A/N: Hello all! This is my first story, set after the Promised Day but before the epilogue. I wanted to write partially about Mustang's whole crew because I love them all, but mostly I love Roy and Riza, so expect this to earn its M rating in the next chapter or two. Also feel free to point out spelling and grammar errors, but I'm from the UK, so I promise you I haven't spelled 'colour' or 'realise' incorrectly :P

Happy reading!

Riza had been so engrossed in her work that she only looked up when she noticed the absence of noise. The sunlight was piercing through the small holes in the wall, diffusing the light like a sieve, and spots of light speckled the room. The room was furnished with some basic military necessities: One gas cooker, one kettle, two pots, some ration parcels, six sleeping rugs, six blankets and pillows, one metal fold-out table and some matching metal fold-out chairs, all of which were empty, save for the one she was occupying.

She could account for some of the absences; Furey was probably still laying communication lines around the perimeter. Because he was the only one who had to leave base for his job, Mustang insisted on joining him for safety purposes. Riza suspected it was partly to get out of having to do mindless admin for a few hours, but unfortunately, it made sense for Mustang to go. He knew this place well. But the rest of the crew were sitting with her when she had last looked up. She vaguely remembered Havoc getting up to smoke outside, and Breda saying he could do with the fresh air himself. Maybe they invited Falman as well. She thinks that maybe they also invited her, but she can't remember correctly. She was absorbed in work at the time, and she was exhausted to boot.

She stood up, stretching her back and looking for any clue as to their whereabouts, when she heard a distinct voice.

"Oh, you're ON".

It was coming from outside the ruined house. She quickly turned towards the door, following Havoc's voice until she was outside, squinting slightly at the much-too-bright sun before the desert came back into focus. The sands lay pretty flat, so the men were easy to spot, even from the distance. Havoc was standing over Falman and Breda, both sitting on the sand. They had their backs turned to her. She walked towards them, listening to snippets of their conversation as she approached.

"Five bullets left. More than enough for what we need," she heard Breda say. He was looking down towards his lap. She stifled a sigh. What are these idiots up to?

"It looks very old. Possibly from before war, but definitely military issue," Falman was examining what Riza assumed was a gun in Breda's possession, but she was still too far away to know for certain. "The writing has deteriorated, but it was likely used by guards as a non-lethal deterrent for small-scale criminals".

"I'm not even sure why you would think to challenge me. The room is mine for sure" snickered Havoc, standing above the two of them, hands joined behind his head. Riza saw plumes of smoke dance above the Second Lieutenant's head as he spoke.

"What room?"

They all turned to her at the sound of her voice, startled, but relaxed as they recognised her. Havoc smiled.

"Hawkeye, you're not going to believe this. This idiot" his head nodded towards Breda "just challenged me to a shooting competition! Winner gets the room!"

"What room?" she repeated.

"The extra room in our current location" interrupted Falman. "The building has two small rooms and one large one. Mustang has already laid claim to one of the small rooms. The rest of the team will have to sleep in the large room, so that leaves the other small room up for grabs". He looked at her apologetically. "I suggested you be the one to take it, but Breda and Havoc agreed that you would not accept special treatment".

They were right, of course. Riza would have used the room to change clothes, but she would not have been happy taking luxuries just because she was the only woman on the team.

"So you're making a bet?"

"Exactly", Breda announced. "See the card over there?" Riza's gaze followed to where he was pointing. She could see a playing card a few yards away, propped up by a small pile of sand. She squinted at the black spot in the middle, barely making it out to be the shape of a spade. Since there was only one spade, it must have been the ace of spades.

"Whoever can shoot the card closest to the spade wins" Breda continued. Riza glanced down at the gun on his lap. It was a small steel handgun. Falman had been right, the police that were here before the war broke out used guns like these. Riza knew that each 'bullet' was tiny, the size of a piece of buckshot. It was used to slow a fleeing target down prior to arrest.

She thought back to the war, when she watched the police stationed there give them in, and the horrors on their faces when they were handed weapons far bigger. She saw the colour drain from their faces when they realised that there was no such thing as a non-lethal option any more.

She shook her head, her focus switching back to the men in front of her.

"Does Furey know you're deciding who gets the room without him?" she asked, looking back up at Havoc.

Havoc snickered. "That kid wouldn't fire a hose at a burning building if he could help it. Besides, Furey has some vacation time right after this mission. He won't need the privacy".

"Why do you need the privacy so badly?" she thought the question was straightforward enough but she saw the three men in front of her freeze, as if they were children and she caught them doing something mischievous.

Falman eventually spoke first. "I only want it to read with a lantern on without keeping anyone else up!" his voice was half an octave higher than usual. He gestured semi-frantically towards Havoc and Breda. "They're the ones who want to-" he cut himself off again, face quickly turning red.

Riza looked at Breda first, whose face flushed a little before he shared a glance with Havoc. She turned her attention to Havoc, who was also a little pink with embarrassment. Havoc smiled, avoiding eye contact, and scratched the back of his neck.

"Well, you know…" he trailed off, hoping his answer would be enough, but he saw the confusion on her features and sighed. "We haven't had a break since I came down to get my legs fixed! First hospital visits, then studying with the Colonel, then that stupid three-day road trip to get here! A man needs his privacy, before he explodes!"

Hawkeye could understand the desire to be left alone, but she couldn't grasp why a private room would be so important, since the old ruined house would still be full of people. What could they possibly do in a room alone that they couldn't do in front of…

Oh.

"Oh" she vocalised. The two men blushed deeper.

"Yeah" said Havoc quietly, still looking past her instead of at her. "We just need to… release some pressure".

Now it was Riza's turn to blush, as her mind was filled with the past few weeks' events. It was true, between the team's recovery, the nights spent in hospitals as both patients and visitors, late nights planning the rebuilding of Ishval and the long trip by truck to get here, the whole team was so exhausted that they barely had time to sleep, let alone… release some pressure.

She thought a little further back, to the Promised Day, then back further to the planning of the coup, and even further back to when she was taken hostage and told by Pride that she was always being watched. In fact, Riza couldn't remember the last time she was alone, not to mention the last time she…

Falman cleared his throat, awkwardly cutting through the silence. "So… who is going first?"

Havoc took the gun off of Breda, the embarrassment waning from his face to make room for his usual cocky smirk. "I'll start, may as well call it early, boys" he grinned down at Breda and Falman. "I'm going to blow it out of the water". Havoc lay on his stomach beside Breda. Propping himself on his elbows for support, he concentrated hard down the sight of the gun. Riza could hear his breathing slow down as smoke continued billow from his mouth.

BANG!

The gun was much less loud than a real pistol, but the noise still penetrated through the eerily silent desert. Everyone stared at the playing card. It remained upright, with a crescent shaped hole at the corner of the upper-left. Havoc had clipped the top corner of the card. Riza could practically hear Havoc's jaw drop in horror.

"No fair! The sight on this old piece of junk is completely out of whack!" he looked down at the gun as if it had betrayed him. Breda laughed.

"We found it in the middle of the desert, what did you expect? Glad you went first, now I can compensate for the sight's aim." Breda moved position so he was laying on his stomach, mirroring Havoc, before taking the gun back. "Just an inch or so to the right…"

BANG!

Breda's shot made a full hole in the card, instead of just tearing the corner. It was almost dead-centre, but he hadn't compensated the vertical nearly enough, so it was still at the top of the card. Falman got into position and took the gun when Breda handed it to him.

BANG!

Falman's face dropped when he saw that the bullet had penetrated the sand beside the card. The sand from the top of the pile poured down, filling the hole as if Falman had never taken a shot.

"HA! I WIN!" Breda beamed, looking over at Havoc, who was red as a tomato. It looked like steam was about to come out of his ears.

"You totally cheated! You wanted me to go first because you knew the sight would be wrong!"

"You call it cheating, I call it strategy" Breda tried to keep a serious face, but his cocky grin still came through.

"Call it whatever you want, it was a dirty trick! I demand a rematch! There's still two bullets! Round two, let's -"

BANG!

The two men jumped in terror, quickly turning to look at Falman. Falman, however, wasn't looking forward. His head was craned above and behind him. They quickly noticed he didn't have a gun in his hand.

In sync, Breda and Havoc followed Falman's line on sight, slowly lifting their heads. They found the gun nestled in Hawkeye's outstretched hand. She was still standing above them, pointing the gun down and towards the distance. When their gaze met her face, they slowly switched to following her line of sight, turning their heads directly in front of them and squinting to see the small target.

The playing card had a tiny hole, the size of a piece of buckshot, right in the middle, effectively removing the spade from the ace.

The three men looked on in astonishment. After a spell of silence, realisation dawned on Havoc and he scowled.

"Hey! What the hell Hawkeye?!" he steamed, looking back towards her. She was still in the exact same position, eyes on the target, hand outstretched, finger on the trigger. "You weren't even part of this bet! It totally doesn't count! Besides, no way you could have compensated that much for the sight, you weren't even in the same position! That was the flukiest thing I've ever-"

BANG!

The three men jumped again, startled. They quickly looked over at the card, which looked no different. For a moment, Havoc thought she had missed, but his face dropped when he saw the briefest outline of a second bullet-hole, almost completely obscured by the first, like a Venn Diagram. The sand began to pour through the hole, until the card was mostly obscured.

Havoc shut up.

Riza dropped the gun on the sand. "We should get back. It's probably time for lunch by now." She turned and started to walk away. It took a few moments for the rest of the team to pick up their jaws and scramble to their feet, following her. She could hear them muttering, lamenting the loss of their room as they walked, but she ignored them and continued ahead towards the makeshift base.

Riza would never accept special treatment just because she was the only woman on the team, but she was more than happy to earn her luxuries.

Besides, she had some pressure of her own to release.