Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. However, I will claim the OC Elric spawn.

Theodore: 9; Audrey: 7; Henri: 5; Sophie: 4

The White Lily

"Daddy! Daddy, tell us another story, please," begged Audrey, bouncing up and down at the end of her bed, her hands wrapped around the iron wrought frame. The Elric children were gathered in Theodore's bedroom for their nightly bedtime story. Theo was hunkered down under the covers of his bed while Henri was sitting on the floor with his back against the nightstand. He was idly playing with some wooden blocks he had found, creating towers and then deconstructing them to make new ones. The youngest Elric, Sophie, was half-asleep and cuddled up with her brother's pillow; however, her eyes were still opened into slits as she clung to awareness, unwilling to go to sleep until the others did.

Edward closed the story book he had just finished reading to his children and laid it on his lap. "You just heard one, you brat," he said but the half-smile on his face told Audrey that he didn't mean it.

"Just one more," she said. She gave him a toothy grin and gestured towards the books on the shelf. "I wanna read one about the princesses."

"No!" Theodore piped up, pushing the covers back. He shook his head vigorously, making his dark blonde hair fly about, and tossed a stubborn look at his sister. "No more princess stories. I don't like 'em."

"You just don't like 'em cause I do," said Audrey, storm-grey eyes narrowed in a glare.

"No, I don't like 'em cause they're girly."

"You're girly!"

"Am not! I'm a boy."

"You're still girly."

"I'se like prin'ses," said Sophie, lifting her head from the pillow. "They're pretty. Like Mommy."

Audrey gave a commanding nod, her attention taken away from the growing fight with her brother. "Yeah, Daddy, you have to read a story about princesses cause me and Sophie wanna hear one," she said, tossing her light blonde hair back behind her shoulders in a motion that Edward had seen Winry perform far too many times. "And that's me and Sophie over Theo. We mean more."

"Alright then..." Edward said, leaning over towards the nearby bookshelf.

"I don't wanna listen to a princess story neither," Henri suddenly announced, briefly looking up from his blocks. Edward sighed and dropped his hand. This was going to be a long night. Audrey made a screeching noise and flopped backwards on the bed.

"Henri! You can't do that! That's not fair."

"Sorry, Audrey," Henri said, an apologetic look on his face. He hated it when one of his siblings was upset with him. Audrey ignored Henri and rolled onto her side in a pout.

"Can we read a story about dogs or something?" asked Theodore.

"No! I don't want a story about that," Audrey said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Dogs are boring."

"Den's not borin'!" Sophie said, her face contorted into a disapproving frown. She looked over to Theodore's bed where the big, old dog was laid out at the edge of the bed, asleep with her head on her paws. "Den's fun."

"Aw, you wouldn't know anyways, Soph," said Audrey.

"Uh-huh!" Sophie said, golden eyes flashing with indignation as she sat up, still holding onto the pillow. She stuck out her tongue at Audrey who scowled viciously.

"Daddy, Sophie's teasing me."

"You're so whiny, Audrey," said Theodore, rolling his eyes at her. Audrey snatched a stuffed bear from the side of her bed and flung it at his head. He ducked, barely avoiding the flying plushie.

"Hey!"

"Don't call me whiny!"

A pillow sailed over tiny space between the top and bottom of the bed then a second stuffed animal went back in retaliation.

"Then don't be whiny!"

Edward cast his eyes towards the ceiling and wondered exactly why someone had seen fit to give him spawn instead of children.

"Knock it off, you two!" Edward shouted over the racket his oldest kids were making. They stopped throwing toys at each other and satisfied themselves with glaring.

"Dad, why don't you make a story up?" Henri suggested. Edward stared at his younger son. What a terrible idea; he definitely wasn't a kid-type-story story-teller.

"Uh, no. I think you should all just go to bed. It's past your bedtime anyway," said Edward, starting to stand up.

"You can't go now! We're all awake!" Audrey said. "You have to tell us a story."

"You tell a story about princesses?" Sophie asked, pushing her pillow aside.

"Not princesses!" Theodore shouted. He jumped up in his bed and raised a fist into the air. "I will NOT listen to another princess story! Never!"

"I don't even know any good princess stories, Theo, so I don't think you need to worry about it," said Edward. He put his elbow on the arm of the rocking chair and rested his chin on his fist. It seemed like he was going to be stuck here for a while.

"Tell us a story 'bout you," said Henri, placing one block on top of another and glancing up at his father.

"You know all those stories already," Edward replied. At least they knew the ones he had wanted to tell them. He'd tell them the whole story one day, when they were older and able to understand.

"We still want a story, Daddy," Audrey reminded him after he was quiet for too long. All four of children were staring at him with expectant eyes. He sighed.

"If I try to make up a story, will you monsters all go to bed? It's going to terrible anyways..."

"We don't care," Theodore said, acting as spokesman for all of them. "As long as it doesn't have a girly princess in it."

"Theo!" shrieked Audrey, now hurling a rag doll at Theodore.

"Don't, stupid!"

"Butthead!"

As the kids started to fuss again, Edward's eyes drifted towards Henri. His middle child was the calmest out of the four, and he looked nothing like his parents. In fact, with his brown hair, light green eyes and soft features, Henri resembled Edward's mother, Trisha, more than anyone.

"The story's not about a princess," Edward said loudly, causing Theo and Audrey to stop bickering. Audrey let out a groan and flopped down onto the bed.

"Aw, Daddy..."

"Give it a chance, kid," Edward said sternly, leaning back in the rocking chair as the beginning of a story started to form in his mind. He ran the tip of his finger over the wooden arm of the chair. "How should I start?"

"Once upon time," said Sophie, giving her head a little nod. Edward smiled at her.

"Yeah, that sounds right," he said. He traced a whorl on the wood as he started his story.

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful, perfect white lily. Um, it never wilted or lost its petals or anything, and it bloomed even during the winter. It grew alone on a hilltop outside of a small village in the country. Everyone in village knew that this was a special lily, and they never picked it."

"I would've picked it," said Theodore, a smug expression on his face.

"No, Theo, shhh," Sophie said, putting a finger to her lips.

"Anyways," Edward said, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling. "There was a man in the village who loved the white lily very much. Every day he would get water from the river and walk up the hill to water the lily. He protected it when it stormed and made sure it was safe when it snowed. The man had two sons that he taught how to take care of the lily, and they learned to love it as much as he did.

"One day the man suddenly had to go away from the village. He left his sons in charge of the lily, but they were too young to take care of it. They couldn't go out in the storms or the snow. The white lily began to wilt, its petals falling away."

"This is a sad story, Daddy..." Audrey said. She toyed anxiously with the edge of the pillow Sophie was holding and wished her father would've told the one about the princesses.

"Sometimes stories are sad, brat," Edward replied, attempting to smile at her before continuing.

"The boys didn't know how to help the white lily, but they tried. They learned magic, hoping that would help the lily get better. It didn't. It continued to lose its petals, and it began to fall forward on its stem. Every day, the boys went to water the lily, and every day, the lily looked worse. One day when they went to water the lily, it was...um…it was laying on the ground and all of its beautiful petals were gone."

"Did it die?" Henri asked in a voice that was barely above a whisper. Edward's hands curled into fists, and he forced himself to nod. Why did he start telling this story in the first place?

"Poor flower," said Sophie, pulling the pillow closer. "That was a bad man. He's not 'pose leave flower."

Edward lowered his head, his expression darkening as he remembered how he had felt the exact same thing when he had been younger. He remembered his hatred for his father, and how much he had missed his mother. He had sworn many times to himself and to Winry that his children would never have to experience such loss. He would be a better man than his father.

"What'd the boys do?" asked Theodore, breaking Edward's train of thought.

"They tried something forbidden," Edward said, catching his oldest's eyes and holding them with a steady, serious gaze. "They tried to bring the lily back to life with magic. It didn't work." It never would, Edward thought to himself, How foolish and desperate we were back then. "Instead, the lily's stem grew black petals and thorns came out of its side. The brothers had created a black rose, not a white lily. They were scared of the black rose, and they tried to run away but the black rose pricked them. The poison in the black rose turned the boys into monsters."

"No, that's scary!" Sophie said, tears in her round, golden eyes. She scrambled down off the side of the bed and ran to her father, throwing her arms around his automail leg. Edward sighed as he reached down and lifted her up, setting her in his lap. She clung to his torso and buried her face in his chest. "No tell anymore 'bout the rose."

Edward wrapped his arm around his youngest and held her close. "I didn't mean to scare you," he said, resting his cheek against the top of her head. "The story does have a happy ending, I promise."

"Please tell it," said Audrey. She had tugged the blankets across her legs and taken a hold of the pillow Sophie had discarded. The wide-eyed look on her and her brothers' faces told Edward that they would probably be traumatized if the story ended there. Truthfully, Edward would have been too.

"Alright, alright, calm down, you guys, it isn't the end," he said, situating Sophie into a more comfortable position. "So, the boys obviously didn't want to stay monsters. They realized that they never EVER should have used magic to try to bring back the white lily. The magic wasn't strong enough; it couldn't do everything like they thought it could.

"Instead of looking for ways to bring the lily back to life, they decided to try to become human again. They went on many adventures across the world, meeting all sorts of people and facing problems and other monsters as they looked for a way to change back to their original selves. Every quest was a struggle, a test of their bravery and their will to live. One day, when the boys had been pushed to their limits, given up everything they possibly could, and had gone through more pain than they thought possible, the way to become human again came to them."

"What was it, Dad?" Henri asked. "How'd they become people again?"

Edward smiled. He had thought about this a lot since he and Alphonse had gotten their bodies back. "Er…See, through every trial and horror, they were always together, blending their strengths together to cover their weaknesses. It was only because of their love for each other that they went through the adventures anyways. Maybe God thought that it was enough..." Edward wasn't an overly religious man, but during these later years in his life, he was having a harder and harder time denying the proof of a Higher Power. What else could decide what was an appropriate equivalent change? What else could bar human transmutation? Where could a soul come from if there wasn't something out there besides the Gate? What else explained love...

"So love made them human again?" said Henri.

"Yes, that's sappy, but I guess," Edward said, nodding his head. "They still had adventures after they became human again, but eventually they both returned to the little village where the white lily had once grown. They were walking into the village when they saw the lily's hill in the distance. The black rose was gone, and there were so many white lilies on the hill that it looked as if it had snowed."

"Really?" asked Sophie, looking up at Edward hopefully. He grinned down at her.

Yep! There were white lilies all over that hill. Even though the brothers had lost the original white lily, other lilies that were just as precious and wonderful had grown up in its place. They would never forget the first white lily, but now they had many others to care for. The brothers stayed in that village for the rest of their lives, tending the white lilies and living out their very own happily ever after."

"I liked that story, Daddy," Audrey exclaimed, giving a little yawn.

"Better than the princess one?" Edward asked as he stood up, holding Sophie with his automail arm.

"No, but it was okay."

Edward smirked and rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. At least it was okay."

"I liked it better than the princess one," Henri said. His youthful green eyes were clouded in deep thought, and he had stopped playing with the blocks. Edward reached down and ruffled Henri's already messy hair.

"That's good, kiddo. Now, c'mon, your mother's going to kill me if you don't go to bed now." He helped Henri to his feet and gave him a gentle shove towards the door. As the five-year-old made his way out of the room, Edward turned to Theo's bed. Theodore was already asleep, one arm thrown up over his face as he snored gently. The boy had to have one of the shortest attention spans ever. Edward set Sophie down on the bed so he could pull the blanket up around Theodore's shoulders. He smiled as he reached down and pushed the boy's thick blonde bangs back from his face.

"Daddy, was the white lily very pretty?" Audrey asked as her father turned to her.

"I told you already," Edward said as he motioned for her to head for the door.

"Yeah, I know, but I wanted to ask again," she said sleepily, leaning against the doorway.

"She was beautiful and very kind," Edward said, leaning down to kiss his daughter on her forehead. He rested his hand briefly on her cheek, "She would've loved you very much. Now go to bed or I'll ground you for a month."

"Hmm, that's nice," Audrey said, already halfway into the world of dreams as she tottered off to bed.

Edward smiled. "Goodnight, brat."

He felt a tug on his sleeve and turned to smile at Sophie, who had crawled off the bed. The drowsy toddler reached her arms out to him. "Up, Daddy."

"You're a demanding little thing, you know that?" he said as he picked her up. She frowned and shook her finger at him.

"I'm not little, Daddy!"

Edward almost laughed out loud but he caught himself quickly and gave a grave nod instead. "Oh, of course, Sophie. Sorry."

Sophie seemed satisfied as she laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Edward turned out the lights and crept out of Theo's room, quietly closing the door behind himself. Edward hoped that the morals from his story had somehow lodged themselves into his children. Maybe they wouldn't make the same mistakes that he and Al had when they had been younger.

An ominous creak from the wooden floors made him freeze in place. Crap. He slowly turned around to find Winry standing in front of him, her hands on her hips with all her weight balanced on one side. In one hand, she held a shiny silver wrench.

"You idiot, you kept the kids up past midnight!" she hissed at him, waving the wrench in his face.

"Winry! Um, yeah, well...you're going to wake up Sophie."

"They're going to be terrors in the morning!"

"They're always terrors, what's the difference?"

"Edward!"

Edward grinned cheekily as he walked towards Sophie's room, his wife whispering loving death threats to him as she followed. As odd as it was, this was the way life was supposed to be, and he wouldn't change any of it.