Hi! This is my first attempt at an action/adventure fic, but I think it is turning out nicely. Royai will abound in later chapters, especially in the lull between action segments. Right now it's not obvious but I need to set up. Please review and give me feedback!

"-so then I clicked the safety off my gun and-" Riza began laughing at the memory.

"Oh Riza, please tell me you actually shot near the man this time! Sometimes I swear you're getting too soft on him!" cried her friend as she came to sit on the couch with Riza.

"Oh shut up and let me finish the story, Carol! So, when I took the safety off his head shot up of the desk and he started looking around for a pen, but he didn't realize that he'd put one behind his ear. When he finally noticed he reached back so fast that he actually knocked himself you of his chair! It was so hard to keep from laughing, you have no idea." Riza finished, tears actually forming in her eyes at the hilarity of the moment.

When Carol stopped laughing she took a deep breath and fixed Riza with a serious look. " I mean it Riza. If the man is really-"

"Carol, please give it a rest. Every time I come over here it's the same thing: 'Riza, you like him. Enough of this faithful soldier routine, show it!' Carol, I can't and I don't so please let it be." She retorted quickly.

"Very well then, deny it. Just wait, someday I'll say I told you so." Carol said, reaching for the wine bottle and glasses sitting on the coffee table. Riza bit back an exasperated sigh as her friend poured the wine. She glanced out the window behind the couch idly as she waited. Finally the wine was poured to Carol's satisfaction and she handed Riza a glass.

"To gunwomen, dogs, and the loves of our lives," Riza shot a glare at her friend, who continued her toasting unperturbed "may we know them when we find them."

"Cheers." Riza chorused, clinking her glass with Carol's with a slight flicker of irritation. As they raised their glasses to their lips the two sharpshooters heard a sound they were both terribly familiar with. The report of a gun issued loudly and the two women looked around quickly as a bullet shattered the window of the ground floor apartment, showering them with shards of glass.

"Are you alright?" shouted the blonde, drawing her weapon and glancing over at her friend. She winced as her brain registered the pain from the cuts that the shattered window and the glass beneath her knees. The only response she received was a quiet moan. Riza crawled to her friend, sweeping shards of glass out of her path as she glanced around the room to establish that there were no more windows for their attackers to fire through. When she reached Carol she eased her onto her side to reveal a wound where a bullet had lodged itself in Carol's side. Riza quickly assessed her situation. She could hear the few officers from the surrounding apartments that were in early on a Friday night shouting to each other to find out where the shots had come from, she knew that she couldn't call out to them and they would not find out on their own in time, her friend was injured, and there was at least one gunman out there waiting for an opportunity to fire. As the hubbub outside the apartment increased she realized that the gunmen, there were at least six of them, were not waiting, but heading towards the window.

Well. First of all: my first cliffhanger! Also, please don't be shy about reviewing. My work has been reviewed as terrible and rubbish before, so I am not afraid of your flames. Just give me some input as to why you didn't like it!