Deception

Disclaimer: No FMA owning here. :

A/N: Uhm.. thanks for all the reviews! I'm glad people actually like this and are keeping up with it. I hope this is longer. I HATE when I can't get it out enough. Ahem. Here you go

Chapter 3: A Torn Heart

A large group of both men and women had gathered around the cement arena, all still in their military garb. Most were cheering loudly, putting bets on one of the 'contestants', but some such as Riza and Sciezska stood idly by, only there to make sure no one killed eachother. Riza, of course, had her pistols at her sides, always ready to draw them within a second.

Two men of opposite hair color, yet pretty much the same in most aspects, faced eachother in the center of the ring. The infamous smug look was worn by Roy who angled himself toward Alexander who wore a similar expression, though his was obviously new to everyone.

"Well," Roy addressed in a smooth voice, "are you going to start?" A thin eyebrow raised playfully on his forehead as he stood motionless, only a few strands of hair blowing in the wind around him.

"I was hoping you'd do the honors, but I wouldn't mind," Alexander responded with a grin while pulling on a pair of white gloves that almost matched Mustang's.

"Oh, please go ahead. They've all seen my little tricks," Roy waved a hand toward the crowd surrounding the outer limits. Alexander's eyes followed the gesture and soon set back to Mustang and he nodded, still grinning.

"I'll be sure not to let them down."

Alexander was already in motion, sprinting toward Mustang and dashing to the side. As he moved his body to the side, he swooped down in what looked like a miss, and pulled up behind Roy.

Mustang only let out a low chuckle. "Did you forget something?" He asked, ignoring the gasps and shocked faces of the crowd. This was something that hadn't been too apparent to him as Alexander passed.

Still in a blind sight to Roy, Alexander laughed a bit of his own. "Actually, no. I did all that I intended. Your turn."

What? Roy's eyes narrowed as he went to turn toward Alexander, coming up short. Well, he really didn't come at all. Looking down, Roy noticed his feet encased in a thick layer of ice that connected with the ground. His feet were frozen to the cement floor, which caused him to only stare like the people around them.

"What. . ." was all he could manage as he attempted to actually walk that way, temporarily forgetting his own alchemy.

"I'm just like you, Colonel, only different. Using alchemy to manipulate the water in the air, I use these," he gestured to his gloves as Roy twisted to look, "to help me freeze it."

Suddenly Roy remembered in a flash. "Heh. Of course." Snapping his fingers, Roy sent a flame to his feet, breaking off the case of ice. "Ice is no good against a fire though, is it?" He smirked. "I guess you already know how my alchemy works, hm?" Roy stepped foward, rubbing his thumb and middle finger together in a menacing way, as if taunting Alexander.

"Who doesn't?" Alexander responded rhetorically. "Using your pyrotex cloth gloves you create a spark and then use alchemy to manipulate the density of the surrounding oxygen, am I right?"

When no reply came, Alexander took that as a yes; one that Mustang would never really say with his outstanding ego and pride. Now they both knew eachother's techniques and how exactly they were use. The next thing was to just cease the other's abilities which happened to be all in the gloves.

Now free to move, Mustang completely turned to face Alexander, where he immidiately snapped his fingers, sending a burning flame in the man's direction.

Being quite agile, Alexander got out of the way just in time so that only a miniscule piece of his uniform was slightly scorched. 'I've got to get closer,' he cursed himself inwardly while trying to devise some sort of plan.

Reaching to the ground, Alexander began to freeze the concrete floor, sending a trail to the form of Mustang. Unforunately for Alexander, Roy jumped out of the way before turning into a human popsicle. Following with haste, Alexander ended up next to Roy, grabbin his wrist with his own hand.

After freezing the cloth, he moved to the other glove quickly so that no intial spark could be created. It would seeem that the famous Flame Alchemist was stuck.

As Alexander laughed to himself, Roy stiffly reached to his pocket, pulling from it a lighter. Keeping the lighter hidden within his palm, Roy flicked open the top and smirked.

"I'll always be one step ahea," was all it took for Alexander to cease his victory joy. A quzzical expression took over his face and he spotted the glint of a flam in Roy's hand.

In one last attempt at winning, Alexander touched the ground, sending another path of ice to wrap around Roy's legs. Taking no notice, more so ignoring, this action, a flame shot at Alexander, catching the ends of his pony tail. That was only to catch the other man off guard, so that when he straightened to stop the small fire, Roy sent another flame to his gloves, catching the cold material in a bit of fire. Even though Roy's own gloves were frozen to the point of not being able to start a spark, the transmutation circle could still take affect.

The crowd was cheering and yelling, but it wasn't over yet. A loud explosion reverbarated from the center as Roy blew a piece of the ground up, smoke soon filling that area and closing off everyone's views. Many negative comments were made about this, especially since they could still hear many noise coming from the two.

After several moments and more explosions, Roy sauntered from the smoke, making his way to the outside of the ring. A smirk was set on his lips and he nodded to the ones he knew more than others.

"Well, I hope you all bet on me," he said smoothly while passing them. All heads turned from the Colonel to settle back on the clearing smoke. With a grim, almost menacing face, Alexander sat on his knees. Shards of ice and a bit of water lay around him, indicating that he had at least put up a fight. Riza and Sciezska were soon at his side, helping him up, though he had no apparent injuries.

"Thank you, Riza," Alexander was already smiling again, only noticing that Hawkeye was there. He couldn't help but notice that she was quite pretty. Even with her hard-ass attitude she was appealing to the eye. Maybe he could get her to loosen up. . .

Noticing Alexander's gaze, a pink tint crept onto Riza's cheeks and Sciezska had to stop herself from laughing. Riza quickly turned from his stare and immidiately looked for Roy, though she didn't really know why, and also came up short as he had already left the scene.

Since there was no reason to stay, the three leftovers made their way back inside, Alexander going to clean up, Sciezska returning to the library, and Riza going straight to Roy's office.

Upon entering the small room, Riza had only excepted to see Roy slouching behind his desk as usual, but found two others in his place. More specifically, a large tin suit stood beside the desk as a much smaller boy searched through it. Of course he would be, but Riza didn't know why they were even back now.

"Edward," she called in a stern voice, causing the boy to jump up right away. 'Guess they didn't hear me come in.'

"Well, we sure didn't expect you to be back so soon," she continued in more of a conversational tone.

"Yeah, well, things got done early. . ." Ed was closing a drawer and stepping away from the desk, not wanting to risk a confrontation with Riza. Those types of things usually ended in gun shots.

"So, where is the old bastard anyway?" He added, placing his hands on his hips in an unhappy way. It was clear he might have actually missed Roy, though the whole desk-rooting routine might throw people off.

Riza chuckled softly to herself. "I figured he was in here. I have no more information than you do, Edward. Alphonse," she turned to the tin suit with a smile and continued, "how have you been? I trust your trip went well."

Al nodded and his little beams of light for eyes seemed to light up just a bit. "Yes, ma'am, it did." Ed shot a glance at Al as if warning him. Riza saw the glance, but decided not to mention anything just yet. This was a typical Ed and Al thing as far as she was concerned.

"We should get going," Ed piped up, moving to the door. "Tell that lazy bastard we're lookin' for him when you see him," he instructed, slipping out into the hall. Al followed, but turned to Riza before leaving.

"Thank you, Riza!" He called, giving a short salute before trailing after his older brother. Once the door had closed completely, Riza went back to her desk and waited there for the Colonel to actually show up.

A few minutes later, when the door handle turned, Riza's heart gave an involuntary flip just at the thought of Roy entering. She couldn't help but hate that feeling, especially when she knew, or at least thought, it was useless. The only thing that made it all better, yet worse at the same time, was the fact that it still wasn't Mustang coming in, but another state alchemist.

"Hello, Riza," Alexander grinned, inviting himself in. Sauntering over to her desk, he took to leaning upon the side, looking down at her. "They've decided a name, no matter how plain it might be," his eyes rolled sarcastically as he crossed his hands over his chest loosely.

"Oh, yeah?" Riza asked, trying to sound as interested as possible. Her mind was elsewhere.

"Mmhm. The Ice Alchemist. Original, huh?" There was an underlying tone of worry in his voice. Riza's absent mind wasn't unnoticable.

"Yeah, great," was all she said with a soft sigh. Alexander couldn't tell what exactly was bothering her, but he wanted to help. To him, his feelings for this woman he had just met were clear. He wanted to be with her, as if attracted by some unknown force. . . or other real intentions she would never know about.

Taking a piece of her golden hair between two fingers, he tucked it behind her ear. Only then did she really look at him for the first time. Sure, she had looked at him plenty, but never in that aspect of things. Was he trying to flirt with her? It was nice, she had to admit, but made her feel guilty at the same time, as well as angry. So many emotions at once were flooding through her, but she kept her cool. That's how she always delt with things.

Unknown to both Riza and Alexander, Roy had come around to his office, but stopped just outside of the door. There was a small creak in which he could just see through. He didn't care that he was more or less eavesdropping, even though it was his office, he just wanted to hear what they were saying.

"Is something wrong?" Alexander's eyebrows furrowed and he pulled his hand back, gazing into Riza's eyes for some sign of emotion. They were there, but he couldn't quite pick out the one he was looking for.

"N-no," she was stuttering which was very odd for her. Even Roy, outside the door, noticed this change.

"Good," Alexander smiled and pushed himself off of the desk's side, turning to face her more. His arms dropped to his sides comfortably and he looked her square in her smooth face.

"What is it. . .?" She almost said 'sir' at the end of her question, but somehow held it in. This situation was growing awkward, but she was excited all the same.

"Riza, are you and Mustang. . . involved in any way?" He said the question slowly, letting it sink in with her, also not wanting to be too up front about it. What if she was with him? What would he say or even do? He wondered if that was even allowed with their positions.

"Me and Roy?" Riza practically shouted in surprise.

"Yeah. You guys seem kinda' close," he shrugged it off as if it was nothing, though she thought it plainly obvious.

"I'm just his subordinant." Disappointment threaded the simple statement. "Nothing more," she smiled as a reasurrance to Alexander--who actually relaxed at the confirmation. He had heard from others that these two were closer than it would seem.

Roy couldn't move. His legs seemed frozen to the ground again, numb from all feeling. What was she saying in there? Of course, it was true though. They were nothing more, only coworkers. But that didn't mean he wasn't allowed to still picture her in a mini skirt, right?

"That's good to hear," Alexander responded, nodding his head a few times.

"Why's that?"

"Riza," serious like the first time he started with her name. She had temporarily looked down to her work, but this caused her to look up again. "Will you go out on a date with me?"

He couldn't take anymore and left in something close to a sprint. He didn't care where he went, it just had to be away from there. Maybe to a bar, or to Hughes'... but Hughes had a family, he couldn't just go over there. Not wanting to go to his own house, Roy left and went to his first choice, leaving much needed paperwork undone.

A/N: There's chapter 3! I actually finished it kinda' fast.. which makes me worry. -Shifty eyes.- Anyway, hope you liked it. :3

Next week I have finals, so if things slow down, I'm really sorry, but I haven't forgotten

Please review.

Amicus Lafae