Title: Much Too Old For This
Fandom: FMA
Pairing: HohenheimPinako, HohenheimTrisha
Word Count: 722 words
Rating: PG13 for implied sex
Summary: He's her most memorable, and he's not the marrying type.
Notes: Animeverse. And, I'm sorry.
He's not her first, but he'll be the only one Pinako remembers from her youth. Hohenheim smells horrid and leaves his shirt on, but he says nothing of the taste of tobacco on her tongue, the grease smeared on her arms, the dirt under her nails, so she overlooks that one indiscretion. He's older than her, so much older, but that's how she likes them. She has no use for the children of this village, she's had them all and they continue to bore her.
His shirt rides up as he stretches, and she catches a glimpse of blackened flesh along his side.
"What are you?" she asks in awe, because no one's ever given her what he gave her in one single night.
He misunderstands, and with an apologetic smile he says, "Not the marrying type."
She grins and lights her pipe, inhaling deeply before offering it to him. "Wouldn't want you to be."
He returns to town every few years or so, and she begins to wonder if he's got the appearance of not aging because he's already old, or if he really isn't aging.
But, she doesn't believe in fairy tales, and hasn't since that first tryst with him.
The days of the bar are long gone, and he starts showing up at her door instead of meeting in town. He's baffled by the babe sleeping in the corner, standing over the crib for several silent moments.
Pinako shrugs as she blows smoke out of the open window, holding her pipe outside as well. "Classic story," she explains. "Rockbell knocked me up, and had enough time to marry me before being drafted. He got sent off to the North. Haven't heard from him since."
Hohenheim nodded in understanding, before offering, "I'm sorry."
She shrugs and taps her pipe against the wall beneath the window outside, laying it on the sill before turning back to the room. She nods towards the crib and says, "Kid takes after his father, he'll sleep through anything."
Hohenheim stays longer than before, never touching but clearly fascinated by the child. Pinako wonders if he meant it when he said he wasn't the marrying type, deciding that he did when he finally leaves town, staying away longer than before.
She's catching up to him in age, but she still doesn't believe in fairy tales.
She does believe in good hospitality, and after she's offered her bed to him, she's up early in the morning baking fresh sweet rolls.
"You never bake for me," he says in wonder, but she smacks his hand as he reaches for one.
"There's a new addition to the village," she explains as she wraps the rolls up in a basket. "A young, sweet thing. Figured I'd be the first to welcome her before the vultures descend on her."
"And you're not one of them?" Hohenheim jests, eating the roll that she tosses at his head.
Trisha Elric is as pure as fresh snow, and just as enchanting. Pinako feels the sudden need to protect her, and immediately invites her over for dinner.
Pinako barely eats. Trisha is warm and polite and much, much too young, and Hohenheim can't take his eyes off of her.
After Hohenheim escorts Trisha home, Pinako knows she's unreasonably mad, but doesn't bother to stop.
"What are you?" she demands. "After all these years, you owe me!"
Hohenheim is serious when he says, "I'm a monster."
She believes him, and says, "You're not welcome in this house." So, he leaves.
Her son returns home from the city, bringing with him a degree in Medicine and a city girl for a wife. They keep her busy, and it isn't for years that she sees Hohenheim and his young wife, when Trisha finds need for a midwife and Pinako being the only one to answer her door.
The babe is named after Trisha's father and is given her family name.
Hohenheim only shrugs and says, "I'm not the marrying type."
He is hesitant to touch the child, who is tiny and perfect and couldn't possibly be the spawn of a monster.
"Liar," Pinako says, and the two old friends share a smile that only the two of them understand.