AN: This is because of some Wii game screencaps. (They're a bad influence.) A picture prompt I did on Tumblr.

RoyAi Collection

Chapter 14

Family

Riza took a deep breath as she prepared herself to enter the ballroom. The Armstrongs always had interesting parties and it made her glad she was never invited to the 'special invitation' events they hosted. The sprawling estate was everything one imagined the home of the illustrious family would be, right down to the bronze statues and fancy tuna. Every room was thoroughly adorned with paintings of the family, the floors sparkled (thanks to Armstrong family famous recipe floor wax) and it was warm while still being imposing. The ballroom was decorated as if they were hosting a illustrious event and not just a party for a few friends. It was over the top and very ostentatious, yet somehow Alex managed to outshine the garish party decorations by wearing something uniquely him. Today it was a sparkling purple sequined jacket and Riza was glad he chose it over the thong he had been wearing at the pool earlier.

She was also thankful that the man gave the Elrics and Winry the opportunity to act like kids in his ancestral home, but she didn't know why he gave Roy the opportunity to act like a kid along with them. He never needed much coaxing to act like a child so for Roy and Ed to be in the same room, more-or-less the same pool, was a interesting judgment call. Alchemists were a destructive force of nature in their own right, the two most immature ones were even worse. Alex should have known better.

The events of the afternoon were well behind her and right now her concern was her dress. She was still uncomfortably shifting around in it trying to get the fabric to conform to her better. It was clingy in places that defied physics. She had Roy to thank for that, as the dress was picked out months ago for a function in East City and she grabbed it without trying it on only to find out it didn't quit fit anymore. Roy assured her he could fix it with alchemy, he would just make it a touch shorter and it would be perfect. He needed to stop reading Breda's fanfiction, because 'hug her every curve in all the right places' was not good when applied to her dress. Talk about someone who should have known better. She got behind a statue and shifted her boobs around in the dress that might as well have been painted on.

"I think it looks great." Roy said as he swirled his ice in the scotch and smiled at her.

"I'm not happy with you at all right now." Riza snapped and watched her breasts shift right back into the place they had been. This dress was like a monster all it's own.

He frowned. "Sorry about the dress, I just..."

"It didn't fit so you made it tighter?" She hissed. God she was just about ready to leave him here to fend off Catherine's affections on his own. That cute little girl was currently showing Havoc the museum of sex toys passed down in the Armstrong family for generations. Breda was still hyperventilating and laughing though tears in the bathroom because his best friend thought the glass pieces were 'sculptures' and not toys. 'Pleasing to the eye and body' was the words the sweet looking girl had used and when Jean followed her into the den without questioning that, Heymans didn't stop him. Roy almost deserved to suffer though the girl's advances and have to fend them off, he deserved a lot worse for creating this damned dress.

"Sorry." He reached out to try and touch her arm and she almost hit him while trying to readjust the dress. "Want me to try again?"

"No!" She growled. "You've done enough!"

He looked at her again and tried to wipe off his smile, but it just was chiseled on his face today. He hid it with his drink instead. "Want me to get you a drink?"

She glared at him.

"Water?" He asked and turned around. "Water it is."

Riza told herself she just had to get through this one night and then she could get back into something more comfortable. She walked over to the buffet table and looked at the display of food. Alphonse was jotting things down in his book, Ed was sampling and Winry was delighted to see someone who wasn't an immature teenage boy. Riza had to admit, she was glad too. "Winry, are you enjoying yourself?"

"I would be if the boys didn't remove all the water from the pool with alchemy." Winry said without bothering to tone it down.

"Yes, the Colonel setting the lawn on fire with citronella oil and tiki torches was hardly his best moment either." Riza said dryly.

Roy paused as he heard that and gave her weak smile of apology as he handed her her a wine glass filled with water. Then he went over to Armstrong to talk about the damages to the pool and the prospect of blaming it all on Ed. He stood behind Riza and Armstrong babbled about Havoc and Catherine being so cute together and something about his baby sister's enthusiasm for toys. He ignored him, there wasn't anything that could take his eyes off Riza right now, nor wipe the smile off his face as he looked at her.

Winry sipped her lemonade and noticed something a little off about Riza. Was it the dress? "That's an interesting dress."

Riza nodded and self consciously tried to smooth it out and make it less bizarre. "It defies the laws of fabric and gravity, a new line of alchemy inspired fashion."

Winry looked over at Mustang who had some dumb smile on his face as he stared at Riza. "Well, I wish I could say I didn't understand, however I have been the victim of a few helpful fashion transmutations gone wrong."

Riza drank some water and hoped the girl would just move on.

"Why didn't you swim with us today...well before the guys blew all the water out of the pool and turned the yard into a wildfire?" Winry couldn't stop looking at Mustang's face. He had this dopey smile, completely lost in his own world as he stared at Riza. He was always so much better at hiding it, but today he just didn't seem to care.

"I could see the lurking danger in getting in the kiddie pool. I figured I'd wait for the adult swim." Riza said and a server came by to offer her a refill on her drink. "No thanks, I'm just drinking water."

"Water?" Riza was drinking water at a party? Roy was still looking weird and it wasn't because of the kinky stuff Armstrong was telling him. Winry jokingly said, "You're not pregnant are you?"

Riza felt her cheeks flush and immediately put the glass to her lips and tried to calm down her panic as she heard Armstrong gasp.

"Oh..." Alex closed his eyes and held back tears of joy. "Please, Colonel...tell me we get the precious RoyAi babies we've all been wishing for!"

Ed looked over as things went silent at that end of the table. He saw Mustang's grin first and knew from that smile that something was up. Then he looked at Hawkeye as she downed her water. "Oh my God!"

"You are!?" Winry gasped and then looked to Roy for confirmation. That grin told her everything. "Oh my God...you are!"

"Well we weren't going to announce it..." Roy said with that unfading smile as Riza slammed her glass down onto the table. "Ever. Sort of a...minor issue with that fraternization law."

Riza tried to come up with something to say as Winry jumped up and down and made gurgling sounds while Al gushed along side her. Alex confessed he wished for them to have kids every time he blew out his birthday candles. Still Roy's words were all she focused on. Minor issue. That man was supposed to be a brilliant leader and tactician and he was going to downplay this as a minor issue? They weren't stealing pens they were having sex in the supply closet on breaks and after hours! Damn that shoulder holster! She should have never admitted that turned her on. "We just found out."

Roy kept glowing. Yes, Riza was pissed especially since he had stopped using his brain immediately after she told him yesterday. She wanted to discuss it like adults, two adults who had screwed up and defied the odds of the effectiveness of the modern birth control pill by screwing like teenagers every damned change they got. It was very possible that their child was conceived on his desk in the office when they were supposed to be finishing budget reports. She wanted to talk and he just sat there smiling and babbling about how they were going to have a baby and it was the best day of his life. So discussion was put off until after the weekend when he could come down off his euphoric high brought on by the promise of fatherhood. Oh well. This wasn't his fault, Riza was the one who let the cat out of the bag. So he kept smiling and nothing could take that from him. He was going to be a father!

Alex cried and hugged Roy. This was like a dream come true! Even he had been wrapped up with the Lt. Colonel Hughes's fantasies of how adorable Roy and Riza would be as parents. A cute little version of them, learning alchemy and playing with Elicia. How the youngster would have Roy wrapped around his or her little finger and Riza would have to be the adult and lay down the rules. The cute little baby Amestrian uniforms they could buy in the gift shop and dress up the future General. He cried even more now and squeezed Roy harder. He wanted to see the baby now! Why did they take so long to grow!? "It will be the most beautiful baby!"

"Like Hawkeye needs another baby to take care of." Ed mumbled.

"Are you excited!?" Winry gushed. "Oh my God! Are you getting married!?"

Riza bit her lip. This was how everything got out of hand so quickly. She closed her eyes. God she wished she could responsibly drink right now. "We were going to discuss this after the weekend."

"You're not excited?" Al's voice betrayed his confusion.

"Al, things are complicated." Riza didn't want to turn and look at Roy, he was just going to have that dumb smile on his face that told her his brain still wasn't functioning. Come on Colonel, I could use you right now to figure this out!

"You're having the baby...aren't you?" Al whispered.

Roy's smile finally left him. It hurt his face to have the smile vanish for the first time in almost two days, but not as much as the panic that it was an option she could choose. He didn't consider that. He just assumed things would play out like this, that they'd never really choose to have kids that it would just happen because they'd never stop working. Mathematically the odds were eventually in favor that they would exceed the success rate of the birth control. I mean, in retrospect, he was surprised it took this long. However, he just assumed she wanted that too. They talked about this...they wanted a family. Sure it wasn't the right time, but when would it ever be the right time. Oh God, what if she didn't want his baby!

Riza turned to him. The man she loved. The idiot she followed. The father of her baby. The adorable round head in the nook of Alex's bulging arm, threatening to be crushed. Was there anything to discuss in that regard? Could she really say no to a life they created? "Yes. We're having a baby."

Roy breathed a sigh of relief. However it was enough of a scare to make his mind start working again and he locked eyes with her as Alex threatened to pop them out of his skull. He choked out, "So, maybe we can keep this quiet? Maybe you can let me go?"

Winry nodded. "Absolutely. We're here to help!"

Then the moment was shattered, along with Jean Havoc's innocence, as a scream echoed through the halls of the Armstrong estate. The pact between these friends and two future parents was silently sealed as Havoc's voice reached their ears. "You mean they're all glass dicks!?"

"I hope you have a girl." Winry said and squeezed Riza's hand.

"Me too." Riza sighed as she heard Breda's laughter from the bathroom.

Alex let go of Roy to rip off his shirt and start to sparkle in all his manly goodness. "Let's celebrate this new life with a toast!"

Roy coughed and walked over to Riza to loop his arm around her. "How do we celebrate anything with his partial nudity?"

"Are you finally ready to talk about this?" She whispered. "I need to talk about this. I'm freaking out a little."

"Sure, let's go for a walk." Roy put the scotch in Al's hand and said, "Give that to Havoc when he gets back."

"Ok." Al said happy to be trusted with alcohol at his young age, even if he couldn't drink it with his current body. It made him feel mature. "Congratulations."

Roy grinned and hugged the huge armored suit, still not quite over the excitement. "Thank you!"

Riza grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away before he got around to toasting and that stupid smile worked it's way back onto his face again. Then she saw it, his glow and realized it was too late. "Are you still with me Colonel?"

"Yes." He nodded and looped his arm around her waist again. "So, I'm thinking Maes for a boy and Elizabeth for a girl."

"Roy." She growled. "Focus on the problem of you being unemployed for getting being pregnant first."

"Right." He nodded. "I wonder if he or she will be an alchemist."

"Roy..."

"Right." He said and kissed her head as she looked up at him with her worried eyes. "Sorry, let's figure it all out and then we can celebrate. We're having a baby Riza. You and me. We're going to do this right, not like what we had to go through. No, we're going to be the best damned parents in the world and Hayate is going to be the best big brother. Then we're going to change this world so that our kid doesn't have to go through the hell we did. This is only going to make us stronger, not vulnerable."

She digested that as they walked out onto the patio and looked up at the night sky. The sky was clear but the light pollution of the city dimmed the amount of stars they could see. It was nothing like the country sky she grew up. She leaned against the railing and looked up anyway, looking harder for the constellations that were hiding behind the filter of light. She knew he was looking at her with that dumb glow on his face again. Finally she let herself smile. "I like the names."

"Do you like the idea of being my wife and starting a family?" He asked.

"Do you even have to ask?" She said and he wrapped his hand around hers on the railing. Then they both jumped as firework started from somewhere near the pool. She looked down as the Elrics waved to them from below and continued the celebratory pyrotechnic display. Roy wrapped his arm around her and they watched it from the balcony. "Roy?"

"Mmm?"

"We're having a baby." She said it and let the words finally sink in.

"Riza?"

"Mmmm?"

"Will you marry me?"

She looked up at him and bit her lip. Then tears began to fall and she wanted to tell him this wasn't a discussion that convinced her that everything was going to be OK. However she felt confident and ready for what was going to come as she said, "Yes."