Best Kept Secret
Author: MoonStarDutchess
Chapter 52: Not a War
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of FMA and gain no profit from this fiction. However I do own my idea and wrote this fic (obviously), so do not swipe.
Not a War
Maes had a hard time withholding the huge smile as he absorbed the tone that Roy used when he asked about why they were alone in the lounge with the door locked. Despite knowing that they wouldn't do anything wrong in there, especially with him and Riza being so dedicated to other people, Roy was still jealous over the scene he came upon. Maes smirked; it would be a good opportunity to tease Roy a bit.
"Oh…we were just having a little bit of stress relief," Maes said.
Roy's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before narrowing angrily, "What in the hell do you mean stress relief?"
Riza restrained the urge to roll her eyes and let Maes continue to goad Roy. If he honestly thought something was happening between Maes and her, then he deserved the moment of stress.
"I mean we were having a good…fu…functional beneficial conversation," he said. Maes laughed as Roy huffed and folded his arms. Riza hid a chuckle as she carried the tray of mugs to the table next to the coffee urn.
"You know, people could get the wrong idea about you two if they knew you were locked in here alone," Roy said, then walked over to the couch to sit down.
"People know us better than that." She felt a pain in her throat but ignored it in favor of speaking the rest of her sentences, "As do you. I don't appreciate any implications that I would do anything of any such relation with a coworker. Much less a married coworker."
She turned to look over her shoulder at Maes as he took his foot and closed the door to the room. "Now if anyone comes by they'll think there's a threesome going on," Maes joked.
Riza couldn't help but laugh, and then turned back to her task.
"So, what were you two talking about exactly?" Roy questioned, his tone still carrying a bit of jealousy.
"I don't see where that concerns you, Sir," Riza said as she filled the last mug full of coffee.
Roy stood. "I'm the commanding officer. Of course it concerns me when two subordinates are chatting about private matters during work hours."
"Then reprimand us for that, but you aren't at liberty to inquire what went on in the conversation," she said and picked up the tray. 'Are the other's done showering?"
"If not then they have probably drowned," Roy said.
Maes opened the door and then took the tray from the Lieutenant. "I'll take this to the office for you," he said and left the room.
Roy walked over to the door and closed it, causing Riza to raise an eyebrow.
"What were you talking about?" he asked, leaning against the wall.
"Jealous?"
"Yes," he admitted.
Riza was surprised. "Why?"
"Because… I don't know. . ."
"Then we have nothing to talk about." She grabbed some creamer and sugar off the counter and walked to the door. "Let's get to the office."
Roy smirked. "Fine, I won't push for the conversation but you lied about something."
"I did?"
"You said you didn't like the implications of you having relations with a coworker, especially a married one."
"Sir, I'm not feeling well, could you get to the point?"
"You are," he smirked, "You do almost every night. I'm a coworker after all."
"You catch the weirdest things in conversations, you know that? Now could you move so we can get back to the office? I really need some hot coffee."
Roy grinned, wrapped one arm around her waist, and pulled her to him. Her hands moved up quickly so that the creamer and sugar wouldn't be caught between them. He then smirked at her and lowered his lips onto hers.
She sighed and returned the kiss until he pulled away.
"I'll be there in a minute," he said, opening the door.
"Alright, Sir," she said and left the room.
Roy walked over to a chair and sat down, trying to squash a nagging feeling in his stomach. He knew that there was nothing going on between Maes and Riza, so he didn't understand exactly why it bothered him so much that they were in a locked room together. It was a strange tingling feeling in his stomach that made it feel like it was flopping in complete disorder like a fish out of water. It was stupid, he knew it was stupid, but ...he couldn't shake it. He couldn't brush off that something happened that he would not have liked. The strangest thing of all was that Riza was completely relaxed with him and Maes now. Even though she'd been around him all that time during Elecia's birth, various dinners, and so on, she'd always been extremely rigid and proper.
He hadn't realized he'd been thinking for very long until he heard Riza's voice, "Sir?" He looked at the door and saw his wife standing there looking at him with a concerned look. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," he said, standing and walking toward her. "Are the men in the office?"
"Yes. Everyone is relaxing for now and drinking their coffee. I even managed to get Ed to drink some even though he doesn't care for it."
Roy chuckled. "Alright, let's go."
He started to walk past her but she grabbed his arm before he could. "You know better than to think something like that happened between Lieutenant Colonel Hughes and I, don't you?" Her voice was low, just in case someone might be eavesdropping in some way.
Roy grinned and nodded, the weight on his shoulders feeling a bit lighter upon hearing her speak those words. "I know," he replied, "Now, let's get to the office, Lieutenant."
--
When Roy and Riza walked into the office, everyone turned to them for a moment before returning their attentions back to their coffee and the silence. Roy walked over and sat down at his desk while Riza moved to sit beside Havoc. She picked up her coffee and took a sip, savoring the taste of it in her mouth.
"So now what?" Havoc questioned, breaking the silence of the room.
"I… I need some answers," Edward began, causing everyone to look at him. He tensed slightly but continued. "When you found out Scar was an Ishbalian," he tried to choose his words carefully, "Some of you got strange looks on your faces."
"Strange? What do you mean?" Havoc said.
"Not you," Edward said. "I didn't see the look on anyone in this room except Major Armstrong, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, Mustang and," Ed hesitated, "Lieutenant Hawkeye."
The four people he named shifted slightly and looked down at their coffee.
"Does it have to do with the Ishbalian war?" Ed finally asked after a long pause.
Roy locked his dark gaze onto Edward for a full minute, trying to structure his thoughts. He finally put down his mug and rested his elbows upon his desk. He intertwined his fingers and leaned forward. After waiting another minute, the office dead silent, he nodded. "Yes, Fullmetal, it does."
"It wasn't a war Edward," Riza said, her voice steady, but carrying a tone no one could identify.
Everyone turned their gazes to Riza. "What are you talking about? That's what it's called. The Ishbalian war."
"You've only heard the version that the government wants you to hear," Armstrong said.
"In a war, your enemy tends to put up a strong fight," she said, her voice breaking. It sounded like she was having a hard time because of the topic, but it really had been because her throat felt like sandpaper was rubbing against it. "You don't kill women and children and old men in a war." After finishing her words, she took a sip of her coffee, the warm liquid soothing her throat slightly.
"She's right," Maes said, leaning forward slightly, "It wasn't a war."
"The Ishbalians were a group of people from the East with their own way of life, their own culture, their own religion," Roy said. "They worshipped one god, known as Ishbala. The region had always been at odds with the central government of Amestris because of the religious differences, but it all really came to a head when an army officer shot an Ishbalian child by accident. After that, a chaotic civil war started. It started in the main city and then spread riot by riot through the entire east area. After several years of fighting, the army brought forth a new tactic in hopes of ending it. They brought the state alchemists in, at first for skirmishes, then for an all out genocide campaign."
"But Lieutenant Colonel Hughes and Lieutenant Hawkeye aren't alchemists," Al said.
"No, we aren't," Maes said. "Like the colonel said, the army had been fighting for years before they brought in the state alchemists to try and quell things."
"So you and Lieutenant Hawkeye were brought in before the alchemists were?"
"No," Riza said. "I arrived a bit later than the Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel. I was still in academy when they decided to send me there." She took another sip of her drink as another pain shot through her throat.
"You see Edward…" Roy sighed, "I don't really know why this matters." He was having a difficult time speaking about his past."
"Please, it's important," Al said.
Riza felt uneasy as she saw Roy run a hand through his hair, a sign he was stressed.
"I can't speak for the Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel," Riza began, "but I can't tell you about my experience."
"Hawkeye, you…" Roy trailed off, unsure of how to continue. He was extremely shocked that she was going to talk about her actions in the desert.
"The snipers were ordered to kill everything that moved if it wasn't an ally," she said. "I pulled the trigger on," she swallowed another drink of coffee, "anything that I was told was the enemy."
Maes stared at Riza, knowing how hard it was for her to reveal her actions to everyone in the room. "I worked for intelligence and personnel Edward," Maes said, "but that didn't stop them from sending me out to kill. If you were out there, no matter what you were, you had to be prepared to kill or be killed. You had to dirty your hands to survive."
Roy nodded. "After a while, they saw how good a combination of snipers, foot soldiers, and alchemists were, organized us into groups, and we annihilated the Ishbalians. That's why there is a certain demented sense of justice that one of the very last Ishbalians would want revenge on us."
"That's not justice," Edward said. "Whatever happened then is in the past. No matter what he does nothing will change it. He's involving innocent people for the sake of his revenge and candy coating it by acting self-righteous. Calling himself an instrument of god when really, he's no better than what you gu..." he trailed off when he realized what he was about to say.
"He's no better than what we are Edward. Go ahead. The four of us are under no allusion that we aren't murderers," Riza said, her voice fading out a bit. She lifted her hand to her throat and rubbed it. Everyone turned to look at her, concern etched on their faces. "I'm fine," she assured them.
"That's not what I meant. You couldn't help what you were forced to do."
"We're talking about a man who hates alchemy but uses that very same power to get revenge. Who we are very much alike, I loath to admit. Scar is totally insane and doesn't care what other people think about him. He's one of the most dangerous types of people. Frankly, he scares me," Maes said.
Roy sighed and Riza looked at him with concern. He stared at her for a moment, regrets of the past transiting through their gazes to each other. Finally, Roy tore his regard away from her and leaned his chin against his fist, closing his eyes. "We can't care what people think about us now either. We can't afford to die yet. That means next time we'll be just as ruthless as he's being." Roy's eyes suddenly opened and carried the look of determination within their depths. "We'll kill him the next time we meet him. Without hesitation."
Ed looked down at his lap, unused to hearing Mustang speak something so...dark.
Hughes heaved a huge sigh and stood. "Okay, on that wonderful happiness filled note, that's enough of this conversation." He bent rearward a bit and popped his back before walking over to stand in front of Ed. "So what are you going to do now?"
Ed looked up at him in surprise. "Well...I need to fix Al's body but I can't do that with just one arm."
Armstrong suddenly sprung up from his seat causing everyone, except Riza, to jump slightly. He began flexing his muscles, his coat falling off his shoulders, revealing that he was still bare-chested. "Creation follows destruction! I shall fix him up, nice and pretty!" he boomed.
"No thank you! I'm good!" Al said, obviously panicked. "It's relaxing being in parts sometimes!"
"Bonding soul to steel is not an easy task. Only Fullmetal can fix him right now. Go ahead and ask him."
"That's right," Ed said, "It's my burden. I'm the only one that knows how to bind his soul to the armor. But before I do anything, I need to get my other arm back."
Riza tilted her head to the side and lifted a hand to her chin. "Well this is an interesting situation. If the great Edward can't use his alchemy then he's just a..."
"Little brat with a grumpy ass attitude who swears a lot," Havoc provided and Riza nodded.
"An arrogant pipsqueak," Maes said, earning another nod from Riza.
"Useless, just useless." Roy commented. Riza withheld the urge to tease Roy that he was also useless at times, and had been that very day. However, she felt it would be better to rest her voice as much as possible.
"Sorry brother, I really don't know how to follow up on those comments. They pretty much hit the nail on the head," Al said.
Ed shot up from his chair and yelled, "You all are picking on me. Stop it!" He then sat back down roughly. "Anyway, I'm going to take some leave now and head back to my mechanic. Ed stared at Mustang. "You know the one, don't you?"
Riza tensed at the slight glare that Ed was giving Roy.
"How could I forget. You were sitting there in a wheelchair, with that same stump of an arm you have at this moment, resisting the urge to cry, Oh I'm going to pee my pants!" he said.
Riza stared at him oddly, her mouth formed into a small O. She knew that it was nothing like that and wondered if Roy's stress had caused him to display the random line of idiocy that he was spewing.
"You are probably going to need some protection," Maes said. "That's quite a trip. I would volunteer but since I'm part of the Fuehrer's escort, and we don't know when he's going to leave Eastern headquarters, I can't go."
"They just put me back in charge of East Headquarters so I've got to look after this place."
"And I can't go. I have to look after the Colonel." Riza said.
"You could send me but I don't know how much help I'd be against a fanatical alchemist serial killer," Havoc said, nonchalantly.
"Same goes for me!" the other men said.
"That settles it," Armstrong said with a twinkle in his eye. "Send me. I shall protect the boys on their quest for repairs and investigation!"
"Wait! We don't need an escort!"
"Really Edward, use common sense. What are you going to do if Scar shows up to attack you and you are missing that arm? Of course you are going to have a guard assigned to you. If not you'd be completely defenseless," Riza remarked. She used a lower tone to speak, and it felt much better than her normal speaking volume.
"Can't fight and you can't carry Al to safety either," Havoc said.
Al rubbed the back of his head and laughed nervously.
"So it's decided!" Armstrong said, and zoomed toward Edward, their faces now about four inches apart. "You boys should listen to your elders!"
"Don't treat me like a kid! Al say something!"
Tears began streaming down Al's metal cheeks in curly waves of water. "This is the first time someone has called me a kid since I've been a suit of armor! Thank you!"
Ed nearly fell over at his brother's slight betrayal. "But...but..." Ed stammered.
"You know, if you still plan on making a fuss I could have you court-martialed for disobeying orders," Roy said, a devious look crossing his face.
"What! You dirty..."
"Now that we have everything settled time to pack up!" Armstrong picked up Al and walked out of the room. Edward stood, glared at Roy and left the room as well, mumbling to himself as he did so.
"I think I'll see them off later," Maes said.
"Give them a message," Roy said. "Tell him not to die on my watch. The brat is enough of a pain without all the paperwork."
Riza stood. "Sir, that's an inappropriate message," she said, trying to hold in a chuckle at his wording of said message.
Roy shrugged.
She gathered the empty mugs in the room and sat them on the tray. "I'm going to," she swallowed painfully and cringed, "take these back to the lounge," she said. The room spun slightly and she reasoned it was because she stood up so quickly.
"You okay?" Roy questioned.
"Yes Sir. I'm fine," she said. She picked up the tray and left the room.
Maes gave his signature nonchalant salute. "I'll relay your message to Ed," he said and left as well.
---
Maes walked quickly so that he could catch up with Riza, who was already a distance away. "Are Roy and Ed always like that?" he asked when he arrived at her side.
"You mean Edward and the colo...nel's ban...tering? Yeah, pretty much. It's like the collision of two stubbo…people." She cursed as her voice broke at different parts of her sentence.
Maes stared at her. "Your voice is getting bad too," he said, "I noticed that in the office when we were talking about Ishbal. Maybe you should go to the infirmary and get checked out."
"I'll be fine sir."
"Alright, I'm sure if it gets any worse Roy will order you to go," Maes said.
"Edward and the Colonel are a lot of alike," she said, continuing the conversation before Maes mentioned her condition. She lowered her voice this time so that her throat would hurt less and so her speaking wouldn't crack in intervals. "That means you should expect Edward to give you a colorful response if you give him that message from the Colonel."
Maes shoved his hands in his pockets and whistled a long steady sound. "I was going to tone down the smart ass in Roy's comment but now I think I'll give it to Ed full force. Just to see the reaction."
Riza nodded. "You'll see the similarities then."
Maes laughed and turned down the hall, "Talk to you later Lieutenant," he said.
"Yes Sir," she replied and watched as he walked down the hallway and out the door.
"No wonder he and Roy are such good friends," she mumbled and turned down the left hallway.
She made her way into the lounge and over to the countertop. She sat the tray down beside the sink, and grabbed the top trying to catch her breathing. It seemed like whatever illness she had was coming upon her vigorously. A small walk from the office to the lounge shouldn't have tired her out that much. She closed her eyes to relieve the burning for a moment until she finally caught her breath. Finally, she straightened her posture and then put the plug in the sink, intending to wash the mugs on the tray. She hated the thought of leaving dirty mugs sitting there when it was so easy to clean them and she had time. She turned on the water and placed the mugs in the sink.
She'd just removed her jacket and sat it on the counter when a familiar voice spoke. "Ah, Lieutenant Hawkeye, I wasn't expecting you here."
She turned toward the door and resisted the urge to narrow her eyes at the man standing there. Instead, she sprung into a salute.
"General Hakuro, Sir," she said with her normal voice. She pleaded mentally for her vocals not to break as she spoke to him.
"Has Mustang relegated your duties to that of a common secretary? Or would it be a maid, I don't see much of a difference if you really want to look at it."
She mustered up all the strength she had within her to keep from shooting Hakuro. Why was it that every male General she'd come across, other than her grandfather, were such pricks. Hakuro was a lesser prick than the late General Grand was, but he was now the front-runner in the category of biggest asshole in the military.
"It's good I suppose, that's really the only job a woman should do in the military."
Riza started to say something, even if it would get her reprimanded, but someone interrupted her.
"Now don't be jealous that you didn't find her as an aid first," the Fuehrer said, walking into the room.
Hakuro snapped into a formal salute, his body stiffening as if it had been treated with starch.
"At ease Lieutenant Hawkeye," the fuehrer said, and then turned to Hakuro. Riza lowered her arm and relaxed. "Lieutenant Hawkeye has been a valuable asset in the military for quite a while. During Ishbal, she was the first sniper to hit five hundred kills and she's certified in the use of every firearm the military uses. She's a marvelous soldier and does exactly as she's told," he emphasized the exactly in his sentence, the mere action sending dread through her body. "She has a spotless record and I suggest you recognize that and treat her properly."
"Yes, Sir."
"Now, apologize to the Lieutenant," he said, stepping out of the way so that Hakuro could see her.
"I am sorry for my rude comment Lieutenant Hawkeye."
"Do you accept that Lieutenant?" the fuehrer questioned.
"Yes Sir, apology accepted," she said.
The Fuehrer turned back to Hakuro once again. "I believe your office has to prepare to leave. I suggest you oversee that yourself."
"Yes Sir," Hakuro said and exited the room, leaving the fuehrer and Riza alone. Riza never thought she'd be so sorry to see the rude general leave. The room seemed like it grew a few degrees colder when it was just her and Bradley there. He glanced at her, the right side of his mouth quirking upward in a condescending grin. "Keep up the good work," he said, and left the room.
She shuttered and, for a second time, felt utterly filthy. He'd commended her killing, made Hakuro apologize, and once again, praised her work. There was something about the man that felt off; that felt so wrong on a genetic, human level. She went back to washing the mugs. Her eyes widened and she cursed when she saw that the water had overrun the sink, spilling down the wooden doors of the cabinet, and running onto the linoleum floors. She removed her jacket and sat it on the countertop away from the sink before reaching in and pulling the drain from the sink, releasing the cold water.
She grabbed a mop from the closet and began cleaning up, feeling more like a janitor than an officer. However, she made the mess and she wouldn't feel right if she left it there for the cleaning staff. She didn't understand why she was being so absent minded. Normally she would have turned off the water before jumping into her salute. Suddenly, she grew angry; Hakuro should have noticed that she had the water running. He probably got a good laugh at her expense and was probably laughing at this moment at her. If he wasn't cursing her that is. It wasn't lost on anyone how much Hakuro sucked up to the fuehrer in hopes of taking over someday. Riza bent over to ring out the mop and her world spun.
She tried to straighten but she couldn't find the strength. She felt herself fall into a pair of arms just as she began to topple over. She didn't recognize the smell of the person that caught her but the voice scared her. The fuehrer had returned for some reason. He was the one holding her...and she couldn't find the strength to pull away as she lost consciousness.
AN: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are much appreciated so please drop one if you have time. ^_^
