Work Text:
Christmas With a Major Twist
The fire crackled cinders floating lightly through the air until they burned away before ever touching the ground. The fire provided dim lighting in the small apartment, casting its warmth on the bare furniture. A table with a chair on either side in the kitchen. Flickering over the small oven and barely touching the small hallway that lead to the bedroom. Finally it shone on Riza as she poked at it lightly, covered in a blanket shivering trying to draw any warmth possible.
“I thought Ishval was supposed to be a warm country,” she muttered to no one in particular. Riza had seen herself doing many things in her future when she was a little girl, serving on the front lines of a war was probably not among her greatest aspirations. But that was the influence people could have. She smiled lightly thinking of him and pulling her blanket a bit closer. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.
Ishval in the winter was little different from the country any other time of the year. Sweltering hot during the day and freezing cold during the night at least the weather was consistent, something to rely on in its own strange way. She needed that. Especially now. The sniper had chosen to spend the day away from the military barracks that were her usual residence these days, the first Christmas away from Amestris was strange and she decided she would appreciate having the night to herself. It was a real miracle that she’d been given permission to stay here by herself.
The apartment was in a building that was owned by a man affiliated with the Amestris military and was generally only rented out to higher ranking officers and occasionally to soldiers who had exceeded their expected duties. She certainly wasn’t the former and never saw herself as the latter. Hard working and dedicated but she doubted her actions were seen as particularly impressive to the brass. Perhaps someone had pulled some strings for her…although perhaps that was wishful thinking.
Dwelling on the semantics did nothing to change the reality. Though it wasn’t anything glamorous to her it was heaven, it was time alone. There might not be a big tree or a multitude of presents but she was happy to be able to spend a holiday away from the rest of the cadets, they were rambunctious on the best of days so she imagined the barracks were entirely chaotic tonight filled with the loud sounds of drinking and cheering and the exchanging of presents, a needed respite from what the morning would bring. The conflict was harsh, brutal, and exhausting. But that only made these moments all the better, these small fleeting moments where they could just forget about what faced them in the moments that persisted.
A whistling sound flooded her ears causing her to flinch. She stumbled up doing her best to keep the blanket clutched around her and made her way to the oven and turned it off, setting the kettle aside on a towel she’d laid out earlier. Tea was hard to come by and even harder to actually have the materials and time to make correctly. Riza hummed quietly to herself as she busied her hands with preparing her cup, all very precise movements she remembered her father teaching her when she was much younger. A small smile tugged at her lips at that thought.
She returned to the fire clutching her fresh cup in her hands, the additional warmth being, as expected, just what she needed. She took a sip, some of the warm liquid running down her mouth. She wiped the streak off, sighing in content as the warmth of the drink spread out. Just what she needed tonight. She only had one gift to give anyways, casting her eyes to the very obviously wrapped gift sitting against the table, and she could give that at any time. It wasn’t anything special or particularly extravagant, just simple and almost even a joke. Giving that gift out tonight would be nice of course more due to the fact that he’d have to be there than anything about the present itself, but he was a busy man who likely did not have the luxury of having this night to himself.
A loud knock on the door snapped her out of her wistful imagining. Riza frowned, and pulled herself up. Not only an interruption to her first night to herself in over three years but likely some stuffy military official at the wrong door drunkenly wondering why his own key wasn’t opening the door. She did not give off the most composed appearance at the moment but it wasn’t necessary for her to. She’d just shoo the man off and return to her personal time.
She whipped the door open perhaps a bit faster than expected ready to hurry back to her fire. Military uniform as expected, however the face poking out of the top of the shirt was not the one she’d expected to see at all. The blanket dropped quickly behind her as she snapped to attention, saluting.
“Major!”
“At ease cadet.” Roy gestured for her to drop the formalities “May I come in?” Riza nodded, gesturing inside. Taking the invitation Roy strode inside, setting a small box on the table as he did.
“Hmm,” Roy looked around and smirked “it appears that you got just about the worst room they have to give in this building.” Riza shrugged as she pulled the blanket back up over herself.
“It’s nice to just have a place to myself for once Major.”
“Yes I suppose that might be true.” he nodded, sitting down at one of the chairs on the table snapping his fingers at a candle that sat atop it, quickly igniting it and adding another smaller light to the room. He removed his gloves, setting them aside before gesturing to the chair opposite him. Riza sat down fidgeting slightly as she did.
“This is an unexpected surprise Major, I assumed you would be busy today.” Roy smiled
“I was,” he said simply. “Mountains of work and this and that. But even I don’t want to waste all of Christmas day behind a desk.” he chuckled, “I may be stoic but I do have some holiday spirit, even if very little.”
Riza smiled “Perhaps there is some warmth in that cold heart of yours after all.” Taking a sip of her tea the cadet met her major's eyes with a teasing smirk. Roy met her gaze sternly and seriously,
“Cadet if I find some horrible rumor that I am anything other than a cold bastard circulating the barracks i’ll personally have you stripped of any honors and sent home.
There was a brief and almost tense silent between the two. Until Roy cracked an extremely rare smile and the two erupted into laughter.
“No one would believe me if I even tried Major.” Riza assured, wiping a tear from her eye.
“I do have a reputation to uphold, you know.” Roy insisted.
“Yes of course of course.”
A comfortable silence settled over the two and they reclined back in the chairs slightly. Roy was always good company. He was one of the few people that talked to her that understood the importance of quiet even when spending time with others.
Hawkeye blinked as the realization actually hit her. He was spending Christmas with her . He’d gone out of his way to come to the room and spend time with her. It was a comforting realization but a rather obvious one. They were very close even if neither of them would ever admit it to anyone else. A silent understanding had formed between them long ago, or maybe it only felt like it had been long ago. Either way it was understood by the both of them as they sat quietly on a Christmas Eve together.
Several minutes passed without a single word being spoken, never awkward, never a filler word exchanged, just a comforting silence. Eventually though it would break it was simply a matter of who would break it. To her expectation Roy was the first to speak, though he always seemed cool and together she knew he was never the most patient man. His hand fidgeted, drumming lightly on the box he had brought in with him. She hadn’t noticed it at first but the box was wrapped and even had a neat little bow on top. She giggled lightly watching his face as he mentally ran through what he was going to say.
“Cadet I,” he began before grunting and just pushing the box in front of her “it’s for you.” He turned away, not making eye contact shoving his face into his hand likely disguising some form of embarrassment, or so she hoped for nothing else than to tease him about it.
“How thoughtful Major,” she took the gift carefully, removing the bow and unwrapping the paper so as not to rip it. Pulling the lid off of the box Riza smiled softly. It was a lighter. A simple gift to anyone else really not even something particularly special. To others. The flame alchemy symbol was carefully carved into it.
“The transmutation circle should add a bit of extra force to it but not all that much in the end if I did it properly, it's as decorative as it is anything else.”
“I love it,” she ignited the flame, shocked by its initial burst before it settled down to a normal burn. “Much better than that old thing.” Riza gestured behind her to the fireplace which was mostly dark at this point the last embers fading away into the night.
“Oh! I got you something too.” Riza scrambled up before remembering she had the present leaning against the table thus knocking it over. She grinned sheepishly before bending down to pick it up.
The wrapping was formed to the item itself a simple meter long cylinder. Picking it up Roy felt quite a bit of give in the wrapping implying that the item itself was somewhat soft. Tearing off the wrapping instantly Roy dumped the item into his hand. Recognition flashing instantly across his face at what the black fabric sprouting out of the handle represented.
“An…umbrella?” he asked, almost befuddled. He of course knew exactly what she would say to that,
“Since you’re useless when it rains I thought you might appreciate a little something to ward it off.” If he didn’t know the woman any better Roy would’e sworn that Riza was smugly laughing to herself about the gift.
“How thoughtful Cadet, I’ll keep it on me then.” he smiled softly, setting the umbrella on top of his gloves.
With the impromptu gift exchange completed the comfortable silence settled back over the paid as they sat Riza smiling softly and Roy doing his best approximation of a content expression. The quiet was only interrupted by the ringing of a clock from a nearby clock tower signaling that it was now midnight.
“Merry Christmas Roy,”
“And merry Christmas to you too…Riza,”