FMABBC: A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way
Title: A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way
Beta: meredavey
Rating: G
Pairing/Characters: Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye
Warnings: -
Summary: "A little kindness," she said, smiling as she glanced up at the Colonel, "really does go a long way, doesn't it?" -- The tale of Riza's hairclip.
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A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way
The people in Colonel Mustang’s office were all very busy that day. They moved swiftly, almost hurriedly, as if they still had so much work to do, but not enough time to do the work. Well, actually, it was true. Today, the officers and enlisted personnel on Colonel Mustang’s team were cleaning out their desks and packing up their things. Why, you ask? It’s because they’re all being reassigned to Central Command Center.
“So! Sergeant Major Kain Fuery, Warrant Officer Vato Falman, Second Lieutenant Heymans Breda, Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc, and First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye!” He called them the other day, announcing the big news. “You five will all come with me to Central. I will hear no complaints. Come with me!”
And although Havoc did actually have a complaint (and despite being told not to, he voiced it, nonetheless), the five, along with Colonel Mustang, are now preparing themselves for the move. Now that they will transfer to Central Headquarters, they must empty their desks and vacate the office. This is what they are doing at present, busily taking out the files, folders, and records they have kept, supplies, materials, and all other sorts of possessions they have hidden in their desk drawers.
It was already midday, and Lieutenant Hawkeye was nearly finished with cleaning out her desk (compared to the others who might have to go on overtime just to sort some things out). She had one drawer left to empty, and she did so without hesitation or pause. If she was able to finish packing up early, then perhaps she could help the others in sorting their things so that they could all leave early for the night.
She emptied the contents of the last drawer onto the top of her desk. As she took out the items one by one, a small object, shoved to the back end of the drawer by other office-related things caught her attention. It was a small, rectangular box. Her hand slowly reached up to the back of her head, touching the clip that had always kept her hair in place. It was like an old friend, with whom she has shared years of her life with. A smile crept up Riza’s lips as she caught sight of this little gift.
The first time this box arrived on her desk was one particularly hot summer day, a couple of years ago; a year or two past the time she had met the Elric brothers and their friend, Winry Rockbell back in Resembool. The memory (which still seemed fresh) was that of hot weather which caused many people to become quite unproductive.
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The sun was high up in the sky, shining mercilessly upon East City. And although the windows were open to at least catch a small breeze every now and then, what Mustang’s team got was not cold air, but blinding sunshine and heat waves. Sweat formed on their foreheads, brought about by both the paperwork they had to work on and the intense summer heat.
The uniforms were not helping either. Whoever designed the military uniform definitely did not consider the weather conditions; long sleeves, seriously?
Intense heat doesn’t only bring the uncomfortable, sticky, sweaty feeling, or the drowsy afternoons, or headaches-intense heat could probably cause insanity as well. Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye could’ve sworn she was going mad; the thought of Colonel Mustang’s ambitions of changing the uniform to mini-skirts almost sounded good in this situation-mini-skirts were more… well, breezy. But she immediately dismissed the thought as soon as it arrived. It’s all just the heat.
Second Lieutenants Havoc and Breda have already taken off their upper uniform, leaving only their shirts and the uniform pants. Riza stopped in the middle of writing her report-she rarely does, but this was one opportunity where she was in dire need of a pause-only to take a hold of her hair, once short, but now grown long. She twisted it to the side of her head, away from her neck; it was getting very hot indeed.
Colonel Roy Mustang lifted his eyes from the report he was reading (he was about to fall asleep and needed to look at something else to awaken him). He was feeling very warm as well, and it wasn’t a condition he found conducive to work with, despite being a master of an element very well associated with warmth-Flame Alchemy. Well, for doing paperwork, heat was definitely not going to help-unless they’d burn away all the paperwork and he’d be left with nothing to do. His eyes wandered around the office, observing the uneasiness in each of his subordinates, until his gaze fell to his adjutant, who was, surprisingly, also nerved by the heat.
He noted how long her hair had grown now, as he watched her. And seeing how she would always find herself fixing her hair, throwing it to another side just to feel at the least bit cooler, he thought it was already getting quite troublesome for the lieutenant. But he couldn’t tell her to just chop it off; he figured she must like her hair like that, and well, he liked it too.
But what solution is there? Is there a way to help the lieutenant so she wouldn’t have to worry about her hair, but without having to cut it? And then it hit him. With a smile, the Colonel then continued with his work, eager to get off duty as soon as possible to fulfill his little plan. It was definitely difficult to focus, but he managed to hurdle through it, nonetheless.
…
The next day was just as hot as the others. Despite the unnerving heat, work continued. It was slower than usual, yes, but it continued. Lieutenant Hawkeye left the office with a stack of papers in her arms-the finished documents in their unit. Though if you consider how many they are in that unit, one stack of finished paperwork seems too little an accomplishment; and most of that stack was probably by Hawkeye herself.
Nonetheless, she set out to deliver the finished documents to their respective offices and departments, as well as to pick up more work for them to do. It’s not that she wanted to make them suffer with mounds of paperwork; it’s just that it was really better if they got to finish early and ahead of the deadline. Sadly, it seems the men believe it is “better late than never”, and Riza’s the only one who stuck to being the “early bird”.
A few minutes after the door closed and Lieutenant Hawkeye was out of sight, Colonel Mustang decided to take a short break. He grinned inwardly as he took out a small box from inside his drawer before heading towards the Lieutenant’s desk. “Giving gifts as bribery won’t stop the paperwork from coming, sir.” He could almost hear her say. This made him return to his desk, but only to gather some signed documents before setting them down onto her desk and placing the box on top, as sort of a paper weight.
The Colonel darted back to his seat and resumed his work, wary that the Lieutenant could arrive at any minute.
And she did arrive soon enough. Colonel Mustang watched her out the corner of his eye, but could barely make out her expression as she found his “gift” on top of his finished paperwork. She glanced his way; he looked back down onto the document he was reading. He didn’t see her, but he could feel her eyes on him, as if questioning him.
“But it’s not my birthday,” he heard her say. She was still standing there, in front of her desk, one arm carrying a new set of paperwork.
Before she could say anything else, the Colonel replied, “Merry Christmas, then.” His tone was serious, though his words seemed otherwise. He wasn’t looking at her.
“It’s summer, sir.”
Lieutenant Hawkeye walked towards his desk and placed the new stack of paperwork in front of him. “But thank you.” She added, before turning on her heel and leaving the room once again with his finished documents and the box in hand. Colonel Mustang watched her leave, dazed. His eyes didn’t travel back to his work until the last inch of her was out of the room.
Lieutenant Hawkeye returned to the office later, with her hair clipped to the back of her head and a smile formed on her lips.
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“You seem happy,” a voice called her out of her reverie, and Lieutenant Hawkeye was once again in the present, right in the middle of sorting out her things and emptying her desk. Colonel Mustang was standing in front of her desk, two arms carrying a couple of boxes of his belongings. “What kind of forgotten treasure did you find today?”
The two shared a short chuckle. Today was indeed the day of finding their “lost treasures”, long forgotten by the stresses of work, buried deep by their busy lives. Lieutenant Hawkeye smiled. She took the small box and deposited it into the carton with all her other belongings that she would be bringing to Central.
“A little kindness,” she said, smiling as she glanced up at the Colonel, “really does go a long way, doesn’t it?
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End.
A/N: Thank you, Mere! :)