Occasionally, she'd see them briefly at Central HQ. Be it down the corridor, or simply just running -mostly unwilling- errands for the Colonel, regarding submitting his paperwork. They could have easily been mistaken as simple errand boys, if not for the appearance of an old man who had seen life's cruel reality reflected in his golden eyes.
So young, yet so old.
She didn't know why she cared, yet at the same time, she knew.
Her little men.
Everytime she saw them, she had to fight the emotions that swelled up within her. Happiness, compassion, pride, and lastly...
Love.
It wasn't the kind adults feel for their life partner, no, it was motherly love, the kind mothers give their own children.
Her mind screamed at her, No! You are not their mother! But somewhere else, deeper inside her, within her own subconsciousness, a voice, that sounded so much like her own, gently reminded her, But I, no, you, are their mother.
Why would she feel this way? It may have just been the memories of who she was before, but no. It was deeper, much deeper then just shadow feelings of a life that was no longer hers, but one she had lived before. Trisha Elric, resident of Resembool, mother of two, and wife to Van Hohenheim.
How many times, had she stood outside their dorm, listening to the eldest's cries in his sleep for his mother? How many times, had she stood nearby, feeling the deep hole in her chest lighten, even if just by a inch. How many times, had she wanted to to pull the two boys into her embrace, and tell them, I love you, my little men?
But, despite all this, she wanted to hate them. She wanted to detest them to the very depths of their soul, and yet she couldn't. She couldn't hate the very people who brought her back like this, because they were part of her own soul. Her children. Her children, who loved her so much that they were willing to try go against the natural flow of the universe, just to being her back.
Selfish, yes, but done out of pure intentions.
But in her dying moments, first as Trisha, then as Sloth, no matter who she was, she would always smile gently at her children for the last time, with her final words conveying the same message.
Take care of each other, your mother will always love you, Edward, Alphonse.
She would always love her children, no matter what, even in death.