I'm so glad that you people liked the last chapter! And, for those who are wondering, even though I personally don't like Hohenheim, I won't make him out of character when he comes into the picture, just to make him seem worse than he is. I do understand his reasons, after all, I just don't understand why he couldn't have left a note. Told them something. Just something other than what he did.
Also, I am playing with the idea of Ed changing his name once the adoption papers go through. I'm just wondering what people prefer, personally I'd like him to change to Mustang-Elric, but is that just me? Should it be the other way around with Elric-Mustang, or not hyphenated at all? And should Al change his name too then? Please either PM me or leave it in a review, and I'll announce the results in a few days.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Chapter Seventeen
Roy sat in the car, a still grinning Ed on his lap. Ed had kept hugging him for the last twenty minutes now. When Roy had carried him out over to the front door, Ed had shouted at Hawkeye and Al with glee that "DADDY IS ADOPTING US!"
And so they parked the car in front of the Tucker estate. It was a huge house, but Roy calmly walked up to the house and rang the bell hanging by the door. He was carrying Ed with his left arm, he had refused to let go of Roy in his childish happiness. Then Roy heard barking and was greeted by an enormous, white dog. It seemed very interested in Ed, and Ed was giggling and began petting its head.
Then the door was opened and Roy was face to face with Shou Tucker, the so-called Sewing-Life Alchemist. He had explained to Ed and Al about him as they were sitting on the train back from Liore. Ed still seemed a bit shy, though.
"Hello? Can I help you?" Tucker asked, just as a girl peeked out from behind his legs.
"Yes, I'm Colonel Roy Mustang. This is First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye and these are my sons, Edward and Alphonse Elric. I was wondering if we could have a word?"
"Yes, of course. Well, I'm Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist, and this is my daughter, Nina. Please come in, although I have to apologise about the mess, cleaning was always something that my wife was better at."
Roy followed him inside, as did Al and Hawkeye.
"I'm sorry, but you said Edward Elric? As in the Fullmetal Alchemist?" Tucker said, turning his head around and looking expectantly at Alphonse.
"No, it's not me, sir!"
"Oh. Are you perhaps related? It's not a common surname."
"Yes, well, you see, I'm Alphonse Elric."
Tucker stopped, looking at Ed with raised eyebrows. Ed shied away slightly.
"Edward was kidnapped a few weeks ago and left in his current form. He is no longer a State Alchemist," Roy said, trying not to say anything that would make Ed unnecessarily scared. Ed was still very sceptical about strangers, and Roy couldn't blame him. He didn't want to remind him too much of what had happened to him.
Tucker's expression became sorrowful. "I see. I'm sorry. It is such a shame for the military to lose such a brilliant individual."
Roy felt a surge of anger. "He still is. He may be ten years younger, but that doesn't make him any less brilliant," Roy said through slightly gritted teeth. "Besides, one should be more concerned about what this means for his friends and family." Roy tightened his hold on Ed.
"Oh, yes, of course. I'm sorry. Well, how about you sit down and I'll prepare some tea? I'll be back soon."
And so Tucker left and Roy sat down in a chair at the dinner table. Ed refused to let go of him, digging his face into his chest. He was probably having one of his bad days where he was simply overwhelmed by the changes to his life and grief for his mother.
Which was when Nina Tucker walked up to them, looking confused. "Is your son hurting somewhere?"
Roy didn't know what to say. He knew how to speak with Ed despite his age, but the boy was a genius. Nina was a four-year-old who probably didn't know even a quarter of the darkness in the world that Ed knew.
Roy decided to go with the simplest explanation. "His mother died quite recently."
"Oh. My Mom left us two years ago. It still makes me sad sometimes, but I don't remember her that much." The enormous dog walked up to her, begging her to scratch his back. Nina smiled and hugged him. "But Alexander helps a lot."
Roy smiled down at her. He had softened up around kids a lot it seemed after Ed declared him his Daddy. A part of him was actually scared at the prospect of how he would react to Elicia next time he saw her.
Oh god, Hughes is probably going to be visiting today.
It was definitely going to happen. Maes Hughes always came visiting, often for a late night drink, the first day of his trips to East City. Which meant that Ed needed some mental preparation, and Roy should probably call Hughes and tell him about the changes in his sleeping schedule, mainly that he had one.
"I'm sorry, Nina, I need to go and talk to your father, okay?" Roy asked the obviously attention-starved young girl. "I'm sure Alphonse would love to talk to you, he's far from as scary as he looks like," Roy said, leaning down "confidentially".
Nina's eyes grew wide with understanding and she went over to Al.
Roy carried Ed into the kitchen, finding Tucker. "Excuse me, Mister Tucker, but do you have a telephone I could borrow?"
"Oh, yes, of course. There's one in the hallway to the right."
"Thank you."
Roy went and found the phone, dialling to the front desk at East HQ, where a woman soon answered.
"Yes, hello, this is Colonel Roy Mustang, my code is Charlie-Oscar-Mike-7-0-7."
"Your code was verified, what can I help you with, Colonel Mustang?"
"If you would please connect me with wherever Lieutenant Colonel Hughes is?"
"Just wait a second, sir."
Roy waited for about half a minute until the line was connected. "Roy! How good to hear from you! How are things going with the boys? You know, Elicia's constantly asking about her big brothers, it's so adorable! And you know I'll be coming in to check on you tonight, so you better be ready to share some stories about your boys!"
"I know you will, Hughes, which is why I am calling. If you're coming, it's not going to be for a night cap. Ed still needs me because of his nightmares, which means that I'll be going to sleep by nine."
"No problem, Roy! I'll just join you for dinner! I'll come around five o'clock, how does that sound?"
"Sure, Hughes. Now I need to go, see you later."
"You can count on it!"
Roy hung up the phone with a sigh. He cared a lot about Maes, of course he did, but his over-the-topness became a bit too much sometimes. And, besides, Roy was still pretty new to the world of parenting and wasn't really in the mood for Maes to get super excited about the fact that he was adopting the Elrics.
Although it was still worth it.
Roy looked down at Ed whose golden eyes were looking curiously up at him. "Daddy? Is Maes gonna come visit today?"
Roy smiled down at him. It was impossible not to smile at the look he was giving him. He just looked so innocent. "Yes, he is."
"Then why did you frown? I thought he was your best friend?"
"He is. You remember how I said that he was a bit eccentric?"
Ed nodded up at him.
"Well, he gets super excited about his family and he has always been nagging me about getting one myself. So now that I'm adopting you two, he's going to be super excited about it too."
"But you're not?" Ed seemed slightly disappointed.
"Edward, I'm happier than I can ever remember being for becoming your and Al's Daddy! It's just that I don't want to be excited about it the way that Maes is. Don't you agree that that would be scary?"
Ed seemed to ponder that for about two seconds and then he frowned. "It would."
"I just don't want anyone to decide how I should feel happy about you two, that's all."
Ed nodded and smiled before he hugged his arms around his chest. "I love you, Daddy."
"Love you too, Ed," Roy said, kissing his forehead.
And so he carried Ed back with him into the dining room, where Tucker was sitting together with Hawkeye, Al and Nina. The two children seemed to have hit it off, and Tucker was smiling fondly at them. He looked up at Roy and Ed. "Ah, Colonel Mustang, did your phone call go well?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Oh, Nina, Daddy is going to discuss work now, so how about you go out in the yard and play with Alexander?"
Nina seemed slightly disappointed, but nodded and waved at Al as she left the room.
"Perhaps you would like to join her, Edward?"
Ed didn't answer, he just hugged Roy tighter. Roy had to say that he found Ed's behaviour to be a bit odd. Something wasn't right. But it was obvious that he didn't want to leave Roy for a single minute.
"It will be perfectly okay for Ed to join us. He is still a bit nervous after his ordeal," Roy said
"Oh, yes, of course. Now, what would you like to know?"
"We would like to look into your research, if you would allow it."
"Of course. You're free to look at whatever you want." Roy had a feeling that there was a "but" hanging in the air, but Roy's rank seemed to be enough to keep it at bay.
Tucker seemed to be dying to ask some questions of his own, but he kept them to himself, making Roy believe that the man was interested to know about Edward in more detail. And so they drank their tea in relative silence.
Tucker showed them to his laboratory, which made Ed clamp his hands over his ears because of the loud screeching from the different chimeras in the many cages. Roy decided quickly that this room wasn't really one that they would be using much, and they left within minutes.
Then they came upon a large library, which seemed to cheer Ed up slightly. Tucker left the three of them to read as much as they wanted while Hawkeye kept a lookout.
Ed sat on Roy's lap as Roy sat down on the floor with a book which seemed promising. He had only read the first two pages when he noticed that Ed was indeed reading too. And so Roy waited a couple of minutes until Ed could finish the page too.
"Daddy? Are you done soon?"
"Yes, of course, I've been done for a few minutes," Roy said kindly.
"Well, I have too. Can I turn the page?"
Shit. So I read at the same pace as him?
Apparently he did, at least that's how it seemed. Ed would from time to time ask about a few expressions or references, but otherwise he seemed to understand it.
Which made Roy realise something. As Ed's father, he could actually be the one to teach him alchemy. Or should that responsibility fall on Alphonse? If he wanted to, then he was definitely the one who had the most right to teach Ed. They would have to talk about it later.
Roy continued reading until he was interrupted by the sound of laughing and clanking. Ed seemed to have heard it too.
"That's Al," Ed said.
Roy stood up, Ed still in his arms as he refused to walk on his own. They turned around a few bookshelves to find Al and Nina playing horsey, both of them giggling. Roy couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. It just showed exactly how sweet Al was.
And so Roy just let them continue playing before he sat back down and read on, letting Al be the kid he was.
After a while, Hawkeye came over to them to inform them that it was time to go. Ed still clung to Roy's jacket, so Roy kept carrying him, thanking Tucker for his hospitality.
"Did you find anything useful?" The man asked.
"No, unfortunately not."
"Then you're more than welcome to come back for as long as you want. Nina is very happy to have a playmate again. I'm afraid I don't have much time for her at the moment, my assessment is coming up in a few days."
"Oh, I see. Then I wish you good luck, and thank you."
And so Roy, Ed, Hawkeye and a slightly unwilling Alphonse made their way out into the car.
"Mr. Tucker sure seems like a nice man. And Nina is so sweet. Why don't you join us tomorrow, Brother?" Al asked.
"I don't like Tucker. He feels like Lillian and Grant," Ed said, and Roy suddenly understood why Ed had clung to him during the entire visit. "I don't think he's a good man."
