It was strange, how blurred the line between their military lives and past as civilians was. Ten years since they had left the military academy and, as if they were any other graduating class, an invitation in both their mailboxes inviting them to come see how their classmates were doing. The only difference was that more than a number of their classmates were dead, their blood seeped into the battlegrounds at Ishbal, forever surrendered to the sands. Still, this was a night for celebration.

Roy had made it not so obvious that Havoc was to watch her, save her from the advances of any other men (a request that would have sent Mustang running from the crack of bullets if she had heard him make it - she could take care of herself, thank you very much). He had sent him off with a light smile, but a hand on his back that Havoc knew spelled sudden death if he failed his mission.

It was with a heavy heart that Jean had resigned himself to his fate as he tried to diplomatically wrestle the drink out of her hand without tempting the gun from the holster he knew lay just inches from the slit of her dress. It always astounded him how someone as intelligent as Hawkeye could lack so much self control.

Someone had ordered a round of shots earlier, a gift from a former classmate who had risen the ranks much faster than the rest, and his careful eyes had left her momentarily to follow the trail of another woman, only to return moments later to find her words slurred and her breath strong with alcohol. The quiet, practical soldier of the office was replaced with a self-assured woman who Jean had last witnessed the night of their deployment, saddling up to Roy Mustang, confidently declaring to him that "you will never have this." Oh how wrong she had been.

He spent the rest of the night trying to gently coax her away from the dim lights of the bar, but her scent was intoxicating and the men crowded her, shutting her off to his silent pleas. He winced as he heard her order another drink, a request met with many other offers to buy it for her. Roy was going to kill him. Still, she was not so flippant as to allow herself to become the beautiful, needy woman they all now assumed she was and offered to buy it herself. Even drunk, Hawkeye would never allow any man to dominate her. It was perhaps what Roy Mustang had liked so much about her in the first place and certainly what Havoc was coming to appreciate as the night went on. She kept them in line.

When her lips met his he decided that he quite liked kissing Riza Hawkeye. She tasted sweet, which had surprised him, but not as much as how light her body felt pressed against his. He had only been reaching behind her for his coat and she had plunged forward into him, her lips almost missing his before she somehow managed to right herself in the two feet that separated them.

How quickly, how easily, that distance had become none.

He allowed himself a moment of weakness, enough to memorize the way her skin melted under his touch before he broke away from her, the Colonel's voice ringing loud in his ear. She grinned devilishly at him and he wondered if Mustang was often graced with that look on nights when the office was quiet and all but them had gone home. He wanted to kiss her again, but for all the times that Roy had (unintentionally) stolen women from him he had no desire to do the same to him. Not when the woman in question meant so much and the others meant so little.

Plus, Riza would be furious with him later if he did.

She would have no indication of her brush with infidelity the next morning, save for the pounding headache and soreness in her side from where Jean had slipped and sent her small frame crashing into the side of the car he had called for them. The night before she had laughed at his clumsiness, gripped his arm in a manner that made his skin crawl, but in the morning she would merely wonder at the annoying sensation, her face solemn as she handed them each their work for the day. He would only catch glimpses of their night together when, briefly forgetting herself, she would allow Roy to rub her temples as she winced at the pain and he chuckled at her rare show of stupidity. She would glare at him, but the playfulness in her eyes gave away her sincerity and it made Havoc frown.

He made sure the woman he took to dinner that night looked nothing like Riza Hawkeye.