Daydream

A/N: Inspired by "Code Monkey" by Jonathon Coulton.

Many things could be said about Roy Mustang, but that he was one for monotony was certainly not among them.

He'd thought that every day in his apprenticeship to Berthold Hawkeye was going to be an adventure. He was quite surprised to find out just how wrong he was. Hell, most days, he wasn't even doing alchemy! (Or rather, he wasn't scribbling arrays and making things happen with them—theory is as much a part of alchemy as practice, as Mr. Hawkeye reminded him daily.)

And while Roy wasn't a bad student by far, sometimes, it was hard not to feel like one. Every day, it was get up, get dressed, maybe have breakfast, pore over tomes and tomes of theory, produce maybe one array he'd never touch again, and be told that he'd gotten the subtle details all wrong. More than once, Roy had been tempted to rebuff a criticism with, "Well then maybe you should show me how it's done!" Thankfully, if there was one thing he'd learned living with Chris all these years, it was how to keep quiet even when he really didn't want to.

Maybe alchemy was wrong for the simple man Roy was at heart, but he wasn't going to give up. After all, if nothing else, there was Riza…

Oh, no, he'd never say it out loud, but he was pretty sure Mr. Hawkeye knew just how smitten Roy was with his teacher's daughter. As for Riza, she was even harder to read than her father, and Roy was never quite sure what was going on behind those eyes. Even with his attempts to get her to open up (and, more and more often, her willingness to respond to said attempts), Riza was becoming, if anything, more of a mystery.

Roy, however, was nothing if not persistent (stubborn, some might say, but, as Chris often told him, "It's all in how you frame it, Roy-boy"), and willing to go the extra mile. Little acts of kindness here and there, a few surprises, and, as hard as it was, not pushing the limits too much, were starting to have the desired effect. He could now get a few minutes of conversation almost every time he tried, and there had been a few nights where they'd stayed up far too late talking.

But most of all, Riza was smiling. It wasn't something Roy had known her to do very much in the beginning, but now, it seemed that, unless she was having a bad day, Roy was granted a true, if small smile whenever Riza saw him.

Sometimes, he would catch himself daydreaming. It was something Chris hadn't been able to break him of, and now, she would just sigh and say "Just remember, you need the present to get to the future."

Roy was able to rationalize this with a quick, "But I am thinking of the present." Just… not necessarily about what he was supposed to be thinking about, but honestly, nobody could police his thoughts. (Or so he thought, but sometimes, it seemed like Mr. Hawkeye could read his mind. All Roy knew was that he'd gotten the "Remember: you're here for alchemy" speech seemingly out of nowhere more than once.)

Someday, though…

Roy sighed and shook his head, stopping just as Riza walked into the room.

Okay, maybe he could dream for just a little longer.

A/N: I haven't written jack (no pun intended) in a month o' Sundays, let me tell ya! But I heard this song, and this little ficlet popped into my head, and, well, here y'are.

Enjoyed it? Let me know! :D