A/N: It's officially Royai Week 2017! Aka the best week of the year. Today's prompt was "Chess," and I was fortunate enough to collaborate with the incredible theysangastheyslew on Tumblr. Check out her incredible art for this piece at: http*****:/www*****.deviantart.*****com/art****/Royai-Week-2017-Chess-682623496 (remove the asterisks to see :D).

P.S. I'm not ignoring my other fics ahhh! I'll be getting back to those shortly! Thank you for your patience!

After weeks of mountains of paperwork and covert missions, Riza Hawkeye was finally ready to have a day dedicated purely to leisurely catch-up. After insistence from Roy to arrive late morning, Riza strolled into Eastern headquarters just shy of ten 'o clock in the morning with a cup of coffee and small stack of papers in her arms.

Just as she had expected, the men were nowhere to be seen. She postulated that they had all chosen to spend as much of their 'free time' out of the office as possible. Of course, the Colonel had no such luck. She knew that he was stuck in back-to-back conferences for the day, and doubted that she would be able to catch him in between. So, for the time being, she would enjoy the solitude the empty office brought her.

Or at least, that was her initial plan. The sighting of a familiar object on her desk, however, misconstrued her design.

Riza stole a quick glance around the empty room to confirm it as such, and, when deciding that it was, carefully lifted the chess piece and rotated it in her hand, taking note of its rather airy weight. She immediately recognized it as the one belonging to the set Roy had hollowed out specifically for passing messages.

Without another thought, she unscrewed the cap and peered inside, finding that she was, indeed, correct in her assumption that there was something inside. She reached in and carefully pulled the paper out and unfurled it. The writing was unmistakably Roy's, though she still could not shake the feeling of surprise finding the message brought her. Though she knew he would be in meetings from the beginning of the day until the end, there would have been moments where he would be able to break away and deliver a message of any type. Or even if he couldn't for whatever reason, leaving it behind in a chess piece seemed rather… excessive.

She knew, though, after knowing him for so long that there was always a method to his madness. That no matter how off or confusing his requests may have been, they almost always turned out the way he had wanted them to. Deciding to play along with whatever little game the Colonel had concocted for her that day, Riza looked down at the note in her hand, expecting something profound to be written down.

Except, there wasn't.

Or rather, it wasn't the deep, meaningful message she believed she would find.

Instead, she found scrawled on the piece of paper in his signature sloppy cursive a simple, The Pawn.

Puzzled by how vague the message was, she turned the paper over and found the other side blank. She quickly turned it again to the side with writing to seek out whatever message he had hidden in his letters or the way he had written them. But instead she was faced with a rather frustratingly banal signature. There was not a curve nor a flick of his pen out of place; at least, not enough that it would pointedly identify itself as a hidden message to her.

She chewed her lip for a moment, repeating 'the pawn' to herself as she peered down at the piece he had left behind for her, once again confirming that it was the Queen. It would be one thing, she supposed, if it were the pawn piece itself. But to plant the incorrect name inside of it surely meant something. After taking another look inside the hollowed out piece to ensure that she left nothing behind, she fell back into her chair and lifted the paper to her eyes again.

There was something he was trying to tell her that she wasn't understanding; something that somehow connected the pawn. The first thought that popped into her mind regarding such was the title he had designated to Sergeant Fuery.

Perhaps it was he that held the answer then.

If she remembered correctly from the evening before, he had mentioned that he was planning on utilizing his free time at the small electronics workbench he had set up months before. Therefore, it would be the first place she would look.

The door to Fuery's small workspace was already ajar when Riza approached it. She paused for a moment in the doorway and peered inside to see the young soldier working diligently on a set of communication devices. She waited for a moment for him to stop his work and then tapped her fist against the door jamb. "Pardon me, Sergeant," she interrupted, prompting the young soldier to stop his tinkering.

He looked up at her and beamed. "Oh, Lieutenant Hawkeye," he said as he set his tools down on the workbench. "The Colonel said that you'd be stopping by."

She was relieved when he turned away to dig something out of the backpack that was sitting beside him, having almost seen the befuddled look that crossed her face. It was one thing to send her on an aimless scavenger hunt for the pieces of his beloved chess set, but something entirely different when it involved the members of their team. Whatever it was he was planning immediately took a dangerous turn the moment he sought their assistance.

When he turned back to her, she lifted her brows with feigned expectancy, not knowing exactly what it was that she was supposed to retrieve. Lifting the wrapped package in his hand for her to take, he said, "I'm not quite sure what it is, to be honest. But he said that you would need it for later." As she grasped it, he added, "Be careful, though. It's pretty heavy."

"Thank you, Sergeant," she replied as she carefully took it from him, equally surprised by its weight. The rectangular anomaly was wrapped in a standard brown paper, relatively unassuming at first glance. Judging by its shape and mass, she immediately suspected a hardbound book. But she knew better than to assume when it came to Roy. Everything he was doing that day was designed specifically to throw her through a loop.

"No problem," he answered as he picked his screwdriver up again. "If you happen to run into him between meetings, could you tell him that I should be finished with the radios by the end of the day?"

Riza clutched the package to her chest and dipped her head. "Of course. I'll let him know."

He shot her another grin. "Thanks, Lieutenant. I hope you have as productive a day as I've been having."

She fought the urge to admit that that was to be determined, but instead bit her tongue and returned his smile with one of her own. By the time she had turned on her heels and had over to the door of the little workshop, she heard tools tapping against metal again with no indication that the Sergeant believed anything was amiss. Riza wanted to look back to confirm, but refrained and instead opted to keep walking. Her grip on the mysterious object tightened as she caught sight of Havoc strolling down the hallway toward her.

When he caught sight of her, he popped the stick he had wedged between his teeth from his lips and gave her a wave. "There you are! I've been looking all over for you."

Immediately on guard, Riza lifted her brows and squared her shoulders. "Is there something I can help you with, Lieutenant Havoc?"

"You bet," he replied as he shoved his hand into the pocket of his uniform, quickly producing a small brown box. "The Colonel said you were looking for this, right? He told you'd be coming around for it sooner or later."

She pried her hand from the package she had been clinging to and offered her palm to him. He slapped it down in her hand and grinned. "You just saved me the trouble of having to head out to the range to find you."

She gathered the little box in her fingers and turned it in her hand. It was wrapped in the same plain paper that the package Fuery had given to her was, though significantly smaller. For a moment her chest tightened as she considered the possibility that it might have been a box with a piece of jewelry inside, though she quickly dismissed it when she measured its weight in her hand.

"So, you heading out there soon? I feel like it's been weeks since we've both been there at the same time."

"Unfortunately," she murmured without tearing her eyes away from the mysterious little box. "I still have a few things I need to catch up on today."

"Bummer," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, if you finish what you have to and still have time later, hit me up. Try not to work too hard."

She muttered some form of a response that he answered in some way or another before patting her shoulder and stepping around her to continue with his walk to the rifle range. As his footfall began to dim, she looked up and watched to assure that he would not turn around. A quick glance confirmed that he hadn't and that there was no one around, and Riza hurriedly ducked into the nearest empty conference room, and quickly shut the door behind her. Curiosity captured her once again and she slipped a finger beneath the edge of the larger, neatly wrapped paper and tugged it open. Once it was freed she was quick to slide the rest of it off and found that her hypothesis had been correct: it was, indeed, a book. The title 'Ode to the Night' did little to catch her attention, knowing full well that the Colonel's intentions often lied behind the façade he often displayed. And sure enough, just as she suspected, just behind the cover when she opened it up she found a torn piece of paper nestled into its spine. What was scrawled on it, however, initially stumped her.

It read ':30' and nothing else. The colon immediately suggested time to her, though there wasn't a number before it, nor were there markings or indentations on the paper in front of the numbers that would represent an hour's time.

Somewhat befuddled by the peculiar note, Riza hoped that the second would provide a clearer answer for her. But when she tore into the paper of the smaller box and opened it, her confusion only grew. The note inside this one, weighed down by a rock, had '611 North St.' An address.

Despite the common name, the street did not ring any bells in Riza's mind. East City in and of itself was small, and it would have certainly been something she had come across before. Her mind wandered to whether it could be a possible fluke on his part. She was just about to put it down and seek out a map of the area surrounding East City when she saw through the paper. Riza turned it in her hands in the hopes that it would guide her and found that it did, though not the way she thought it would.

This time, a simple 'The Rook' was written on the back in Roy's notable style.

It seemed that her search for answers was far from over.

It was a quarter past three by the time Riza had tracked Breda down to the little conference room that was infamous as a little hideaway. She caught him wrapping up a game of chess with a fellow soldier, who appeared a little distraught after what Riza assumed was a humiliating defeat. She cleared her throat and made her presence known as another challenger sat down across from him.

He stopped resetting the board and shot her a grin. "Hey, Lieutenant Hawkeye! How's your day been treating you?"

"Just as well as any," she replied, watching out of the corner of her eye as his new opponent made his first move.

Breda took a moment before replying to assess the board, and then moved one of his pawns ahead. Satisfied by his move, he turned back to her and asked, "What can I do for you?"

She did her best to shield the sensation of disappointment that filled her gut upon realizing that he was likely the end of the road. Perhaps Roy mean something or someone other than Breda as the position of the rook? Or maybe the entire thing had been a fluke. With a wave of her hand, she prepared to dismiss herself so that he could return to his game when he gasped and reached into the bag that hung off the back of his chair, producing a small brown envelope.

"I almost forgot," he said as he held it toward her. "The Colonel wanted me to give this to you. Said he wanted to get it to you by the end of the day."

She took the envelope from him and nonchalantly tucked it into her pocket. "Thank you, Lieutenant Breda. That's exactly what I was coming to find."

"No problem," he said with a wink. "Just don't let the Colonel overwork you. Remember that it's a free day."

Riza gave him a reassuring smile and salutation before ducking out of the room, closing the door just as Breda's opponent let out a discouraged cry. Deciding that this clue was more harmless in appearance than the other two, she leaned back against the wall and pulled it out of her pocket and opened it.

The message inside was cryptic as the previous two, with a simple '7' written on one side. She could see, much like the last message, there was something else on the other side of it as well. Riza turned it and confirmed that it held the last remaining piece of the puzzle; at least, for the time being. 'The Bishop' was cleanly written on the military stationary he had provided to her. However, a frown quickly found its way to her face despite the discovery.

Their 'bishop' was not there that day. Instead, Officer Falman had taken a much-needed day off after fighting a cold for the majority of the time they were working long hours. The two, well three, options she saw at that moment were that the remaining piece was somewhere Falman would likely be that day; his desk, she assumed, or that Roy had given the clue to him and he had taken it home with him. The third, and less thrilling, option was to simply call it quits and wait for the end of the day for him to explain, though she had a feeling that he would somehow find a way around her without being detected, in addition to her ruining whatever he had so meticulously planned.

Deciding that the final option would be reserved for a period of desperation, she decided to follow through with her first speculation and check Officer Falman's desk in the hopes that her hunt would end fruitfully.

Riza squeezed her eyes shut and massaged the bridge of her nose. It was clear to her that the collection of messages equated to an address and a time, but nothing else that would indicate what it was the Colonel was planning. She was right in believing that the final message lied with Officer Falman's belongings, tucked away in the bottom drawer of his desk. It had been in an envelope similar to the one Lieutenant Breda had offered her, and contained a similar message: 'Gallaway,' the name of a nearby town.

There was no sense of urgency with the delivery of these messages, aside from ensuring that she received them by the end of the work day, so the likelihood that it was a mission was unlikely. And if it was, he wouldn't have gone about it the way he had. No, this was personal. Something that he had put together as a sort of game like she had suspected, with the end being the prize that was to be won.

She wearily opened her eyes and glanced down at the culmination of notes she had accumulated. The time had been easy enough to decode, but the address he had given her was unfamiliar. Riza knew at least that they were within a reasonable distance from headquarters given how long it took her to drive to the little town that was situated north of them. A muddled image of the region's map flashed in her mind's eye, though it was not enough for her to pinpoint exactly where it was.

Riza glanced up at the clock and saw that it was already 16:30. She assumed that the Colonel had likely made his getaway to avoid her, seeing that his final meeting was scheduled to end around that time. Seeking him out would likely prove a fruitless endeavor, one that would kill the time she would need to figure out what she needed to know for what she assumed was an eventful evening.

With that, she hurriedly stood and stowed the papers into her purse and prepared herself to lock up for the weekend, her mind reeling with anticipation for what lied ahead.

Another glance at Riza's wristwatch again confirmed what she felt: that despite hurrying home, there was little time to prepare for whatever Roy had planned. Their former rendezvous had always been at somewhat local dives. But now she was treading into unknown territory – a city she and place she knew little about.

She stuck her key into her front door and turned it open, mentally preparing herself for what she was going to bring with her. A change of clothes and two of her most discreet weapons to start. Then possibly— A dark form out of her periphery caught her attention the moment she closed the door to her apartment, and her heart instantly dropped to her feet. Her hand jerked and flipped the light switch on, illuminating the front half of her apartment. The "shape" she had seen out of the corner of her eye moments before took a significantly less daunting appearance to it. She stepped carefully over the sleek black dress that hung harmlessly from her bedroom's door jamb and plucked away the piece of paper that was taped to the hanger, and looked down at the familiar writing.

See you soon,

M.

Her eyes wandered up to the gown again, and the smile she had suppressed until that moment finally found its way to her lips once she realized that she no longer had to do a significant amount of research to know what the messages left would lead her to.

Even if she had researched the restaurant Roy led her to, Riza still would know little, if anything, about it. A thirty-minute drive west of Eastern Command was what ultimately brought her to the steps of a rather unassuming entrance just off the little town's main roadway. A man wearing nothing more than a pair of slacks and a button up shirt was present at its door to usher those who sought it inside, with only a lantern hanging above his head to help him read the names of coming patrons that appeared to be listed on the clipboard in his hand.

A less ostentatious and off-the-beaten path destination meant for fewer chances of being seen, though when she was walking inside she couldn't help but feel a little out overdressed. It seemed, based on its outward appearance, that it was a place less for that form of dining, and perhaps more for casual interactions. Riza had never been particularly fond of the former, always preferring the latter when it came to their rendezvous because of its low-key atmosphere. They were less likely to be watched and acknowledged in a pub or bar, because there they were just another couple of faces that were rarely adequately catered to and remembered.

At first glance it appeared to be the latter, but the choice of clothing he had left behind suggested otherwise. Unless he had been planning to draw an immense amount of attention to her, she decidedly figured that it was likely not what it seemed. And indeed, as she stepped inside after graciously acknowledging the doorman for knowingly propping the door open for her, she had been right.

The restaurant she stepped into was the opposite of their normal engagements, where white linen table clothes and candelabras and low lighting reigned. A few steps in she found herself already flocked to by the more earnest of stewards who begged her name and time of reservation. A softly spoken '7:30' and 'Elizabeth' was enough for them, as their eyes instantly widened and mentions of 'your table is already set' caught her ears. She was already in tow of a young stewardess dressed in black and white by the time their information processed, who was quietly commenting on how they had made sure to reserve the quietest, most private table they could.

She nodded silently as she followed steps behind the stewardess, eyes sharp and looking for anything that could possibly go awry. But at least from what she could see beneath the dim mood lighting the establishment proudly totted, she could not see any signs of familiar faces. Though, she saw nothing to suggest that Roy was there either.

"Here we are."

Drawn from her thoughts, she looked up to find that she was standing steps from a table donned with white linen, candles, and an ice bucket containing a bottle of her favorite wine. And there, sitting at the part of the table closest to her was another familiar sight.

A smile found its way to her lips as the stewardess eagerly mentioned that 'the mister' had run out to his car for a moment and should return in time before she excused herself to leave. It was something Riza speculated the second she read the final message he had left. It seemed that they had both 'won' that night, she thought to herself as she heard him clear his throat behind her. She took one more opportunity to admire the neatly written 'Checkmate' that was scrawled out on the place card leaned up against the king piece from his prized chess set before she turned around to greet him.