Anything for You part 6

The blonde nurse stared at him with lust filled eyes when she exited the Brigadier General's room in the hospital and they talked for almost an hour about basically nothing on her lunch break. He knew it was wrong to leave Riza in there all alone, but also figured it was better to let her feel as independent as everyone knew she was. Besides, she was only dehydrated and was probably going to be there for another ten minutes until she could stand again.

Anyway, he knew he had to move on after everything that happened between him and his friend. Lately, after it happened, she acted like he wasn't even there anyway; it was just her missions and her work that kept her around. He couldn't keep doing this to himself: thinking they would ever be together for real.

It killed him to think she could hardly even look at him anymore, let alone carry on a conversation.

He never intended on actually doing anything with Miranda, he might have been a horny fuck but he was still a gentleman. Maybe a few drinks, a kiss or two, a first date, and after that he could set up another date or just forget about her. But when he took her up to his apartment for a cup of coffee she climbed on top of him and started kissing down his neck… and then opened his shirt continued down his chest…

He could feel his own eyes flutter and his breathing getting faster as he got aroused again, but the smallest part of him felt… wrong…

Miranda was… pretty, and blonde, but his mind kept going back to how beautiful and golden Riza was.

Riza was perfect, and this was just some girl who he suspected was perfect to somebody else…

But he kept trying to remind himself that Miranda was a pretty blonde girl who wanted to be with him, while Riza was a beautiful golden goddess who couldn't even look him in the eye. He had to move on, because there was nothing he could possibly say or do for him to make her… love him…

Miranda's hand was slipping gracefully down Mustang's pants and teased at his sensitive skin as her face lifted back up and bit at his straining neck. This was so wrong! It felt good, of course it always would, but it wasn't… Riza. She was the only one who touched him and made it feel almost… right.

They both jumped when they heard the first sound from out in the hall, but Miranda pushed him back down on the couch and continued on her work. The second one was enough to make him push her off his aching body and go check it out as she sat cross legged there waiting for him to come back, and to his surprise…

There she was. The one night he had a girl in his grasp that was ready and willing to throw herself at him at moments notice, and the one night he was finally ready to move on and try to get his own life back, there she was.

He wanted to push Miranda out and be completely rude to her for no reason so he would never have to see her again. A conversation with Riza was worth a hundred girls he could have sex with, and he would probably give them all up for a single kiss from her.

Miranda strutted over to him as he stood in the doorway ready to go after his Brigadier General when she ran out the building, and she swung her arms around his neck.

"Who was that?" she whispered seductively. "Jealous lover?" Her lips traveled up to his earlobe and sucked the flesh into them.

He felt absolutely nothing for her now. It was all Riza. He would do anything for HER, not this girl.

He reached behind the door at his coat rack, again gently maneuvering away from the blonde girl who now frustrated crossed her arms at him, and handed her the purple jacket she had hung there.

"It's been fun," he said politely to her, "I'll call you sometime." She bit her bottom lip, and cocked her brow at him, standing there trying to hand her the jacket. When he didn't waver from his place she snatched it rudely from his arm and pushed herself out his door.

Thanking whatever was watching over him that got her to leave; he closed it behind her and preceded scrambling to slip his shoes on. He wasn't sure what Riza had wanted, or why she ran away from him like that, but he wasn't the kind of man to leave it a mystery. He had to go after her. He spent most of his time these days chasing after her anyway, for a look, a smile, a laugh, even a glare of hatred, and he knew he would spend the rest of his life chasing her, even if she were standing right next to him.

Maybe he would never move on. The funny thing was, he didn't have much of a problem with it.

*******

"I was pretty stupid there, huh boy?" Riza laughed with Black Hayatai, wiping away some wetness that had sense stopped falling from her eyes. They sat at a bench that was perched on a sidewalk across from a park less than a block away from Roy's apartment. It was still raining a little bit, but it was so cool and blue out, either of them wanted to waste it. Black Hayatai didn't mind being out this late and Riza didn't want to go home just yet. Sleep made things that happened in the day so vivid they were sometimes too much to handle and this day in particular was a monster.

Black Hayatai panted an agreement to Riza and set his doggy face on her lap.

"I don't know what came over me," she said, "Maybe hormones…? Yeah, I can say that now!" He whined sadly at her from her lap and looked up at her face which made her dimly smile down at him and scratch at his head. "I'm not mad at you boy," she reassured. "You've gotta keep me in line since I'm gonna be acting a little bit strange for a while." Still sadly, he whined again and positioned his head differently on her legs. "Hey! None of that mushy stuff boy!" she continued stronger now. "You were a good soldier tonight. Our mission was to tell Roy about the baby, and you went above and beyond to make sure I did it."

He sat up, and if he had a human arm she swore he would have been saluting her. He might have just been a dog, but when she said he was a good soldier he always felt better, and she could plainly tell. Court marshal was a bad thing, and when she said that was what he was he'd hang his head in shame and basically go into a deep depression. Never mind good boy, bad boy, he knew the difference, and he was mostly always a good soldier.

"Well, come on soldier," she said to him picking up his leash and standing. "We've got an early day tomorrow."

Just as she turned to begin walking back to her apartment she stopped dead in her tracks to the sound of yelling and stomping behind her. Her hand flew to her gun that she tucked in her pants for safe keeping in case of an emergency, and she stood still until she was sure the perpetrator was chasing after her. Black Hayatai growled lightly, he too ready to jump at moments notice.

But as the voice got closer… it sounded a lot like Roy's… of course it couldn't be him because he was "entertaining company" at the moment. Why would he be chasing her?

"NOW BLACK HAYATAI!" she shouted spinning around to face him when she was sure he was right behind them. They both faced the same way in perfect unison, Riza holding her cocked gun in her hand and Black Hayatai baring his teeth at the man.

Roy's hands shot up into the air hoping she seen that it was him… then hoping she hadn't seen him if that would make for a better chance at not getting shot.

She almost laughed at him as she put down and clicked the safety on her gun, Black Hayatai, also taking back his ferocious teeth and now wearing an excited joyous face at his Uncle Roy. He was standing there, his coat slung lazily over his shoulders, and shoes thrown on so sloppily one of them wasn't even tied. He was an army man, prim and proper, and his shoe was untied.

"Fuhrer Mustang?" she approached. He dropped his hands and walked over to them so he could bend down and pet Black Hayatai's head as a hello. It just occurred that the more time he spent around Riza the more he was ALMOST getting shot. It was beginning to be very anticlimactic.

He stood back up and faced her professionally.

"Brigadier General, you had a matter to discuss and my time has just opened up."

"I apologies for the intrusion sir, and for the dramatic exit, it… isn't like me, and it wont happen again." She could feel tears swell up in her eyes again. Damn tears! Damn hormones! She sniffed them back, but one decided to slip out and fall down her face.

Embarrassed and hoping he didn't see it she flicked it away without warning.

He saw it.

"Brigadier General, are you… crying?" She was silent. She WANTED to say something, but if she said anything she felt like she might burst into tears. She still felt like he had cheated on her, even if he hadn't. He was softer as he went on. "It's because you seen the woman in my apartment that you left like you did, wasn't it?"

She looked away, but was still silent.

He sighed and wiped his hand over his face. It was time to bring up the night under the city. He was oh so wrong in thinking that they could just move on with their lives and act like it had never happened, but he never thought it would affect their emotions so badly and or that it would feel like a profoundly hurtful moment to both of them either.

"I have to move on Riza," he whispered, tears of his own knocking at the back of his eyes. She was still perfectly quiet. "Can we just be Roy and Riza for a second, instead of Fuhrer and Brigadier General?"

"I thought we never had to talk about that again sir," she said after a moment.

"It's Roy," he said, demanding it subtly. "And that's an order." She nodded and he went on. "Why have you been avoiding me lately?"

She bit her lip and stayed quiet. She was going to scream if she opened her mouth.

He sighed frustrated at her. Who knew that wartime sex could change a person like it changed her?

"Am I permitted to call you Riza, Brigadier General?" She looked up at him and nodded.

"Yes sir," she replied nervously, and then she remembered her order. "I mean..." She had practiced saying his name in the mirror some days, but now that the moment was actually presenting itself, she felt the throb of feelings arise in her throat for him. This was exactly why she only called him Fuhrer. "I mean... Roy..." It stuck in her throat like peanut butter, but the word also made her smile a bit in thoughts of how sweet he could be sometimes.

This was unhealthy; she should have denied the order and called him by his rank. It worked so far.

He was surprised at how the mention of his own name on her lips made his face go flush.

"Riza... about that night..." he began softly. She cut him off.

"We don't need to talk about this," she stated starting to feel hurt by the subject.

"No, I think we do!" he interjected reaching out and grabbing her by her shoulder.

"I think we both know how you feel," she exclaimed pulling away from him. "You were sure to make that very clear when you tricked me into thinking you gave a damn about me, fucked me, and then shrugged me off like I meant nothing to you!" Her voice was starting to get louder than she wanted it to, but at the time she didn't seem to care much. Right now she was Riza Hawkeye and he was a man who took advantage of her instead of him being the ruler of the country and her his Brigadier General.

Yet, he was also the man who she loved above everything else.

"You think I shrugged you off because you mean nothing to me?!" He was almost screaming at her at the top of his lungs, the intensity in his eyes making her shutter. They were standing across from each other still waiting for the other to say something. Riza was again on the verge of angry tears, and Roy stood huffing at her, nostrils flaring. He would have incinerated something had it not been raining out.

"What did you want me to fucking do?!" he went on, still venting at her. "Did you want me to let you hang on my arm like a fucking trophy girlfriend?! Would you have rather me let you make out with me in public just because you could?! DON'T YOU GOD DAMN THINK I WOULD HAVE?!?!" He had grabbed her harshly by her shoulders again and was dangerously close to shaking her as he screamed in her face.

"I WOULD HAVE RATHER YOU LET ME THINK YOU FELT LIKE SOMETHING IMPORTANT WENT ON BETWEEN US INSTEAD OF ACTING LIKE IT WASN'T A BIG DEAL BECAUSE IT WAS TO ME!!!" she screamed back.

He looked like was about to explode.

"I SHRUGGED YOU OFF BECAUSE YOU MEAN EVERYTHING TO ME, DAMN IT!"

He hung his head in shame, the thought that should have been locked somewhere deep in his heart now floating out somewhere in the air, mingling with thoughts of hers. He felt somewhat lighter though, the heaviest weighing feeling he lugged around with him for years now out in the open, and for the first time in what felt like forever he could breathe.

His heated confession hit her square in the face like a bolder, knocking her back a step. She knew he cared on the stance of colleagues, but as far as it went for actually loving her… she really thought she was the only one.

Of course, there were hints that she only sometimes noticed from him, the way he would look at her when he thought she couldn't tell he was looking, and how fast he would turn away when she turned around again. Sometimes he would have a slip of the tongue while talking to her and instead of recovering like a normal person, his face would go flush and he would have to go onto another subject.

Her hand fiddled with the photograph in her coat pocket. She had to tell him, and now there was a break in the conversation. It was as good of a time as she was going to get.

She pulled it out and slapped it into his chest. There was no going back, and she might as well get it done with while she mustered up the courage.

He peered up at her, now her eyes facing the ground as the palm of her hand rested on something she placed on his chest. His hand traveled up and grasped the photograph as she stared down at Black Hayatai nuzzling at her leg supportively.

Her arm fell back to her side as his eyes glazed over the white jellybean on a black background. Confused, he looked up at her expecting an answer but finding nothing as she stood there in the same fashion. He looked back to the picture trying to find something, and when he turned it to the back he found it.

In small sloppy handwriting he read the words:
"Riza Hawkeye, fetal examination September 14th 1921
Fetus in good health, developing normally
Date of conception; approximately three months ago"

******

He supposed he was staring dumbfounded at the jellybean for quite a while because when he looked up expecting to see Riza standing in front of him, he could feel the sunrise greeting his skin, the air lick at his hair like it did after it rained, and above all else…

…she was gone…