The Seed of the Fire- Chapter 24: "Ends and Beginnings" (Mustang x Hughes)
Well, this is almost it, guys. This is the next to last chapter. The next post is the longest. It's the last chapter and the epilogue. The final chapter is done and will be posted tomorrow.
Title: Ends and Beginnings (The Seed of the Fire- Chapter 24)
Author: SeaweedOtter
Pairing: Roy Mustang x Maes Hughes
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: AU, Set before the anime started, while Maes and Roy were roommates at the military academy.
Author Note: The story will mostly follow the manga, but it may have a bit of both.
Summary: The end of one thing often precludes the beginning of another.
I have the awesome johns_elizabeth as my advisor.
Read all of the chapters so far HERE!
After returning from the trip to the lake, Roy Mustang was a changed man. He still had his bad habits, sure. His tendency was to be fairly lazy, unless he was under constant watch- but Second Lieutenant Hawkeye kept that well under control. For the most part, he was on time for work, did his job well, and re-earned the respect of his superior officers in the few months after his short hiatus. One afternoon, he was called into Brigadier General Grand’s office.
“You wanted to see me, sir?” Roy saluted as he came in, removing his hat.
“Yes, Lieutenant Colonel. Have a seat.”
“Yes, sir.” Roy sat down, crossed his legs, and laid his hat in his lap- anxious as to why he’d been summoned.
“I’m proud of the turnaround you’ve made, Mustang. You seem less distracted, and have become much more productive under Lieutenant Hawkeye’s watch.” A smile worked its way onto the General’s face when Roy grimaced at the last part of the sentence.
“I’m giving you a team, to assist you. They have various talents, and I’m sure that they’ll all be of immense help to you. Also, I’ve already told Lieutenant Hawkeye, but since she’s now under your command, you should know as well. Her promotion just went through. She’s now a First Lieutenant.”
Roy smiled, hoping that it meant a promotion for him wouldn’t be far behind. He wanted to ask the general, but he knew better than to press the subject. “Thank you sir- for the team, and for that good news. “ He stood up, bowed, and then saluted.
The general stood up, took a folder from his desk, and handed it to Roy. “These are the files on each of your subordinates. They’ll start first thing tomorrow morning. I’d like a full report on the progress in their first week by the end of the day on Friday. That’s all.” He saluted. Roy returned the salute and walked out, back towards his office, to read up on his new officers. A grin filled his face as he ambled down the hallway. ‘At least this’ll get Hawkeye off my back for a while.’ He thought.
Back at his desk, he took his time looking through each of the files- trying to put off the inevitable paperwork that was looming in his in box for as long as he could. He flipped through the individual files quickly the first time- reading their names, and their areas of expertise, to get a better feel of what his officers were like.
Breda, Heymans- Second Lieutenant. Munitions expert, specializes in large caliber guns and projectiles, such as grenades and grenade guns. Falman, Vato- Warrant Officer. Highly intelligent, well versed in protocols and laws- also interested in Investigations. Fuery, Kain- Master Sergeant. Communications and Repair Specialist. A technical expert- especially gifted in radio and telephone repair. Havoc, Jean- First Lieutenant. Weapons expert- specializes in low and medium caliber guns, such as rifles and handguns- sharpshooter. Hawkeye, Riza- Weapons expert- Very specialized in low and medium caliber guns, especially handguns- expert sharpshooter and marksman.
Roy read them over again, until he had all of the details of each of his men almost committed to memory. As much as he tried to have an excuse not to sign any more papers before the end of the day- which was fast approaching- he knew that he’d already been pushing his luck, as long as he’d been stalling for time. He closed the folder and put it down on his desk, sighed, and ran his fingers through his dark black hair, looking once again at the stacks of papers that still had to be read and signed. “No time like the present.” He grumbled, and took the first paper off the pile.
___________________________________________
“Hey there, Roy. You look happy tonight. What’s the big news?” Maes grinned goofily as Roy sat down next to him at their usual bar stools. The alchemist waved the bartender over and ordered a scotch on the rocks, then looked at his best friend.
“I just got a team- a group of officers working under me. I’m going to meet them tomorrow morning. They’re all pretty young and green- no real experience like you or I, but they seem to have pretty good records on paper. We’ll see what happens, I guess.”
Maes took a swig of his scotch and grimaced. He was trying as hard as he could- drinking it every night that he and Roy met at the bar- but he still couldn’t get a taste for the stuff. “I’ll tell you what.” Maes started again, the grin on his face growing. I’ll come by tomorrow and make sure they haven’t mutinied by lunchtime, alright?”
He barely avoided Roy’s halfhearted swing that was aiming for his nose.
________________________________________________
Roy made sure he was at work plenty early the next morning, despite the slight hangover from drinking with Maes the night before. As usual, Hawkeye had beaten him in, and already had a still steaming cup of coffee on his desk.
“Are you ready to meet the rest of your men, sir?” She asked in her usual stiff, formal tone.
The alchemist smiled at her and took a sip of his coffee, scrunching his face up at the pain of the hot coffee scalding his tongue. ‘She must’ve not beaten me into work by much.’ He thought. ‘It’s not usually this hot when I come in.’ “Well, whether I’m ready or not, I have little choice in the matter. Right, First Lieutenant?”
He watched a grin start to spread to her face, then she quickly put her stone façade back on again. “Yes sir.” She replied, simply.
Falman was the first of the new soldiers to arrive- at exactly 0800 hours, as instructed. He saluted as he entered and closed the door behind him. “Warrant Officer Vato Falman, reporting for duty, sir!”
Roy smiled. ‘This guy is really stiff and formal.’ He thought to himself. ‘He’ll probably work well with Hawkeye. Or they might be so alike that they’ll drive each other crazy.’ His grin grew at that thought. ‘That might be fun to watch.’ The alchemist chuckled to himself.
Falman was staring at Roy- still saluting- waiting for a response. Roy shook himself out of his thoughts, returned the salute, and pointed to the large desk with many chairs around it in the middle of the room. “Please, take a seat, Falman. Hawkeye will give you some paperwork to fill out. Take your time.”
“Yes, sir.”
The rest of the men filtered in one by one. First it was Fuery, then Breda, and Havoc finally came in last- well over half an hour late- panting and sweating.
“Sorry, sir.” He saluted as he walked into the office. “My alarm didn’t go off, and I overslept.” He looked disheveled- his blond hair was spiked and messy, and he held an unlit cigarette in his mouth. Roy looked up from his paperwork, a bored expression on his face. “Second Lieutenant Havoc, I sincerely hope that you don’t intend to smoke that cigarette in here.”
“No, sir.” Was the man’s quick reply.
“Good, then kindly take that thing out of your mouth.”
“Yes, sir.” Havoc looked miserable as he took the cigarette out of his mouth and put it behind his ear.
“Not there either. Either put it in your pocket, or deposit it in the trash. A solider needs to look professional.”
“Yes, sir.” Havoc sighed, took out his nearly empty, crumpled pack of cigarettes and pushed it back in, then stuffed it back into his pocket.
“A solider needs to look professional, huh? I’ve seen you looking pretty bad yourself!” Maes had- as usual- picked the most inopportune time (as far as Roy was concerned) to walk in on the conversation. The man wore a huge grin on his face, walking past all of the new recruits, back towards Roy’s desk.
Roy shot him a death glare, but the look had never stopped Maes before. “You should’ve seen him at the bar last night!” He turned his attention to the soldiers at the large table- who, until that moment, had been busy filling out their paperwork. “If you want to get on the bosses’ good side, get him a bottle of scotch. A good one. Just be prepared to deal with a grumpy, hung-over man the next day!”
“Maes, a word, please?” Roy hissed through tightly clenched teeth. Maes leaned down over the desk- close to Roy.
“Please do not belittle me in front of my new men. I want them to respect me, not ridicule me.” The alchemist whispered, pointing to the table- where the soldiers were snickering at what Maes had said.
The taller man straightened up and clapped his friend, hard, on the back. “Aw, Roy. Don’t worry. They know I’m just joking.” He looked over at the desk. “Right, guys?”
All of the laughter stopped immediately once the two higher ranking officers were looking at them. Maes got a lot of confused looks from the table. “Um, I guess.” Breda finally answered, looking up from his paperwork that he had been pretending to filling out, hoping that looking busy wouldn’t get him in trouble on his first day.
Maes smiled and shook his head. “Oh, yeah, I forgot. You guys don’t know who I am. Roy and I go way back, so you’ll probably see a lot of me in here. I’m Major Maes Hughes. Don’t worry. There’s no need to get up and salute!” He grinned and waved his hand.
“Speaking of that, *Major*.” Roy almost purred. He loved nothing more than to pull rank on his friend when he went out of line- which was pretty often. “Won’t Investigations wonder where you went?”
“Investigations? That is what I want to get into!” Falman spoke up, something almost akin to a smile flittering for the briefest of moments on his stone face. Roy and Maes immediately looked over at him again. The grin once again came to the taller man’s face.
“Ah. Come with me, my good man. I’ll introduce you to my commanding officer. I’m sure he’ll be glad to meet you. We’re always looking for bright new faces.” Maes walked over and put his hand on Falman’s shoulder, directing him towards the door.
“Going to try to steal one of my men away from me?” Roy smiled, his mood suddenly lightened at the thought of Maes leaving with no further damage to the alchemist’s ego.
“I don’t know, *Flame*. Think you can handle someone smarter than you?”
“Smarter?”
Maes walked back over to his friend’s desk and leaned in, almost whispering into his ear. “I’m in Investigations. I can find people’s test scores very easily. He’s smarter than you. Much smarter.”
‘So much for not bruising my ego.’ Roy thought to himself. “Considering that I just received these men under my watch…” Hawkeye audibly cleared her throat. Roy glanced over her direction, and then corrected himself. “I just received these men *and women* under my watch- I doubt that Brigadier General Grand will want to transfer any of them that quickly. But by all means, please give him a tour. The more they all know about the building, the better.” Roy’s grin grew. “In fact, thank you for agreeing to take all of them on a tour of the building, now that everyone has arrived.” He shot a quick look at Havoc, who cringed.
“A tour? They’re your men, Roy.”
“That’s an order, soldier.”
Maes’ face sunk. He opened his mouth for a moment to reply, but quickly decided against it. He turned to the table. “Alright, you heard the Lieutenant Colonel. Let’s go. Time for the nickel tour. You can finish the paperwork when we get back.” The new soldiers stood up and followed him out of door.
Roy smiled, virtually patting himself on the back. “Good job.” He told himself. “You got rid of Maes *and* the rest of the men for a while. Even Hawkeye.” He looked at the papers on his desk- then grinned, leaned back, and put his hands behind his head. “Time to take a little break.”
______________________________________
That night, Maes visited Roy’s apartment to talk about the arrangements for his upcoming marriage.
As he walked in, he could already smell the stench of alcohol in the air, and as had become somewhat usual, Maes found his best friend sitting at his kitchen table with a glass of scotch in one hand and the bottle in the other.
He walked in and sat down. Roy didn’t even smile, just kept his flat face and took another drink of scotch, grimacing slightly.
Maes sighed and shook his head. “Come on. You aren’t still mad at me about that ‘smart’ crack, are you?” He quickly grabbed Roy’s glass and dragged it across the table, away from the already partially inebriated man.
“I’m mad that you just pulled away my glass.” Roy grumbled, almost slurring his words.
“Damnit Roy, for just one night, I need you somewhat sober. Come on, please. This is serious. I have some decisions I have to make about the wedding, and I need my best man’s help.”
Roy sighed and put the stopper back on the top of the scotch. “Alright, but you better not belittle me in front of my men again. I need to make a good impression. I have to do well with this assignment, if I’m going to work my way to the top.”
“Sorry about that today. You know that I was just joking around. I did explain it to them while I was showing them around the building. Speaking of that- the red haired one- Breda was it? He catches onto things very quickly. If he wanted to, he’d do well in Investigations. But that isn’t what he’s interested in. I’ve been told that he’s an excellent strategist. He may be good officer material in the future. Keep an eye on him.” Maes got up and started to warm up some water for coffee.
“As for the rest of them.” Maes said over his shoulder, as he worked at Roy’s small stove. “The blond haired one- he seems like the loyal type, but he’s not terribly bright. I heard he got some pretty high marksmanship scores. Not at good as Hawkeye, naturally, but pretty damn close. Of course you know Falman is smart. And the little guy? He’s heard all about you. You seem to be one of the main reasons that he wanted to enter the military. He heard about what you did...” He trailed off.
Maes didn’t have to continue. Roy knew where he meant. It was an unspoken rule between them. Neither of them wanted to talk about where they had been, the atrocities that they had seen- and caused. They still bore the scars.
“He’s a killer too, then?” Roy spat, bitterly.
“No, he’s just a radio man. A whiz, actually. That kid can fix anything you put in front of him. He fixed a colonel’s telephone today. It’d been broken for months. No one could figure out what was wrong with it, but he got it working in less than 15 minutes. That kid may save us all one day, with his ingenuity.”
Roy nodded, but stayed silent. A few minutes later, the coffee was done, and Maes walked over with a couple of steaming cups, placing one in front of each of them and then sitting down.
“They’re good men and women, the bunch of them.” Maes sipped his coffee. “I can tell. You guys are going to be a good team. Just give it a little time, and don’t forget that you’re going to need as many friends as you can while you’re on the way up. I can only push your stubborn ass so far.” The older man grinned, and stirred a lump of sugar into his drink.
The alchemist smiled and rolled his eyes. “So what was so important that you had to come by at this time of night?”
Maes’ grin grew, and he started to outline the ideas that he had for the wedding.
Title: Ends and Beginnings (The Seed of the Fire- Chapter 24)
Author: SeaweedOtter
Pairing: Roy Mustang x Maes Hughes
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: AU, Set before the anime started, while Maes and Roy were roommates at the military academy.
Author Note: The story will mostly follow the manga, but it may have a bit of both.
Summary: The end of one thing often precludes the beginning of another.
I have the awesome johns_elizabeth as my advisor.
Read all of the chapters so far HERE!
After returning from the trip to the lake, Roy Mustang was a changed man. He still had his bad habits, sure. His tendency was to be fairly lazy, unless he was under constant watch- but Second Lieutenant Hawkeye kept that well under control. For the most part, he was on time for work, did his job well, and re-earned the respect of his superior officers in the few months after his short hiatus. One afternoon, he was called into Brigadier General Grand’s office.
“You wanted to see me, sir?” Roy saluted as he came in, removing his hat.
“Yes, Lieutenant Colonel. Have a seat.”
“Yes, sir.” Roy sat down, crossed his legs, and laid his hat in his lap- anxious as to why he’d been summoned.
“I’m proud of the turnaround you’ve made, Mustang. You seem less distracted, and have become much more productive under Lieutenant Hawkeye’s watch.” A smile worked its way onto the General’s face when Roy grimaced at the last part of the sentence.
“I’m giving you a team, to assist you. They have various talents, and I’m sure that they’ll all be of immense help to you. Also, I’ve already told Lieutenant Hawkeye, but since she’s now under your command, you should know as well. Her promotion just went through. She’s now a First Lieutenant.”
Roy smiled, hoping that it meant a promotion for him wouldn’t be far behind. He wanted to ask the general, but he knew better than to press the subject. “Thank you sir- for the team, and for that good news. “ He stood up, bowed, and then saluted.
The general stood up, took a folder from his desk, and handed it to Roy. “These are the files on each of your subordinates. They’ll start first thing tomorrow morning. I’d like a full report on the progress in their first week by the end of the day on Friday. That’s all.” He saluted. Roy returned the salute and walked out, back towards his office, to read up on his new officers. A grin filled his face as he ambled down the hallway. ‘At least this’ll get Hawkeye off my back for a while.’ He thought.
Back at his desk, he took his time looking through each of the files- trying to put off the inevitable paperwork that was looming in his in box for as long as he could. He flipped through the individual files quickly the first time- reading their names, and their areas of expertise, to get a better feel of what his officers were like.
Breda, Heymans- Second Lieutenant. Munitions expert, specializes in large caliber guns and projectiles, such as grenades and grenade guns. Falman, Vato- Warrant Officer. Highly intelligent, well versed in protocols and laws- also interested in Investigations. Fuery, Kain- Master Sergeant. Communications and Repair Specialist. A technical expert- especially gifted in radio and telephone repair. Havoc, Jean- First Lieutenant. Weapons expert- specializes in low and medium caliber guns, such as rifles and handguns- sharpshooter. Hawkeye, Riza- Weapons expert- Very specialized in low and medium caliber guns, especially handguns- expert sharpshooter and marksman.
Roy read them over again, until he had all of the details of each of his men almost committed to memory. As much as he tried to have an excuse not to sign any more papers before the end of the day- which was fast approaching- he knew that he’d already been pushing his luck, as long as he’d been stalling for time. He closed the folder and put it down on his desk, sighed, and ran his fingers through his dark black hair, looking once again at the stacks of papers that still had to be read and signed. “No time like the present.” He grumbled, and took the first paper off the pile.
___________________________________________
“Hey there, Roy. You look happy tonight. What’s the big news?” Maes grinned goofily as Roy sat down next to him at their usual bar stools. The alchemist waved the bartender over and ordered a scotch on the rocks, then looked at his best friend.
“I just got a team- a group of officers working under me. I’m going to meet them tomorrow morning. They’re all pretty young and green- no real experience like you or I, but they seem to have pretty good records on paper. We’ll see what happens, I guess.”
Maes took a swig of his scotch and grimaced. He was trying as hard as he could- drinking it every night that he and Roy met at the bar- but he still couldn’t get a taste for the stuff. “I’ll tell you what.” Maes started again, the grin on his face growing. I’ll come by tomorrow and make sure they haven’t mutinied by lunchtime, alright?”
He barely avoided Roy’s halfhearted swing that was aiming for his nose.
________________________________________________
Roy made sure he was at work plenty early the next morning, despite the slight hangover from drinking with Maes the night before. As usual, Hawkeye had beaten him in, and already had a still steaming cup of coffee on his desk.
“Are you ready to meet the rest of your men, sir?” She asked in her usual stiff, formal tone.
The alchemist smiled at her and took a sip of his coffee, scrunching his face up at the pain of the hot coffee scalding his tongue. ‘She must’ve not beaten me into work by much.’ He thought. ‘It’s not usually this hot when I come in.’ “Well, whether I’m ready or not, I have little choice in the matter. Right, First Lieutenant?”
He watched a grin start to spread to her face, then she quickly put her stone façade back on again. “Yes sir.” She replied, simply.
Falman was the first of the new soldiers to arrive- at exactly 0800 hours, as instructed. He saluted as he entered and closed the door behind him. “Warrant Officer Vato Falman, reporting for duty, sir!”
Roy smiled. ‘This guy is really stiff and formal.’ He thought to himself. ‘He’ll probably work well with Hawkeye. Or they might be so alike that they’ll drive each other crazy.’ His grin grew at that thought. ‘That might be fun to watch.’ The alchemist chuckled to himself.
Falman was staring at Roy- still saluting- waiting for a response. Roy shook himself out of his thoughts, returned the salute, and pointed to the large desk with many chairs around it in the middle of the room. “Please, take a seat, Falman. Hawkeye will give you some paperwork to fill out. Take your time.”
“Yes, sir.”
The rest of the men filtered in one by one. First it was Fuery, then Breda, and Havoc finally came in last- well over half an hour late- panting and sweating.
“Sorry, sir.” He saluted as he walked into the office. “My alarm didn’t go off, and I overslept.” He looked disheveled- his blond hair was spiked and messy, and he held an unlit cigarette in his mouth. Roy looked up from his paperwork, a bored expression on his face. “Second Lieutenant Havoc, I sincerely hope that you don’t intend to smoke that cigarette in here.”
“No, sir.” Was the man’s quick reply.
“Good, then kindly take that thing out of your mouth.”
“Yes, sir.” Havoc looked miserable as he took the cigarette out of his mouth and put it behind his ear.
“Not there either. Either put it in your pocket, or deposit it in the trash. A solider needs to look professional.”
“Yes, sir.” Havoc sighed, took out his nearly empty, crumpled pack of cigarettes and pushed it back in, then stuffed it back into his pocket.
“A solider needs to look professional, huh? I’ve seen you looking pretty bad yourself!” Maes had- as usual- picked the most inopportune time (as far as Roy was concerned) to walk in on the conversation. The man wore a huge grin on his face, walking past all of the new recruits, back towards Roy’s desk.
Roy shot him a death glare, but the look had never stopped Maes before. “You should’ve seen him at the bar last night!” He turned his attention to the soldiers at the large table- who, until that moment, had been busy filling out their paperwork. “If you want to get on the bosses’ good side, get him a bottle of scotch. A good one. Just be prepared to deal with a grumpy, hung-over man the next day!”
“Maes, a word, please?” Roy hissed through tightly clenched teeth. Maes leaned down over the desk- close to Roy.
“Please do not belittle me in front of my new men. I want them to respect me, not ridicule me.” The alchemist whispered, pointing to the table- where the soldiers were snickering at what Maes had said.
The taller man straightened up and clapped his friend, hard, on the back. “Aw, Roy. Don’t worry. They know I’m just joking.” He looked over at the desk. “Right, guys?”
All of the laughter stopped immediately once the two higher ranking officers were looking at them. Maes got a lot of confused looks from the table. “Um, I guess.” Breda finally answered, looking up from his paperwork that he had been pretending to filling out, hoping that looking busy wouldn’t get him in trouble on his first day.
Maes smiled and shook his head. “Oh, yeah, I forgot. You guys don’t know who I am. Roy and I go way back, so you’ll probably see a lot of me in here. I’m Major Maes Hughes. Don’t worry. There’s no need to get up and salute!” He grinned and waved his hand.
“Speaking of that, *Major*.” Roy almost purred. He loved nothing more than to pull rank on his friend when he went out of line- which was pretty often. “Won’t Investigations wonder where you went?”
“Investigations? That is what I want to get into!” Falman spoke up, something almost akin to a smile flittering for the briefest of moments on his stone face. Roy and Maes immediately looked over at him again. The grin once again came to the taller man’s face.
“Ah. Come with me, my good man. I’ll introduce you to my commanding officer. I’m sure he’ll be glad to meet you. We’re always looking for bright new faces.” Maes walked over and put his hand on Falman’s shoulder, directing him towards the door.
“Going to try to steal one of my men away from me?” Roy smiled, his mood suddenly lightened at the thought of Maes leaving with no further damage to the alchemist’s ego.
“I don’t know, *Flame*. Think you can handle someone smarter than you?”
“Smarter?”
Maes walked back over to his friend’s desk and leaned in, almost whispering into his ear. “I’m in Investigations. I can find people’s test scores very easily. He’s smarter than you. Much smarter.”
‘So much for not bruising my ego.’ Roy thought to himself. “Considering that I just received these men under my watch…” Hawkeye audibly cleared her throat. Roy glanced over her direction, and then corrected himself. “I just received these men *and women* under my watch- I doubt that Brigadier General Grand will want to transfer any of them that quickly. But by all means, please give him a tour. The more they all know about the building, the better.” Roy’s grin grew. “In fact, thank you for agreeing to take all of them on a tour of the building, now that everyone has arrived.” He shot a quick look at Havoc, who cringed.
“A tour? They’re your men, Roy.”
“That’s an order, soldier.”
Maes’ face sunk. He opened his mouth for a moment to reply, but quickly decided against it. He turned to the table. “Alright, you heard the Lieutenant Colonel. Let’s go. Time for the nickel tour. You can finish the paperwork when we get back.” The new soldiers stood up and followed him out of door.
Roy smiled, virtually patting himself on the back. “Good job.” He told himself. “You got rid of Maes *and* the rest of the men for a while. Even Hawkeye.” He looked at the papers on his desk- then grinned, leaned back, and put his hands behind his head. “Time to take a little break.”
______________________________________
That night, Maes visited Roy’s apartment to talk about the arrangements for his upcoming marriage.
As he walked in, he could already smell the stench of alcohol in the air, and as had become somewhat usual, Maes found his best friend sitting at his kitchen table with a glass of scotch in one hand and the bottle in the other.
He walked in and sat down. Roy didn’t even smile, just kept his flat face and took another drink of scotch, grimacing slightly.
Maes sighed and shook his head. “Come on. You aren’t still mad at me about that ‘smart’ crack, are you?” He quickly grabbed Roy’s glass and dragged it across the table, away from the already partially inebriated man.
“I’m mad that you just pulled away my glass.” Roy grumbled, almost slurring his words.
“Damnit Roy, for just one night, I need you somewhat sober. Come on, please. This is serious. I have some decisions I have to make about the wedding, and I need my best man’s help.”
Roy sighed and put the stopper back on the top of the scotch. “Alright, but you better not belittle me in front of my men again. I need to make a good impression. I have to do well with this assignment, if I’m going to work my way to the top.”
“Sorry about that today. You know that I was just joking around. I did explain it to them while I was showing them around the building. Speaking of that- the red haired one- Breda was it? He catches onto things very quickly. If he wanted to, he’d do well in Investigations. But that isn’t what he’s interested in. I’ve been told that he’s an excellent strategist. He may be good officer material in the future. Keep an eye on him.” Maes got up and started to warm up some water for coffee.
“As for the rest of them.” Maes said over his shoulder, as he worked at Roy’s small stove. “The blond haired one- he seems like the loyal type, but he’s not terribly bright. I heard he got some pretty high marksmanship scores. Not at good as Hawkeye, naturally, but pretty damn close. Of course you know Falman is smart. And the little guy? He’s heard all about you. You seem to be one of the main reasons that he wanted to enter the military. He heard about what you did...” He trailed off.
Maes didn’t have to continue. Roy knew where he meant. It was an unspoken rule between them. Neither of them wanted to talk about where they had been, the atrocities that they had seen- and caused. They still bore the scars.
“He’s a killer too, then?” Roy spat, bitterly.
“No, he’s just a radio man. A whiz, actually. That kid can fix anything you put in front of him. He fixed a colonel’s telephone today. It’d been broken for months. No one could figure out what was wrong with it, but he got it working in less than 15 minutes. That kid may save us all one day, with his ingenuity.”
Roy nodded, but stayed silent. A few minutes later, the coffee was done, and Maes walked over with a couple of steaming cups, placing one in front of each of them and then sitting down.
“They’re good men and women, the bunch of them.” Maes sipped his coffee. “I can tell. You guys are going to be a good team. Just give it a little time, and don’t forget that you’re going to need as many friends as you can while you’re on the way up. I can only push your stubborn ass so far.” The older man grinned, and stirred a lump of sugar into his drink.
The alchemist smiled and rolled his eyes. “So what was so important that you had to come by at this time of night?”
Maes’ grin grew, and he started to outline the ideas that he had for the wedding.