#me shaking violently in my chair through gritted teeth and a splintering grip on the desk: yea

[dbphantom]

New coworker was like "oh you ever play borderlands 3?" and in that moment my entire brain went to war over telling him.

I'm so totally normal about this game series. Why do you ask?

[vannahfanfics]

In the Line of Fire

Category: Romantic Fluff

Fandom: FullMetal Alchemist

Characters: Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye

Riza narrowed her eyes slightly as she peered around the corner of the dilapidated hallway, her keen eyes scanning the dank area for any sign of movement. She raised her pistol, her finger resting on the trigger, as she edged forward. She whipped back behind the safety of the wall as the hall filled with flashing lights and frantic popping, for a rain of bullets ripped through the air. The projectiles embedded themselves into the wall a few feet away from her, a few of the crushed bullets clattering to the ground and rolling across the cracked concrete floor. The air grew silent after a few minutes of incessant fire, and Riza wrinkled her nose at the acrid scent of gunpowder.

“Have you cleared the second floor yet, Lieutenant?” Roy's voice buzzed over the transmitter in her ear. She raised a hand to press the button, peering around the edge of the corner once more.

“No, sir,” she answered with a small frown. “They’ve holed themselves up in the rooms.” Her eyes slowly trailed across the hallway, waiting for the enemy to venture back out into the open to take another shot at the military officer. A flicker of movement caught her attention, and she raised her pistol as one of the enemy crept out of one of the rooms, slowly edging his way down the hall towards the woman. Riza retreated back around the corner, listening to the sound of the man's timid footsteps slowly drawing closer. As she saw the edge of his boot poking just past the edge of the wall, Riza's arm snapped out to punch him in the nose. His head shot back with a sickening crack, and as he reeled she grabbed his gun with two hands, a semi-automatic rifle, and jerked it upward so the butt of the gun collided with his chin. He stumbled back again, but recovered faster this time and gripped the weapon tightly; Riza whirled it in his hand so that when he squeezed the trigger the bullets sprayed across the ground and ripped open his booted foot. He wailed in agony, allowing Riza to kick him in the middle and wrench the gun out of his hands. As he made for the weapon, she elbowed him in the face, and this time his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped over.

“Get her!” came a gruff cry from the end of the hallway, and Riza snatched the unconscious man by the collar of his shirt and held him up as the air came alive with rapid gunfire once more. She held him up as a shield as she quickly ran along the edge of the hallway, slinging the rifle over her back and shooting over the dead man's shoulder at the black lumps she could distinguish between the blinding flashes of light. She ducked into an empty room and threw the bullet-riddled body aside, loading another magazine into her pistol and waiting for the assault to die down.

“Lieutenant! What’s your status?” Roy buzzed in her ear again. There were several sets of footsteps approaching rapidly now; it seemed the enemy wanted to overwhelm her with numbers.

“I’m working on it!” she grunted and slung the rifle into her hands, quickly dipping out of the room to release a spray of bullets into the hall. Alarmed screams and bodies slumping to the floor followed, but a few escaped her attack by slipping into the rooms a few doors down. Once again, silence descended as the two parties waited for the other to strike, and time ticked slowly by as Riza stood in the door frame with her hawk-like eyes narrowed and her expression stony. Come on out, she thought.

She gasped suddenly as the sound of shuffling feet came from the other end of the hall, and she slipped back into the room just in time before a stream of bullets ripped into the door frame. She slammed the door shut and flipped the lock, jamming a chair under the doorknob for good measure before backing away from the door. “I’ve been blocked in. They called for backup,” she alerted her superior as she wedged herself in the corner, as far away as possible from the door. She jumped slightly as it suddenly lurched violently, the doorknob shaking violently as one of the men threw himself at it in an attempt to bust it down.

“Lieutenant! Stay put. We're coming to get you,” Roy cried in her ear, but she was already crossing the room to head to the window, banging on it with the butt of the rifle. Cracks rippled across the glass as she hit it with all her might, and after a few good hits, it shattered and glass clattered to the ground, crunching underneath her boots as she punched as many of the sharp bits clinging to the window frame and turned to sit down on the sill.

“Can't do that, sir. I’m heading to the third floor,” she responded calmly as she pulled herself up onto the ledge above her, standing on the sill as she began banging on the window above her with the end of her gun. She ducked her head as glass rained down on her, and she slung the rifle around her back to grip the windowsill with both hands to begin hauling herself up.

“Lieutenant! That floor hasn’t been cleared yet! I said stay put!” Roy yelled at her, and as she pulled herself up into the window the door to the room gave way and she heard the enemy rogues’ feet pounding all over the floor as they searched for the disappeared woman. Riza dragged herself into the upstairs room just as one of them ran over to the window and ducked out, shooting at her feet while she rolled onto the floor, pistol in hand. She didn’t have much time as all the noise had likely attracted attention, and she quickly ran to a door adjoining the room she was in and the next as the door burst open and a man with another rifle stepped in and began shooting. She cried out as a bullet ripped through her calf, but she managed to stumble to the door and swing it closed just as another stream of bullets ripped through the air. She fell roughly onto her back after locking it, and she groaned as she crawled backwards to the opposite wall, leaving a thick trail of blood behind her. She grunted as she propped herself up against the wall, holding up her rifle as she watched the door lurch violently.

“Come and get me,” she growled as she held it up, her finger barely squeezing the trigger. The door jerked once, then twice, then another time, and she watched with hazy vision as the wood began to splinter underneath the force.

Then silence. The only sound was her own ragged breath tainting the air, until the frightened screams pierced joined in, and Riza narrowed her eyes as a brilliant red hue glowed in the small gap between the door and the floor. The doorknob jiggled, then turned red with intense heat, until the metal could take no more and melted to a puddle onto the concrete floor. The door slowly creaked open, and Riza smiled and lowered her gun as her superior officer stepped into the room, smirking without a scratch on him.

“Well. You look pretty good, considering you just got shot,” Roy commented casually as he looked down at the blood smears stretching between the door and her, but despite his cool demeanor she could sense the hard edge of his tone and see the crease of worry in his forehead. He crossed the room quickly to crouch down in front of her, grabbing the edge of his cloak to rip a large section of the fabric free. She gritted her teeth as he propped up her leg slightly to wrap the strip of fabric around her upper leg, tying it tightly to stop the flow of blood from her gunshot wound. He smiled slightly as Riza glanced at the door. “Don’t worry. I have Havoc keeping watch. We need to get you out of here,” he grunted as he slipped her arm around his shoulder and dragged her to her feet.

“I can walk on my own, sir,” she protested, but then hissed in pain as she tried to place her weight on her leg. The colonel ignored her objection and began walking her out of the room, where Havoc was leaning in the door frame with a rifle taking shots at whatever fool poked his head out of the room they were hiding in. Wiggling the cigarette in his mouth, he waved lightly at Riza and the colonel as she limped up beside him.

“Well, this mission is going great. I knew clearing out insurgents was going to be a cake walk,” he said cheerfully.

“Shut up, Havoc,” Roy grumbled and propped Riza against the wall, stepping briskly out into the hall. Before any of the enemy couldn’t react, he released a stream of fire down the hall, and the sound of screams mingled with the roaring flames. “There. That should buy us some time,” he huffed as he watched the burning hallway, ducking back into the room to once again support Riza and begin walking her slowly towards the stairs. Havoc walked backwards behind them, holding the gun steady as he watched for any sign of the enemy.

“Really, I’m fine,” Riza grunted as she shuffled along beside her superior. Really, she knew she wasn’t, but he had one arm around her middle and was pressing her close as he half-walked, half-dragged her down the hallway, and the feeling of his warmth made a blush rise to her cheeks even despite the dire situation. Even in the midst of battle this man drives me insane, she thought, hoping she couldn’t hear her heart beating furiously.

“Don’t try and act tough,” he sighed as he kicked open the door to the stairs, easing her down onto the first step as Havoc held open the door. She pursed her lips, but then inhaled sharply as she put her weight down on his injured leg for a moment, and intense pain shot through her nerves in an instant and made her entire body shudder as she tried not to scream. Despite Roy tying off the wound, blood was still dripping out of her, spattering onto the steps as they inched their way down. I’m hurt worse than I thought, she realized as she clenched her teeth.

Suddenly, the door to the stairs crashed open with a bang!, and Havoc unleashed a stream of bullets and caught the perpetrators off-guard for a moment.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!” the blonde-haired man cried, then cursed as his cigarette fell out of his mouth. Riza cried out in alarm as she felt her legs suddenly give way, and she blushed fiercely as she realized that Roy had scooped her into his arms and was carrying her down the steps as Havoc shot repeatedly at the enemy behind them. She ducked her head as a bullet whizzed by, clipping a few strands of her hair as it went. Resigned to the situation, all she could do was throw her arms around her neck and hang on tightly, her heart pounding the entire time.

Somehow, they made it down to the first floor alive, and as they crashed through the door the insurgents behind them were met with the barrels of fifteen guns. It seemed the first floor had been cleared successfully and the military had made base camp there, luckily for the harried colonel and his two subordinates. The few surviving renegades that had chased them down the stairs opted to surrender, and as they dropped to their knees and were taken into custody, Roy carried Riza over to the medical tent and gently set her down onto a wooden box while a nurse came to fuss over her.

“It’s a clean wound, thankfully,” the woman smiled up at her as she assessed the damage. “Thanks to the colonel cutting off your blood flow, you didn’t lose too much blood, so you'll be fine. I’ll go arrange for transport, so we can get you to a hospital,” she chirped before vanishing into the tent to start a radio call. Riza sat calmly on the box while Roy bent down in front of her, staring at her bleeding leg.

“It’s nothing, sir,” she told him firmly.

“’Nothing’ my ass,” he muttered. “I shouldn’t have sent you out there alone,” he sighed and ran his hand through his dark black hair. He narrowed his eyes sadly, reaching out with a gloved hand to gently touch her calf. A shudder ran through Rina’s entire body, and her heart rate skyrocketed. She was grateful that the glow from the lantern nearby eclipsed her raging blush, and looked away in mild embarrassment.

“Roy, we said we wouldn’t do stuff like this while we're on the job-" she hissed under her breath, and then she gasped when his finger caught her underneath the chin and turned her face. She blinked as his lips suddenly covered her own, but she found that she could not pull back; instead, her eyes drifted closed and she leaned into the kiss, her hand reaching up to gently cup Roy's cheek. They kissed for a moment, and then he pulled back, but only mere inches.

“I don’t care about that. You’re hurt,” he murmured.

“That nurse said I would be fine,” she sighed with a small smile. Part of her loved how much he worried about her, but the other part of her clung stubbornly to pride and hating to be seen as weak. Roy pursed his lips at her, unconvinced. Riza smiled and took his hands in her own, gently rubbing the tops with her thumbs. “Really, Roy, I’m fine. You saved my life.”

“Well, I guess it’s fair, considering you saved mine,” he murmured softly and brought one of her hands to his mouth to kiss her palm. Her heartbeat shot up again, and her cheeks turned pink. Ugh, look at him, he thinks he’s so smooth, she thought as he smirked proudly up at her, and she rolled her eyes and pulled her hands back as the nurse came walking out of the tent.

“The transport is on its way. I’ll start preparatory treatment here. Colonel, I’ll take it from here,” the nurse said socially, and Roy slowly rose to his feet and cleared his throat as Riza stood up unsteadily to hobble into the tent.

“Take good care of her,” he called as he uncomfortably watched Riza duck into the tent. She glanced over her shoulder with a small smile.

“Shouldn’t you be clearing out the rest of those insurgents, Colonel?” she smirked at him, and now it was his cheeks that turned a bright shade of pink. He scowled slightly at her as she chuckled and saluted him. He gave her one worried glance before whipping around to walk stiffly to return to battle, and Riza's smile slowly faded as she watched him go. Be safe, she almost called after him, but she knew that the words were unneeded. He would always come back to her.

Just like she would always return safely to him.

“Let’s get that bullet wound taken care of, miss, before it turns into a problem,” the nurse chirped from inside the tent. Riza hesitated, watching Roy turn the corner, and then obediently entered the tent so the nurse could treat her. As she sat down on the cot and allowed the nurse to begin inspecting her wound, she smiled as she heard Roy barking orders.

He would always come back to her, and always be there in her time of need. And I’ll do the same, she thought with a small smile, leaning back slightly as the nurse began to work on her bullet wound.

I’ll always do the same.

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