Brief Summary: Hohenheim learns something new with the birth of his first son.
Disclaimer: FullMetal Alchemist belongs to the cow. And I thank her for such an amazing adventure.
A/N: I, thus far, have been writing countless Hohenheim muses. I recognize him to be one of the most essential characters in FMA, as well as one of the most intriguing. However, I must give most of the credit to my dear fanfic buddy Cookie~ (AnimeCookie93 / I effin' love you honeyyy! -pounces-) She gave me the idea to create a series of Papa!Hoho and Little!Edo one-shots.
Despite the fact that Ed has grown to hold a grudge and limitless hatred toward his father, I know for a fact that he still wants nothing than to be unconditionally loved by a father figure. One of the things that I adored about how Arakawa concluded the series, was that she resolved the conflict between Ed and Hohenheim. The fact that the young man let his soft side come out as he looked to Hohenheim with tears in his eyes and finally called him "dad" put me to awe. Even if he did include the words "shitty-excuse-for-a-father" in the bunch. XD
Obviously, Arakawa is really big on family. I think that's what makes her the mangaka she is. I wish her luck with works in the future! -heart-
A Series of Papa!Hoho & Little!Edo One-shots;
C a t c h i n g T h e M o n s t e r
~u~
For centuries he has lived, and yet why was it? You'd think that Van Hohenheim would be the wisest of them all; he's lived the lifetime of six generations, moreover. Be thou as it may, he still had so much to learn. On that single stormy night in Resembool, he came to realize he had not grown to his full potential. Hohenheim would think of life as a cycle. Everyone and everything dies — that's just the nature of things. And that was how he eased the pain. The unsparing, ruthless pain of watching the loved ones before him go seven feet under.
Hohenheim's hand was moist the sweat that his wife burdened upon him as she squeezed her digits around his. It was so foreign to see Trisha suffering like this; she was always the kind peach-lipped woman with a smile on her features. But tonight, her eyebrows were pushed together in antagonizing concentration, which created a road of veins on her forehead. Every once in a while she was belt out a scream, but most of the time she sucked it in, biting on her lower lip and tensing her muscles.
When the stress boiled up at the point it became too much in the room, Pinako (their chosen midwife) hollered at Van to leave the room or he was suffer some serious trauma to the head with her trusty opium pipe. Even though her son and his wife were certified doctors, they didn't lead the birth of Hohenheim and Trisha's first child.
Pinako's son — Urey — was indeed there, but he mostly just handed medical supplies to his mother as she belted screams at him with a menopause he truly feared ever since she hit her early-fifties. His wife — Sara — was only months from her due date concerning their first child; this was why she had no participation in Trisha's labor. For the past six months, Sara insisted she help with Doctor's work and surgeries... Though she was impossibly stubborn when her husband had to rip her away from the surgical bed. Then, he had to tell her time and time again to rest. God, she hated feeling useless and... Pregnant. She was carrying a child, so what? She was just as skilled and had enough energy as any doctor in Amestris!
"Mom is already pissed, honey! You have to sit down and stay out of the child birth or she'll get even angrier!" Urey insisted while Pinako threatened Hohenheim in the background.
He pushed the seven-month-prego blonde woman out the door and down the hall before his mother would spot her. And boy, was she heavy! Ten pounds heavier with a watermelon for a stomach, Sara ignorantly crossed her arms against her chest and kept her purple-slippered feet from moving as he literally had to drag her across the Elric household.
"I'm just as much Trisha's friend as you are! How come you get to help her in labor and I don't?" Protested Sara.
The blond man spoke through his teeth as he had to use all his muscles to push the mighty woman across a wooden floor, "I-promise-you'll-get-to-participate-in-their-next-baby's-birth! You're on bed rest! Now go rest in the damn bed!"
"We don't know if they'll have another baby! Stop pushing me, Urey!" She pounded her opened palms against his broad chest so she could try and escape.
"Most couples do! And when that happens, you can, but you're pregnant and unfit to make surgical decisions!" He grabbed hold of her hardened bubble tummy and tried to restrain her, but it was no use. She was blinded by raging hormones and hated to be unproductive.
"Will you two SHUT UP?" Pinako shouted from inside the inner room, followed by a cry from poor laboring Trisha. "UREY! Get the hell in here, boy!"
"But, mo-"
"NOW!"
In the blink of an eye, Urey scattered into the room in a cowardly fashion, while Van hustled out of the room in fear that he would be beaten to a pulp by the old woman's mere glare. Mister Hohenheim shot Mister Rockbell a 'good luck' with the mouthing of his lips. Mister Rockbell gulped, adam's apple bobbing, and mustered every ounce of courage to charge into the chaotic labor room.
"S-Sara," the golden-eyed alchemist recognized her, trying to get himself calm from the previous moments. She was ready to march back in the room tenaciously, but before she think a thought, her body was gently thrown to the reclining couch.
"Hmm?" Her blue orbs glanced around in confusion. In front of her, Hohenheim held a small smile as he lifted the frame of his glasses — the lens glaring due to the house's light. He had one hand in the pocket of his brown trousers, lifting an eyebrow.
"It's best you relax, Sara. Besides, my wife is strong; I trust Pinako as her caretaker." He told the wavy-haired doctor with the same crooked smile and laid back tone of voice.
Granted, Sara always knew there was something odd about the man whom has looked the same ever since she first met him (it was the same time she met Urey, around her teenage years). His movements and notions were mysterious, but his appearance was even more questionable. They all knew Hohenheim was different than most mortals. Pinako, Urey, and even his own lover Trisha. But they never asked him. Pinako may have known the man's back-story, but she never once spoke of it to her son, nor her daughter-in-law. The strangest thing? Whenever Sara opened up a family album that was dated all the way back to when Pinako was a little girl, Hohenheim was included in some of the pictures. In every single one, he looked the same. Never aged. There he stood, next to the tall brunette woman (who still smoked from her opium pipe) in brown and white printed ink, looking exactly as he had for years.
For once, Mrs. Rockbell calmed down and slumped to the plush cushion, nodding with an astral stare.
Minutes after minutes ticked by. Hohenheim looked out the living room window with a nervous honey gaze. Outside was just as much chaos as inside. Eighty-mile-per-hour winds raged through Resembool's grassy planes, though none of it was visible since it was pitch black out in the middle of the night. The most ominous of clouds gathered in the skies. The breeze was so harsh that it could be heard shaking the walls of the house and tearing the shingles on the roof. It was frightening... The building sounded as if it was going to collapse. Lights would flicker on and off. The electricity supply was unstable. There was even a moment where the lights all flickered off, where yet another cry and weep was heard from the woman in her birthing bed. It was eventually light again.
Fortunately, the doctors' Rockbell had arrived there before the weather brewed up. Hohenheim even felt a little surprised when he spotted a few flakes of snow trickle down from the outrageous eye of the storm. One piece of white dust magically pranced onto the condensation of the window; only a centimeter from Hohenheim's nose. In all the years settling down in this small farming town, he had only seen snow once before this. That was a sensation itself.
When all hope was lost, a pair of footsteps finally entered the area. Hohenheim turned his head, only to notice the blond male doctor with a long upward curl of his lips. He seemed exhausted, but still resilient. His apron was stained with a salty red substance, as was his gloves. Accept, his wardrobe was no where as bloody as his mom's.
He spoke with a soft, low voice. "Would you like to see your first-born son, Hohenheim?"
The Xerxes-blooded man's jaw dropped in harmony with his stomach. It was a boy! A son! His son.
Quickly, he jolted upward and headed down the hall, toward the door to heaven. Meanwhile, Urey helped his wife up so they could follow him into the room to watch the sight of all married couple's dreams.
Pinako Rockbell was now a grandmother. Sure, this wasn't her blood grandchild, and she had to wait a few months for that time's arrival, but Hohenheim was like her own kin... With that, she was sure to help in the raising of this beautiful infant boy, who already had a full head of gorgeous sunny hair... So God-like, resembling Hohenheim's locks of gold. Even with blood and guts fused to the child's scalp.
Hohenheim entered the room with slow, almost epic motions. He said nothing as his drinking buddy turned to him, her beady eyes showing nothing but emotion. Still, she had some kind of spunk, hiding the soft side to her. A smirk lit up on her face. She was bundling some kind of squirming object with a cotton blanket. The object let out a high-pitched cry, and from a distance, he could see a small chubby hand raise into the air.
"I still need to cut the umbilical cord. Thought I'd save the job for you," Pinako claimed, pointing to tiny metal scissors on a small table.
He couldn't help but tremble with a growing smile and took a few steps toward her. He wasn't sure what to expect... The immortal man was still scared. The mother was much too exhausted on the bed, panting with a cold compress set over her eyes. She couldn't identify if the baby was out or not... All reality seemed altered and uncertain.
Nothing could explain the feeling he felt. The throbbing of his heart as Hohenheim looked into his offspring's closed, puffy eyes. He then snipped the slimy umbilical cord with a steady hand. Once the job was accomplished, Pinako gently handed the baby boy over to his father. Hohenheim had never been so careful with an object until cradling his son that stormy night. He didn't want to hurt such a delicate being...
"My baby..." Trisha murmured, quickly catching the attention of the two adults at her bedside. "It's a boy...? Where is he... Where is he..."
"Hold on, dear," eased Pinako. "I must clean him first. Here..."
Hohenheim bobbed his head and reluctantly handed the child to Pinako, then sprinted to his wife's side.
"You were amazing, honey..." He trailed a hand down her moist, heated cheek kissing the side of her chestnut-haired head with as much softness as he carried his own child. He stayed in that position, holding his dear Trisha Elric in a comforting embrace and whispering sweet nothings into her ear. "You did wonderfully... He is healthy... You were wonderful..."
She was too out of it to respond with anything more than a faint smile. Trisha wanted to see her baby... She wanted to see how hours of child labor had payed off.
All the while, the elder mechanic trotted her tiny legs to a portable sink and bucket that she had made herself, along with the weeping infant in her arms. She washed him up (every ounce of blood and guts), making him fresh and new like a plush stuffed animal.
Sweeping back to the parents, she couldn't be more silent as she gave him back to Hohenheim. The alchemist looked down at his only son with watery eyes, but swallowed back every form of emotion out of sheepishness. Trisha brought her arms out weakly, her eyelids half-open as she requested for the child.
He looked to her as if to say, 'of course', and watched as she took the calmed baby into her grasp. Unlike him, Trisha allowed her eyes to flood mutably — taking in every crease and feature of her son's face. "He's beautiful..."
She glanced back to Van. In that sight alone, Trisha lightly gasped at the moisture forming within the whites of his compassionate eyes. A giggle was expressed through her angelic smile once again. "Silly man! It's okay to cry."
Pinako examined the family of three from a distance. She was smiling, as was her son and daughter-in-law standing behind her at the doorway. Sara had her head on Urey's shoulder, as he used one hand to cradle the surface of her seven-month stomach, the other one wrapped around her waist. He whispered lovely things into her ear as well, making the moment oh-so-emotional since they knew that happy family of three would be them in the matter of months.
The puny woman (getting punier with old age) turned to them, unable to wipe the down-to-earth smile from her face, and motioned for them to exit the room so they could leave the happy couple and their son be. Pinako led the way, but just before the two doctors followed, Sara could've sworn she felt a series of joyful kicking within her stomach. Their future daughter — still a fetus — already seemed to know the little Elric.
"Edward," said Trisha bleakly and out of nowhere.
Van quirked an eyebrow, as if he hadn't heard her right. "Edward?"
"Yes, I've always loved that name... We've discussed it, remember?" She looked to him, brightening up with that peach-lipped smile once again.
It took a moment, but Hohenheim finally responded with a, "Then Edward Elric it shall be..." Besides, Edward Hohenheim didn't sound as catchy.
F i n