Here's chapter 3! I couldn't resist doing a Christmas special. It's not very long, but it's continued in the next chapter. This one is done from Roy's point of view. Disclaimers still the same, yada yada...

Roy did his paperwork for about two whole hours before Riza came back. When she came in, he instantly asked, "What was that about?" surprisingly, Riza smiled. Whatever it was, it highly amused her. "What?" he asked again.

"It's a surprise. You'll know on Christmas Day," she replied as she sat down and got back to her work, "However, I will now be coming two hours early and leaving two hours earlier. Is that all right?"

"For what?"

"Is it all right, sir?"

"Yes, fine! Did it have something to do with her month long absence?"

"Maybe," she said almost teasingly.

What was up with her today? She never acted like this. She was talking as if she were a schoolgirl keeping a secret from her classmates. Roy looked at her like she was morphing into some mutant chimera. He knew it would be pointless to keep asking her and got back to his work.

After that day, everything went back to normal. Hawkeye didn't act like "Ha! Ha! I know something you don't know!" at all after that. All that was different was that she came two hours earlier and left two hours earlier, just like she said she would. This continued until about a week before Christmas, and one day, Fury seemed to go mad. He came running into the room. He couldn't talk because he was out of breath.

"Reindeer…. Flying!" he finally shouted, still out of breath.

Mustang simply had a curious, but amused, expression on his face, "Had some early eggnog?" he asked cheerfully.

"No! I saw a…" he stopped, sighed, and began walking away and said gloomily, "Oh, forget it. I forgot I was talking to, how did Ed put it? 'Colonel Sarcasm'…"

Mustang would have joked about Fury's insanity with Hawkeye, but she had left an hour ago. Besides, she probably wouldn't find it funny, now that he thought about it.

The next day, at around the same time no less, Havoc, Breda, Falman, and Fury all were in a heated discussion in the hall when Roy was just on his way out. Just when they saw him they all tried talking to him at once.

"Something weird is going on!"

"Does this have anything to do with Hawkeye leaving early?"

They continued to talk what was nonsense to Roy, "One at a time!" they all quieted, "What are you blabbering on about?"

"Like I said yesterday, reindeer!" Fury told him.

"Not again," moaned Mustang, "Look, I really don't want another 'Warehouse 13' situation…"

"But we all saw it!" protested Breda, "It had wings and everything!"

Mustang didn't think much of this fiasco until then. Then a thought came to him. What if it was a chimera of some sort that they were seeing? Finally he said, "Look, if this isn't solved after Christmas, I'll help you," he knew this was a lie.

Mumbling, all four of them left Roy to go home. Roy waited until they were gone until he left.

Soon enough, Christmas Eve arrived. Roy and his staff had arranged to go to a Christmas party at his place. Even so, Hawkeye still left early. She said she'd be at the party with Noelani, but they would be a bit late. Roy had just sighed, knowing they were still up to something.

Roy sat at home, on his couch. He had lit a fire in the fireplace, but other than that, there was nothing festive except for the occasional candle. One by one, Havoc, Fury, Falman, and Breda all arrived. While waiting for Hawkeye, they just merely talked about getting together with their families for Christmas dinner the next day, or whatever they'd do. After about half an hour, Hawkeye arrived with Noelani and Hayate right behind her. Breda immediately fled to the opposite side of the room. He had a phobia of dogs.

"Calm down," Riza said irritably. Reluctantly, still watching Hayate, Breda came back to where he was.

Noelani shyly looked around at all the people. Then, she sat down by the fire with Hayate. She put a long black case down beside her. Roy asked, "What's that?"

"Oh… um… that's my… my flute," Apparently she was very skittish around so many people, "I though I could play something…"

"That would be nice," he said.

"Oh… ok," she opened the case. Inside, a silver flute lay in three pieces. She took out the joints and put them together.

"I'll make some cocoa," Riza said. She went into the kitchen, and Roy could hear her looking for places where there wasn't any beer.

After putting her flute together, she aligned the head joint. Then, she put it to her mouth and played.

It was a beautiful tune. Nobody recognized it, but it was very soothing. It even sounded a bit mournful. After a few minutes, the song ended, and Hawkeye returned with the cocoa.

"That was very nice," she said. Apparently, she didn't want to come into the room until the song was over, but she heard it anyways.

"Yeah, where'd you learn to play like that?" Havoc asked.

"Oh… I'm… I don't remember to be honest."

"Well, you should play for us more often," Roy added.

Noelani blushed, but the fire's glow hid some of it, "Um… That would be fun."

The party continued. They mostly just sat and had small talk and enjoying each other's company. Noelani sat by the fire, reading a book she had found on a bookshelf. This was one of those rare times where Roy and the rest could actually be friends. Then, the reindeer came into the conversation.

"Hawkeye, have you seen anything, uh... weird lately?" Fury asked.

"No. Why do you ask?" Riza continued to stare into the fire.

"You haven't seen any... erm... reindeer around, have you?" he must've been thinking how stupid he looked talking about reindeer in Central.

Her eyes narrowed, "Can't say I have."

"Oh, all right, then..." looking extremely embarrassed, he looked at the floor and twiddled his thumbs.

There was a long silence after that.

When the clock struck midnight, Roy said drowsily, "Merry Christmas."

"Well, I'm going home," Fury said, "Merry Christmas."

Havoc, Breda, and Falman followed suit, but Hawkeye remained behind. After the four had left and closed the door behind them, Roy said, "I'll be right back," and left the room. Riza and Noelani looked at each other, puzzled. Roy came back a minute later and said, "Tada!" he had two packages in his hands. He gave one to Riza, and the other to Noelani.

"Thank you," Noelani said softly.

Riza didn't say anything until she took out what Roy gave her, "Oh, wow," she whispered, "Thank you," her present was a brand new pistol and ammunition to go with it.

"Those are the finest in town, so take care of them," Roy told her.

Riza looked at him suspiciously, "Why only us?"

"Well, did you see the others give me anything? Besides…"

"It would be weird to give gifts to other men," Riza finished as if she heard this many times before.

Noelani finally opened her gift. At first they appeared to be ordinary gloves, but upon closer inspection, she saw that they had transmutation circles sewn onto the palms with blue yarn. In the same tone she said, "Thank you, but how did you know?"

"Hey, when you talk to Hawkeye, you talk to Mustang," he was about to add, "except for this Christmas secret you're keeping from me," but knew that he wouldn't get any information.

Noelani put on the gloves and tested them by performing a transmutation. After a flash of light, a small figure of a rampant stallion sat on her palm. She got up and gave it to Mustang, "Merry Christmas. It shouldn't melt for a while if I did it right."

"Thanks," he said, surprised at her craftsmanship.

"I think we'll go home now," Riza said after a long pause.

"Good night, and Merry Christmas," Roy said as they walked out of the door.

End of chapter 3

I hope you liked it. Well, I'm going to try to get the next chapter up before Christmas. I'll have to spend hours editing it, but it'll be worth it. The plot will start coming together in the next few chapters. Yay!