Disclaimer: Don't own it.
Sunday was Roy's favourite day of the week. This was because he could sleep in and slack off without consequences. There was no paperwork and no Riza Hawkeye with a gun. He had been awake since early this morning, but chose to simply stay in bed and relax. He finally dragged himself into the shower sometime around lunch.
Today, he decided, he would go out for a cup of coffee instead of just making one at home. There was a new coffee shop open a few blocks away, and Roy was sure he'd seen a pretty woman working inside. Opting for black slacks and a white shirt, the only clothes he had that were currently clean, he placed his gloves in his pocket and walked outside.
The streets were crowded on both sides, so Roy was jostled quite a bit when he left his apartment building. Everyone seemed to be out enjoying the beautiful weather. He had to admit, he liked the change. The last few days had been rainy, which depressed him. He couldn't perform alchemy in the rain, which caused Hawkeye to occasionally label him as useless. More than anything, Roy hated being useless. Useless people couldn't make a difference in the world.
Deep in his thoughts, his body walking toward the coffee shop on autopilot, Roy didn't notice the elderly woman step out of the shop in front of him.
"Oof!" he exclaimed as his body hit hers. She teetered for a moment and leaned heavily on her walking stick to steady herself. "Are you alright, Ma'am? I'm sorry, I didn't – "
"Watch where you're going, young man!" Roy's apology was interrupted as the old woman raised her walking stick and cracked him across the head with it.
"Ow! I'm trying to tell you I'm sorry! I didn't see – "
"You ought to have seen me! Young people these days!" she continued to rant as she also continued to hit him. "You could have broken my bones! You could have killed me!"
"Ah! Easy, Grandma! Take it easy!" Roy could see that his pleas for mercy and forgiveness were lost on the old woman, and put all his strength into running away as quickly as possible. He dodged in and out of the crowds cluttering the way until he made it around the corner and stopped for a breath.
Conveniently, he had run in the direction of the coffee shop. From his current place, he could smell the sweet aroma of caffeinated drinks and baked goods. He took a few more deep breaths to recover himself from his escape and continued his walk toward the shop.
As he reached the shop's patio area, a familiar bark caught his attention. A few tables to his left, he could see as he turned his head in the direction of the sound, Black Hayate was tied to the back of one of the white chairs. He ran toward Roy as far as the leash would allow him. The dog's movements had no effect, however, on the blonde woman sitting in the chair. She remained as she was, deeply immersed in whatever was on the table in front of her. Roy smirked and walked toward his lieutenant's table.
"Mind if I sit here?"
Hawkeye still didn't look up from her book. "Go ahead. I don't mind."
He sat, and a waiter came over to take his order. He ordered a coffee and turnover for himself and asked the man to refresh Hawkeye's drink. The watier gave Roy a slightly frightened look and hurried away to retrieve the food. When he was gone, Roy turned his attention back to the woman sitting at the table with him. "You didn't even look up when I came over. What if I was dangerous?"
"I've trained Black Hayate not to bark at every moving thing. He only barks at people he knows, a habit I just can't seem to get him out of."
"I see."
"Therefore, I figured it was someone from work, since Black Hayate - - What happened to you?" She had finally looked up at him, and what she saw shocked her.
"What do you mean?" Roy turned to look at his reflection in the shop window, and suddenly he realized why the waiter had been terrified of him. His encounter with the old woman on the street had left him looking quite different from when he'd left home. His hair was an absolute mess, there was a long red mark along the right side of his face and on his forehead, and his shirt was wet with sweat patches from running. The eye patch didn't exactly help things, but at least that he was used to.
"What happened?" she repeated.
"Don't ask. Please," replied a disgruntled Roy.
"Are you sure you're alright? It looks like you were hit pretty hard. Could we get some ice for his head, please?" she asked of the waiter, who had returned with their orders.
"Of course, Miss," he replied as he hurried back into the shop.
"Ice isn't necessary, Lieutenant. I'm fine."
"I don't believe you, Sir, and Riza is fine."
"Huh?"
"You called me 'lieutenant.' My name works just fine when we're off duty. If I'm only ever known by my rank or last name, it implies that I have no life outside the military."
"And do you?" he asked, teasing.
"I'd like to think that I have other things, Sir."
Roy laughed. "So you're allowed to pretend to have a life, but I'm not?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"You called me 'sir.' If being called by rank implies having no life for you, then the same applies to me. It's Roy."
She smiled at him and brought her drink to her lips. "Roy, then. Thank you for the refill, by the way."
He waved a hand at her in dismissal. "Thanks for the ice." He half-smirked, half-grimaced as he placed the bundle the waiter had brought for him on the tender red spot on his face.
"So are you going to tell me what happened?"
"Not a chance."
"I'm supposed to protect you! How can I do that if I don't know what I'm protecting you from?"
"You don't need to protect me from this. I'm just not going to tell you."
"Why not?"
"Because you'll laugh, and I'll lose my reputation. Now drop the subject, Riza, and drink your coffee or I won't do any paperwork for a month."
Riza wasn't too put-off by his refusal to notice that he had used her first name like she had requested, nor was Roy to absorbed in his wounds to notice the strange feeling he got from using it.
A/N: And so it continues, with no clear plot in sight! Hurray for me! But that was kinda fluffy, and fluff is fun…
Sorry it took so long to update. I had exams, and then my friend came up to visit me, and then I had my grandparents' 50th anniversary, and then I was sick. Plus I had to watch a lot of anime this week (gee, what a pity). You do NOT want to know how scary my hard drive was. But I'll tell you anyway. I was at 1.43 GB of free space left. NOT COOL. What really sucks is that I can't actually get rid of most of this stuff because it's my summer stash, since I can't download at home and I have a pretty good bandwidth limit here at school. Of course, this is my last week to get stuff, since I'll be done school on Tuesday, and NOTHING is downloading. I only need ONE BLOODY EPISODE of Fushigi Yuugi to finish off the series, and I CAN'T GET IT! Not to mention I only need five more episodes of Full Moon wo Sagashite (so totally love that series), and they're all in the 30's, so I'm stuck at episode 29 and can't watch any more.
ANYWAY, on to somewhat relevant things. It took me a while to come up with something to hit Roy with this time around. So I just decided to bean him with an old woman. Huh….Not sure why… And yes, Roy likes turnovers. I say so. Apple turnovers. And sometimes cherry, but only when he's in the right mood for one.
Eventually, there will be a plot, I promise. There has to be! It's in the bloody summary! But I've decided that it's just not good enough if I don't establish the beginning of some sort of relationship between the two of them first. Thus begins the saga of almost-mindless fluff. It'll only last a little bit, though, before we get back on track. But this is a romance, so I seriously doubt you guys mind. Right?
Back to not-so-relevant things: I finally own the first two FMA manga! My first manga ever! Yay! My friends are proud of me. I also bought the first Fruits Basket, but that's not nearly as important. Still good, but lacks something. Like Roy. Definitely lacks Roy. I can't wait to read more of them! Please don't tell me what happens!
Thank you's to:
YourViolentStalker- Thank you for not being a part of the hit-count club. And don't question the chocolate obsession. Just accept it. It's not going anywhere, trust me.
xTheDarkAngelx – Thanks! Christmas indeed! And Easter and birthdays all rolled into one!
Kabashka – Thanks! Glad you like it!
Sable Sword – Good suggestion. Will try to work it in later.
fullmetal philosopher – uh….huh…..
Brickwall847 – Don't question the baked goods. Just accept it. They're not going anywhere, trust me. Glad you like it, though!
Feel free to e-mail me anytime! I'm going to need things to keep me occupied now that school's done…
Review! It's virtual animal crackers this time (at the behest of those who don't seem to like my baked goods or chocolate. Odd people :P)!
Aindel S. Druida
