bTitle:/b Teamwork

bAuthor:/b Seaweed_FMA

bArtist:/b

bGenre:/b Drama, a little Humor

bRating:/b PG-13 for some violence and blood

bWord Count/b 15,709

bCharacters / Pairings:/b Mustang, Hawkeye, Havoc, Breda. Fuery, Falman, Maes, Gracia, and some minor OCs. Maes /Gracia and some Roy/Riza UST.

bWarnings:/b More Manga/Brotherhood based. Some violence, no real spoilers, set pre-series. The Cow owns the characters, not me.

bSummary :/b When Mustang first received his team, they weren't always such a close knit group. It took a potentially tragic event to bring them all together.

CHAPTER 1: The Return

The incessant click-clack of the train wheels on the metal tracks were enough to either lull him to sleep, or drive him crazy- he wasn't sure which. He was glad that as an alchemist he got his own train cabin, even if it was barely big enough to turn around in.

Despite the size, there was another person in the cabin, sleeping soundly and shirtless in his bed. Normally he would have found the nearest person to brag to that he had a woman topless in his cabin- he did have the reputation as a playboy to uphold. But every time he looked at her- finally sleeping after so much pain and suffering, he frowned. It was his fault that she was here.

She stirred slightly, grimacing in pain even as she slept. He knelt down and touched the back of his hand to her forehead, hoping hat she was no longer feverish. She was a little clammy, but she felt a lot cooler than she had on the start of the trip. They still had another day before they arrived in Central, he just had to hope that by then she would be well enough to walk on her own.

"Shh. Rest, We're not home yet. Sleep. Rest up."

"Mmm. Home." The tiniest of smiles graced her face, then she fell back into a deep slumber. He touched his hand to her forehead, to let her know that he was there- a tender, light touch of reassurance.

"Almost home." He whispered in her ear before he leaned away, letting her sleep.

Since he had no place to sleep, and he wasn't very tired anyway, he picked up a book and settled into the one small chair in the room- a molded curving thing built into the wall next to the window. He tried to concentrate, but after reading the same passage half a dozen times and still not remembering what it said, he put it down and looked out at the rolling, grassy hills of the East as they passed by the train window. It was nice to see grass and trees instead of the barren, flat, death lands that marked Ishval.

Home couldn't come soon enough.

After a few more minutes of watching the scenery, he decided to get some air. He headed back towards the caboose, where he figured that he would have company. When he got there, he found that he was right.

"Hey, Hughes. I thought you said that you were going to quit once we left Ishval."

For just the most briefest of moments, Maes had the deer in the headlights look. But as soon as he realized that it was just Roy, he smiled and blew a ring of smoke towards the newcomer to his hiding place.

"This is my last one, I swear. See?" He showed Roy the empty pack. "Gracia was upset when she heard that I took up smoking but... she doesn't understand. Anything we could do to relieve the stress of seeing all that death and destruction..." His voice trailed off.

Roy nodded and gently pat his best friend's shoulder. "Believe me, I know. But we're going back home. And now we get to go back to our lives and pretend that we can't still feel the blood on our hands, or hear a baby's scream in our ears."

"Wow, thanks. Now I feel much better."

"Sorry." Roy muttered, crossing his arms on the railing of the caboose and laying his chin down on his arms. There was a moment of awkward silence before the alchemist finally broke it. "I heard that due to my exemplary performance, I'll probably get a team and a promotion." He angrily spit out those two words- 'exemplary performance'. "Lieutenant Colonel- it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

"Just what you need, another reason to inflate your already overstuffed ego." Maes elbowed him. "But that's good, Roy." His smile fell. "Just be careful. There are a lot of people who won't like a 25 year old Lieutenant Colonel. You're climbing the ranks fast, and that will make people jealous."

Roy stood up and laughed, then clapped Maes hard enough on the back to cause the cigarette to fall out of his mouth and tumble down off the back of the train.

"Dammit, Roy. That was my last fucking cigarette!"

Roy waved as he opened the door to the last train car. "I'm doing you a favor. Those things will kill you, ya know." He slammed the door behind him and headed back to his cabin, feeling much better than had before.

"You're lucky I like you, Flamey." Maes muttered to the wind.

Roy had somehow fallen into a light sleep in the small, uncomfortable chair by the window. As the train jerked and jolted to a stop, he found himself waking up on the floor- he groaned and rubbed his head where he had fallen. A quick look out the window confirmed that they had indeed finally made it to Central.

"Hey, Hawkeye. Wake up. We're home." He gently touched her shoulder.

"Mmm.. huh?" She blinked her eyes and looked blearily up at him.

"We're in Central. Do you feel well enough to walk out on your own power?"

She sat up with a little hiss of pain. He had burnt as little of her back as he could, but it was still very painful and raw. Over the course of the trip, he had been very diligent when it came to changing the bandages and reapplying the salve that he had procured from the first aid tent before it was all packed away to head back to Central. A few rolls of bandages and some tubes of salve wouldn't be missed in the rush to get out of that desert hell.

"Yes. Thank you, sir." They both knew it was more than just a simple thank you, but nothing else had to be said.

Roy turned around so Hawkeye could get dressed with even a little bit of privacy- he could hear her try to stifle small noises as she put her shirt on., He wished that he could help her, but he would never be so presumptuous to do so, and she would never swallow her pride and ask. It took a while, but eventually she cleared her throat to indicate to him that she was back in uniform.

"I'm going back to my bunk to get my gear." She announced to him after he had turned around. Tomorrow I'll start a short leave of absence- it's already been approved. I'm going back to my father's house to settle the last of his affairs."

Hawkeye had made the decision shortly after her father died to join Mustang in the military. Between having to start at the Military Academy almost immediately to avoid missing the start of the semester and leaving early to join the war effort in Ishval, she hadn't had enough time to go through his things and decide what to do with them. Now seemed as a good a time as any, before she got her permanent assignment. She knew that he would have gone with her if he could- for moral support, to help her pack and to continue to make sure that her back was healing. But he needed to stay in Central, especially if the rumors of him getting a command turned out to be true.

"Be well, Cadet Hawkeye. If you need me, please don't hesitate to call."

"I will, sir." She saluted, then left the cabin, closing the sliding door behind her.

"Stay safe, Riza." Roy muttered quietly to an empty room.

Roy was a bundle of nerves. This was it, he knew it. He had no sooner gotten settled into the small apartment that the military had assigned him to when he got a call to come to Central Command and talk to General Grumman.

He stood in his freshly starched uniform, his hat on his head. He was the picture of a perfect solider- on the outside at least. Inside he was secretly hoping that his flip flopping stomach would decide not to throw up its contents. He stood before the newly promoted General's door for a few moments, trying to gather his nerves. He knew that he only had one chance to make a good impression. This could be his career.

When he was ready, he knocked on the door. "Major Roy Mustang. I have a meeting with General Grumman today."

"Ah yes. Come in, please." A soft, friendly female voice on the other side answered.

As he opened the door, he was not surprised to see a pretty young lady behind the reception desk. Grumman was well known for being quite fond of beautiful young women. Roy could appreciate that- at the academy, he had earned a similar reputation. He smiled at her and winked, not surprised to see a little blush come to her cheeks.

"He's waiting for you inside, sir." She said, punctuating her sentence with a tiny giggle at the end.

"Thank you." Roy took off his hat and knocked at the inside door.

"Ah, Roy. Right on time! Come on in!" He opened the door to get his first look at the infamous General Grumman. He had expected someone younger, but this man was gray haired and short with round glasses on his wrinkled face. This was the man who supposedly had all the women of Central in his address book?

He was even more impressed now.

Roy saluted, standing up straight. "You asked to see me, sir?"

"Yes, at ease. Please, take a seat." He motioned to a seat in front of him, and Roy sat down.

"I asked you here, Roy, because of your record in Ishval. General Grumman turned around and was looking out the window, so he didn't see Roy cringe as he said that. "You've caught the eye of quite a few people here in Central. I'm here to offer you a command. You'll be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and will get an office at Central Command."

"Sir, I'm honored. Of course I'll take the command." He tried to keep his voice straight, but he couldn't help but be a little excited. This was the first step to move up the ladder to his ultimate goal- the one he had promised to Maes deep in the desert of Ishval.

"Good, I figured you would. I'll get the dossiers for your men together. There will be four of them to start, to make sure that you can handle a command." He turned back around and smiled warmly at Roy. "I've been watching you since you joined the Academy. It isn't every day a Flame Alchemist comes around. I'm very proud of you, and I know that you're going to do great things."

"Thank you, sir." He saluted, and the General saluted back this time. "You are dismissed. I want you to come back at 0900 hours on Monday morning, and I'll have their folders ready for you."

Roy turned around and took a couple of steps towards the door before he turned back around again. "Sir, if I may, I have a request."

"Yes?" His eyebrows raised from under his thick glasses.

"I have one person who I'd like to request for my command. I... worked with them in Ishval, and we work well together."

"Who is it, Mustang?"

"Cadet Riza Hawkeye, sir. In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I've known her for years, even before Ishval. Her father was my alchemy teacher. But I assure you that there will be no issue with keeping the relationship purely professional." Roy thought could swear that he heard General Grumman mutter "A shame" under his breath, but he knew that couldn't have been right, and shook it off.

"Granted. I'll add her dossier to your folder." Hmm, that was strangely easy, Roy thought to himself. Either this man didn't really care about who he commanded, or he had some ulterior motive. If that was was the case he wanted to know what it was. But either way, he was going to get Hawkeye under his command, which had been his goal, so the ease of getting it done was not important.

"Thank you, sir." He turned on his heels and walked out the door, waiting until he was out in the hallway to smile. It was all coming together. He'd make it to the top, and she was going to be one of the people who was going to help him get there.