Disclaimer: I don't own FMA

Notes: Because everyone wishes that Roy and Riza could get married, we have many ideas of what it would be like if they did. We also have many people who believe that it couldn't happen, for various reasons. This is my interpretation of what would happen if they did get married. So obviously, I'm assuming here that there is no 'fraternisation law' to be broken. And I suppose that then it's an AU.

Oh, and grats to me, because once I've posted both halves, this story is the one that'll raise my "total words written" above 100,000 . . . –pats self on back-

"The Manga-ka Has Her Reasons" by Dailenna

Chapter One of Two: The Wedding

A charcoal grey suit with soft lapels, a cravat, a stiff-collared white dress-shirt, a pair of white gloves without the well-known array on them, and black shoes so clean you could eat your dinner off them. A white, sleeveless dress – slight embroidery over the bodice, laced at the back and tapered at the waist to fall down lightly over slim hips, the skirt trailing behind for metres – a veil that sat in elegantly rolled hair, a dainty pair of white slippers, a bouquet of light pink and blue buds held in hands encased with another pair of gloves, long enough to reach up and meet the height of the dress's bodice.

Not even Maes Hughes could say that he had imagined the couple to look any better together. Even standing there at the altar, allowing themselves to show the love that had been suppressed for so long, they looked so peaceful. So comfortable in knowing that they would finally be together.

From the position in which Maes stood – that of the best man – he could see Riza's eyes shining with unshed tears, and when Roy turned to face the priest for the briefest moment, his dark eyes glistened just as brightly. Maes wasn't able to see himself, but he could feel the wet tracks down his own cheeks, and knew that there was more than one face in the crowd to his left that mirrored the emotion.

It had taken years of waiting for the couple to finally decide it was the right time. They had spent so long as co-workers, acting the roles of husband and wife without the intimacies, that when Roy Mustang decided that he would ask Riza Hawkeye to marry him, there had been no reason for a long engagement. They already knew that they were able to get on well in the closest of circumstances – was there any circumstance closer than mopping up the other's blood when they'd been shot? Or listening to their complaint morning and afternoon? Or adopting a homeless puppy merely because the other said they liked dogs?

So the engagement had been only long enough to toss together one of the most perfect weddings Maes had ever seen. He excluded his own from the group, only because he had been feeling joyful for his own sake then. The happiness he felt now was the slightest notch below that, and although he knew there was such little difference, he would never say it aloud.

He would never say it aloud – but he would let people know it when he burst into the office the next week with images of the reception in his hand. It had taken very little effort to persuade Gracia to get a few photographs of Riza before the ceremony. He himself had a few of Roy trying to work off his nerves.

And then came the words that the congregation was waiting to hear. The words that they had been so sure were coming eventually, but had always seemed around the corner, just out of sight.

"I do."

When the robed priest gave permission, Roy Mustang bent his head down and looked for a moment into the eyes of the woman before him. A heartbeat later, his lips captured those of his wife, and the solemn joy of the family members and friends in the crowd gave way to well-discernible delight. Maes brushed at his cheeks in an attempt to dry them.

"Now it is my job as Roy's best man to make this the least comfortable five minutes of his life," Maes said, with a smirk over his shoulder at the groom before turning to face the majority of the room again. "No, I'm just kidding, folks. There's nothing I could say right now to bring him out of that high. Take a look at him."

Roy had been positively beaming for the whole afternoon and evening. He had had to force himself to stop smiling in between the photos at the park, because his cheeks were aching, and yet now here he was again, grinning so fiercely that he outshone the sun itself.

"Now, that smile," Maes said, "is the result of many a patient year. While I've always been here telling him to hurry up and get married, Roy was a lot more laid back about the idea. He said that he would when he was ready, and now that I look at the two of you, I can understand that you made the right choice by waiting that little bit longer."

Riza wasn't able to keep the smile off her own face. She had always been the more reserved of the two, but now she was the mirror-image of Roy – face aglow and teeth sparkling in the soft lighting. Her gloved hand was in Roy's, gripping tightly as they tried to concentrate on the speech rather than just dwelling on the fact that they'd finally made it.

Maes continued on seamlessly. "Roy's been my best friend for years now. We've fought many a battle together, back-to-back – whether in Ishbal, or here on the home-front, it didn't really matter. He's always been there to dig me out of the trouble I got myself into, and I've done the same for him from time to time.

"There was a point in time when that all seemed to change, though. It wasn't due to the fact that Roy had suddenly met a woman, or made another best friend, but rather that the quiet, loyal girl he had drawn to his side had finally come to understand enough about him that she finally knew how to respond when he made a mistake. Riza's always been cautious like that – never getting herself into anything too deep. Except when it came to Roy.

"I've known Riza for only a little less time than I've known . . . her husband," he grinned. "In Ishbal I heard countless rumours about the young sniper referred to by the nickname of 'the Hawk's eye,' and was even saved by her bullets on more than one occasion. She had been pointed out in passing to me, but I had never spoken to her properly until one day when Roy and I were saved from a not-so-dead man, and I went to thank her afterwards. It was to my surprise that I learnt the two had actually already met – some seven or eight years ago!" He paused for a moment as his audience laughed, before interjecting "-and had been living together and apart for five of those years!" The laughter bubbled up again, and he waited until it had died back down before continuing on.

"Not many of you know this, but Roy actually studied alchemy with Riza's father. Of course Riza was still in school at that time, so they really didn't meet except during school holidays, when – as I have been informed by the groom – they tended to view each other more as estranged siblings, and didn't actually talk, but rather existed together." He looked over at the couple with a raised eyebrow. "I've never fully believed that story, but as there are no living witnesses to the contrary, that's just what we'll have to accept for now," he added with a toothy grin.

"So, if we tally up the time it's taken them, you'll find that according to Roy Mustang and his beautiful bride, the perfect amount of time to wait between meeting your prospective partner and marrying them is eighteen years. If we ask the men forced to work with them for half of this time, however" – a cheer went up from tables number five and seven – "they will all tell you – as confident in this piece of information as that the sun is in the sky at day, and the moon at night – that Roy and Riza have been married this whole time."

At this point Maes turned so that he was facing straight towards the newlyweds, rather than addressing the whole room. He put a hand down on Roy's shoulder and took Riza's hand – the one that wasn't holding Roy's. "I don't think it matters whether you've been married for five years or two hours – or even five hundred years, or two seconds – if you two can't make marriage work, then I don't believe there is a single person who can. If you two aren't in love with each other, then no one in the world has even understood the concept of love. If you two aren't going to be the best testament to the joys of marriage, then Hell already is and has frozen over." He turned back to the room with a wide grin on his face, just holding their gaze for a sentence longer. "And if you two don't make the best looking babies this world's ever seen – other than my Elysia! – then everything we learnt in school is a lie, and there is no such thing as 'genetics'."

A rumble of laughter passed once again through the room, and a few more cheers came from tables five and seven.

"I'd like to propose a toast," Maes said, in an attempt to conclude his speech. He waited as some guests took a champagne glass from the waiters who had just started circling around the room, and others held up their various drinks. "To Roy and Riza Mustang. May their lives be filled with love, compassion, joy, loyalty (of course), and a giant brood of blonde and black-haired children!"

Glasses raised into the air, and for the next few minutes the sound of chinking wine-flutes echoed around the room. Maes sat down and took a gulp from his own glass, chuckling when he looked over and saw that Roy and Riza weren't exactly drinking along with the others. Their wine glasses had been placed back on the table, and Riza had Roy's face in her hands as she settled a quick kiss on his lips. Roy wasn't long in returning the favour. Maes looked away, allowing them as much privacy as they would get in a celebration dedicated to the two of them.

Realising the stupidity of his allowing them a private moment, it took him only a second to prepare and prime his camera, and Maes snapped a shot of the couple before they got too heated.

When they noticed the flash, their mouths parted, and Riza had just leant over Roy to scold Maes – her face still too set in its smile to appear intimidating at all – when he snapped another one, and they choked out laughter before Riza found the words to tell him to go away.

"I would, but they're about to start serving dinner," Maes said teasingly. "I'll just have to stay put for now."

"Don't you have to go and check on Elysia?" Roy asked wryly, one of his hands still resting on the curve of Riza's hip, as it had before Maes disturbed them.

"Nope, I find I have more photo opportunities here, right now," Maes said stubbornly. He managed to hold his expression for a full ten seconds under the amused stares of the Mustangs. "Alright, alright," he caved, "but you know that you're going to have to sit and look through my whole two rolls of film when you get back from your honeymoon – whether they're of you or of Elysia. So know that it's your own fault if half of your wedding pictures are of her."

As he got up from the table to go and find his daughter, he heard the couple laugh to themselves. "Thank goodness we didn't have him do the 'professional' photos," Roy muttered.

"If we did, he wouldn't have been able to be in them with us," Riza was gently reminding him just before Maes was out of hearing-range. His smile widened. If he kept on smiling this much, he'd have to make himself stop, like Roy did, or his cheeks would start cramping up.

After dinner had come and gone, Maes found himself listening to a gentle piece of music played by the musicians who had been hired for the night. While a simple string ensemble played the key background layers, a clarinet wafted in and out of the melody tenderly enough that he could almost feel the tears welling up in his eyes again when he looked and saw Roy and Riza circling slowly about the dance floor. The fact that the train of Riza's dress was looped over her arm did nothing to take from the picture – her dress still met the floor decently on all sides, and she had only gathered the end of the skirt up so that Roy didn't accidentally trip over it.

Maes managed to fill his film easily that evening, and found himself wishing that he had brought another when he snapped his last – that very stunning image of Roy and Riza still on the dance floor, Roy's hand fitting into the curve of Riza's waist, easily guiding her in her movement, as she was only able to grip his hand with one of hers – the other was occupied with holding that dress, making it slightly harder for her to keep in time with her partner. Maes hadn't quite been able to keep the other people on the dance floor from drifting in and out of the photo, but when the film was developed later, he found that the other couples only framed the image, instead of ruining it.

A/N: Reviews have been so scarce these days that I've been reduced to begging - or reminding - think of it however you will. Please review if you like it. Please review if you don't like it. Tell me what you love, or what you think I should change. Your opinions will be appreciated, and I will take the time to reply to every review I get. Thank you :)