The Value of Things Like Paperclips

Author: MoonStarDutchess

Part 4: Value of Paperclips

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership whatsoever of Fullmetal Alchemist and gain no monetary profit from this fanfiction. I do own my plot so if I catch anyone copying it, regardless of fandom, I won't be a happy MSD and will take action.


Value of Paperclips

Roy definitely hadn't expected Riza to be behind him instead of in the office, and the surprise showed through on his face. "Ri…Hawkeye! You are supposed to be in the office."

Riza raised her right eyebrow, the left automatically furrowing due to the action. "I am?"

"Yes," he said, as if it were a fact of life that anytime after lunch she should have been in the office.

"Well, as you can see I'm not," she stated factually, amusement sewed into her tone. She lifted the stack of papers in her arms a few inches, "I had to go get these for you after all."

Roy wrinkled his nose and rested his hand on the large stack of paperwork. Putting his thumb at the corner, he flipped them up and let them go, the corners making a noise similar to a deck of cards being shuffled. "Damn, I'll be here till late in the night."

"Not if you hurry and get started," she said, walking past him and into the office.

Roy's body slumped. His day couldn't possibly get any worse. He walked sluggishly into the room and over to his desk. His chair squeaked slightly as he pulled it out and creaked as he sat down in it.

Riza pulled up a chair and sat down beside him. He looked at her oddly as she began sorting through the papers, putting them in various stacks at different places on his desk. "It usually goes faster if we do it like this," she said, not looking up at him. She knew he was questioning her actions in his mind since they usually only worked like this when it was late.

Roy nodded and directed his gaze down to a form that she sat in front of him.

"Date and sign it. It's just a simple weapons form," she said, still not looking up from her task.

Roy grabbed a pen and did as she said. It was standard that she always sat out the weapon forms first because they were the easiest and they were what she knew most about. She'd leave the sheets that required mathematical calculations to him (math had always been the bane of her existence).

The more that she organized the work, the higher he stepped up on the proverbial ladder of guilt at his inability to buy her anything during his market excursion. Her entire life she'd been doing things for other people. Ever since they met she'd put her focus on him. She entered the military because of him, saved his life numerous times in Ishbal, guarded him for all these years, and helped him with his paperwork (something she wasn't required to do). The most important thing she did was love him unconditionally, no matter how much or how many times he screwed things up. Even after all she did for him, he couldn't get a simple gift to show her how much he loved her. He'd never felt more pathetic in his life.

Roy slumped down in his chair and continued to work on what she put in front of him. He only paid half attention to what he was signing, ever confident that she wouldn't put a paper in front of him that was ill. After he finished a pile, she would take it, replace it with another, and leave the room. She would then return with even more work, much to his annoyance.

This continued in an incessant cycle for two more hours, causing Roy to grow tired of the constant attack of forms. He was on his sixth stack of work when his stomach emitted a growl so loud it sounded like it echoed through the office. Riza looked up from the stack of paperwork she was toiling over.

"You hungry already?"

"Already? I haven't eaten anything since breakfast," he replied.

Riza was surprised, "What? Why? Didn't you eat anything for lunch?"

"No, I told you I was busy doing something else. If I hadn't been, I would have eaten with you." His stomach rumbled once again, this time louder, as if they hadn't heard it the first time and it wanted attention.

Riza stood, walked over to her desk, and opened up a drawer. Removing a large box, she walked over and sat it beside Roy. "I was going to do this but looks like you will have to." Removing the lid, she revealed a bunch of multicolored paperclips. "I'll go get you some lunch while you clip all these piles of work together."

"You'd do that?"

"Yes, of course," she said, a small smile making its way onto her lips. "Please get these together. It will save me time when I get back."

"You got it. I might even get the rest of them filled out too," he said, a grin spreading across his lips.

"That would be a plus," she teased and walked over to the door. She turned to face him. "What do you want?"

"Surprise me," he said.

"All right then." Riza was unfazed by his response. She left the room and shut the door behind her. Roy let his head fall to his desk as soon as her footfalls faded from his hearing ability. She really was too perfect.

He closed his eyes and relaxed but as soon as he felt sleep tugging at him from all the corners of his subconscious, he sat up quickly, cringing as his neck popped with the sudden force. He wouldn't slack off and would have everything done by the time she got back from the mess hall, or wherever it was that she was going.

He picked up the pen and began working on the paperwork in front of him. When he finally finished he clipped it together with a red paperclip. He stood and began clipping the other piles together with the tiny wire instruments, paying no mind to the colors of the ones he was using. That all changed when he pulled out a blue one.

Roy lifted it to eye level, and took in the shape and shade of the tiny clip. He actually found it fascinating how something so simple was used so much in daily office life. His gaze drifted down to the box and he chuckled when he saw that the cool color was the majority among all the other colors: a testament to Riza rarely using the blue ones. Roy sat back down in his seat, not taking his eyes off the box as his mind drifted back to when he found out one of Riza's most unusual quirks: her love of blue paperclips.

When they were children, she would make the huge paperclip chains that would often annoy her father to the point he shouted at her. He would always absently pull one out from his container on his desk, only to have a huge chain follow. Then, it would usually get caught on something, and inevitably knock the entire container to the floor, scattering clips everywhere. It was very amusing to him and Riza, but his teacher wasn't so easily disported.

The chain was always made from the blue ones so her father soon learned to pay close attention to the color he used and, amusingly, gave Riza all the blue paperclips he had so that she wouldn't cause him to scatter them all over the floor.

He picked up another blue paperclip, attached it to the one in his hand, and chuckled again. Then he added another, then another, then another until he had a large line going. Then he attached them together and laughed at the blue paperclip…necklace. He grinned and made another, smaller loop of paperclips. He'd give them to Riza to get a reaction, maybe even a smile, out of her.

Suddenly, an amusing idea came to him. He grabbed a sheet of paper and laid it flat on his desk. Reaching for the pen that was currently behind his ear, he began drawing a transmutation circle on the paper. He sorted out all the paperclips into piles and then rested the blue ones on the circle he drew. He placed his hands on the sheet of paper and…

"What the hell are you doing?" Riza questioned, interrupting his concentration. She was truly bewildered by over the various piles of paperclips organized along his desk and even more so by the largest pile of her beloved blue ones sitting on a sheet of paper in the middle of said desk.

Roy looked up at her and a smirked came to his lips, "Come and watch," he said, not the least disturbed that she saw him doing something most people would find weird. He was certain, of course, that she found it weird as well.

Riza walked further into the room and over to the table beside him to sit down the large tray she was carrying. She moved back to the door to shut and lock it before going over to stand in front of his desk.

Roy grabbed a finger sandwich from the tray and shoved it in his mouth at the exact time she spoke.

"What are you going to do with those paperclips?"

Roy, still chewing the sandwich, lifted the paperclip necklace he made, leaned forward, and put it over Riza's head. She reached down to lift the chain up slightly and stared at it, bewildered over Roy's actions but not letting him know it. Once again, he startled her when he grabbed her wrist and placed a smaller paperclip chain over it.

"Are you okay?" she questioned, leaning forward and placing a hand on his forehead. She looked into his eyes as she did so, as if she was searching to see if his sanity had escaped him.

He moved away, swallowed his food, and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Now, stand back a bit."

Riza took a step back and folded her arms as she watched him place his hands back on the paper with the stack of paperclips upon it.

He concentrated on the circle and the transmutation symbol under the clips radiated a brilliant red, it flashed and a poof of grey smoke came about, covering the circle and paper. When it dissipated, all that was left was a blank sheet of paper and a giant blue paperclip, about a foot in length and three inches across.

"What the..." Riza trailed off, not sure what to speak after the initial two words that came out of her. She'd never seen such a big paperclip. Why in the hell did he make something like that? Better yet, how did he think about doing such a thing?

Roy picked it up the clip and handed it to her. "A giant one is easier to keep than a bunch of little ones."

She took it from him and then examined it, flipping it repeatedly in her hand. Finally, she looked up at him. "What am I going to use a paperclip this big for?"

"You never use the blue paperclips anyway and you know it," Roy said. He picked up the paper he drew the circle on and threw it in the trash. He popped another small sandwich in his mouth and began gathering all the other colored paperclips and putting them back in the box. He then stacked all the clipped paperwork together before getting the tray Riza brought in and sitting it on his desk. He sat down and began eating, waiting for Riza to respond somehow to his ridiculous actions regarding the paperclips.

She moved around the desk and sat down beside him. Her eyes directed down at the paperclip again and then back up to him. He took another bite of his food; she laughed, and then moved to kiss him on the cheek.

He turned to her while chewing the food in his mouth, and tilted his head to the right, wordlessly questioning the reason for the kiss.

"Today, the girls asked me today what the cutest thing you ever did was," she said.

Roy's eyes widened and his heart sped up. He swallowed his food before it was fully chewed, the descent of the material making a squishy yet rough sound, "And?"

"This is it," she said, "This is incredibly cute."

"That? But ... but it's just a stupid paperclip."

"Never underestimate the value of paperclips," Riza said.

"Ugh, you deserve better..." Roy muttered, and went back to eating, not bothering to savor the food. He made a mental a note never to skip lunch again.

"Sir, what exactly did you do at lunch?"

Roy grabbed the milk on the tray, opened the bottle, and drank half of it before sitting it back down. "Nothing," he said.

"Don't give me an answer like that. It must have been important to forget to eat. You know how you get when -"

"When is your birthday?" he questioned, interrupting her.

"What?" She was surprised at the sudden question.

"Your Birthday? When is it?"

"January 18...Why?"

"Did you know I didn't know your birthday? Didn't even know the month it was in."

"Yes I figured you didn't," she replied casually. She was beginning to worry about Roy's mental state even more now. He suddenly went from being hungry and not wanting to work, to being crazy over paperclips, to being cute, then going back to hungry and now he seemed a bit hostile with himself.

"Don't you care?" he snapped, turning his head toward her. He was angry that she was being so casual about his lack of knowledge concerning her.

"Wha...wait... you..."

"I went looking for you at the range and overheard the conversation you had with the other women."

"Oh, I see. So you felt bad because you didn't know my birthday?"

Roy nodded, a bit surprised that she wasn't angry that he'd eavesdropped.

Riza chuckled and ran a hand through his hair as he ate. "That's silly Roy."

"Any other woman would get mad," he muttered.

"Do you want me to get angry?"

Roy slammed his hand down next to the tray, the thump causing his milk bottle to wobble slightly. Thankfully, it stayed upright since there were many papers on his desk that the liquid inside could have ruined. He could feel the stinging in his hand from the slap, the pain most dominate in the middle, then radiating outward in tiny waves until it just tingled.

Riza's eyes widened at his gesture and she removed her hand from his hair. She wasn't used to seeing such a violent reaction from him, especially when it wasn't over some stupid mission or an issue with the higher ups. "What's wrong with you?"

1. Finger Sandwiches: Tiny sandwiches. Basically, make a sandwich and cut it into little rectangles. I put this in a story once and got tons of questions. That's why I'm putting the definition here. LOL