Winry smiled down at the sight before her. Ed, still unsure of how to hold a baby, looked a little uncomfortable as Lily was starting to become more alert and awake and began to wiggle around in his arms. She looked up at her mommy and instantly smiled, Winry making a silly face back at her, then brought her attention to the unknown man who was currently holding her.
Ed nearly jumped when he saw his own golden eyes staring back at him.
These eyes were more rounded though, like Winry's, but the color was enough to send him in a whirl of emotions. Xerxes blood ran strong.
Her hair was also a pretty shade of gold, but not exactly like his own, and it had just a little more yellow to it than Winry's. She had a small, round nose, also like Winry, instead of his narrow, pointed one. Her little hands made Ed grin as she wrapped her index finger around his larger one and that was when his brain decided to bring science into all this, even the shape of her fingernails were the same shape as his. He just couldn't wrap his head around it. How does a baby take one thing from the mother and another from the father? And how does the mother's body know how to form the baby? Feed the baby? Protect the baby until it's ready to meet the world? How does the baby know when to come? It was just one thing that would never stop leaving him with questions; the science of the human body.
Sure, he understood all the basics, like your organs and the way your body reacts to sickness and medicines, but this science was something completely different. It was just on a whole different level than the rest.
And it was because alchemy can't mimic it.
So many different things are attainable through alchemy. Alchemy can heal the wounded, treat the sick. Alchemy can create buildings, or destroy them just as easily. But human reproduction was a certain science that couldn't be performed by clapping his hands.
He was a man of science, always will be. Winry always said it appealed to Ed because he and science were so much alike. He would always say science was simple, and if you really thought about it that was partially true, for every scientific problem, there was a solution. That's all it was to Ed, problems and formulas to solve the problems, the formulas were already given to you, you just had to know how to use them.
In Winry's perspective, Edward Elric was just as simple to her as science was to him, for every broken automail limb, there were her mechanics; for every time he had doubts about himself and his abilities, there was her smile and a few words of encouragement; and for everytime he awoke in the dead of night with a start, sweat dripping from his forehead, and his mind racing with images of what he saw on "that night", there was Winry reaching over and taking him in her arms, whispering to him that everything was alright as she kissed his cheek.
If you're an outsider looking in, like Winry, science is a lot more complex than that, with all the many different formulas to choose from that will help you get from the problem to the solution, it was never really her thing. But the one science that left the great Fullmetal Alchemist scratching his head for hours on end was the only science Winry would ever have the upperhand on the young genius. The science of reproduction and childbirth, even the babies themselves, was what always seemed to leave him in a stump.
"What's going on in that head?" She could almost see what he was thinking as he readjusted the little girl on his good knee. He smiled at Lily when she again looked up at him, still unsure of whether she liked this strange man or not.
"That I have no idea what I'm doing." He almost wanted to laugh at himself, as he tried bouncing Lily on his knee, he could tell she was starting to get uncomfortable the more she kept moving around and glancing up at Winry to make sure she didn't leave their side.
"It takes time, Ed. I had to learn too, you know, and it was when she was even smaller than that, which made it a lot harder, I felt like I would break her if I jostled her too much or picked her up too fast." She bent down to pick up the baby when she started to reach for Winry nervously, "She needs to get used to you just as much as you need to get used to her, she's learning too, just keep that in mind. Don't let her intimidate you too much, she can tell when you're nervous or upset." She said gently, taking Lily over to the changing table to put a fresh diaper and some day clothes on her.
Ed watched how Lily and Winry interacted with eachother from his seat in the corner, motherhood fit Winry well, he always knew it would, and he couldn't have picked a more perfect woman to be the mother of his children. The fact of having a family with his best friend, his first and only love, just made it official that they were family, they both knew that even before Lily they were already a family. He got up from his chair to go join them on the floor where Winry spread a few toys out for the little girl to play with.
"Can Daddy play with you, Lily?" Winry asked sweetly and Lily only eyed Ed while he slowly sat down beside them.
"She's just staring at me!" He almost wanted to laugh, the only other person who could give him such an intense staredown was Winry. Must be where she got it from. "She looks so much like you Winry, even though her hair and eyes are the same as mine, I see so much of you in her." He pecked Winry on the cheek and stretched out to lay on his stomach so he could be more on Lily's level. "Can I play with this?" He asked her while holding one of her toys in his hands. She continued starting at Ed and held tightly onto the toy that she had already claimed. "Why won't she smile or laugh at me? Does she talk yet?" He asked anxiously, he just wanted her to like him!
"Ed, calm down. Remember what I said about being nervous around her? Just relax, she's only known you for five minutes!" she scooted closer to him and placed her hand on his back, rubbing it gently. "Just give it a few days, I promise you two will click, there's no way you can't, you're way too much alike not to."
"Okay" He tried to calm down and focused his attention back on his daughter. He couldn't wait til she warmed up to him a little more.
"Are you ready to go meet Uncle Al and Aunt May?" Winry asked the baby exicitedly. Lily's face brightened when she heard her mother talking happily to her and she got up and walked over to Winry and plopped down in her lap.
"Don't call that bean girl my daughter's Aunt!" He spat.
"Don't yell at me in front of our daughter!" She pinched the side of his arm harder and harder until he plead for mercy.
"Woman! Don't abuse me in front of the baby!" He yelled once again.
"Just hush! Let's go downstars so she can meet Uncle Al and her soon to be Aunt May." She got up and coaxed the baby into following her out of the bedroom, "Come on Lily!"
"Winry! That doesn't make it any less nauseating!" He jumped up and followed them out of the bedroom and down into the living room of the Rockbell house
Al and May were waiting for them on the couch and Pinako in her old chair, smoking her pipe. Al stood up when he saw Ed and Winry, with Lily in Winry's arms, coming down the stars to meet them.
"Oh my-" He cut himself off as they got closer to him and he got a better look at the girl in Winry's arms. "Hi, Lily." He said softly, giving her arm a light squeeze, and Lily nestled her head deeper into the crook of Winry's neck in response. "Aw she's so cute, Winry!"
"Don't let the shyness deceive you, she's just like Ed when he was younger, she gets into everything!"
Al placed a firm hand on his brother's shoulder, "She's beautiful Ed."
"I know." He smiled in their direction as Winry took Lily over to meet May and say good morning to her great-grandmother.
"I'm gonna go make some cereal for Lily, Ed. Why don't you and Al spend some alone time with her?" She suggested as she headed into the kitchen.
"Welcome to fatherhood, shrimp." Pinako said lovingly, short comment included. She gave Lily to Edward and went to make herself another cup of coffee.
Ed smiled at his daughter and patted her back lightly, "Daddy's turn again!" He tried not to sound nervous, keeping Winry's advice in the back of his mind.
"How does it feel to be a father, Ed?" Al asked his brother while going another round of baby talking with Lily.
How does it feel? He asked himself that and a hundred different feelings fell down on him all at one.
It felt amazing, to say the least, he couldn't help but feel this unbreakable bond with this tiny girl that was purely his and Winry's. Before he and Al returned home after getting Al's body back, he never thought he would make it this far in life. At the age of sixteen he had settled with the fact that he may never even make it to his twenties, his quest and all the things he and Al ended up getting caught up in were just too dangerous.
It also horrified Ed to no end, simply because he and Al never really had much of a father figure in their lives. He didn't know how to act or how to handle a baby, this was all new and scary. He didn't want to abandon Lily by any means, but didn't that run in his blood? His own father left his mother, Al, and him when they were just boys, and he didn't see the man again until he was sixteen years old, years too late. He had so much hatered towards the situation his father had been in. Had it been a few years ago, Ed would say the hatred was for Hohenheim alone, but now that he was older and heard his father's story, it was almost possible that maybe someday, he could forgive the man for leaving his family. He didn't want to ever, ever leave his baby girl, or Winry for that matter, but the thought of him being so much like his father already, physically and even tempermentally, scared him.
He decided the only thing that could keep him from his daughter and Winry was his grave and that was it. There's no way in hell he was going to end up like his father, he would break the cycle himself and raise a damn good family.
He looked back down at his daughter, Lily finally decided she was a little more comfortable with Edward and she was resting her head against his chest. He grinned and looked back to his brother, "It feels great, Al. I never thought I could feel this happy."
A/N: Haha, whenever my daughter's uncomfortable around people she acts just like that! Thanks everyone for reviewing my last chapter, it was nice to see people didn't completely forget about this story.