Hawkeye came into work the next morning and immediately knew that something was wrong. Despite popular belief, the Fuhrer usually made it into the office before she did. The pair merely let the group close to them believe it was the other way around. She walked briskly into the office, the crescant for her superior in the paper bag and still warm, but he was no where to be found. The office was exactly how he left it the night before, even the position of the chair had not changed, so she knew he hand't been in.

Riza grabbed the phone and dialed his house, praying that nothing had happened to him. No one answered, but she did her best not to panic. Maybe he just overslept. After all, yesterday was a hard day and no one could say that Roy Mustang didn't deserve a bit of a break for once. So she waited. She emerged from the inner office and set to work, filing papers that she finished and sorting through the in box to see what she could take care of and what had to be passed up.

At eleven sharp, she looked up and saw the rest of the team there, hard at work and she made her decision. She stood abruptly, disrupting the for once silent office and grabbed her keys.

"Where are you going Ma'am?" Havoc asked, leaning back in her seat.

"He's late." she intoned, leaving an office of terrified men behind. When she had finally left hearing distance, the silence was broken.

"Well, when she's finished with him there'll be so many holes that he won't have to worry about water anymore..." A few moments later, the men turned back to work on their missing persons case. Breda finally lifted his phone and made a call. Havoc and Fuery turned to watch him.

"Hello, investigations?"

"... Yes, I'd like to make an inquiry about the use of personnel on a missing persons case?"

"...Which case? Winry Rockbell."

Riza parked her car outside of Roy's modest home and looked over his car. She briefly held her hand over the engine. Stone cold. Her stride carried her the short distance to his door and she rang the bell. After a few moments, she rang again. When she still received no answer, she began pounding on the door.

"Roy Mustang!" she shouted,"Open up this instance! You are late for work, Sir!" No sound emerged from the house and she turned, glaring at a rustle in the bushes. She stalked over and yanked a soldier out of the cover.

"Has he left this building?" she demanded.

"N-Not since y-you d-dropped him o-off last n-night..." the soldier stammered, fear clear in his eyes.

"Next time he hasn't left his house by eight-thirty sharp on a work day, call me."

"Y-Yes Ma'am!" the soldier saluted and Riza dropped him back into the bush. She walked up to the door and kicked it in. The first thing she noticed was that no lights on. The second thing was the smell. Alcohol burned through her nose as if someone had doused the place and the smell of gasoline assaulted her nostrils.

"ROY!" she shouted, dashing forward into the house. She didn't hit the light, afraid of something terrible happening. Her nose guided her towards the kitchen and she stumbled through the hazy cloud of fumes towards the shape on the table that she just knew to be her superior.

"Roy!" she called again, shaking his shoulder and putting a hand over her mouth and nose, "Roy! Wake up!" He didn't stir, so she grabbed him under the arms and dragged him away from the table and towards the doorway to get away from the worst of the fumes and set his head down gently.

"Someone get the fumigation squad!" she ordered. Two men went running from the area around the house and Riza closed her eyes and prayed. After a moment, she took Roy's pulse and found it to be sluggish. "Hang in there, Roy," she murmured, watching for sirens as another man dialed 112, "hang in there."

She couldn't do much besides monitoring his pulse and breathing, but that was what she could do, so she did. After a few minutes, the sirens reached her ears, but she kept on, bent over Roy's form to count the rise and fall of his chest, his breaths against her cheek, and the heart beats below her fingertips. The first men to the scene pulled on gloves and wrinkled their noses at the smell.

"Has he suffered any head or spinal injuries that you are aware of?" the first medic asked.

"No, but he is unconscious and unresponsive," she rattled off the numbers for pulse rate and watched as they strapped Roy to a gurney.

"Are you coming along?" a second medic asked her.

"Of course," she said, pulling her professional face back together, "I'm his primary protection detail." She climbed into the back of the ambulance and sat to the side, clinging to the metal railings over head so as to not pitch into the midst of their work as the ambulance raced around corners towards the hospital.

Riza watched as they hooked up various instruments to take pulse, blood pressure, and to deliver oxygen to the man she loved. His face was pale and his breathing was light. The stupid idiot had probably given himself alcohol poisoning. The thought that weighed on her mind was why. Were you trying to kill yourself? Was it because of me? Or did you simply lose track of how much you were drinking? She gathered up her knees to her chest as the paramedics rushed around her and watched Roy, trying to get inside of his head.

"Come out, come out little Cardinal!" he called, searching down the tunnel where he had seen her red hair vanish into not moments ago, "I thought you wanted to work together!"

She felt her heart in her throat and held her breathing as still as possible as he passed by her hiding spot. He'd held her captive for three months now, telling her 'I'm still debating the issue. I've yet to find a... spark for what I want in you...' So she made a run for it each chance she could, thankful he'd unbound her ankles finally.

"Cardinal!~" he called out again into the darkness of the unlighted cavernous space, "Come on out! I think it's time for you to sing for me!" he cackled, and, as he did so, a small blue light spread out from where he stood, filling the air and changing the very substance of the ground under his feet.

The explosion rocked the ground and she was unable to stop the scream from tearing from her throat.

"Music to my ears!" he shouted, directing the combustion towards the direction of her voice, "Sing for me, my Cardinal!" He stopped when her voice finally died away and casually made his way over to where her charred flesh was laying. Her right leg was gone from halfway down the shin, but otherwise she was in remarkably good shape. Her crimson hair hadn't even burned away.

So he wondered. Kimblee, the Crimson Alchemist, with Kardinal, the Crimson Songbird? Well, if that wasn't a match made in the burning flames of hell, he didn't know what was! A grin spread across his face and laughter bubbled forth from his demonic mouth once more.

AUTHOR'S INANE RAMBLINGS

Erm... I don't wanna die...? If anyone reminded me that I hadn't updated, this would've been up weeks ago! So, I guess that it's technically all your guys's fault that this is so late! So HAH!

On a more somber note, I don't know when I'm going to update again because of several things. One, finals are in two weeks and I'm trying to be more of a Hermione than a Harry Potter. Well, at least I'm not a Ron... (Also, I got straight 'A's third quarter!~ *does a happy dance* ...But it's not gonna happen forth... *cries in the corner*)

If you don't like other fandoms, skip the next paragraph.

Two: I'm writing another fanfiction that has absolutey nothing to do with FMA or FMAB! *Le gasp* It's a crossover between HP (note the above reference) and Bleach with a few genderbent characters! So, I have no idea when that'll be posted because I just write a bunch of random scenes and at some point I'll probably string them together and change it from just the HP plotline because Ichi has amnesia.

199: (I'm asuming that the 'Guest' reply was you and you were merely being lazy or the iPad is being stupid by not saying 199 due to the content of the review)

Why don't you get an account so you can yell at me when I don't update? I NEED THE MOTIVATION!

JazmineElric: All will be revealed in time... The bit with Kimblee is to explain a certain someone'smotivation and will gradually be revealed to have everything make sense.

TheColdfireAlchemist: Thanks so much for reading! I'm sorry to give you such a long wait. Um... I have no idea how long this'll be... More than this evidently.

Thank you to 199, JazmineElric, TheColdfireAlchemist, and everyone who either added me or the story to their alerts.

Chiao!

WHEN I DON'T UPDATE, HARASS ME PLEASE.