Chapter Text
Roy pulled his car into a parking spot, got out, and entered a small shop. He’d never been in his particular shop before. It had a reputation for stocking difficult to get and atypical flowers whether in or out of season. It would be perfect for what he needed.
He’d already dropped off some bouquets for Christmas and the girls, but now he needed something more intricate with a proper vase.
“Welcome to Bastel Moon Florals! What can I do for you today, sir?” a petite dark-haired woman said as soon as Roy stepped through the door. She had a red poppy tucked behind her ear.
He removed the notes that he’d made back at Christmas’s place. He’d even sketched what he’d had in mind for the arrangement to look like. Granted, he wasn’t the best artist, but he’d drawn enough transmutation circles to be able to at least map out a design.
He handed the woman the paper. “I’d like something like this.”
“Hm… ya veo…” Roy had no clue what she was saying but almost jumped when she yelled, “Moon! Come here! There are no red roses in this one!”
A golden haired woman came out from a side door. Her hair was tussled and there were a few leaves and flower stems entangled with the strands. She looked exhausted. He imagined they had a lot of work this time of year.
“Yeah, sure. Riri, no one ever tries to be creative this time of year,” Moon said.
Riri held up the paper Roy had given her. “He even has a list and picture of what he wants.”
Moon raised an eyebrow and walked over to her coworker. She looked down at the paper. Then, the two women looked at each other, then at the paper again before both bursting into oddly familiar smiles. He couldn’t figure out why, but they brought him a bit of peace.
“Do you have those flowers?” he asked. “I heard you have nearly everything.”
“Oh, yes,” Moon said as she began removing the stuff from her hair. “Sorry about my appearance. I’ve been pulling a few all-nighters. I’m Moon and this is Riri. Welcome to our shop.”
“Hola!” Riri said as she grabbed a set of keys. “Disculpa for our excitement,” Riri said as she handed Moon the keys. Roy remembered that Maes had spoken that word a few times when talking on the phone with his mother. He inferred it meant sorry.
“It’s okay,” Roy said. “I know how all-nighters and monotony feels all too well.”
“Do you want that arrangement in a vase or do you just want the arrangement in a bouquet?” Riri asked.
“A vase,” Roy said.
“This way,” Moon said. Roy followed her to a long wall full of cabinets. She unlocked a lock and then pushed a long sliding door to the side, revealing a plethora of crystal and porcelain vases situated on thick wooden shelves. There were more of the former than the latter.
The porcelain ones were lovely, but they were too typical. “Please, have a look and pick out what you’d like as we get flowers from your list.”
Roy moved closer to the case as Moon and Riri walked into the back room. He overlooked all of them with a quick glance before focusing closer on the ones that captured his attention the most. His eyes drifted mostly to the glass and crystal ones. Each crystal vase had a different design. Some of them had various geometric patterns, others had hearts, some were plain, and some had flowers. He was about to pick a simple geometric one when out of the corner of his eye, on the top corner of the shelf, he spotted a light pink. He walked closer to that area and saw a wide crystal vase with a cut out of a slender woman in a long dress with bell sleeves.
A woman that reminded him of Riza’s mother.
He took it down from the shelf. A warm, comforting heat engulfed his palm and drifted along his entire body, as if the vase were calling for him to buy it.
He took it over to the counter and set it down just as Riri and Moon emerged from the back, arms full of flowers.
“Ah, that one,” Moon said and smiled. “That’s one of my favorites. I hope your…May I ask who this is for?”
“My…um…”
“Ah, I get it! You’re going to confess!” Riri said.
“Yeah, something like that. I’ve known her a long time.” He’d never talked this much with shop owners before, but these two were very easy to converse with.
“Then we can’t let you down! Need to get yourself a wife!” Riri said.
Roy nearly faltered at the way she said that. Then it hit him why they seemed so familiar. They were just like—”
“Are these what you had in mind?” Moon asked, cutting him from his thoughts. He looked down at the flowers.
“Yes. Those are exactly what I wanted.”
Roy watched as the two women did exactly as he requested on paper without argument. In the rare times he got intricate flowers from other places, most of his requests were dismissed or looked at critically. The most these two women did was ask if they could add a sprig of baby’s breath or a bit of greenery.
“She’s going to love this,” Moon said as she set the finished arrangement in front of him.
“I hope so.”
“She will. This is from the heart,” Riri said.
Roy took out his wallet and paid for the flowers, protesting when the two women insisted on giving him a discount. It was because it was the first time in a while they didn’t have to work with red roses.
He’d only had to pay for the vase.
Just before the door shut behind him, he heard them both say “Good luck, Roy Mustang!”
He froze and turned back toward the shop. He hadn’t told them his name. His sight fell to the business sign beside the door.
Riri Hughes and Moon Hughes: Proprietors.
Maes had mentioned he had two sisters, but they'd both worked in Creta and Roy had never gotten a chance to meet them.
He looked through the window and saw the two looking at him. They showed smiles so much like his late friend that he couldn’t deny it.
First those two.
Then the vase.
The spirits really were looking out for him.
He shook it off and walked over to his car. He was distracted when he saw a man walk by that looked just like Master Hawkeye. He turned but couldn’t make out if it was the spirit visiting him again. He hoped that this wasn’t still a dream. He couldn’t take more visits right now when all he wanted to do was see Riza. He turned back toward the road just in time to see a black car with Christmas’s license plates turn a corner, likely carrying Havoc and Breda.
Spirit or not, whoever that stranger was, he owed him one for helping him avoid the two men's sight. If his confession to Riza worked out, he wanted to wait a while before sharing things with everyone else.
He got into his car. After making sure the flowers were secure next to him, he pulled out of the parking lot and made his way to Riza’s house.
If Roy had glanced through his rearview mirror, he would’ve seen his old Master’s spirit on the sidewalk with a grin on his face and an attractive woman standing next to him.
“Think we need to stick around any longer?” Maes asked as he approached Master Hawkeye and Eliza.”
“No, I think he has it covered now,” Eliza said. “I hope they’ll be happy.”
“They will be,” Maes said. “I’m sure of it.”
-/-/-
Roy parked a few houses down from Riza’s home, making sure to choose a spot in front of a vacant house instead of blocking someone’s driveway. He got out of the car and walked to her home. Roy knocked on her door. He gripped the flower vase as if it would float away if he loosened his grasp, and took a deep breath to gather himself when he heard footsteps.
Daisies, lilies, and pink roses were definitely not part of a traditional Valentine’s Day bouquet, but Riza wasn’t a traditional woman either. He opted to go for her favorite flowers instead of red roses. He knew the meaning behind some flowers, but he found it more important to get what was loved rather than what was customary.
He shifted his gaze from the flowers to the door when it opened. His eyes met hers.
“Si…Sir?” He’d only ever seen bemusement on her commonly neutral face a few times in their lives and it had been a while. Despite living with her back when they were teenagers, he’d never seen her look the way she did now.
Her hair was pinned atop her head, the mass of strands unable to stand upright and leaning to the left. She wore a pair of loose-fitting pajama bottoms that hung over her bare feet and a light pink tank top.
“Can I come in?”
“Yes, of course.” She stepped to the side, and he entered the house.
It wasn’t as sparse as her previous living spaces, but it still didn’t look homey as of yet. There weren’t any boxes in the hall, and she actually had a few pictures on the white walls. There were dark purple rugs on the floor to add some color to the room. He knew immediately nothing there was to her taste and was probably items given to her.
When he heard the door close behind him, he turned to her and held out the flowers. “These are for you?”
She looked at them but didn’t move to accept them. She furrowed her brows. “Did you get drunk again and buy too much?”
He deserved that. “These are in a vase,” he said.
“You get pretty drunk sometimes. Maybe you set your purchasing goals higher.”
He chuckled. “No, I wasn’t drunk. These are for Valentine’s Day.” His heart sped up as he held them farther out to her, nearly straightening his arms. “I made sure they were in a vase so you couldn’t refuse them” he said even though she definitely could do so, and it would be much more painful to have flowers in a vase thrown into his head rather than a bouquet wrapped in paper.
Not that she’d do anything of the sort unless it prevented him from being killed.
She took the flowers, and he slouched ever so slightly with relief.
Then he saw her face and the relief left him. Did she hate flowers? He was sure she didn’t. He chose those blossoms for a reason.
She canvassed them in the same way she studied new military rules and reports they had to commit to memory. Should he have gotten red roses after all?
“The woman on this vase reminds me of my mother,” she said.
Roy tried not to show his surprise. He’d already figured what happened to him was indeed real, but her words confirmed it.
But he didn’t want to think about that right now. “Really?” he said, feigning ignorance.
She nodded and ran her finger along a lily bloom. “How did you know?”
“Huh?” Roy asked. Was she asking about the woman on the vase or the—
“How did you know these are my favorite flowers? I’ve never told anyone.”
Roy felt his cheeks heat. “You… you have that dress with daisies that you wear sometimes in the summer when we all get together for a picnic.”
“Yes, that’s right,” she said and adjusted a few of the flowers in the vase.
“The notebook you keep your shooting data in has a lily on the corner with your initials under it.”
Her smile widened, and she set the flowers on the table beside her. She turned to face him and took a step forward. “And the roses?”
Roy rubbed the back of his neck, a habitual gesture that betrayed his nerves. He’d long given up on trying to break it. “When we all go to Fuhrer Grumman’s garden party every year, your eyes always linger on and brighten when you see the roses, but only when you look at the pink ones.”
“You noticed that?”
“Yeah.” He looked at her. “I pay attention to you, Riza. A lot. It’s just… I’ve always been too stuck in my own head to notice how much I do it. How much I care for you. I’m sorry for what I said in the office. I feel…I mean I’m in lo...” Why couldn’t he just get it out?
“Sir? Am…am I understanding you right? Are you sure about what you’re saying?”
He figured he looked pathetic. If he did, then he certainly matched the way he felt. He took a huge breath.
“I love you, Riza Hawkeye. More than anyone and anything in this world.” He steeled his nerves, closed the distance between them, and pulled her into an embrace. “I love you so much, and if it’s not too late, I want to show you how much every day.”
She stayed still, her arms at her side and her chin resting on his shoulder. He was about to pull away, with his heart broken, but her arms moved around him and she buried her face at the side of his neck.
“Why would it be too late?” her voice was muffled but intelligible.
“You went to dinner with Colonel Renault.”
She pulled away so she was looking at his face. “Yes, I did, but it’s not going to work with us. He’s just a friend.”
Though he’d seen and heard everything, he had to ask, “Are you sure? You two kissed, didn’t you?”
She looked surprised, and he realized that he screwed up. “How did you know that? I know for a fact no one was around when that happened.”
Roy scrambled for an answer and said the first thing that came to mind. “How could he not kiss you? I heard he had a thing for beautiful blonds.”
“He likes all—You think I’m beautiful?”
He sighed. “Come on, Riza, you know you’re gorgeous.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, I’m sure I’m gorgeous right now.”
“No,” Roy said. “Sexy. Right now, you’re sexy. And cute. Very cute.”
“You can be both at the same time?” she asked.
“You’re the only person I’ve seen that can,” he said.
She smiled at him and moved her hands to cup both sides of his face. Her brows furrowed so slightly that he wouldn’t have noticed if her face wasn’t so close to his. She ran her thumbs along the skin above his top lip. “You shaved.”
He smiled softly. “Yeah.”
“Hm.”
“Tell me the truth. What did you think of it?”
She shrugged. “If you liked it, that’s what mattered.”
“You hated it.”
She blushed. “I didn’t exactly hate it.”
“So I should grow it back? I mean I’ve been thinking about growing a beard too. I think it would be a good lo—“
She squeezed his face a bit harder. “No more facial hair.”
“Ah, so you did hate—”
She kissed him. He pulled her even tighter against him and responded in turn.
Finally. He was finally kissing her, and it was better than he imagined. They broke away from the kiss only due to a pesky thing they needed.
Air.
He kissed her forehead then moved his lips down to her neck. Her hands fisted in his hair as he backed her against a wall.
“Sir…” she said then groaned as he bit the skin just under her ear. She lifted one leg to hook around his waist as her hands moved to clutch at his back. “Why are…”
He pulled away and saw she was biting her lip. He wanted to take it between his teeth and…”
“Why are you saying all of this? Yesterday you…”
“I changed,” he said, saving her from having to continue her words. “I was denying how I felt about you. Back in the hospital, after The Promised Day, I whispered that I loved you.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t hear it.”
“Even if you had, would you have mentioned it to me?”
“No,” she said and reached up to move his bangs from out of his eyes. “I wish you would’ve told me then.”
“I talked myself into thinking that you didn’t need a bastard like me. That you couldn’t love me.”
“That’s ridiculous, but even if that’s when you realized it, how do you change overnight?”
He smirked. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me,” she said. Roy started to open his mouth to tell her about what happened, but two of her fingers covered his lips. “On second thought, later.” She lowered her fingers and moved her lips close enough that they were barely brushing. “I love you too, Roy. We can talk about that later,” she whispered and kissed him.
Yes, later.
They had time.