Investigations of Jean Havoc
LJ said my post was too long, so these are actually the second half of the drabbles for the bake off that center around Jean Havoc trying to find out who Roy's lover really is.
Title: Baffling Ed
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Author: nomdeplume13
Words: 158
Rating: PG
Summary: Ed is left very confused.
Warnings: Implied at end of manga, no spoilers here.
Ed looked up as his brother charged into Mustang’s office. “What the hell, Al?”
“I just heard...” Al turned pink. “Never mind.”
“See,” Ed said. “My brother thinks you’re a pervert, too.”
Mustang almost looked amused. “I imagine I have you to thank for that, Lt. Havoc?” he asked the blond standing behind Al. “Have you worked your way through my entire staff now, or have you failed to question Ed whether or not he is completely happy with his fiancee?”
Ed noticed Havoc turned a few shades of red. “Sorry, Chief.”
“You should be,” Mustang said. “What or who I do in my free time is my business. Now, do me a favor and escort the runt out of the office.”
“Who are you calling a runt?!” Ed screeched. The asshole never changed, even when he was obviously pissed at someone other than Ed for once.
Title: Good News
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Author: nomdeplume13
Words: 300
Rating: PG
Summary: Breda helps clean up after Ed's visit. Brass has news.
Warnings: Implied at end of manga, small spoilers here.
Roy watched as they left and Heymans stayed behind to clean up the mess. “Let me help,” he said as he clapped his hands together to reform the table.
“You just like showing off your new alchemy. You can’t be satisfied by just being a normal superhuman. No, you have to get the pattycake powers, too.”
The older man offered a smirk and shrugged. “If you’ve got it, use it. I’ve said it my whole life. About more than alchemy.” His light tone turned serious as he picked up papers that Ed had scattered. “You’re Jean’s best friend, Heymans.” He looked the other man in the eyes. “You’ve got to tell him to stop this. Things are too tentative to have him going around asking every man in this building if he’s my lover.”
“He hasn’t asked everyone.”
“He’ll get around to it if someone doesn’t speak to him.”
Heymans nodded and carefully stacked a few papers on Roy’s desk before leaning against it. “How close are things?”
Roy couldn’t help but break out into a broad smile at the question. “This time next month, I will be the new Prime Minister and Chief Executive Officer of Amestris. They’ve at least stopped dangling that in front of me like a carrot.” The other man’s smile matched Roy’s. “They’re still debating how much power I get and for how long.”
Heymans reached out to squeeze Roy’s shoulder. “The entire country is in love with you. I think they will have a hard time reigning you in if you decide you want something done.”
He pushed himself off Roy’s desk. “I’ll talk to Jean.”
Roy gave him a grateful smile. “You’re a good man, Heymans.”
“I know it.”
Title: Disappointment
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Author: nomdeplume13
Words: 300
Rating: PG
Summary: Havoc realizes he has let friends down.
Warnings: Implied at end of manga, small spoilers here.
Jean felt a familiar presence at his side at the bar. He didn’t need to look over to know it was Heymans. “How mad is he exactly?”
“Considering you’re putting his military career and his goal of becoming the leader of this country at risk... not as much as I would think he’d be.” The usual levity in Heymans’ voice was gone, and Jean just didn’t have it in himself to meet the man in the eyes. “This was all funny enough when you were going to do a little investigation. It stopped being funny when you got so sloppy.”
It stung to hear the disappointment in his friend’s voice. “I should never have encouraged you,” Heymans continued. “Not once I realized this wasn’t just a matter of having something fun to hold over his head and get back at him for how often he’d ruined your chances at a date. I thought you’d be discreet and tease him about his lover in private, just some good-natured ribbing.”
Jean nodded. “And it didn’t do me any good anyway.” He glanced over at his friend. I asked nearly everyone at headquarters, male and even a few females. I was either completely wrong or someone is a better liar than I am at reading them.”
“You asked everyone?” Heymans asked.
“Everyone who was even a possibility. Gay or straight, the chief would have standards.”
Heymans let out a soft chuckle. “Look, I’m calling it an early night. Get home safe. And think hard about how you can make this up to Roy.”
Jean nodded. “Do you think going out with Armstrong’s male cousin would help matters?”
“It might make him laugh.” Heymans offered a wry grin, and then he was gone.
Title: Mistakes
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Author: nomdeplume13
Words: 299
Rating: PG
Summary: Havoc has the truth pointed out to him.
Warnings: Implied at end of manga, small spoilers here.
“You messed up,” Riza said as she took a seat beside Havoc.
“I know,” he said. “I wasn’t careful enough and I put the Chief at risk asking every possible lover candidate for Mustang in Headquarters.”
“Well, there is that. But you forgot someone. And he was looking pretty irritated.” Not to mention hurt, but these were men, and emotions were touchy subjects.
“Heymans?” Havoc asked with a laugh. “I guess I could have asked him to spare his pride, but there’s no way it would happen. I didn’t see wasting the time.”
“He’s gone home early a lot lately when Roy isn’t here. Roy tends to sit near him when he is. Lt. Breda slips into Roy’s office when Roy’s upset about something and after a few minutes alone, Roy’s almost always calmer. He’s also the first one Roy told that he’s going to be the next Prime Minister.”
Wide blue eyes met hers. “You’re right... and I just insulted him really bad. I mean, I joke with him about his weight, he makes fun of me about not being as smart as him, but I basically said he wasn’t good enough for the man he is apparently dating.”
Havoc stood up from the bar and pressed a quick kiss to Riza’s cheek, startling her. “Thank you. I’m going to go apologize. They’ll be at the Chief’s. They can’t risk the barracks.”
Riza smiled as she watched him leave.It faded as she realized he’d left without paying his tab. She’d get even for that, and the kiss too. After all, it was against military protocol to hit on a superior officer, and she was a captain now, and Havoc’s promotion hadn’t been officially announced yet, not even to him.
Title: Dinner Together
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Author: nomdeplume13
Words: 300
Rating: PG
Summary: Roy gets a visitor
Warnings: Implied at end of manga, small spoilers here.
Heymans opened Roy’s door - he had his own key - and was immediately caught by the smell of food that wasn’t burnt. The man must have ordered out.
“You should have let me cook,” he said as he walked out to the kitchen. He saw Roy turning toward him with a smile. The uniform coat was gone, his shirt sleeves were rolled up his forearms, and the top button of his shirt was unbuttoned. The man was undeniably handsome, and as Jean had pointed out to him less than an hour ago, he wasn’t even in the running as a candidate for Roy’s mystery lover.
“I wanted to celebrate, and I knew you were going to have to talk to Jean.” The dark-haired man moved forward and placed a quick kiss to his lips. He tasted vaguely of campfire smoke, he always did. “Come on, I ordered from that Xingian place. You can show me up with your chopsticks skills.” Roy’s hand took Heymans’ hand and tugged him toward the dining room table.
Heymans’ brain was still back at the bar with Jean, who had been searching through all of headquarters for Roy’s lover and never once thought of Heymans. He tried to force a smile. “How is it you’re part Xingian and have no skill whatsoever?”
“I was raised in bar-slash-dance-hall. I learned a lot of skills from the women there, but chopsticks weren’t one of them. And you should be glad, considering the amusement you get out of watching me try to eat with them.” Roy smiled. “But I learned other things there. Some I know you don’t find so funny.”
“Some of what you know should be illegal,” Heymans said with a smile that came just a bit easier.
Title: Visitor
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Author: nomdeplume13
Words: 283
Rating: PG
Summary: Roy gets another visitor.
Warnings: Implied at end of manga, small spoilers here.
Roy knew something was wrong with his lover, but he didn’t know quite what. He tried joking and making fun of himself the way that Heymans usually did when they were alone. When the doorbell rang, he gave the man an apologetic look. Heymans would need to disappear until the visitor was gone, which meant slinking off to the bedroom like some dirty little secret. Roy hated it.
He watched the redhead go upstairs before he opened the front door to Jean Havoc.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Roy asked. Havoc had lived up to his name over the last few days, questioning everyone at Headquarters about being his lover.
“I’m here to apologize.”
“I don’t want your apologies right now.”
“Not yours. Well, yours. But Heymans’ too. I didn’t even ask him if the two of you were... well, what you are.”
Roy gestured for Havoc to come inside and called for his lover to come downstairs. Heymans had no sooner come into the hallway than Havoc blurted out, “I thought you were straight!” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I was sure of it. I didn’t ask you because I didn’t know you weren’t into women. We’ve known each other a long time. You never said.”
Heymans’ mood earlier in the evening suddenly made more sense. He watched as the two military academy buddies made up and decided that after that, he was going to have to forgive Havoc, too. However, he would definitely make that man’s
life hell as only he knew how. However, since the rumor was circulating that Havoc was at least bicurious, Roy would have plenty of material.
Title: Night Together
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Author: nomdeplume13
Words: 298
Rating: PG
Summary: The lovers read their fortunes.
Warnings: Implied at end of manga, small spoilers here.
Heymans told Havoc good night and rejoined Roy for the celebratory dinner for two that the man had set up in the dining room. “Your friend is an idiot.”
“He’s your friend, too,” Heymans reminded him.
“No. It’s like he’s our son. When he messes up, he’s yours.”
That earned Roy a laugh. “Where on earth did we go wrong?” Heymans asked as he finished the last of his Xingian take-out.
Roy took a bit longer, since he had tried to use chopsticks-badly-at first, only to switch to a fork later. “You know that the first chance I get, I want to do this right? Dinner, movie, coming back here to my place after because you live in the barracks and the walls there are paper thin.”
“I know, Roy,” Heymans said as he opened his fortune cookie. “You will get a pleasant surprise.” He turned it over and butchered the Xingian word for peace, only to be corrected by his lover.
“I may be awful with chopsticks, but I did pick up Xingian from some of the dancers.” His deep voice had no difficulty with his own Xingian word for apple.
Heymans began to clear the dishes as Roy turned his fortune over and laughed. Breda looked at him, curious.“I swear to you I didn’t plan this,” Roy said as he handed over his fortune.
“Surprise someone.”
Roy pulled at the front of Heymans’ shirt and brought him down for a kiss, this one much deeper than the quick peck hello they had exchanged earlier. “What do you say we try to make these self-fulfilling prophecies?” And with that, he left the table and Heymans wanting.
“You damned tease,” he said as he followed Roy upstairs.