Work Text:
The mood at this particular Fuhrer’s address is markedly different from those that have come before. Soldiers are still lined up in ranks, but there’s a looseness and sense of calm among them that has everything to do with Grumman being at their helm instead of King Bradley. It's clear that many soldiers don't quite know what to make of him now—he was long seen as an eccentric and far-removed General in the East, but his placement in the eminent seat of government was obviously not a mistake.
The clever and calculating side of Grumman has been a common topic of conversation for these transitional weeks, and today is no exception. There's an excited buzz in the air, soldiers turning back to talk to their comrades, gossips leaning over the lines to spread speculation…
Riza, as per usual, is sitting straight forward, hands clasped firmly, back straight, face impassive. Fuhrer Grumman is set to announce his new guidelines for the military. While she has a pretty good idea of what they will be (having acted as his sounding board at relaxed familial dinners), there’s still a sense of nervousness running through her veins. If everything goes according to plan, her Lieutenant General Mustang will eventually become Fuhrer in his stead. The decisions and referendums Grumman puts into place will help or hinder the work they have yet to do.
The man of the hour brings them to order with a tap on his microphone, clearing his throat and twitching his mustache. He seems relaxed, friendly, and trustworthy as he smiles down at them all, and she experiences a surge of hopefulness. Maybe she and Roy don't have to carry the weight of changing the military on their own after all.
“Good afternoon, soldiers!” he calls out, voice clear and ringing over the sea of blue-uniformed soldiers. “I understand that this transitionary time has not been extremely comfortable, and that some troubling things have come to light regarding old friends and allies of yours.
This can be a difficult thing to comprehend, and an even more difficult thing to reconcile as you move forward without them among your ranks. I want you to know I am here for you, your fellow soldiers are here for you, and I have nothing but the greatest faith that we can move forward with the best of the best and provide support and safety for the people of Amestris.”
There is a little outbreak of whispers and muttering following this proclamation, and Riza can sees some fleeting looks of mistrust and concern among her comrades, but for the most part people seem to be nodding along. She takes a long, slow breath.
While Grumman continues on about unity and trust, she seeks Mustang in the crowd. She finds him easily, sitting two rows ahead of her and several seats over. He glances back at the same moment she sees him, and they hold one-another’s eye for a moment. He cocks his head ever so slightly toward Grumman as if to say ‘what do you think about this?’. She responds with the barest inclination of her head ‘I think it is going well.’
“—which is why I want to share with you all some changes that I will be instituting.”
Riza focuses back on Grumman immediately.
“As you know, I have already instated an Executive Order to prevent deployment of combative Alchemists without agreement from two-thirds of the full slate of Generals. Hand in hand with this attempt to reduce state-led violence, I will be reallocating funding for the State Alchemist program. All Alchemists currently enrolled in the program will continue on in their roles, but we will be incentivizing and emphasizing research and theoretical Alchemy, and keeping very close tabs on that work."
Riza nods along and relaxes her jaw a fraction. She and Grumman (with the Lieutenant General when he was able to join them) had discussed this at length. Roy, of course, had been in favor of dissolving the program altogether, but Grumman had argued that it was too fast, and far too soon to disband a program that had recently saved the country of Amestris from a war on the home-front. In the end they had settled on a reduction of battle-ready Alchemists, with the hope that the program would become less appealing to the unsavory characters who might otherwise have pursued it. Riza is fairly proud of this compromise, and has been talking with the Lieutenant General at length about how this change will make it easier to disband or privatize the program in the future.
“Next.” Grumman shuffles the papers on his podium while the crowd looks on with rapt attention. “I will be withdrawing numerous platoons from the conflicts at the southern and western borders. This will not happen all at once, nor will it be easy to do, but I am committed to reducing military personnel on active warfront duty by fifty percent in the next three years. It is high time that we attempt more diplomatic efforts with our neighbors, and I have been working to assign Generals and Lieutenant Generals to this integral communication work across borders.
Out of the corner of her eye, Riza watches the Lieutenant General’s shoulders straighten and cracks the barest of smiles. He was devastated to wake from the Promised Day and find Grumman had seized power, but has taken quite enthusiastically to his new role in the bureaucracy. Shmoozing, as she has always suspected, is what Roy was made for.
“Finally” Grumman has a twinkle in his eye now, and Riza can’t help another indulgent smile even as she rolls her eyes. “Finally my friends, some fun news. We are changing the fraternization laws!”
The assembled crowd suddenly resembles a beehive, all buzzing in excitement and hurried hushed whispers. It takes a long time for the wave of noise to settle so that the Fuhrer can continue. He watches with barely concealed delight.
“Yes, indeed! It is high time to re-examine who these rules were put in place to protect, and who they unintentionally harm. Banning relationships between officers in the direct line of command is supposed to protect subordinate officers from unwanted advances—and to reduce impaired decision-making due to amorous affections."
"What we have actually seen, when reviewing cases of improper conduct, is that the fraternization laws do nearly nothing to stop superior officers from taking advantage of their subordinates, but effectively prevents those same subordinates from speaking up against harassment in the workplace to avoid a court-marshal themselves.”
Riza is aware of a great number of the officers in the lower ranking section hanging on to Grumman's every word, nodding.
"Despite its flaws, the program is still an important facet to keeping the workplace safe and comfortable, so it will be amended but not removed. It will now be a multi-step approval process. Officers intending to enter into a relationship will have to submit paperwork to their commanding officer or commanding officer’s commanding officer…” he pauses, chuckling at the strange sentence. “All dependent on who the relationship is with."
"Here’s the catch—the failsafe we are hoping prevents abuse of this system. The request must be submitted by the subordinate officer. This will help ensure that all relationships approved and entered into are the personal choice of both parties, and coercion is not at play.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Riza can see Roy very pointedly not looking her way.
Grumman's grin gets larger, and he leans forward over his podium. Riza has only a moment to feel nervous about what will come next before he plows on.
“Because this change is complicated, I opened the request system up to a couple of test subjects to act as examples for how it all works. I ask them to step forward here, now, to explain the process.”
Riza was not expecting that. She focuses on a spot just above Grumman's shoulder, and continues to sit stoically. Hopefully someone else will speak up...
Luckily she doesn’t have long to wait. Major Miles pops up from his seat with his hands behind his back and his glasses flashing in the bright sunshine.
“I was one of the requests” he calls in a loud, clear voice. “I requested the forms from Grumman himself, due to the nature of my chain of command. They were simple and straight forward, asking you to state your intent, your knowing consent of the job risks, and a plan for what would happen if the intended relationship disintegrates.”
His face cracks into a grin, and he tells them all what they’re dying to know. “I asked The Major General Armstrong out to coffee, and she said yes. She also threatened me with her sword, but I’m kind of into that.”
There is an enormous wave of laughter and delighted shouts as he sits back down. Mustang in particular seems to be having a cardiovascular attack, slapping his chest with his head thrown back.
Maria Ross is the next to stand, grinning from ear to ear and red from her hairline to her neck.
“I submitted my forms this morning, and then asked Sheska to marry me! She said yes, and we’re the same rank so it’s actually not even fraternization but…just in case!”
Sheska appears to be trying to sink into the ground next to her, but it’s hard to miss the kiss they share when Maria sits back down.
There is a pause after these admissions, and the buzz of conversation begins to increase, everyone looking around to see if anyone else will confess. Riza is aware of the higher-than-natural percentage of eyes that seem to be falling on her and the Lieutenant General, but doesn’t feel the need to say a thing. Of course she submitted her paperwork. Roy had even processed it—unknowingly—but still.
She is perfectly content to stay firmly in her chair, even when the Lieutenant General sends her a subtle look, considering and thoughtful.
And then Grumman taps his microphone twice and says, with all of the grandfatherly power he possesses; “Darn, I was hoping the third couple would announce themselves too, they are my favorite.”
Suddenly she can’t help it.
Riza stands.
In a single quick breath she says “I am Captain Riza Hawkeye”—
—and the gathered crowd explodes.
Riza tries her best to keep a straight face. She is a soldier, and one who has trained for years to be stoic in the face of all manner of chaos. But there’s something about the crowd around her losing their collective minds, the fact that even without looking at him she can feel the weight of Roy’s shocked eyes…
She smiles. And then, because it’s all just so absurd, these people’s investment in a relationship that they should have no reason to even assume exists, she starts to laugh.
Roy is out of his chair and over the back of it in the space of a blink. In another moment he’s at her side, presumably having trod on every officer between them. The crowd is making such a din at this point that Riza will not be able to make a formal statement anyway, so she turns toward him, instead, and says “I submitted my request this morning. For you.”
He has the dopiest grin she's ever seen on his face, but it's his eyes that she finds most arresting. They are huge, pupils blown wide, and he's standing so close that she feels as though she's sinking into them. Without quite meaning to do so, she lifts a hand toward him, and hooks her index finger gently in the diagonal closure at the front of his uniform coat, creating a subtle but clear bridge between their bodies.
She has a moment to marvel at the warmth of his uniform where it rests against his chest, a moment to feel the hand he has placed lightly against the pulse in her neck, right over the shiny raised scar there. A moment staring at the unbridled love in his eyes.
And then he is surging forward and pressing his mouth firmly against hers, his arms coming up tightly around her and tugging their bodies together.
Dimly she is aware of the crowd around them, Havoc yelling “I knew it! I knew it!” and hitting Rebecca who actually did know it. Vaguely she feels embarrassment at being held so amorously in front of thousands of soldiers. Distantly she can hear Grumman’s booming, jovial laughter.
Mostly she is delighted by the sensation of kissing Roy at last, at last, at last! Her heart seems to beat in time with the words, and with every warm, heady slide of his lips against hers. Even when he pulls back grinning widely, even when she presses her face briefly into his shoulder to hide her own grin. Even when Roy has returned to his seat, being slapped enthusiastically on the back by everyone he passes, the warmth that has blossomed in Riza’s chest stays.
Finally she raises her eyes back to Grumman at the podium, and he is looking directly at her. Even through the haze of warm emotion brimming inside of her, she can spare a moment of awe at the way he has just completely distracted the crowd from his more controversial reforms by dangling romance above it all. Perhaps having him as a role model and sounding board will be more helpful that she or Roy ever could have imagined.
Eyes twinkling, he inclines his head her way as if to say ‘okay?’ and she grins back. ‘Thank you, Grandfather.’