Author's Note: The first chapter of this long fic started as a 60-minute writing prompt for FMA_60min ( /fma_60min). When they announced the second prompt for the second week, I decided to continue the story that I started with the first prompt! Each chapter will be the weekly prompt and we will see where the story goes! Each chapter will follow the rule of being written in 60 minutes and will follow the weekly prompt's theme. The first week's prompt/theme is: New Beginning.

New Beginning

Roy heard a knock at the door and without looking up from his paperwork, he uttered out a loud, "Come in!"

The door creaked like fingernails on a chalkboard. I really need to get someone to oil the hinges he thought for the fifth time that day. He was still getting used to his new office. It was spacious, too spacious. Other than his desk and a bookshelf, the room was quite empty and along with the pale gray walls and pale wood floors, it was quite a depressing place to spend most of his day. As he looked up at his visitor, he locked into a gaze with eyes that were as familiar to him as his own. Clear and brown and for a split second showed a vulnerability he had not seen in many years. Her eyes quickly morphed back into a serious stare, eyebrows no longer arched high above them, but forced at a sloping angle, turning her expression to its usual stony facade.

He stood up suddenly causing the chair behind him to fall backward letting out a loud clacking of wood on wood that echoed through the cavernous office.

"Are you okay, General?" Riza asked him, with more sarcastic concern than serious.

"Yes!" he said sharply. He realized his voice sounded unnatural and strange to him. It was about an octave too high and strangely stilted. Why are you making this weird? Calm down! he thought to himself.

He cleared his throat and looked down at his uniform, brushing a bit of dust off his lapel and straightening his coat.

"You're early Major," he said to Riza, finding the normalcy he always felt around her return again. This doesn't have to be weird, see? he reassured himself.

"Yes, General. I'm always early though. I have to admit, I'm quite surprised I seemed to have caught you off guard."

He couldn't help but blush now. He felt it spread across his cheeks, and he hated himself for it. He sighed now, there was no hiding how this whole situation made him feel: Uncomfortable, completely clueless, all his over-confidence escaping him at every corner no matter how hard he desperately tried to find it. He was out of his element and that was a place Roy seldom found himself.

Riza took a few steps into his office and looked around. "Perhaps you can have one of your secretaries purchase some plants or maybe some pictures to make your new office a bit more homey." Riza walked to where she was standing by his desk, her face its usual mask of coolness and competency. She looked at him and waited. He couldn't think of anything to say, and then he realized he was taking too long to think of something to say, and now he realized if he did say something, it would come out awkward and forced and now he wondered why in the world he asked Riza in the first place. He should have left things alone. He was making the whole situation a ridiculous mess.

"Sir?" Riza asked, her voice strained and tired. A tone, admittedly, she took with him quite often.

"Yes, um – Major Hawkeye?" He somehow miraculously managed to form the simple words. He was surprised he didn't screw that up honestly. She had only been a Major for two weeks now. He had stopped himself many times from calling her Lieutenant.

"Shouldn't we go?" she asked him dryly.

"Of course," he said, his voice finally returning to its normal pitch and cadence. Riza turned and started to walk towards the door.

"Wait! Let me get that…." Roy awkwardly sprinted from behind his desk and rushed to the door barely beating Riza there. He pressed his hand against it and stumbled forward almost falling over.

"You okay, sir?"

"Yes…." Roy sighed. "Major. Could you perhaps not call me Sir? That might make things…. A little easier." They started walking down the hall, towards the front entrance.

"Yes. Of course, si-. I mean…." Riza took a very long pause and stopped dead in her tracks. "R-R-" she paused. "I'm sorry, sir. I can't do this."

Roy stopped next to her and looked at her face. He tried to control his expression of disappointment but failed. Riza's keen eyes scanned his face. "No, I didn't mean not going through with this, sir. I meant calling you… by your given name."

Roy looked down at his watch. "It's 'one-eight-oh-oh' hours, Riza." The name spilled from his lips and was like music to his ears. It was strange to form the word and speak her name, but he realized it was a bit like coming home because in his mind when he thought of her, it was always "Riza." Somehow this thought made a part of his courage return along with his confidence. "We're officially off the clock."

She smiled now at him. He wondered if hearing her first name from his mouth made her think in sentimental ways, but then he realized most likely it didn't. She was too serious, logical, and practical for that sort of thing surely. A few of the dozens of reasons he loved her. Adored her. And finally, after several long years, had the courage to ask her out on a date. Over lunch. On a whim. In the cafeteria 5 hours previous.

She nodded at him. They continued down the corridor and out into the chilly evening air. The sun was low and they silently walked to the officers' lot towards Roy's car. It was the first car in the lot. A sign posted at the end of the parking spot read in large yellow letters on a blue sign: General Roy Mustang. Riza strode over to the back door of the car and opened it, standing to the side to let Roy sit so that she could close the door behind him like she had done countless times before. Roy stood still, placed his hands behind his back, and smirked at her. Her face that she had been holding quite rigidly, now softened when her eyes fell on his face. She now smiled back at him. "Old habits die hard, sir."

Roy walked around to the other side of the car and opened the passenger door and stood to the side waiting for her.

Riza cocked an eyebrow at him. "Really, sir?" she asked him.

"Really," he said back to her, his confidence now having fully returned.

She closed the back door and walked over. He held out his hand and smiled at her. This smile felt strange on his face. It wasn't wry or instigative or apologetic. It wasn't even coy. It felt tender and foreign. A look of surprise flashed across Riza's face again and then she forced her stony mask to take its place. This slip-up lasted longer than the one in his office though. Perhaps he could slowly extricate that mask entirely by the end of the night. She placed her gloved hand in his, and as she lowered herself into the seat, she said, "Thank you, Roy." Her face was still serious, but there was something different about her eyes now. They glistened and seemed to lock onto his just a second longer than they usually did before she looked away.

"You're welcome, Riza." The single word sent a shiver of pleasure up his spine. He walked around the back of the car and sat in the driver's seat.

"Um, sir?"

"Roy," he said.

She sighed. "Roy." She made a face as if the word had left a strange taste in her mouth. Hopefully, it wasn't unpleasant he thought.

"Where are you taking me on this…. date?" she asked plainly.

He put the keys into the ignition and then looked at her thoughtfully. "I hadn't really thought of it. I was just trying to get through this awfully awkward part right here."

Riza now grinned, not meeting his eyes, but looking straight ahead. "Of course," she said sounding a lot less smarmy than she usually would under normal circumstances. She was putting forth an effort towards this whole mess and Roy thought it was cute.

"Wait, si – ah – Roy," she said, her eyes quickly meeting his, concern wrinkling her forehead, the corners of her mouth slightly turned down.

"Yes?" he asked as he put the car in reverse.

"When was the last time you drove a car?"

Roy put the car in park now. He looked over at her and gave her an apologetic smile. "I don't really remember…." Without another word they both exited the car, walked around it as if they were playing a game of musical chairs, to switch places. As Riza backed the car out, Roy looked at her and smiled.