It's been a while hasn't it? Yes it has, but I finally dug it out and finished it. Yep. Not much to say. Enjoy!

To Yuna - I don't know how this was added to a crossovers community. This is not a crossover nor was it labeled as one.

049. Cold Hands

Thick white flakes fell softly from the dark sky like downy feathers, coating the frozen ground in a white layer of the fluffy chips of ice. Colonel Roy Mustang watched the snow pile up from the safety and warmth of his office. Having finished his work for once in a lifetime, he was now biding his time, wondering how long he could loiter around the office until he would be forced out into the frigid outdoors and sent home. The sound of a chair moving across the floor made him turn around to face his subordinates, most of whom were also lollygagging, eyeing the pale icy flakes that fell outside the window dubiously.

"The later we wait the colder it will get." Falman stated, pulling his worn tan coat on over his uniform.

Fuery seemed to agree with the older man, as he sighed and stood. Mustang smirked as he watched the master sergeant pull on his rather puffy winter coat. The two men left the office, quickly followed by Breda and Havoc, both wrapped tightly in warm jackets to fend off the cold outside air.

Mustang sighed, sending one last look out the window before standing up and retrieving his own coat.

"Come on Lieutenant, there's no use putting off the inevitable."

"Yes sir." She replied, putting her book in her desk drawer and shrugging on her coat.

The pair walked in silence through the warm halls of Central headquarters, both trying to soak up as much heat as possible before they got outside.

"I'll see you tomorrow Sir." Hawkeye said as they reached the main doors to the building.

Mustang nodded, on any normal day he would walk her home, despite living in the opposite direction, but because it was so cold, it was best just for them to go directly to their own apartments and avoid freezing completely. They pushed open the double doors and were greeted with a gust of icy wind.

"Feels like a storm." Mustang commented, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Let's hope it's not too bad, we've already been snowed in once this winter." Hawkeye added, remembering that only last month the city had been snowed in for three days.

"We just caught up on the paperwork." Mustang grumbled.

"If you didn't leave it all to the last minute it would have gotten done faster." Hawkeye stated, stopping as she reached the gate where they would have to split paths.

"With any luck I'll see you tomorrow." Mustang said, shrugging off his lieutenant's comment on his procrastination.

"Yes sir. Goodbye." Hawkeye said with a nod, pulling her coat more tightly around herself as a gust of wind threatened to force its chill through the fabric.

Turning, the pair went their separate ways, snow soaking their boots as they crunched their way home over the icy sidewalk. Street lights illuminated their paths as darkness descended upon the stormy January evening.

Hawkeye got to her apartment building, looking forward to thawing out in the warm building, the wind had picked up on her trek home so she decided to take the inside stairwell. The hallway wasn't warm, but with it being so cold she figured that it wasn't worth heating what wasn't necessary. She got to her floor and wandered towards her door, pulling her key from her bag as she did so. On her door was taped a little note.

Miss Riza Hawkeye,

The heater broke so there is no heating to the building at all. The repair company should fix it tomorrow or the day after. Sorry for the inconvenience.

~Apartment Staff

Riza frowned; it was too cold to just go without heat. She twisted the key in the lock; she would just call Roy and go there if he had heat. It was only one night, and he'd stayed with her when he locked himself out of his apartment and it was too late to get a locksmith to let him in.

As she opened the door Hayate bounced towards her with a happy yip. Poor little guy, how long had he been alone in the cold apartment? She flicked on the light at the switch near the door, dropping her bag by the wall and proceeding into the chilly room in search of the phone.

"We'll find heat soon boy." She promised, patting the pup's head. Just as she reached for the phone there was a loud 'pop' and the light went out. Hayate whimpered and stuck his nose into the back of her knee.

"Perfect." She muttered, abandoning the phone and walking through the dark house to her bedroom, knowing that she kept a flash light on her nightstand. Well, she thought, Roy is on a different grid, so he should still have power. I can still go over there. He won't mind.

Moving to the kitchen she put food in a bag for Hayate, she couldn't leave him here but she could feed him when they got to Roy's apartment. She picked up his bowl and went back towards the door. Putting the bowl and the food into her bag she pulled his leash from the hook where it hung near the door and clipped it to the dog's collar. Shouldering the bag she let the little dog lead the way out of the cold apartment, making sure that she pulled the door shut on her way out she set off towards Roy's apartment.

The storm had picked up while she was inside and the wind now blew fiercely, threatening to blow her off her feet. Hayate whimpered as puffy snowflakes blew into his face, soaking his fur quickly.

"Don't worry boy," Riza reassured the pup, "Roy won't let us freeze."

-x-X-x-

Roy plopped down on his comfy sofa; having changed out of his wet clothes he now wore a warm pair of flannel pajama pants and an old button-down shirt. His soggy uniform hung over the shower curtain rail in the bathroom, drying so that it would be ready for tomorrow should the weather allow. His mind was just running through what food lay in his refrigerator, waiting to be heated for dinner tonight when there was a knock at the door. Puzzled, he went to answer it, opening the door to find that his frozen lieutenant and her ice encrusted dog stood on the other side of it.

"Riza, what is it?" He asked.

"Roy," She began, "I hope you don't mind, the heater is out at my apartment, and I was going to call but the power went out. You're on a different grid so I knew-"

He raised a hand to stop her explanation. "Come in, you look frozen." He stepped out of the doorway to allow her to enter.

"Thank you." Riza said, dropping Hayate's leash so the dog could run into the apartment. "I wouldn't ask but it's so cold."

"No problem." He said, shutting the door. She bent to unclip Hayate's leash but couldn't get her frozen fingers to work properly.

"Here," He offered, pushing her icy hand from the leash gently and unclipping it easily, "You're freezing." He exclaimed, rubbing his hand where it had touched her pale flesh.

"The storm really picked up." She stated, rubbing her hands together in an attempt to warm them.

"Bathroom's there," He said, pointing down a little hallway, "I'll dry Hayate off if you want to change into something dry."

Riza nodded, fumbling with the zipper on her bag to retrieve the clothes that she had thought about bringing with her. She sighed, frowning at the contents of her bag.

Roy smirked as she looked up at him, looking nothing but apologetic.

"Wait here." He ordered, disappearing into another room, emerging moments later with a towel, a shirt similar to the one he was wearing, and a pair of sweatpants.

"Thank you." Riza said, smiling as he handed her the clothes.

"No problem." Roy shrugged, unfolding the towel and tossing it on top of Hayate, who shook it off his head to look up at the colonel with his head cocked to one side questioningly.

Riza found the bathroom and went inside, slipping out of her cold wet uniform and pulling on the colonel's shirt and sweatpants; her frigid fingers fumbling with the buttons for a while before the clear plastic circles gave in, sliding through the slots to hold the opening of the shirt closed.

Hayate bounded towards her as she walked back towards the main room, now in dry clothes and beginning to thaw out.

"Right, you need food." She murmured, going over to where her bag had been abandoned on the table and pulling out the little dog's bowl and filling it from the bag of food she had brought with her.

Roy emerged from what appeared to be his bedroom with a blanket, wrapped into a tight roll with a ribbon tied around it to hold it in place.

"Have you ever used that blanket?" Riza asked.

"Nope." Roy responded, frowning as he ripped the ribbon from it. "Got it last year from Hughes."

"A blanket?" Riza asked, puzzled by the choice of gift.

"You know Hughes, he gets these ideas in his head and doesn't let it go." Roy said, giving the blanket a shake to get it to unroll all the way. It was a jumble of reds, yellows, and oranges, like a blazing fire. He tossed the ribbon onto the table, and Riza saw that there was a small square note attached to it but didn't see what it said, because Roy draped the blanket over her shoulders, shoving the soft material into her hands so that it wouldn't fall.

"Your hands are still cold." He noted as his skin brushed against hers.

"They'll warm up eventually." She shrugged.

Roy nodded, "Want something to eat?"

-x-X-x-

Roy had managed to find leftovers that didn't look like they were three centuries old and heated them up for dinner. Just as he got up to take the empty dishes to the kitchen there was a pop and the house fell into darkness. He stood, blinking in the sudden darkness as he waited impatiently for his eyes to adjust. Hayate whimpered and leapt onto the couch to snuggle against his master.

"Well that's just great." Roy muttered, eyeing the ghostly shapes of furniture as he made his way towards the kitchen to dispose of the dishes.

"You got a flashlight?" Riza asked, putting Hayate on the floor and getting up to help.

"Yeah, it's errrr…" Roy trailed off as he looked around the kitchen as if a cupboard would hand a flashlight to him, "Somewhere." He finished with a sheepish grin.

Riza sighed and turned, knowing that he was bound to have something in the hall closet that would provide them with light. It did, and they soon were back on the couch, wrapped up individually in blankets with the pale light of a single flashlight on the coffee table in front of them.

Hayate curled himself into a tight ball on the floor, closely resembling his master, who was curled up tightly in a small cocoon of blankets on the end of the couch.

Roy disentangled himself from his blankets and leaned over, pulling Riza towards him.

"It's cold." She growled at him as the cold air of the room wormed its way through her blankets.

"I know." He murmured, unwrapping the blankets and pulling her into his chest before rewrapping them both in a warm cocoon. She wrapped her arms around him and snuggled close.

He smiled and let his head rest on her forehead, "Your hands are still cold."

"They'll warm up." She muttered sleepily, "Now that it's not so cold."