Work Text:
“Detective Mustang,” an ice-cold voice said behind Roy. He sighed and turned in his desk chair to see Olivier Armstrong standing there.
“Detective Armstrong,” Roy said, giving her a tight smile. “To what do we owe the displeasure? Trying to find your ruby slippers that Dorthy took?”
She chuckled. “Sticks and stones.”
“Oh, is that what you had for breakfast?”
She glared down at him while a cocky smile grew on his face.
“If you’re looking for Riza she’s in an interrogation right now.”
“I’m actually here for you,” Olivier admitted which made Roy’s brows pinch together.
“For me?”
“Yes, I’m here to take the Roberts B&E off your hands.”
It took him a moment to process what she said.
“What?”
“Because it falls in the 86th precinct line,” she walked past him and placed a map on his desk. “As can be seen on this map, the building falls into-“
“It falls in our district,” Roy said, standing up to try and get some leverage on her. “Therefore it’s the 99s case and mine. ”
“But actually because of a zoning issue with the building, 25% of it falls in our area.” She said as she pointed to a small corner of the building where the Roberts apartment was. “And the apartment in question just so happens to be on that 25%, so therefore it’s mine.”
Roy exhaled sharply while Olivier looked up at him with the same cocky smile he’d given her not more than a minute ago.
“Are you seriously going to be this petty over a building? What does it matter anyway as long as the case gets solved.”
“It matters because the right cops should be on the case since you’ll clearly mess it up.” She said, taunting him.
“What makes you think you're a better detective than me?” He knew he was falling into her trap but he didn’t care, he knew exactly why she was being this petty and wanted her to admit it.
“I don’t know, maybe it’s the fact that I have more solved cases than you.”
“It’s not a competition.” He said bluntly.
“That sounds like something losers say.” She hummed.
“At least I’m not so petty that I-”
“Is there a reason you guys are yelling?” Riza said loudly as she came out of the interrogation room. She looked very annoyed and then confused when she saw Olivier. “Oli, what are you doing here?”
“The Ice Queen is coming to take my case,” Roy said, annoyed as he turned to look back at Olivier.
“What?” Riza asked as she moved toward Roy’s and her joint desk.
“The building it happened in has a small part that goes into the 86th district. So she’s taking the case to spite me.”
“The apartment falls in the lines of my district, you have no rights to the case!” Olivier said, raising her voice.
“It’s a stupid oversight and you know it! How do you even know about the zoning maps?”
“Because I know what buildings are a part of my area, you know, like a good cop.”
“Fine,” he grumbled. “How did you even find out about the case? No one reached out to your precinct for help so it shouldn’t have been on your radar.”
“You’re right, however-”
“I mentioned it to her,” Riza admitted, making Roy look back at her. The annoyed angry look quickly shifted to one of hurt while she avoided both their gazes. “I was talking about work and I mentioned the case briefly. I didn’t know about the zoning issue.”
Roy was silent, as he processed what was happening. Finally, he looked at Olivier, who was waiting with a smug look, as he shoved the file into her hands. She just smiled at him.
“Thank you.” She said to Roy before she turned to Riza, there was an awkwardness to their gazes as Olivier saw her. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Riza nodded as Olivier walked out of the bullpen.
After Olivier was gone, Roy turned to look at Riza. She was unable to say anything as she tried to process the angry look in Roy’s eyes. He didn’t say anything, he just stared at her. Finally, when he looked like he was about to say something, he just walked past her.
She rubbed her forehead and mumbled a swear under her breath before she returned to the interrogation room.
—
“Roy,” Riza said as she stood next to his desk, it’d been nearly three hours and he still hadn’t looked at her once since Olivier left. “Roy, come on.”
She tried to sit down in the chair next to his desk but Hughes beat her to it. Sitting and crossing his arms as he looked up at her.
“Sorry,” Hughes said, slightly exasperated. “Roy told me to tell you that he’s not speaking to you.”
“Are you serious?” She asked, annoyed, as she walked to her desk across from him and glared over the monitors. He didn’t meet her gaze, he just continued to look at his computer. “He’s going to act like a child over this?”
“Unfortunately,” Hughes sighed as he looked at her. “Yes.”
She continued to glare at him as she thought over what to do.
“Fine,” she finally said as she crossed her arms. “Two can play this game.”
—
For the next hour, Riza tried to find some way to get Roy to talk to her.
She tried spinning his desk chair to look at her. But he just kept his head focused on the monitor until she stopped spinning him, though he did seem dizzy when she finally stopped.
Her next attempt was to bribe him with brownies she got from a bakery nearby, which didn’t even get her an eye blink.
Her most serious attempt though was saying, loudly, to Rebecca something about them wearing miniskirts out that night. But it didn’t work, he just continued to work.
Riza exhaled sharply and then walked over to Ed’s desk and grabbed an air horn he had out.
“Riza,” Ed asked, concern dripping from his voice. “What are you-“
She then walked to her desk and blew the air horn near Roy’s face.
Everyone flinched at the sound but Roy flew back, finally looking up at her.
“Oh hey,” she said, placing the air horn on her desk triumphantly as Roy glared at her. “Didn’t see you there.”
“What do you want?” He asked bluntly.
“I wanted to apologize-”she stared as Roy rolled his eyes, looking back at his computer. “I will use the air horn again!”
He sighed and looked back at her. “Fine, apology accepted. Now can you just leave me alone?”
“No,” she crossed her arms. “You’re still mad at me.”
“Yeah and I’m probably going to be mad for a while.” He sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. “It’s not every day your partner's girlfriend steals your case because said partner talked about it to her on a date.”
“It wasn’t a date, it was-” She started but the look on Roy's face silenced her. “You’re right. It was unprofessional of me to talk about a case with someone outside of work, especially one that’s not my own. I’m sorry.”
“Thanks,” he said with a tight smile. “Now can you just leave me alone? I have a lot of work to do.”
“No.” She said firmly.
“No?” He looked up at her, a hint of amusement in his eyes. “You’re telling me not to work?”
“Yes. Wait, no that's not it.” She said, flustered, while Roy let out a laugh. “I got a smile!”
“Fine, you got one smile. Happy?” He asked as the glare returned, though it felt more forced now. “Now can you leave me alone?”
“Not until you talk to me,” she said, marching behind him. She grabbed his chair and started to pull him backward, away from his desk.
“What are you doing?” He asked, not looking at her.
“I’m taking you to lunch so we can talk.”
“You’re going to drag me to lunch?”
“If I have to, yes.”
He stuck his feet out to give her more resistance and she groaned while he laughed under his breath.
“God, you’re such an ass.” She huffed as she continued to drag him.
“Exactly, so you should just stop now and give up.”
“No, not until we’re friends again.” She said firmly.
He sighed and picked his feet up, resting them on the legs of the chair as she pulled him into the elevator with her.
—
She dragged him to the hot dog cart on the corner. Once she finally stopped he decided to stand up.
“You couldn’t do that earlier?” She huffed as she crossed her arm.
“I was thinking about it when you started dragging me out the front door but I wanted to see how far you’d go.” He said, giving her a cocky smile as she rolled her eyes.
“I’ll get our usual order.” She said, walking over to the vendor while he dragged the chair toward the wall.
A minute later, Riza came with their food.
“You know,” Riza said as she handed him his hot dog, leaning against the wall. “Hughes was helping to get you to talk to me again.”
“Really?” He asked as he took a bite of the hot dog.
“Yes, he was about to set off the fire alarm before I came up with my miniskirt plan. But I stopped him.”
He laughed. “Too reckless even for you?”
“No, I just didn’t need another you .” She said, poking his shoulder. “Keeping the precinct from burning down is hard enough with just you. I don't need another fire starter.”
He smiled. “I’m sure Hughes wouldn’t start fires. He’s a dad after all. And he already has a hard enough time trying to keep me from telling Elicia to do pranks for me to go and start fires of his own.”
“What do you tell her?” Riza asked, sounding disappointed while he laughed.
“Oh, nothing much, just that a secret to getting ice cream is to yell at the top of her lungs and that if she hides her dad's keys he can play with her more.”
“You’re cruel.”
“I’ve been told. I almost lost Godfather rights at some point.”
“Almost?”
“He was going to do it. But then Gracia brought Elicia in for something, and Elicia was so happy to see me he couldn’t do it.”
A small smile grew on Riza’s lips. “That’s very sweet of her.”
“Yep and all it took was me calling Gracia and bribing Elicia with candy.”
“No, it didn’t.”
“What?” Roy gave her a confused look.
“You don’t have to pretend you bribed her to get her to like you. She already loves you. I’m sure if you hadn’t given her the candy she still would’ve done the same thing.”
“Now you tell me? What a waste then.” He said sarcastically and she laughed.
A silence fell over them both as they continued to eat their lunch, though it wasn’t awkward but rather comforting almost.
“I really am sorry about what Olivier did,” she said and Roy looked down at her. “I didn’t know the case was-”
“It’s not about the case.” He said as he hit his head against the wall. “I could care less about a case or whatever stupid loophole she finds. I cared that my partner sold me out to her girlfriend.”
“I didn’t sell you out,” she sighed and brushed her bangs out of her face. “It’s just… not going well with Olivier right now and I don’t know what to do.”
“Why don’t you try and talk out what-“
“I’m going to break up with her,” Riza said, silencing Roy as she crumpled the paper from her hot dog and threw it into the bin. “I’m just trying to find the right way to do it but I keep chickening out and just making it all worse.”
“What happened? I thought things were going well for you two, last I heard you guys were inseparable.”
To be fair that was before he’d gone undercover. Before he told Riza how he felt just in case something happened. Back when they still both actually talked to each other about their problems instead of just avoiding them whenever they were around each other.
“Yeah we were, but then…” Riza undid the clip in her hair and then reclipped it.
Roy had watched her clip her hair many times, late at night when it was falling out and she needed to get it out of the way, during stakeout missions or just them going to bars. But he knew this one. But she’d only ever unclip her hair when it was already perfectly up and redo it when she was anxious over something. He’d only seen it a few times but it told him everything he needed to know. Whatever was bothering her was big and a small part of him felt guilty for making her more anxious than she already was.
“I don’t know,” she said as she tucked her bangs behind her ear again. “It just fizzled or something. And we just got comfortable but not in a good way.”
She looked down at her boots as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Okay,” Roy said and she looked up at him. “Not to make this about me again. But how does you breaking up with her equate to you talking about my case?”
“Because we have nothing to talk about. And since I want to break up with her, but can’t do it, I’m trying to steer the conversation away from us. So the only thing I can think to do is just talk about work and cases. But I ran out of mine so I brought up the ones I was helping with and the B&E got mentioned. I don’t even know why she even went to find that loophole or took the case.”
He knew why, it was because it was his case. At his welcome-back party, Olivier stopped by and told him to stop interfering in their relationship.
“I’m not doing anything to ruin your relationship.” He said firmly as he rested his elbow against the bar top.
“Really?” Olivier quirked an eyebrow. “So you didn’t tell Riza you had feelings for her before you went undercover?”
His jaw clenched.
“Just as I thought.” She narrowed her eyes at him as her voice turned even icier.
“I was going undercover, there was a very real chance I might not make it back alive. I didn’t want to have any regrets.”
“Okay, well now you're not dead. So stay out of our relationship.” She crossed her arms as she stood up. “We're happy and I know for a fact you don’t want to ruin that for her.”
“Yes, because if you’re so happy you definitely would go and tell someone to fuck off.” He said with a tight smile while she just glared at him; he sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “Alright fine, I won’t interfere. Not that I was doing it before anyway.”
“Good.” She said as she walked away toward Riza as a bitter cold feeling spread across his chest.
“Maybe she couldn’t find enough cases in Hell or whatever and decided to steal mine.” He said as he saw tears threatening to slip past Riza’s eyes; but instead, she rolled her eyes at the comment, though there was a faint smile on her lips.
“God, you’re both so immature.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose.
“Oh, she’s immature too?” He asked, excitedly. “What does she say about me?”
“I’m not telling.”
“Let me guess, I’m a coward or an idiot.” Riza just stared at him with a blank expression, not giving a single hint about the insults she’d heard. “Or that I’m a weak husk of a man.”
She rolled her eyes. “Something along those lines, yes.”
He finished off his hotdog and threw the paper away. “Well, there are plenty of fish in the sea and all that. I’m sure you’ll bounce back quickly.”
Riza half laughed. “Sure I will.”
“I’m serious, I think there’s a Sergeant from the 103 who said-“
“No.” She said firmly. “No more cops.”
“No more cops?”
“Yeah, it makes things awkward.”
“I wouldn’t say…” she gave him a pointed look and he sighed. “Fair point.”
“Yes, so after I break up with Olivier, no more cops.”
Roy nodded as a bitter cold feeling spread across his chest that he hadn’t felt since that conversation with Olivier at the bar. And he hated what that meant.
“Thanks,” she rested her head on his shoulder and he became very aware of his breathing. “I’ve missed being able to talk to you.”
“We talk every day.”
“You know what I mean.” She said and a warmth spread across his chest, washing away the cold. He knew he was fucked right then and there.
He sighed and rested his head on hers. “I’ve missed this too.”
They stayed like that for a moment. Roy treasured the seconds until she spoke again.
“Though who knew all I needed to do to get you to do your work was make you mad at me.”
“Alright,” he pulled away from her, ignoring the lurch in his chest that wanted to be close to her again. “That’s enough of that. Time to get back to the precinct.”
He placed his hands on the back of the desk chair and made a gesture for her to sit in the chair.
“A true gentleman,” she sat down and crossed her legs.
“It’s only fair, you did buy lunch.”
She laughed and he started to wheel her back inside.
—
As he pushed the chair out of the elevator and into the bullpen he started to spin her around.
“What are you doing?” She asked as she grabbed the bottom of the chair and pulled her legs to her chest.
“Payback for earlier.” He said simply as she picked up speed.
“Stop it! I’ll get dizzy!”
“You did this to me, it’s only fair.” He started smiling as he watched her gain speed.
"Well, well, well,” Hughes said as Roy stopped spinning the chair so they both were facing him, though it took Riza a few more seconds to see Hughes fully. “Looks like you two made up.”
“Yes,” Riza said as she stood up, stumbling a bit and grabbing Roy’s arm to stabilize herself. “I finally got him to talk to me.”
“That’s great and I’m happy for you both, however, the Captain wants to talk to Riza,” Hughes said, Riza nodded and walked toward Grumman’s office.
Once Riza was out of earshot Hughes turned back to him with a smile on his face.
“So how did the lunch go?”
“Fine,” Roy said plainly as he pushed the chair back to his desk and Hughes followed.
“Just fine? I was assuming there’d be more fanfare and gloating from you since she spent the whole day trying to get your attention.”
“It was nice,” Roy mumbled as he sat down in the chair and looked up to Grumman's office to see him and Riza talking about something.
“What’s wrong?“ Hughes asked as he sat down in the chair next to his desk.
Roy contemplated if he should tell him the truth or ignore it. Maybe if he ignored it the feelings would die out again, it worked last time… sorta. But there also was the problem of if he told Hughes he’d get overly excited. He’d been trying to get them together for years, way before he even had any romantic feelings for her and she only saw him as her annoying coworker. He’d probably be the worst person to tell right now, but he was the only person he could tell right now. He sighed and looked away from Grumman's office where they were both still deep in conversation.
“It’s Riza,” he said as Hughes gave him a raised brow. “I still like her.”
There was glee in Hughes' eyes as he heard what Roy said. But it then switched to one of worry.
“Oh.”