A Parental!RoyEd father's day fic; the cliché 'Ed gives Roy a card' plot- hopefully, minus the OOCness.

All Nina's Idea

"...Ed?"

Ed lifted his head up groggily at the sound of the young girl's voice. "Yeah?" he said, rubbing his eyes and placing his book on the floor next to him, the spine cracking quietly.

She stepped into the room and grinned, holding up a thick pile of colorful paper and a fistful of crayons. "Do you wanna draw?" she asked.

Ed stood up unsteadily, off balance from a day of sitting and nothing else. He knew he had to work, but...He had a bit of a soft spot for Nina. She was happy, carefree- many things that Edward was not and never would be. But he liked being around her, just to see what it was like. To be a child without having to worry about everything...Or anything at all, really.

"Sure," he said, stretching. "What do you want to draw?"

Her grin grew wider. "A card! Tomorrow's father's day!"

Ed felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Ah...Nina, I-"

She wasn't listening. She had already grabbed his hand- the metal one, although she made no comment about it- and was dragging him down the hall to a sun-lit reading room that was made almost entirely of windows. "Here," she said when they got there, leaving no time for Ed to protest again. "We can use the floor to draw on. I have two good kinds of paper. There's pink and blue."

"Um...I'll have the blue kind," Ed said, salvaging the small bit of manliness he had left. He was drawing pictures with a little girl. The least he could do was not take the pink paper.

Nina gave him a confused look. "Why?" she asked. "The pink is prettier."

"Yeah, that's why YOU get it," Ed said, giving her a quick smile.

She giggled and grabbed a crayon out of the pile on the floor. "This is me and daddy and Alexander," she declared. Ed nodded, although he honestly couldn't tell the difference between Nina and the 'tree' that was drawn in blue next to her. She doodled contentedly for a few more moments before realizing that Ed wasn't doing the same.

She looked up, her face indignant. "Why aren't YOU drawing?" she asked, pointing towards the still blank sheet of blue paper.

"Um...I don't know who to make the card for," he replied lamely.

She pouted. "It's for your DADDY! Of COURSE! Just draw it for him!"

"I don't have a daddy- a dad," he corrected himself with an attempted reminder of his age. Fifteen-year-olds did not say daddy. It just didn't happen.

"Hmm," she said, putting on a thinking expression. Suddenly, her face lit up. "I got it! You can make a card for your mommy instead!"

Ed sighed. "I don't have one of those either."

Nina's face fell. "Well, then who is there?"

"Just me and Al. But Al's younger than me, so it's not like-"

"Oh! I got another idea! You can make a card for a daddy-person! He doesn't have to be YOUR daddy, but-"

"Wait," Ed cut her off. "What do you mean? Like...A father figure?"

Nina nodded vigorously. "Yup! That!"

"...There isn't really anyone, I mean-"

"What about that guy?" Nina said, completely ignoring him. "The one that came here to pick you up yesterday. He smelled like a fireplace, only gross."

"Uh..." Ed said dumbly, trying to figure out Nina's words. Of all the codes he's had to break in the last month, Nina's language was the most complicated.

Fireplace= fire= ...smoke?

"Havoc?!"

Nina laughed. "That's a funny name!"

Ed was on the verge of laughter too. "Havoc?!" he said again. "Uh, no. Not him."

Nina stopped laughing, a serious look plastered on her face. "What about...The guy who brought you here? On the first day? With the black hair and the blue dress?"

Ed laughed out loud. "Mustang?!" he exclaimed, before remembering an even more absurd detail. "Blue dress?!" He laughed more, feeling at loss for breath. Nina laughed too, although she didn't quite understand what was so funny.

Well, I suppose the military uniform DOES sort of-

"Wait." His current thoughts were cut short as he remembered what Nina had been originally asking. "Mustang...A DAD?"

Nina nodded, her smile as wide as ever. Ed stared at her, shocked. "....Mustang. A dad." He continued to turn the words around in his head, over and over, hoping for them to finally come together and make sense.

It wasn't the suggestion that confused him...It was the fact that he wasn't completely opposed to it. It almost seemed...Realistic. It was true, Mustang wasn't kind to him, not in the least, and definitely not an IDEAL father figure...But...He had been there. At the lowest point in Ed's life, he had come and- whether it had been accidental or on purpose- given him just the tiniest bit of hope. Even that was enough to get him back on his feet, and for that small favor, Ed had become determined to pay the man back for his kindness with years worth of grief and annoyance. It seemed a fitting gift; natural, even. Although, they were both to blame for the simple, hard-to-ignore fact that...

Roy and Ed hated each other.

A relationship was definitely there, one of tolerance at the very least and friendship at the very best, but it wasn't really...Visible. More of a silent-treatment-means-we're-getting-along-fine sort of thing. And although he ordinarily would never have said it, he really did appreciate what Roy had done. A few small things here and there, but it helped. And maybe, just maybe, on one day of the year, Roy deserved some thanks.

"Okay," he said finally. "I'll write the card."

Ed had remained cooped up in his room for days after Nina's death, a fact of which Roy pretended to remain happily oblivious to.

Until, of course, Hughes came through his door without so much as a knock, two pieces of paper in hand and a small smile on his face.

"We were investigating the Tucker house when we found these," he stated, holding out the two folded papers to the man on the other side of the desk, who took them with bored indifference.

He opened the pink one first to find a few blob-like drawings with faces and messy handwriting that said something along the lines of 'Happy father's day, daddy.'

"That one's Nina's," Hughes explained. "She didn't know what her dad had done- she made this recently, only yesterday or the day before. But what I think you'd be more interested in..." Hughes began, stalling dramatically as he handed Roy the next card. "Is this."

Roy opened it with a sigh; Hughes was wasting his time. He had paperwork to do, women to call, and-

His inner rant was cut short.

Ed's untidy handwriting filled the card, arranging a few short, simple sentences obviously directed at HIM. The Flame Alchemist, Colonel Bastard, Roy Mustang himself.

His shocked expression must have shown itself on his face. Hughes was smirking, already mentally preparing the story that he would recount to his wife.

"I think you should go talk to him," Hughes said. "It's kind of an obligation."

Roy nodded, silently and left the room, leaving a widely grinning man behind him.

To Colonel Bastard

I mean, to Roy Mustang.

It's father's day tomorrow, and Nina told me to make a card. You're probably the closest thing to a father I have, and even that's not very close, but it's good enough. And even though you're a jerk sometimes- well, all the time, really- you've done a few good things for me, and even that's more than what my REAL 'dad' did. So I guess I owe you a thank you. Today only. And after this, you have to forget any of this ever happened, okay?

It was all Nina's idea.

-Ed