A/N: So sorry for the long delays. It's long but not much progress in the story line. Please enjoy

Instant Parents 4

Roy took a flame-decorated shirt and showed it to Riza. The female lieutenant glared before shook her head. He made a face as he looked at the shirt in hand. It was a great shirt with the red-and-orange coloured flames with a dark background. He averted his gaze from the cool shirt to his lieutenant.

"Why?" he almost whine at Hawkeye.

"I don't want Ryan to be a pyromaniac like you sir," she explained as she chose a set of colourful polka-dots pyjamas and a couple of navy blue flannel bottoms.

"What? I'm the Flame Alchemist, not an arsonist, Lieutenant!" He pouted, still holding to the shirt.

However, his lieutenant knew better. If she said anything, he will continue pouting like a small kid. Thus, she ignored him as she picked a couple of t-shirts and pants before deposited the clothes into a cart beside her. Then, she turned her attention to baby cleansing products, and still ignoring her superior with his flame shirt.

Roy turned to Ryan. The toddler was standing beside him, holding the hem of his polo t-shirt. He looked very tired but he forced himself to stay awake. Ryan, the name given by the welfare office, barely slept during the three days of his stayed at the orphans' home. He had been crying for his 'parents.' No one in that home managed to make him quiet. He did not want to eat or sleep. All he wanted was to have his parents. Thus, the welfare office had to call the famous Flame Alchemist to sort out things.

After an hour spent in the small office, they finally decided to put Ryan into Roy and Riza's custody until they find his real parents or anyone who wanted to adopt the jet-black haired child. The office also had provided the new instant parents with some money to take care of the poor Ryan.

Here the three of them were, shopping for a toddler's needs and some groceries for Lieutenant Hawkeye. They had spent an hour choosing Ryan milk bottles, feeding set, milk, diapers, and now, his garments and bath products. It was a challenging work for Roy but an effortless assignment for Riza. She knew everything about a child's need. Roy only knew how to push and guide a cart by using his right hand Ryan held on tightly to his left. Yup, he was in charge to keep an eye on Ryan as the Lieutenant did all the shopping.

"Daddy… me thisty," Ryan cried as he tugged Roy's t-shirt.

"Uurrhh...?" was all Roy could managed.

"Check the bag-pack sir. There should be something for Ryan to drink," said his right-hand woman, still had her attention on comparing half a dozen of body bath and shampoo.

"Um… You wanna drink?" Roy mumbled to himself as he rummaged through a worn-out grey bag-pack provided by the welfare's office. There a few of diaper, a change of clothes, a packet of biscuit and, to his relief, a small carton of milk. Roy tore the paper as he squatted down to level with Ryan. The famous Flame Alchemist carefully titled chocolate milk carton into the toddler's mouth.

Ryan drank half of the content quickly and gave a loud burp at his 'father.' The Colonel's eyes went wide as a dinner plate before he laughed out lout. Who could have guess that a child a small as Ryan could make belching sound so loud. Roy took his handkerchief and wiped the white liquid stains around the child's face; still chuckling at the same time.

The female lieutenant tried to stifle her laugh as she put down a couple bottles of shampoo and body bath gel into the cart. The Colonel's face was hilarious. She looked at the pair. Roy still crouching with a smile plastered on his face and Ryan was amusing himself with the opened milk carton in Roy's hand, fiddling with the opening. Riza Hawkeye smiled. Both of them looked cute together and anyone will definitely think what she first thought when she saw Ryan; that he was Roy Mustang's son.

"Sir, I think we've finished here. Let's go."

"Alright..." Roy got on his feet. He offered the remaining milk to Ryan but he refused it. So the Colonel quickly emptied the content into his mouth. He crumpled the milk carton, tossed it into the cart as he offered his free hand to Ryan.

Little Ryan slipped his hand into Roy's and grabbed Riza's hand. The trio made a beeline towards the counter, Ryan in between the two adults.

"Mummy... me tired. Can we?" The child looked up, his amber eyes penetrating hers.

She still couldn't believe that the child that looked a lot like her superior and he had her eyes. Gosh, she hoped that she- they didn't bump into anyone that she knew off like their teammates, especially their teammates.

"Yes honey. We are going back after this. Do you want to go eat anything, before that?" Riza asked.

He shook his head.

As they approached the cashier, Ryan's eyes caught the big colourful ice-cream freezer. He let go of Roy's hand and ran off to the freezer. Riza followed him as Roy continued his journey towards the counter. The cashier girl gave Roy a flirty look and bored her gaze at the Colonel; mentally discarding his garments. She batted her over-used-of-mascara eyelashes at him, which to Roy was like a chicken desperately trying to fly as high as a mighty eagle. But, her flirting movements went to a sudden halt when Ryan came trotting to Roy with a popsicle in hand.

"You like coffee-flavoured ice-cream, if I remember that correctly?" said Riza and handed him a couple of single-serve ice cream; a coffee-infused for the Colonel and vanilla flavour for herself.

"Thanks," he took all three ice-creams and let the disappointed girl punched in the price.

The cashier lazily keyed in the prices of ice-creams and handed- almost threw- the cold confections to Riza.

"Do you mind if Ryan and I sat there," she pointed a bench outside the shopping outlet, "waiting for you?" Roy nodded as he grabbed a four-different-sizes-milk-bottles set and its cleaning kit.

It took the cashier almost fifteen minutes to punch in every price tags and put them in plastic bags, which by the time Roy came to his 'family's' side, Riza already finished her ice-cream and Ryan's hands were sticky with light syrup from his popsicle.

Roy quickly took a wet-ones from one of the shopping bags and handed to Riza. She wiped of the melted ice-cream from Ryan's hands and face.

"Sir, you do realise that the cashier is still staring at you, right?" Riza took the ice-cream stick and threw it in a dustbin with the now-colourful-and-sugary-wet ones tissue.

Colonel Mustang snorted at his aid's question. "What can I say... it's not my fault that I'm just sooo goood looooking!" And he laughed.

Riza rolled her eyes. As Riza wiped Ryan's hands again, just to make sure that all those sugar and colour from popsicles cleaned, Roy enjoyed his ice-cream. Then, the three of them walked out from the shopping complex building, still aware of the stare from the heavily-used-of-make-up cashier girl following them. What they didn't know was a teenage blonde haired young alchemist had his jaw, literally, dropped down on the floor with his eyes almost burst out from their sockets when he saw the family of three exited the building.


A/N: So... I was trying to focus only on this fic, but... yeah, I was being lazy for the past five months. I'm starting my foundation in a couple months or so and right now, I'm trying to finish this and a few other fics of mine. Please drop a review or something. Leave the flames with our beloved Roy Mustang and his flame shirt! Thanks for reading!