Royai Collection

Chapter 53

Snowstorm


The snow was coming down harder than Roy had ever seen as he watched as the military car slid into the curb in front of Hughes's house. It was a testament to Riza's superb driving skills that she made it to the house at all, there was a sheet of ice under all the snow and the entire city was blanketed in a treacherous mixture of winter hell. He wished there had been a way to contact her and tell her to forget about picking him up tonight, but Riza wasn't one to shirk her duties because of the weather. He watched her get out of the car and cover up as best she could against the onslaught of snow. He opened the door just as she set foot on the porch and she marched inside accompanied by her dog who had to bound through the fresh white hell. "You could have just left me here, he's mostly harmless."

Riza started to unbutton her uniform jacket and looked around the Hughes's living room. Hayate came in and shook off and then went over to the fireplace to dry and stay out of the way. "Are we talking about the same Maes Hughes?"

Roy smiled and helped her take her trench coat off and whispered. "Mostly. He's been drinking."

She closed her eyes as he made sure to graze her arm with his hands as he pulled the wet black trench coat off her. He turned to hang it up and she looked up as Maes came in the room with a bright smile and his daughter in his arms. She was surprised when he hugged her and deposited the little girl in her arms. "Uh...Sir?"

Maes pulled Roy over by his sleeve and looped an arm around his shoulder and gushed, "Doesn't it stir something in you? I mean, your kid clearly won't be as cute and amazing as my Elicia but I promise not to point that out when he or she comes over to play. Make some babies with him please. They'd be adorable."

Riza winced as the little girl pulled her hair and giggled happily. She expected to see Roy's typical frustrated scowl but instead saw him a little flustered. She couldn't help but be taken back and felt a little blush tinge her cheeks as she realized he actually had thought about this.

"Coffee is on!" Maes scooped up his little girl and disappeared from the room as quickly as he had arrived leaving them both standing in the foyer looking like frightened deer. He chuckled. He was glad nobody else knew how easy it was to incapacitate those two.

"You really have thought about that, haven't you?" Riza asked.

"Well..." Roy shrugged. "He only mentions it every damned day. You haven't?"

"My best friend seems to have different standards on what 'love' means." Riza replied as Rebecca could be very vocal about what she wanted in a man and love seemed to encompass a bank account, a fine body and a set of balls that would put a prize bull to shame. She felt him step closer and she looked at his face now that she had time to adjust to the warm house and release the tension in her shoulder muscles from driving in the poor conditions. Roy's eyes were a little glassy and his cheeks a little pink and he smelled of alcohol. These two had been drinking, that was never good.

His voice was low as he looked around the Hughes's living room. "You never think about us like this? Coming home to each other, kids...a real home?"

She didn't respond. The truth was best not vocalized.

He caught the look in her pleading eyes before she managed to hide her face from him with a swipe of her hand as she shook snow from her hair. She wanted him to stop teasing her with something they had no idea how to work out.

She closed her eyes. "Maybe I should just leave now."

"Can't. They declared it a snow emergency and only emergency vehicles are allowed on the road." He shrugged. "You're stuck here for the night."

"I think you trying to destroy your career and everything you worked for is an emergency." She said and he pouted. That adorable pout he had when he was unguarded, a pout that made him look so young and downright adorable. She stepped away from him and said "However I think coffee more of an emergency after that awful drive so let's go see what Hughes is doing in the kitchen besides eavesdropping."

Maes pretended like he wasn't just listening to everything and was actually serving out pieces of pie. "Hey, did you hear they closed the roads?"

"Yes." Riza said and sat down at the table as Roy found his chair and Maes went around the kitchen picking up dirty dishes and glasses. She could hear Elicia upstairs, giggling and splashing. Apparently Gracia stole her away to give her a bath instead of letting her husband use her as an example of the Amestrian Dream.

"You should stay the night. It's rational and safe. I don't have an extra bedroom but you can have the couch and Roy can just sleep on the floor." Hughes said and placed a coffee cup in front of her and smiled.

Thanks to reading Breda's fanfiction, she knew this was a set up for her to agree to the "snowed-in trope" as he liked to call it. Hughes was taking the opportunity to use the weather as an excuse to force them together for the night. Sadly, she wasn't left with much choice. The Hughes's lived in the suburbs and snow plows were going to focus on main roads, if they could get them cleared of all the accidents. Her other option was to sleep in the car. "I suppose I will have to insist Colonel, it is the safest option."

Roy was in the process of lifting a bite of pie to his mouth and almost stabbed himself in the face with a fork. She...was agreeing to sleep at Maes's house with him?

"You'd be a great Mom." They both looked to Maes who was staring at them dreamily. "You're very protective and so concerned about Roy's well being...I just can't wait to see you two as parents. Your kids are going to be...well...a handful. But still, you're going to have an amazing family and I'm going to enjoy being a part of it. I also can't wait to give my best man speech at your wedding."

Roy frowned. He wished his friend was being thoughtful and mediating the argument but he had that dopey look on his face that told him he was daydreaming about the play dates Elicia could have with his kids. The little girl squealed upstairs as if on cue and he felt his hostility subside and that awkward feeling from earlier rear it's ugly head. What the hell was in that drink he had at dinner?

"I'll go upstairs and get you some blankets." Hughes said and ignored the annoyed glare from Riza. "Oh...you probably want to take a shower too right? I'm sure Gracia has something you can wear..."

Riza watched Hughes disappear, it amazed her at how stealthy that man could be when he wanted to. It also amazed her that he was probably going to bring her some of his wife's lingerie to wear tonight. "What has gotten into him?"

Roy rubbed his face. Dammit Hughes. "The house on the next street over came up for sale and he wants me to buy it. It's the house right behind this one, backyards separated by just a fence. He always wanted to raise our kids together..."

"What kids?" Riza whispered. "The Elrics and the dog?"

Roy reached over and grabbed an envelope. He handed it to her. "Our kids. Apparently it was a slow day in investigations so he had Armstrong draw what our kids might look like."

"What?!" Riza kept her voice low but it was hard. What the hell was wrong with all of them!? Breda wrote stores, Hughes with his innuendo and now Armstrong with artwork!? She looked at the pictures and had to admit Armstrong was incredibly talented in both art and imagination.

"He really wants me to buy the house." Roy said and sighed. "And it sounds like a great dream. You know...us...them...living real lives. I know it's a dream, but..."

"You've been thinking about this more than just tonight." She said, knowing him. His eyes told her the answer but he played around with his pie crust on the plate and continued.

"Recently, yeah. Work keeps me busy, but eventually I have to come home and my life, not the one everyone thinks I live. My shitty life slaps me in the face and I realize the only glimmers of happiness I have are when I see you. "

"Roy..."

"Maes means well, but he doesn't realize how much it hurts to show me everything I can't have." Roy shrugged. "I know you're going to tell me no, tell me all the reasons we can't and it's what I need to hear but...I liked the dream while it lasted. He made me go look at the house and I saw us in it. I let him walk me around that house and paint this fantasy because his dreams for me sounded so much better than the ones I had made. I'm sorry."

She slid her hand across the table and wrapped it around his.

"I know." He said softly. They couldn't have that dream. "You don't have to say it."

"I thought being snowed in was supposed to be our excuse for an entire night of wild sex to tame the tempest of sexual tension that was building between us for years."

Roy bit his lip. "Did you just...quote Breda's fanfiction?"

"I know it's supposed to be in a remote outpost in the North while we're on a training mission, but let's not get hung up on locations." She said and squeezed his hand. She was glad to see him smile a little. "I love you Roy, if you need a house and kids and puppies within pistol range of your best friend so he can shout out his window at you every day...we can make that happen. If you miss him that much to want him in every moment of your life from the time you wake up to the moment he screams 'goodnight Roy-Boy' out his window, we can figure out how to make it happen."

He looked up at her and narrowed his eyes. "Maybe it is a little close."

"The Fuhrer's house is much nicer." She assured him. He squeezed her hand and gave her a smile. She heard Hughes coming so she let go and went back to her pie.

"Will you be my first lady?" He asked.

"It's the only way to make sure you're safe at all times." She said and smiled at him. "I'd hope that by that time I'd be eligible for a promotion."

"You'd consider it a promotion?" He asked and felt that color tinge his cheeks again. Fucking hell, what did Hughes put in his drink?

"Roy Mustang, I think you would like the dreams I have about you much better than your best friend's." She said barely above a whisper and watched his blush deepen. She smiled and went back to her pie before Hughes walked in on them blushing and smiling like schoolkids. "I also intend to see them to fruition. All of them."

Roy wisely nodded and said no more. That would be something they could discuss later tonight after they checked the living room for recording devices and sent Hayate to guard the stairwell.