A/N: I'm sorry about the long update.

I hope that this chapter was worth the wait.

Speculation

All the men in the office noticed when Riza walked in that morning.

She came in humming contentedly to herself. Over the years that Havoc had worked with her, he couldn't remember a single occasion in which the Lieutenant had been in such an ecstatic mood. She all but skipped to her desk. Hayate trotted behind her, easily picking up and imitating the mood of his master, as was tradition for all loyal canines.

Breda noticed the scent. Hawkeye drifted past his desk, and at first he had to remind himself who it was. He did a double take, assuring that, yes, this was the Lieutenant. You can't blame him. In all his years of service, he'd never seen Riza—or, rather, smelled Riza wearing perfume. He didn't even think she knew what it was.

Fuery, the youngest and most attracted to shiny objects, noticed her jewelry. Instead of her usual round earrings, Riza was wearing long dangles, ornate semi-precious stones hanging from the chains.

It was Falman, the most observant, who noticed that she was wearing heels. With his straight posture and lean form, he always appeared to be the tallest in the unit (though this title actually belonged to Havoc). Vato usually towered over Riza, but today she seemed closer to his height. And the clicking of non-boots as she walked past informed him of the cause.

They pooled by the water cooler.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye was in heels." Falman started the topic straightforwardly.

"Yeah, and she was humming." Havoc's eyes were narrowed in deep thought. He was still raking his memory banks for any other occasion when the Lieutenant had been that happy.

"Did any of you notice her jewelry?" Fuery supplied. The others shook their heads.

"And she was wearing perfume."

The other officers looked at Breda weirdly. Havoc voiced the unspoken question. "How do you know that?"

Breda shrugged. "I have a good sense of smell."

Havoc leaned to Fuery and whispered, "Comes from all the sandwich selecting."

Fuery stifled a snicker as Falman spoke.

"So why do you think she was—"

"—dolled up? Beats me. Maybe she has a date," Breda interrupted off-handedly.

A moment passed while the males attempted to imagine their Riza Hawkeye on a date. Silence engulfed the water cooler before suddenly the area exploded with noise. All of them spoke at once.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye on a date?"

"Weird."

"We should protect her. Wait, no, it's Hawkeye, she can do that herself."

"Should we tell the boss?"

"Tell me what?"

Havoc, Fuery, Breda, and Falman froze, acting like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They turned, slowly, fearing their superior. His arms were crossed, and a vein visibly throbbed in his temple. His jaw was set and no one felt like explaining.

"Well?" Mustang was impatient; the toe of his boots began pounding a tempo on the tile flooring. "Tell me what?"

Havoc volunteered a, for once, truthful answer. "That Hawkeye has a date tonight."

"And?" his voice remained in irritated monotone, but his teeth ground.

"And…doesn't that bother you, sir?" Fuery meekly asked. Breda supported him with, "Yeah, don't you two have some kind of thing going on?"

Falman and Havoc winced. Roy's obsidian eyes glinted dangerously. "There is no "thing" between Lieutenant Hawkeye and myself. Anyone who claims otherwise can talk to me about it. Now, as for her date, it is her business, and you four should not meddle." It was not an order, but more of a threat. Mustang turned on heel and marched back to his desk, his stance too tense even for a military officer.

"Ch. Like the boss has any right to order us to leave dates alone." Havoc grumbled, the last beauty Mustang had stolen on his mind. "Anyways, guys, we've got to do something about the date."

"Why, Havoc? What's it to you?" Breda asked. Fuery and Falman watched for the reaction closely.

"Because, Breda, if Hawkeye's seeing someone else, it means she can't see the boss. And if she can't see the boss, the boss will always be a bachelor. And if the boss is always a bachelor, then he'll always steal my dates, and that wouldn't be any fun. So the solution to my loneliness is in finding the boss a long-term companion, and the only woman I know who can put up with him for more than ten minutes is Hawkeye."

"Wow, Lieutenant Havoc," Falman stared wide-eyed at his comrade. "That actually sounded…thought-out."

"Why, thank you, Falman. Now, newbie," Jean turned to Fuery, "you have a creative mind. Any ideas as to how to ruin Riza's date."

Fuery paused a moment, his hands cupping his bare chin in the universal thinking pose. "Well…I can't think of anything right now…but only because we don't know that much about the situation…"

"Could we ask Lieutenant Hawkeye?" Falman questioned; it was the simple solution.

"Fat chance. She'd be onto us immediately. No, we can't."

Havoc added while Fuery thought. "Breda's right, we can't ask her. But we can always follow her after work, can't we? I mean, most of us leave the office earlier than her, anyways. It wouldn't be that difficult."

Breda challenged, "It's Hawkeye, she's got instinct. It'd be a lot harder than you think, Havoc. Plus, what if she leaves the office early for her date?"

"Then I'm sure that we can all think of plausible excuses to get out, too." Falman answered. "We'll just have to be extra cautious."

"If that's the case, and we follow her after work…" Fuery concluded, schemes building in his sharp mind. "Then we can easily monitor, and alter, the happenings of her evening. Meet here at the cooler at the end of the day."

The guys met up as planned, and, after waiting another hour, watched as Hawkeye left work, clad in civilian clothes.

Fuery leaned over to his coconspirators. "She must have used the women's locker room to change for her date."

"No, duh, newbie."

Without another sound, with several meters between them and their friend, the men followed Riza to a ritzy Xingese diner on the edge of East City. It was crowded, but Hawkeye was seated on a back patio. It was all too easy to watch what transpired from the ground.

"So far, so good. Fuery, what's next?" Havoc was acting as team leader, the newbie was his strategist.

"We wait for her date to come."

So they waited. And waited. And waited. Their only comfort in waiting was knowing that Riza was waiting too.

After an hour of waiting, one of the waiters approached Riza and whispered something to her. She listened and nodded understandingly, politely thanking the man for his efforts.

"Do you think she got stood-up?" Breda asked as he munched on one of his packed sandwiches.

"Who, Hawkeye? Nah, not with the way she looks tonight." Havoc was right. Their only female coworker was stunning in the deep red evening gown. The long earrings she wore were eclipsed by cascades of her honey blonde hair, released from its barrette at last. Her amber eyes were lined heavily and, even from the bushes that they'd set up camp, Riza was gorgeous. Havoc finished his thought, "He'd be an idiot to stand her up."

"Indeed he would, Havoc."

The four froze in place, turning slowly, again, to find their leader towering over them. In contrast to the four's camouflaged clothes and face paint, Roy donned a black suit, its dark satin matching his eyes perfectly.

"Boss…" Havoc managed as his group quailed on him (Fuery looked ready to faint). "What are you doing here."

"No, Havoc, the question is what are you four doing here, beneath a very exclusive restaurant, hiding in the bushes."

"Sir, Hawkeye's there on her date…" Fuery began, interrupted when Breda smacked his hand over the boy's mouth, too late.

"I thought I told you that Riza's business is her own." There was such menace in his voice, none of the men thought to question that he'd called her by her first name. "Now, get out of here before there's a bonfire, understand?"

They complied, disappearing into the four directions within a second. Roy sighed, running his, for once, ungloved hand through his messy bangs. The night air calmed his frustration and his nerves and, after another moment, he walked to the restaurant.

After all, he had a date, and he'd already kept her waiting an hour.

A/N: I love imagining Roy calling Riza by her first name for some odd reason...

note that Xing is a country in the manga. It is not mentioned in the anime (that I know of), but the main point of mentioning it in this fiction was to imply that they were going to enjoy foreign food.

So, how was this chapter? Please review, and tell me what you think of it. I hope you enjoyed it.