AN: Hey guys! Thanks for your feedback so far! I'm sorry I haven't been able to make frequent updates! I'm trying to change that a bit. Most of my time for writing goes to my other story, The Warden Twins, with the little time for writing that I have. However, I'm still determined to keep this story going, I'm still planning on going through with the rewrite, and continuing it from there :)

Chapter 2. Tricky Consciences & A Surprising Choice

After watching Maes and Chris leave, Riza walked back to her desk and immediately began working on some paperwork. She knew that no matter the events that happened this morning, it was a normal, paperwork-filled day of work. She grabbed the first paper from the short stack at her desk, and with a pen in one hand, she began reading it through and filling it out.

Type of mission? She thought to herself,

No matter how hard she tried to fill out the paper completely, she kept becoming distracted by the constant chuckling and giggling coming from the other subordinates desk. She shot a glance at their conjoined desks, noticing they were all suspiciously huddled together. Falman, Fury, Breda, and Havoc all seemed to be conversing with each other, followed by a bellowing, and distracting, chuckle here and there.

Riza calmly put the pen down, trying to hear exactly what all the talk was about. I'm not the only one with endless paperwork, and I'm not about to do theirs for them. she thought to herself. Barely, just barely, she could overhear what they were talking about..

"I think it's safe to say that Riza's becoming soft toward that kid.." Falman stated.

"Psh," Breda scoffed, "My money's saying that she's putting on an act!" He began digging through his pockets, placing any money he had on the table.

Havoc shrugged as a cigarette dangled from his mouth, "I'm not putting any money down.. But I think Breda's on ta' something."

Breda raised an eyebrow, "What about your Fury?" His timid co-worker jumped at Breda's question, "Well? What'd you think?"

As soon as Breda questioned him, he locked his eyes onto him, waiting for an answer. This was followed by Havoc and Falman, also curious for an answer. All eyes were locked on Fury, like three vultures staring down at their prey.

Fury began to trip over his tongue, "Um.. I-uh.." his hands twisted together with nervousness. He slowly looked up at his fellow gamblers, "Stop looking at me like that! I don't know!"

Breda shrugged, "So, anyone else contributing to this pool?" He looked around at the little huddle. Little did he know that he spoke a little too loudly with that last sentence. All four of them turned around with dread as they heard an all too familiar sound..

Click.

"What did I say about gambling in the office?" Riza asked as her shiny, trusty pistol was pointing towards the small group. What can I say? She always became annoyed when they would constantly gamble during work. She becomes even more annoyed when the bet was about her. You would think that the guys would catch onto this by now.

A few moments of silence passed.

Silence became awkward.

. . .Awkward silence.

The quietness was broken as Fury stood up from his seat, holding his hands up in defense, "Please don't shoot me! Please don't shoot me!"

Suddenly, a huge chain reaction ensued. Fury's hysterical plead led to him pointlessly running around the room, arms flailing in the air. Being that Breda was easily influenced by his peers, he took Fury's behavior and copied it, also running around the room, pleading for his life. Havoc's eyes widened as Riza's gun was looking straight at them, so much fear instilled in him that his cigarette fell out, like in a slow motion kind of fashion. Havoc became completely useless, just staring into space with fear. While all this was happening, Falman stood there, stoic as ever. Some say they saw a tear coming from his eye, worried that Riza was actually going to fire at them for once. It was bound to happen anyway. Then, like the sun coming out after a horrible storm, everyone seemed to just.. Go back to normal as they heard the ever pleasing, and oh so quiet, sound of the gun returning its former place in Riza's holster. With a sigh, she clicked the safety back on her gun.

A satisfied smile crept onto Riza's face at the sight of the four working on paperwork. Just as she was going back to her desk, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

It was like déjà vu.

"Sir? Where are you going?" She arched a brow at her superior.

General Roy Mustang froze in his tracks, turning slowly to face her. Damnit! Almost escaped, he thought to himself.

She crossed her arms at him, expecting an answer.

Roy forced a smile on his face, "Heh. Just getting my paperwork. Forgot to pick it up on my way in..." He awkwardly scratched the back of his head as he waited for a response.

Riza quirked an eyebrow again, "I thought you preferred finishing your old paperwork before picking up your new stack.."

His attention was immediately directed to the shining, wondrous stack of paperwork from the past couple days. He sighed quietly to himself, thinking of other things to say. What can I do to stall? I need to get away from all this paperwork, he thought desperately to himself.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk.. Roy, you know procrastination is not the way to go."

What the? Roy thought as he raised a brow, looking about to find the source of the voice. Suddenly, a little figure poofed onto his right shoulder. The tiny, 5-inch replica of Roy fixed his halo as he cleared his throat to speak. Roy looked at his shoulder in disbelief as he thought to himself, Is that.. My conscience?

The little guy looked Roy square in the eye, "Yes, Roy, it's me, your conscience. Been awhile, huh?" The angelic conscience ignored the bewildered look on Roy's face and continued, "Anyway, I was just saying, you shouldn't lie to your fellow co-worker just to get out of paperwork. You shouldn't want to escape it, Roy."

As Roy rubbed his eyes, still surprised at what he was seeing and hearing, another voice was heard to his left.

"Psh," the voice scoffed, "Who cares? Just stall for once. It's what you want." Another figure poofed onto his left shoulder, swinging about his devilish tail as he arrived. The devilish 5-inch replica of Roy continued, "I mean, what's so wrong about that?" He peered around Roy's head, glaring at his opposite, "I shouldn't even be here, but he had to show up."

Roy kept shifting his gaze between each figure, watching the two of them argue back and forth. In the two minutes that have passed since the consciences have appeared, Riza began to worry about her boss as he never responded to her question.

"Sir?" She asked with a concerned tone, "Are you alright?"

The consciences immediately stopped. Roy, along with the two figures, looked up at Riza, "Uh no, I mean, yes!" He spoke in a rushed tone, "Did I say my paperwork? I meant yours." He directed his hands toward her desk, "You're almost done. Being that you've been through a lot this morning, I thought it would be the least I could do for you."

Riza tilted her head, and held a quizzical look on her face, "Are you sure you're-"

"Yes, yes, you're very welcome!" Roy exclaimed as he cut her off mid sentence, "Anyways, be back in a bit! Bye!" With that, he quickly darted out the room and shut the door behind him.

- Meanwhile, in the infirmary... -

Maes watched from across the room as the doctor inspected Chris' wound. Luckily for the two, when they got here, the infirmary was not at all busy. The doctor gladly took a look at Chris right when they arrived. Chris seemed to be behaving well to the doctor. Maes was surprised that throughout this whole thing, Chris was acting alright about it. He wasn't screaming or crying with pain. Nothing. It's like he's been through things like this before. The doctor began cleaning the wound, then after instructing one of the nurse's, he had the nurse begin bandaging his wound.

"So, how is he, Doc?" Maes asked as the doctor approached him.

"Well, his wound was not infected. It was actually a fresh wound, probably from earlier today. We were lucky, it could have been much worse had he not come when he did." He paused for a moment, "... I also noticed some bruises and such on other parts of his body. Theses are signs of child abuse, Mr. Hughes."

With a reluctant tone, Maes replied, "I see..."

The doctor raised a brow, "If I may ask, what do you plan to do with him? We have plain evidence for abuse. With his testimony, there's a likely chance he could win the trial. I'm sure the boy wouldn't lie if he knew he would be safe. His parents could be subject to trial, but you must find him a good home to ensure he doesn't go through this again."

"Hmm," Maes pondered to himself for a moment, interlocking his hands together in thought, "I think I might go get the paperwork for child abuse crimes, find Chris a place to stay, and see where to go from there."

The doctor smiled, happy at the chance Chris will have for a better life. He gave Maes some medicine, instructions on when to give it if Chris feels pain, and some clear medicine in a tube, something to be applied on the wound whenever Chris should clean and change the bandages. With a hopeful smile, Maes gladly took everything the doctor offered him.

He stood up from his seat, shaking the doctor's hand, "Thanks Doc, for everything." With a smile, the doctor replied with a 'no problem' type of response. Maes looked over at Chris, who was getting done with the bandaging, "C'mon Chris, let's go visit Riza again!"

With a grin, Chris responded in a jubilant tone, "Alrighty!" then after saying his goodbyes and thank you to the doctor and nurse, he gladly followed Maes out the door.

As the two walked down the hall, a wide grin slowly crept onto Maes' face as something else slowly crept into his mind. He turned to Chris, speaking in an enthusiastic tone, "Hey Chris! You're not doing anything this weekend, right?" Before the boy even had a chance to respond, he continued, "Good! Because my little Elysia is turning 7 this weekend! You should come! Oh she'll be so delighted to meet you! I bet you'll make the best of friends!" Again, before Chris could answer, Maes reached into his pocket and flashed out a few pictures of Elysia, "She's the best! You'll see!"

"Uh," Chris stuttered a bit, he was at a loss for words after that bombardment of photos, but quickly got back on track, "So, um, what will happened to me now?" He looked up at Maes with curious eyes. "I don't have to go back home.. Right?"

Maes chuckled and slightly ruffled the kid's hair, "Don't worry Chris, you'll stick with us for now until we get things sorted out."

As this news hit his ears, Chris smiled as a wave of relief came over him.

- Meanwhile.. Again -

Roy, who had been taking his little detour while receiving Riza's paperwork, was now running back towards his office with the stack of papers in his hands. He had lost track of the time, and didn't realize how long his little detour lasted. Procrastination was getting the best of him yet again! He began freaking out, thinking that Riza will catch on to his scheme to stall from his paperwork. Dammit! Riza's going to kill me! he thought to himself as he continued pacing through the halls.

In his frantic rush, he didn't even notice the two people that were down the hall. He didn't notice that the two people weren't even paying attention to Roy. As soon as Roy even caught a glimpse of the two, it was too late to stop. So there he was, crashing into one of the two people. Paperwork flew left and right, up and down, scattering through the hallway.

The crash sent Roy down towards the ground. After realizing what just happened, Roy quickly looked into the person he crashed into. He chuckled to himself as Maes, who was the victim of Roy's stampede, steadied himself as he stood back up. Maes chuckled with Roy as well, and extended his arm out to help Roy. Chris stood amongst the two, amused at the situation before them.

After the two had their laugh, Roy groaned at the scene before them. There goes all that paperwork.

He sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair, "Great.." he mumbled to himself.

He bent down and scattered about, trying to gather up all the paperwork. Maes and Chris pitched in, making the process go by much faster. In no time, Roy had all the paperwork gathered up and the three were walking back to the office. On their way, they made small talk, and Maes explained to Roy how Chris did at the the infirmary, what the doctor said, etc.

Speaking in a low voice, and giving occasional glances to Chris to be sure Chris didn't hear him, Maes leaned over toward Roy, "So Roy.. Any ideas on what could happen to Chris?"

Roy shrugged, speaking with a casual tone, "How am I suppose to know.. Just drop him off at an orphanage for now." Maes sighed and shook his head to himself. He couldn't, well, he could believe that Roy didn't care too much about Chris. He just wished he would show more interest for the poor boy. He's already been through so much. The two continued in silence until they reached Roy's office.

When they arrived, Roy hauled the stack of paperwork on Riza's desk, who within the time Roy has been gone, she completed all of her previous paperwork that was already there.

How does she..? Roy thought to himself in amazement, but shook the thoughts out of his head as he dragged himself to his desk to finish his own set of paperwork still there. He sighed at the seemingly endless stack before him.

"Miss Riza!" Chris called out in excitement as he found his way to Riza's desk. He's made quiet an attachment to her, being that she had a resemblance from his own mother. Riza happily conversed with him as Black Hayate happily barked at Chris's return.

Maes happily smiled at the sight before him, then turned his attention to Roy. "Hey Roy, can I talk to you outside for a moment?" He asked as he leaned in the doorway.

Roy sighed to himself as he walked across the room, followed his friend out the door, slamming the door behind him. He looked around at the empty hallway around him, then back to Maes, "What do you want now, Hughes?"

"Heh," Maes nervously scratched the back of his head, but spoke in an bubbly tone, "I think I've found a place where Chris can stay for now!" He held his hands up in defense, "Though, promise not to burn me to a crisp after I tell you."

"... Maes, where are you going at?" Roy lifted a brow in curiosity.

"He could stay with you!" Maes exclaimed as he lifted his arms in the air, further illustrating his point.

Roy's mouth pressed into a straight line. "You're joking.."

Maes shook his head, "No, no! I'm serious.. It'd mean a lot to Riza." He grinned broadly, "I mean, you have enough money to care for Chris, even temporarily! You also have a huge house, with plenty of room for him." Maes shrugged, "Heck, you could even adopt him if you'd want."

"Don't push it." Roy replied in a dry tone. "Are you sure this is the only option?"

Maes nodded, "Riza can't, she works too many hours and won't be able to care for him that well." He shoved a stack of papers into Roy's arms, "Here, you need to fill these out if you're going to be a temporary guardian."

"Fine." Roy grumbled, "As long as it won't be for long. We'll sort out everything and he'll be out of my house as soon as possible." He began looking through the papers as he headed back into his office.

"Give me the papers back once you've filled them out!" Maes grinned with excitement as he waved goodbye to Roy.

Closing the door behind his friend, he gleefully began walking down the hallway, bouncing foot to foot with excitement. Little did Roy know... The "temporary guardian" papers were in fact adoption papers. He knew Roy wouldn't look at them too carefully, and would just sign it, just like he does on all his other paperwork.

Operation "Get Roy a Wife" is now in progess, Maes thought as he cheerfully headed back to office with a grin from ear to ear.

AN: There you go! Sorry it's been taking me forever to update. I have no excuses, but I'm trying to find time to update more often with all of my stories. Please give me your feedback! Whether you think it's good, bad, I'd like to hear it so I can improve my writing :)

Please and thank you!

-Kat