"Envy?" she asked me, sounding more exhausted than I had ever seen anyone, "Help me to sit up."
I did so, and she opened her eyes tentatively, and I felt Winry next to me.
"Girl," she told her simply, and handed her a small bundle of blanket.
"So, Envy," Aura said, sitting down on Tatiana's other side, "You still have to prove that you have a y-chromosome."
I shot her the meanest look I could, but it wasn't very mean, and it didn't last long before I looked back at the little bundle.
Tatiana had tears running down her face, but it wasn't like she was crying. I wanted to see, but all I saw was the blanket around the baby, or, as it turned out, her. She kissed the little girl, but I still couldn't see. I moved on my seat impatiently. Winry elbowed my side lightly, and I looked at her. She nodded towards them, and I took it as good advice. I sat down on the edge of the bed, next to Tatiana and the little bundle. Tatiana shifted the child so I could see her, and I saw.
I looked into her big blue-purple eyes, and I felt my world do a back flip. She wasn't crying, like most babies do, but she just staring around wide eyed, looking up at her mother. Her stare shifted, and she looked at me. She was a perfect mix between myself and Tatiana, with black hair, obviously acquired from my true, human form, and Tatiana's face, and a mix between our eyes. She stared at me for a long time, and then, she smiled. Even without teeth, it was the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. It hit me: I was a dad, and my daughter liked me. She actually liked me! I let my eyes pour, I didn't care who saw.
Tatiana offered her to me, and I held her in my arms. In that moment, I promised myself that I would never be like either of my fathers before me. I would make her life so much better than mine, I knew that I could. I would let her be who she wanted to be, and I would encourage her no matter what she decided in the end.
My train of thoughts was interrupted by Aura's dazed voice.
"Father knows," she said blankly, "He knows and he wants revenge."
We stared at her as she spoke.
"He's been left behind by one of his children, and he wants revenge," she shook her head as she snapped out of it.
"Aura, what did you see?" Tatiana looked terrified.
"He wanted children all along, but he couldn't have any," she told us, "That's why he had the other homunculi call him Father."
It made sense when I thought about it.
"He's mad because you passed him in the race for perfection," she eyed me.
"Because I had a child," I nodded in understanding, "What's he going to do?"
"That's the weirdest part, I can't see," we all gasped.
"Wait, what's pi to the eighth decimal?" Tatiana asked her, testing if it was just this that she couldn't see, or if her vision was totally obstructed.
"3.1415926," she said simply. Okay, one question answered, or two, if I thought about it.
"Do you know how much time we have?" I spun around and saw that Ed had come to.
"I think he'll let us know," she said slowly, "From what I know about him."
"He's likely to lie in wait before anything major happens," I added.
"Well, if it's not an immediate threat…" Ed looked down.
"What is it?" asked Winry.
He turned to me, much to my surprise, and even more surprising, was that his face looked… friendly.
"I…" he looked at the ground, and back up at me, "Can I hold her?"
Everyone looked at him like he had just swam over an ocean. Metaphorically speaking, he had.
Tatiana nudged me, and I turned to her. She nodded.
I approached him with caution, wondering if it was a trick. I didn't feel very comfortable letting him hold my newborn child. I was almost going to pull away when he reached out for her, and lifted her out of my arms. I backed away a bit, but I didn't feel like getting too far away from her.
"You know," he said after looking at her for a while, "For being half idiot, she's actually pretty special."
Oh, come on! How could I hate him after he said that?
"So," he said, turning to Aura, "There's no immediate danger from, er, Father?"
Aura nodded, "All we can do is hope for the best for now."
And that's what we did. For the rest of the summer, and part of the next school year, until we slipped into November. I kept careful watch on Tatiana's calendar, not letting the sixteenth slip by me. I didn't really want to change my birthday traditions, as I had gotten so used to them. I had had a lot of birthdays, after all. I really didn't know if I should have even remembered my birthday as a homunculus, much less celebrated it. I went to bed with Tatiana on the fifteenth, intending to leave before she woke up. The weird thing was, she said in the middle of the night that she wanted to get some water, and didn't come back for a long while. I wondered if Lillian had woken up, so I climbed down to check. I looked at the clock, and saw that it was a little after midnight. Maybe she'd passed out on the floor?
I got into the living room, and saw a light flickering from the dining hall. It was pretty small, not enough to be the chandelier. It was big enough to notice from the living room in any case, so I went to check it out. I turned the corner, and I saw the first glance of what was in the room, but not enough to draw any conclusions, before I heard multiple voices speaking all at once.
"Surprise!" I heard several voices shout, but I couldn't see anyone, it was far to dark. I rolled my eyes at the sky. This was a little eccentric, as far as my standards were. I fumbled in the dark for a light switch, and I found it.
The room with light looked like a really classic birthday party, with cake, streamers, and a banner. I was a little confused. I hadn't told anyone about my birthday.
"How did -" it dawned on me, and I turned my eyes to Aura, "You?"
"Me," she assured me. I rolled my eyes.
"I thought, seeing as you've never really had a proper birthday," Tatiana looked at the floor for a moment, "Well, better late than never, right?"
I smiled a little, and then turned my attention to first light source. There were candles burning on a cake, but really caught my attention was the number of candles. It seemed completely irrelevant.
"Why six candles?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.
Aura chuckled, "One for each digit in your age."
My face got hot, I couldn't help it. I hadn't told anyone how old I was, but judging by the banner that spelled out "Happy 370,519th", they already knew.
"I know you wanted to spend your birthday on your own," said Aura slowly, "But, a decent birthday is part of what makes a person. You have not lived until you've had a proper birthday."
I rolled my eyes again. Maybe she had a point.
"Look," Aura added carefully, "Everyone's here, in the middle of the night, to make you have the best birthday of your extremely long life. We even got you presents, just hear us out."
"Since when are you my best friend?" I asked her, confused by her weird behavior.
"I'm not," she assured me, "I'm part of your family though, so I have to be a part of this."
I eyed her, "Why are the rest of you here?"
"I like to consider myself one of your friends," Al said tentatively from behind Aura.
"I'm here because I live here," Jim added with a small and semi-forced smile.
"I'm here because I think you've changed," Winry said sleepily.
"I already think of you as part of the family," Susie smiled in a very not-forced way.
"I'm here because there's cake," Ed added, smiling in a joking manner.
"I'm here to give you the gift of a better fashion sense," Aura added, although she really didn't need to.
I wasn't quite coming to terms with all of it. I thought that they might be joking, but common sense told me that Tatiana and Al were too nice to play along if it was a joke.
"Okay, then where are these presents you're talking about?" I thought it was the best way to test my theory.
"Hiding with the VIPs," Aura said simply.
"Would someone please elaborate?" I looked around the room.
Tatiana spoke, not telling me much more than I already knew, "We figured you'd like to spend that time in your room of choice."
She knew me way too well. I rolled my eyes, and turned and walked towards the library. I heard the others following behind me, but I ignored them. I peaked into the library, and saw that all the lights were out, but there were three glowing pairs of red eyes in the darkness. It would've scared most people, but not me. My eyes did that in the dark too.
I dove for the light switch, and shed a little light on the situation.
In the room, I saw three of my fellow homunculi, two smirking, and one staring blankly at a wall.
"Well, look. It's the birthday boy," Lust said monotony.
"Some homunculus," said the one I recognized from our one meeting as the new Greed, "You shouldn't fall for humans and celebrate your birthday if you're immortal."
"It's nice to see you too," I retorted.
"Well, I got to say," he said smirking, "You definitely look better without thousands of heads and six legs."
"No one likes you," said Aura from behind me. I heard Ed cough in disagreement.
"No one in their right mind likes you," she said. I snickered.
"Can I eat them now?" Gluttony asked Lust.
"No, it's his birthday, you can't eat his friends," Lust smirked at me.
"Why'd you guys come if you hate me now?" I glared at them.
"I've always hated you," Greed said.
"You didn't answer my question," I really wanted to hurt him.
"Well, Ed and I get along on equal terms, and I heard there'd be girls," he concluded.
"They're all taken," Aura said poisonously.
"Bet they'll change their minds," he shrugged.
"Bet they won't," said Tatiana coming to stand by my side.
"What about you?" I turned to Lust, "I thought you hated humans."
"I thought you did too," she challenged me.
"Things can change," I could never figure her out.
"Well, I always knew you snuck out on this day each year," she smirked at me, "And it's the first time I've been invited."
Well, that was all I was going to get, and I knew better than to pry with her.
I looked away from them, and my eyes were quickly drawn to the bright colors of wrapping paper. The pile of presents wasn't huge, but it was more presents I had gotten throughout my entire lifetime. Actually, until that day, I had never gotten a present. Tatiana put a hand on my shoulder.
"Are these all for me?" I asked skeptically.
"Yep," she assured me, "And I have no intention of saving wrapping paper, so tear and rip all you want."
I eyed her, and she nodded. I looked back at the presents, and approached the pile. I got down on my knees in front of them, and it seemed like some sort of trigger had been pulled. Everyone surrounded me, and I was hammered with requests as to which present to open first. I smiled at the odd feeling of joy that everyone was acting like they cared about me. Aura eventually shoved her present into my hands, and I was sure to handle it carefully while opening it, for fear that it might have been a bomb. It wasn't, and I was only half-surprised by that.
She'd gotten me clothes, which I really should've seen coming. As far as clothes went though, these actually weren't half bad. It was a white v-neck t-shirt, and black skinny jeans. I shrugged in response. The other presents were all pretty basic, save what Tatiana and Al had gotten me, and the presents from the homunculi.
Lust had gotten me a dagger, which was actually pretty cool looking, but I didn't say so. Gluttony didn't get me anything, by which I wasn't surprised, and Greed had given me ashes from one of the times he'd had his limbs cut off, to save money. Tatiana and Al worked together on their present for me, and it turned out to be a small, black kitten.
"Why?" I eyed them, holding the little kitten in my arms.
"You can't say you don't love that face," Al insisted. I looked down at her, and I had to admit, her whiskers were kind of cute.
"I'll help you take care of her," Tatiana urged me.
Everyone was staring at me, and I finally caved, "Oh, alright!"
Tatiana and Al cheered. Aura applauded. The kitten yawned and closed its eyes.
"Is cuteness contagious?" I asked, eyeing the kitten, who was slowly falling asleep in my arms.
"You contaminated the kitty!" Tatiana mocked.
I laughed lightly, and handed Al the kitten, "Hey, Tatiana?"
"Yeah," she smiled at me, and I felt my heart swell.
"Well, it's my birthday," I had never thought I would get to use that excuse, "There's something I want."