Kamaitachi Chronicles 2
Notes: So anyway, here is chapter two, because I am inspired to do FMA stuff for now… This jumps straight to East Headquarters, since I tried writing some train stuff and it didn't work… Thanks to VeekaIzhanez and Deusluxmea for your reviews! So, let's start chapter Two!
Disclaimer: Ivy Matrons and her story are mine. Rito is property of G. C. Reed. Hanna is property of Kaitlyn Burlingame. The rest of the Fullmetal Alchemist universe belongs to Hiromu Arakawa.
Two
I shifted in my seat, running my hands over the red couch's leather surface. The fact of the matter was after a few days of travel via train, we had finally arrived in East City, and Mustang had oh-so graciously shoved me in the vague direction of his office before running off and saying something about having to check back in to the building since unexpected interruptions (i.e., me) had made him a day late from when he should have returned. Fortunately for me, it was very early in the morning which meant I didn't have too many questioning eyes on me as I fumbled around the halls of Eastern Command.
My savior had been a short man (shorter than me, which I found really weird. It's not like I was tiny, but just the fact that he was older than I was, and the combination seemed very off set…) who appeared to be in his really early twenties with short black hair and large glasses. When I finally stumbled out that I was looking for Lt. Colonel Mustang's office and that I had been redirected to him for some other issue (there was no way I was saying he had told me to go to his office, since that would have seemed really weird), he had said no problem at all. In fact, he even worked for the guy, and was kind enough to warn me his boss might not even be there in the first place. I refrained from mentioning that I knew he would show up eventually and simply followed my escort past more than a few places I had passed in my earlier confusion. The man then introduced himself as Master Sergeant Kain Furey.
Luckily for me, the main work area was abandoned when we got there, and Kain pointed towards one of the doors, telling me it was Mustang's office and I could wait in there if I wanted. So I had opened the door to the room, surveyed its contents, and slumped down on one of the two couches, making myself comfortable. I felt really sorry for Kain. He was such a nice guy, and yet he had to work for the biggest ass (even two days on a train hadn't changed that in my opinion of Mustang, and just might have made it worse…) in Amestris. Then again, it was probably because Kain was so nice that he had been roped into this job in the first place. You had to be a really patient person to handle someone like him.
A half-hour had passed since I had taken a spot on the couch, and I had to admit that I was really comfy. I was getting to the point where I could have fallen asleep if I wanted to, since the train schedule we had been forced to embark on was really irregular. I was way out of my league in that aspect seeing as with my usual life style I would simply wake up and travel as I chose. The only thing keeping me from dozing off was my pure willpower to not be caught in a vulnerable position by Mustang.
After a few minutes of trying to count all the papers that were piled up on the desk in the room (I stopped at 598 because I couldn't take it anymore), the door opened behind me and I turned to look at it. When I noted the person standing there wasn't Mustang, I recoiled back into the couch's armrest, trying to act like I wasn't there. However, the man's face broke out into a wide grin, and I actually started to note his appearance.
Of course, it was another military man, in all his blue-uniformed glory. His hair was also black, except slicked back away from his face with one piece sticking up into the hair. He wore rectangular glasses, and olive green rested behind the lenses. He was striding towards me, hand reaching into his jacket's breast pocket.
"Well, hello, there!" he practically shouted. "I'm First Lieutenant Maes Hughes and this—" a picture was shoved into my face, and I could vaguely make out a smiling dirty blond woman with green eyes and a slightly rounded stomach "—is my wife Gracia! As you can see, she's pregnant right now. Isn't she just incredible? Pretty soon, we're going to have a child. You just now with a mother like that the kid's gonna be perfect. I mean—"
"I'm sorry," I managed to squeeze into the conversation, if you could call it that, "but who the hell are you?"
He looked at me, still gushing over his picture. "I did say so, right?" he asked. "First Lieutenant Maes Hughes, at your service, but you can call me Maes. And you are?"
Something told me I should make up for my rudeness, and I stood up. "My name's Ivy Matrons; it's nice to meet you," I introduced, extending my hand. Maes took it and shook my entire arm vigorously (it took me a while until I could feel it again after that...). I then decided that I would get things over with by answering the obvious question. "Um, I'm here to see the Lt. Colonel. Would you happen to know where he is?"
"Nope, don't have a clue. I thought he might be back by now, but I guess not…" Maes said, making me sigh. "But how bout this? You tell me what you're here for, and I'll see if I can help. Hopefully by the time he gets here you'll be almost done and then you can out of this dreary place. So, what do you need?"
I nodded, even though I figured with Mustang's tendencies, I'd be stuck here until he left. The thought depressed me, so I didn't put it into words. "I'm supposed to be signing up to become a State Alchemist. Do you know if he has the papers for that here or will we have to go somewhere else…?" I looked back to the desk and realized that even if he did have it we'd probably have to go someplace else anyway.
"Hm, I'm not sure. We can look around for a while and if we don't find it I can get them from the main office," Maes assured, walking over to the desk. "No offense, but I'm used to seeing people your age trying for this position. You still look pretty young; how old are you?"
I realized that Maes was another one of those really nice people, which explained why he could put up with Mustang. Therefore, part of me would have felt bad for lying to him.
"Sixteen."
Click, the door opened, and this time it actually was Mustang. He looked at the two of us, no real surprise in his expression. I could only guess that Maes showing up in his office was normal.
"Roy! Explain to me why you have a teenage girl inside your office!"
I damned my conscience.
"Mustang has a teenage girl in his office?" another voice shouted, and its owner rushed to lean in the doorway. This time it was a woman with short blond hair roughly about the same length as mine and a piece popping out of her bangs like Maes's. Also like Maes she wore glasses, except hers were oval shaped, and the eyes behind them were light blue. She had a devious grin on her face like she had just won the troublemaker's jackpot.
I fucked my conscience.
"Alright you two, knock it off," Mustang scolded, smacking the woman in the head with a manila folder he held in his hands, resulting in a protested "hey!" from her. "Matrons is here because she's enlisted my help in becoming a State Alchemist. Now behave or get out."
The woman totally ignored him and instead strolled over to me. "So we're going by last names, huh? Matrons, I'm Rito," she declared, one hand held out to shake, the other in a fist with the thumb pointing at herself.
"Uh huh…" I weakly stated, sacrificing my hand to hers. She shook it only once in a welcome change from Maes's earlier assault.
"Don't listen to her. She's… weird," Mustang interjected, walking past her to the paper covered desk. The woman I would now be referring to as Rito stuck out her tongue at his back before pointing at him.
"I'm watching you…" she warned. Then she spun around on the floor, the attached skirt of the military uniform unfurling in the air in a wave of basic blue. As Rito exited the office, I heard her shout something that sounded like "Hey! Jean!" and I fell back onto the couch, trying to sink into its cushions and disappear. Color erupted on my face—I hadn't even done anything yet and I was already an office rumor. Fuck.
"Hughes, why are you here in the first place?" Mustang asked of his fellow officer, graciously ignoring my condition. I wondered if the couch would eat me; they ate everything else.
"Why I'm here to save little Ivy from the evil clutches of Overlord Mustang, of course!" Maes answered, ruffling my hair. My fingers went to straighten out the short brown strands when he was done, my face heated up even more. Little?
"Hughes…" Mustang growled.
"Oh, come on, Roy, I was just seeing if you were back yet," Maes defended. "After all, you have a bunch of paperwork that's piled up over the week you were gone, and that extra day you were gone mucked up the works even more. Riza wasn't very happy with you, by the way. I can't blame her, either. 'I have a feeling,' you said. What kind of excuse is that? I mean really…"
Riza?
"Hughes…"
"Right, right, Gracia wants to know if you'd like to come over to dinner sometime soon. Besides, she and Hanna have been teaming up in the kitchen while you were gone, and you have got to try some of the stuff those two can whip up. Of course nothing less should be expected of my wife~!"
Hanna?
"Fine, fine, Hughes, I'll come over sometime, now if you don't mind…"
"Alright, we'll talk about this later! I know, we can do this at lunch. I'll see you both then!" And with that, Maes exited the room and closed the door. My stomach dropped because I realized I had just lost my buffer from being alone with Mustang.
Besides, just how many girls is this guy seeing?
Said guy brought his hand up to his face and sighed heavily. "I really don't know how to handle him sometimes. Just says whatever comes to his head." His hand dropped and Mustang looked at the desk before picking up a pen and putting it with the folder he was still holding. Then he walked over to the other couch across from the one where I was sitting, and I felt suddenly grateful for the small coffee table I had paid no attention to earlier. "Glad to see you made it here okay," he said, finally addressing me. "I thought that you might've gotten lost on your way."
My anger flared and I sat up, my hand making a twack! against the couch. "Did you get lost? Do you have any idea how long I've been sitting here, you ass?"
"Sorry, sorry," he off-handedly said, opening the folder and scanning its contents. "Full name."
"What?"
Mustang looked up from the papers inside. "This is your State Alchemist application. Obviously it needs to be filled out beforehand. Full name."
"I can fill this thing out myself!" I objected. "Besides, don't you have work to do?" I indicated the piles of paper on his desk.
"Part of my job is recruiting new State Alchemists. Hence, I am doing work. That, and the deadline for the next exam is fast approaching, so this is priority. Besides, since I am recommending you to the state, it would be advantageous for me to fully know about you, correct? Full name."
I fumed for a few moments, staring into his unwavering eyes. He had a decent argument (using the "professional interest" card I had so seen coming), and I didn't have the patience to argue with him right now. Besides, that would just increase the amount of time I spent in his uninterrupted company, which I definitely didn't have the tolerance for. I sighed, and he smirked.
"Ivrena Karellen Matrons," I stated. I added the spelling of my middle name as an afterthought, simply because it was unusual, and Mustang's pen made its way across the paper.
"Date of birth."
"July 14, 1894."
"Gender: female, obviously… Height."
"Five foot four."
"Weight."
"124 pounds."
"Hair, eyes: brown. Phone number: eh, I'll use mine for that."
"Huh?" I blinked. Was he saying what I thought he was saying? He better not be, because I could see bloody murder happening in the first twenty-four hours of that happening.
"Address: I'll use mine for that, too…" Yup, that's what he was saying. I decided to verbally confirm my suspicion in the hopes that I was wrong.
"Hey, are you saying I'll be staying with you?" I incredulously asked.
"Of course, where else would you stay?"
"Oh, gee, I don't know. Maybe a hotel or something? Besides, I'm applying for a military position. Surely I can stay in the barracks, right?" The argument was quickly constructed. I waited for him to shoot some holes in it.
"Staying in the barracks would require you to have previously held a military position. My place is much nicer, and, besides, it's in pen. Let's see…" Holes successfully shot.
I continued glaring at him as his dark eyes scanned over the paper in front of him. A small growl played at the back of my throat, and I said the only thing that I felt belonged in this situation.
"Fuck you."