The Way to a Man's Heart Isn't by Crushing His Ego Chapter 3: Trouble Where the Cash Flows

Hughes finished putting the files back in order, and the folders back on the shelves. He looked out the window. The sky was an orange-purple color as the sun set. He was supposed to have been home three hours ago. He was hoping that Gracia remembered to save him a piece of pie.

"Roy…Hey, wake up," he said as he laid a hand on Roy's shoulder and nudged him gently. "Roy…." Hughes began saying in his sweet little voice, the same one adults talked to babies in. "Roy…. it's time to wake up…"

"…zzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZzzzz….." a huge line of drool was hanging off Roy's chin, and was suspending itself in mid-air right above his chest. Hughes nudged him once more. That did it, that line of drool that was suspended in air a minute ago, was no longer suspending. It was falling and landing on Roy's folded arms with a microscopic splash, and then it began sliding down his wrist. Hughes couldn't help but smile humorously. I wonder what all those loving fan girls will say if they see their perfect Roy sleeping with drool on his shirt… I bet a lot of them would die if they could just wipe it off. Then they'd save it and boast. "I've got drool from the great Roy Mustang!"

"Huh?" Roy asked as he sleepily opened his eyes sleepily. Once they focused he saw a big male face right in front of his own. "AHH!" he jumped at the unsuspecting sight and fell backwards in his chair, making a loud crash.

"Is everything all right in here?!" the dark skinned woman from before ran in to see what the loud thud was. Confusion overcoming her face as she saw Hughes standing over Roy. Roy laying on the chair, which was now on its back on the floor, with drool now running from his chest down his left side. "Umm… am I interrupting something?" she asked hoping she hadn't discovered something dark and dirty.

"Nope, not at all," Hughes replied as he stood upright. "Roy was just waking up from his oh so important beauty sleep. Beautiful, isn't he?" he asked as he walked around Roy pointing his arms here and there, pretending like he was modeling something.

"Sure…. lovely…" she replied nervously. "Are you two almost done in here? I'd really like to get home, and I can't leave until you do."

"Yes, we were just about to leave," Hughes replied as Roy got up off the floor and picked the chair up, pushing it back in under the table.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" she asked.

"Sadly no," Hughes replied.

"Well, let's go then," Roy said as he walked passed Hughes and the woman. He was now heading for the door. He didn't show the disappointment on his face, but his silence told Hughes the whole story.

Hmm... Should I tell him? Should I reveal the truth and lift his spirits? Hughes wondered to himself. His ever famous smile appeared and he moved his head to the right making his glasses light up evilly. "Nope!"

"Are you leaving then?" the woman asked as Hughes began to follow Roy.

"Yes, thank you for letting us in. Don't worry, we won't tell anyone we were here."

"What do you mean?" she asked unsure if she wanted the answer.

"Never mind, don't worry about it," he replied with a wave as he and Roy exited the large empty library. Hughes couldn't help himself. He just had to slam the door, and he did, rather loudly.

SLAM!

"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The door cracked open and a small yellow eye as well as a few fingers appeared through the crack. "SORRY!" the door slammed once more and Hughes and Roy walked down the hall and toward the exit.

"So where to now?" Hughes asked as they walked down the street. They had left the military grounds some time ago, and were in the pedestrians' area of the city. It was now dark outside. The air was crisp and the temperature was just perfect. Some of the buildings were dark and bare as they had been closed for the night. Other stores had people rushing in and out of them as the customers tried to get some last minute items. The two military men watched as the store-keepers stood at the entrances of their shops, giving the customers the 'last call' warning.

"Somewhere where people don't care how much noise you make," Roy replied in his usual tone.

"Awe. But I have so much fun. It's their own faults for being old fogies. Hey, do you still need my help? I kinda wanna get home."

"No, you can go if you want. We'll try again tomorrow."

"…tomorrow…?" Hughes asked in a quiet voice. His high flying plane just crashed and burned.

"Yes, tomorrow," Roy replied. Just then a weird light came from down the street and a loud alarm went off. Their attention was quickly taken to the sounding building. They now heard people screaming along with the sound of the alarms dying.

"Sounds like someone is robbing the Central Bank, and they just cut the alarms," Hughes said as they watched. It wasn't too far away, just down the street a ways.

"The police will never get there in time. Those idiots will be gone by then."

"Should we help then?"

"Of course," Roy replied as he watched the scene.

"How come as long as no book work is involved, you'll jump right into everything without a second thought?" Hughes asked curiously.

"Because… there's no pen, papers, or signatures involved."

"Is that all?" he asked.

"No."

"Then what?"

"My salary comes from there," he answered with a smirk as he glanced back at Hughes, and then took off toward the bank.

"I knew there had to be something," Hughes said with a smile as he ran after the pyromaniac.

"PUT THE MONEY IN THE BAG! NOW!" one of the men, the one who appeared to be the leader yelled as he threw a large black pillowcase at the woman behind the desk. The woman was short and not that old, maybe 23 or so. She had long brown hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in a nice light blue blouse and black dress pants. She was the only employee there at the time. The manager figured they wouldn't get many customers since it was rather late and sent everyone else home for the night.

"And be quick about it," another one of the robbers added.

There were five men total. They were all big and muscular, wearing all back and masks over their faces. They didn't have any guns, none that were visible anyway. The gang leader stood by the desk forcing the woman to load up the money. The other four were scattered throughout the large room making sure all the hostages didn't try anything.

The building was small for a bank, but it served well enough. It was very popular and almost everyone in Central went there. The room was bright and the walls were a light blue. There were windows all around, exactly four feet away from each other. A few plants here and there and the floor was a nice navy carpet.

"FASTER, WENCH!" the leader yelled at the woman. She was doing the best she could, but was having trouble with the money. There were metal bars inside the register, which held the money down to keep the bills from getting mixed up with each other. Since the register was pretty much forced open the bars didn't want to lift up, making it very hard to get the money out. She even ripped a few of the bills.

"I'm sorry," she said as she rushed to get the bills out, tears in her eyes as the large man loomed over her. There was a fifty she was having a lot of trouble with. She pulled on it as hard as she could and ripped it. When the bill gave way she stumbled backwards and accidentally knocked the bag of money on the floor. It spilled out everywhere. Everyone's eyes widened at the sight of the money all over the ground. If there weren't any robbers involved you can bet they'd be all over the floor trying to get what they could of it in their pockets.

"YOU IDIOT!" one of the robbers yelled out angrily.

"I'M SO SORRY!" she cried as she looked up at the man. He returned her cries with an evil glare. He then jumped over the desk and back to where she was. He walked toward her. She backed up until she was against the wall and couldn't back up anymore. Everyone knew he was about to kill her. Some of them were terrified for themselves, but others wanted to help.

One man tried to get up and confront the large man, but was quickly stopped by one of the other robbers and punched in the stomach, and then hit in the back of the neck. He was knocked out before he hit the floor. The other people who wanted to help sat silently after that.

"Please, I'm so sorry. I'll pick it up right awa-" she couldn't finish her sentence. The man grabbed her around the throat and lifted her in the air. She clung to his large arm, hoping he would release her. But he wouldn't. Everyone was quiet as they watched her gasp for air. Just as she was about to loose conciseness from lack of oxygen the front door opened and two men dressed in blue Military uniforms walked casually in.

"Put her down," Hughes said when he saw what was happening.

"Who's gonna make me?" the leader asked as he looked from the gasping woman to the two men.

"I am," Roy replied as he pulled his hand out of his pocket and aimed his fingers at the man. He then snapped his fingers and an intense flame appeared in mid-air and was heading right for them.

"Heh," you could tell the leader was smirking by the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes. He quickly dropped the woman and got out of the way of the flame.

"Careful, Roy, we don't want to hurt any of the hostages," Hughes said as his eyes darted around the room, making sure no one was really hurt and needed care.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't worry, Maes, I'm in complete control. I won't hurt anyone who didn't need it."

"Right…" he replied with a smile as they readied themselves for a fight that they thought would be a piece of cake.

"So you're an alchemist and a military dog. I guess that makes you a State Alchemist," the leader said as he studied the alchemy circle on Roy's white glove.

"Yup, Roy's one of the best. He's the Flame Alchemist. I bet you're jealous now, huh?" Hughes retorted playfully.

"No, not at all," the leader replied.

"Huh?" a confused expression appeared on Hughes' face.

Roy just smirked. Same old story.