"Roy!" Winry wailed as she walked up the sidewalk. "What are you doing?"
Roy ducked under Riza's punch and called a time out. "Practicing. What does it look like?"
"It looks like you're deliberately disobeying me," Winry said, striding up to them.
"Nuh uh!" Roy protested. "I'm fine. We always stop if it starts hurting."
Winry glared at him before turning to Riza. "And you, young miss? You're letting him?"
Riza ducked her head. "Sorry Miss Winry."
Roy grinned at her.
"Well, I suppose there's no stopping you," Winry sighed. "But one of you can carry my kit inside. I need to talk to your aunt."
Chris Mustang had found out that her nephew and foster son was in Central the day after he and Riza arrived. She was not pleased that Roy had had the audacity to try a forbidden form of alchemy, but even less pleased that he had neglected to come straight to her after Master Hawkeye died.
"I had to find out from one of my girls that he was dead!" she bellowed. "And I heard nothing at all from you! The newspapers said that you kids had gone missing, and here I find that you were swept away by a state alchemist and taken to some city automail mechanic. No offense, of course," she added, turning to Ed and Winry.
"None taken," they said in concert, holding up their open palms.
"And what do I find when I get here?" she continued. "I find my boy missing an arm and an eye, and his friend stuck in a robot!"
The kids had turned their faces away, but Roy still flinched when she delivered the last line. He clenched his fist and tried to bite back the sob in his throat. But Chris had spent her anger, and she sank down into a chair.
"You lost your arm," she whispered. "Oh, Roy…"
"I'm sorry!" he cried. "I didn't mean to, I mean, I just wanted-"
"Come here, idiot," Chris said.
Roy collapsed into her arms and buried his face in her shoulder. "I just wanted to help," he bawled. Riza hung back, but her reluctance did not go unnoticed.
"You get over here too," Chris ordered. Riza did, self-conscious about her body, but Chris was a big woman with a bigger heart, and so Riza found herself engulfed in a hug.
That was a year ago. In the time since, Roy had received his automail arm and started wearing a black eyepatch over his ruined socket, and he had continued his alchemical studies under Major Elric's brother, Alphonse. Master Al, as they called him, was not a state alchemist, but was more of a researcher. Despite this, he was skilled in unarmed combat, and so taught both Riza and Roy how to defend themselves.
"It's important not to rely on any one skill," he told them. "So even if you are an alchemist, you should know how to do things without alchemy. And that includes protecting yourself and who you love."
For Riza, Al made a soundproof shooting range in the basement of his house. She was flabbergasted by the gesture, but Al only smiled and told her that he hadn't been using the room for anything anyway.
The kids lived with Al during the week, studying and helping him around the house. On the weekends, they stayed with Chris, who eventually adopted Riza to give her an official guardian.
Riza took Winry's box into the house. She tried to hang around, but was shooed back out into the yard.
"D'you know what they're talking about?" Roy asked.
"No," Riza said, "but since Winry brought her kit, it could be about your automail."
"I hope it is," Roy said, idly kicking at the grass. "I asked Miss Rockbell if I could have a steel and flint put into my fingers, so I can generate sparks to do flame alchemy with."
"You know Aunt Chris would never let you do that."
"She might! I told her that I'm going to take the state alchemist exam, and she didn't argue with me."
"That's because she's going to lock you in a cage the day of," Riza said, a little too confidently to be lying, and a little too deadpan to be telling the truth.
"Then I'll just go the year after," Roy said.
"Nah. She'll make it a tradition. Roy-wrangling, our annual celebration of the state alchemist exam."
"Oh come on! I'll get too old eventually!"
"You'll never escape!" Riza countered, and soon the pair were sparring again in an epic duel for Roy's future.
By the time Winry had finished talking to Chris, the kids had exhausted themselves, and were laying peacefully on the lawn, watching the clouds.
"Hey, Roy-boy," Chris called from the doorway. "Come here."
Having learned quickly that one did not ask the famed Madame Christmas to repeat herself, Roy scrambled to his feet and into the house. Riza was slower, but close on his tail.
"Now Miss Rockbell here tells me that you want to get a flint and steel put on your hand," she said sternly.
"Yes ma'am," Roy said.
"Well, I'm going to allow it, so long as you swear by the skin on your back that you won't ever use it in the house, or the city, or anywhere that isn't specifically for alchemy."
"Alright!" he cried. "Thank you so much!"
"Ah-ah-ah," Chris said, grabbing the fist he had used to punch the air. "Swear it."
"I swear," Roy said.
"You swear what?"
"I swear that I won't use it in the house, or the city, or anywhere that isn't for alchemy," he said sullenly.
"Alright," Chris said, releasing him.
"Whoo hoo!" Roy whooped, pushing past her to find Winry. Riza laughed a little at her adopted mother's wry smile before following Roy.
"- and the thumb is going to have a little cover like this," Winry was saying as Riza approached, "to keep it from sparking on anything else."
"Awesome," Roy breathed, crouched over the blueprints.
"So, you ready for it?" Winry asked.
"Huh? You mean now?"
"Of course, silly. Did you think I dragged my box all the way over here just to talk to your mom?"
"I guess not," Roy giggled.
"Okay, this table is about the same height as the couch, so you can just lay there and put your arm here…."
Master Al was very impressed with Roy's new toy.
"It's a good idea," he said. "Most alchemists have to find some way of speeding up their transmutation process if they want to be active state alchemists."
"So can I try it out now?" Roy begged. He had been buzzing with energy since Winry fitted him with the spark rig.
"How about we go down to the shooting range to test it," Al said.
"Okay!"
Riza was down already, and had already emptied a clip into the center of a target.
"You need moving targets, don't you?" Al said thoughtfully.
"Oh yes please," Riza said. "I feel like I'm wasting ammo just practicing on these."
"Well, I'll see what we can do," Al said. "For now, would you mind taking a break? Roy's going to try his new way of doing flame alchemy."
"About time," Riza said with a laugh.
"So Roy, you go inside the range and just start by generating little flames," Al said, pointing to the interior door. "Away from us!" he added, when Roy positioned himself facing the open cubicles.
It took Roy a few tries to get the hang of making the spark in the first place, but once he got that, it was an easy matter for him to create small flames. After a few minutes of working up to bigger and bigger bursts, Al called a stop.
"It'd be better if we could do this out in the open," he muttered.
"What's the matter?" Roy called.
"You're using up a lot of air," Al explained. "We'd be better doing this outside, but we need to find a place where people won't see what you're doing and panic."
And that was when they decided to take a vacation.