Chapter Four: Confessions

Mustang continued to stare at the spot Hawkeye and left moments before,. The men were all staring at him and apparently he didn't notice. At that point Hughes walked in.

"Am I interrupting something?" He asked the others.

"I don't think you are interrupting us. I think you're interrupting the Colonel and his heated staring contest with that door." Lieutenant Fury said. What have I done? What have I caused to happen between Hawkeye and me? What have I done? The Colonel thought to himself still staring.

"Colonel Mustang! Yo bro! What's wrong?" Hughes waved a hand in front of Mustang's face causing him to blink.

"Damn her! Why am I always the one in the wrong?" He said aloud racing out the door and after her. When he got outside she was just pulling out. Rubber screeched against pavement as she peeled away. "Lieutenant!" He called after her. Damn! I only needed to talk to her! He berated himself. "Lieutenant!" He hollered. He ran back in the building to get his keys. Hughes stood there with a look of surprise on his face.

"Mustang?" He prodded a little.

"Don't talk to me Hughes. I have to find my keys." He pilfered around in his jacket pockets and still couldn't find them. "Damn those keys!" Then he eyed her jacket. It still hung on the coat rack in the corner. He quickly went to it and rummaged around in the pockets, much to the shock of the others.

"That's not your property there Mustang." Fury said cautiously.

"I don't care right now Lieutenant!" He growled retrieving them.

"What are you going to do about her?" Havoc asked.

"I don't know." The Colonel answered truthfully. He really didn't know what he would say to her when he found her. Hell he didn't even know where she might head to.

"What are they supposed to do?"

"They're to keep painting for a few more hours. Then they can go home." Mustang turned away from them solemn faced and walked out the door. Hughes looked at his passing friend and worried over him. Usually he never acted this way toward the Lieutenant.

"Alright boys. You heard him. Keep painting." Hughes murmured.

Riza drove to a little place out in the country, where the woods melded together around a beautiful pond.

She loved him like he was, the last man on earth…

She turned up her stereo as she drove, windows rolled down and hair blowing in the breeze. I don't know why I let him get the better of me that way. He's nothing to me and yet I let him treat me as if I am nothing! I may as well be. She thought to herself. The road she was on took her past farm houses with fields of corn, beans, and livestock. There was one farm out here that she loved a lot. It was a riding farm for little kids who wanted to learn how to ride. It didn't cost much and it's been a dream of Riza's to send her children there someday, but with the way things were going she would never have that dream. A few tears came from her eyes and rolled down her face. She sniffed and wiped them away. She pulled off the two lane road, to a one lane gravel one. It took her back to the pond she wanted to go to. A few miles down the lane she pulled into a driveway and got out. Walking up to the front door she knocked on it and waited for the little old man to come to it. When he did she smiled at him. He was withered and grey haired, but she loved him all the same.

"Hey Uncle Charley." She said softly.

"Come to let of some steam have you Elizabeth?" He asked. She nodded.

"Yes sir."

"Well come in and tell me about these last few days in the military. I hadn't seen you in awhile and was afraid you had found your dreams after all."

"Oh, Uncle Charley; I would never stop coming here once my dreams were answered!" She cried enveloping him in a hug.

"That's my Elizabeth. Always the eager one." He hugged her back and led her back into the living room. His wife had passed away ten years ago, right before the Ishval War. Riza had been very sad. They were her only family left now.

"How you holding up?" She asked once they had sat down.

"Oh, you know me, still kicking in these old woods." They laughed. It was always the same conversation, but this time he asked a question he had never asked before. "Riza, why do you let him get to you the way you do?"

"I…Uncle Charley I don't know." She answered. Because you love him! Her heart screamed to her. You always have. Ever since you first saw him obsidian eyes. Her uncle sighed.

"The boat is still out there. You sort this out with mother nature and the swans." Riza looked up at him.

"They're still there?"

"I told you they always come back. Every year the same two."

"Thank-you Uncle Charley."

"No problem Elizabeth. You know you're always welcome." She smiled at went out the back door to the dock. She settled herself in the rowboat and rowed out under the weeping willow into the little alcove in back. The two swans looked up at her rowing, but went back to swimming and eating. They were used to her by now.

"I'm back Duchess. Duke." She said softly. They honked their recognition to her. "He's been at it again." They honked again and she told them of the past three months, of how she would help with something and then get yelled at for some way she did it and then the 'I'm sorry' later. "I don't know what to do about him Duchess." She sighed and threw some bread at the two. Duchess, the mother of many ducklings, came swimming up to the side of Riza's boat.

"Woooooooooonnnnnnnnnnkkkkkkkk!" She squawked. Riza smiled through her tears.

"He's such an idiot!" She cried causing a few birds to scatter and Duchess to rear back; flapping her wings.

"I am?" A voice said in front of her. She looked up trying to calm her pounding heart.

"How did you get out here?" She asked coldly holding her head up high.

"Your uncle told me you were out here." He answered.

"No. How did you find me?"

"I found a letter in the office one day and it was addressed here. I followed you home one day… and when you ended up here and then out on this pond I just figured you'd be back again when I pissed you off."

"So you actually admit to pissing me off?"

"Yes."

"Swallowing your Pride Mustang?"

"Hawkeye I never meant to be mean to you."

"But you always tell me I'm not doing good enough. I've helped you out with many a project and yet you can stand back and treat me that way!"

"Hawkeye!"

"No! I will not let you treat me like this!"

"Hawkeye!" Suddenly Mustang's boat overturned in the water and then Hawkeye's did too. She screamed as she went under.

"Damn you Mustang!" She lunged making more water splash on him.

"What the hell did I do?" They heard a laugh on the shore.

"UNCLE CHARLEY!" She yelled and in her distraction Mustang dunked her under and pulled her back up.

"HEY!" She cried.