The gravel crunched under the tires as she drove the car up the driveway of the President's Mansion. Riza wasn't an unusual sight, considering she tried to visit her grandfather regularly, or at least as regularly as both their schedules would allow. The guards had waved her through as soon as they had seen her face through the car window, and by the time she'd parked and walked to the front entrance, news of her arrival had been called through to the house and her grandfather was waiting for her at the door.
"Riza, what brings you here today, I thought you and your team would be out celebrating."
"I think most of the team are celebrating by sleeping," Riza said, and tried not to bristle at them being called 'hers'. Yes, the official chain of command had placed her in charge of them not long after the Promised day, but they had never been hers alone. "I came to give you this."
Grumman opened the brown document folder that she passed him and skim read it. "So he finally asked you to marry him, did he?" He smiled. "About time too, I've been trying to get him to do that for years."
"So you'll approve my request?"
"As long as this is what you want, I'm sure there are ways to work around it."
"No, this is what I've wanted for a long time." Ever since Ishval, was what was left unspoken. "The timing was just never right before."
"Well then, how could I deny it?" He asked, and reached for a pen. He added his signature beneath Roy's, the final authorisation she needed in order to officially leave the military. "What will you do now?"
"Help him run the country," Riza said. "There's more I can do as First Lady than as his bodyguard."
"And he does love you." Grumman commented, and handed her back the paperwork.
"And I love him." Riza said. Warmth and joy spread through her at the admission. "Thank you for this, grandfather."
"You're not coming inside?" He asked, and she could tell that he was trying to hide his disappointment.
"Sorry, but I have to go and see Rebecca. If she finds out about this from Havoc, she'll go on a one woman rampage." Riza said. "How about next Monday? I'll bring Roy and we can have dinner."
"That sounds splendid, I'll make sure I'm free."
Roy dialed the number from memory - although if he was asked, he'd claim that he had to look it up - and waited for it to connect. He'd tried to convince Riza to make the call, after all he liked her more than him, but she'd made the (admittedly good) point that she should probably be the one to tell her grandfather, and probably in person.
There was a short list of people they needed to tell, and they'd divided it up to share the work. Still, he'd much rather have told anyone but him.
"Rockbell Automail."
"Yo, Fullmetal."
"Fuck." And then all Roy could hear was a dial tone, as Edward had obviously hung up on him.
It looked like Riza would have to call after all, Roy thought, before going ahead and dialing the next number on his list.
"Ohmygod." it had all tumbled out of Rebecca's mouth as a single, surprised word.
"Yep." Riza agreed.
They were both sitting at the kitchen table in Rebecca and Havoc's - Riza found it difficult to think of the man as simply Jean, after so many years of referring to him by surname - small house. Havoc was snoring loudly in the living room, where, according to Rebecca, he'd passed out asleep an hour after getting in from work. Riza was a little jealous, she hadn't slept more than four hours a night since the campaign had started.
"When did this happen? It better not have been weeks ago!" Rebecca insisted.
"He asked this afternoon, after everything got confirmed." Riza said. "You're the second person I've told. We didn't even tell the men."
"Who was first?" Rebecca asked jealously, and Riza didn't bother hiding the roll of her eyes.
"My grandfather. You know, the guy in charge of the country at the moment?" Riza said.
"Oh right. I always forget you guys are related."
"I wish everyone else would."
"Okay, so, we're going to talk about your weird family related issues later - and I do mean that, Riza, so don't try and dodge it when I bring it up! - and let's get back to talking about this," Rebecca said. "So. Please tell me there's a ring and he didn't just say 'hey, let's get hitched?'"
Riza pulled the thin gold chain that she was wearing around her neck, tucked beneath her shirt, and there was her engagement ring. She then told Rebecca all about his proposal, and yes, she blushed, and yes she gushed more than she would normally have done.
"I've never seen you this happy," Rebecca commented, once Riza had stopped talking. "It's nice."
"I'm not sure I've been this happy," Riza admitted. Everything before Ishval was tainted by her father, his erratic behaviour and descent into what Riza now thought of as madness, but at the time had been almost unidentifiable as anything other than horror. Everything after Ishval was tainted with that, what she and Roy had both done.
It was something that would never go away, but it was easier to live with now that Ishval was a place full of life instead of death, and that she and Roy were both on the path to remaking the country into a place where something like that would never happen again.
"So, do you guys have a date set?" Rebecca asked.
"We want to do it before the Inauguration, so in about two months."
"Two months?" Rebecca asked, her mouth hung open comically as if Riza had just said something horrendously shocking.
"Yeah."
"How on earth are you going to plan a wedding in two months?!" She almost-but-not-quite yelled. "It took me and Jean a year, and even that felt impossible sometimes."
"Well, we're going to keep it small. Close friends and family only," Riza said. "And you're going to help."
"Oh am I?"
"Well, you're my maid of honour. So you have to." Riza said.
Rebecca squealed so loudly, Riza heard Havoc wake up in the living room, and she couldn't help but laugh.
The phone rang shortly after Roy was finished talking to his aunt. He'd been in the middle of playing with Hayate, sat on the floor and each of them tugging on a piece of rope.
"Sorry, boy, but I should probably get that." He let go of the rope and ruffled the pup's (well, he wasn't so much of a puppy anymore) fur before he picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Alright, what did you want?" It was Edward. Roy wasn't surprised that the younger man had called him back, but he was slightly surprised it had happened tonight. Winry - or Al if he was in the country - must have strong armed him into it.
"Riza and I are getting married in two months, and we'd like you to attend."
There was a stunned silence from the other end of the line - ha, he'd managed to stun him into silence!
"Is she pregnant?" Edward asked, and Roy spluttered.
"What? No! What on earth? Just because you forgot how to use birth control doesn't mean the rest of the world has as well." Roy spat out.
"Oh just fuck off," Ed cursed. "I don't know how Hawkeye can put up with your bullshit."
"She finds it endearing."
"Oh fuck, I think I'm going to throw up." Edward proceeded to make (what Roy hoped was fake) gagging noises.
"Are you done?" Roy asked.
"Never," Edward said, then his tone changed and became slightly gentler; "Look. I'll have to talk to Winry, she's due in about three months and it'll be up to her if she wants to travel to Central."
"Understandable." Roy said. "We'd both like Al to be there as well, what's the best way to contact him?"
"He said he was going to try to be back for the baby's birth, I'll get in touch and see if he can get here sooner. Don't worry President Elect -" And now he was back to mocking. "-I'll make sure he knows all about it."
"Thanks, Edward."
"Yeah yeah, whatever. I'll call you later about details."
Once the phone was rested back on it's cradle, Roy looked over to Hayate; "Well, that could've gone worse."
