Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ The Domestication of the Flame ❯ The First Date ( Chapter 1 )

Summery: Roy decides it’s time he settles down and he has his eyes on the only girl who’s ever been immune to his charm, Sciezska.

Disclaimer: Nope, I don’t own Fullmetal Alchemist and they don’t pay me.

Pairings: RoyxSciezska

Warning: Spoilers for whole series. Some light cussing, for now.

A/N: I wrote this b/c Sciezska has such a good role in FMA and doesn’t get any attention in fanfiction, which I don’t like. Plus, I honestly think Roy should go for her. She’s the only girl that challenges him! Let me know what you think. Reviews and critiques help me write better and faster!

The Domestication of the Flame

The First Date

It had been an unlikely request. Sciezska herself hadn’t believed it at first. Of course, she had been flattered. Who wouldn’t? Sure he gave his affection to beautiful women freely, but that was the key wasn’t it? They were all beautiful women. Sciezska had never thought of herself as being beautiful. Maybe she was cute. Attractive in a very strict librarian sort of way. But she knew she was no beauty queen. Men didn’t flock after her. Nor did boys. Or any other male being for that matter. Unless, of course, he needed a book.

In truth, it wasn’t something she spent much time thinking about. Everyone had urges. She would have liked to date. She would have liked to have been romanced. But she had her books and her work. It was work more often than books lately, but it kept her busy and she couldn’t complain. It was a bit funny when she thought about it. She’d actually had a crush on Edward. That seemed like a hundred years ago. It had only been six months.

It had been a small crush. She hadn’t even entertained the idea that Edward liked her back. She figured if he liked anyone it would be Winry. She was blonde and pretty. Like Lieutenant Hawkeye.

At first she had turned him down. He’d won her respect but she still had her pride. Plus, she may have liked the idea of a romantic evening out on the town and a handsome man giving her all the attention in the world, but when it came down to it she shied away. She didn’t get attention like that. Unless it was the malicious attention of classmates laughing at her and Thomas Miller, her childhood crush, calling her a weirdo and a toad with glasses. That sort of thing can leave its mark on a girl.

“No, I’m, ah, really busy,” she said and began writing again.

“Tomorrow?”

Sciezska shook her head. “I’m busy then too.”

“Do you have a boyfriend already?” he asked.

Sciezska was taken aback for a second. He actually thought she might have a boyfriend? But when she looked at him he was smirking. It only served to strengthen her resolve. “No, but I’m just too busy.”

In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to lie and say she did have a boyfriend because he hadn’t given up. She really thought when he raised a gloved hand and walked out of the door that would be the last time she saw him for a while. She was wrong. He’d came by the next day and the day after that with the same question on his lips. She refused him for two weeks. It hadn’t been easy. At first, she lied to herself. He wasn’t that handsome or charming, she’d say. But he was and she knew it. Then she tried to think of how easy it had been to hate him before. The next time he came in she’d made a comment about Gracia. He’d stared at her for several seconds before sighing and walking out of the door. He didn’t come back for a week.

“Sciezska,” he said when he knocked lightly on her door and walked in.

She nodded at him and glanced up briefly from her work. “General.”

“I need the file for case 7453, if you have it,” he said and his eye searched the room.
Sciezska almost said ‘no.’ The word was right on the tip of her tongue when she realized he’d asked for something else. “Oh, yes. I have that one. Just a moment,” she said a little too quickly. She had to rummage through a large filing cabinet for several minutes before she found what he was looking for. As she placed it in his hand she absently wished she had someone to organize everything for her. She never had been very neat.

“Thank you,” he said and smiled.

She nodded and went back to her work.

“Oh,” he said and stopped at the door, “will dinner tonight be fine? I thought we could go to Bella.”

“We,” she asked dumbly.

He leaned against the door frame and smiled in a way that made his eye dance. “We. On a date.”

“To Bella?”

“Yes.”

“But isn’t that a little pricey, General? That’s where Havoc took Shelley when he proposed to her,” she said. She’d never heard of someone going on a first date there. It was more like a very far in the future when you are planning on settling down and getting married but want to give them one last taste of true romance sort of date restaurant.

He was still smiling and pushed himself off of the door frame with his back. “Then its a yes. I’ll pick you up at seven,” he called as he walked away down the hall.

Sciezska stared at the empty place where he’d been standing. “But I don’t have a thing to wear to Bella,” she said to no one. “Hey! And I never said yes!”

* * *

It was now 6:45. He hadn’t shown yet and Sciezska’s stomach was filled with fluttering butterflies. She’d been angry at herself for not running after him and telling him what was what. But then she’d been excited also. She only hoped she looked nice enough. It was only a plain black dress but she’d paired it with her mother’s pearls. Her hair was another story. There was only so much she could do with it and the barrettes seemed like a good idea. She hoped they didn’t look stupid.

For the hundredth time she glanced out of the window. There was no one there. The street was quiet except for a few people walking home. Sciezska frowned. She wondered if he would show or not.

“Maybe he found a better date,” she whispered to herself and the lonely house. She decided to sit down and wait.

At precisely seven o’clock she heard a car pull up to her house. She saw the headlights click off and heard the door open and close. She still didn’t rise. Not until there was a knock at the door. Then she got up and answered it.

There was a book in his hand. “I don’t know if you have this one or not,” he said quietly. “It’s a first edition.”

Sciezska took it from him slowly and read the cover. A Historie of Ancient Religion. She smiled. “Actually I haven’t, General.”

“No,” he said and motioned toward the car. “This is our date and I want you to call me Roy.”

* * *

Roy Mustang didn’t get nervous. But he’d felt something akin to that when he picked up the book for her a week ago. Did she already have it? Would she even be interested in it? Would she accept it? They were foolish school boy thoughts that should have been swept away with a quick and simple ‘I am Roy Mustang and can get any woman I want, damn it!’ But they weren’t because no matter how much he smiled and flirted she never seemed to either notice or care.

He remembered the first time he’d seen her. Years before she worked as a librarian. He’d noticed her because she was the youngest one there and the prettiest. He always asked her where to find a book and she was always courteous and knowledgeable. Plus, she wore a skirt that fell right above her knees and when she climbed a ladder to get a book from the top shelf he could almost see her underwear. He figured they were white and cotton. Good girl underwear, if you will. Roy had seen plenty of them. At the time he’d been charming and winked. She hadn’t batted an eye lash or blushed or made any other indication that she noticed at all. Now, either she was a homunculi or totally immune to the Mustang charm. The former was foolish and the latter was unheard of, but one of them had to be true so he took the latter.

He’d let her slip his mind after that. She’s disappeared for a while, and he had other things to worry about and plenty of other women. It wasn’t until after Hughes died that he really saw her again. Oh, she had been persistent. She wouldn’t leave him alone and insulted him every chance she got. If it wasn’t her sharp tongue it was her sharper eyes. They missed nothing. They excused nothing. It was a punishment sometimes just to see her, but a punishment he felt he deserved. She hadn’t thought he’d even cared. That hurt enough. But it hurt even more that he couldn’t articulate the words to tell her he did care, god damn it! That was the first time a woman had left him speechless.

There had been so much happening after that. The last time he saw her before everything he knew fell apart he’d given her a smile and a gentle punch to the arm. He hadn’t thought of her since. Not until that day at the Fuhrer’s mansion.

The boy, Salim, had died. Roy wondered how Bradley had a son. He was a homunculi. It didn’t seem possible. His wife was hysterical. Roy watched her hold his little limp body in her arms and scream for several minutes before somebody pulled her away. He’d been barely conscious, but he remembered that like he remembered Ishbal.

Roy knew that’s what had started it. He’d thought about it furiously since. Whenever he tried to push it from his mind and go back to the way things had been it came and bit him in the ass. What would Fullmetal think? he wondered. Damn, he was going soft and actually thinking about something so totally wholesome it was scary. But maybe Fullmetal had something to do with it too. He wanted to see the kid again. He wanted to know the boy, the twelve year old he’d dragged into this whole mess, was okay. But there was nothing. And Roy could do nothing but move on.

When it came down to it he really couldn’t say why he’d asked Sciezska so many times. Perhaps it was to prove something to himself. Perhaps it was to prove something to her. But then there was that other thing, and he didn’t want to think of that. Riza would have been easier. She would have said yes. She would agree to anything he offered. Maybe that’s why he didn’t. She served him with such blind loyalty and love that he couldn’t ask it of her. He didn’t want to hurt her by telling her the truth. She wasn’t really his equal. And you couldn’t do what he was thinking of doing without seeing the other person as an equal, right? Hughes had told him that once. He chuckled at the thought.

“He’d be happy about this, you know?” he said as he sat across from Sciezska. The dress she wore was very plain but pretty. It was typical of her to show just enough leg to leave a man begging for more, and she was totally unaware of it. The restaurant was lovely and it was going to leave a dent in his wallet, but he didn’t care. Not tonight.

“Who?” she asked after swallowing a bite of her food. She’d opted for the steak. It was an unusual choice for a woman, Roy had noted. Most only chose a salad.

“Hughes,” Roy said and took a sip of wine. She had hardly touched hers.

“Really? Why?” she asked and looked at him. Her eyes were green. He’d never noticed it before.

“Because he always said I needed a wife,” he said and prepared himself for her response.

* * *

He had to say something like that when she had a mouth full of steak. It was already hard enough just to chew it. She nearly chocked. The coughing fit that followed left her flushed and the glass of wine, which she drank as quickly as she could, only added more color to her cheeks and made her head feel light. Liquor wasn’t something she was used to.

“Who are you planning to marry, Gen. . .um, Roy?” she asked once she’d cleared her throat.

He just smiled. “When you’re done would you like some dessert?”

Sciezska nodded and decided that if he was going to put a statement out there and then make no more mention of it, she wouldn’t either.

“Did I tell you how lovely you look this evening?”

“Yes. I think that’s the fifth time,” she said and frowned at him. It had been nice the first three, even if she didn’t fully believe him. But now it was getting ridiculous.

“What would you like for dessert?” he asked and smiled. It was funny how even an eye patch and the three thin scars that ran down his cheeks did nothing to diminish how handsome he was. Sciezska tried not too think about that too much and smiled.

“Oh, anything chocolate.”

He nodded in a way that suggested he was more than familiar with women and their chocolate.

She ended up ordering the cake. It was deep and rich and he leaned over with his fork and took a bite. The frosting left a brown smudge on his lip and Sciezska tapped her napkin to her own in order for him to notice. He didn’t pay any attention and just took another bite, larger than the last.

“I didn’t know you had a sweet tooth,” she said.

He licked his lips, caught the smudged frosting, and smiled. “Our secret?”

Sciezska was fairly sure it wasn’t much of a secret. “Really? You usually don’t eat dessert with your other dates?”

“The cake here is quite good,” he said and piled another bite into his mouth.

Sciezska let herself smile and take the last bite. “Yes, it is.”


* * *

“Good night,” he said and leaned forward.

“Good night, Roy,” she said and the door nearly hit him in the nose.

He sighed and took a step back. He waited for a minute or two, but when it was clear she wasn’t going to open it again and invite him in he walked back to the car. She was definitely like no woman he’d met before, he thought and drove home.