FMA and KH fic dump! :D
My FMA and Kingdom Hearts fics from the Valentine's Day Project. I figured that since anybody on this f-list that actually reads my Sins/Virtues fics already had those sent to them, might as well make this postie useful. xD;
Title: Guardian Angel
Rating: PG
Word Count: 752
Pairing(s): Riku/Naminé
Notes: Valentine’s Day Project: for Shari. Riku POV.
Warnings: Angst and fluff, of course. And probably out-of-contextness? I’m not sure how “The Darkness” works. xD;; Possible OOC. >>;; *fails* (plus I’m/it’s incoherent x3; )
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and its characters do not belong to me. Oh, darns. Too bad that hardly stops me from abusing them in my evil little ficcies. >3
***
In the Darkness, as the thing I first noticed, there was nothing.
And by “nothing,” I mean nothing. Often times I thought that the Darkness would just be a great big, black… place. Like a box, something you can see nothing in, and yet it is substantial, you could feel its walls and find reassurance in those walls. If you have walls you have a floor and a ceiling, probably, and that means you are somewhere, and it barely even matters where.
Darkness wasn’t like that.
There were no walls; no reassuring substance of existence anywhere around me. It wasn’t even black now that I think about it, because when you close your eyes you don’t see “black,” you just don’t see. And that’s what it was like. As if I’d shut my eyes and forgotten how to open them.
Not to imply I didn’t try, because I did try, for hours upon hours, or maybe days upon days, perhaps weeks. I’m not too sure; time does not exist in complete nothingness.
At some point, I gave up. Where’s the point in trying to open my eyes if I would once again discover that I can’t? I was just about ready to perish there, there in the nothingness of Darkness, though I didn’t think I could do even that much. How can you die of age or hunger or lack of air when you are suspended in pure nothingness and nothingness means just that?
It wasn’t until then that I knew misery; not until then that I realized the frantic need for happiness that people seem to hound like hares all their lives.
And then-after the hours or days or weeks of timeless nothingness-I thought I saw a light.
A light. Here, in the Darkness. Light. What?
I thought I must be dying.
Eager to just be taken to “hell” or wherever it was I was going (because I was sure it wouldn’t be “Heaven”), I tried to move toward that light. Could you move through nothingness? I didn’t care too much to think of it.
I don’t think that I did move, really. But the more I focused on that light, the clearer it became to me. The more I squinted, the more it opened my eyes to see that it wasn’t really a light at all.
It was a girl. A girl, here, in the Darkness? Maybe I was not the only one thrown into it. Could it be Kairi? When I squinted I thought she reminded me of her a little, but when I didn’t squint, she looked nothing like her at all. The Kairi I remembered was small, slight, with only her bright blood-red hair to mark her out in a crowd.
This girl was not Kairi. This girl was taller, with less of an awkward build; paler. Her blonde hair looked soft, smooth, and draped over one shoulder in a way that made her glow. Like a halo. She wore all white and I thought I saw a glimmer of faint-blue when she looked my way.
But of course she didn’t see me. I, too, was nothing.
In all the time I spent in Darkness, sometimes she would appear, though I don’t know why. She certainly was not nothing, not by the pink of her cheeks or the way she sometimes smiled because she thought there was nothing watching her. I think I liked her smile. And all the while I kept thinking that she reminded me of something, though I couldn’t quite recall what.
An angel, maybe. I thought she was an angel.
Am I dead?
It was funny, really; memories of Sora and Kairi and my parents and our island faded back into the Darkness as nonexistent time raced by slowly, none of which I could grip onto and hope the memory jerked and pulled me out of that nothingness. But it was the presence of that angel-that angel girl who somehow had no wings-that I could hold onto. Ever-constant light.
In the Darkness.
I think it was my watching her so intensely that made me want to overcome that Darkness. For I watched her, relentlessly, like a sort of guardian angel, always vigilant, always watching her, but for what, I was not sure.
I think she was my angel for saving me by just by granting room in that Darkness called a “heart” for that wish to exist. The wish to, someday, be her angel.
I really wanted that.
~fin~
Title: Paopo
Rating: PG, PG-13, I REALLY don’t know D:
Word Count: 380
Pairing(s): Riku/Kairi + Sora/Kairi + Sora/Riku. The usual love triangle. xD;
Notes: Valentine’s Day Project: for Shari.
Warnings: …angst? >>; Incoherent. As in, VERY. xD;
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and its characters do not belong to me. Oh, darns. Too bad that hardly stops me from abusing them in my evil little ficcies. >3
***
She even caught them that one time. Not that they knew. Or cared.
It was just one of those days, she supposed. It didn’t matter that Riku had whispered “I love you” in her ear that morning or that Sora had attempted to “wear the pants” and kissed her on the cheek at noon. Because in the end, when she glimpsed them fighting each other that afternoon under the natural cooling-system of the waterfall, they were looking at each other that way again.
But that was okay, she guessed. Because it was something that she’d already known, though didn’t really pay much mind to. Kairi preferred to listen to her friends’ stupid cover-ups than make any connections on her own. After all, Sora always did say he wanted to raise a family of his own, and Riku would have died before admitting he liked another guy.
She knew it must have just been a game between them. Maybe even a bet. Maybe they’d said, “Okay, so you’re a guy and I’m a guy, and that’s cool, but only one of us can be the guy.”
This must have been their way to figure out which one of them was the guy; this must have been just something they would keep up only until the game was over and they had results, and maybe then they could turn to being lovers on their own. After all, why else would Riku try and be romantic and “woo” her with strolls on the shore by moonlight? And could there have been another reason for Sora to fondle her and bump her shoulder and try to steal a kiss at every opportunity?
No. Of course not.
That must have been it: they were waiting to see who she would pick, and whoever she picked would be deemed “The Guy,” and then once that dispute was behind them, they could be lovers, after who-knows-how-long that they’ve been waiting for Kairi to pick.
And Kairi, she’d have picked long ago and ended their silly boy-games, if it wasn’t for one problem: that she knew that as soon as she picked, she’d lose them both altogether.
And she knew that no one would be splitting a paopo with her.
Not for a long time, at least.
~fin~
Title: Volver
Rating: PG
Word Count: 760
Pairing(s): Winry/Ed
Notes: Valentine’s Day Project: for Shari.
Warnings: Possible OOC. I’m not too good with FMA yet. =\ Oh, and probably SPOILERS, you’ve been warned. e.e And AAAANGST. xD;
Disclaimer: FMA doesn’t belong to me. But you all already know that. Why am I telling you this again? O.o;
***
When there was a knock at the door and nobody answered her call of “Who is it?” Winry just assumed that it was solicitors, or some pesky kids come to bother her again. She went to check, anyways, because a no-reply could be something important, even if it normally wasn’t.
Then when she opened the door she thought she would die right there.
“Ed!” she cried, clutching at her heart through her apron. “Good Lord, Ed, you vanish for seventeen years and then you don’t even answer when I ask who’s there?”
Edward Elric just smiled wryly as he looked at her through his bangs, for the first time in over fifteen years, drinking in her appearance on the background of what could be seen of a living room he’d known since he was very small.
“May I come in?” he said.
***
“A separate world?” Winry murmured in awe and sipped at her orange juice (because, unlike Ed, who drank beer, she had some dietary restrictions-you know, being two-months pregnant and all). “Beyond the gate? That’s where you’ve been all these years?”
Ed nodded uncomfortably. He had a little conflict of emotion within him, whether he was supposed to feel guilty for feeling sorry for himself after all those years of unhappiness he caused his loved ones, or whether it was okay to feel sorry for himself, too.
He did try to find a way back. To return.
“It’s basically like here, but not really. I even met Hughes again.”
Winry’s mouth fell open but she said nothing, waiting for him to continue to tell her his story.
Ed, however, was interested in some other details. “So I hear you and Al are married now?”
The question surprised the mechanic-turned-house-wife and she almost jumped and spilled her drink, but then she nodded with a little smile. “Yes. Al joined the military and looked for you for a very long time, but when he was twenty-one and his contract was revoked he came back to Risembul. We got married the year after.”
Ed whistled. “Well, I see at least Al’s been busy all this time, huh?” He laughed, amused by the thought of what might have happened if Al had never lost his body, if he’d have been able to avoid the army and over a decade of missing and/or searching for his lost brother.
“Mm, yeah…” Winry looked down at her hands rather than at Ed. He’d changed a lot-cut his hair, wore spectacles, he even had a bit of peach-fuzz growing on his jaw and around his mouth. He wasn’t much taller, of course, but he certainly looked older. He even looked older than he really was.
Later she would attribute that to a war that had been going on while Ed was stuck in that World Beyond the Gate.
Now she had other questions for him.
“Hey, Ed?” she asked quietly, still looking at her hands. “Do you… think that, if things hadn’t gone wrong and you hadn’t disappeared, that… that the two of us could have been together? For real this time?”
Ed let out a little sigh and slouched on the couch across from her, and she looked up from her hands inquiringly. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I mean, you were nice, and damn hot back then, too, but I don’t think you’d have been my type. Not more than just a teenage crush, I guess. Sorry,” he added and smiled ruefully, and Winry was reminded of seventeen years ago, of that same exact smile which she’d seen time and time again. “I don’t mean to insult you.” At least his straightforwardness finally settled some doubts that Winry had retained for seventeen years and could now lay to rest at last.
Besides, she had been happily married to his brother these five years.
“No, of course not,” Winry said with forced cheerfulness, and though the tension eased for a moment, it returned when dead-silence fell over them.
“Well,” Ed said finally and laid his hands on his knees. “I should go. I have to catch a train to Central, now that I’m back and all. Tell Al I’m sorry I missed him and I’ll see him when I get back?” He stood up.
“Of course,” Winry said and stood up, too. She exchanged some last farewells with Ed at the door, and he saluted her, walking off.
She was looking at his back again.
She hoped this wouldn’t be the last time.
Even if she was married to his brother.
~fin~
Title: Colonel Mustang’s Self-Service Dating Business
Rating: PG, I guess xD
Word Count: 824
Pairing(s): Roy/Riza
Notes: Valentine’s Day Project: for Shari.
Warnings: OOC? I haven’t really written any FMA fics before. =\
Disclaimer: FMA doesn’t belong to me. But you all already know that. Why am I telling you this again? O.o;
***
Roy Mustang sighed dramatically and drooped in his swivel-chair, the back of his gloved palm held to his forehead to emphasize the melodramatics. When nobody reacted, he assumed that the huge pile of paperwork (though it was in the “Out” box, amazingly) must have eaten up the sound along with a good portion of his brain.
And so-he sighed again.
Lieutenant Hawkeye had just gotten up and was headed toward the door, having stayed an hour after everybody else to assist a Certain Someone with his paperwork, and though she was finally free, she turned to her superior automatically at his… call of distress.
“Do you have any other paperwork you would like help with, Sir?” she asked, noting the Colonel’s nearly comical pose.
All he really had to do to complete the picture was cry “Ai, me!” and call for his smelling salts.
“No, no, Lieutenant.” Roy bravely fanned away his troubles with a careless wave of his hand, and sat back up in his chair, leaning his elbows across the desk with his chin resting on his interlaced fingers. “What ails me is a matter of a different nature.”
“Oh. I am sorry to hear that, Sir.” When Roy just continued to look out into “space” helplessly, she resisted urge to roll her eyes and asked, “May I be of assistance?”
“Oh, would you? Of course I would not want to trouble you…” He stood up with a smug grin nonetheless and began rearranging his desk again for the night as he spoke. “You see, there is this certain lady I met yesterday at the store that I should like to ask out but I’m not so sure how,” Roy said casually.
Hawkeye blinked. Mustang? Unsure about how to ask out a girl? Now that was unusual. Very. But as she’d already agreed to help him, she nodded to confirm her attentiveness. “Well, Sir, what do you know about her?”
“Oh, not very much,” the Colonel sighed. “I know a few things and I just can’t seem to piece them together to figure out what to do.”
No, truthfully, that was Fullmetal’s job. Colonel Mustang just sat at his desk and gave orders.
“Well, then, what do you know about her? I might be able to help.” Because I’m a girl, too, she wanted to add, but dismissed the idea. Despite the fact that Colonel Mustang might have forgotten that little detail in the first place, to her the words “I’m a girl, too” sounded hopelessly desperate.
“Oh, would you?” Roy said again. “Well, I know that she is intelligent and likes reading. What do intelligent women like to do?”
Hawkeye made a face. “It depends on the woman, really. Intelligent girls can like to do a lot of things. You said she likes to read? What does she like to read?”
“She reads a lot of informative books. Things like science, or law, or history, sometimes philosophy. Has more of a brain than Fullmetal, it seems.”
Now that she might be able to help him with. Hawkeye read those types of books often, too. “Well, a girl who knows a lot about philosophy or politics would probably appreciate a conversation where she can share her knowledge. How about a nice dinner outing at a formal restaurant? Somewhere where it’s not too quiet but not too noisy, so you two could talk easily without feeling like you’d be overheard too often.”
“Ah, that’s perfect!” Roy shut his briefcase. “And how should I show up to a date like that? Should I wear my uniform or a tuxedo or one of them ‘jeans’ that teens nowadays are so fond of for some reason?”
“If you dine at a formal place, I’m supposing just a nice jacket and slacks would do. Girls like guys who don’t dress too low or too high. And don’t pick anything flashy that might clash with her outfit because that makes females’ mental couple picture a little uncomfortable.”
“Good, good.” Roy grinned and slung his coat over his shoulder on the way to the door. “And if she happens to have one of those little black dresses, do you think it would be appropriate to ask her to wear it?”
Hawkeye hesitated for a moment. The nature of that question-the Colonel’s tone and forwardness-seemed a little awkward for someone seeking help to ask out another girl, but she nodded anyways. “Well, yes, I suppose. If she has one.”
“Perfect. Then I’ll pick you up at eight,” he said and exited, sparkling almost as if he were Armstrong.
Almost. Not quite.
Hawkeye just stared after him for a while before finally rolling her eyes and starting home, too. She had a date to get prepared for, after all. And though she appreciated Mustang’s continuing attention to her over the past few weeks, she hoped that one time he’d ask her out without the ten-minute introduction impromptu.
~fin~
Carpe Diem,
-Rose
Title: Guardian Angel
Rating: PG
Word Count: 752
Pairing(s): Riku/Naminé
Notes: Valentine’s Day Project: for Shari. Riku POV.
Warnings: Angst and fluff, of course. And probably out-of-contextness? I’m not sure how “The Darkness” works. xD;; Possible OOC. >>;; *fails* (plus I’m/it’s incoherent x3; )
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and its characters do not belong to me. Oh, darns. Too bad that hardly stops me from abusing them in my evil little ficcies. >3
***
In the Darkness, as the thing I first noticed, there was nothing.
And by “nothing,” I mean nothing. Often times I thought that the Darkness would just be a great big, black… place. Like a box, something you can see nothing in, and yet it is substantial, you could feel its walls and find reassurance in those walls. If you have walls you have a floor and a ceiling, probably, and that means you are somewhere, and it barely even matters where.
Darkness wasn’t like that.
There were no walls; no reassuring substance of existence anywhere around me. It wasn’t even black now that I think about it, because when you close your eyes you don’t see “black,” you just don’t see. And that’s what it was like. As if I’d shut my eyes and forgotten how to open them.
Not to imply I didn’t try, because I did try, for hours upon hours, or maybe days upon days, perhaps weeks. I’m not too sure; time does not exist in complete nothingness.
At some point, I gave up. Where’s the point in trying to open my eyes if I would once again discover that I can’t? I was just about ready to perish there, there in the nothingness of Darkness, though I didn’t think I could do even that much. How can you die of age or hunger or lack of air when you are suspended in pure nothingness and nothingness means just that?
It wasn’t until then that I knew misery; not until then that I realized the frantic need for happiness that people seem to hound like hares all their lives.
And then-after the hours or days or weeks of timeless nothingness-I thought I saw a light.
A light. Here, in the Darkness. Light. What?
I thought I must be dying.
Eager to just be taken to “hell” or wherever it was I was going (because I was sure it wouldn’t be “Heaven”), I tried to move toward that light. Could you move through nothingness? I didn’t care too much to think of it.
I don’t think that I did move, really. But the more I focused on that light, the clearer it became to me. The more I squinted, the more it opened my eyes to see that it wasn’t really a light at all.
It was a girl. A girl, here, in the Darkness? Maybe I was not the only one thrown into it. Could it be Kairi? When I squinted I thought she reminded me of her a little, but when I didn’t squint, she looked nothing like her at all. The Kairi I remembered was small, slight, with only her bright blood-red hair to mark her out in a crowd.
This girl was not Kairi. This girl was taller, with less of an awkward build; paler. Her blonde hair looked soft, smooth, and draped over one shoulder in a way that made her glow. Like a halo. She wore all white and I thought I saw a glimmer of faint-blue when she looked my way.
But of course she didn’t see me. I, too, was nothing.
In all the time I spent in Darkness, sometimes she would appear, though I don’t know why. She certainly was not nothing, not by the pink of her cheeks or the way she sometimes smiled because she thought there was nothing watching her. I think I liked her smile. And all the while I kept thinking that she reminded me of something, though I couldn’t quite recall what.
An angel, maybe. I thought she was an angel.
Am I dead?
It was funny, really; memories of Sora and Kairi and my parents and our island faded back into the Darkness as nonexistent time raced by slowly, none of which I could grip onto and hope the memory jerked and pulled me out of that nothingness. But it was the presence of that angel-that angel girl who somehow had no wings-that I could hold onto. Ever-constant light.
In the Darkness.
I think it was my watching her so intensely that made me want to overcome that Darkness. For I watched her, relentlessly, like a sort of guardian angel, always vigilant, always watching her, but for what, I was not sure.
I think she was my angel for saving me by just by granting room in that Darkness called a “heart” for that wish to exist. The wish to, someday, be her angel.
I really wanted that.
~fin~
Title: Paopo
Rating: PG, PG-13, I REALLY don’t know D:
Word Count: 380
Pairing(s): Riku/Kairi + Sora/Kairi + Sora/Riku. The usual love triangle. xD;
Notes: Valentine’s Day Project: for Shari.
Warnings: …angst? >>; Incoherent. As in, VERY. xD;
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and its characters do not belong to me. Oh, darns. Too bad that hardly stops me from abusing them in my evil little ficcies. >3
***
She even caught them that one time. Not that they knew. Or cared.
It was just one of those days, she supposed. It didn’t matter that Riku had whispered “I love you” in her ear that morning or that Sora had attempted to “wear the pants” and kissed her on the cheek at noon. Because in the end, when she glimpsed them fighting each other that afternoon under the natural cooling-system of the waterfall, they were looking at each other that way again.
But that was okay, she guessed. Because it was something that she’d already known, though didn’t really pay much mind to. Kairi preferred to listen to her friends’ stupid cover-ups than make any connections on her own. After all, Sora always did say he wanted to raise a family of his own, and Riku would have died before admitting he liked another guy.
She knew it must have just been a game between them. Maybe even a bet. Maybe they’d said, “Okay, so you’re a guy and I’m a guy, and that’s cool, but only one of us can be the guy.”
This must have been their way to figure out which one of them was the guy; this must have been just something they would keep up only until the game was over and they had results, and maybe then they could turn to being lovers on their own. After all, why else would Riku try and be romantic and “woo” her with strolls on the shore by moonlight? And could there have been another reason for Sora to fondle her and bump her shoulder and try to steal a kiss at every opportunity?
No. Of course not.
That must have been it: they were waiting to see who she would pick, and whoever she picked would be deemed “The Guy,” and then once that dispute was behind them, they could be lovers, after who-knows-how-long that they’ve been waiting for Kairi to pick.
And Kairi, she’d have picked long ago and ended their silly boy-games, if it wasn’t for one problem: that she knew that as soon as she picked, she’d lose them both altogether.
And she knew that no one would be splitting a paopo with her.
Not for a long time, at least.
~fin~
Title: Volver
Rating: PG
Word Count: 760
Pairing(s): Winry/Ed
Notes: Valentine’s Day Project: for Shari.
Warnings: Possible OOC. I’m not too good with FMA yet. =\ Oh, and probably SPOILERS, you’ve been warned. e.e And AAAANGST. xD;
Disclaimer: FMA doesn’t belong to me. But you all already know that. Why am I telling you this again? O.o;
***
When there was a knock at the door and nobody answered her call of “Who is it?” Winry just assumed that it was solicitors, or some pesky kids come to bother her again. She went to check, anyways, because a no-reply could be something important, even if it normally wasn’t.
Then when she opened the door she thought she would die right there.
“Ed!” she cried, clutching at her heart through her apron. “Good Lord, Ed, you vanish for seventeen years and then you don’t even answer when I ask who’s there?”
Edward Elric just smiled wryly as he looked at her through his bangs, for the first time in over fifteen years, drinking in her appearance on the background of what could be seen of a living room he’d known since he was very small.
“May I come in?” he said.
***
“A separate world?” Winry murmured in awe and sipped at her orange juice (because, unlike Ed, who drank beer, she had some dietary restrictions-you know, being two-months pregnant and all). “Beyond the gate? That’s where you’ve been all these years?”
Ed nodded uncomfortably. He had a little conflict of emotion within him, whether he was supposed to feel guilty for feeling sorry for himself after all those years of unhappiness he caused his loved ones, or whether it was okay to feel sorry for himself, too.
He did try to find a way back. To return.
“It’s basically like here, but not really. I even met Hughes again.”
Winry’s mouth fell open but she said nothing, waiting for him to continue to tell her his story.
Ed, however, was interested in some other details. “So I hear you and Al are married now?”
The question surprised the mechanic-turned-house-wife and she almost jumped and spilled her drink, but then she nodded with a little smile. “Yes. Al joined the military and looked for you for a very long time, but when he was twenty-one and his contract was revoked he came back to Risembul. We got married the year after.”
Ed whistled. “Well, I see at least Al’s been busy all this time, huh?” He laughed, amused by the thought of what might have happened if Al had never lost his body, if he’d have been able to avoid the army and over a decade of missing and/or searching for his lost brother.
“Mm, yeah…” Winry looked down at her hands rather than at Ed. He’d changed a lot-cut his hair, wore spectacles, he even had a bit of peach-fuzz growing on his jaw and around his mouth. He wasn’t much taller, of course, but he certainly looked older. He even looked older than he really was.
Later she would attribute that to a war that had been going on while Ed was stuck in that World Beyond the Gate.
Now she had other questions for him.
“Hey, Ed?” she asked quietly, still looking at her hands. “Do you… think that, if things hadn’t gone wrong and you hadn’t disappeared, that… that the two of us could have been together? For real this time?”
Ed let out a little sigh and slouched on the couch across from her, and she looked up from her hands inquiringly. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I mean, you were nice, and damn hot back then, too, but I don’t think you’d have been my type. Not more than just a teenage crush, I guess. Sorry,” he added and smiled ruefully, and Winry was reminded of seventeen years ago, of that same exact smile which she’d seen time and time again. “I don’t mean to insult you.” At least his straightforwardness finally settled some doubts that Winry had retained for seventeen years and could now lay to rest at last.
Besides, she had been happily married to his brother these five years.
“No, of course not,” Winry said with forced cheerfulness, and though the tension eased for a moment, it returned when dead-silence fell over them.
“Well,” Ed said finally and laid his hands on his knees. “I should go. I have to catch a train to Central, now that I’m back and all. Tell Al I’m sorry I missed him and I’ll see him when I get back?” He stood up.
“Of course,” Winry said and stood up, too. She exchanged some last farewells with Ed at the door, and he saluted her, walking off.
She was looking at his back again.
She hoped this wouldn’t be the last time.
Even if she was married to his brother.
~fin~
Title: Colonel Mustang’s Self-Service Dating Business
Rating: PG, I guess xD
Word Count: 824
Pairing(s): Roy/Riza
Notes: Valentine’s Day Project: for Shari.
Warnings: OOC? I haven’t really written any FMA fics before. =\
Disclaimer: FMA doesn’t belong to me. But you all already know that. Why am I telling you this again? O.o;
***
Roy Mustang sighed dramatically and drooped in his swivel-chair, the back of his gloved palm held to his forehead to emphasize the melodramatics. When nobody reacted, he assumed that the huge pile of paperwork (though it was in the “Out” box, amazingly) must have eaten up the sound along with a good portion of his brain.
And so-he sighed again.
Lieutenant Hawkeye had just gotten up and was headed toward the door, having stayed an hour after everybody else to assist a Certain Someone with his paperwork, and though she was finally free, she turned to her superior automatically at his… call of distress.
“Do you have any other paperwork you would like help with, Sir?” she asked, noting the Colonel’s nearly comical pose.
All he really had to do to complete the picture was cry “Ai, me!” and call for his smelling salts.
“No, no, Lieutenant.” Roy bravely fanned away his troubles with a careless wave of his hand, and sat back up in his chair, leaning his elbows across the desk with his chin resting on his interlaced fingers. “What ails me is a matter of a different nature.”
“Oh. I am sorry to hear that, Sir.” When Roy just continued to look out into “space” helplessly, she resisted urge to roll her eyes and asked, “May I be of assistance?”
“Oh, would you? Of course I would not want to trouble you…” He stood up with a smug grin nonetheless and began rearranging his desk again for the night as he spoke. “You see, there is this certain lady I met yesterday at the store that I should like to ask out but I’m not so sure how,” Roy said casually.
Hawkeye blinked. Mustang? Unsure about how to ask out a girl? Now that was unusual. Very. But as she’d already agreed to help him, she nodded to confirm her attentiveness. “Well, Sir, what do you know about her?”
“Oh, not very much,” the Colonel sighed. “I know a few things and I just can’t seem to piece them together to figure out what to do.”
No, truthfully, that was Fullmetal’s job. Colonel Mustang just sat at his desk and gave orders.
“Well, then, what do you know about her? I might be able to help.” Because I’m a girl, too, she wanted to add, but dismissed the idea. Despite the fact that Colonel Mustang might have forgotten that little detail in the first place, to her the words “I’m a girl, too” sounded hopelessly desperate.
“Oh, would you?” Roy said again. “Well, I know that she is intelligent and likes reading. What do intelligent women like to do?”
Hawkeye made a face. “It depends on the woman, really. Intelligent girls can like to do a lot of things. You said she likes to read? What does she like to read?”
“She reads a lot of informative books. Things like science, or law, or history, sometimes philosophy. Has more of a brain than Fullmetal, it seems.”
Now that she might be able to help him with. Hawkeye read those types of books often, too. “Well, a girl who knows a lot about philosophy or politics would probably appreciate a conversation where she can share her knowledge. How about a nice dinner outing at a formal restaurant? Somewhere where it’s not too quiet but not too noisy, so you two could talk easily without feeling like you’d be overheard too often.”
“Ah, that’s perfect!” Roy shut his briefcase. “And how should I show up to a date like that? Should I wear my uniform or a tuxedo or one of them ‘jeans’ that teens nowadays are so fond of for some reason?”
“If you dine at a formal place, I’m supposing just a nice jacket and slacks would do. Girls like guys who don’t dress too low or too high. And don’t pick anything flashy that might clash with her outfit because that makes females’ mental couple picture a little uncomfortable.”
“Good, good.” Roy grinned and slung his coat over his shoulder on the way to the door. “And if she happens to have one of those little black dresses, do you think it would be appropriate to ask her to wear it?”
Hawkeye hesitated for a moment. The nature of that question-the Colonel’s tone and forwardness-seemed a little awkward for someone seeking help to ask out another girl, but she nodded anyways. “Well, yes, I suppose. If she has one.”
“Perfect. Then I’ll pick you up at eight,” he said and exited, sparkling almost as if he were Armstrong.
Almost. Not quite.
Hawkeye just stared after him for a while before finally rolling her eyes and starting home, too. She had a date to get prepared for, after all. And though she appreciated Mustang’s continuing attention to her over the past few weeks, she hoped that one time he’d ask her out without the ten-minute introduction impromptu.
~fin~
Carpe Diem,
-Rose