Distinctly proud footsteps echoed off the walls of command center as Edward Elric the State Alchemist herded his two children down the hall to only one office in particular.

"By all means," the deep resonating voice of Roy Mustang Flame Alchemist muttered as the door to his office was thrown open. "Oh, Fullmetal. What a pleasure."

"How's it hangin', Sparky?" Ed asked in a mocking tone. He patted his children's backs telling them to go play with the two children that were cowering behind the large desk at the far side of the room.

"Don't be rude," Roy commanded his children with the same tone that his team was also victim to. "Come out and play with Fullmetal's… er, lovely children." The two children hidden behind the desk emerged reluctantly in matching officer uniforms and facial features, but their hair was as black as night and the other was as bright as the sun.

"Hey, Sparky, please, don't force you kids to do something they don't want to do." He crossed his ankles on the table in the center of the room and he fell back to inhale the noodles which were supposed to be Mustang's lunch. "They'll find something else to keep themselves occupied…"

"Daddy!" a little girls shrill voice shattered the calmness in the room.

"Hughes!" The silence which followed was positively deafening. "Unhand Nina's hair this instant!"

In the second it took Hughes to release Nina's pigtail and turn to face his father, Nina grabbed his arm and flipped him over her head where he was promptly slammed into the wooden floor.

"Now, Nina," Ed attempted to address her in a serious tone but failed to conceal the pride he now felt for his daughter. "What have I told you about throwing other children around?"

Nina, who was extremely tall for her age of four, clasped one hand behind holding the other one up to her face innocently. "To not to in front of their parents."

"Yes," he snickered, "But I also said-"

"To never do it because it's mean."

"Atta girl." Her answer rewarded her with a satisfying pat on the head.

Hughes, Mustang's oldest at six had since regained his feet and was once again cowering behind his father.

"Go say you're sorry."

Nina skipped over to the terrified little boy and apologized pleased that she was as tall as him.

"It's not like it's permanent or anything!" the loud squeaky voice of an older child crowed.

Both fathers spun quickly to examine the new chaos that was unraveling rapidly to see the boy tall and lean like a bean stalk fly to his feet to glare down upon the other uniformed child.

"You're not supposed to do that!" The source of the voice was a spitting image of her mother and her blonde hair all tied up on top of her head.

"I'll get rid of it when I'm done, Lizzie!" The golden haired boy retorted.

"Elizabeth, it's only chalk," Mustang scoffed.

The look Edward gave his son suspiciously resembled a queue for something. Then as if rehearsed, the blonde haired boy disappeared behind the couch with an echoing smack of his hands.

A giant column rose from the wooden floor beneath Elizabeth launching her screaming through the air where she landed with a soft thud upon the couch.

Mustang hurried over to see that his daughter was unharmed as she should have been while the others turned to examine the work of the newest alchemist and saw the distinct resemblance to the Elric family etched into the wooden column.

"Fullmetal, I do believe you have been successful in your desperate attempt to terrify my children." The harsh words that Mustang spewed at the previous half-metal alchemist bounced harmlessly off of his finely tuned biceps.

"Damn it, Theo," Ed failed to locate a scornful tone. "At least fix the floor, son."

"But dad-"

"Does the Flame Throwing Family break down our door, run around the house yelling KA-BLAM KA-BLAM, setting everything on fire?"

"There was that one time…" Theo shied away to repair the floor after he interpreted the stern look his father gave him.

Theo had just returned the floor to normal and was brushing the chalk dust under the overly ornate rug when the doors burst open with a tremendous bang.

"Edward Elric!" The pair of blue eyes belonging to the voice were filled with tears just as the air around him was filled with pink sparkles and yellow mustaches. The six figures in the room cringed upon hearing the voice.

"Armstrong!" the band cried in unified shock as they were forced to squint through the light that reflected off of his bare chest.

"It has been so long!" the giant of a man cried as he crushed Ed in a bone breaking embrace.

"Can't…breathe…" Ed's face turned a worrisome shade of blue.

Thinking the room was not yet near its capacity, four mini shirtless, pink sparkling creatures filled the doorway each with their arms open wide over their heads.

Armstrong's four boys.

Each of the bedazzled children crushed a poor soul in an dizzyingly crushing embrace.

"Oh, would you look at the time?" Ed acknowledged. "I do believe it is time I should be getting home. You know how Winry gets…"

Shudders ran down spines as the recollection of what Winry does when she's upset was instantly thrust to the forefront of their brains.

"Wow how time sure does fly," Mustang agreed. "My apologies, Armstrong but we must be heading over to the Elric's for dinner tonight."

"Wait wha-" Mustang shoved the befuddled Ed out of his office.

"Come on, kids."

The four children raced to their father's sides as they scampered down the hall in the opposite direction of the blinding army of shirtless, sparking men.

"Well, at least we know today wasn't completely useless…" The reaction Mustang gave when he heard the word 'useless' was just the response Edward had been looking for. "Looks like the Elric family will be treated to diner by the Flame Family tonight kids."

Armstrong and his army of shirtless minions watched as the tall Elric children cheered and the midget Mustang children cringed from the overly excited family. And that was the picture of two tightly knit families.