Night-Childe: Deep down Ed doesn't mind I'm sure.
Viskii: You make me laugh, that was funny.
Paon: I'll start sending you muffins or something as well.
Phoenix: Yay! Cake! -runs off with it-
GreedxEd: Al will be amusing, that's for sure. At least he's amusing to me.
anmb: More food! -tackles it- That sounds scary, getting lost in DC. I'm glad you found your way.
Kia: Lurkers get the duct tape treatment. I'll have to find where I put it. Ehm the lemon... which one? Fruit or the other thing? Hehehe, I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
Anime-Luver: Even if the scorpions do hold a grudge they can't do anything about it.
Shikon: I catch them so they don't wander around free and sting me. I freeze them to kill them.
mrawgirl: Oooo a cookie! And the scorpions, once they're dead, are now being sent to my brothers science teacher. He collects weird stuff like that. He has a frozen dead bearded dragon in his freezer at the classroom.
Eli: You want Al to kill Roy? XD
Unfortunately: No I haven't, though I'm glad you're enjoying them. And enjoying the fluff.
Well seems the site finally decided to cooperate with me -glares at it-.
Chapter Thirty Six
Roy was sitting at his old desk, in his new office, with everything looking exactly the same as always. The mess Edward had caused had been cleaned up. Yes, everything was in its place, including the couch where the blond haired alchemist in question resided in the realm of dreams.
Things hadn't actually been as crazy as he'd expected them to be. He knew it was mostly thanks to Hawkeye and the others. They'd been delegating like crazy, and thus freeing up his schedule from fruitless talks. So far he hadn't received any challenges to his claim, and he doubted there would be any. He truly held the winning hand.
"Here's some more papers." Riza said as she entered the office.
"Oh goody." Roy rolled his eyes, and looked at them as she set the stack before him. He picked up the first one, and looked up at her in disbelief. "Paperwork allowing for someone else to get paperwork? Are you kidding me?"
"No, sir." She smirked. "Welcome to the world of being in charge."
He gave her a withering look before seizing a pen. "Very well."
As he looked at the papers he inwardly sighed, and blinked his eyes hard. He could read them fine, but with his eyes as advanced as they were the letters were tiny but readable, and it made his mind hurt. Perhaps he should look for something that would be the reverse of a magnifying glass and start using that in private. He'd need to ask Edward if it was possible.
"Sir," Hawkeye said hesitantly from where she still stood, "could I ask you something?"
"You'll find you can." Roy said, still reading through the paper in front of him.
She glanced over at Ed, before looking back and releasing the lip she was biting. "Are you serious about him?"
Roy set the pen down, and looked up at her as he released a slow breath. "Serious about Edward?"
"Yes." She said, and continued on before he could respond. "I just know how you are with people you date. And Edward's just not someone you can dump at the end of the week because a newer model came out. I don't want to see him get hurt."
"I love him, Riza." Roy said softly. He could not fault her for being concerned. But his past was his past. He was living a new life now, he had a chance to change. He'd taken it. But Riza could not know right now just how serious things were between he and Edward. He could not leave Edward, he'd never want to. This was forever, and he was fine with that. He liked the feeling of knowing where his love life was heading. "It actually causes me pain to think of being with anyone else. Physical pain."
Which was true.
Before he'd known all of this wolf mating stuff that Edward had so spectacularly forced him to read before agreeing to be his mate, he hadn't been able to stomach the idea of dating. The thought of it made him feel ill. He still clearly remembered that. Even now just thinking about it made him feel nauseous, and his chest clench.
She looked at him curiously, "so you're serious about him?"
"More serious than I've ever been about anything before in my life." Roy replied without hesitation. "Even this," and he waved his hand around to indicate the Fuhrer's office, the office he now resided in.
"Does he know?" Riza asked, looking over to where Edward still slept. "He knows how you usually are. Does he know how much you care?"
Well, he had better. After all, you'd think that by the time you were technically half married to someone you'd know that there was undying devotion and love. Especially in his case. He was bound to the human for life, even if Edward left him. Something he knew would never happen, but was still a very real possibility.
"I'm going to be telling him, and showing him how much I care for the rest of our lives." Roy said quietly as he watched Edward with a loving gaze.
Riza smiled, looking pleased with his answer. "I'm happy for him, you know. You too of course," she added quickly, "I want him to be happy. He never really has been the sort of person you'd think would be able to find someone who was right for him."
"And am I right for him?" Roy asked her with a small smile.
"From what I've seen, yes. I just wanted to be sure that person knew it too." She said and gave him a warm smile. "Is there anything you need before I go back to work?"
Roy looked over to where Ed lay, and slowly nodded. "A train ticket to Risembool, leaving tomorrow."
"Ed's going home for a while?" Riza asked with a slight frown.
"No, Ed's staying here. I'm going to Risembool." Roy explained, his eyes not moving from Edward. "There's something I need to do there for the both of us, and I need to do it alone."
"Are you going to tell me what it is?"
"No." Roy said honestly and turned back to his papers. "That's all I need."
Riza nodded, and left the office. Upon closing the door she hurried over to where Falman was checking off things in a notebook. "Never mind that, move everything up to today."
"Today?" Falman gaped at her. "Why? It's pushing it as it is to have everything prepared."
Riza put a hand to her head, "Armstrong's an alchemist, have him lend a hand."
"That could be fatal." Falman pointed out dryly.
"We have no choice, he's leaving tomorrow for Risembool." Riza said, "we have-" she looked at the clock, "-three hours until he goes down for lunch. We need to get moving."
Falman nodded, foregoing complaining. Little good it would do but waste precious time. "I'll start making phone calls then." He said as he grabbed for the phone.
Hawkeye nodded, "I'm going to go find everyone else and get people moving. He shouldn't be coming out before he wants to go to lunch, but if he does, for the love of my sanity please stall him."
"I'll think of something." He assured her before turning to his phone call. "Yes, about the flowers-"
Riza spun on her heel and dashed away frantically.
She ran down the hallways until she found one of the men she was looking for, "Breda, emergency." She panted as she attempted to catch her breath.
"What's wrong?" Breda asked, looking unsure of whether or not to offer the panting Lieutenant an inhaler.
"Mustang's party has to be pushed to this afternoon."
"What?" Another officer who Breda had been talking to gasped, "but that's-"
"Three hours away, I know." She said and groaned, "so can you start getting your committee going on whatever they were in charge with?"
Breda nodded, "I'm on it. I think I know where Fuery is, so I'll tell him too."
"Thanks." She smiled at him.
"And Havoc's in the men's restroom. He should be out soon." Breda said as he hurried away, with the other officer close behind.
Riza would rely on Breda to help spread the word, and she dashed towards the restroom. Briefly she paused outside the door bearing the plaque of 'Men' in big bold letters. "Fuck it." She decided, and quickly entered.
Much to the shock of the men inside it.
"Oh stop trying to hide." She rolled her eyes at them, "I know what they look like. Now where's Jean Havoc?"
"Over in the end stall, ma'am." One of them said in a flustered voice.
"Thank you, and when you're all done here, report to the banquet hall. Wash your hands first though." She said as she marched over to the end stall. "Havoc!"
Jean Havoc had gotten over his shock, "do you mind? What could be so important?!"
She banged on the door, "hurry up! Push damn it, push! Women can give childbirth in less time than it takes you men to have a crap. We have an emergency."
"I happen to think that needing to empty my bowels is an emergency." He retorted.
"Mustang's party has to be moved to this afternoon, and you're in here doing half pushes!" She put her hands on her hips.
He rolled his eyes, and muttered darkly to himself.
"Jean!"
"Okay! You crazy woman, I'm pushing! Now go away so I can squeeze in peace!"
"What the heck are you trying to give birth to? A tree trunk?" She gave the stall door a bewildered look, ignoring the snickers of the men still standing at the urinals or washing their hands.
"Yes! A nice, fat tree trunk with the bark still on. Now go harass the women's restroom across the hall."
"Women know how to push, I don't need to coach them along."
Jean swore under his breath, "crazy woman."
At long last Havoc emerged from the stall looking rather annoyed to find Riza standing there in front of him.
"Good, I'm going to go find Armstrong now." She said, and turned to hurry out of the restroom.
She hurried up and down the halls, mobilizing what staff could be spared to go work on the party set up while she looked for Armstrong. She found him in the downstairs lobby looking as much like a human wall as was ever possible.
"Alex!" She called out as she hurried over.
He turned to her with a smile. "Ah, Lieutenant Hawkeye."
"I need an alchemists help with something. Could you lend me a hand?"
"Of course, I would be delighted to."
"Good." She said, and seized the startled man by his arm and began dragging him away.
Headquarters was a flurry of activity for the next three hours, and Riza bolted back for Roy's office as soon as she knew everything was mere minutes from being done. By now her hair was falling out of her usual clip, but she didn't care.
Meanwhile upstairs Roy and Edward were leaving his office.
"Sir, I was wondering what this is for." Falman called out hurriedly. He hadn't seen Riza back yet, he needed to stall them both.
Roy looked over at the man, "what what is for?" He asked as he walked closer.
"This…" Falman rummaged frantically about in a desk drawer before his hands closed on something. He immediately whipped it up into the air.
Roy blinked, and Edward fell into fits of laughter which he tried to repress. He was failing miserably.
Roy cleared his throat uncomfortably, and gave Falman his most grave look. "Those, Falman," he said seriously, "are condoms."
A squeak of laughter managed to leak through Edward, making Roy crack a smile.
Falman looked quickly at what he had grabbed as his eyes became wide and his face turned pale. "Oh, so they are."
Riza suddenly appeared, panting out of breath and relieved to see that Roy and Edward were still up here. She quickly looked to Falman to give him some kind of silent signal that it was all okay now, when she spotted the box of condoms a shocked Falman was still holding up. "Falman, what are you doing with those?"
He dropped them hurriedly with a blush. "It's Havoc's desk!" He defended quickly.
"Of course it is." Roy grinned at the flustered man before looking at Riza. "Why do you look like you just ran a marathon?"
"That's not important." She said quickly with a wave of her hand. "I need your input on something though, will you follow me?"
"Sure." Roy shrugged, and looked at Edward. "You can go on ahead to the mess hall if you want, I know you're hungry."
"No!" Riza quickly interjected before Ed could answer.
Edward gave her a weird look.
"What I mean is I think Edward's input would be good too."
Roy gave her a frown, "are you feeling okay?"
"Fine." She said and motioned for them to follow her. "Come on."
"Give her more vacation time, she's looking stressed." Edward whispered to Roy.
Roy couldn't help but agree as they followed after her.
"Why here?" Roy asked as they approached the doors to the banquet hall.
Riza did not answer, only pushed the doors open.
"Wow." Edward's mouth dropped just a bit as he saw how the banquet hall had been transformed.
Now it was decorated with balloons and streamers, banners of 'Congratulations' and 'Good Luck'. The food was all so meticulously arranged on the tables that it almost looked too perfect to eat. There were wine bottles floating around, and champagne. Music was floating from one side of the hall, barely able to be heard over the applause.
Edward grinned, it looked as if practically all of Headquarters was here. "Go on." He urged, and gave Roy a push from behind to take him into the room.
Roy entered, immediately being swept up into the festivities. From all around him people were coming to give their respects to him. He made sure he caught everyone's scent for future reference. He knew he'd be able to tell all of these people apart by scent without problems. The shock was quick in wearing off, enough so that he was able to take the microphone offered to him as people called for a speech.
"Did you plan all of this?" Edward asked quietly of Hawkeye while Roy began to speak.
She smiled, and shook her head. "We all did. Very few people are sad that Roy's Fuhrer now, and those that are won't last too long."
"Benedict never had something like this planned for him, he planned it himself."
"That's where the difference lies in those who are just men, and those who are great men." Riza told Edward with a smile, "he's the latter."
Edward smiled back, and turned back to finish listening to Roy's words.
"-I don't want there to be any more losses like that again just because one man is a fool. I won't ever be such a man, not just because I am incapable of being so. But, if you look over there-" Roy pointed at Edward, "-he wouldn't allow it." Which was certainly true enough.
Eventually Roy finished to more applause, and handed over the microphone before going back to Edward's side. "Shall we?"
Edward smiled up at him, and took the offered hand. "Only if they play something a bit faster."
"I think we can arrange that." Roy grinned at him, snagging a flute of champagne as it was toted by and downing it before leading Edward towards where the music was playing.
"One dance, but then we're getting food!" Edward insisted as he allowed Roy to lead him along.
"Fine, but you're dancing at least once with me." Roy said, and made his way through the party goers. He wasn't sure who had arranged this little party, but for now he'd put off finding out in lieu of enjoying himself.