So, this first chapter is very long and fairly dramatic. I'm a slut for meet-the-family fics, so I thought it was high time to contribute my interpretation of Roy's family! Enjoy!
The only things Ed knew for certain about Roy's family were thus:
1. He had two living parents, as well as two sisters: Elizabeth and Margery. His father ranked Lieutenant General, a lofty few ranks higher than Roy (a Brigadier General), and Margery, the eldest sister, worked as a history teacher back in their hometown.
2. A rather unnecessarily loud and violent fight between Roy and his father had resulted in the then teenager's enlisting as a State Alchemist and quitting communication with his parents and siblings.
Ed had figured this much out about his fiancée about a year previously, when the Flame Alchemist had drunkenly (due to a long bar night after a particularly arduous day at HQ) given Ed a long rant concerning the military higher-ups. While not the first of these kinds of intoxicated spiels, Roy rarely made it past the Major Generals before passing out, and, like other such rants, he barely remembered telling Ed these frustrations come morning time.
With this said, it took Ed a good minute to register who the three women standing at his doorstep were.
An older woman, black hair streaked with copious wisps of gray, tugged at her thick lace gloves that matched the off-white of her lace cardigan. Her sharp black eyes looked at Ed with mild interest. Behind her, another black-haired lady who appeared roughly Ed's age held two leather bags, and a woman with lighter brown hair cut stylishly in a slick bob held one as well. Both young women had softer, gray-blue eyes.
The pristine folds and drapes of the ladies' dresses made Ed feel a bit frumpy in his own catastrophe of a bun, baggy t-shirt, and sweatpants that he hadn't changed out of since falling asleep the night previous.
"Can I help you?" Ed asked, at a loss of what these people would want from him, especially before noon.
The old woman spoke, her voice as sharp as her gaze, "Does Brigadier General Mustang live here?"
Ed quirked an eyebrow, "Who wants to know?"
The woman's gaze narrowed, not amused, "His mother."
The blonde's eyes widened slightly in realization, noticing now how much the old woman resembled his partner, "Yeah he lives here, but you missed him. He just left for work an hour ago. Come in, I'll call and tell him you're here." Ed gestured inside, and the women filed in, "Hold on."
With all three inside, Ed closed the door and strode into the bright kitchen. He spotted the remains of his breakfast sitting on the stove and made a mental note to clean up a bit after his call.
Quickly dialing Roy's office number, Riza answered after three rings, "General Mustang's office".
"Riza, hi, it's Ed. I need to talk to Roy, like, now."
"O-okay, he's not doing anything right now. Is everything alright?" came her concerned reply.
"I hope." Ed said before muffled voices rumbled from the line, and a transferal 'click' switched the phone to the one atop Roy's desk.
"Ed, what happened?" Roy's voice was equally as concerned as his Lieutenant's.
"Your mom and, I'm guessing, your sisters are here."
The phone was so quiet that Ed worried for a minute that Roy had hung up on him, "Roy?"
A long sigh came as a reply, followed by an utterly defeated, "I'll get home as soon as I can. If they ask anything just tell them the truth. Just as a warning, they don't know I date men."
The phone clicked off before Ed could respond. He mumbled, "Thanks for the heads up," before placing the phone back in its place and returning to the three ladies, who were still standing in the entryway. "He should be back as soon as possible, so make yourselves at home. Just put your bags anywhere. I'm Ed, by the way."
Roy's mother followed Ed back into the kitchen while the two younger ladies rid themselves of their purses. "May I?" she asked with a gesture to one of the oranges piled into the wooden fruit bowl on the counter.
Ed shrugged, "Help yourself".
She thanked him, grabbing a large orange and peeling it tenderly (she was still wearing her lace gloves) as she introduced herself, "My name is Mary, but please call me Mrs. Mustang. My two daughters are Elizabeth and Margery." Mary motioned to the two women who had just sat themselves at Ed's and Roy's small kitchen table.
Based on Mary's gestures, the woman with the bobbed hair and loose-cut, baby blue dress was Margery, and the lady currently braiding her long black hair over her gingham shoulder was Elizabeth. Ed noted a rough scar that stretched from Elizabeth's left cheek back near her ear as she brushed her hair back.
"Nice to meet y'all. Roy doesn't talk much about his life pre-military, so I've been curious." Ed leaned casually against the counter opposite the table, and Mary moved to sit with her daughters.
Margery made a vague gesture with her hand about the table, "Well, here we are."
Elizabeth giggled a bit, hands wringing viciously within themselves on the pink fabric of her lap, "So you and Roy are… roommates?"
Ed looked to the side with a grin, "Yeah, something like that. What's brought on this visit, anyways? If you don't mind me asking."
Mary sighed, "Not at all. Elizabeth, would you care to elaborate?"
The youngest sister flushed, her flounced skirt a twisted mess in her hands at this point, "Oh-uh, well, I'm getting married this fall, and I wanted to personally invite Roy, because he deserves to at least know about it. I had to find him, though so… I-uh, kind of used Father's military badge to sift through communication records. I saw his numbers, but I also saw that there were a lot of calls to an automail clinic in Resembool…" Elizabeth's words faded to mumbles, her face as red as a beet.
Margery picked up for her, "Lizzie assumed the worst, and we were on the train to Central the next morning. Judging by your arm, though, I assume you're the one who made all of those calls?"
"…Oh." Ed was at a momentary loss for words. "… Yeah, my brother's girlfriend is my mechanic- we grew up in Resembool." That's what all of this was about? The Mustang women all looked at Ed, dumbfounded when he broke down into a fit of giggles. It just seemed- in that very moment- like one of those moments in the radio-show dramas Ed had caught Roy listening to when he thought Ed wasn't home. Of fucking course Roy would have some uppity family that just needed to come see their dear estranged brother over a tragic misunderstanding. It was just so…HIM. "Fuck, this is priceless."
Elizabeth, still a lovely shade of red, dragged her hands down her face warily with a groan, "I feel so stupid now, how am I supposed to explain this to Roy?"
Ed grinned through his giggles, "Just tell him what you told me, he'll understand your stress. I'm guessing you don't know, but Roy's also planning a wedding."
Elizabeth and Mary both yelled a collective, "What?!", whilst Margery boredly inspected a chip in her pearlescent fingernail polish.
"Mother, Lizzie, you aren't blind are you?" She asked with a hint of incredulousness in her bored tone, not taking her eyes from her spindly fingers (the narrowness of which she shared with her brother). She made the vaguest of gestures with her head in the direction of Ed, he guessed at the engagement band plainly visible on his non-metal hand.
"Margery, get rid of that tone this instant!" Mary snapped. Her lacy hand was rapidly tapping on the edge of the table so hard that the noise was plainly audible.
"Why should I?" Margery snapped right back, standing with a suddenness that sent her chair loudly back a foot. She turned from the group, muttering her desire for a smoke as she passed Ed to the hallway. After a short rummage, the front door clicked open. However, when Ed expected to hear it shut, all he heard was silence.
Elizabeth seemed to pick up on the inconsistency as well, as she followed Ed to the foyer to inspect. Margery was still standing by the cluster of purses, a cigarette pack clutched in her hand with a matchbox, a mix of a glare and surprise across her face. Her attention was focused towards the open door, where Roy currently stood, fingers still grazing the door handle. His attention was equally focused on his sibling as hers was on him.
Just as Margery turned her nose with a huff and pushed her way past a still dazed Roy, cigarettes in hand, Elizabeth squealed and nearly jumped on her brother. Her skirt fanned out around the two, as the force of her hug sent she and Roy in a small spin.
"Roy, it's been so long- you can't imagine how much I've missed- What happened to your eye?! You're old! And what's this about you being engaged and not calling me? You know-" Elizabeth quieted abruptly when, with an arm around the young lady's shoulders and another atop her head, Roy began to laugh. "What're you laughing about?"
Roy let go of his sister, giving her cheek a joking poke and still laughing, "No clue." He responded dismissively, "You haven't changed, Lizzy."
Elizabeth scoffed, "You haven't seen me since I was nine!"
Roy held up his hands in surrender, "That's not to say I've changed at all since I was eighteen."
"Of course you have! We both have!" The youngest Mustang sibling smacked her bother softly on the arm.
Roy moved further into the house, taking off his coat and still smiling at Elizabeth, "If you say so."
She giggled, and Roy finally looked from his sister to Ed. The blonde noticed in his periphery that Mary had not congregated to the entrance of the foyer like the rest.
"Why don't we move this into the living room? Bugs will get in if the door stays open." Ed commented. Elizabeth agreed, already heading back to the kitchen and through the next door, as instructed. Roy soon followed, but not without a quick kiss to Ed's amused smile first. Ed slid his hand into Roy's, meaning to just give his hand a reassuring squeeze. Roy, however, grabbed fully onto Ed's hand, keeping his skin in contact with Ed as the couple made their way to their living room as well.
He noticed a lack of Roy's mother, but soon found her standing by the couch with Elizabeth. Through the window, the blue of Margery's dress moved amongst the many flowers that decorated the backyard.
Ed slipped his hand from Roy's before the two ladies looked over. Mary stepped forward, face seemingly blank of emotion. Even though she was considerably shorter than her son, she was still able to clip him upside the head with her right hand, demonstrating considerable force.
"Roy Mustang, I cannot believe you!" She angrily scolded over his yelp of surprised pain.
"What?" He exasperatedly asked.
"Don't 'what' me, mister! I haven't spent twenty years worrying about you- only knowing you were alive through newspaper articles to be sassed at!"
"Well, I was clearly told the next time I stepped foot in the manor I'd be shot, so what exactly was I supposed to do?" Roy retorted back.
Mary looked taken aback, "And when were you ever one to listen to your father's blind threats?"
"I'd never been threatened with my life before, Mom." Roy crossed his arms.
Mary seemed not to acknowledge her son's comment, moving on to her next point of contention, "And what's this about you getting engaged? That never appeared in the papers! Not to mention that you have some roommate when you're about to be married- it's totally careless!"
Roy bristled, "That 'some roommate's' name is Ed, and it's him that I'm engaged to, thank you!"
Ed blushed, looking to the side a bit when Mary and Elizabeth turned their surprised eyes directly upon him.
"U-um, newspaper companies aren't incredibly supportive of guys tying the knot with each other, so we decided not to inform the media. It would have been a threat to our careers as State Alchemists." Ed explained, finding the wallpaper beside him incredibly fascinating to look at in that moment.
"I-" Mary looked back at Roy, anger seemingly burnt out into exasperation. "I didn't know you… you…"
Roy sighed, his temper gone as well, "There was no way you could have known I'm gay, Mom. I didn't even know until I left for the military. Its one of the reasons I never came back."
"Roy, you know I could never be mad at you for that." Mary stepped close to her son, resting the hand that had previously hit him reassuringly on his arm.
"I know. It's not you I was worried about." Roy replied.
Ed eyed Elizabeth, finding her watching the scene unashamedly, much like Ed had been doing as well.
She looked over to him, noticing his confusion regarding Roy's dismissive comment, and mouthed 'father'. Ed nodded his understanding, moving to take a seat with Elizabeth on the couch.
There was a short silence during which Margery stalked into the room from the garden, silently leaning against the kitchen doorframe. The silence was interrupted by Mary's blunt, "Tell me what happened to your eye."
Roy smiled ruefully, sitting on the arm of the sofa nearest Ed, "I was shot in the face. Karma's a bitch, isn't it?"
Elizabeth itched her cheek, looking at her brother with sad eyes. Ed could tell there was a piece of the narrative he wasn't informed of.
Mary looked horrified, "Was it during that horrid affair with Fürher Bradley? It was all the papers could talk about for weeks! The assassination, and that young Elric boy going missing."
"Exactly then!" Roy answered, smirking at Ed, "But the 'young Elric boy' was found, so I guess it wasn't all that horrid."
"'Young Elric boy' my ass," Ed mumbled, crossing his arms and lightly head-butting Roy in the arm. His fiancée laughed, whilst Mary gasped.
"Oh my, you're Ed Elric? I didn't recognize you from the papers!"
Ed waved her surprise off dismissively, "I was fifteen, I wouldn't recognize a picture of me then if I didn't know myself."
"Hold on." Roy interjected, concerned. "Not to sound unwelcoming, but why are you all here in the first place? Did something happen at home?"
Everybody in the room turned to Elizabeth, whose face flushed scarlet again, "Well…" She explained what she had told Edward, this time without Margery's aid. By the end of her story, Margery had migrated to her sister's end of the couch, yet to cast a sidelong glance at Roy.
"… And, well, now we know that the automail isn't yours, so the whole trip could have been much less sudden if I hadn't been so nosy. You're invited to the wedding, anyways." Elizabeth finished. "You know my fiancée, too. It's Patrick Crowley- the boy I was best friends with as a little girl."
"I remember Patrick, he was there the last night I stayed over." Roy's eyes darted to the side of Elizabeth's face quickly. The young lady covered her scar with her hand as he looked.
"Yes, he was! He came to return one of my socks that I'd left at his mom's house the day before. We'd gone swimming in his little stream." Elizabeth recalled, "I was going to stay the night, but I left early because you'd returned from the front."
"You shouldn't have come back." Margery said. Mary shrieked her disapproval, whilst Elizabeth looked stunned.
"He was eighteen and traumatized!" Elizabeth said softly.
Margery's eyes gleamed with aggression, "You were nine and just wanted to wake your brother up! Whose fault is it?"
Ed had been confused before, but when Elizabeth defensively pulled her hair over the scar on her face, he began to understand.
"It's been two decades, get over it!" Elizabeth shouted.
"Two decades and the least Roy could do was apologize!" The elder sister shouted back. Mary looked like she wanted to cry.
"How exactly do I apologize when my own father won't let me into the house without a firearm trained at my head?" Roy was shouting too. He looked at Elizabeth, "Lizzy, it was an accident. I love you and the event has been keeping me up at night for more than half of my life. I'm sorry."
Margery rolled her eyes, "Well isn't that just the most sincere apology I've ever heard."
"You put me on the spot!"
Mary, seemingly unable to stand the anger in the room, grabbed Ed by the arm and pulled him off of the couch, "You three- sort this out without killing each other. I can't stand to see you fight after so long apart! Edward, you're coming with me."
"Yes ma'am!" Ed yelped as he was dragged, rather violently, from the room. "Mrs. Mustang, why don't we go to the garden?"
Mary stopped her stomping through the kitchen, looking back at Ed, "Yes, please. I'd like you to tell me about yourself, since you plan on marrying my son."
"Yeah, sure." Ed replied rather inarticulately.
He led Mary out the front door and around the side of the house, into the large backyard. The garden lay at the back end of the yard, and during the current spring season was flourishing with flowers he and Winry had planted during her last visit. A small bench sat under an old tree, directly in the noontime shade. They sat there.
Mary took a deep breath, sighing it out as if she hadn't exhaled all day, "What a mess. Your garden is beautiful."
Ed rubbed his neck, mentally counting up the weeds that needed to be uprooted amongst the daffodils, "We keep it up when we can. Roy's mentioned that you're big on gardening."
Mary smiled, most likely picturing her own flower patch, "I am. Does your mother garden?"
Ed laughed, "Mom couldn't keep a plant alive for the life of her. She liked knitting kinda stuff."
Mary seemed to pick up on the past tense, and changed the subject, "So Resembool- that's a far step from Central. What made you move?"
"Oh, I'm a State Alchemist, but it's more research-type work than what Roy does." Ed tried to ignore the 'thump' that sounded a ton like a book hitting a wall from inside the house, instead plowing forward, "Yeah, living in Resembool was nice as a kid, but it's too still for me now. Not enough action."
Mary nodded, and a short silence fell over the two. Ed broke it tentatively, "Did… Roy hurt his sister?"
Roy's mother took a deep breath, letting it out through her nose, "It was an accident, like Roy said back in the living room. He had left the battle front only days before returning home, and as you can guess he was pretty shaken up. His father didn't want him coming back, as their fight was still ongoing, but one look at Roy changed his mind. He was haunted and needed a familiar place.
"He was overjoyed to be back. I'd never seen him so eager to hug his sisters- Elizabeth especially. You know, he and Lizzy were always very close, despite being the furthest part age-wise. She was quite a tomboy, and Roy was always willing to help her dig up worms and such.
"Roy fell asleep some time in the late afternoon, and I had told Margery and Elizabeth to let him rest, but I guess Elizabeth wanted to play with him. I… I should have known, with a General as a husband, that young veterans tend to keep firearms near them while they sleep." Mary paused, looking at her gloved hands as she finished her story, "He ran the second Elizabeth was carted into the ambulance. All I found was a note of apology on his pillow the next day."
"You didn't look for him?" Ed asked. Mary's story had proven Ed's previous theory, but he was still slightly dumbfounded.
"How? George, my husband, wanted nothing to do with him after that, and I didn't know anybody who would know where he'd go. Later, of course, he began appearing in the papers as some kind of conniving rank climber." Mary's tone had turned more annoyed than its previous sad.
Ed nodded, "He really made a name for himself back then. Too bad now all they call him is 'the one who killed Bradley'. A fucking waste of effort."
Mary looked at Ed curiously, "You were a State Alchemist back then too."
Ed shrugged, "Yeah, I was. That's how I met Roy- he was my Commanding Officer when I was a teenager."
"You were a teenager when you disappeared, and my son was almost thirty, isn't that right?" Mary stated, more than asked.
"Yeah," he said quickly. While their age difference didn't particularly matter to Ed, Roy had been disturbed about that aspect of their relationship in the beginning. That issue had required various very carefully worded (as well as very blunt, Ed-style) conversations.
"Edward, you haven't given me any reason to doubt you, but you have to see how that looks to a mother."
"I-yeah, I know how it looks. My little brother had a really long and unnecessary…talk… with us when I told him." Ed replied, remembering how Al had put on his most parently expression, and Roy had left the room an hour later mildly terrified.
"Your little brother gave you the 'marrying someone older' talk?" Mary asked in disbelief, "it would make more sense for you to give him the dating talk."
"That's what I told him!" Ed exclaimed.
Mary laughed. It was a quiet, fluttery sort of laugh, but it sounded nice after the tension Ed had felt since the arrival of Roy's female family members.
A thought flashed into Ed's head, "Why didn't the Lieutenant General come with you guys, by the way?"
Mary waved her hand absently, "You answered your own question. He's not in a position to leave work at the drop of a hat."
At that moment, the back door slammed open and Elizabeth popped her head out, "Come in, we've reached a truce!"
"After how much property damage?" Mary mumbled. Ed snorted, not expecting such a dry comment from the dainty woman. They stood and moved back into the house. Ed was a bit wary to see the state of his living room, but was surprised to find it generally in order, save for a few books lying haphazardly open against walls. Roy and Margery were sitting beside each other not entirely comfortably, well-wiped eyes and resigned looks on both siblings' faces.
"Oh good, you didn't kill each other." Ed commented, picking up a few of the books, folding their pages back to normalcy, and returning them to their respective tables.
"Just each other's pride." Elizabeth added. Margery grumbled what might have been a half-assed retort had she spoke loud enough to be heard.
Roy stood decisively, making his way towards the phone and addressing his mother, "Stay for lunch, we can catch up a bit."
Mary smiled, "That's a lovely idea. Can you cook?"
"He can't for shit- I'll do it." Ed volunteered.
"If you wouldn't mind, Ed, I'd like to help." Margery offered. Ed suspected that she probably just wanted to have time away from her brother to reflect on the new progressions in their broken relationship. He was also, in a way, separating from the two more vibrant women in order to mentally prep for the inevitable onslaught of questions and talks in his near future, not to mention questions about the wedding, and if they could make it to either considering both were taking place so soon to each other.
"Sure, knock yourself out." He replied. As the eldest sister migrated to the kitchen, and the two other ladies moved to the small dining room beside it, Roy pulled Ed aside slightly.
His fiancée sighed, leaning against Ed a bit, "I'm sorry you've been kind of in the middle of all of this."
Ed shook his head, "Don't be- it's not your fault. We'll talk about everything tonight, 'kay?" He patted Roy on the cheek after seeing the small smile and affirmative 'okay', and went to join Margery in the kitchen.
While Ed would never have guessed an hour ago that he'd be cooking lunch for his future in-laws at that moment, he was content for the time to get to know these women and learn more about Roy that way. They would, indeed, have to have a talk about not being secretive probably. After all, it was occupational necessity that Roy know all of Ed's childhood- it's hardly fair that Ed not receive some payback (even if during his teen years, both Ed and Roy could not have guessed they'd end up engaged).
Ed smiled a bit as he heard Roy's laughter from the dining room, following Elizabeth's chirpy voice. It was a big step- reconciliation. But it was one Ed was willing to stand by Roy through.
Because that's what love is, really.
~END~