--------------------------------------------------------
Not There
--------------------------------------------------------
Havoc decided to be early to the office that day. He didn't know why, but for some reason, he felt he should drag himself there earlier, maybe just for the change. Maybe just so he could see exactly what went on before he got there. Who knew? There could be elves that lived under his desk and stole those pens he was always missing and they only came out before he got there. Whatever the reason, he headed to the office early.
The building was missing quite a few of the normal inhabitants when he got there, and it was a lot quieter than normal. He could hear his footsteps echo in the hallway; it was slightly unnerving. When he opened the door, he noticed there was already one occupant. "Good morning, Lieutenant Havoc." She intoned in the same voice he always heard from her. "Mornin' Lieutenant Hawkeye." He grumbled, yawning.
"You're here early." A statement, not a question.
"Could say the same for yourself." He replied.
"True, but it is something out of the ordinary for you."
"You cut me deep, Lieutenant," He said with mock sorrow, a hand placed over his heart. Was that a smile?
She stood up from her chair, taking a mug that sat on the corner of the desk. "Well, for whatever fascinating reason you're here so early, you can tell me when I get back; I need to go for my tea." She walked briskly past him and out into the hallway. Havoc smiled as she walked past him. Almost anyone else would think her cold, but in reality, he'd come to see her as a truly caring person. She had many sides to her, and so long as it wasn't the one that kept a pistol pointed at him, he enjoyed being around her. His relationship with her, though not romantic in anyway, was one of the few successful ones he had with the female population of Central.
Snapping out of his reverie, he walked past her desk to his own, but on the way knocked the pile of papers that had been neatly stacked onto the floor. "Shit," He muttered to himself. Sighing in exasperation, he bent down and began to try to fix them back into a pile. Satisfied, he set them back down on the corner of her desk.
"Not there, you idiot!" Havoc turned at the new voice in the room. "Chief?" He asked in mild shock. "Don't you get here after I do?" Roy looked at his second lieutenant with a look somewhere between confusion and surprise. "You are here early, aren't you? Oh well, never mind. You can't put those there."
"Why?"
"Because," Roy said striding over to the desk and moving the pile over three inches to the left. "That's where she puts the stuff to give to me."
Jean raised an eyebrow. "But that's where it was…"
"No, no, Havoc, it was here." He pushed it farther, to the complete opposite side of the desk. Jean shook his head. "That's where she puts the stuff to give to me."
"Yes, but you never have as much as I do."
"That's cause you're the colonel, and I'm just the second lieutenant."
"Well, if you ever want to become colonel, you should work on more paperwork."
Havoc pushed the pile back to the other side of the desk. "No, boss, if you ever want to make it to Fuhrer, you should do it."
Roy pushed. "No, not there. It was there."
Push. "Not there, there."
Push. "No, there."
Push. "There."
The two men stopped at the sound of footsteps approaching the doorway. Jean quickly ran to his desk, and Roy did the same, but not before pushing the pile back to Jean's side of Riza's desk. Havoc glowered at his superior as the door opened. Riza stepped in, carrying a mug of steaming tea. "Oh, sir," She noted. "You decided to come early today." She said with a hint of surprise, but also approval in her voice. Roy grinned. "I'm capable of not being lazy."
"But it seems you are capable of trying to force Lieutenant Havoc to do your paperwork." She said as she sat down at her desk, deftly sliding the pile of paperwork back to the other side of the desk. Roy cursed under his breath. Havoc grinned. "Nice try, though, sir." She said.