Mustang wandered out of his kitchen and into his living room to pick up the phone just before the last ring ended.
"Yes?"
"Are you getting ready for the party?" a familiar voice sounded over the telephone. Mustang wheeled around, phone still in hand, to consult the clock. He saw the time and frowned. "Why so early? Do you still have to get Elysia a gift?" he asked worriedly.
"Don't worry sir," the amused voice replied, "that's all under control. I just thought it would be useful to see what we can get if we run a few things by Hughes before the party."
"Three hours early?" Mustang retorted cynically. This didn't seem like his lieutenant.
"Its Elysia's birthday sir," she replied unfazed. "You know how distracted he'll get." Mustang started, then slowly smiled with delight. He lieutenant really did think of everything. His life would implode if he ever had to give her up. Chuckling, he walked to his bedroom and rifled through his closet for a nice shirt and a pair of civilian shoes. He was grabbing his coat when he heard the sound of a car pulling up in front of his house. He threw open the door, was blasted by the icy wind, and rushed back inside to unbury his scarf. Unable to find it, and reluctant to make Hawkeye wait for him, he pulled his coat closer around his neck, then bowed his head, bracing himself as he reopened the door to head for the car. The car door opened as Hawkeye reached over and unlocked the door, pushing it out, then returned to sitting upright behind the wheel. Mustang slid in, turned to close the door, then balked as an arm slid into view. In her hand was his scarf, which he must have left at the headquarters on Friday. With a grin of thanks he wound it around his neck, and the car pulled forward.
Mustang and Hawkeye marched up to the front door, determined to get in a serious discussion with Hughes, when the door opened to revel an exuberant Elysia.
"Cake, cake!" squealed Elysia, "Uncle Roy and Auntie Riza are gonna make my cake!" She danced around the two officers, one of which was studiously ignoring the glare of the other.
"You didn't realize? I thought some quality time with Elysia would make a nice gift." And with a barely discernable smirk, Hawkeye walked into the house and Gracia's welcoming embrace. Mustang was left standing shocked at his lieutenant's deviousness until Hughes popped out and reproached Roy for taking so long to "get in the freakin' house." With resignation, Mustang complied.
The minute he entered Hughes' house, Mustang was bombarded by an/the excited Elysia, who impatiently told him to take off his coat, put his shoes by the door, and free a hand to drag him into the kitchen with by handing him the apron in her hand. She had Hawkeye already set up with an apron of her own, a bowl and the ingredients arranged around her. Elysia continued to guide Mustang to the counter while Gracia and Hughes looking in, Roy's best friend chuckling at his plight. "Hughes, we have some things we need to discuss." Mustang called over his shoulder.
"No!" shouted Elysia, stamping her foot. "Not until my cake is done."
"She's right Roy", Gracia said. "No business until we're ready for the party." Riza grinned as Mustang bent down and scooped up the birthday girl who shrieked in delight. "Alright little missy, what first?" Elysia giggled. Riza concealed her smile as she scooted around the kitchen gathering ingredients, managing to mostly collect herself by the time she returned to Mustang's side. He made the mistake of trying to put down Elysia, who vehemently protested. Hawkeye quickly scanned the room, and grabbed the nearest chair, which she placed next to the counter, and gently lifted up the protesting young girl, who surveyed the kitchen from her new vantage point, and pronounced her satisfaction. Reaching for the flour, Elysia managed to knock over many of the other ingredients in her way, one of which threatened to roll off the counter. As it reached the edge of the counter, Mustang lunged for it and missed. With a swift motion born from years of catching papers, Hawkeye scooped the container out of the air, replacing it next to Elysia who proceeded to add a large, unmeasured amount of it to the mix. Rolling her eyes at Mustang's sheepish expression, Hawkeye pulled out the recipe and began coaching the girl through an impromptu cooking lesson, which was unlikely to stick on such a young chef. Mustang stood still, enjoying the moment of domestic tranquility with his Lieutenant. He jumped when someone tapped him on the back, and whirled to see Hughes smirking at him. He opened his mouth the tell Hughes something only to be shushed. Motioning upstairs, Hughes quietly lead Mustang upstairs to the displeasure of Hawkeye, who could only glare before having to turn back to distract Elysia from the rapidly retreating Colonel.
Mustang settled down in Hughes' extensive library. Hughes walked over to his desk, and unlocked one of the lower drawers, withdrawing several files, and then replacing all but the bottom one. He tossed the file to Mustang who caught it and began rifling though its contents. Hughes' perched himself on the edge of his desk and began summarizing the information he had uncovered.
"So the brothers were headed to the border of Xing. They stopped in several towns, but didn't spend more than and hour in any of them. Looks like they were headed into the desert because they borrowed a house for Ed. I couldn't figure out what would be of interest, alchemically speaking, in the middle of the desert, unless they were headed for Xing itself. Not likely though- they didn't get enough supplies. Any ideas?" Hughes paused, looking worriedly at his friend. "Roy?"
"The desert… they must have thought they could find something in Xerxes." Mustang realized.
"Xerxes" mused Hughes. "Do you want me to look up anything on that?"
"No" replied Mustang, standing up and heading for the door. "If the Elrics thought they could find anything in our records they would have asked for them before they left. Plus, someone might get curious s to why the investigations department is researching Xerxes." Mustang's reasoning was interrupted by the flinging open of the door by Elysia who threw herself into his arms. "Uncle Roy, the cake is done!" Hawkeye entered behind her laughing. "Come on Elysia. I think your mother wants to get you cleaned up while the cake is baking. Then we can go back down and finish decorating it. Hopefully Uncle Roy will join us this time." She added directing a look at her errant superior. "Right?" she emphasized, using that tone.
"Uh… yeah!" quickly reassured Mustang. Hawkeye inwardly smiled in satisfaction. She'd missed the chance to see Mustang cooking again now that the cake was done, but she wasn't about to let the Colonel shirk off all of his responsibilities. Taking Elysia's hand, she handed off the child to her mother, then entered the study, closed the door and discarded her apron. "So what were you two discussing?" she inquired quietly.
"We believe that the Elric brothers were trying to recover alchemic information from Xerxes." Hughes quickly briefed Hawkeye. "The question now is how do we go about finding them."
"Do we want to find them?" countered Hawkeye. "Or are we going to trust them to take care of themselves?" both looked expectantly at the Colonel when the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of guests.
"We should examine the information first." Mustang said glancing up at Hawkeye who nodded in agreement. "We can plan out course of action after that." he continued returning his attention back up to Hughes. "But for now I believe you have a party for a certain someone you should be attending."
"You bet. And look at what I got for the occasion." he enthusiastically searched through his desk, not noticing as Hawkeye and Mustang began backing carefully out of the room. "Here!" Hughes produced a new camera just in time to see the door slam behind the fleeing officers.
"Sheesh. And I haven't even taken any pictures yet" he complained, following his friends downstairs.
Hawkeye followed Mustang to find him taking refuge in the kitchen. She inwardly laughed at him, then paused to take a closer look at the inside of the oven. "Hmmm…" she pondered, trying to decide if the cake was ready or not. Mustang saw her look, and reached for an oven mitt.
"I think Elysia may be a little put out if you burn her special cake." he pointed out, and smirked as she glared at him. Stepping forward, he opened the oven, and reached in to extract the cake. He carefully maneuvered the dessert around his lieutenant and gently placed in down on the counter next to the icing Hawkeye had mixed earlier. She shook her head and walked over to join Mustang and inspect the cake. He was right. It was perfect. She turned to see him smirking at her. She had to pause for a minute and strangle the urge to slap the expression off his face. Nope, he hadn't lost his cooking skills. Nor the arrogance he displayed whenever he managed to produce a perfect dish. She sighed, the flinched when she saw him staring at her weirdly.
Mustang shook his head, trying to shake off the feeling of comfort. It was nice to spend time relaxing with his lieutenant in the kitchen; the domesticity of the situation was startling and unusual though… but not at all bad. Then he blinked as he felt the lieutenant flinch and move away from him. She must have caught his train of thought, he realized. No wonder she was uncomfortable. Neither wanted to admit that their relationship was anything beyond that of two professionals with a long, shared history. The law and the timing were both against them, and neither could take the risk a relationship posed. Sometimes though, Mustang admitted, Hawkeye's babysitting of him went a little further than that of a life-long friend. She had risked so much for him, taken bullets for his stupidity, that it went beyond friendship. It was dedication and loyalty to a cause and a person that only love and Hawkeye were capable of. Mustang turned around to follow Hawkeye with his eyes and was rewarded with the sight of her glowering at him. He jumped. He recognized her look as their warning that they had an audience. The tension in the room with them was broken as Gracia bustled in with a newly cleaned/dressed/outfitted Elysia who was determined to rectify all of her mother's mistakes in cleaning her up, and attacked the frosting with energy.
Elysia and Gracia were engaged with the icing of the cake, allowing Mustang to take a chance and pull Hawkeye over to the side. She looked at him oddly and he resolved to tell her that…
"Hey! Did you see that…" Hughes popped into their corner. Unsure of what was going on, Hawkeye muttered," I'll go see how Elysia's doing." and darted away, in the completely wrong direction. Mustang watched her leave with a stormy expression.
"Oh, so you were finally making your move?" Hughes innocently inquired, then realized the danger of his question. Mustang was furious and his fingers were violently snapping without success. Yep. Hughes grinned. He'd definitely hit a nerve.
Hawkeye wandered into the kitchen again, confused and angered that she could have lost her composure like that. There was absolutely no reason to jump so. Mustang probably wanted to bounce a new idea off of her, maybe about Ed and Al's location, and she had fled, like an idiotic amateur. She was reading far too much from his actions than was actually there, conveniently forgetting her decades of experience ferreting out what he didn't want her to know.
"So did Hughes interrupt you two?" casually asked Gracia. Hawkeye whirled to gape at Hughes' wife. "He's been trying to throw you two together for years, but only manages to foul things up." She observed, sighing at her husband's folly. "Icing goes on the cake not your fingers honey" she reprined, then returned to Hawkeye. "I tell him it pointless, you two are inevitable anyway."
Hawkeye stared at her friend, momentarily speechless, then hastily recovered her composure. "Oh, he just interrupted a business discussion." she clarified. "Business?" Gracia repeated, raising her eyebrows.
"Yes, Hughes is looking up some information for us. The Elrics haven't shown up recently and you know it's a good idea to keep an eye on those two." Gracia caught the coding. "And I'd hoped they might show up for Elysia's party." The child in question squealed in delight as the cake was lifted and carried into the dining room. "Watch out" Gracia laughed "Hughes will be going crazy with that camera he insisted on getting for the party." Hawkeye chuckled and tried to relax and enjoy the party. Elysia's joy was contagious, and Maes and Gracia were just as happy. Even Mustang managed to smile and laugh. Hawkeye alone wasn't relaxed by the festive atmosphere, so she reverted to the persona she new best, and hid behind the mask of the professional officer that was feared at the office. And resigned herself to waiting out the party.
Hughes glanced over to that Hawkeye had reverted back to her professional persona again. Oops. He really had interrupted something important. Maybe he should try and make amends. But how to do so? Perhaps he should employ Gracia's help. No, she would just scold him for interfering. Or… his daughter? Maybe Elysia in all her innocence, could try and fix the little problem between the two love birds. If she lasted that long. His daughter yawned, and was clearly starting to drop off. It looked like the party was coming to a close. With a smile , he lifted his daughter in his arm, where her head dropped onto his shoulder, and carried her upstairs.
Gracia hugged Hawkeye and Mustang as they exited out the door. The Lieutenant walked over to the driver's side of the car, ignoring Mustang's protests with the ease of practice. The drive home was silent, but not the comfortable silence of companionship the two occasionally found themselves in. It was the silence of unspoken secretes and questions. Hawkeye pulled to a stop at the Colonel's house. He slowly stepped out of the car, only to be pulled back by a hand. There was a pause. Then Hawkeye handed over the files. "You may need these, Sir" With a nod of thanks, he walked up the driveway/pathway to his home. He heard the car drive off as he searched his coat pocket for the key, without success. Reaching for the other pocket, he fumbled, and the files slipped. He swore as they fanned out across his doorstep. He retrieved the key, unlocked the door, and bent down to gather the scattered information. His eyes widened, and he retrieved a piece of paper, scanning it as he straightened. With a dangerous grin, which would have automatically set Lt. Hawkeye on high alert, he closed his door, and donned his gloves. Folding the piece of paper, he walked back down to the street and began heading towards the center of the city.