Chapter thirty-seven
Ed woke up lying on Daddy's chest. Ed had been having a lot of bad dreams tonight. He'd been thinking about what Grant and Lillian did the last few days. And now they were back home, but was it home anymore? The old Ed had had a home here, but this wasn't his home. Ed wasn't a part of this anymore. The home he'd known had changed a lot in ten years.
He didn't fit in here anymore.
Mom was gone, their house was gone.
All the new things didn't belong to him. They belonged to the old Ed, and Ed wasn't him.
Home wasn't here anymore. It was with Daddy and Al in East City. They had a family here, but Ed had a new home.
Which was why he needed to say goodbye to Mom and tell her that they had found a Daddy who loved them and would protect them. He needed Mom to know that they were okay. That they were going to be fine. To tell her that they had a home. Al had told him that Mom had said that as she lay in bed. She had been having a fever and she talked about wanting them to have a home and be happy.
Well, now they did and they were.
Besides, Mom should meet Daddy. She would probably like him, even if he was younger than her. It wouldn't matter as long as he was a good Daddy, and he was the best.
And so Ed looked at the alarm clock and saw that it was eight in the morning. Ed had to pee so he slid off Daddy and down on the floor before he opened the bedroom door and went over to the bathroom and sat down on the toilet. Suddenly the door was opened and Winry came inside, looking very sleepy. She walked over to the bathtub and threw off her nightie so that she was only standing in her underwear as she began filling the tub with water.
"Morning, Winry!" Ed said.
"GYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Roy woke up with a start as he heard the scream. He grabbed the ignition gloves on the nightstand and ran for the room where the sound had come from. It didn't help that Ed was gone either. What if someone had followed them here and was attacking them?
Roy kicked open the door just as Hawkeye arrived with her gun at the ready.
And found Ed sitting on the toilet with an alarmed look on his face while Winry stood in front of the bathtub in only a pair of light pink knickers and was holding her hands over her naked breasts, staring at the room's two new arrivals and, more importantly, Hawkeye's gun.
Roy froze, thoroughly embarrassed. He turned towards Ed instead as he lowered his hand. "I take it this means that we aren't under attack?" he said awkwardly.
"Uh-huh."
The water was still filling into the bathtub and Roy felt slightly awkward at the fact that he couldn't really force either of the kids out of the bathroom as Ed was sitting with a piece of unused toilet paper in his hand, looking curiously up at him.
Hawkeye moved with a "here, Winry," probably meaning that Winry was getting covered up. Roy heard the two girls leave behind him and Ed looked up at him. "Can I dry myself now?"
"Yes, you do that, Ed."
And so Ed did and then used the little stool for Pinako to wash his hands. Ed dried them on the towel next to the sink and grinned. "All done!" He lifted his hands into the air and Roy picked him up and carried him back into the bedroom.
Roy felt awkward. He had burst into the bathroom in only his boxers and undershirt and nearly torched a good as naked Winry Rockbell.
Pinako was giving him one chance to prove his worth and he nearly incinerates her granddaughter the next morning.
While she was naked.
"Daddy? Why did Winry scream like that?" Ed asked as Roy propped the pillows up against the headboard. Roy leaned back against them and Ed crawled over to him and sat himself up on his lap, facing him.
Roy sighed. "As people grow older, they get more particular about nakedness. You probably scared her by being in the bathroom, which is why it's important that you learn to lock the door when you share a house with other people."
"Oh, sorry. I just wished her good morning when she came in."
God, this kid is sweet.
Roy sighed and drew Ed in for a hug.
"Why are you blushing, Daddy?"
Because our hosts may think that your Daddy is a pervert…
Roy would have to apologise later or explain it or something. Hawkeye would probably do the explanation right now, so that left the apology for him. If Fullmetal had gone and told the Rockbells too that Roy was a womanising bastard, then he was probably in deep trouble.
And then there was explaining it to Pinako once she and Alphonse returned from buying fresh eggs for breakfast. She had told them last night that she'd be going at about this hour. Winry was probably going to react awkwardly around him so he'd better explain it right away.
"Because I kicked in the door and wore my ignition gloves and scared Winry because my son was sitting on the toilet."
Ed seemed to think about it and then he began giggling.
It was an hour later that Pinako called up the stairs to tell them that breakfast was ready.
And of course Roy and Ed met Winry in the hallway. She looked at him and blushed. Roy told Ed to go ahead so that they could talk alone.
"Uh, listen, Winry, I'm sorry about earlier, I wasn't as close to burning you as it may have seemed…" Roy said awkwardly. "And I'm no peeping Tom either. I don't know if Hawkeye told you, but we were attacked in Dublith by Lillian herself and I didn't think about which door it was the shrieks were coming from. I wasn't trying anything other than making sure that people were safe."
"Oh, I wasn't even thinking about something like that…" Her face reddened even more. It seemed that now that Roy had said it though, that she got a bit afraid that it was exactly what it was.
"Good. Teenage girls generally tend to think that way when strange men twice their age breaks in the bathroom door while they're getting ready to take a bath… But I'm not that type of man, I assure you."
"So what Ed used to say about you being a womaniser…?"
"Women within my age group. And certainly ones that are over eighteen who give their consent. Not minors who happen to have the world's scariest grandmother."
Winry suddenly began giggling. "You're scared of Granny?"
"I think I am… besides, you know Hawkeye, if she thought I was that type of bastard, do you really think she'd agree to be my assistant?"
Winry smiled at that. "She'd have shot you long ago, wouldn't she?" She then whispered confidentially. "And most likely just for flirting with anyone else than her…" she teased.
It was Roy's turn to blush. "Don't let her hear you say that."
"So you do like her?" Winry whispered, eyes wide.
"That's a complicated matter. We have known each other for a long time and we are not …"
"You just keep on trying to convince yourself about that, Roy." Winry teased him. "Meanwhile, I'd like some breakfast."
She turned around and headed for the stairs and whispered, "Maybe Riza would like to meet the Ticklemonster…"
"HEY!"
