Summary: Roy and Riza decide to reevaluate their relationship and allow themselves to start being a romantic couple. In Xing the issue with the stone seems to be resolved for the moment, but the Retired Emperor still has his ways to make himself a pain, so all is not yet well. Another romantic relationship is starting up for Jean Havoc and maybe the youngest Armstrong sister will end up sticking with him unlike his previous girlfriends.
Notes: For once I have managed to make an update that came on time. Since it appears that my political ramblings aren't attracting as much interest and have been unnecesarily lengthy, I have decided to both compress them and mix them in with some actual interpersonal development. I needed to get those three ships under way at some point anyway, so might as well start them now.
"Miss Hawkeye, you have the Prime Minister of the phone," Sheska announced as she leaned into the office of the Minister of Justice. Ah, I was wondering how long this would take, she thought. "Thank you, Sheska," Riza said out loud as took up her phone. "Good afternoon, Mustang." "Oh... I see," she heard the dejected voice of Roy after a moment. She pretended to cough. "In case you forgot, I would like to remind you that this is a work phone and not really a venue for private discussions. Five in the afternoon at the Palace," she declared and promptly put the phone down.
She spent the rest of her work day not thinking much about that. Having two portfolios was hard enough without getting distracted by personal issues. By the time she made it back to the Presidential Palace, Roy was already waiting outside, going back and forth like a nervous wreck. He gained bonus points for not going full on romantic and actually buying flowers. "Oh, Ri... Haw...," he started stuttering, when he noticed her. She smiled and rolled his eyes. The way his face quickly went through several emotions was impressive. "And I thought Edward had it bad. Come on inside, Roy."
They sat down at the same table they ended up drinking wine the previous evening. "So," she began, because the thirty-year-old was taking this about as well someone half his age. "You know that we had the agreement about relationship between us. The one, where we agreed that we would not pursue a romantic relationship," she nodded toward him. "Yeah. I thought that it had not changed." "It doesn't need to change. We could justify the kiss as a result of me getting too drunk. But..." She looked at his face. "I don't think you would be happy about that, Roy."
The second use of his first name made him tense up slightly. "I don't think that is up to just me," he told her, and she gave a nod and a pleased smile. "Fair enough. I guess I have been getting more and more tired of pretending that the idea of us being involved romantically was not pleasing. I might need to send Ling a 'thank you' note for sending us that wine," she replied and smirked at the way Mustang looked at her with his lips in an 'o' shape. "Even if we are banned from doing that by the fraternisation laws," he asked.
She gave him an annoyed look. "My grandfather is the Führer, and he has never been subtle about his support for a romantic relationship between us." He sighed. "He really hasn't, has he, Riza? Uh, I mean, Hawkeye." "Oh please, I have stopped using your surname already, why would I insist you keep using my?" He finally gave her his own smile. "What are we going to about all this? We can't exactly go around on dates," he pointed out. "Oh, we could try, but the question is what we would do during them," she pointed out with a raised index finger.
"Where would we get the time? I am the Prime Minister and you are the Minister of both Justice and Finance. That doesn't exactly allow for a lot of free time," he argued. "I may be a massive workaholic, Roy, but I am not that bad," she replied with a pout. He gave her a questioning look with a raised eyebrow. "Do, or do you not, want to pursue a relationship with me," she asked forcefully. "I want to pursue it," he immediately replied and waved his hands around in a calming motion. She gave him an approving look.
"But that still doesn't answer the problem of finding a time to actually do that," he noted. "We don't need to explicitly decide on that from the start, Roy. We can take opportunities as they come up and follow through with whatever we want." He thought about that for a moment. "Could we take an opportunity right now?" She snickered. "Yes, but you would be rising my grandfather potentially catching onto us. And James Grumman trying to be supportive of somebody's relationship is stuff that terrifying nightmares are made of."
"Have you seen him doing that before, Riza?" They both noticed they had been taking excuses to use each other's first time. We are making up for the last decade, aren't we, he thought. "No, but we are talking about somebody, who thinks it is absolutely normal to dress like an old woman to disguise himself in public, so he can deliver messages," she pointed out and Mustang started snickering from the reminder of that event. "Well, we could always go outside," he offered. "You are really trying to find an excuse for starting up a relationship as fast as possible."
"Of course, I am. You know, the womanizer persona is completely made up. I have spent the last decade trying and failing to find interest in another woman. The amount of times I've dreamed about this is embarrassing." "Are you thirty or thirteen," she laughed. "Teenagers can switch quickly if a crush doesn't go anywhere," he argued. "Your former subordinate would disagree," Riza noted. "His actually went somewhere," he argued. "I am both happy for Edward and completely jealous of the fact he managed to find a romantic partner despite being half my age."
"Well, if you don't want to hide it for some reason, you can now say you have one too." "That quickly?" "Roy, we've been together for over a decade already. It's not going to be difficult to slide into being a romantic couple. I am certain all the guys are going to have an identical reaction to the reveal we are together: 'Fucking finally!'" They both laughed. Mustang got up and offered her his right hand. She took it with her own right and let him pull her to stand up. "Do you want to keep it a secret?" "I don't really care," she informed him.
"Fair enough. Can we take a walk through the garden?" She shrugged. "Why not? I have no qualms about taking romantic walks," she allowed, and they walked outside. Since it was early August, the Sun was still above the horizon and the garden was large enough to allow them to walk around it for hours. "Speaking of His Excellency," he suddenly recalled, "there is something I just realised about one of his requests." "Oh dear, let me guess. Did he ask you to marry me?"
"He asked me to make you the First Lady of Amestris," he informed her and gave a toothy smile. "Oh, he did, did he? Did he get so tired waiting for you to make a move, that when you and Armstrong offered him the Presidency, he jumped at the chance to find an excuse to make me First Lady on his own terms?" "It's James Grumman. I would not be surprised in the slightest. However, this will make the next succession rather interesting, since if I am going to succeed him then you would keep the title. I don't think that has ever happened before."
"Good grief, Roy, you want us to tie the knot that quickly," she teased. "Maybe," he replied with no reticence. "Quite frankly, I could not think of an alternative for you. If I ascended unmarried, the title of First Lady would probably end up passing to Madame Christmas. And as much as your Grandfather would find that idea of a bar and brothel owner in that position absolutely hilarious..." "Sounds like his kind of humour," she agreed. "... I don't think she would be all too pleased about that."
She wiggled her head back and forth in thought for a moment. "Given what we know about the nature of Amestris, I would kind of like to see what the nation would think about having your dear aunt in such a position." He put his left hand on her chest and pretended to gasp. "You would not stand side-by-side with me at that point," he said in a faux hurt tone. She slapped that hand with her own. "Calm down! Of course, I would, but I am really interested in how casually you are dismissing the possibility that Armstrong will be the next Führer."
"Why do you think I am so supportive of the idea that the President should be elected by Parliament and the members themselves should be chosen by popular vote? That way, Armstrong will effectively sabotage herself by virtue of her own personality. One outburst in public and the balance of power will move over faster than you would think possible." "A nice conspiracy," she cooed, "but surely that would be exposing you to the same possibility," she suggested. "Maybe, but we know that between me and her, she is the one with less patience and tact."
She hummed and made a so-so gesture with her hand. "What," he yelped. "You may be more patient, but we know you aren't exactly the most tactful person." "Okay, fair," he grumbled and patted the back of his neck with his free hand. "But we can always fix that," she suddenly asserted. "Lesson number one: how do you greet a nation's first lady?" Roy walked around so instead of next to each other, they were opposite each other. He took his right arm and bowed down to kiss her knuckles. "If she isn't you," he said, and she knew where this was headed.
She responded with a smile. "And what if she is me," she asked. "If she is you," he continued and straightened out before tugging her arm slightly. She let herself be pulled toward him, and he kissed her on the lips. It was rather sloppy, but they enjoyed it. After a few seconds, they split apart. "As part of the next lesson, we are going to go over how you are supposed to properly kiss your partner," she declared in complete deadpan. "And who is going to teach that one?" "Edward," she suggested, and he replied with an unimpressed frown. "Or we could always ask my Grandfather."
The Resembool trio was set to leave after lunch on 12 August, which was today. "Oh, Alphonse, you have to try these out," May exclaimed as she saw what breakfast the Imperial palace cooks had prepared. "I've had pancakes before, May," he argued. "But you definitely did not have one of these. They are rice cakes from South Xing," she pointed out. "Rice cakes," he asked as he looked at them more closely. They were smaller and whiter than normal pancakes, but were covered with a thick layer of sweet fruits. "Oh, that looks nice," Winry proclaimed and took some.
"Ew! Rice with sweet stuff? Really, Win," Edward asked as he put a slice of pie on his plate. "Do not underestimate the potential in combining two opposing taste," his girlfriend argued, "sometimes you can get great combos." "We'll see," Al allowed, and put a few of the cakes on his own plate. They sat down and dug in. When Alphonse bit into them, they felt rather odd, but he could understand why the Xingese would find them tasty. "The combination of rice and sweet fruit is interesting," he admitted.
"Isn't it," May said with a childish enthusiasm that was very cute. He suddenly recoiled as something fell down in front of his face. He looked down and saw that a small letter had fallen between his legs. May snickered and she looked up. "Lan Fan has interesting ways of passing around information," she muttered. The other three looked up and saw a small opening into the ventilation system that the palace included. The bodyguard was not there any more. He picked up the letter and folded it out. It was written in English and the other three reading it from the side.
Apologies for literally dropping this on you like this. Lord Huan has informed me that the Retired Emperor wants to contact Edward and Alphonse, because he has realised that they are the sons of the Sage of the West. "Oh, great," Ed groaned. He thinks you will reveal the secrets of the Philosopher's Stone to him and after finding out you are leaving, he has asked Lord Huan to arrange a meeting as quickly as possible. Ling thinks this is a perfect opportunity to get his guard down and take away the stone.
If you can find an excuse to get Lord Zheng into the Northern Garden, I have a sap ready to knock him out. He always keeps the stone of his body, when he is awake, since he believes his bodyguards can protect him sufficiently. However, we have already bribed them as well. As soon as you finish your breakfast, feel free to go to his chambers, and after you arrange for a meeting outside, just let Lord Huan pass the message to me. "Really," Alphonse said with a tired tone, "This might be the most of the wall plan they could come up with."
The young Princess gave them a shrug. "Frankly, that passes for relatively normal over here. Sometimes you have long-term conspiracies, and sometimes you take opportunities as they come along," she noted. "That does not make my feeling about this easier," he replied, and she him a small smile. "You could always refuse to follow through," Winry reminded him, and he gave a loud sigh. "Nah, the sooner we get the stone away from your Father, the better I will feel," Ed asserted and his brother nodded. "May, where are your Father's chambers, again?"
"I'll take you there, it's easier than telling you how to get there yourself," she offered. He gave a nod and started eating his rice pancakes again. Once they were finished, the girl immediately stood up and took the brother's hands in hers and they were off. They let themselves be dragged around the palace like it was a large labyrinth. "Here they are," she said after about a minute. "Thank you." Alphonse realised he would not be able to find his way back. "Could you stay out here?" "Of course!"
Edward knocked on the door. "Enter," a voiced said in English. "Good afternoon, Lord Huan," they said and bowed to the man. "Lord Zheng," they continued, and bowed to the Retired Emperor, who responded with his own bow. "Greetings, Misters Elric," Huan responded, which revealed it was him, who allowed him to enter. "We were told that the former Emperor wished to talk to us," the younger nobleman nodded and asked something of Zheng. "He wants to ask about the nature of this item," he translated back.
The older man took out the philosopher's stone, and they were pleased to see it was barely used up. They gave him the fakest smiles they could. "We would be happy to," Al lied and Ed gave a nod. The grin that Zheng gave at the claim that there were many of those stones spoke volumes, and Alphonse had to hold himself back from going off at the man for treating this so casually. "Could you reveal the manner in which more of them can be made?" "Of course," Edward said with a complete poker face.
The Retired Emperor looked like he had received the blessing of the Heavens themselves. "If Lord Zheng wishes to come along with us, so we can converse about the things in the private, we will gladly reveal the manner in which that must be accomplished," Ed continued. Maybe we should go into acting, he thought. "Somebody, who has come into a possession of such a stone, must be worthy of receiving my Father's sacred knowledge," Al added in an attempt to sweet talk the man. Lord Huan happily translated it and Zheng bought it hook, line and sinker.
They quickly agreed to meet outside in the Northern Garden, and the brothers had May lead them back out through the palatial labyrinth. "Father jumped at the chance, didn't he," she asked with a grin. "Yep," Edward said, and she gave several knowing nods. "He is a greedy man, and I cannot wait to see his reaction after he finds out you stole the stone." The vindictive look was a bit disturbing on a pre-teen girl, but the Elrics agreed. They met him for a total of five minutes, and he had already reached a place in the five most annoying people either had ever met.
"May, your Father looks like a stereotypical villain. I cannot describe him in any other way," Alphonse declared, and she gave him a confused look. "Good to see that I am not the only one, who was waiting for him to go," his brother started and then pretended to laugh in a low baritone and twirl his moustache. May and Ling, who was coming up to them, both burst out laughing. "Oh Heavens! I am NEVER going to be able to look at him without thinking about that," May said after she calmed down a bit.
Lan Fan passed word to the Retired Emperor's bodyguards to leave the man unprotected after they saw him walk into the Northern Garden just after lunch. "This will be interesting," Ling said as he looked from a window with a pair of binoculars. "Given how pissed Ed looked, I am almost sympathetic to your dad," Winry said as she took them to have a look herself. The brothers sat down on a bench in front of a small pound. Five minutes later, the Retired Emperor strolled in with a pleased smile and Huan as his translator. He sat down and asked Huan to translate something.
"So, what is the great secret of the Sage of the West," was the way it was phrased to the boy. Ed and Al fixed Zheng with serene smiles. "Our Father's greatest secret is this," Edward began and gestured for Huan to translate. The other man leaned closer to him as if he could understand English. "Death comes for everyone," Alphonse declared harshly, and suddenly let his true emotions shined through as he fixed the old man with the worst scowl he could. The moment Huan finished translating, and it words sunk in, the Emperor felt a sharp pain on the back of his head.
"Boom, headshot," Ling exclaimed as Winry winced. The stunned Lord Zheng slipped down the bench as Lan Fan put away the sap she had used. "The faster we get this off the playing field, the better for everyone," he declared with zero regret about having this done to his father. Ed and Al picked the man's pockets and the moment they found the stone let Lan Fan take care of both problems at once. "When he wakes up, I will tell him you used some sort of unknown alkahestry and made him drop like a sack of bricks," Huan declared as the Imperial bodyguard left.
She dragged him back to his chambers, where he would be put in bed and a letter would be left on his table. The words on it would translate as: Death comes for everybody. It already came for the Sage of the West. And it will come for you as well, Zheng Qin. Maybe if you work fast enough, you won't be remembered as a complete bastard! By the time the Retired Emperor woke up, the Resembool trio would already be passing through the Xishan range and entering the Desert of Xerxes with the issue of the stone resolved to their favour.
"What have you done?!" The Retired Emperor barrelled into the room of his successor, where Ling was enjoying his dinner, while screaming like a pissed off lion. "Whatever are you talking about, Father," he asked with a faux innocent tone. Despite being in his sixties, the man jumped his son's table with a look of a wild beast. Lan Fan was very happy about that, because it gave her an excuse to kick him in his stomach. "Back off," she growled, and Ling took a sip from his glass in an attempt to suppress a flush of desire.
"You dishonourable bastards," Zheng yelled at both of them. "Give me back the Stone of the Sage of the West, or I will make your lives a living hell." "I already gave it to you, Father. I have no idea what you are talking about," Ling said and took another bite of his pork cutlet. "This is not a joke! I will destroy you, if you don't give it back." The Emperor made a point of blatantly ignoring his predecessor. "By this time the Elrics should have reached our border, right, Lan Fan," he asked her with a smug grin. "You will regret this, you two pieces of shit," Zheng screamed.
He slammed the door shut behind him so hard they almost flew off the hinges. "To another problem we have manage to rid ourselves off," the Emperor offered a toast after handing a glass to his bodyguard. They clinked and took a gulp each. "Now, mind telling where you hid the stone," he asked her, and she gave him a smile and a shrug. "I have no idea what you are talking about, my lord." He laughed. "You know what, fine, keep your secrets! It will make it safer for all of us."
"What do you wish to order," the waiter asked as they sat down at a small café on the outskirts of Central City. They started to take off their coats, which were required this deep into October. "A latte, but with only a little milk," Jean Havoc requested. "I would like a Raf coffee," Catherine Elle Armstrong asked. "Coming right up," the waiter promised and walked off to the counter. "An interesting choice of drink," the man pointed out, and the youngest Armstrong gave a small smile. "The taste of vanilla sugar is something I always find very lovely," she explained.
"Really? I usually find loveliness in other things," Havoc replied, and she gave a slightly annoyed click of her tongue. "Jean, you keep trying to be so sweet, you are going to give both of us diabetes. Stop acting so desperate, I enjoy the discussion we keep having," she argued, and the man put his hands up in surrender. "Okay, maybe I am going a bit too far with that," he admitted as the sound of a steam heater came from the kitchen. "How has the family reacted to the idea of us going on coffee dates with such a common guy as yours truly?" She giggled.
"Father and Mother are enthusiastic that I have finally found someone I wanted to go out with, but I decided to not yet reveal it is you, because I feel like my family would try to test your worth on their own terms." "Ah, so that's why our dear Minister of the Interior and Defence hasn't broken my legs like they are twigs just yet," he said, and she made a very not lady like snicker. "Yes, Olivier is one of the reasons I have elected to stay quiet. Alex is the other, because even among our family, he can be a bit intense." "A bit intense," Havoc said with a disbelieving tone as she took a sip.
"Catherine, your darling brother is not someone I would describe as a man that does anything in parts." "That is just the way the House of Armstrong acts," she said as the waiter came out with their coffees. "Here you go." "Thank you," Havoc responded and immediately took a sip. "Look perfect," Catherine said in turn, and the waiter gave a small bow to them before going back to serve the others. "Our family has always insisted that public perception is important," she continued, "Every generation has made an impression on the public for one reason or another."
"What impression are you planning to make on the public," he asked and took a gulp of his coffee. She gave a vague shrug. "Well, I am still attending the Faculty of Mathematics at Central University, so maybe I am going to become one of the first prominent female mathematicians," she suggested. "That is certainly an interesting choice. Are you planning to emulate Amue and tick off another female doctorate for the family?" She puffed her lower out and gave him a so-so gesture. "I am going to be honest; I mostly went for maths because I enjoyed it."
"That is not a bad way to decide what you want to do in life as long as you can maintain that feeling, when it becomes your work rather than a hobby." "Are you speaking from experience there," she wondered. He gave her a head wiggle. "Admittedly, I was an absolute rascal as a kid and frequently ended up getting into fights for petty reasons only kids and teens get into fights for. But it was not exactly a hobby that made me decide to train joining the military." "You mean common people don't fight with guns as children," Catherine said as if she was genuinely surprised.
The terrified look Havoc gave her was so hilarious she nearly cracked. "Holy shit, please say 'Sike!' right now." She laughed. "I am only mostly joking. The most we had as kids was lessons in sword fighting, but that has always been a point of pride for the family, because the first Armstrong that became wildly known was a prominent fighter that got very high up the army ranks despite refusing to use gunpowder weapons, because they were dishonourable. Olivier is considered the prodigy in this generation for reasons I believe you are aware of." He nodded.
"General Raven learned that the hard way," he agreed. "Is that the one she made into 'foundations' up at Briggs," she asked quietly, because most quests in the café did not need to know that her eldest sister casually killed one of Father's underlings to pull off a rapid promotion by going to Bradley and openly flaunting she did that with justifications that Raven was an idiot that couldn't keep his mouth shut and a liability for the long term plans to bring about the Promised Day. "The very same. Mustang pointed out to me that, ironically, he would actually be the weakest part of it by far."
He took another drink. "Since we are on the subject of your familial exploits, do you happen to know about your Father's plans regarding Xing? I get very little information from other sources, and not just because Samuel Dupont likes to interact with your family a lot more than he does most of the other Ministers." "There is little news on that front," she explained. "Most of it is currently in abeyance, since we are waiting for a final decision on how we would actually connect the countries together.
Right now, we are mostly dedicated to Alex and Amue's plans with Doctor Cartwright and Central University." "Ah yes, the 'Academicisation of Alchemy' or whatever it is they ended up calling it. I am getting a bit annoyed with the amount of names that the people, we know, make, which end up being alliterative. It's not as bad as the 'Central Committee of the Constitutional Consultation,' but given it is led by A. and A. Armstrong," he pointed out and drank another bit of his latte.
"I would argue that one is even worse than the 'Four Cs,' because I am almost certain that 'Academicisation,' is not an actual word, and they made it up so they did not have to use a phrase to get across the idea of 'making a subject of study part of the established academia' instead of going for a more natural way of getting that across," she reminded him. "I get that that is supposed to be the intended meaning behind it, but it sounds like it was done for the sole purpose of making it short and alliterative." She took another sip of her Raf coffee.
"Anyway, leaving issues of language abuse aside for the moment," she continued, "How has your physical therapy been going?" "Good enough," he said. "They think I should be able to stop requiring a cane just in case every time I go outside," he explained and leaned aside to show his one hanging off the back of the chair. "I find the thought pretty exciting, because after I while it would mean I would be able to get over that very bad break up," he told her with a smile.
"You actually consider 'Solaris' to have been one of your girlfriends," she asked with slight bewilderment, which was a rare sight on any member of the Armstrong family. He made the gesture of both palms turned upward. "I know that she was not interested in a romantic relationship, but rather in using me to spy on my boss or, I guess, my former boss, but I had never acted like it was not a real relationship during our dates. Sure, the break-up was painful," he repeated with a smile.
"You are a fan of gallows humour, I see," she commented and gave him a small head waggle. "Do you not like it?" "I'm an Armstrong," she reminded him with a tone of genuine offence. "Fair point, but that doesn't mean you can't be different from the others," he told her. "Maybe I should introduce you to the others to show you that it is much harder for us, than you would expect," she responded with. "Perhaps we can arrange for that later, when I will feel safer meeting your family. I would like to survive actually meeting your parents."
"They are not those stereotypical 'If you hurt her, we'll hurt you!' parents," she argued. "Again, I would like to remind what our last name is. We can easily take revenge on people, who mistreat us, so there is no need for people to get involved in each other's business in that way." "I'm still not risking it," he declared. "Your loss," she replied. "We are not as insane as the people like to describe us, Jean. As long as you deal with me honourably, there is no reason to fear." "I have interacted with Olivier and Alex too much to believe that." She shook her head with a frown.