Flaming Bullets

Chapter 1

   Seven months after the Promised Day and I finally have a day off. The work has been nonstop, but Führer Grumman decided the time had come to stagger some personnel leave, or we'd burn out. I was the last person in our office to get my leave. I was so happy, though, because my leave coincided with Major General Olivier Armstrong's visit to Central. Olivier is one of my best friends and I hate that I don't get to see her very often.
  We were at my house talking, laughing, and generally having a blast. Olivier and I started our reunion by catching each other up on all of the military business that had transpired in the last seven months.
   General Grumman had become the führer, with the intentions of retiring and handing his title over to Colonel-no-General Mustang after two years. Mustang and the rest of my team were still together at Central. The Elric brothers had left the military behind and were happily living in Resembool with their wives. Olivier even heard that Alphonse and his wife, Calli, were expecting their first baby. Maes, who had moved his wife and children to East City years ago, was moving back to Central at the end of the year. Olivier and her people were busy rebuilding Briggs and our relationship with Drachma. Which is why she was in Central, to meet with the Führer.
   Finally, when we were both caught up on the business, we turned to more personal matters. Olivier asked, "So, Riza, now that Grumman has done away with the fraternization rules, have you and Roy gotten together?"
   I choked on the lemonade I had just taken a drink of and Olivier had to pat my back to revive me. "Olivier! I... have no... idea what you are talking about!" I stammered.
   "I know you love him. I've known for years! So you can't just pretend that there is nothing."
   "Y..you are right. I've loved the fool for years. But he's just another womanizer who doesn't even see me as a woman. I think I've been a threatening force for so long that he could never see me that way. Besides, there were always the frat. laws standing in the way," I babbled.
   She smirked and expressed her disbelief before grinning like a Cheshire cat. "I know a way you can test the waters without revealing anything, if that's your hang up."

A/N Yes, in my world, Maes Hughes is very much alive.