The ground trembled as the train arrived at the small train station, mid-day on a Friday. Few people were getting on, fewer people were getting off. Among the small crowd of people was a blonde head of hair, a black head of hair and another smaller black head of hair. The smaller black head of hair was holding a leach, with a black and white dog who was clearly eager to get outside.
"Maes, please take Hayate over to the grass and let him relieve himself," the blonde woman said with a smile, grabbing her husbands side and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Okay!" the small boy said with a toothless grin and ran with his dog towards a patch of green grass a couple of feet in front of them.
"We should have left the dog with Fury," the man murmured at his wife.
"Nonsense. He's going to love it here," Riza Hawkeye stated as she gazed at the green knolls that raved over the small town that was Resembool.
"Yeah, but the train ride is too long for a dog. I've never been so humiliated in my entire life!" Roy Mustang sneered to his wife, thinking back to when a train conductor scolded him after Hayate's "accident" on the train. ''I don't ever want to pick up poop in front of other people again!"
"General! Colonel!" a cheery voice shouted from a distance. It took a couple of moments for Roy and Riza to recognize the tall, broad-shouldered young man that came jogging towards them.
"Alphonse Elric," Riza stated in awe. "When did you grow so big?"
Al couldn't help but smile proudly of his own stature and met Riza with a hug. He then turned to the General and reached him his hand for a handshake.
Roy appreciated that. He had never been the hugging type. "It's good to see you, young Alphonse."
"You too! It's been a couple of years, huh!"
"Mom, dad!" a young boy came running with a dog in a leash towards them. "Hayate's done," he stated. The dog launched itself at Alphonse, and Al happily pets the dog and let it lick his face.
Maes hid behind his father's leg and tugged at his shirt lightly.
"Who's that?" he asked shyly, as Al stood back up.
"Hi, Maes. My name is Alphonse. I met you once before, but you were much smaller. You probably don't even remember." Al's smile was as bright as ever, and the young boy relaxed a little and looked to his parents for reassurance.
"Do you remember that we told you about the young state alchemist and his younger brother in a suit of armor?" Riza gently asked, and received a slight nod in reply.
"Alphonse was the boy in the amour," she explained. Maes' eyes shut opened and looked with admiration on the blonde man in front of him.
"You were in an armor? That's so cool!"
Alphonse scratched the back of his head. It wasn't as cool as it sounded, but he wouldn't shatter the kid's illusion.
Alphonse leads them to the car he had driven to pick them up in. He dreaded the ride. Usually, it was his brother who drove, because Alphonse was a truly awful driver. That was out of the question for the time being though, so the job had landed on Al.
A wide-eyed kid and two shaky legged adults left the small truck outside the Elric residence. Alphonse stepped out of the driver seat with an apologetic expression on his face, as he saw Riza's hands move from point to point, signing a cross across her chest.
"S-sorry," Al mumbled.
"That... was... awesome!" Maes exclaimed excitedly and ran in circles around the lawn while Hayate chased him eagerly.
The door to the small house they had parked outside opened, and Winry came to show on the small front porch, resting her hand on her ever-growing stomach.
"You survived!" she giggled, but with a hint of genuine relief.
Roy shot her a look that did not at all seem amused, while Riza laughed apprehensively. "We've experienced worse..." she tried to shrug it off, but couldn't help herself from adding "under an attack in Ishval", under her breath.
"Please, come in," Winry said, and got out of the way for their guests.
Riza, Maes, and Hayate walked towards her, but Al stopped Roy as he was about to follow.
"General?" he asked silently, and Roy got the hint and stopped.
"How's he doing?" Roy asked, and watched as his wife and child greeted Winry.
"Better, but..." Al exchanged a look with Winry. She nodded and closed the door behind them. "He still beats himself up quite a lot."
The Elric's had planned to invite Mustang and Hawkeye's family over for some time, but after Ed's surgery, Winry decided that it was time. Edward hadn't been doing too good and had lost most of his self-confidence. Both Winry and Al knew that no one could talk sense into Edward as the General could. After the initial shouting and arguing had subsided.
Roy nodded. "Ed has never been good with relying on other people and considering the circumstances... I get it."
"Yeah, I know. But... Also considering the circumstances, he kinda needs to snap out of it! He needs to understand that he's going to be an amazing father with or without automail!"
"Amazing is kind of an overstatement, don't you think-"
"Not helping, General!"
"Maes! My man, you've grown so big!" Al and Roy heard Ed's voice say as they entered the hallway.
"Are you the Fullmetal Alchemist?" the young boys asked.
"Sure am!"
"But you're so littl-"
"No!" four adult's yelled in unison before all hell could break loose.
Winry, Riza, and Alfonse cleaned up after dinner. Roy and Edward were still seated at the table in a heated discussion about alchemy. Alphonse had a couple of points he wanted to state as well, but hearing the state alchemist and the ex-state alchemist's shouting-match had made him decide to butt-out.
He couldn't help but smile though, because he couldn't remember his brother being this passionate about anything for the last couple of months.
Edward slammed his left fist into the table, while his right prosthetic arm hung loosely at his side. It was mostly for aesthetic reasons since he still wasn't cleared for automail (and there was no guarantee that he would ever be).
"That's the stupidest thing I've heard you say since you claimed that-"
"Boys!" Riza intervened sharply and they both flinched as a very familiar clicking noise came from her belt. "How 'bout we tone it down?"
"Yes, ma'am," Ed obliged while Roy raised his hands in surrender.
Her stern look softened into a warm smile. "Good, now, Roy; won't you start getting Maes off to bed, and Ed, you can..." she all of a sudden hesitated. She realized she had no idea what he actually could do. He had a limp prosthetic arm at his side and no left leg.
The tension seemed to grow, so Roy decided that it was, in fact, getting late and that he should indeed get his son off to bed and left the kitchen abruptly. Ed sat and waited expectantly at her orders with no emotion on his face. He was all too used to this.
"Ed can get ready for the boys to go out," Winry shot in. Ed arched his eyebrows at that and turned to face her.
"Out?" he asked dumbfounded.
"Yes. Alphonse, the General and yourself are going to the bar tonight," she simply stated.
"What? When did we decide that?" he protested. His challenging stare at Riza, already forgotten.
"We didn't decide anything. I did."
"Oh, that sounds like fun!" Al turned around eagerly to face his brother. "Let's go! Please?"
Ed watched Al's pleading eyes with puffed cheeks and left out a sigh in defeat. He could never say no to that stupid face.
"Fine..."
"Thank you, brother! It's been so long since we've gone anywhere!"
He only got a sneer in reply.
"Sooo..." Al cleared his throat. "This is fun." His stiff smile went unanswered by his less-then-compliant company.
Roy and Edward were both frowning, looking in opposite directions with their half empty drinks. Al huffed and sunk back in his chair. The bar was pretty full, it was Friday night after all.
A short waitress came by their table, smiling happily at Alphonse while asking if they had everything they needed. Alphonse thanked her politely and informed her that they were alright at the moment.
Both Roy and Ed turned their heads towards the interaction, before locking eyes and smirking slyly.
The waitress walked off, swaying her hips exaggeratedly. Al slowly turned his attention back to his bickering party but was caught off guard by their amused grins.
"W-what?" he asked in confusion.
"She's pretty," Roy answered. Ed nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I think we went to school with her. She's only a year younger than you."
Al blushed violently.
Luckily, this lightened the mood, now that the two former co-workers could gang up on an ever growingly embarrassed Al. It wasn't long before the three men at the table were discussing anything from military business and alchemy to living with their fisty significant others.
"You think Winry's mood swings are bad? Try living with a pregnant Hawkeye! That gun hasn't seen more action since, hick, Ishval!"
"Have you tried Winry's wrench?"
Al made a mental note that an innocent waitress didn't sound half bad after all, though he already had his mind set on a short, cute Xingese girl. With the weirdest cat, he had ever seen in his life.
Mustang scoffed at this. He knew he loved Riza more than life itself, but he clearly had it worse. At the other end of the table, Ed was thinking the exact same thing about his Winry. Al had already accepted that the two of them were far too similar to avoid some scuffling whenever they were in the same room and had braced himself for this. What mattered was that his brother acted like himself again.
At some point during their evening, eyes were getting unfocused and words started to slur. In one moment Edward and Roy were hating each other, and in the other, they were on the brig of a budding bromance.
Al held tightly on to his beer while rubbing his face to stay awake.
"Jeezes, Fullmetal. You're drunk, buddy boy. Guess a body your size can't hold too much," Mustang chuckled smugly, completely oblivious to his own frequent hick-ups and shuffling letters.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO DRUNK THAT... no, wait. That's not right." Edward sighed and rested his head on the table.
The bartender called closing-time and the men started to get up. All except for Ed, who had clearly fallen asleep at the table.
Roy and Alphonse exchanged looks.
"You have a sharpy?" Roy smiled but ended up disappointed as he received a shrug from Alphonse.
Something tugged at Alphonse back pocket and he turned around to see their waitress walk past him. Reaching into his pocket, he found a small note with numbers written on it.
"Is this the bill?" he exclaimed and looked to Roy in shock. Roy rolled his eyes at him and muttered something that sounded like "thank God you're pretty," before reaching out for Ed's right arm to help him stand.
Roy had in his buzz, forgotten about the fact that Ed didn't have his automail arm and the sleeping body of the small ex-alchemist dropped to the ground, leaving a mortified Roy with a detached right arm in his grasp.
He shrieked at the realization and jumped a little, before it slowly dawned upon him, that even if he technically had just ripped Ed's arm off- it wasn't as bad as it looked.
Ed didn't stir at the commotion at all and curled happily on the floor. Alphonse who had finally understood that the note in his hand was a phone number, tucked it neatly back in his pocket, before getting his brother's left hand over his own shoulders and steadying him out of the bar.
Riza, Winry and Granny Pinako were still up when they got back. They were sitting on the front porch, playing a game of cards when the cheerful chatter from the stumbling men came closer.
"He-ey" Roy sung, waving a disconnected wooden arm at them. A little behind came Alphonse with a sleeping Ed slumped on his back.
Riza looked concerned at the spectacle, but Winry shook her head with a faint smile.
"What happened?" Riza asked as her husband came to show in the outdoor lights. He was in the midst of scratching his back with the arm.
"This's a handy little thing you know... hah, handy," he sniggered, finally meeting the sharp and disapproving gaze of The Hawk.
He cleared his voice. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that," he mumbled, looking at the arm and handing it to Winry. She didn't take it. Smiling at him, she got up and moved to the door.
"I'm going to bed. Good night guys," she simply said, leaving them outside.
The next morning Roy woke with a loud yelp as he realized that it was not his wife's arm he was snuggling to.
This chapter became a little silly... Oh well! Hope you all enjoyed it!