I don't own FMA

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The day was drawing to a close, the pile of paper work on his desk nearly gone, and he still hadn’t asked.

All of his careful research and planning would have been in vain if he didn’t ask.

He heaved a sigh as he scratched his signature onto an expense report Falman had written, and looked over at Riza as he moved it to the “finished” pile.

In place of her usual novel was the day’s newspaper.

She must have missed reading it when she’d worked straight through lunch. He sighed again, really, sometimes she worked too hard.

“Are you alright, Sir?” she asked, a crinkling of paper accompanying her question as she folded down the top of it to look at him with concerned eyes.

“No…yes…almost done,” he stated, holding up the last paper.

She nodded and straightened the paper.

Roy stopped his head from its descent just inches from the desk, and held back the groan that wanted to escape his throat in irritation.

He quickly rushed through Fuery’s report on the impending change of codes for non-secured calls, memorized the code, made a quick note for a flyer with the new code to be sent to every office, and set down his pen, the sound of it clicking against the desk the victory music for another day of finished paper work.

“Time to call it a night?” she inquired, folding the newspaper back into quarters.

He nodded, stretching his arms over his head as he stood.

At the door, he held her coat as she slipped her arms into the sleeves, just as he was about to ask, she opened the door and they were flanked by guards.

He rolled his eyes at the suited men, knowing their presence was unnecessary with Riza there, but if he dismissed them she would lecture him on his importance to the country as the Fuhrer, and remind him that the people could sleep better at night knowing more than one person was watching over him, no matter how skilled that one person was.

Despite the fact that four well trained, well armed guards crowded around them, he knew she was still alert for possible threats, hand ready to reach for her nearest gun, just as he was ready for combat with one ignition cloth glove on, and another in his pocket.

“You’re off tomorrow, aren’t you?” he asked as they stood inside headquarters waiting on their cars to be brought around.

“Mhm,” he answered. He could tell by the tightness in her response that she was still irritated at having to be nearly as heavily guarded as he was since she was his second in command.

“Taking Hayate to the park?” he guessed.

“Not tomorrow.”

Roy’s shoulders stiffened…he hadn’t expected that answer. “No?”

“No, Elysia’s going to watch him for the day. She wants to buy Gracia a birthday present with her own money, so I’m paying her to watch Hayate once a week,” she explained.

“Oh,” Roy murmured, digging his hands into his pockets. “You know, I kind of miss just sitting in the park watching passers-by, makes me a bit jealous that the shrimp can actually request a day off to have a picnic with his brother, Winry, and May,” he rambled.

The cars pulled up, but neither of them made a move down the steps. Riza looked over at him, her alert eyes trained on his. “A picnic, haven’t done anything like that in a while,” she mused, her eyes flashing a hint of amusement as she looked away from him. “Have a good night, Sir,” she said as he descended the stairs, the majority of the guards leaving with him.

“Enjoy your day off, General,” he called, as he ducked into the backseat.

xxx

“He shouldn’t be any trouble at all. He’s used to going outside every couple hours. His food's in the cupboard below the counter next to the refrigerator, I already put some out, but go ahead and add another cup if it gets low. You’re welcome to raid the refrigerator or cupboards if you get hungry.

“The apartment is completely safe, but an M.P. is always out in the hall, just in case. Uhm, Kain’s extension at H.Q. is in my phone book if you have any questions he should be able to answer them. You don’t have to worry about the security codes, my phone is secured.

“If he gets restless a short walk should work. If you give him a bath, I’ll give you a little extra,” she concluded, mentally making sure she’d told the girl everything she needed to know.

“Thanks, Aunt Riza,” Elysia said, watching the dog sniff at her shoes.

Riza bent over to scratch Hayate behind the ears, and his attention shifted from the familiar girl to his master, tail wagging.

“Be a good boy for Elysia,” she ordered.

xxx

He was used to being away from his master, but she smelled different today, there was something about it that made him want to run around in circles, she smelled like something exciting.

He yipped in agreement when she said good boy, and wiggled his tail harder.

Hearing the clinking of her keys, he ran to the table near the bookshelf and snatched his leash off of it. He sat at the door, leash in mouth, waiting for her to attach it to his collar.

The familiar girl squealed while his master laughed. He cocked his head to the side, wondering why she laughed.

xxx

“He’s so cute,” Elysia squealed as Hayate sat ready to go with Riza.

“Oh, you’re not going with me,” Riza told the dog, patting him on the head as she opened the door.

She raised an eyebrow in surprise when he tried to get out the door behind her.

“No!” she scolded, pushing him back into the apartment with her foot.

“He’s never done this before,” Riza apologized to Elysia, a hint of confusion in her voice. “I’ll call to check in on you,” she said over the dog’s whining.

xxx

Hayate whined and scratched at the door blocking him from his master. When it didn’t open back up he looked over to the girl with big, sad eyes, but she just walked over and pet his head, saying something he didn’t understand.

He turned a circle, and flopped down on the carpet in front of the door, chewing on the leash in his mouth, but the girl quickly took it from him, putting a chew toy in front of his paws.

He looked at it with disinterest and closed his eyes.

xxx

Elysia looked over at the dog with a worried glance. She never remembered him whining except for food when Riza was over for dinner.

“After I finish my homework, we’ll go out to the park,” she promised, frowning when Hayate didn’t even look in her direction.

“Don’t be sad. Your mommy will be back before you know it!” she attempted to comfort him, as she pulled a folder out of her bag.

xxx

Roy Mustang was not usually a nervous man. There were those rare moments when his anxiety flared up, and it was one of those moments as he stood in the flower shop with his mom and sisters trying to pull him in this direction and that while the plainclothes guards stood at the doors, telling customers it was closed for lunch.

“Tulips!” Christine shouted from across the store. “She’ll love these!”

“He looked over at the shopkeeper.

“Red tulips are a declaration of love,” she said, hoping he would make his decision, she was loosing business.

“No, I need something that says more than that.”

“Roses, every girl loves roses,” Julie suggested.

“No, it has to be something different,” he sighed.

“Let Roy-boy make the decision on his own,” his mom demanded, using a tone that would have made him cringe had it been directed at him.

“What do you think?” he asked the shopkeeper.

“From what you said, I think we can make a red and white bouquet,” she said, stepping out from behind the counter, motioning for Roy to follow her.

“Here, sprigs of cedar leaf for the trimming, it means ‘I live for thee’.” She grabbed a handful and passed it to him. “Red camellias, ‘you’re a flame in my heart’. White daisies ‘loyal love’, white arbutus ‘thee only do I love’, red carnations ‘devotion’, and some almond blossomd ‘hope and watchfulness’,” she explained, pulling said flowers and handing them to Roy as he and his sisters followed her up and down the aisles.

His mom nodded in approval as the woman arranged the flowers, little clusters of red surrounded by white with dashes of cedar leaf scattered throughout the entire bouquet.

“Thank you,” he said, as she wrapped a sheet of pale red paper around the bouquet and tied it off with an iridescent ribbon.

xxx

She sat on a bench by the little lake, a brown bag of groceries next to her. While she reveled in the warm touch of the sun and cool breeze she hoped that with the country growing steady once more she would have more time to enjoy moments like this.

The autumn sun was bright against her eyes as she opened them. The park wasn’t nearly as occupied as it would have been had it been spring or summer, but that was something she was sure he had counted on.

Wondering how long she would have to wait, she pulled a bag of bread crumbs from the paper bag. There were still a few ducks that hadn’t flown south to warmer weather around.

“Procrastinators,” she murmured as she grabbed a handful and threw it into the water, chuckling quietly to herself as the ducks raced for it.

As they sat quaking in demand for more a little girl with her dark hair in pigtails ran over yelling, “Duckies!”

Riza looked to the familiar men talking, just far enough behind her for their conversation to fall silent on her ears, and one nodded, but she put up a hand to halt him.

“They’ll be scared away if you’re too loud,” she informed the girl.

“Momma said they’d be gone, but I knew she was wrong,” the girl explained.

“Want to feed them?” Riza asked.

The girl nodded enthusiastically, and Riza saw a woman approaching them, anger visible on her face.

One of her guards was already intercepting the woman. She held open the bag for the girl to reach into. “I’m Riza Hawkeye, what’s your name?” she asked.

“Melanie,” she answered, grabbing a handful of bread crumbs.

Riza watched in amusement as the girl squatted at the edge of the sidewalk, holding her hand full of crumbs out over the water. “Here ducky, ducky,” she called.

When they didn’t eat the food from her hand she attempted to scoot closer, and Riza went to her side. “Here, this is how you feed them,” she said, tossing a handful into the water.

Riza kept her hands close to Melanie as she stood, afraid she was going to fall in the lake.

xxx

Roy smiled as he watched Riza interact with the little girl. Laughing to himself as Riza’s shoulders slumped when the girl tossed bread crumbs up in the air. As he approached he could hear the girl calling for the ducks to come out of the lake and get their food that lay scattered around her.

Riza spotted him as she dusted crumbs off her shoulders and shook her head at his amusement.

He joined them just as the girl’s mom did.

“Melanie you can’t run off like that,” she chided, face burning with anger. “Not everyone is as nice as this lady,” she explained, taking the girls hand. “Now, tell her thank you.”

“Thank you, uh, I forgot your name.”

“Thanks for joining me, but your mom’s right, you shouldn’t talk to strangers.”

The woman smiled at her. “Thank you, General Hawkeye,” she said. “Uhm, we’ll be going.”

“Wait, here take this. They’ll probably be here another week,” she offered, holding out the bag of crumbs to the girl.

“Can we, Momma?” she asked, prancing in place.

The woman nodded.

“Why’d you call her general?” the girls asked loudly, swinging her bag as they walked away.

“I’ll explain later,” the woman answered.

“Fancy seeing you here, Sir,” Riza said as soon as they were out of earshot.

“Really?” he asked. “I had a feeling I’d run into you today, General.”

“Well, I was about to leave,” she said flatly. “You got lucky that girl kept me company.”

“Lucky indeed,” he echoed, smirking at her.

Riza looked at his empty hands. “I brought a few things, but you didn’t expect me to bring everything did you?”

Roy shook his head, and she lifted and eyebrow in question. “Well?”

“I’ll take you there, but—” he drew out the silence as he pulled a blue sash from his pocket, “it’s a surprise.”

“You don’t expect me to consent to being blindfolded, do you?” she asked, cheeks coloring.

“Are you saying that after all these years you don’t trust me to lead you around the park blindfolded, with five guards monitoring our every move?” he guilt tripped.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you…it’s just—”

“I know, I know, it’s everyone else. It’s your day off, let everyone else do their jobs, trust them to. I have my gloves. I’ll put them on if it makes you feel any better.”

“Okay, if you put your gloves on,” she consented, gathering the bag of food from the bench.

Riza closed her eyes as he covered them with the soft sash.

“Did you cut your hair?” he asked, tying the sash at the back of her head, careful not to catch the golden strands in it.

“Mhm, just a trim.”

“It looks good,” he complimented, putting his hands on her shoulders to guide her.

Riza ignored the flutter in her stomach, and as usual, followed his direction.

xxx

The moment Elysia opened the door, Hayate took off running, annoyed at the hindrance of his leash.

“You really gotta go, huh?” the girl joked, letting herself be lead past an amused M.P. by the dog.

Hayate followed his master’s familiar, yet different, scent, whining that it was old.

More than once, he had to look back and bark at the girl to hurry up, and she would pull on his leash, but he was too excited to worry about that, he just wanted to find his master, wanted to figure out why she smelled different today.

“What is wrong with you,” Elysia growled as she struggled to keep the leash in hand. “How can such a little dog be so strong,” she whined to herself as she tried to take control as they crossed a busy street, the dog’s nose sniffing at the ground.

“Hayate, you gotta be careful of cars,” she lectured, hurrying to the sidewalk.

Hayate yipped as the tension on the leash lessened. The girl was finally getting it.

Elysia followed his lead, walking as fast as she could without jogging, apologizing to people she (and Hayate)accidentally bumped into.

“Stupid dog, I was gonna bring you to the park anyway, but no, you wanted to drag me all through Central first,” she grumbled, getting odd looks from passers-by watching her being tugged along by the little dog.

When he slowed down at the side of the lake to bark at the ducks, she took the opportunity to tie his leash around a leg of the bench.

Hayate barked at the ducks asking about his master, but all they could talk about was bread and the weather. He barked at them one last time out of annoyance, and tried to take off after her scent again, but was stopped short.

“Serves you right, demon dog,” Elysia commented as he yelped and investigated the other end of the leash.

Hayate whined and looked at the girl.

Suddenly, he smelled something aside from his master and ducks, another familiar smell, a man, a man his master’s clothes sometimes smelled of. The man that smelled like fire he remembered, the man was with his master almost as much as he was. He barked at the girl, and tried running again, but the same thing happened. He wouldn’t give up. If that man was with her, then why couldn’t he be with her?

Elysia gave the dog an exasperated look as he attempted to run off a third time, but her eyes widened as the metal clasp the leash was snapped to on the collar broke, setting the dog free.

“No!” she shouted, getting the leash loose and chasing after him.

Hayate quickly picked up the trail, and his tail wagged at how fresh it was. As he went further into the woods of the park, it was easier to follow the scent without having to untangle it from the scent of other humans.

He could hear the girl panting somewhere behind him, and went faster, he had to find his master before the girl got him.

Just as the thought passed through his head, he noticed men that smelled of the military offices standing around. If he could have smiled he would, he knew the military men would keep the girl away now…they were close, he slowed down.

There was something about the atmosphere that changed, it reminded him of times when his master needed him to stay out of her way.

His tail stopped wagging as he got closer to them. It wasn’t long before he saw them sitting in the middle of a clearing, and he nearly rushed at them when he did, it looked like the fire man was attacking her, but he didn’t smell any fear or anger, just that same smell of excitement, but there was so much if it now it made him tired. He watched until they moved away from each other, and he saw his master smile at the fire man as he moved hair away from her face.

Suddenly, he knew it was the wrong time to bug his master, just like he knew when it was the wrong time to bug her(or others) for food, and backed out of the clearing.

xxx

Elysia sat on the bench, staring blankly at the ducks swimming in the lake, wondering exactly how she was going to tell Riza that she’d lost her dog. She was near tears as her overactive imagination played out all the possible ways the woman could react to the bad news. “She’s going to kill me,” she groaned, pulling the leash taught in her hands. “I’ll call Uncle Kain,” she decided.

As she stood from the bench, set on getting Kain’s help, she saw a black and white shape from the corner of her eye, and turned her head in its direction.

“I’m never watching you again,” she huffed as the dog trotted over to her, sitting obediently at her feet, cocking his head to the side.

“So not cute,” she commented, reaching down to clip the leash on the collar itself.

When the dog walked at her side keeping pace with her, she looked down at him.

“Fine, I forgive you,” she said blandly, vowing that she’s never let him get loose again.

xxx

Riza smiled at Roy as he moved her bangs out of her eyes, she was sure her own face was just as flushed as his, and buried her face in the crook of his neck. “Sometimes, I wish time could freeze, and things could stay like this forever,” she confessed into his collar.

“I don’t think I’d like that,” he disagreed.

Riza pulled away, pain replacing the bliss that had filled her eyes moments before. “Roy?” she questioned, voice harsh, cold, and hurt.

“I don’t mean it that way,” he explained, reaching out for her hand, but she pulled away.

“Then wha—”

“I mean,” he cut her off, “that I don’t want to have to speak in code or make up a legitimate excuse every time I’d like to see you outside of work. I don’t want us to go home in separate cars anymore. I want us to come home to and wake up to each other for the rest of our lives,” he confessed, pulling the red and white bouquet from the basket behind him.

With skillful fingers he untied the iridescent ribbon, and held it up for her to see the ring dangling from it. “What I really want is to call you wife, if you’d let me,” he explained.

“Not around the office, though,” she answered her smile so wide she was sure it stretched all the way across her face.

“Fine, but I can’t promise that I won’t try to do this when were alone in the office,” he admitted, leaning forward to kiss her as he slipped the ring on her finger.

“I guess I’ll have to keep my guns close,” she threatened against his lips, staying away from them only long enough to finish that sentence.

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A.N. - You know, all these pieces I planned on writing for the RoyAi day festivities over at fullmeta--alchemist(dot)com were supposed to be short and sweet, 3.5k is not short. *sigh* This was written for the prompt New Beginnings, which is the theme of the festival, and the prompt Inappropriate Timing. I was getting kind of giddy at the end there, and almost gave it a Pride & Pejudice ending "You many only call me Mrs. Mustang when you are completely, overwhelmingly, incadenscently happy." lol *sweatdrop* thank goodness I couldn't end it with someone else's words. Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks fr reading.

Thanks for reviewing: Alynawatlovers, I Am the 1st Anonymous, Coco-minu, Lahze-chan, Legendary Chimera, Mirage 992, WhiteLadyoftheRing, Kimono K, YourFavouitePlushie, Syolen, Winglessfairy25, Dailenna, Chaotic Lullaby, Kurissyma san Tybalt, MoonStarDutchess, Kitsune Moonstar\ Anne Packrat, Silver Candle, Kuroxdoragon, Silvery Mist, Qualynore, QTPie235, AnimeLuvr8, GoldenViolin127, Kitsune Moonstar, HoshiToTskui, RizaHawkeye28, Yun Min, OTP, Lili, Tsunade-chan, Jennlyn78, Botan and Karuma Lover, Riza Hawkeye 9, Momiji-K, RR Forever, AAR, JenovaJuice97, and Hawkeye0165.