CHAPTER 3- Making progress
After Farman and Fury had come back with all their baggage, they had boarded the train and took command of an empty compartment. Roy sat in a window seat, and Riza took the other window seat across from him. The other three were in the opposite aisle playing card games. Havoc cursed vehemently when he lost and he lost often, if that is any indication of how the first half of the trip faired.
Roy was slumped in his seat, his handsome profile to Riza, and stared out at the scenery speeding by. For some reason, she couldn't think of anything intelligent to say to him. It wasn't that the silence was awkward. It was just that she felt like she needed to talk to him, to say something.
Why was it that she was having difficulty thinking of something to say? She certainly wasn't intimidated by his recent promotion. Whether Roy was a warrant officer or the Führer, there would have been no change in him. He's always be Roy Mustang, no matter what. So what was it?
"Hawkeye." He said abruptly, still watching the landscape.
"Sir?" She replied.
"I didn't need you to come rescue me."
"I know, sir." She said, and paused before saying, "But is it such a bad thing that we cared enough about you to intervene?"
"Do you? Do you really care about me? Or is it your futures that you're the most worried about?" He asked, his voice low and soft, questioning.
A fire leapt into her eyes as she grew angry and indignant. How dare he question the motives of his most loyal friends and followers? "You should know the answer to that, sir. We would follow you into the depths of hell and risk our lives for you with a qualm."
"Why?" He asked, quickly.
"Why?" She repeated, stunned momentarily, then her eyes narrowed and she said, "I believe you know the answer to that as well, sir. But for the record, Alex described it most accurately, 'You will make even greater leaps and bounds toward creating a world of peace and serenity.'" She recalled flawlessly.
"So you all believe that I'll end the wars, the famine, and the strife? What if I said that I'd let it go on? Make it worse? Would you all follow me then?" He said, harshly, his voice a hiss.
The conversation on the other side of the car faded into utter stillness. The men had obviously taken notice of the argument occurring between their leader and best gunman.
A look of realization flew across her feature and as quickly as it had been provoked, the anger toward him died, "Yes." She said. Though it was such a short word, from it he got the impression of warmth and acceptance. It evoked the strangest feeling in his chest, and it made his heart race.
He did look at her then, his eyes filled with some emotion incapable of being described. "Because we trust you. And because we know that you wouldn't do that without having a very good reason." She continued, looking him directly in the eyes. He saw that her own amber eyes shown with a kind of calm that she shouldn't have been able to feel only seconds after being so angry.
A heart beat passed in which the two of them only stared at one another.
"She's right, chief." Havoc said, speaking up. Roy looked at him and Havoc continued, "I think Riza said it for all of us." Farman and Fury nodded in agreement.
A lump formed in Roy's throat, but he swallowed it quickly before he choked on it. He quickly turned back to the window. After the men went back to their card game, Riza heard him mutter something under his breath.
"Sir?" Riza asked.
"Thanks." He murmured a little louder so that only she could hear.
She nodded in acknowledgement but in her mind she responded, 'No, thank you, Roy. Thank you for everything.'
After a while of quiet reflection, Riza looked over to the men playing cards. She stood and went to them, remembering something.
"Kain." She said, catching the sergeant's attention. When he looked up she said, "You made arrangement's for Black Hayate, correct?"
He nodded, "I left him with Heymans back at central."
She hesitated, "I thought he was afraid of dogs?"
Kain nodded, "He is, but I figured this would be a good opportunity to get over that fear a little. Black Hayate is still a pup after all."
She sighed, rubbing her right temple briefly, "Very well. I'll trust your judgment." She said, and sat back down.
-Meanwhile, back at central-
A fairly chubby man with red hair cut close to his head stood on top of a desk, looking down at what he saw as the devil's incarnate. The so called 'devil's incarnate' was a small black and white puppy which sat in front of the desk, tilting his head curiously at the strange man on said desk.
"When Fury gets back I'm going to skin him for this." He said, gritting his teeth. The puppy barked and put his fore paws on the metal of the desk. Heymans screamed like a girl and fell off the desk into the fatal clutches of puppy kisses.
(A/N: Well, how am I doing? If you like it, please review! Kind words in turn deserve kind words, so I always return the favor –grin-. Actually I'm very shocked that five more people responded to chapter two. You're all very generous .
-Camille- Don't apologize. I was "advertising" this story in the Author's notes of another story I was writing, so I thought you were refering to that. No worries -grin-. And thank you for such praise! I'm very happy to hear you like it!
-Apparition7- You're telling me! I had the image of Roy stripping naked and doing the macarena in my head all day. Not that that's a bad image to have stuck there ;). But yeah you know what they say, after the apocalypse only two things will be left, cockroaches and twinkies.
-Flamara Cat Eyes- I'm one step ahead of you -wink wink-. It might take a little while to become more obvious but it's there. Oh yes, it is. Poor ol' Roy won't know what hit him -evil laughter-. I might even have to bump up the rating. We'll see. Thanks for reviewing!
-Yunaberrie- Thank you! You're so sweet to say so. I had hoped that people would find this chapter funny. I just thought about what would make me chuckle. But then I have a very weird sense of humor O.o. Anyway, I'm so sorry about the spelling error. I have horrendous spelling. I use spell check and re-read chapters over before posting, but sometimes I suppose I miss things. I believe that word is a combination of "wearily" and "weakly". Sorry again!
-saffiremoon21- I didn't realize it until later but you're right . I was thinking that Riza would be short and too the point in order to get the action out of him that she wanted, heh. Thanks for reviewing!
And if you were wondering, yes, you have to watch out for those puppies kisses. I have a terrier that still acts like a puppy so he feels the need to wake me up at ungodly hours with the deadly and dreaded puppy kisses. When you think about it, it's sweet and disgusting at the same time.
-EDIT- GAH! I left out my response to saffiremoon21! I am SO sorry! –bows repeatedly-. That was horrible of me. I'm SO sorry.