A/N: I'm back! Sorry it took so long Cross Country started and I've been crabby. I start off with a very vague or general idea of where I want to go in the chapter too. Well anyway more anger, confusion, and misunderstanding in this chapter. Let me know how I'm doing, review!

It's Strange

Then next day Roy strolled into his office with a cocky smirk on his face. The other men exchanged glances with confused looks on their faces. Who would smirk when Hawkeye was angry at him?

Mustang opened the door to his shared office with Hawkeye and briefly wondered if she had forgiven him. He quickly brushed that small doubt aside and said, "Good morning, Hawkeye."

She looked up and frowned. "You're an hour late, sir. I hope you intend to get all of your work done today." Riza pointed to his desk, already covered in papers.

He groaned, "Yes, Hawkeye." Roy moved to his desk and grabbed a pen. 'So I guess she doesn't forgive me. Damn I should've known better than to take advice from Fullmetal.'

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Riza was furious to say the least. 'He sends me the flowers and apologizes in a card, but he can't say sorry now! I can't believe him!' She shook her head angrily. 'If I don't calm down he'll ask me what's wrong. I don't think I could handle that.'

Hawkeye counted to three and then said, "Sir, I'm going to get more coffee."

Roy blinked then raised an eyebrow. "Sure Hawkeye go ahead."

Riza stood up and took her coffee cup. She quickly walked to the door and opened it. Havoc was standing with his arms full of mail. "Thanks," he mumbled.

She nodded curtly then side stepped so he could get though. 'More stupid letters from more stupid girls.' Riza wanted to shoot something but settled on grinding her teeth together.

Before the door had closed she was halfway to the cafeteria. She slowed self consciously to a quick walk and took a deep breath. 'It doesn't bother me. It's always been like this. I'm used to it now.'

Riza entered the cafeteria and found the table laden with donuts, bagels, granola bars, cereal, milk, tea, and finally coffee.

After mixing a teaspoon of cream and a little bit of sugar into black coffee she took a long drink. 'Ah the powers of caffeine. I already feel better.'

"Lieutenant Hawkeye!" someone shouted. She turned to see the head cook heading in her direction. "Hawkeye could you do me a favor?"

Riza smiled, "Sure, Seth. What do you need me to do?" Seth Hall was the best cook the military had. He was tall, with light brown hair and sparkling hazel eyes.

"Can you take these to Scheiska?' He pointed to a couple boxes of bagels. "They've been really busy lately and I don't think they've been eating."

"Sure," Riza hesitated with her coffee.

"I'll hold that for you." He reached out and gently pried the cup away from her hand. She blinked and sighed.

"I'll get going now." Riza carefully lifted the boxes and made her way to Hughes' office. She knocked on the door with her elbow and instantly regretted it. 'What is that door made of? I know that it's the investigative department but what secret requires a door that hard!'

Scheiska opened the door and squealed, "Food! Finally! Give me the boxes!"

Meekly Riza handed the boxes over and before Scheiska closed the door she caught a glimpse of papers flying in the air and people running around shouting at the top of their lungs.

After waiting about five minutes she started rubbing her sore elbow absent mindedly. Scheiska appeared with a bagel stuffed in her mouth. "Mmf ffmm mm." Hawkeye raised an eyebrow and Scheiska took the bagel out of her mouth. "Sorry about that. We've been working a really hard case and well, we're getting a little cooky."

They walked around talking about the latest news and the Elric brothers. Eventually the conversation jumped to Roy. "He's a stupid, arrogant jerk," Riza growled.

"He's not that bad," Scheiska smiled. "You're lucky."

What do you mean 'lucky?' I have the one Colonel who won't do his work to look after!" Then as an after thought she added, "And he always gets tons of annoying fan mail."

"Sounds like someone needs to talk." With a nod she continued, "Spill the beans. I want to know why you're acting like this."

"Acting like what?" Riza frowned.

"Well obviously he did something or you wouldn't be wandering around with me. You'd be in your office shooting around him and threatening him to get his work done." Scheiska hesitated, wondering if it was alright to proceed. Roy Mustang was, after all, a touchy subject with Riza.

Seeing as she wasn't going to get shot, Scheiska continued. "You know you can trust me, right? I-I don't want to force you into anything but I'm here if you want to talk." After a short pause she said, "Well I'd better be getting back. Talk to you later!" And with a small smile she was off feeling only slightly guilty that she had been gone for so long.

Riza grumbled and started walking back the office. Then she remembered her coffee and switched direction the cafeteria. Seth was waiting with her coffee in hand smiling.

"So how did it go?" he asked.

'How can he keep smiling like that. No one's that happy.' "It was good, they were really hungry."

"Well I can sense these things. That and Hughes hasn't been in here for a while so I got worried. He usually comes in at least three times a day to show off his pictures. Oh, here," he handed her the coffee. "I added a little nutmeg to it."

She sipped it and nodded an approval. "That's really good!"

Seth laughed and winked, "I'm making a pot tomorrow. I just wanted to see if the residential coffee drinker liked it."

"Well it's delicious. I'd better be getting back, though."

"Alright. Come back and get some lunch, I didn't see you yesterday."

Riza sighed and nodded. 'The only reason I didn't come to lunch was Roy.' Mentally she grimaced and trudged back to the office. Pausing at the door to steel herself she entered.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Is she still here?" a defeated Roy asked.

"No sir. Where do you want me to put all these letters?" Havoc answered. The letters shook like there had been a breeze and his eyes grew wide.

"Put them anywhere. I don't really care." Roy signed another paper as Jean dropped the letters. Surprisingly they fell into one large neat stack.

"Thanks," Havoc said stretching and looking wistfully at the letters. "You're lucky."

Smirking Roy relaxed in his chair. "I'm lucky? With Hawkeye breathing down my neck all day I'd say quite the opposite."

Jean sat in Hawkeye's chair tapping his fingers on her desk. "You know that's not what I was talking about. I was talking about your mail. You're lucky to have so many girls throwing themselves at you." He took a few letters off the top. "Here's on from the flower shop girl, Armstrong's sister, and," he waved the last on in the air. "Your apartment bill." Havoc handed that one to Roy grinning sheepishly.

"Did you ever stop to wonder why they do?" Mustang challenged. Jean abruptly shut his mouth. "I've been wondering that a lot now." His voice grew quieter, almost thoughtful. "Now they mostly bug me. I fear Hughes is rubbing off on me. I think I'm looking for commitment."

Havoc would have laughed if he hadn't seen and heard how serious the Colonel was acting. Still it was hard to stifle a chuckle when he imagined Roy standing at the alter. "So the womanizer's dreams of settling down."

This time Roy laughed, "I don't know about settling down. I am a State Alchemist. I just want someone who understands, respects, and maybe even supports my dreams."

"Hnn," Jean closed his eyes. 'Sounds like Hawkeye to me. Maybe he likes her, I mean she's beautiful, smart and supports his dreams. But what if he's in denial about liking her, I can't just tell him to ask her out, that would crush all hope.'

"Well sir I'd-" The door opened and Hawkeye walked in holding a steaming cup of coffee. She gave Havoc a glare that clearly meant get-out-of-my-chair-now-or-else. 'Speak of the devil,' Jean thought. He smiled innocently and jumped toward the door. "I'd better be getting back to work, heh heh. Bye!"

Riza sat down and started reading the report she had left. Roy glanced to her, to the letters and back to her again. 'Maybe if I don't touch the letters I won't get attacked.'

And so the day passed. Riza ignoring everything about the Colonel and Roy extremely weary of moving from his chair.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"So she ignore you the rest of the day." Maes smiled, "And you're telling me this because…" He was still happy that they had solved the case earlier that day.

Roy shifted and looked at the bar. "I need your help." Hughes kept smiling but didn't say anything else, knowing that it was hard for him. "It's weird. She doesn't even look at me, she doesn't threaten!"

"That's because you had high expectations. You expected her to forgive you because you gave her the flowers. Obviously she didn't forgive you and it's going to take a while to earn her trust back."

"I give up on high expectations. They only cause pain."

Hughes chuckled, "You can't give up on them Roy. Expectations are almost the same thing as hope. You want her to trust you again right?"

"What do you think?" Roy snapped.

Choosing ot ignore his out burst Hughes counted on his fingers. "Two, three, yah, three weeks will do."

Mustang panicked, "Three weeks for what!"

"Relax you all need a vacation. I'm coming along of course. Bring everyone too. Havoc, Falman, Breda, Fuery, and Hawkeye."

"A-a vacation?"

"Right, no work. Let me organize the whole thing!" Maes was already writing something down on a napkin.

"Okay, let's say I agree. How do you get Riza to come?"

Noticing that he said her name brought Maes hope. "Just leave it to me!"

Roy sighed, "Well there's nothing left for me to lose."