A/N: Based on true story XD. Enjoy!
Medicine Problem
From her bedroom, Riza Hawkeye could hear the twelve chimes made by a grandfather clock in the living room. The seven year-old girl sighed. She's been tossing and turning on her bed, trying to get to sleep. But sleep never came. Instead, her amber eyes were wide as if splashed with two mugs of caffeine.
Toss and turn. Toss and turn. Toss and turn.
Then, her sharp ears picked up the creaking of the floors. Someone was walking to her room. She quickly sat on her bed as her hand trailed to the bedside table beside her for her slingshot. She aimed. The door flew opened. It was her father, Hawkeye-sensei. He looked worn out and tired.
"Riza, you're not asleep yet?" the blond man asked. His offspring shook her head. "I need your help on Mr. Mustang. He's not feeling very well."
Without another word, Little Riza got off the bed and slipped into her slippers. She walked to her father and took his large hand. Both Hawkeyes paced towards a room across hers. From the hallway, she could hear few coughs. And they didn't sound good.
Riza asked with an innocent childlike curiosity, "What's wrong with Mr. Mustang, dad?"
"He's having a bad cough and fever," the older Hawkeye answered, turning the door knob and pushed it inwards. "I told him not to play in rain, that silly boy," grumbled Hawkeye-sensei. Leaving the door open, he turned to his daughter and said, "You know what to do, right?"before going downstairs.
Riza entered Roy Mustang's room. Sure enough, the raven-haired boy was coughing badly. His face was flushed and his nose was bright red. There was a about half a box of balled up tissues beside his single bed.
The blonde seven year-old girl trotted to the side of the bed. Roy glanced at her. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" he growled (Riza thought it was from the cold) and he sneezed. The thermometer inside his mouth fell on the bed sheet. Roy almost cursed when Riza suddenly moved closer to him and wiped his nose.
"Dad said that you're having bad fever and I can't sleep." Roy's face became redder, a ripe tomato red.
"I-I'm f..fine," he stuttered. She was so close. So freaking damn close. Her cute nose almost touching his. He could smell her sweet strawberry shampoo. He took adeep breath of the pleasant smell. The sound of the door opening made him come back to his senses. He jumped back and looked back at Hawkeye-sensei.
"Here are his medicines, Riza." Whenever it came to Roy's health, it was Riza's work.
"Okay dad." She nodded to her father. Satisfied, Hawkeye-sensei left the room. "Now Mr Mustang," Riza turned towards Roy and said sweetly, "You have to eat your medicines, okay?" Immediately, those words drained the colour from the young alchemist face. His previously flaring face was as pale as a ghost now.
His words were spoken in an instant. "I don't like medicine!!"
Riza Hawkeye ignored his comment. She turned open the cap. The smell of the rancid medicine made his stomach turn and flip— not that it needed even more stimulation for it. Roy could do nothing but stare at the brown liquid as Riza poured its content to a silver spoon.
"Now," she said, "Open wide."
He clamped his mouth shut, and then covered it with his hands and then covered himself with pillow shield. As if that's not good enough he shook his head and stated clearly, like a petulant child, "No!" He was getting dizzy, but anything would do if it gets him away from that… thing!
It's time to go to not-nice-Riza mood. "Open your mouth Mr Mustang, or else..." His pillow shield wasn't working! Riza grabbed hold of it and threw it across the room. "It smells weird and it never tastes good," he mumbled behind his hands.
"Open it!" she barked at him. She shoved the medicine filled spoon in front of his mouth.
He shook his head furiously and put both of his hands on his mouth.
Now, that means it's time to change from not-nice-Riza mood to just-plain-evil-Riza mood. She glared at him darkly. "Mr. Roy Mustang, if you don't open your mouth now, I'll gladly ask Dad to discontinue your alchemy lessons."
"What?!"
As soon as he opened his mouth, Riza quickly shoved the spoon inside. His eyes were shut tight and his hands were over his mouth as the horrible putrid… liquid 'thing' slowly crawled down his throat. He tried to spit it out but Riza, who knew Roy all too well, put both of her hands on his mouth.
"Not a chance, Mr Mustang. Now swallow it."
He knew: It's either swallow it or let it stay on his tongue for the whole night.
"Water!" he wailed when the he got Riza's hands off. The bottle said 'cherry-flavoured', but Roy concluded that it was A BIG FAT LIE. It tasted like crushed beetles garnished with squished worms. A word? Disgusting.
Hawkeye-sensei handed Roy a tall glass of water— he knew that would happen. The most effective meds are the most fetid tasting ones. He gladly drank half of the water before his throat gave up and then… out came the medicine from his oesophagus and into the water.
"Mr. Mustang! You're supposed to drink it with water, not spit it out to it!" exclaimed Riza. She seized the glass of, now, brownish water. Diluted cherry-flavoured cough medicine. Nice.
"Sorry. But it just went out," he muttered. Once again, he was ignored. Upon further inspection, the reason he was ignored was because she was opening that cough medicine again and was pouring another spoonful!
"Spoon number two," she said. Her cold amber eyes were staring into his. He paled again. "And if you spit it out again, there will be a spoon number three… and then number four and so on, Mr Mustang."
This time, the medicine went in without a problem.
---
Twenty years later…
"Nooooooooo!!"
That single word was heard perceptibly in the kitchen of the Mustang household. A sick young boy was wailing to his mother. "I don't want to! It tastes weird and it's disgusting!"
"You want to be a strong and good boy, right? Drink your medicine, okay?" explained Riza, still holding a spoon of cough medicine in front of her son. "Don't be like daddy."
He stopped. "Daddy don't like medicines too?" asked Ryan Maes Mustang eagerly.
"He hates them, Ryan. But he drank them, when I asked him. Each and every drop. And daddy is strong, right? So, now you must eat yours."
Ryan made a face. "Mom! I don't wannaaaaaa!"
Riza was just about to go into not-nice-mommy-Riza mode, "Dri—" but she was cut by a voice behind her.
"You better drink it, Ryan. Or mommy will force you to drink it without a glass of water. That will make it hundred times worse," said Roy with a lopsided grin. "Trust me."
He went pallid. No water?! Ryan opened his mouth and reluctantly took his medicine. He gulped down his water.
"Good boy," Riza patted his head. "You did great Ryan. At least you drank it. There was this someone who mommy knew. He spits his medicine into his water, you know. Disgusting, right?" Ryan nodded enthusiastically in agreement. Riza eyed Roy and he, in turn, smirked back. "Now, let's put you into bed. Roy?"
"I still hate medicine" Roy mumbled loud enough for his wife's ear as he took his five year old boy into his arms. Riza sniggered as she watched both Mustangs that hate medicines so much, walked to the master bedroom. "Like father, like son."
A/N: Thanks to Chibikitty14 (my cousin) for proof-read and making this story a lot more funnier than the original draft.
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