Chapter 5 - Nightshift Scheming
By the time they arrived back at her apartment building, Riza was ready to fall asleep standing up. Roy had already lost the battle. Pityingly, she held him close where he was snuggled into her neck. No choice but to wake him – he had to eat something before bed.
The stairwell of her apartment building was deserted. No wonder, she thought, digging for the key in her pocket. Just one storey more. Just a little longer.
Voices. Riza's feet froze to the spot. Everyone should have long been asleep. Cautiously, she climbed the last few steps. With narrowed eyes, she scanned the hallway. There had been no military surveillance around the Colonel's place, neither around hers but one could never be too careful.
She almost groaned when spotting a familiar figure by the window down the hall.
Letting her guard down for the most part, Riza marched over as quietly as annoyed allowed. "Lieutenant Breda," she hissed.
Breda gave a grunt of acknowledgement, only just heaving a brown paper bag through the window. "You're back, good," he greeted.
She frowned when he leaned through the open window, producing yet another bag. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes flashed about, afraid a neighbour might hear.
"Regrouping." Havoc appeared at the window.
"We thought the fire escape would be less suspicious," Breda explained their strange entryway. They looked like burglars, dressed in black. Not at all unsuspicious, but at least they must have been quiet enough not to wake anyone.
Havoc scrambled in. "Also, I heard there was cake." He picked up one of the bags, revealing dark chocolate from it. Riza blinked at them, stunned. Had they… gone shopping for cake ingredients, only to break into her apartment building?
She didn't have the time to contemplate it for too long – they were whispering things about marriage again when seeing the way Roy snored into her ear.
Briskly turning on the heel, she led the way to her front door. Breda stayed at a respectful distance to avoid Black Hayate. With one hand, Riza closed the musty, heavy curtains before turning on the light. It was the middle of the night – a single light from her very window would scream conspiracy to anyone who happened to pass by. Or watching on purpose.
"You didn't tell us how the meeting went, by the way," Havoc said, scratching Hayate's ear.
She still had to walk him, Riza remembered with a grimace. She would have to bring him to work the next week.
"Terrible, as expected," Riza sighed. "They kept asking for him – if I knew where he was, when exactly he disappeared, what happened, if he tried to contact me…" She watched in awe as Breda placed more and more fresh groceries on her single counter.
"You know, if you'd feel safer with us guarding him from time to time…" Havoc trailed. "I'm good with kids and I think you're their number one candidate the Colonel would bring into the loop. Oh, hey there, little prince," he chuckled when Roy stirred, champing as if having had the most pleasant dream. Drool glistened on the stars of Riza's uniform.
"Are we doing the night shift with him?" he drowsily asked, eyes slowly focusing on Havoc. His voice was even more adorable when slurring.
"No, but we're making you something to eat before bed," Riza gently said. She let him slide down. He grasped her coat just before she could straighten again. "I can't cook with one hand," she mildly chided. He pouted, keeping her trapped. "If you let me make dinner, you can help with the chocolate cake."
"Cake?" Roy's sleepy eyes lit up instantly.
Havoc watched with amusement how she didn't use her chance to get away with him momentarily distracted. Instead, she took his hands, detaching them one finger at a time as if asking consent.
By far less reluctantly than before, Roy let her. "Can't we only have the cake?"
"No."
"Pleeease, Miss Riza." He pushed out his lower lip, and Havoc could have sworn that there were impromptu tears in his eyes. It was a miracle he hadn't turned out a completely spoiled brat.
"After dinner. Did you two buy all this?" Riza turned her attention to the men. With her hand, she stroked over Roy's head to tell him she wasn't ignoring him, but that her decision was final. He got distracted by Hayate not a second later, skipping away.
"Since you're doing all the work," Breda shrugged, "we figured this might help."
"Thank you, it really does. How much was it?"
"Nah, it's the least we can do." Breda waved off.
Havoc nodded. He had broken a sweat when Roy had mentioned the night shift, but now, he could see that Riza was either too tired to insist, or hadn't even noticed. The darkening rims beneath her eyes vouched for both.
"Cake?" Roy tugged on the leg of her trousers.
Supressing a sigh, she nodded.
Breda and Havoc spread out maps on the coffee table – one of the surrounding area where they had found the alchemist, a blueprint of the building itself, and a sketch with the room of the event which they had drawn from memory. Breda recounted once more what the alchemist had told them to do, reading the notes he had taken afterwards. Havoc emptied his pistol to use the ammunition like playing pieces on a board game, marking the team's positions.
Riza had meanwhile heated a water bath, stirring the gradually melting chocolate above.
"Do we have more sugar?" Roy interrupted any serious scheming. She regarded his handiwork with a frown. He had emptied the entire package in one go. "We need one more." He shook the package.
She took it from him, pouring sugar back where it overloaded the mixing bowl. "It says 200 grams, not 2000."
He grinned innocently when the men laughed.
Monitoring him closely from then on, Riza did most of the work until shoving the batter into the oven. She didn't own a cake tin, having resorted to a standard baking dish. Roy had made himself comfortable on her foot, hugging her leg, watching the cake rise.
She used the boiling water bath to cook them all a quick dinner, quick enough to eat before the cake was ready.
"You know, I'm surprised you have an oven, let alone a scale," Havoc commented playfully.
"It's for weighing gunpowder," Riza dryly informed. "Will you let me serve this?" she asked Roy.
He only wrapped his arms more tightly around her leg. The men snickered when she was obviously too exhausted to fight his pig-headedness, walking with him sitting on her boot. He squealed delightedly until she shushed him.
She took off her uniform's jacket and boots. Roy dug into his dinner, revived after having licked a chocolate-covered spoon. The second Riza sat down on the couch, he crawled into her lap. Hayate saw to the spilled sauce Roy left in his wake.
"Are you going to teach me how to shoot a gun?"
"No."
"But for like," he nearly tossed away his fork when gesturing, "emergencies."
"There won't be any, don't worry," Riza said with conviction. At least she tried.
Breda and Havoc kept their thoughts to themselves. They exchanged a glance when seeing how Roy's eyes cried out like when she had left for the meeting. He wasn't asking to protect himself.
As if already fearing for his safety on the coming day – or the coming hours, midnight having come and passed – Riza let Roy chomp down his noodles on her lap. He had announced not to be eating much since he wanted the cake, but gobbled up the majority of his plate without too much difficulty.
Breda tapped the sketch on the table. "The military already checked the place; I doubt there will be anyone still guarding it. I'm pretty sure they made a sketch of the transmutation circle, but the Sucking-Life Alchemist doesn't need to know that. All we have to come up with is a way to erase the whole thing without drawing too much attention."
"I was just gonna set the whole place on fire," Havoc said between a mouthful of linguine. "I mean, accidents happen. Someone had a smoke," he circled his palm, "lots of hay…"
"Too obvious."
"Waltzing in there with scrubbers and soap won't exactly be less suspicious."
"And there's still the blood from—" Breda clamped his lips shut when Riza glared at him warningly. They stole a glance at Roy, but he was busy fighting the last quarter of his dinner. Unsuccessfully. His eyelids drooped shut.
Riza took his fork before he could drop it. "What if we cover it instead?"
Roy hopped off her lap to check on the cake, excitedly telling Hayate about it on the way. His voice was beginning to slur though.
"With paint?"
"Only the shops won't open that early," Breda intervened. "And we're leaving in," he pushed back his sleeve to unveil his watch, "three and a half hours."
"Great," Riza mumbled, nibbling on the rest of Roy's dinner.
"But if we could keep the smoke at bay and not burn the hay," Havoc picked his idea back up, "we could just scorch the circle off the ground. Scorch the entire floor."
"Or break it – it is made from wood," Breda reminded. He shoved the bullets away that were supposed to be the three of them – two, one staying in the car with Roy.
The latter came hustling back, sprawling over Riza's lap to more or less seriously study Breda's tactics.
With a red marker, Breda drew a dotted circle around the transmutation array as if planning to saw the floorboards. Then he reconsidered, putting crosses where they would need to make holes in order to have everything collapse. Lost in thought, he set down his empty plate, trying to find a better way, the end of the marker tapping his chin.
Havoc got up to grab himself a second helping. He picked up the others' plates on the way – Breda's for refilling, Roy and Riza's for washing. She had only eaten Roy's leftovers, but when Havoc threw a glance over his shoulder to ask if she wanted more, he kept from raising his voice.
Her eyes had drifted shut. Arms around Roy who now sat, her chin was dropping to her chest. He looked up when she accidentally brushed the top of his head.
Riza blinked herself awake. Roy giggled. She shot him a soft, pretendedly strict look.
"Cake?" He hadn't forgotten.
With a deep inhale, Riza lifted him off her. "Alright." She took Havoc's place in the tiny kitchen area, poking the cake with a knife. Roy clapped his hands in premature celebration, cheering quietly when finally receiving an oddly shaped slice. "I'm just going to walk Hayate," Riza announced. "Help yourselves – not you," she told them, then Roy, on the way out.
When she returned, Breda had already packed everything up and left. She hadn't even noticed him anywhere outside – a good sign. Perhaps a bad sign concerning her late-night focus, but at least he was awake enough to be sneaky.
There was someone else entirely too awake, Riza assessed, when Roy bounced over to her before she had the chance to take off her coat.
"I have a new secret!" Roy whispered in the least nondescript way.
"Oh, come on…" Havoc facepalmed himself where he had thrown his feet over the armrest of the couch, otherwise unable to fit lying down..
"Is it a second slice of cake?" Riza raised an unimpressed brow.
Roy's mouth formed a perfect 'o' in surprise. His eyes were shining, his smile beaming like a ray of sunshine. It was such a radical difference from the left-behind, hopeless orphan who had cried into her chest the last night – even just hours before, confused and overchallenged with learning the truth about himself – she couldn't bring herself to return anything but a tender smile. He mirrored it tenfold.
With a pat on his back, she herded him towards the bathroom. He obeyed, giving her just enough time to note down dog food and eggs on the shopping list before reappearing.
"Did you brush your teeth?" she asked without turning around.
He hesitated for a moment. Little bare feet sucked at the floor, trying to stay warm. Then they disappeared in the bathroom again, stepping onto the make-shift step stool that was really just a cardboard box in front of the sink.
"Well trained," Havoc remarked, half-teasing, half-impressed. "What happened? You're suddenly all strict with him." He got up, circling his shoulders.
Riza kept from glaring at him after a glance at the kitchen. He had washed the dishes.
"I don't know what you mean," she said instead, placing the rest of the cake on the top shelf of the fridge. "There's not much to be strict or non-strict about anyway," she defended herself. "Lenient," she corrected. She was too tired to be having this conversation.
Havoc grinned. "He'll become spoiled."
"He's not spoiled."
"Miss Riza, will you tuck me in?" Roy poked his head out of the bathroom.
"Just a moment," Riza said without thinking. She screwed her lips shut when Havoc snickered. Closing her eyes briefly, denying her light blush, she prepared for the amused spark in his eyes.
What she found, however, was an odd mixture of amusement and affection. She huffed. If she had to listen to one more comment on her 'motherly' side… It was bad enough they all thought her Roy's nanny at his true age – the last thing she needed was that new joke of theirs about her and Roy being married escalating into her becoming a mother.
Because then how would she keep from daydreaming about it…?
"Thank you for watching him." She shook her head. Only a few more minutes until she could sleep. Not for a whole two hours, but it was better than nothing. That, and it would be entirely impossible not to drop dead just about anywhere – preferably in bed – if she had to keep standing for another ten minutes.
"No prob. And I meant what I said earlier – if you need a break…" Havoc trailed off.
"Thanks." She gave a tired but honest smile. Of course, she wouldn't give him away; not because she didn't trust Havoc, but because she needed to be around Roy just as much as he apparently needed her.
"Mind if I use the bathroom before I make myself scarce?"
"Go ahead." She nodded.
The bed creaked next door. Before he had pattered into the hall again, this time in his own, currently oversized shirt, Riza went to meet Roy halfway. By now, he looked just as ready to fall asleep as her.
"Was this a nightshift?" he asked while she pulled the blanket over him. He took her hand when it lingered on his chest.
"In a way." Riza stroked with her thumb up and down. The same heart, beating, alive. The same body, yet not the same man..
"Then it wasn't so bad." He smiled.
She was tempted to call him out for not having done anything, but let it slide. He must have channelled all his energy into the cake and playing with Hayate and pretending that nothing was amiss, so she wouldn't pop his bubble.
It wasn't his fault that any of this had happened. Not his five-year-old self's anyway. His brain must have been on fire, the notion of him having been thirty years old earlier that week so ridiculous, he was blocking it all out. She wondered if he believed her – if he could truly grasp what was still so hard even for her to get her head around. She didn't bring it up.
Neither did she fight him when he tugged on her turtleneck. Exhaustion clinging to her every bone, Riza showed zero resistance when he pulled her down with his tiny hands. He was lucky she didn't collapse onto him.
Hayate had had his walk – that was the last thought circling through her head, allowing her to drift off. Another thing she didn't fight. She couldn't. She was asleep before Roy had finished cuddling himself into the crook of her body.
Havoc smiled, regarding the scene. Knowing they would have to rise before long pained him, but the mission was too important to postpone. With their superior still 'missing', there was no way that any of them could afford a day off. It had to be this weekend.
He left on tiptoes, locking the door, sliding the key back into the apartment under the door. He took the new shopping list with him.
The air was crisp outside, his breath forming clouds. Everything was quiet. Not a soul seemed to be awake, no cars driving by, no windows illuminated. There was no nightlife anywhere close to interrupt the tranquillity.
His wristwatch caught the dim light of a streetlamp. One hour and forty-three minutes to go.