Fraternisation
Disclaimer: Hiromu Arakawa owns Full Metal Alchemist. I do not and I am writng this purely for mine and your enjoyment and do not get anything out of it.
The Fraternisation law was one of the laws that everyone, from the Generals to the lowly privates, knew. But, among the Higher up's it was common knowledge that the Fraternisation law just didn't apply to some people, some where exempt, to put it in Military terms.
General Grumman was one of the Higher up's who had made the decision about the Fraternisation law and it's exemptions. He was the keeper of the list as too who was allowed to fraternise with who, and guarded it well. At the top of the list, of course, were Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye.
The interesting fact was that neither of the two had any idea about the fraternisation law being lifted in some cases and were completely unaware that the Fraternisation law did not apply to them. The Colonel's subordinates were fond of discussing it in the office, especially while Hawkeye and Mustang weren't there.
"Do you think either of them has any idea? About the Fraternisation law I mean," Havoc asked, cigarette in his mouth. The only reason that he was asking this at this particular time was because both Hawkeye and Mustang had gone of somewhere.
"You're not going to start another betting pool about this are you?" Fuery asked thinking of how many of the famous pools he had lost. He still hadn't quite recovered form the effects of the last5 one.
Havoc raised an eyebrow. "You know, I wasn't going to, but it sounds like you want me to start one, so I guess I will,"Fuery looked mortified at the prospect. "I was only kidding," Havoc protested. "But Fuery, you're going to have to get better at actually winning these things. It's no good if you keep losing,".
"Hey, Hughes alert," Breda said, looking out the door. Everyone quickly scurried to find something to do so that Hughes wouldn't try and show them anymore pictures of Elysia. Even paperwork was better than that!
The Lieutenant Colonel then sauntered in and as expected, pulled out some pictures of Elysia and began his standard doting father rant. "Look, doesn't Elysia look so cute in her little dress. She should be a modle when she's older!".
Pictures of Elysia in her new dress were shoved in everyone's faces. Havoc and Breda managed to push Hughes away, which left Fuery to deal with the Lieutenant Colonel. "Very nice, Hughes," he choked, hoping that it would persuade Hughes to remove the pictures from underneath his face.
Hughes luckily did withdraw the pictures and Fuery sighed in relief. Hughes then asked the all important question, "Hey, does anyone know where Roy's gone?".
Havoc casually gave a reply, "He went out with Hawkeye somewhere. Probably to inspect new recruits or something,".
"Speaking of Roy and Riza, I heard Grumman's proposed a notion to completely abolish the Fraternisation law," Hughes said as he went out the door to look for the two.
Havoc wondered at this. "Hughes, aren't those two already exempt from the fraternisation law? Why does it need to be abolished for them to actually have their relationship?"
Hughes peered back round the corner to answer Havoc's question. "Yes, but come on, how many people actually know that? I mean not even Roy and Riza are aware of it, so how can we expect all these new recruits to know?" and with that, Hughes left once again to find the couple.
Meanwhile, Roy and Riza were wandering around Central, Riza trying to persuade the Colonel to go back and actually do some work. Some of the new recruits however were looking at them funny, most of them having read the handbook and it's laws on Fraternisation.
"Hey, who are they?" One asked, glancing a look towards them.
"Colonel Roy Mustang and First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye. I got it off some guy in investigation who knows them," another said. " He added that we ought to watch out for both of them. Mustang's a notorious womaniser and Hawkeye's the best sharpshooter in the Military,".
A few of the others looked over at the pair of them. Lieutenant Hawkeye seemed to be getting angrier with Roy. The only word that any of the recruits could make out was "paperwork," and Roy's reaction to it.
"Hey," another recruit chimed in. "If she's a lower officer than him, than why's she ordering him about like that? And why's he taking it?"
"I don't know about you, but to me it looks like they're both breaking the fraternisation law," The first one said.
At that moment, Maes Hughes decided to turn up. Instead of going after Roy and Riza, who he had come to find, he turned to the recruits. "Those two can't actually break the Fraternisation law you know. Have any of you lot heard of Grumman's by-pass?" he asked, knowing that probably none of them did.
"What?" went most of the recruits.
"I heard about that. Didn't Grumman create some by law so that some people whose relationships have been approved of could fraternise? So the fraternisation law doesn't actually apply to everyone," The recruit who said this looked deep in thought.
Maes looked at the recruit with respect and gave him a smile. "Yep. And guess who's at the top of that list of Grumman's. It isn't hard,"
"Colonel Mustang and Lieutenant Hawkeye," The recruit said looking at the Lieutenant Colonel and giving Hughes a smile back.
"Got it in one. Of course, they're closely followed by Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh. So don't worry about the entire fraternisation thing," Maes paused and looked around. Great, he thought, both Roy and Riza have disappeared. "You," he spoke to the recruit who had answered his questions. "Come with me,"
The recruit snapped to attention with a yes sir. Both he and Hughes turned to go, but Hughes still had one last thing to say. "Oh, and before I go, would anyone like to see a picture of my darling daughter Elysia?" Hughes brought out the pictures he had had from earlier.
"No," all of the recruits replied.
"But she's so cute," Hughes protested, before being shoved away, the recruit he had picked up hastening to follow him. "Oh well,".
"That's the guy in information I told you about," One of the recruits who had spoken earlier said. "A bit crazy, but he does his job well, I'd believe him,".
A/N: I randomly got the inspiration for this one night while I was sitting in bed. That would be about two weeks ago. At the time, I couldn't be bothered to turn my computer on or get my notebook (It was something like 12 at night) and therefore some of the lines the voice in my head was spitting out were lost. I can remember I had Fuery saying a bit more as the story played out in my head, but my the time I wrote it the lines were gone. This is also my dedication to Royai day! (seeing as I don't actually have anything else) Please review, as it really does encourage me to write more (and with everything sitting on my harddrive, I certainly need to sort something out)