Sicktember Day 26: Strep Throat/Laryngitis
Word Count: 1176
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: G/K
Characters: Riza Hawkeye, Jean Havoc, Team Mustang
Warning:
Summary: Hawkeye has Laryngitis. A general is expecting her to give a demonstration speech, or it will reflect poorly on Mustang. Luckily, Havoc has an idea!
Notes:

Laryngitis

Hawkeye coughed, and then tipped up the glass to drink some more. She made an awful face as she did, but kept drinking it, stopping halfway through. Then she cleared her throat and opened her mouth.

"Hhhhh…"

The men in the room all sat back, frustration and disappointment clear on their faces.

"Well, that's it, then. We've tried every quick fix that we can," Mustang said. "Hawkeye's laryngitis isn't going to clear up."

"What does that mean about her presentation, sir?" Falman asked.

Mustang frowned. "We'll have to cancel and reschedule or get someone else to do it."

Breda shook his head. "That's not going to work, and you know it. General Wallace has you in his crosshairs. He expects Hawkeye to give this class to the sniper corps and no one else. If she doesn't, or it has to be rescheduled, he's going to take it out on you."

Mustang huffed. "I know, but what else can we do?" He glanced at Hawkeye, who looked apologetic, and shook his head. "No, don't feel bad, Lieutenant. It isn't as if you had any control over it. We'll just have to figure out what to do."

No one said anything, no solutions to the problem jumping to mind. General Wallace was one of the higher ranked generals. He wasn't high enough to be on the council, but he was well placed. He happened to be friendly with General Hakuro, which meant that neither of them was especially fond of Mustang. They took any misstep, any slight, and blew it up as high as it would go. He was here in Central, and had decided to throw his weight around a little, bullying a situation into Hawkeye giving a demonstration and talk to the sniper corps. She hadn't wanted to do it, but she knew when she had no choice, and would do it to maintain Mustang's position.

An unfortunate bought of laryngitis was putting all of that into jeopardy, though.

"It's too bad there's not a way to transmit your thoughts to them," Fuery said with a sigh.

Havoc sat up straighter. "Wait—actually, that might not be a bad idea."

All heads swiveled to him.

"Look, one of the key components of working on the field is non-verbal communication, right? You can't always hear your teammates. We all know the standard codes that they teach us, but once you're in the field, one of the biggest differences is how well you can read your team, right? What if, instead of Hawkeye speaking, she stays quiet and brings in someone else on the team to translate for her—showing that getting to know your teammates is paramount in doing your job well."

"That's… not a bad idea," Mustang said, rubbing his chin. "Of course, I would be the best—"

He cut off as Hawkeye swung her arm up, pointing at Havoc.

"Hey—what! No way! You know that you and I read each other very we—"

She turned on him, hands on her hips, jaw set, and a glare in her eyes. She tilted her head slightly and sunk her head down just a bit as if emphasizing something. She moved her head around a bit and let out a huff through her nose.

"Yeah, well…" Mustang trailed off, and then he sighed. "Yes… yes, of course, you're right. It would make things too obvious." He glanced at Havoc. "Think you can do it?"

Havoc grinned "If I don't, I'm sure she'll shoot me to tell me I've got it wrong."

Hawkeye rolled her eyes and spun on her heel go back to her desk.

Havoc didn't have to be a genius to know an exasperated yes when he saw one.

The day of the presentation dawned a bit cool and cloudy. Havoc and Hawkeye were already waiting on the shooting range, Havoc a bit nervous that he'd agreed to all of this. She smiled at him, though, patting his shoulder for reassurance.

It helped a little.

All too soon, General Wallace and the group with him came pouring onto the training grounds. Havoc and Hawkeye both saluted and, as soon as he allowed them to release their salutes, Havoc started talking.

"Good morning, General Wallace. We're going to—"

"What is this!" Wallace demanded. "We're here to be taught by the legendary Hawk's Eye, not you."

"Yes, sir," Havoc said. "But if you'll just—"

Wallace's attention switched to Hawkeye. "Lieutenant, I demand that you take over teaching this class immediately, as promised."

Hawkeye, her gaze, cool, sure, and steely, held up a finger, as if asking the general to wait a moment, the gestured to Havoc. The general looked ready to blow again, but Havoc took over anyway.

"As I was saying," he said, "Lieutenant Hawkeye decided to take a bit of an unorthodox approached to teaching this class. She's not only going to talk about the fundamentals of being a sniper, of care for your weapon, of common knowledge that you learn on the field, but she's going to put an emphasis on how knowing your teammates can help a sniper function better. This will be demonstrated in the way that we have learned to read each other. I will be speaking for Lieutenant Hawkeye, and she'll let me know if I miss anything or mess anything up." He glanced at her. "But hopefully not by shooting me."

The assembled students laughed, and Hawkeye shot him a look.

"Ah, yes… She's currently reminding me of rule number one: Never aim at a target if you're not willing to shoot said target. That's followed by rule two: If you're willing to shoot a target, accept that you can kill the target."

Hawkeye nodded, pleased, and then turned around, sniper rifle in hand.

"Alrighty," Havoc said. "Who's ready to start with general gun knowledge, care, and safety!"

The lesson took up all of the morning and stretched into the afternoon, Havoc spoke for Hawkeye the entire time, and not once slipped up. Hawkeye, for her part, demonstrated things extraordinarily well. Even their demonstration of being able to read each other in the field went swimmingly. They could tell that General Wallace wasn't pleased, as it wasn't what he was expecting, but it was hard to deny that teaching the lesson that way had done good. The students walked away with a new appreciation of reading body language and their team.

By the time it was over, they were both tired and hungry, and more than ready to pack it up.

"You know," Havoc said as they gathered their things and started walking. "That wasn't so bad. We've got a real rapport going on!"

Hawkeye glanced at him, smiled, and nodded.

"…If you ever wanna leave Mustang, I think you and I could—"

Hawkeye gave him a sharp shove, hard enough to send him stumbling, but Havoc just laughed, knowing that Hawkeye knew that he was teasing.

Sometimes it was nice to know that your team could read you and had your back.