A/N: Hiromu Arakawa owns FMA and Mickey Mouse owns Disney, and I am neither of them.
Thanks to Crescent Snow, PokemonFreak90, Secret Bearer, Kbomb432, L, Tk Hale and StarCatcher1858 for their kind words!
Enjoy:
"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!"
Riza opened her eyes.
Blur.
She blinked. Now was better. She saw the little red dragon with blonde hair above her.
"Come on! Up, up up!"
She groaned and laid back. Edward pulled the covers off her completely.
"Get your clothes on. Get ready. Got breakfast for you. Look, you've got porridge, and it's happy to see you!" he said in a sing-sang voice, showing Riza the bowl.
"Am I late?"
"No time to talk" Edward replied and started feeding her fast with porridge. "Now remember, it's your first day of training so listen to your teacher and no fighting. Play nice with the other kids, unless of course the other kids wanna fight. Than you have to kick other kid's but."
"But I don't wanna kick other kid's butt" she replied while eating.
"Don't talk with your mouth full. Now let's see your war face!"
Riza opened her mouth and some food fell out of it.
This day started pretty bad. She thought.
"I think my bunny slippers just ran for cover." The dragon replied bored. "Come on, scare me, girl!"
"Argghhh!" she grunted after swallowing her food.
"That's my tough looking warrior! That's what I'm talking about. Now get out there and make me proud."
Riza tied her hair and dressed, than got out of the tent.
"The other troops left!" she told Edward with a shocked face, than started running.
'Damn, I'm going to be late on my first day!'
"Wait, you forgot your sword…She's already off to destroy people" Edward sniffled.
…
The soldiers were gathering around Roy's tent where food was being served. Riza arrived.
"Order people, order!" Yoki shouted at no one in particular. And no one in particular actually listened to him.
"I'd like a pan fried noodle" a soldier said.
"Oh, oh sweet and pungent shrimp!" demanded the one with glasses, named Fuery.
"Moo moo gai pan" asked another.
"That's not funny" Yoki mumbled.
"Looks like our new friend slept in this morning" Falman said. "Helooo, Alphonse. Are you hungry?"
Why did she listen to Edward in the first place? Alphonse was a way too long name.
"Yes, 'couse I owe you a knuckle sandwich" Havoc laughed grabbing her collar and preparing to punch her.
She covered her face with her hands and Havoc couldn't help but notice how delicate 'his' fingers were.
Falman covered his ears and closed his eyes, so he wouldn't hear anything.
"Soldiers." A deep, yet a bit husky voice said.
They lined up quickly when they saw Colonel Mustang. He took his shirt off.
For everyone there this seemed like a normal thing and the only feeling they had was of jealousy of his toned body.
Riza on the other hand…
She almost chocked with her own saliva when she saw the handsome man take his shirt off. That revealed her a toned chest, abs and his arms. She never thought a man's arms could be so…look so…
I would say strong, but it's not just that. He's somehow sexy, in a very manly way… Riza thought, than mentally admonished herself for thinking like that.
He was her commanding officer. She was supposed to be a man. A MAN! Not some woman looking for romance. She had already decided that maybe she wasn't meant to play that part. And she was…okay with that.
No, Riza, stop. This is the worst time to admire a man. No matter how worth admiring he is.
Damn, the man had made fun of her the day before. She was in no position to admire his body.
Roy took a bow and some arrows.
"You will assemble swiftly and silently every morning. Anyone who acts otherwise will answer to me"
"Uuuhh, tough guy" mumbled Havoc, earning a glare from Roy.
"Havoc. Thank you for volunteering"
He shot the arrow at the top of a high pole.
"Retrieve the arrow."
"I'll get the arrow, pretty boy. And I'll do it with my shirt on" replied Havoc bowing in front of Roy.
He walked towards the pole and spitted in his hands, getting ready to climb.
"One moment, you seem to be missing something" the colonel said holding up a golden disk, for all the soldiers to see. "This represents discipline."
He put it on Havoc's left arm. And he almost fell.
"And this" he added holding another disk, "represents strength"
As he put it on the blonde soldier's right arm, he couldn't get up from the ground. Roy didn't seem to pay attention to the low swears the soldier was mumbling.
"You need both to reach the arrow" he finished his speech.
Havoc tried and failed. Falman tried and failed. Fuery tried and failed. Plenty other soldiers tried and failed. Including Riza.
"We've got a long way to go" Roy mumbled and looked at his very lame soldiers.
It's time to make a man out of them he thought, not so sure about the results.
He got some staffs and threw them at the soldiers. Some got them. Some couldn't catch them. Some were tripped by other soldiers (like the Alphonse guy, who seemed to be tortured by everyone).
He got two vases on the staff, threw them in the air and broke them while they were falling.
That earned gasps from everyone.
Impressive. Riza thought, trying to concentrate on something else than his chest.
"Let's get down to business. We need to defeat the Huns." He said simply and shown them some moves with the staff.
They tried to imitate him, failing miserably.
Falman thought it would be funny putting a bug in Riza's robe. She felt something weird down her spine and couldn't control her uncoordinated moves. She ended up hitting almost everyone around her with her stuff until she got the bug out.
"You're the saddest bunch I've ever met." Roy mumbled horrified. "What are you, girls?"
Yes! Wanted Riza to scream. But she couldn't. That would mean death. Women weren't allowed in military. She had to manage as a man.
The young girl kicked around her a few more times, until the colonel approached. She somehow managed to hit him in the stomach too, but he got the staff from her and grabbed her collar.
"Listen to me mister! I'll make a man out of you!"
She looked at him frightened.
"You need to understand: we have no time for fooling around. We need to defeat the Huns. Do you know how else they are called?" Mustang asked dangerously.
"Uhm no" replied Riza.
"Homunculi. That means supra humans. They are called supra humans. We can't kill them waving a stick. So get serious."
The girl nodded.
She didn't know Edward was somewhere close, trying really hard not to carbonize Roy with his flames. How dare he talk like that with his girl?
Something else she didn't know was how Roy was feeling. He felt weird shouting like that at a poor soldier, but he had to. They had to train. They had to fight. No matter how…pretty this soldier was, he had to learn to act like the others.
The colonel shook his head. He had to stop having creepy thoughts about his subordinates. He was perfectly straight, for God's sake!
After some time he decided to drop the arrow retrieving and staff fight training. They were all too lame.
"Today we are going to practice bow shooting. You've got these tomatoes. Three tomatoes. Three arrows. If you can hit all the three tomatoes on the target in one shot, you'll get an extra meal for the rest of the rest of the week"
As Roy finished his speech, everyone started cheering and laughing.
"Okay, colonel. Show us first" Havoc said with a tired smirk. He had tried to climb after that arrow for ages. But the golden disks kept pulling him down.
Roy grinned and took a bow and three arrows. As he pushed on the improvised catapult on the ground, the tomatoes flew towards the target. He shot, and all of the arrows reached their purpose.
The 'aah' and 'ohh' stopped soon. Everyone tried, and just like with the arrow retrieving, they all failed.
Falman couldn't hit the target and tomatoes at the same time.
Fuery couldn't hit the target at all.
Havoc neither.
Riza had a pretty good aiming, but she wasn't strong enough to use the arch.
Roy walked from one to other to show them how to hold the bow, how to aim for the right angle, how to shoot. When he arrived at Riza he shook his head in disapproval.
"Keep your hand under the arrow, without touching it. Hold tight with your left arm. Yes, like that. Now pull the elastic limb as much as you can. Come on, you can do better than that!"
Riza sighed. She couldn't actually. That stuff was made for men, not for skinny girls.
He came closer, until her back was almost touching his bare chest. She shivered and hoped he didn't notice. Roy put one hand on her left hand and the other on her right one. He pulled the bow as much as he could, and Riza felt the pressure of his hand on hers.
The bow wasn't that hard to use now. He let go and the arrow flew straight into the middle of the target.
"Good job, I didn't change your angle. You've got good aiming"
She smiled at him and took another arrow. All that was left to do now was shoot three arrows at the same time, at tomatoes.
Yeah, sounded easier than it was.
…..
Riza thought she would fall asleep the instant she put her head on the pillow. But she didn't. She was too full of thoughts. Thoughts about the mess she was into.
Today wasn't THAT bad.
' I mean, sure they tried to kill me when they saw me in the morning. And yes, I just realized that my commanding officer is really hot. And yeah, I can't shoot flying tomatoes. But I will in some time. So there's nothing to worry about, right?'
But she was really worried.
Her first concern was what if someone came to her tent at night. She was only wearing a robe and her chest was obvious trough it. She hoped no one would come.
During day, she had a swaddle around her chest, keeping it was flat as possible. But at night she was taking it off. It was too uncomfortable.
Then there was the training part. She would fix that somehow. She had to. She couldn't be weaker than the other.
But she was. She wasn't as strong.
Havoc and the others made fun of her all day because she couldn't even climb until the half of the pole.
Talking about Havoc, Fuery and Falman, they were an interesting group. They were always together and, sure, they made fun of Riza. They laughed at her. They teased her. Almost kicked her. Actually punched her a few times. Took her plate at dinner. Pushed her at practice. Played pranks on her.
All sort of stuff.
But she couldn't help but somehow like them. There was something about those guys that was…something else.
Not the way Roy was different. He was fascinating her, with his posture, his skills, his way of being so bossy.
She knew that if she met him as a woman, he would never give her a second glance. Now that she was his 'student' she could be around him all time.
Not that she wanted to of course. Just…universally speaking. Yes, just another unimportant thought in her mind.
Back to Havoc's group. She wished they could get along at some point.
But hey, this had only been the first training day. And Roy said this was the easy stuff.
She didn't want to know what was coming next.
Dum dum that was three ^^. I hope you liked it!
So Riza is a sniper, right? She has to be good at aiming and stuff xD. She's still just a girl with no training, so she's got a 'long way to go'.
Next chapter will be up soon.
Please review!