Chapter 56 - In the Heat of the Night
By Cille
Lacy lingerie. Check.
Boob-hugging corset dress. Check.
Just the right amount of makeup. Check.
Flouncy yet manageable hairstyle. Check.
As Angel sized herself up in the mirror, the mental checklist gave way to a general sense of satisfaction at all the fabulous she was seeing.
They might be stuck in a bunker in the middle of the woods, but she hadn't lost any of her flair for the sexified. And tonight she made sure she was at the top of her game. Tonight, the date was at Roy's place.
Roy's turnaround since the unpleasantness of the war had been nothing short of astounding. The brooding and pettiness and anxiety had given way to an earnest desire to make everything right with Angel, and for the last two weeks Roy had gone out of his way to impress her and win back her trust and respect. Angel felt like she was actually being courted, and she loved it. She'd never had to work to get a man interested in her, but having a man work to win her over was immensely gratifying. Especially when that man was a desirable specimen to begin with.
Of course it hadn't been easy keeping her lust in check, but she treated that as an exercise in willpower as she kept her eyes on the prize.
But tonight, Roy had set up a dinner date in his room, and both of them knew what that meant. And this time, both of them were entirely ready for it.
He came by at 8:00 sharp, and was clearly impressed with how great she looked as he escorted her to his room. She'd ditched the crutch a few days earlier, but she was happy to take his arm as they walked.
"There's not much I could do to fancy up the place, I'm afraid," he said apologetically as he opened the door for her.
As she went into the room, she took a look around. It was impeccably tidy, of course, and Roy had eschewed the harsh illumination of the overhead light in favor of a multitude of candles spread throughout the room. She thought the flames were a nice touch.
To one side of the room a small table was set up with dinner for two, complete with a folded paper rose in an empty wine bottle. A full wine bottle was nestled in a bucket of ice, and the plates on the table were already loaded up with the evening's entrees - chicken breasts in a savory sauce, roasted vegetables, and chunks of canned fruit cut into little heart shapes.
"Oh wow, this looks great," Angel said, admiring the spread.
Roy smiled. "I had to pull a few strings to put it all together. Fortunately once I told Sanji what it was for, he had no trouble cooking up something special."
He held her chair for her as she took her seat, and then poured two glasses of wine before sitting down himself. The two of them raised their glasses for a toast.
"To a magical evening with the most beautiful woman I know," Roy said.
"I'll drink to that," Angel said with a beguiling smile.
The meal really was delicious, especially peppered as it was with playful conversation, flirtatious looks, and surreptitious not-quite-accidental touching under the table.
When they finished eating, Angel put her hands on her waist and stretched out a little. "I think I ate too much, this corset is feeling way too tight."
Roy smiled mischievously. "Hmm, I wonder what we can do about that. Maybe I could help you loosen those strings a little?"
Angel smiled back at him. "I thought you'd never ask."
That was all it took to unleash the torrents of desire they'd been holding back. The dinner table was forgotten, and all they could see or feel was each other amid a flurry of discarded clothing as they made their way toward the bed.
And then they were naked, and Roy's hands and lips were moving all over her body, leaving tingles of ecstasy wherever they touched.
It had been so long since she felt this way. And somehow she knew it would all be worth it. The waiting, and the drama, and the weirdness, everything was melting away from the heat of their bodies finally coming together.
"Roy..." she moaned, as his kisses worked their way down her neck toward her chest.
"Riza..." he breathed, with his face nestled in her bosom.
Angel felt herself abruptly startled out of her rapture. Did he... Does he think I'm...
Roy seemed oblivious to his gaffe, and went right on with his lovemaking. He was doing wonderful things to her breasts, but somehow she couldn't fully immerse herself in the blissful sensations he was producing. But it wasn't that big a deal, right? She should just forget it and move on, right?
"Is something wrong?" he asked, sensing that she suddenly wasn't totally into it.
She had a split-second to make a decision. She could ignore his slip of the tongue and lose herself in passion again. Or she could...
"Do you know what you just said?" she asked tentatively.
"What? Um... I don't know, I wasn't really thinking about it. I just said your name, didn't I?"
So he had no idea what he had done. He was looking at her, knowing full well who he was making love to, and there was no reason for her to interrupt him to quibble over a dumb faux pas.
"Don't worry about it. As you were, soldier," she purred with an inviting smile.
He grinned back at her and resumed his advance on her breasts.
Just a simple mistake. He obviously knows I'm not her.
The rest of the love scene played out like a fangirl's fantasy. He lavished her body with passionate attention, always focused on what she seemed to want. Whether they were making strategic use of the candles or getting creative with positions, he was always watching and acting on her subtle cues. She felt that he cared more about making her feel good than about getting himself off, and she repaid his generosity in kind. For the first time in a long time Angel felt like she was truly making love, not just getting laid. The climaxes were even more fulfilling as a payoff to everything they'd been through to get to this point. It was spectacular. And when their lustful energy was finally spent (for the time being), they settled into a satisfied embrace in his bed.
"You are... incredible," she sighed, and he responded with a gratified chuckle.
"I was about to say the same about you." He traced the contour of her body with the tips of his fingers. She watched his face in the flickering candlelight, and suddenly realized how tired she felt.
"You know we should probably get some sleep," she said ruefully.
"Probably. At least for a little while, to recharge our batteries before... you know," he said with a wink.
She smiled coyly at him, and then turned to lie on her side. He promptly snuggled up behind her and put his arm around her.
As they both drifted toward sleep, she felt immensely content. Lying next to him like this, her body fit perfectly into the space next to his. It was like he was shielding her from the world. She felt protected. This was a man who would never hurt her, not like a certain someone else she could name.
He held her closer and nestled his face into her hair.
"You know I love you... Riza..." he murmured before slipping into his dreams.
The name, tenderly whispered, came out like a bullet from a gun. Angel felt as if her own dreams had been shattered. She lay there, knowing sleep would now be impossible, wishing that he had just kept his mouth shut and let her enjoy the afterglow of what they had just shared.
She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to go back to that ecstatic feeling, concentrating on his arm draped across her chest and his body pressed against her back, but the sound of that name had been seared into her mind.
Riza...
She'd known all along that he still carried a torch for his lost fiancee. She'd even considered that he might see her as Riza's replacement, or that he found her attractive because she reminded him of her. But through the previous weeks when they'd finally moved from awkward flirting to truly growing closer, she thought that she'd been woman enough to help him move past his obsession with that figment from his past. Wasn't that why he'd been trying so hard to win her affection after that fiasco with Matrix? Wasn't it because he realized that she was something better than a memory?
Then why... why was it still Riza that he was in love with?
Her thoughts raced. She had to work this out in her own mind, and fast. If there was any chance that she could relax and fall asleep in his arms, she had to find a way to deal with this. Surely it wasn't something she couldn't overcome if she wanted to. She could ignore it, she could not care, she could lose herself in the sex, she could even be his Riza if that's what he wanted, if it meant they could be together, if she could use him to satisfy that ache -
No. She wasn't Riza. She was Angel, and she had come far enough to know that she deserved to be loved for who she was, not who some man wanted her to be. This wasn't going to be okay. As terribly, desperately badly as she wanted it to be okay, it just wasn't. And yeah maybe she could just ignore it and go along with how things should be, but she knew that deep down she would always feel that it wasn't okay.
She suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to not be there anymore. Glancing back at her sleeping consort, she slipped out from under his arm and out of the bed. The candles were starting to burn out, but they still cast enough light for her to find her clothes and underthings scattered around the floor. She needed to take everything with her. She also needed to not leave the room naked, so she pulled on as much of her clothing as necessary to not embarrass herself if she happened to be seen. The entire time she felt incredibly tense, with a sort of terror that he might wake up and ask her why she was leaving.
With her heart in her throat, she opened the door and closed it behind her as quietly as she could. She took a furtive look down the hallway and then started hurrying toward her room, clutching her belongings to her chest like a thief.
She rushed down the hallway, wanting terribly badly to cry, but wanting just as badly not to cry until she was safe behind closed doors again.
She turned the corner and ran straight into the one person she did not want to see at that moment.
"Hey, watch it," Matrix said as he bumped into her. Then he saw who it was. "Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to run into you." She just lowered her face, and looking closer he saw that she was shaken up. "Hey, I didn't hurt you or something, did I?"
She just felt more like crying, and desperately wanted to get away. Then he noticed the haphazard state of her clothes and what she was carrying, and it took him about half a second to realize where she'd been and what she'd been doing - and who she'd been doing it with.
"Did he do something?" She couldn't answer, and he put his hands on her shoulders. "Hey, what did he do to you?"
"LEAVE ME ALONE," she cried, pushing past him and practically running away toward her room. She kept running until she was safe inside, and then she locked the door and collapsed in tears on her bed, not even bothering to turn on the light.
Matrix watched her go, with a furrowed brow and a clenched fist. This had to be about Mustang. He didn't know what the hell was going on, but if she was this upset about it, it had to be a big deal. And he couldn't just go on his merry way without doing something about it.
He marched to Mustang's room, barely even thinking about what he would do, and pounded on the door.
"Hey, open up," he demanded, and waited only a few seconds before opening the door himself.
The light from the hallway was enough to reveal the scene inside Mustang's room. The alchemist, having been rudely awakened from his sweet slumber, was just starting to regain consciousness.
"Hey. Wake up."
"What the hell, get out of here..." Mustang growled groggily. Then, wanting to shield Angel from the intrusion, he felt around and realized she wasn't in the bed. "Wait, where did she..."
"Get up, I need to ask you something," Matrix demanded.
Mustang turned back to him with a glare, finally awake enough to know that he was being cornered into a confrontation. Holding the edge of a sheet to cover his nakedness, he stood up to face his accuser. "You'd better have a damn good reason for this."
"What did you do to her?" Matrix asked coldly.
"What? You're talking about Angel? Where is she?"
"She's running to her room crying. That's why I want to know what you did to her."
Mustang couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What the... We were just here, everything was fine..."
"Yeah I'm sure. That's why she looks like she's just had her heart broken or something."
Mustang narrowed his eyes. "Look, if she's got a broken heart then she needs to come to me, not you."
"Right, because you're the big sensitive man," Matrix retorted. "Look, you don't get to make her cry and then just pretend like nothing's wrong."
"Really? You of all people are going to give me a lecture on how to treat Angel?"
"Hey she can hate me all she wants for what I did to her. That doesn't mean I can't punch you in the face for what you did to her."
"But I don't even know -"
Matrix didn't let him finish, and unloaded the hardest punch of his life right onto Mustang's confused face. It knocked him backwards, and he landed in an undignified pose on the floor.
Matrix glowered over him for a moment. "You can settle things with her. I did what I came here to do."
And then he was gone, getting the hell out of there before Mustang had a chance to spring to his feet and retaliate.
Mustang just stayed there sprawled naked on the floor for a few minutes, holding his face in his hand and wondering how in the holy hell his night had gone from so amazing to so what in the hell is even going on here.
When he finally came to his senses the first thing he did was close and lock the door before anybody else could come along and get an eyeful. His next impulse was to go after Angel and see what was wrong and comfort her. He had no idea what had upset her or made her want to leave his side. Everything had been so right between them. He hadn't felt that way since...
He found his underwear on the floor and distractedly pulled it on, and then sat forlornly on the edge of the bed. Had he actually done something to make Angel feel bad? Or maybe she hadn't felt the same way he did about their experience together?
He definitely needed to talk to her. If there was a misunderstanding he needed to clear it up, and if he actually had done something wrong then he needed to apologize and beg her forgiveness. He kind of wanted to go plead outside her door right then and there. But something told him that his advances wouldn't be welcome, and that she'd want to be alone to work out her emotions before she saw him. Plus he really had no idea how to approach it without possibly making things worse.
So he slumped over into bed, resolving to work things out with her as soon as he saw her the next day.
And the next time he saw that asshole scientist, he was getting a swift fireball to what was left of his nads.
Chapter 56 author's notes:
Recurring characters:
Angel Sarcasta - mgangel1124
Professor M. Matrix - matrixman124
Roy Mustang - Fullmetal Alchemist
Sanji - One Piece
*Riza "Hawkeye" Yui - Fullmetal Alchemist
* Characters marked with an asterisk are mentioned but do not take an active part in the story.
Lacy lingerie. Check.
Boob-hugging corset dress. Check.
Just the right amount of makeup. Check.
Flouncy yet manageable hairstyle. Check.
As Angel sized herself up in the mirror, the mental checklist gave way to a general sense of satisfaction at all the fabulous she was seeing.
They might be stuck in a bunker in the middle of the woods, but she hadn't lost any of her flair for the sexified. And tonight she made sure she was at the top of her game. Tonight, the date was at Roy's place.
Roy's turnaround since the unpleasantness of the war had been nothing short of astounding. The brooding and pettiness and anxiety had given way to an earnest desire to make everything right with Angel, and for the last two weeks Roy had gone out of his way to impress her and win back her trust and respect. Angel felt like she was actually being courted, and she loved it. She'd never had to work to get a man interested in her, but having a man work to win her over was immensely gratifying. Especially when that man was a desirable specimen to begin with.
Of course it hadn't been easy keeping her lust in check, but she treated that as an exercise in willpower as she kept her eyes on the prize.
But tonight, Roy had set up a dinner date in his room, and both of them knew what that meant. And this time, both of them were entirely ready for it.
He came by at 8:00 sharp, and was clearly impressed with how great she looked as he escorted her to his room. She'd ditched the crutch a few days earlier, but she was happy to take his arm as they walked.
"There's not much I could do to fancy up the place, I'm afraid," he said apologetically as he opened the door for her.
As she went into the room, she took a look around. It was impeccably tidy, of course, and Roy had eschewed the harsh illumination of the overhead light in favor of a multitude of candles spread throughout the room. She thought the flames were a nice touch.
To one side of the room a small table was set up with dinner for two, complete with a folded paper rose in an empty wine bottle. A full wine bottle was nestled in a bucket of ice, and the plates on the table were already loaded up with the evening's entrees - chicken breasts in a savory sauce, roasted vegetables, and chunks of canned fruit cut into little heart shapes.
"Oh wow, this looks great," Angel said, admiring the spread.
Roy smiled. "I had to pull a few strings to put it all together. Fortunately once I told Sanji what it was for, he had no trouble cooking up something special."
He held her chair for her as she took her seat, and then poured two glasses of wine before sitting down himself. The two of them raised their glasses for a toast.
"To a magical evening with the most beautiful woman I know," Roy said.
"I'll drink to that," Angel said with a beguiling smile.
The meal really was delicious, especially peppered as it was with playful conversation, flirtatious looks, and surreptitious not-quite-accidental touching under the table.
When they finished eating, Angel put her hands on her waist and stretched out a little. "I think I ate too much, this corset is feeling way too tight."
Roy smiled mischievously. "Hmm, I wonder what we can do about that. Maybe I could help you loosen those strings a little?"
Angel smiled back at him. "I thought you'd never ask."
That was all it took to unleash the torrents of desire they'd been holding back. The dinner table was forgotten, and all they could see or feel was each other amid a flurry of discarded clothing as they made their way toward the bed.
And then they were naked, and Roy's hands and lips were moving all over her body, leaving tingles of ecstasy wherever they touched.
It had been so long since she felt this way. And somehow she knew it would all be worth it. The waiting, and the drama, and the weirdness, everything was melting away from the heat of their bodies finally coming together.
"Roy..." she moaned, as his kisses worked their way down her neck toward her chest.
"Riza..." he breathed, with his face nestled in her bosom.
Angel felt herself abruptly startled out of her rapture. Did he... Does he think I'm...
Roy seemed oblivious to his gaffe, and went right on with his lovemaking. He was doing wonderful things to her breasts, but somehow she couldn't fully immerse herself in the blissful sensations he was producing. But it wasn't that big a deal, right? She should just forget it and move on, right?
"Is something wrong?" he asked, sensing that she suddenly wasn't totally into it.
She had a split-second to make a decision. She could ignore his slip of the tongue and lose herself in passion again. Or she could...
"Do you know what you just said?" she asked tentatively.
"What? Um... I don't know, I wasn't really thinking about it. I just said your name, didn't I?"
So he had no idea what he had done. He was looking at her, knowing full well who he was making love to, and there was no reason for her to interrupt him to quibble over a dumb faux pas.
"Don't worry about it. As you were, soldier," she purred with an inviting smile.
He grinned back at her and resumed his advance on her breasts.
Just a simple mistake. He obviously knows I'm not her.
The rest of the love scene played out like a fangirl's fantasy. He lavished her body with passionate attention, always focused on what she seemed to want. Whether they were making strategic use of the candles or getting creative with positions, he was always watching and acting on her subtle cues. She felt that he cared more about making her feel good than about getting himself off, and she repaid his generosity in kind. For the first time in a long time Angel felt like she was truly making love, not just getting laid. The climaxes were even more fulfilling as a payoff to everything they'd been through to get to this point. It was spectacular. And when their lustful energy was finally spent (for the time being), they settled into a satisfied embrace in his bed.
"You are... incredible," she sighed, and he responded with a gratified chuckle.
"I was about to say the same about you." He traced the contour of her body with the tips of his fingers. She watched his face in the flickering candlelight, and suddenly realized how tired she felt.
"You know we should probably get some sleep," she said ruefully.
"Probably. At least for a little while, to recharge our batteries before... you know," he said with a wink.
She smiled coyly at him, and then turned to lie on her side. He promptly snuggled up behind her and put his arm around her.
As they both drifted toward sleep, she felt immensely content. Lying next to him like this, her body fit perfectly into the space next to his. It was like he was shielding her from the world. She felt protected. This was a man who would never hurt her, not like a certain someone else she could name.
He held her closer and nestled his face into her hair.
"You know I love you... Riza..." he murmured before slipping into his dreams.
The name, tenderly whispered, came out like a bullet from a gun. Angel felt as if her own dreams had been shattered. She lay there, knowing sleep would now be impossible, wishing that he had just kept his mouth shut and let her enjoy the afterglow of what they had just shared.
She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to go back to that ecstatic feeling, concentrating on his arm draped across her chest and his body pressed against her back, but the sound of that name had been seared into her mind.
Riza...
She'd known all along that he still carried a torch for his lost fiancee. She'd even considered that he might see her as Riza's replacement, or that he found her attractive because she reminded him of her. But through the previous weeks when they'd finally moved from awkward flirting to truly growing closer, she thought that she'd been woman enough to help him move past his obsession with that figment from his past. Wasn't that why he'd been trying so hard to win her affection after that fiasco with Matrix? Wasn't it because he realized that she was something better than a memory?
Then why... why was it still Riza that he was in love with?
Her thoughts raced. She had to work this out in her own mind, and fast. If there was any chance that she could relax and fall asleep in his arms, she had to find a way to deal with this. Surely it wasn't something she couldn't overcome if she wanted to. She could ignore it, she could not care, she could lose herself in the sex, she could even be his Riza if that's what he wanted, if it meant they could be together, if she could use him to satisfy that ache -
No. She wasn't Riza. She was Angel, and she had come far enough to know that she deserved to be loved for who she was, not who some man wanted her to be. This wasn't going to be okay. As terribly, desperately badly as she wanted it to be okay, it just wasn't. And yeah maybe she could just ignore it and go along with how things should be, but she knew that deep down she would always feel that it wasn't okay.
She suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to not be there anymore. Glancing back at her sleeping consort, she slipped out from under his arm and out of the bed. The candles were starting to burn out, but they still cast enough light for her to find her clothes and underthings scattered around the floor. She needed to take everything with her. She also needed to not leave the room naked, so she pulled on as much of her clothing as necessary to not embarrass herself if she happened to be seen. The entire time she felt incredibly tense, with a sort of terror that he might wake up and ask her why she was leaving.
With her heart in her throat, she opened the door and closed it behind her as quietly as she could. She took a furtive look down the hallway and then started hurrying toward her room, clutching her belongings to her chest like a thief.
She rushed down the hallway, wanting terribly badly to cry, but wanting just as badly not to cry until she was safe behind closed doors again.
She turned the corner and ran straight into the one person she did not want to see at that moment.
"Hey, watch it," Matrix said as he bumped into her. Then he saw who it was. "Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to run into you." She just lowered her face, and looking closer he saw that she was shaken up. "Hey, I didn't hurt you or something, did I?"
She just felt more like crying, and desperately wanted to get away. Then he noticed the haphazard state of her clothes and what she was carrying, and it took him about half a second to realize where she'd been and what she'd been doing - and who she'd been doing it with.
"Did he do something?" She couldn't answer, and he put his hands on her shoulders. "Hey, what did he do to you?"
"LEAVE ME ALONE," she cried, pushing past him and practically running away toward her room. She kept running until she was safe inside, and then she locked the door and collapsed in tears on her bed, not even bothering to turn on the light.
Matrix watched her go, with a furrowed brow and a clenched fist. This had to be about Mustang. He didn't know what the hell was going on, but if she was this upset about it, it had to be a big deal. And he couldn't just go on his merry way without doing something about it.
He marched to Mustang's room, barely even thinking about what he would do, and pounded on the door.
"Hey, open up," he demanded, and waited only a few seconds before opening the door himself.
The light from the hallway was enough to reveal the scene inside Mustang's room. The alchemist, having been rudely awakened from his sweet slumber, was just starting to regain consciousness.
"Hey. Wake up."
"What the hell, get out of here..." Mustang growled groggily. Then, wanting to shield Angel from the intrusion, he felt around and realized she wasn't in the bed. "Wait, where did she..."
"Get up, I need to ask you something," Matrix demanded.
Mustang turned back to him with a glare, finally awake enough to know that he was being cornered into a confrontation. Holding the edge of a sheet to cover his nakedness, he stood up to face his accuser. "You'd better have a damn good reason for this."
"What did you do to her?" Matrix asked coldly.
"What? You're talking about Angel? Where is she?"
"She's running to her room crying. That's why I want to know what you did to her."
Mustang couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What the... We were just here, everything was fine..."
"Yeah I'm sure. That's why she looks like she's just had her heart broken or something."
Mustang narrowed his eyes. "Look, if she's got a broken heart then she needs to come to me, not you."
"Right, because you're the big sensitive man," Matrix retorted. "Look, you don't get to make her cry and then just pretend like nothing's wrong."
"Really? You of all people are going to give me a lecture on how to treat Angel?"
"Hey she can hate me all she wants for what I did to her. That doesn't mean I can't punch you in the face for what you did to her."
"But I don't even know -"
Matrix didn't let him finish, and unloaded the hardest punch of his life right onto Mustang's confused face. It knocked him backwards, and he landed in an undignified pose on the floor.
Matrix glowered over him for a moment. "You can settle things with her. I did what I came here to do."
And then he was gone, getting the hell out of there before Mustang had a chance to spring to his feet and retaliate.
Mustang just stayed there sprawled naked on the floor for a few minutes, holding his face in his hand and wondering how in the holy hell his night had gone from so amazing to so what in the hell is even going on here.
When he finally came to his senses the first thing he did was close and lock the door before anybody else could come along and get an eyeful. His next impulse was to go after Angel and see what was wrong and comfort her. He had no idea what had upset her or made her want to leave his side. Everything had been so right between them. He hadn't felt that way since...
He found his underwear on the floor and distractedly pulled it on, and then sat forlornly on the edge of the bed. Had he actually done something to make Angel feel bad? Or maybe she hadn't felt the same way he did about their experience together?
He definitely needed to talk to her. If there was a misunderstanding he needed to clear it up, and if he actually had done something wrong then he needed to apologize and beg her forgiveness. He kind of wanted to go plead outside her door right then and there. But something told him that his advances wouldn't be welcome, and that she'd want to be alone to work out her emotions before she saw him. Plus he really had no idea how to approach it without possibly making things worse.
So he slumped over into bed, resolving to work things out with her as soon as he saw her the next day.
And the next time he saw that asshole scientist, he was getting a swift fireball to what was left of his nads.
Chapter 56 author's notes:
Recurring characters:
Angel Sarcasta - mgangel1124
Professor M. Matrix - matrixman124
Roy Mustang - Fullmetal Alchemist
Sanji - One Piece
*Riza "Hawkeye" Yui - Fullmetal Alchemist
* Characters marked with an asterisk are mentioned but do not take an active part in the story.