Summary: Leaving your son with a babysitter is easy, right? That's what Roy and Riza think as well as they leave their 6 months old son in the Elrics' care. But only then they realize how precious their child really is to them... Inspired by a comic by "theysangastheyslew" on tumblr.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Hiromu Arakawa. The name Henry for Edwin's son wasn't my idea; I've seen it somewhere before, either in a fanfiction or a headcanon and while I really tried to find another name, it stuck with me. BUT MAESI IS MINE. MIIIINE.
The story is based on a comic by and dedicated to theysangastheyslew on tumblr (post/121926744170/bonus-first-timers-by-methodformadness-insert). I fell in love with her little comic and especially her little Maes so hard I'm still recovering from broken bones and a sudden rush of diabetes. Check out her art and please, PLEASE leave a like or a reblog because IT'S SO INCREDIBLY FREAKISHLY ADORABLY CUTE.
Please enjoy!
The slight snoring that came from the back of the black Chevrolet triggered a small smile on the lips of the current driver. She threw a quick glance into her rear-view mirror and some fine wrinkles formed around the corners of her eyes as her smile grew.
The future Führer of Amestris was perched on the back-seat, head lolling on his left shoulder and mouth slightly open, allowing a thin trail of drool to trickle down to his chin. His left arm dangled down between his legs while his right arm disappeared behind the driver's seat.
As Riza tore her attention back to the street to change gears, she couldn't suppress the warmth that spread inside of her. She knew exactly what his other hand rested on: a bright yellow, fluffy blanket that covered the tiny body of a baby up to his chin.
Their baby. Their son. Maes Mustang.
Never would she have anticipated to understand their son's namesake when he had shoved pictures of his wife and daughter under her nose, accompanying the pictures with the matching stories, but she did. Now, she understood why Hughes had taken so many pictures of his daughter on a daily basis. Now she understood why he had gushed over her every second of his shift and why he had rushed home every evening, unable to wait another second to take his family into his arms again.
Sadly, this new-found understanding would turn the following two days into hell.
"Are we there yet?" a sleepy voice mumbled from behind her and Riza threw another glance into the mirror. Roy had woken up and stretched slightly before he combed his hair with one hand, the other wiping away the saliva on his chin.
"Nearly," Riza answered and slowed the car down right in front of a left turn, "another ten minutes maybe."
"Really? Gosh, I'm sorry," he answered her before he bend down to pick up his peaked cap that had fallen from his lap onto the ground of the car, "I didn't intend to sleep through the whole way. It's hard to stay awake when everyone else is asleep."
"It's alright," she waved him off, smiling to herself, "I slumbered the first part of our trip after all and that was right after the break of dawn. And your snoring kept me awake."
She saw color flush into his cheeks as he looked away from her into the child seat with a slight pout on his lips.
"I don't snore."
"Roy, we've been married for over a year now. Trust me when I say, you do snore."
He glowered back at her, but she only raised her brow as if to challenge him. Roy grumbled in defeat and Riza suppressed the urge to chuckle. After taking another turn, she peeked into the mirror again.
"How is he?"
"Still out," Roy answered her, a soft expression on his face as he observed the baby cuddled up in his blanket. "He's sleeping so peacefully, it breaks my heart that we'll have to wake him up soon. But can you believe that this will be his first sleep-over without mommy and daddy? He sure starts off early!"
Both chuckled at that and she saw Roy moving in the back, most likely stroking Maes's cheek or a strand of his hair out of his eyes. A few minutes later, the Chevrolet slowly approached the Elric house and with the slightest jerking, the car came to a halt in front of the workshop. Riza pulled out the ignition key and unbuckled her seat-belt when she heard her husband's voice increase an octave.
"Good morning, my sweet little baby! How are you?" he crooned to his baby as Riza closed the car door as gently as she could so she wouldn't upset her child too much. She slid over to the next car window and looked inside. Maes was indeed awake, albeit barely; his small, brown eyes drooped slightly and he had grasped his daddy's hand and drawn a finger into his yet toothless mouth to suckle on it. Her heart swelled at the dopey expression Roy wore on his face as he observed his 6 month old son, but she broke away from the sweet picture to open the car's trunk.
She hear a low whine immediately and raised her finger to her lips as she fully opened the trunk door. Her faithful Shiba Inu stared back at her, registering her gesture, and kept quiet.
"Good boy," Riza murmured and opened the hatch of Black Hayate's cage that kept him safe during their car ride. He leaped out of the trunk nearly soundlessly and got rewarded with a big dog biscuit and head-petting.
"You'll keep an additional eye on Maes, won't you, Hayate?"
The monochrome dog yipped quietly and looked around the vicinity with his tongue lolling out of his muzzle and his tail thumping back and forth while his mistress pulled the crammed changing bag out of the trunk onto her shoulder.
In the meantime, Roy had finally exited the car and leaned over the child seat, carefully lifting Maes out of it and onto his shoulder. The young infant immediately grasped fistfuls of his father's coat and buried his head in the crook of his neck. Deciding that it had gotten warm enough for Maes to stay solely in his green sleepers, Roy handed the blanket to Riza who put it away into the changing bag. She pulled the zipper closed again and looked up at her husband who had closed his eyes and leaned his cheek against his son's head. She smiled at the sight before her and leaned in a little, kissing Maes's cheek repeatedly until she felt Roy's arm around her waist, pulling her close for a kiss.
Before either of them could deepen it, though, the door of the house opened and a small, golden haired boy with equally golden eyes looked outside. His eyes glittered with recognition as he focused on the family of three and he skipped down the stairs.
"Uncle Roy, auntie Riza!"
Reluctantly, Roy let go of his wife as she turned around and took a few steps toward the house, beaming at the boy. "Hello Henry! My, you have gotten taller again!"
"Must be my incredible genes, then!"
A certain, blond haired young man strolled out onto the porch now, toothy grin plastered on his face as every second step made the floor squeak loudly.
"You mean it must be your wife's insistence on nurturing your son with milk!" Roy retorted immediately, but no malice was in his voice. Both men grinned at each other - they clearly missed their banter sometimes.
"Riza! Roy!"
The third voice came from the left. Winry had just stepped out of her workshop, a wrench still in her hand and a little, blond girl tagging along after her. She slipped the wrench into the pocket of her apron and wiped her hands on it before scooping up her daughter and walking over to the Mustangs. She gave Riza a small hug and beamed at the couple.
"Come inside, I've prepared an apple pie just for you! Ed, would you boil some water for tea?"
"Oh, Winry, please, we don't want to inconvenience you further," Riza waved off quickly, an apologetic expression on her face, "I'm really sorry this is such sort notice. We didn't expect that my presence would be imperative, too. Initially, only Roy had been called to the Ishvalan Headquarters-"
"Oh, stop it, please!" Winry shook her head lightly and stretched out her hand to take care of Maes's changing bag, "Ed was just mentioning how he missed having a baby in the house!" With a wink, she added, "This way, he can remember how much work it is before we try to make another one!"
The adults chuckled lightly, but got interrupted by a soft sneeze of Maes. The chuckles turned to "Oohs" and "Aws" and now even Sarah seemed interested enough in Maes to overcome her initial shyness - while Henry had been sneaking around Roy and Riza, occasionally stepping on tip-toes to catch a glimpse of the infant, Sarah had buried her face into her mother's neck. Now, that Roy had taken out a handkerchief and wiped off Maes's tiny nose, she craned her neck in the direction or her honorary cousin, but her attention was quickly snatched away by Den, Winry's old dog, who had finally detected Hayate's trace. Said dog stepped up to Den and they sniffed at each other before running off in a comfortable speed for the older dog.
"You want to go and chase after them, Sarah?"
Winry looked intently into her little girl's eyes, a perfect copy of her own, and the two year old thought for a minute before nodding sharply and answering with a soft "Yesh!"
"Alright." She let her daughter down carefully and as if on cue, her older brother took her hand and helped her down the stairs to chase the dogs. Again, the adults looked after the children, all content in their own way, before Edward spoke up again.
"Are you sure you don't want to step in? You know that Winry perfected Miss Gracia's apple pie!"
"Thank you, Edward," Riza answered, folding her arms in front of her torso, "but we're on a tight schedule."
As his wife already shouldered the changing bag of the baby, Edward stretched his arms out towards Roy to take hold of Maes.
"Here you go," the older man answered, carefully shifting the baby in his arms to hand him over, he involuntarily created a long, viscous trail of baby drool between the wet patch of coat Maes had suckled on a second ago and the corner of his mouth, as Riza elaborated on their schedule.
"The Führer got sick a few days ago and he already saw himself in his grave, when he begged us to visit him in Central."
Winry gasped and clutched the bag around her shoulder tighter.
"Oh dear! I hope he is alright!"
"He is, he is. We rescheduled our whole week and so we were able to visit him yesterday - the same day he finally chose to visit a doctor by the way," Riza assured her, rolling her eyes a little, "He has a slight cold; apart from that, he's healthy as a horse."
She turned back to her husband. He hadn't moved for a few seconds and still held Maes in front of him, dangling him just a few millimeters in front of Edward, clearly displeasing him. Riza raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at that, while Maes seemed unimpressed and simply shoved his thumb into his mouth to substitute his father's clothes.
"You can let go now, sir."
"I am, I am letting go!" he reassured her with a crooked grin, but pulled his son back into his embrace, and Edward let his arms fall back to his sides in annoyance. Before Riza could comment on it, though, Winry continued their conversation.
"Well, I am glad the Führer is not in any real danger. So you departed from Central this morning? That's quite a distance, you need 1 1/2 hours from here to East City alone!"
"The drive from Central to East City took another 2 1/2 hours," Riza answered as she eyed her husband critically before losing her patience with him.
"For goodness sake," she started to loosen his tight, desperate grip on his son, "Roy, let go!"
She finally freed the little one and held him in front of her just like Roy did a few seconds ago; all he did now was let his head fall forward and mutter "My baby.. my sweet little baby.." under his breath with a high pitched voice.
"Sorry about that," Riza told Edward, and the former alchemist stretched his arms out to the baby once more.
"Roy drove the first shift back to Eastern HQ. We only wanted to take a short break, breakfast, some coffee; instead, we found Roy's office being ablaze because someone," she threw a dirty look at her husband, but he still sulked over the loss of his baby boy, "forgot to lock up his old gloves with the transmutation circle and Havoc apparently felt the need to try them out and show off in front of Fuery and Breda."
"Oh dear, I hope nobody has been injured!"
Riza shook her head. "Thankfully, no. But it took us two hours to sort this out and and well, just as I was about to go home with Maes, Colonel Miles called to tell us I had to be at the meeting at all cost, and you know the rest of the story," the Lieutenant-Colonel smiled apologetically, "We stopped at home shortly, threw some fresh clothes into Maes's back, packed some additional for me and called you. And here we are. We're really sorry."
Winry shook her head furiously.
"No need to be. You know what? If you refuse to stay, I'll just cut off some pieces of apple pie so you can take it with you. At least you'll have something to eat in case they'll whisk you off into a meeting right after your arrival."
"That would be lovely, Winry."
The young mechanic nodded enthusiastically and carried the bag inside while Riza's eyes lingered on her retreating figure. Only the sound of Edward impatiently clearing his throat brought her back to reality.
"Sorry Edward," she muttered now, about to hand him Maes, when... when she looked down at her child. He was soft in her hands, all too fragile and cuddly... albeit he nearly seemed to be irritated with the situation. A little drool had trickled down her hand, but she didn't care as she stared at his hair, thick patches of hair alternating with light patches that let the skin of his head shine through, but all of them were the beautiful, dark color and velvety texture inherited by his father.
And then, the gentle breeze that just passed her wafted his sweet, unique scent into Riza's nose and the tears prickled in the corners of her eyes as she pulled her little boy, her baby, into her eyes, hugging him tightly as she sank to the ground. She felt two, tiny hands fist into her uniform jacket. How could she possibly survive two days without her baby?!
At that, even adult Edward's patience was used up.
"I QUIT."
Finally, after another 10 minutes of cuddling and kissing and nuzzling their infant, Edward had finally managed to get a grip of Maes, shove a big package of apple pie into their hands and kick Roy and Riza off of his porch in the direction of their car. Rather reluctantly, they backed away, turning back to Maes every two steps as Edward held his little hand and made him wave back in goodbye at his parents.
"Ugh, Ed, please, be care-"
"Goddammit Mustang! I thought the Philosopher's stone had healed your eyes. Open them up, I'm raising TWO KIDS."
The General's face fell.
"But... my baby..."
"Sir, let's get inside," Riza tugged at his coat softly and with a sigh, he followed her, opening the door to the driver's seat and letting her slide in before he closed the door again, rounded the car, put away the cake and got into the seat next to her. He didn't even have the chance to reach for the door handle to close the door before he heard Edward again.
"FINALLY. Hey, Win! Get the album!"
Filled with terror, the couple turned to their left and watched the young adult strut back home, Maes leaning against the man's shoulder as he lifted one of his tiny hands and imitated a slow gripping motion as if he was trying to wave them goodbye himself.
The parents grasped each other's hand with a happy, proud sigh, until Edward resumed speaking.
"Come here kid, lemme tell you 'bout the time your mom let your old man grow a mustache! Damn he looked so ridiculous, I have no idea how she could even bear to kiss him like that! Well, not that I understand it now, either, but..."
His voice faded out as Roy and Riza stared straight ahead, Riza with a hue of red on her cheeks and Roy with horror in his eyes.
"I'm glad he's only 6 months old and won't understand most of what Edward's going to tell him..."
"Yes, sir."
"Lieutenant-Colonel? Remind me to never leave our son in the Elrics' care ever again."
"Definitely, sir."
Both slumped back into their seats a little and it didn't take Riza long to slide down onto the munched-on patch of fabric on Roy's coat, nuzzling the still-wet spot as her husband rested his head on hers.
The next two days were going to be hell.