DON'T READ THIS!: Hi guys! Lina here to tell you that this is NOT the next chapter of 'Family'. Don't worry! I will be continuing it—it's just that I got quite a few reviews saying that I should have made it into its own little story, so . . . I did! The first chapter ('Arrival') will be posted shortly after this under another fic called—you guessed it!—'Family'.

If you've already read the first 6 chapters, I beg you to go and review them again for me, please! I'll be posting each chapter every other day. So, you all can look forward to the 7th chapter ('Red-handed') in roughly thirteen days.

Hope that all made sense. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to put up with my crap—now, on to this new drabble!

Disclaimer: If I owned them, I would be the happiest girl in the world! Sadly, I think that Paris Hilton is the happiest girl in the world . . . and Paris Hilton I am not.

Gift

Roy glanced down at the small gift box that had just been thrust into his hands by a rather flustered-looking Elric. The blonde teen had basically thrown the parcel at him, muttered 'Merry Christmas, you bastard,' and then stormed away.

The loud slamming of the mess hall doors signaled that the Fullmetal had just left the Christmas party.

Roy quirked an amused eyebrow, then turned his attention back to his gift. It was a small, blue velvet box—the kind usually associated with the presentation of a ring, necklace, or a set of earrings—bound up with a white, silken ribbon. Frowning slightly, Roy suddenly wondered if the simple chain he had given his subordinate as a gift (to replace the watch chain that had broken and been lost on one of Edward's missions) might be considered as cheap in comparison to whatever lay within the little box in his lap.

Shaking his head, the colonel pulled off the ribbon and then pushed open the domed lid of his gift box. He was mildly surprised to find, not a piece of expensive jewelry contained within, but a simple piece of white paper, folded over twice and tucked into the slit where a ring would sit.

He cocked his head to one side in uncertainty, then plucked the paper from its stand and unfolded it, wondering what Fullmetal had planned this time.

Jean Havoc, slightly tipsy on the holiday eggnog, leaned over his bespectacled coworker in a drunkenly seductive manor. "Hey, gorgeous," he slurred. "How bout a kiss?" Cain Fuery turned a very pretty colour of pink and tried to lean away from the taller man, but was stopped by a wall.

When had that gotten there?

"Jean, you're drunk," he explained gently, handing up his hands in a manor clearly intended to fend the blonde off.

"No—you're drunk," Havoc chuckled.

Fuery, very much sober, sighed and was trying to think of some way to get himself out of this mess—not that he could say he would entirely mind if Havoc were to kiss him—when there was suddenly a loud racket from across the mess hall. Both men, along with everyone else in the canteen, paused in what they were doing to stare as Colonel Roy Mustang nearly knocked over two very drunk and very . . . 'willing' women in his effort to exit the room, a distraught, but determined expression on his face.

Sergeant Cain Fuery furrowed his black brows in confusion as the mess hall doors swung shut and everyone went back to what they had been doing before the Flame's interruption. Including Havoc . . .

He turned back to Cain and grinned alluringly. "So, where were—huh?"

Fuery was gone. Looking around in bewilderment, Havoc quickly spotted the object of his affection making his way over to the other side of the mess hall.

Fuery pushed his way through the throngs of partygoers, politely elbowing one particularly drunken officer in his side, until he found where the colonel had just been sitting. His chair had been overturned and there was a small box and a white ribbon on the floor.

Fuery put his hands on his hips and pursed his lips, wondering what had spooked the Flame Alchemist. "Hm . . . what's this?" he said aloud, suddenly spotting a small piece of paper on the floor near the fallen chair. The short man leaned over and picked it up just as Havoc came stumbling out of the crowd, unlit cigarette dangling from his lips.

"Jeez . . . you have to be Moses to get through these crowds," the inebriated man stated, rubbing the back of his blonde head. "Hey, what's that?" he asked, seeing that Cain was reading something instead of paying attention to him.

His reading having been interrupted, the dark-haired man looked over his shoulder at Havoc, a knowing smile playing on his lips, and handed him the note. Frowning slightly, the second lieutenant held the small piece of paper near his nose and slowly deciphered the blurring words:

I love you.

-Ed

Havoc blinked for a second. Then laughed joyously and captured a squeaking Fuery in a tight hug. "Aw! I love you, too! Whats say we go back to my place and I have my wild way with you?"

Fuery blushed furiously, then said in a loud voice, "That note was from Ed, Havoc."

"Ed?" the blonde man asked, pulling away from his current obsession, but still grasping his shoulders possessively. "Ed's in love with you?"

If possible, Fuery blushed even harder, and stammered, "N-no! That . . . that note was from Ed to Colonel Mustang!"

"Mustang? The boss loves the colonel?"

In response to this question, Fuery nodded and said, "I guess so."

Havoc looked at the shorter man seriously for a while—so long, in fact, that Fuery actually became unnerved and began to fidget beneath the gaze—then grinned like an idiot and wrapped the sergeant up in his arms again. "That's okay! I still love you!"

Unsure of what else he could do, Fuery merely rolled his eyes, sighed, and said in a low voice, "Merry Christmas to you, too, Havoc."

And good luck, Edward.

That's it. Tell me how you like. It's kinda hard getting back in the swing of things after writing a real story for so long.

Again, to the readers of 'Family', sorry for the runaround. You'll get your new chapter soon!

Please review!