Chocolate-covered Coffee Beans: Chapter 1

The pile wasn't as large as the one he'd had last year, in Central, but for a new command, it wasn't a bad collection of valentines. It was certainly enough to make Havoc eye his desk with jealousy.

"Are you sure some of the secretaries didn't send you more than one?"

Roy smirked at his second lieutenant. "Oh, these aren't just from the secretaries. This one here, for example, is from that pretty waitress at the cafdown the street. This one, and this, are from the girls in the mail room. This here. . . ."

"I get it, sir, I get it," Havoc groaned. He rolled his unlit cigarette to the other side of his mouth and picked up a small cellophane bag. "Who's this one from? It's kinda plain." Roy snatched the bag back but not before the other man had grabbed out one of the chocolates. "Coffee beans?" he said as he munched the candy. "Kinda odd."

"Untraditional, maybe, but hardly 'odd.' And I don't know," the colonel added as he set the bag on the corner of his desk (away from Havoc). "The tag was blank."

"How do you know it's supposed to be yours, then?"

Roy sighed in exasperation. "It was sitting in the middle of my desk when I came in this morning. Don't you have some work you should be doing, Lieutenant?"

Havoc sighed. "Yes, sir."

Once the other man was gone Roy regarded the little bag of chocolates fondly. It looked like he had a secret admirer. How charming.

The next year his pile was approaching the size it had been in central. A bag of chocolate-covered coffee beans was delivered in the middle of the morning. The tag said "Col. Mustang, East City Command" in unfamiliar handwriting. The "From" side was blank. Roy smiled and rested his cheek on his hand as he contemplated the note. He'd had secret admirers before, but never one who went more than a few months before making herself known. The handwriting looked feminine, of course. It wasn't any of the secretaries, they'd all given him signed valentines. Same with the girls in the mail room. He mentally ran through the female officers who hadn't sent him anything. (Hawkeye, of course, was automatically taken off the list; besides, he knew her handwriting.)

Coming up with several possibilities but nothing certain, he set the little cellophane bag on the corner of his desk and set about clearing away the other valentines before his first lieutenant got on his case (again) for not having any room on his desk for paperwork.

The bag was still on the corner of his desk later that week later, when Fullmetal came in to report on his mission. The boy eyed the candy with a distrustful frown. "Don't tell me you had so much you couldn't get through them all."

"Merely making them last, Fullmetal. Some things are to be savored, rather than consumed in a single sitting." The blond rolled his eyes, and Roy smirked, sitting back in his chair and steepling his fingers. "But I suppose you're too young to appreciate such niceties."

"Who are you calling so little he can't comprehend a stupid holiday created by the candy companies to get everybody fat??"

The boy was far too entertaining sometimes.

The next year there was an even larger bag of coffee beans, set in center of his desk. It looked as if whoever had left it had shoved aside some of the other valentines to clear a space, leaving them piled on top of each other and spilled onto the floor. Still no name on the tag. So far, Roy knew only that his secret admirer 1)wasn't any of the female staff he knew by name, 2)must have figured out how much he liked these particular treats, 3)was shier than most, and 4)seemed somewhat lacking in finesse.

The fourth year Colonel Mustang was in East City his pile of valentines was as large as ever, but the cellophane bag of chocolate-covered coffee beans he'd come to expect was conspicuously absent. He supposed his secret admirer had gotten herself a boyfriend. If that was the case, he supposed he was happy for her, but he would have liked to at least found out who she was.

Roy was just finishing up the last of his paperwork for the day when his door was quietly opened, and then shut. After a long moment of silence, he finally looked up with a slight frown. When he saw the short, red-coated blond standing just inside the door he almost did a physical double-take, schooling it down at the last second to a slight tilt to one eyebrow. Since when was Edward quiet? "Fullmetal? Can I help you?"

"Um. Yeah. I guess." The teen ducked his head and looked off to the side.

This just kept getting stranger. The colonel did his best not to frown outright. "Whatever it is, come out with it. I have work I need to finish."

An irritated look flitted across the blond's face, and for a second he looked like his normal self. Then he took a deep breath, and pushed off from the door, heading for the desk. Roy could swear his cheeks were pink behind his bangs.

"Um." He was standing with his hands behind his back, his eyes studying the top of the desk, looking anywhere but the man behind it. "It's . . . Al said I was being a coward about this, andand he's right, so . . . um. . . ." A coward? Fullmetal? The boy fidgeted, and something crinkled. "Um—well, here." He pulled his hands forward and unceremoniously deposited a cellophane bag of chocolate-covered coffee beans onto the center of the desk.

Roy stared.

The teen scratched his cheek, still not meeting his commanding officer's eyes. "Happy . . . ah, forget it." He turned and sprinted for the door.

"Fullmetal, wait."

Edward froze with his hand on the doorknob.

He picked up the bag of chocolates and slowly walked over to the boy, contemplating first one, and then the other. The teen was tense, his head down, hiding his expression behind his bangs.

Roy smiled. Then bent down, sweeping the golden hair aside to lightly kiss one flushed cheek. "Thank you, Edward. These are always my favorite."

Wide gold eyes glanced up at him and flushed cheeks darkened to scarlet, but then Edward grinned, right before he yanked the door open and slammed it shut behind him.

Roy listened to the uneven footsteps pounding away through the outer office and shook his head, smiling fondly down at the little cellophane bag.