English is not my first language, so feel free to point out any mistakes.
A difficult birth, no doubt. But finally, after seven hours of constant pushing and pain, Trisha Elric could finally see the little girl cuddled in Pinako's arms.
"It's a girl Trisha"
Trisha smiles. She doesn't care if the baby is a boy or a girl. The baby is perfect regardless. In fact she already decided the name. Edward for a boy. Elizabeth for a girl.
Pinako gently places the baby on her arms, and opens the door. She barely manages to step aside as Hohemheim enters like a possessed man. But instead of being annoyed, Pinako feels quite amused. In all these years she had never witnessed him to lose his cool, until now.
"Look Ho-ho" Pinako feels like rolling her eyes at the cheesy pet name Trisha has for Hohenheim "She is such a pretty girl, isn't she?"
And she truly is. She is still rather red skinned, like most newborns are, and her face is scruched in an ugly frown as she cries her lungs out. But she has a lot of hair for a newborn, blonde apparently, and the way she moves her little body seeking warmness is frankly lovely.
Hohenheim inspects the girl. It's too soon to know how she is going to look, but he'd like if she looked like Trisha. Trisha is as perfect as an imperfect human can get, and he doesn't want his daughter to look like a monster, such as himself.
"Come on, carry her" Hohenheim doesn't think eh ever had held a baby before, specially not one who only has 20 minutes of being alive, at most. But with some help of Pinako, who noticed his awkwardness, he manages to get the girl on his arms
"Soooo..." he clears his throat "any ideas for names?" he says looking at the women in the room. Pinako snorts and Trisha laughs a bit.
" Welllll..." Trisha answers, obviously mocking his awkward voice tone " I like the name Elizabeth"
Elizabeth. It's a pretty name. Relatively common, yet very classy. Worthy of a princess. Because that's what his daughter is to his eyes. A princess. Hohenheim smiles at the thought. A princess born from a slave. Oh, the irony.
"Elizabeth it is" he says while pressing the baby to his chest, and at the action, he feels like he's drowning, a sea of emotions overrwhelming the core of his very being. The baby, unaware of the man's emotional breakdown, just pressed her little head closer to his chest, her father's gentle heartbeat lulling her to sleep.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"You sure don't waste time, don't you Hohenheim?" Pinako says with a sassy smirk on her lips, a long smoking pipe between them.
"I have no idea what are you talking about" Hohenhein responds evenly, yet the shadows of a laugh betrays him. Just mere months after Trisha gave birth to Elizabeth, Hohenheim impregnated Trisha again. So now, 9 months after, a little more than a year after Elizabeth's birth, they are once again reunited for the delivery of Trisha's second child. This time Sarah and her son are the ones attending Trisha, not Pinako. Last year her son and his wife were in Briggs for a emergency during Elizabeth's birth.
Hohenheim doesn't look as worried as he did during Elizabeth's birth. Probably because he already know the gist of this stuff, or probably because this delivery hasn't been as difficult as the last one. Or who knows, maybe he was worried because it was Pinako the one attending the birth. She hopes that's not the case because if it's she is gonna throw a wrench to his face. Pinako ain't doctor but she know how to attend a pregnant woman, damn it! She is a popular midwife in Resembool.
Finally, Yuriy and Sarah come out the room, and a crying baby is being held in her daughter-in-law's arms. Hohenheim receives the baby with a faint smile, and Pinako can't help but smile herself. During many years, she had been worried for Hohenheim. She and her late husband seemed like the only friends that the hermit man had. She wasn't too happy at first when she found out that Hohenheim had hooked up with her daughter-in -law's best friend. For fuck's sake, he had met Trisha when she was 7! Yet, Pinako, who had known the man more than anyone except his own wife, could tell how smitten he was with her, and how much he loved his kids. Parenthood and marriage suited him well.
"It's a boy Hohenheim" her son announces with fanfare.
Hohenheim inspected the boy the same way he did with his daughter. His hair seemed a few shades darker than Elizabeth's hair, more like Trisha's. He was crying loudly, but less loudly than his daughter did.
"A name Hohenheim?"
Hohenheim turned to her and breathed "Alphonse." He hadn't thought in a name for the baby, not really, but it doesn't matter, this child is an Alphonse, he just knows it.
He tenderly kissed the boy's head as a promise. The baby cooed, and Hohenheim chuckled, already feeling so much love for his baby boy. His little Alphonse.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hohenheim stares at the photo in the wall. Everyone but himself was smiling carefree, heck he has two enormous pools of water coming out of his eyes "You have the biggest sad clown face my Dear" Trisha chuckled while fondly pecking his cheek and brushing the tears on it.
God, he doesn't deserve her.
He has studied everything he could about his condition. But so far, no results. He sighs to himself. He is basically looking for a way to kill himself. He had never pegged himself as suicidal.
Death is the most terrying enemy ever. And the one you can't defeat. Hohenheim should be content with him being the only human who has successfully cheated Death, but in reality, Death is solace for him. He doesn't want to live in world without his wife and his knows that the Afterlife exist, so the only he has to do is die to be reunited with Trisha and his children when their time comes.
Trisha understands him and even helps him to pack his belongings. She tries to make him say goodbye to his kids, but he know that that would only weaken his resolve, and Trisha knows that too. And he'd probably start wailing too, embarrasing himself in front of his wife. Although, since the photo, Trisha proclaimed that his sad clown face produced her a serious case of giggles.
Another one of the many attributes he loves about her. Her humor.
Hohenheim and his wife are in the door, and it should be easy enough, just slip through the door, not before giving an incandescent kiss to his wife, the last one they'd share in a very long time. But the universe is cruel, because just in that moment Elizabeth and Alphonse are standing in front of them, all drowsy and adorable in their fluffy pajamas.
Hohenheim's first instint is throw his arms around them and Trisha and never let them go. But he closes his eyes, containing the pain from the hole forming in his chest to strengthen himself. He opens them again, with absolutely conviction this time, and sends a fleeting gaze to Trisha, hoping to convey in a single gaze the thousand things he wants to say, and he leaves his home, without looking back.
"Please wait for me"
As I already said before, this fic will be a mix between FMA '03 and Brotherhood, so if you didn't like '03, this fic may not be for you.