Disclaimer: FMA belongs to Arakawa Hiromu

Notes: This piece is related to those I wrote for themes #19 and #90. This one shows the conversation referred to previously. The particular manga section referred to is (still) Chapter 37, pages 3, 4, 13, 26, 27, and 31-33.

Thirty: Conversation

They never really spoke about the little details – they were so focussed on the path ahead that all they tended to speak about was important information. At least, in the office. Who knew how they acted if they met on the street, or perchance at one another's house, other than they? But all Kain Feury knew was that business-like office communiqué, until The Clock Tower Mission.

Communication was necessary to keep Mustang in the loop, from where he waited in the office. He was there so that the superior officers didn't think Mustang and all his subordinates had skipped out for the day. The rest of the group? They were in assorted places, keeping an eye on the bait – one ex-con in a can, Barry the Chopper – and Hawkeye had the headset that was currently connected to the phone-line in Mustang's office. Feury, the techie of the group, got to take care of the various electronics that kept that line working, and had a spare headset, so he could hear if the line got cut off or was particularly static-ridden, and fix it without Hawkeye having to yell through to the next room, where he waited. They had worried about the line being tapped, or plain old eavesdropping from a nosy soldier passing by Mustang's office, and so instead of concise, efficient conversation Feury usually heard between his two superior officers, they spoke in code.

"Hello Elizabeth!" A code name, of course, so the officers wouldn't know who was really at the other end. "How are you?"

"Why Mr. Roy, thank you for always calling me." Feury's ears perked up at the surprisingly gushing tone of voice from the Lieutenant. "Are you calling from the office again?"

"Yes, I just had to hear your voice." Feury could hear the grin in Mustang's words, and almost flushed, feeling as though he was listening in on a private conversation.

"Oh! Aren't you smooth. But wouldn't your scaaary Lieutenant be mad at you if you don't get back to work?" Hah, even out of the office, she was still trying to convince him to get his work done. This sort of comment Feury didn't feel so embarrassed by.

"Don't worry," came Mustang's suave reply, "she's on her vacation right now."