A/N: Y'all didn't think that just because my account's been mostly dead for six months that I'd forget about my annual holiday fic, did you? Of course not! Writing these is one of my favourite personal holiday traditions, and I love sharing them with you. And, let's be honest, we could all use a little bit of fun happiness after this year. We've almost made it through, everyone; just keep holding on a little longer, and I'll see you on the other side. Happy holidays, y'all; I love ya.
The Battle of East City
The general rule was that only senior officers and their direct aides had to work a full day on Solstice Eve; support staff were permitted to leave a few hours early, and so the office had held only the two of them since noon. Even a minor crisis that had kept them there til nearly 7 p.m. went by without Roy grumbling about it, without even the smallest sense of frustration. It was quiet, peaceful… and he had Riza to himself.
Night had fallen dark and still outside, fat flakes of snow drifting past the window in the slow, swirling eddies of a light breeze. They were backlit by the glow of lampposts in the courtyard below, falling on bushes and shrubs, adding to their already inches-thick white coverings.
Finally, at two minutes after seven, Riza pulled the headset from her ears and switched off the transceiver. "Whoever is in charge of gifts for the railyard supervisor, I hope they give him coal," she murmured. "Being rude to people on Solstice Eve isn't exactly in the spirit of the season."
"Coal would be a useful gift for a railyard boss, wouldn't it?" Roy smothered a smile at his own joke. "If he didn't want it, he could just toss it in the tender car…." The smile escaped fully onto his face as she turned to look at him with an exasperated look. "Did he manage to track the shipment down?"
A nod. "He said he found it stalled in a warehouse on the north side of Central, close to the Kanama slums, just not quite close enough." Raising both arms over her head, she stretched. "He put in a call to the warehouse supervisor and dragged him out of a Solstice party he was hosting to make sure the shipment makes it the rest of the way to Kanama."
His smile was still present, but it had turned fond. "No Ishvalan kids are going without toys for Solstice on your watch."
"Or yours." She got to her feet, and collected her uniform jacket from where she had shed it on the back of the chair. She met his smile with her own, though hers was full of apology. "I don't think there's much chance of you getting a train to Central for Solstice, is there?"
"Oh, did I forget to tell you?" His expression was all innocence, though the mischief in his eyes showed how pleased he was at his own cleverness. "I decided about a month ago that I'd stay out here for Solstice this year, instead of going to visit my mother." His gaze travelled down over her body, over the jacket draped over one arm and the hand propped on one hip, and the innocent look evaporated. "There's something – or rather, someone – to keep me here."
Riza crossed slowly toward his desk, watching as the eyes that had been returning to her face immediately dropped to the leisurely movements of her legs. "Is that a fact…." She leaned both hands on the desk, head tilted to one side. "Suppose I already have plans? What then?"
His smile dropped. "…Do you?"
"Yes." She leaned closer, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "But I think Hayate and I would be very happy to have you join us at the dog park. The one here is much nicer than the one in Central."
Standing, he also braced both hands on the desk, leaning closer toward her. "And, of course, what kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't walk you home from such an outing?"
She was still smiling as his nose brushed against hers. "You'd be as bad as I would if, after being out in the cold, I didn't at least ask you in for a cup of coffee to warm up with."
The kiss was brief, and teasingly chaste, broken only by Roy saying, "I don't know… it's supposed to be well below freezing tomorrow…. I might need something a little more than a cup of coffee to keep the hypothermia at bay."
"Hm, you may be right…." She looked up at him through her bangs, her tone certain. "Two cups of coffee, then."
Before Roy could offer a retort, he saw the playfulness drop completely from her face, saw her lift one hand in a gesture to pause. She straightened, head turned to the right, listening….
A moment later, the door burst open, Fuery all but falling through. "Colonel!" His breath came in hurried puffs that only served to fog up his glasses even more. His cheeks and nose were red from the December cold, melted snowflakes dotting this hat and coat. "Colonel, you've got to come quick! Havoc slipped on the ice out front of Headquarters and fell. He says he thinks his leg is broken!"
Neither of them hesitated, both springing into motion. A few strides took Roy from behind his desk to the coat rack, where he snagged both his coat and Riza's. As she pulled the first aid kit from her desk drawer, he shrugged into the garment. "Where is he?"
"Just on the main walk up to the front of Headquarters. The four of us had been at a Solstice party in the barracks and we were on our way to get drinks somewhere in town when he slipped." Fuery shifted from one foot to the other, presumably out of nervous concern. "Will he be okay, do you think?"
"I'm sure he'll be fine." Riza passed him the kit, taking her coat and pulling it on. "He survived without any legs at all just fine for several months; a broken one won't set him back much."
They moved quickly out into the hall, Roy and Fuery heading toward the stairwell, leaving Riza behind to lock the office door. Havoc was going to need to be taken to the hospital, and with Solstice tomorrow, it was likely none of them would be back here in the next few days.
"Shame he won't be able to get out and visit his family for the holiday," Roy commented, his tone smoothly conversational but hiding an undercurrent of concern. "He spent last Solstice in a wheelchair thinking he'd never walk again, now this one in the hospital…. I'm going to start insisting he wear some kind of padding. Or at least talk to the military insurance provider about accident protection."
Fuery's responsive laugh was half-hearted and nervous, but Roy supposed that was only natural. From the sound of things, he had been there when the bone broke… and bones tended to break audibly. Roy supposed he would be shaken up, too, if he had been there to witness it.
Riza caught up a moment before they reached the stairs, all three descending together. They did not speak, the only sound being their booted footsteps echoing from the walls, moving quickly and out of sync with each other, creating a kind of cacophony.
Roy didn't pay much attention; he was already mentally running through what had to be done. Make sure Havoc was lucid and that the break had only done damage to the bone and not a major vein or artery. After that, get someone to call an ambulance, if it hadn't been done already; Breda or Falman might have been sent to do that particular task, as Fuery had been tasked with getting himself and Riza. Roy didn't necessarily need to go to the hospital himself to watch over Havoc, especially if Riza had been hinting at the promise of something just for the two of them….
They reached the bottom of the stairs, emerging into the large main foyer and beginning to cross the floor. A few clerks still sat behind the administration desk and looked up as the trio passed, then returned their attention to whatever files were in front of them. Their gazes didn't even linger on the first aid box in Roy's hand.
They pushed through the front doors into a crisp, cold evening. Snow still fell, and Roy could see how that it was not the loose powder he had hoped it would be. It was heavy, damp 'packing' snow, the kind that was perfect for turning into snowmen… or for slipping on on damp pavement and breaking your leg in the fall.
Directly ahead on the pathway, a shape sprawled on the ground, the curl of smoke from a lit cigarette wafting in the light from the lampposts. Roy frowned – Havoc was alone, no Breda or Falman in sight.
The sandy-blond man raised himself on his elbows at their approach, then lifted one hand in a wave with lopsided grin. "Hey, Boss. Good to see you." His eyes fell on the first aid kit. "Aww, a Solstice present? For me? You shouldn't have."
He couldn't help but smile back. "You're in a good mood for someone in your position." He glanced around as they approached. "Where are the others? Calling the ambulance?"
"I'm sure they'll pop up sooner or later."
The odd answer to the question raised a flag in Roy's mind. It wasn't exactly a red flag, but the colour seemed to hover somewhere between yellow and orange. Then again, perhaps the shock and pain had scrambled Havoc's focus a little; proper diction with a broken bone was not to be expected.
He stopped a few feet shy of the downed Lieutenant, noting with some relief that there was no blood on the pantleg and no odd protrusions that would indicate a more serious break. There wasn't even any visible swelling yet, which tended to set in quickly under hard trauma like this.
He was just opening his mouth to suggest a few pain relievers from the kit when the first snowball hit him in the shoulder.
Roy whirled on the spot, one hand lifting to brush absently at the clumps of flakes sticking to the fabric of his coat. A short distance away, behind a pair of low snow walls tucked in behind shrubs, were Falman and Breda. The red-haired man was grinning, having clearly been the first to launch an attack, Falman still holding a snowball and turning it over in his hands as he watched the scene.
A scene that, all at once, Roy understood. Without looking down, he said, "It's a good thing your leg still works, Havoc." He grinned. "You're going to need it to run in a moment."
"Hey, we had to get you out here somehow. You and Hawkeye were taking too long on your own." There was a shuffling sound as he no doubt eased himself a little farther away. "Pair of workaholics, both of you."
Roy glanced to where Fuery was already fifteen feet away across the snow, his footprints leaving deep impressions in the white. Even as he watched, the young man bent and took a double fistful of snow, molding it into a ball. "And so your plan for making sure Hawkeye and I go home at a reasonable time on Solstice Eve… is to pelt us with snowballs?"
"Something like that," Falman called from behind his barricade.
Grinning, Roy tossed the first aid kit aside and reached one hand into his pants pocket. "Run that by me again. You're going to throw extremely meltable snow… at the Flame Alchemist? Do you –"
He froze, the grin disappearing. He patted first the other pants pocket, then each of the pockets of his coat. There was nothing but the faint jingle of his car keys and the unmistakable shape and solidity of his wallet… neither of which he had been reaching for.
"Looking for these, sir?"
When he turned, Riza was some twenty feet away, smiling privately with his gloves in one hand… and a snowball in the other. Another four lay by her foot, ready and waiting to be picked up and thrown. Only two sets of footprints proceeded in front of her – his and Fuery's. She had stopped, letting them continue ahead of her, and been silently forming her ammunition while he spoke to Havoc.
"After all this time," he said, shaking his head with a slow smile. "This is how my entire team betrays me?"
Havoc got to his feet, packing a snowball as he backed away. "We missed out on last Solstice as a team, thanks to Bradley," he said, shrugging. "So we had to find a way to give this one a little extra fun."
"Fair enough." Reaching up, Roy turned up the collar of his coat, tugging it close against the back of his neck. Ducking his head to protect his face, he spread both arms. "Fire when ready."
They came all at once from every direction. Fuery landed a hit high on one leg, Havoc catching him on the ribs on the opposite side. Both Falman and Breda landed shots on his back, and Riza – her aim just as accurate with a snowball as with a gun – hit him square in the centre of his chest. The projectile exploded on impact, splashing flakes up against his cheeks.
He held still, and when no other impact came, he looked up, his grin wolfish in the overhead light. "My turn."
He ducked low, closing his fist around a clump of snow, watching as Riza bent to pick up one of her pre-prepared snowballs. Dodging to the side as she let fly with it, he hastily molded a ball and sent it sailing toward her. It landed high on her shoulder, freckling tiny clumps of white across the black of her coat.
The entire scene promptly devolved into chaos.
There was no longer a single target, snowballs flying indiscriminately. Fuery dropped flat in the snow, pushing it up in front of himself to create a foot-high barrier. Breda yelled, falling backward as he lost his balance in surprise as Havoc got close enough to jam a fistful of snow down the back of his friend's shirt. Falman immediately avenged this attack by landing a pair of snowballs on Havoc's chest and hip.
Roy had ducked off the pathway, taking up partial cover behind a tree, and looking out to find Riza had done the same a short distance away. Her eyes seemed to glitter in the lamplight and falling snow above her armful of snowballs before she stepped out and methodically began hurling them one by one at the four men doing snowy battle in front of her. Four direct hits.
He shook snowflakes from his hair, opening his mouth to tell her 'nice shots,' when a voice carried over the sounds of the fight. "Just what do you all think you're doing?"
Everyone stilled, turning to face the new voice, and finding Grumman standing on the path, watching all of them with folded arms. One eyebrow raised. "No salute for your new Führer-President?"
"…I think we can arrange something…." Turning to the others, Roy nodded and received confirmation in return, lightly hefting the snowball in his hand. "It's maybe not a twenty-one gun salute, but it should do the trick."
The old man grinned mischievously. "You wouldn't dare…."