Fullmetal Fun

Oh my God how long has it been since I updated? I read through the last chapter recently and realised how feeble it was…argh…but I hope I’ve made it up to you all in this chappy.

Originally this was part of a huge monster chapter that I decided to cut down to prevent getting rambly, so the next chapter is already half written and should be out soon. Sorry if this one's a little shorter than the usual chapters, but the last one was long and I lost it a bit so I decided to split this one. I'm sorry!

Review Replies:
Mina- Yay! You liked it! Sorry for being so slow, I will try and hurry up :). (I kinda liked the bathroom scene too so I'll have to write more scenes like it :D)

Baroqueangel-Aghh! I am so sorry! Am soo slow! (Goes and cries in a corner) Thank you for your review, it made me smile, am happy you don't think its moving too fast.

Binks- That made me happy! I was really unsure about Roy going...well, crazy :). Thank you for the review and I'm glad you like it. :D

xXx

The rich scent of coffee filled Riza Hawkeye’s kitchen. Roy hadn’t touched his mug. He was simply staring into its caffeinated depths, thanking God that Riza hadn’t asked why he was there yet.

He didn’t feel he was ready to talk about that yet. The guilt wouldn’t let him.

This was somewhat of a ritual between the two. How if Roy was particularly angry or upset he would always have a place at Hawkeye’s kitchen table, hot drink to one side and a sympathetic face opposite him. It didn’t matter why he was down, work, women or the world, he could always discuss it with Riza. They had been through a war together, it was hard to hold any boundaries after going through that with someone, except, explaining what he had done to Ed…that he had hurt him…in such a way…

It was different.

So far the pair had simply sat in silence, Riza calmly analysing him with her deep brown eyes. Roy knew he was going to have to give some explanations soon…only…he wasn’t sure if he would be able to. How could he tell his subordinate, his friend, that he had done such a thing?

In the end it was Riza to make the first move.

She peered at him from over her coffee, expression soft yet with an underlying firmness. “This wouldn’t have something to do with Ed now, would it?”

Roy froze. How could she know?

“N-no, of course not!” He laughed nervously, realising with horror just how obvious he was being. “What would make you think tha…” The dangerous narrowing of Riza’s eyes stopping him mid sentence. Riza could always see through his lies…

Fixing him with an icy glare Riza’s tone matched her expression. “Colonel.” Roy flinched at the title, the formality informing him Riza was definitely angry. “With all due respect sir, I am not stupid. Something is going on between you and Edward and I want to know what, lying to me isn’t going to help.”

Open-mouthed Roy stared at his companion, stung by the harshness of her words. It was understandable though, Riza could never take being lied to.

Hawkeye continued.

“You’re arriving and leaving work together, somewhat strange behaviour for a colonel and his subordinate. And I hear that the pair of you are even living together. Why didn’t you tell me?!” A note of hurt added to the anger in her voice. “And after all we’ve been through together how can you lie to me like this? Saying this has nothing to do with Ed when it obviously has everything to do with Ed. How can you lie?!”

Hawkeye’s words stung and bit at Mustang. Riza lost her temper with Roy so rarely the shock factor caused him to be even more

Head bowed Roy stared blindly down at the tablecloth. “How did you know we were living together?”

“Havoc trailed the pair of you home one evening, needless to say he was quite surprised.”

Far too drained and upset to particularly care about this revelation “Oh.” He sounded weak and defeated even to himself. The prospect of rumours about him and Ed no longer held any menace to Mustang. Screw his career, he was just too drained to care.

“Roy, I’m here for you, just why can’t you understand that?” Raising his head at the pain in Riza’s voice Mustang was amazed to see tears forming in his lieutenant’s eyes.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“We’ve been through a war together Roy, a war. Whatever’s happened with Ed can’t be any worse than that, it just can’t, so why can’t you tell me? Why not?”

“Riza…I…”

“Why can’t you tell me?!” The pain in her voice was unbearable and Roy was horrified to see a tear streak down her one of her cheeks.

“I’m ashamed, OK? I didn’t want to tell you because…I’m ashamed. I’ve already lost one person tonight and I didn’t want to lose you too.”

“Ashamed?” A genuine look of confusion appeared on Riza’s face. “Lose me?” To Mustang’s amazement the women began to laugh, he could only guess she was hysterical from her previous show of emotion. “Roy, you could never lose my friendship, you should know that.” She smiled tenderly. “And whatever’s happened with Ed, well…I’m sure you haven’t ‘lost’ him either. Just tell me and we can talk this over.”

So he did. He told her everything.

The whole explanation took sometime. For Riza to understand he would have to start from the beginning. The whole time he kept his gaze firmly locked on his now cold coffee, shame warping his voice. Describing the whole bath incident was particularly painful, his face reddening from having to describe how intimate he had been with Ed…what he had done. But eventually he did finish. Concluding the narrative with how he had run from Ed and arrived to where he was now, sitting at Riza’s kitchen table.

Throughout the whole story Hawkeye kept her face impassive, her eyebrow only raising slightly at Mustang’s description of the ‘bath scene’.

“So…that’s all of it?” Riza breaking the oppressive silence that had formed after Roy’s narrative.

Unable to bring himself to look into the lieutenant’s eyes Roy nodded mutely. It had been hell for him describing what he had done. Whoever said ‘its better to get things out in the open’ was a bloody liar. This was agony.

Looking at her commanding officer with a tender yet exasperated look in her eyes, Riza began to speak.

“Roy, you need to tal-” Yet was swiftly cut off by the sound of heavy knocking echoing through the apartment.

Someone was at the door.

Riza frowned in confusion. She hadn’t expected any one this evening, one surprise visitor was quite enough.

Heading towards the door, she said to Roy over her shoulder “I’ll send them away and continue talking to you, except,” A serious look appeared on her face. “I’m not sure if I’m the person you should be talking to.” And she disappeared out of the kitchen into the hall.

At Riza, presumably, having answered the door the knocking stopped and the sound of a muted conversation drifted into the kitchen.

Roy was too physically and emotionally drained to try and listen.

Ed had been hurt because of him…he had done those things to Ed, and he had hurt him. To Mustang’s personal disgust he still found the image of Ed stretched out in the tub, practically mewling for him, highly arousing. How could he allow himself to think of Fullmetal in such away after he had…after he had…

Roy groaned, the buzz of his thoughts growing too much to bear. Resting his forehead against the cool of the kitchen table Mustang willed all of his troubles to disappear…they wouldn’t…but he could still hope.

The conversation in the hall appeared to have stopped. Roy heard the door close and footsteps heading towards the kitchen, not one set, but two.

Roy suddenly had a terrible premonition of who it had been at the door.

“Oh no…” Mustang didn’t know if he could hope facing the object of his guilt. Maybe he had come to get revenge on Roy for what he had done?

Riza re-entered the kitchen and softly said, “Its for you, Roy.” closely followed by the person he had come here to escape

The newcomer smiled at Roy. It was obviously false and painfully strained around the edges, but a smile none the less, his eyes slightly red and face paler than usual.

“Looks like this time it was my turn to come and find you.”

And Roy Mustang stared at Edward Elric, his mind a perfect blank from a heady cocktail of guilt and shock.

Sometimes accepting forgiveness is the hardest thing to do.

xXx

OK lots of dialogue in that chapter, I know Riza was harsh but I though needed a bit of a smack on the head, silly man.

I’m worried I’m getting a bit repetitive, all this running off and chasing, but its all going to change after the next chapter, so wait and see…XD

Please review, I’m sorry there wasn’t so much action in this chappy but Roy needed to clear his head out a bit (a bit), still plenty of angst to go round.

Next chapter will have WAY more action (wait to see what type). Please review!

Merkswinter xxx