And then, 'Who is the King of Spades?' I wanted to ask. I honestly feel quite jealous of this King of Spades. Who could he be? "Do you want yours read too, sir?" Hawkeye asked, smiling.

I no longer had the chance to reply as Havoc's voice echoed throughout the small bakery. "What? No way! Not again!" he cried as the old man interpreted his cards. It seemed that he was going to have the same fate with Melissa too—someone's going to hinder the girl from fully loving Havoc the way he does. Poor guy. That's one of the reasons why I don't want to have my fortune read—in case it turns out worse, if it were even possible.

We left the bakery with Havoc complaining about how contradicting his fortunes were. The cookie encouraged him to pursue the girl, but the cards tell him it won't work out. Hawkeye tried to comfort him, but it was no use. Again, another reason I don't believe in these fortune things—they never seem to be consistent.

Disbelief destroys the magic. It's mocking me. It's telling me off. Ah, screw it.

"You go on ahead," I said to Hawkeye and Havoc, "I think I forgot something." Hawkeye looked at me with concerned, questioning eyes, but followed my words at once. I watched the two as they walked away. It was only when they had rounded the corner and disappeared from my sight that I decided to go back into the bakery again.

"You forgot something?" The old man, still seated at the table where we left him, asked. "Sit down, sit down," he then prompted, almost as if he knew what it was that I've 'forgotten'. I followed, although a bit hesitantly. And then he asked the same things he asked Hawkeye.

"Ohh," he mused, his smile wide. "You two… have same cards. Ah, so it's very much a mutual feeling then. As what I said, there are obstacles. But only to be overcome. Not going to hinder you for too long. Many people, I think, want to see you happy, and together. But now is not the time yet. Too early. You still a Brigadier General. Still a lot for you—and her—to do. This is one obstacle, but we both know it is easily overcome." We sat in silence for a few moments until the old man gathered up his cards and stood up, staggering a bit.

I muttered a 'thank you', and he nodded in acknowledgement, slowly making his way to the front door to see me off. As I put on my military coat and bid him goodbye, he placed his hand on my shoulder and said, "You've known each other for so long, yes? You have her heart—it'll take another man years to be able to take that away from you. So don't worry; don't feel bad if it's not now. Every flower blooms at its own sweet time." He patted my back and smiled encouragingly. His words lost the strange Xingese phrasing and his tone seemed to have lost its distinct twang. He was talking to me, and I understood it fully.

How he was able to say I had her heart or how he even knew how long we've known each other is beyond me, but I think… I think I'm having a slight change of mind about all this.

xxx

Days later, a package arrived in the office. The box was marked with several Xingese characters and letters. I understood nothing save for the words "Handle with care!" scrawled on the top (Fullmetal's hand writing, no doubt), and a tag saying it was from Edward and Alphonse Elric. They had probably gone to Xing to visit the young Emperor from the Yao clan.

The box contained a couple sets of china (plates and cups and other porcelain tableware—there was even a tea set for the office, aptly labelled: "for General Mustang's team"), and lots of Xingese delicacies—including a box of fortune cookies.

Hawkeye and I cracked our cookies open, paused to read our fortunes, then—"It's a shame you don't believe in these fortunes, sir," she joked.

I glanced down at her fortune, and then to mine; they bore the same message. "If I were you, I'd eat the cookie, Hawkeye. Or else the fortune won't come true." I smiled, eating my own cookie. These things are starting to make more sense now, that I think I'm going to start believing in these fortunes, even just a bit. There's no harm in believing in it, anyway. And besides, we will still be the ones to write our own, true, fortunes in the end.

"Stop searching forever; happiness is just next to you!"

Fin. As always, I'm saying this is weird. A little OOC. I'm getting rusty. XD Care to prove me wrong? HAHA.

Anyway. Here's the real reason why Roy changed his mind about fortune cookies/fortune telling:
(NOTE: this is an omake. Don't believe it. –but… 'Don't stop! Believing! Hold on to that fee~ling!' er… because "disbelief destroys the magic". HAHA. *is shot*)

Ever since the card reading, Roy has frequented the Xingese bakery. He'd usually just go to get a moon cake or two, sometimes a pork bun, but only for the sake of the fortune cookie that would come (for free) with it. One day, he opened his fortune cookie and the message read: "You are next in line for promotion in your firm." Well, he doesn't work in a firm—technically it's an institution, an organization, even public office—but being next in line for promotion? That's another thing. And just as he finished eating the cookie, a letter from Fuhrer Grumman arrived, requesting for his presence in Central Command the next day. And what do you know, Brigadier General Mustang just got promoted to Major General. (And while the Mustang-tachi celebrated, Olivier Armstrong wasn't too happy about the rank-climbing Flame Alchemist being on the same level as her now.)

I just wanted to write that. 8D