In no way, shape or form do I take credit for creation or ownership of the Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (Fullmetal Alchemist) series. The original manga is the property of Hiromu Arakawa and the anime is the property of Bones animation studio.

Casting a look up at the waning sun and the high-powered work lights all around them that were turning on for the night crews, Havoc tossed one last reproachful look at Breda before resting a hand on Riza's arm. "Ma'am, would you let me walk you home?" he asked, a normal, friendly smile gracing his cigarette-smoking mouth as he looked at his superior.

"Havoc?"

"Well, I'm not scheduled for work on the crews again until morning and being a woman; you're probably not going to be out in the wreckage at all, until you threaten the higher-ups to let you out there. Plus, Mustang-Taisa will probably be in his meeting until well into the night, so I just thought I'd offer to walk you back to your apartment. You know, to be friendly, Ma'am." He shrugged again and still had that wholesome smile on his face as he stared at her, awaiting her response. She really ought to wait for Roy, but Havoc was right, it would probably be well in to morning before they were finished with him, and maybe this once, she should leave, instead of standing sentry outside the room like she usually did. Besides, Havoc looked like he wanted to talk to her, and even though they had been classmates and friends from their academy days, it had been weeks since they'd had more that five minutes to talk about things outside work. With an internal sigh, she relented to his earnest look.

"Riza," she said, returning his smile.

"Ma'am?"

Riza patted Havoc on the shoulder and started down the first few steps before saying over her shoulder, "If you're going to walk me home, since we're both off duty, then I don't want you to call me 'Chuui' or 'Ma'am.' I want to go back to being Riza."

Throwing her a mock-salute and hopping down the stairs to catch up to her, Havoc grinned. "Yes, Ma'am, Riza," he said with a wink, earning him a swat in the arm. "But you have to call me 'Jean' like the old days, and we have to call Mustang-Taisa 'Roy' when we talk about him."

Riza raised an eyebrow at her companion. "Who said we were going to talk about Tai- about Roy?"

Havoc held his arm out to her, now that they were further away from headquarters, which Riza accepted with a chuckle. "Come on, we haven't seen Roy here in almost two years, and 'Poof!' he just appears out of nowhere today. How could we not talk about him?" Using his free hand, he patted the smaller one that was resting in the crook of his arm before continuing. "And besides, Riza, even though Breda, er… Heymans, is an uncouth jerk sometimes, it doesn't mean that I can't seriously talk with a woman about someone that she loves. Especially with an old friend."

She opened her mouth to argue with him, then settled for a wry smile. "It's… it's wonderful to see him again," she finally admitted after long moments of staring at the ground in front of them as they walked. "I honestly was beginning to wonder if I'd ever see him again. You and Br- Heymans being so secretive about your visit didn't help matters any."

Havoc had the decency to look sheepish as he scratched the back of his neck nervously. "You knew about that, huh?"

"How could I not?" Riza said with a sardonic chuckle. "You both took two days off and disappeared from Central. Also, I saw the receipt for your train tickets in the waste bin."

"Oops."

"Besides, neither one of you could look at me after you got back without looking guiltier than Black Hayate when he knows he's done something to make me mad. After putting together all the clues, it was fairly obvious that you went up north to see him." Looking over at Havoc, she asked, "He… Roy wasn't himself, was he?"

"Hm?"

"In the days before he left, Roy started growing quieter and was pulling back from me, though I didn't notice it at first. Aside from refusing to use alchemy, he was… different, distant. It was almost like the life was slowly seeping out of him, even though he was getting better and becoming stronger with each day."

Sighing, Havoc let his finished cigarette drop from his mouth, stepping on it as he passed it before answering. "I'm not going to lie to you, Riza. It was pretty bad. It was pretty much like you said; Roy just seemed like everything that made him the man we all respect so much had been ripped out, leaving just this shell. I think it hit me hardest when he tried to light a match for me and couldn't get it to spark. He just looked so defeated and pitiful. It was horrible seeing like that. I'm… I'm glad you weren't there to have to see it. Breda, Heymans, he wanted to bring you at first but I talked him out of it before we left. Roy wouldn't have wanted you, the woman he loves and needs more than any other, to have seen him that low. I think it was for the best that you hadn't accompanied us."

Riza nodded, her cheeks flushed ever so slightly at Havoc's final statement of Roy's affection for her. "I just wish there had been something that I could have done for him all that time. I felt so useless when he left, after weeks of helping him recover." She frowned at her feet as she spoke. "I felt like I had failed him a second time."

"You're being too hard on yourself. Something happened with Roy that he didn't want us to understand, that he needed to see to on his own, and I think whatever it was had to do with those boys, and has passed. He's never held anything against you. Trust me, the eyes, well, the eye, of the man walking up the steps to HQ with you this evening didn't belong to a man that thought you were a failure."

"Hm?"

Havoc chuckled, knocking into Riza's shoulder playfully with his own. "Roy was looking at you like you were the most beautiful woman in the world earlier and like he'd want nothing more than to spend as much time as his life would allow him by your side. He had some easily-read thoughts not proper for polite conversation too, but he was actually trying to hide those." He grinned at the flush threatening to spread across his superior officer's cheeks. "You should wear your hair down more often, though I don't think you'd ever get any of us to work again if you did that." He winked playfully at her and squeezed her hand on his arm with his free one.

"Really?" Riza asked, genuine concern in her tone as she touched the strands around her shoulders gingerly with her free hand.

"Yeah, definitely. You've got really beautiful hair, Riza. It's all shiny and sleek, and catches any light that's nearby. Trust me; your hair definitely catches Roy's attention, in a good way. He was staring at you the whole time we were talking earlier."

Riza smiled then as they turned down another street, weaving through the city at a slow pace. "That's the last thing we all need, Roy with something else to distract him from working. He finds enough on his own, he doesn't need my help."

Havoc chuckled, pulling out a fresh cigarette and leaving in unlit between his lips, "You've got a point there, he's always been pretty bad about work. Having the rest of us around didn't help matter much, did it? You were the only one there that was ever interested in doing their job when it came to office work."

"That's just because… well, someone had to keep everyone on task, if we ever hoped for Roy to become the Führer. I wonder…" Riza trailed off, her gaze unfocused, yet gazing ahead of them.

Havoc, curious about the interruption to her train of thought, waved his hand on front of her face, catching her attention. "You wonder what?"

Riza blinked a few times again, her alert method of 'jumping' when she was startled, and turned her head again toward Havoc. "I was just… I was wondering, if Roy was still intent on becoming the Führer now, with the majority of the non-military power having been removed from the position and given to the parliament. I know, he used to talk big about silly things like miniskirts and abolishing paperwork throughout the military, but the thing he wanted most was to be able to cause real change; to be able to help all of the people of Amestris." Havoc noticed that her eyes were getting that far-off, unfocused look once more as she spoke. He smiled, thinking that neither realized just how much in love with one another they actually were. "He just wanted… to help people, like all Alchemists do…"

Havoc squeezed the hand that was tucked against his arm comfortingly, at a loss for a response for the moment. Riza, glancing down at their joined hands, smiled again.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I'm just rambling on about Roy now, aren't I?"

Havoc merely shrugged. "It's ok, I think it needed said, even if it's just to little ol' me." He blushed at the grateful look thrown his way, his hand moving from hers to scratch at the back of his neck in a nervous gesture. It had been a long time since Riza had been so open about herself, and he wasn't used to her being like this. They hadn't been this close for a while now, but it pleasantly reminded him of their days in the Academy, before Ishbal and protecting Roy's dreams took away her smiles and made his a little more forced than they were before. He idly wondered if her reversion would be permanent, before remembering that they were in the middle of a discussion. "…Anyway, back to Roy. I think that really, even though there has been a lot of power stripped from the position, he could still make a difference, so he'll probably want to keep his focus on it. Even just continuing to move up the ranks will help, he'll have greater and greater influence both in the military and with civilians, to a certain extent. After all, now he's the hero of Central and that's surely got to count for something, right?"

Riza merely nodded in response.

Looking at the woman beside him, Havoc suddenly had a thought, and grinned. "And besides, thanks to the Parliament, it's not like he'll have to become Führer to change the military fraternization laws now."

"What?" Riza asked, her cheeks flushed, though her curiosity was obviously piqued.

Havoc merely winked before continuing his train of thought. "I guess that was the one issued paper to the office that we noticed and you didn't, Riza. Did you forget that I dated Sheska for a month? Come on! The old guys in power decreed that military relationships were allowed, with the stipulation that it not affect performance within the ranks. Yeah, we can get severely punished if we screw up our jobs because of it, but we can see other individuals in the military, you know, like dating, or…" he grinned at the woman on his arm, almost a playful leer, "Marriage."

Her face red, Riza started laughing as she released her hand from Havoc's arm and shoved him to the side, hearing his own rich laughter in return. "What?" he cried with a smile on his face. "Would you not marry Roy if he asked you? I always thought you two belonged together, spewing out lots of gun-toting alchemist babies to protect the future of Amestris."

"That's none of your business," Riza protested weakly through her chuckles, her face still ablaze. Oh did that train of thought have appeal…

"Hah!" Havoc said, pointing at her. "You didn't deny it!"

"So what if I would?" Riza asked as she crossed her arms petulantly.

Havoc finally stopped laughing and grinned at Riza as he threw an arm over her shoulders. "Then, I would be truly happy for the both of you. You've both deserved a happy ending for a long time now."

Riza, still flushed, shoved him away again. "Oh, stop getting sappy on me, Jean. You shouldn't be allowed to cause your poised superior to blush like a schoolgirl. Isn't there some military law about that?"

Slipping his hands into his pockets, Havoc was still grinning as he responded. "It probably got taken away with the fraternization laws. I bet those old guys would love the chance to see all the women like you in the military lose their composure."

Riza was about to send him a sharp retort, but she looked up and noticed that they had finally reached her dormitory building. "Oh," she said eloquently, staring at the building in front of her." Would you like to come in for a bit for a drink or something?" She offered.

Shaking his head, Havoc declined. "Nah, I'd probably fall asleep on the walk back to my apartment if I did. Tell you what though, how about I pick you up and walk you to work tomorrow morning?"

"I'd like that, Jean," Riza said as she nodded. I'll see you tomorrow then. Goodnight."

"Night, Riza. Give Hayate a pat on the head for me," he called over his shoulder as he began heading down the street.

As Riza was ascending the steps to the first, then to the second floor of the apartment complex, she found her mind drifting back to their conversation, her insides warming in a definitively bubbly and girly manner as she thought about getting married. It was a concept and idea that she had long been shoving further and further into the back of her mind, labeled as a "hopeless dream" that wouldn't happen; not while she was still trying to assist Roy on the road to becoming Führer. By the time she was unlocking her door and greeting Black Hayate with a pat on his head and scratches behind his ears, her mind had already wandered to little Elysia dressed as the flower girl and where they would hold the ceremony.

She was finally interrupted from her thoughts by a solid weight on her foot and looking down; she noticed that Hayate was sitting on her, eagerly awaiting her to finish getting him his dinner. A glance at the clock told her she'd been uncharacteristically daydreaming for almost 10 minutes, standing at her counter with a half-opened jar of food in her hand as she thought about all the possibilities for a wedding.

After she finished feeding her faithful companion, Riza made her way into her bedroom, stripping from her filthy uniform and tossing it into the basket in the corner to wash once the weekend came.

Showering and brushing out her wet hair both consisted of very giddy, very un-Hawkeye thoughts of flowers and white dresses and Roy Mustang in his dress uniform. By the time she laid down to go to sleep, Riza felt more like a woman than she had in a long, long time.

No, Havoc is not secretly in love with Riza, but I envision that they were very close friends when they were in the academy, with a friendship similar to Roy and Hughes. No real reason why, I just see that as a possibility for them, so I decided to go with it. Sorry this is just them talking, once I got them started, I couldn't seem to get Havoc to shut up, then Riza, and well, five pages later in Word, I found a place where I wanted them to stop talking. I'll be out of town for the weekend, so no updates for a while, sorry. Many thanks for all the kind reviews, alerts, and favourites I have gotten for this story so far. -K