Between Friends and Lovers
By Kurama-sweethart (Moe Shmoe)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Mystery, Romance
Warnings: Alternate Mangaverse, spoilers for the manga and anime, language and yuri.
Words: 1300
I also wanted to give a special thanks to all my reviewers and those who questioned my spelling. There's no way this fic would be what it is without you guys keeping me on my toes! This is as much your fic as it is mine.
Maria had known Riza for quite sometime now; they went back quite farther than most suspected. In Central City, where they had both grown up, was an exclusive girls-only military academy, lovingly settled a few miles east of Headquarters. It was run by a stiff, chiseled military woman who had managed to rise in ranks as a General before retiring. Formalities were a requirement, even between close friends.
While they had never really been in the same social circle, per say, both Ross and Hawkeye had been top of their class and had studied together on more than one occasion.
"Riza?" Maria called, yawning as she shuffled into the common room of their apartment. Even now, calling her by name was something she didn't think she could get used to. "What are you doing up? We have work tomorrow."
She and the other first lieutenant hadn't been close, exactly, but Maria knew her well enough to know that Riza Hawkeye never got less than a full night's rest. "Oh, Maria. Did I wake you?" She responded quietly, nursing a steaming mug of tea.
"Oh, no." Ross responded lightly, slipping into the chair next to her. "I can't sleep either."
Riza smiled, fingers tracing the rim of her mug. "Must be something in the air."
Maria said nothing, watching curiously the way her nimble fingers fiddled with the porcelain, curling around the handle like they were looking for a trigger. For some reason the action made Maria uncomfortable. "I guess I should go try sleeping again. Just wondered if something was wrong-"
"Do you think he'll be alright?" Riza asked suddenly, like she had wanted to say it the whole time. "The colonel, I mean."
Shocked at the sudden question, Maria licked her lips and grinned. "Without you around to make him work, he'll probably take the whole time off."
"I hope not." She replied seriously, but Maria couldn't help but laugh, anyway.
Western Headquarters was exactly like Central Headquarters: Except flipped. By the time Ross and Hawkeye figured this out, they had spent thirty minutes walking down hallways and arrived by the General's office just in time.
"Ladies, welcome." General Robertson greeted, ushering them into chairs by his desk. "Glad to see you both up and about so early."
Maria felt slightly awkward, but when she glanced over, Riza was going strong. "You did say to be here by eight, General?"
"Well, I guess I did." Robertson laughed, but Riza didn't look amused. "So, tell me. What sort of things can you ladies do? Paperwork, filing-"
Both women glanced at each other. "I thought we were here to do field work?" Hawkeye asked, her hand twitching.
"Well, technically speaking, yes." The General agreed, "you are both exclusively field officers, unlike your jobs back in Central, I can only assume. However, we have a rather difficult filing system, and both of you will have to log in your work each day. Mandatory things like that, standard procedure, you know."
Maria didn't recall ever having to log anything back in Central, unless she was working a case, but then all of those things didn't go into any sort of logging system- they went straight to the Fuhrer for evaluation. Maybe things were as different here as they were rumored to be.
If that were the case, West City would take a lot of getting used to.
"At any rate, you can learn all about that later. For now, we have an ongoing case that I'd like to assign you to, just to see where you rank at police work." The General finished, pulling a few stapled sheets of paper out of his desk and handing one to each of them
Riza made a face like she was going to protest, but Maria cut her off. "And the nature of the case…?"
"Strange." For a moment, Maria thought that one word was all he was revealing about the case. After a long pause, he continued. "A lot of men aren't willing to take it seriously."
Both women glanced towards each other, frowning. Again, Riza looked like she might say something, but thought better of it. "It involves several disappearances on the Western Border. Twenty-six in the past month, and close to two-hundred overall. But here's the stranger thing. Every single missing person is female."
"And these disappearances started when, exactly?" Riza asked, fingering the papers in her hand.
The General folded his hands atop his desk, looking at them over his wiry eyeglasses. "Not quite six months ago. They started slowly, I suspect because that area is near one of our trade routes, but now are noticeably increasing."
"Twenty-six since the first of this month would make two lost every day." Maria calculated slowly, frowning. "And if the numbers you said are true, then that means that since the first month disappearances have nearly tripled."
The General nodded. "Smart girl. Yes, we have had a disturbing amount of disappearances. At first we put it off on the roads, which are a bit narrow and there are some sharp curves. But we have had many men patrol the area for wrecks or crash sites, and haven't found a one."
"And men aren't willing to take it seriously, because…?" Riza asked sharply, a tone that Maria had only seen her use twice. Once during the Ishval Massacre and once during the rebellion lead by the Ishvalan Refugee camps.
The General didn't seem fazed by her abruptness. Maybe he wasn't quite as off as they had originally thought. "Well, since that area is close to the international border, many Creatan natives have disappeared as well. There, rumors are circulating about kidnappings. Here, many believe that, obviously, Creatan government could be involved. However, these rumors involve a lot of urban myths."
"Which is why men aren't willing to take them seriously? Because they're based around legends?" Maria shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Just what did he take them for, giving them a case based on word-of-mouth?
Riza apparently agreed. "Myths have to start somewhere, right?"
"While this is true, some of the claims are too over the top." The General shuffled through papers on his desk, reading them over his eyeglasses. "Things like, well, human experiments, ghosts and women who are unable to be killed by any modern weapon. Something natives of Creata call 'shedim'."
"We'll be sure to look into it, sir." Riza replied, standing. It was obvious that even though the case could very well be a wild-goose chase for them, her interest was piqued. "When would you like our first report?"
The General folded his hands over the desk once more, smiling. "As soon as you can."
"This is crazy." Riza said suddenly, leaning over the papers General Robertson had given them. "All the information we have is the area in which the disappearances seem to be centered, although some of them don't fit that pattern, that each victim is a woman ranging from age thirteen to thirty, and that the disappearances are steadily increasing, perfectly figured to the day."
Maria shrugged. "So where do you propose we start? At the disappearance site?"
"It's our only real lead, so we have to start there." Riza answered truthfully, unfolding a map that the General had included in the documents. "It's only about an hours' drive west from here. We can leave in the morning."
TBC.