So, I don't want to be annoying or nagging or anything, but I just really want to ask you people to review! There are quite a few chapters where there are none and it's rather disappointing. Also, positive reviews have a habit of making me update quickly!
Chapter fifty-seven
Ed was sitting in the living room with Auntie Riza and one of the waitresses named Susan. They were playing poker with lots of chocolate coins and some truffles. Ed was about to raise with four truffles because he had a full house of three sevens and a pair of kings, when he suddenly heard the door open behind him and the telltale clank of Al's armour came, making Ed smile and look up, finding Daddy and Al standing there. "Hey, Ed, how are you?" Daddy asked, kneeling down by him, just as Rolf began yapping and ran at Al.
Ed climbed up onto his lap and Daddy hugged him tightly. "I hafta raise, Daddy," Ed said, showing him his hand. Ed wasn't about to lose eight new truffles.
Daddy chuckled. "I agree with you fully there, Ed. How much were you planning?" he asked, leaning forwards towards Ed's pile of chocolates to help.
"Four truffles. The ones with the hazelnut cream," Ed said, but then thought for a moment, because he knew that he'd get sweets anyways, so he decided to be a bit brave and add some of his second favourite ones to really bring a nice bag of chocolates back with him to the hotel. "And three of the ones with white chocolate and chocolate mousse," Ed added. He was gonna get a lot of chocolates. That would give him a total of twenty-nine truffles and forty chocolate coins. He'd be having chocolates for tomorrow too, that was for sure.
Daddy raised for him and Auntie Riza and Susan raised themselves, and soon enough, Ed had another fourteen truffles in his pile, as well as twenty chocolate coins. Auntie Riza had had three of a kind and Susan had had two pairs.
But Ed had won.
And so he giggled and grabbed one of the hazelnut cream ones, popping it into his mouth, feeling Daddy resting his chin on top of his head.
"Ed, are you ready to go back to the hotel?" Daddy asked.
Ed felt his stomach clench a bit. The hotel meant people and people wouldn't leave him alone when he asked them to. Auntie Riza had explained about Lillian's sister and how she wasn't bad and had only wanted to apologise, but it didn't change the fact that when Ed was scared and alone, people would surround him and grab him and trap him and even try to hug him like Lillian and Grant and they could have needles and wear uniforms to pretend that they were good when they were really monsters.
But Daddy also looked tired. Ed had made a lot of trouble and Daddy didn't look like they had cracked the code so that meant that they would have to go back to the library tomorrow and then Daddy really needed to sleep.
And so Ed nodded into his chest. "Are you gonna hafta go back to the library tomorrow?"
"I'm afraid so, Ed. But I've talked to your Grandma and you and Auntie Riza can stay here at the bar for as long as you need to. You don't have to go anywhere you don't want to," Daddy said kindly and kissed his forehead.
And so Ed just clung to his neck on the way back to the hotel.
Roy held Ed close as he carried him into the lobby. Al had stuffed his armour with the research documents, now sorted into smaller folders so as to be easier to transport that way. Roy found the way that the First Branch had been burnt down just a bit too suspicious for comfort, so he wanted to take the documents with them instead of leaving them back at their private room at the library.
They passed a group of chatting strangers and the effect was instantaneous. Ed whimpered and hugged Roy tighter, clinging to him with all his might as if to make it harder for anyone to pull him away from Roy. Roy put his hand at the back of his head, holding him close. "Hey, Ed, it's okay, they're not going to hurt you..." Roy said gently, kissing the top of his head.
"Wanna go to the room, Daddy," Ed whispered, curling his small fists into the fabric of Roy's shirt. Roy's uniform jacket was hanging around Ed's shoulders, having been cleaned and dried through alchemy, just like Hawkeye's uniform.
"Of course, Ed, we're going there right now. But I need to know one thing first: what pizza would you like?"
Ed froze. "Pizza? B-but it's nine in the evening?"
"Yes, which means that you had dinner five hours ago and you're going to get hungry again soon, and I haven't had anything but a sandwich since breakfast, so I feel a lot like pizza at the moment," Roy told him. He knew he was basically encouraging comfort eating in his five-year-old son, but that was only when the kid had it really rough.
Which was a lot of the time.
Screw it, I still want my pizza.
Fact was, this day had been one of the worst they'd had and it had started the moment Ed fell in the entrance hall and had just been followed by one setback after another. They were all just having a bad day and Roy couldn't think of anything better than eating pizza in a jacuzzi with Ed on his lap, hopefully earning a smile after the kid had had such a shitty day.
"Lots of meat," Ed went quietly.
"Very well, then, Ed. Meat it is," Roy said, kissing Ed's cheek, before turning to Hawkeye. "Lieutenant, could you use the phone in the reception to order some takeaway?" Roy asked her, knowing that she knew full well the amount to buy and where to go without him saying anything. Roy then shifted his grip on Ed so that he was holding him with his left arm while digging his right hand into his coat pocket, fishing out his wallet and handing it to her.
She gave him a small smile and a nod and headed for the phone, and Roy readjusted Ed again, holding him tightly. "Let's go up to our room, boys," Roy told them, feeling Ed nod once into his shoulder.
Roy could sense Al's tension as he led Rolf on the leash on the way to the lifts. Al was obviously worried about Ed, but afraid of making things worse by asking. He suddenly paused, obviously getting an idea. "Dad? How about I go join Riza so that we can take Rolf for a walk after we've put the documents in our room?"
Roy could see his way of thinking. That way he could hear from Hawkeye just how Ed had been acting today, Rolf could get his evening walk, and Roy could get to talk properly with Ed without the boy deciding to not tell people how bad he was doing because he didn't want his little brother to know. And so Roy watched as Al went back to Hawkeye, talking to her for a couple of seconds and handing her Rolf's leash, before he came back to them. "There's a lot of people ordering pizzas today, so they say that they probably won't be ready before about forty minutes, so we're walking over to the restaurant."
"Sounds good, Al, thank you," Roy said, smiling at him.
It took them five minutes to unload the documents inside Al's armour, and then he gently tousled Ed's hair before leaving them with promises of warm pizza.
Roy then focused his attention on Ed. He was sort of amused at seeing his son wear his old clothes like this, especially when he wore Roy's uniform jacket on top.
It should almost be illegal to look so cute.
"Hey, how about we sit down in the jacuzzi, Ed? Would you like that?" Roy asked him gently.
"But I already had a bath at Grandma's?" Ed was looking up at him just slightly, still scared and near tears.
"If you want to have another one, then I think you should."
Ed looked contemplative for a second before nodding once. "Okay."
"Then let's go." Roy carried him into the bedroom so that he could find his own swimming trunks. He decided against finding Ed's too because with Ed being used to not wearing them when bathing, having him wearing them now could end up adding to Ed's tension because it wasn't the regular way of doing things. He then carried his son into the bathroom, gently putting him down on the floor before helping him out of his clothes. Ed immediately headed for the toilet and sat down, suddenly covering his eyes with both hands.
"Not peeking, Daddy, so you can change," he announced.
Roy was a bit surprised, but he appreciated it all the same, and swiftly changed into his swimming trunks, and so he soon found himself lifting Ed carefully into the jacuzzi as he sat down himself and turned on the water. Ed was sitting in the middle of the jacuzzi, his knees drawn up to his chest, looking up at Roy. Ed had said that he wanted to sit at the bottom as the water filled up around him to get used to the temperature easier. He was obviously bothered a lot by something. "I'm sorry, Daddy," he suddenly said, looking down at Roy's feet.
"What for?" He was surprised by the sudden apology. Also, he couldn't think of why Ed should apologise in the first place.
"I made things a lot more complicated and Al is probably going to hafta wait even longer to get his body back 'cos of me," Ed said quietly, sounding miserable.
So this is why he didn't want to sit on my lap?
Roy reached forwards, cupping Ed's small cheeks, tilting his face up slightly to look at him. Ed was near tears. "Ed, listen, none of us are blaming you for what happened and we're not holding it against you and we never will. You're not at fault for being scared, you have every reason to be."
A tear began to run down Ed's left cheek, but Roy quickly wiped it away. "I-I wanna help you, Daddy, but... but I'm so s-scared a-and now Al hates me 'cos I'm making things even more difficult for him!" A lot more tears began streaming down his cheeks.
"Why would you think that Al hates you?" Roy asked, shocked.
"'Cos he left! He didn't wanna talk to me 'cos he hates me so he's avoiding me!"
Roy immediately lifted him up on his lap, stroking his back. "Ed, there's nothing further away from the truth. Al loves you just as much as he has always done. He wanted to go with Riza so that he could hear how you had been doing today. He didn't want to ask you because he doesn't want to make you scared by telling him yourself about what happened earlier. He loves you, Ed and he's been worrying about you all day. Al has been working as hard as he can to crack the code so that we won't have to split up like this longer than necessary."
Ed began sobbing loudly into his chest and kept doing so for the next ten minutes before there came a couple of knocks on the door to their suite.
To say that Roy was alarmed was an understatement. Al and Hawkeye had a key, and it was a quarter to ten. Nobody ought to come knocking at this hour unless something was wrong. "Ed, you stay here," Roy said, grabbing his dressing gown and tying it around his waist. Ed, however, immediately climbed out of the tub and instead ran over to the cupboard under the sink and hid himself inside.
Roy knew he should try to comfort him, but if there was indeed someone who were planning to attack them in relation to either Ed or the research documents, then he shouldn't give away Ed's presence.
It still didn't change the fact that Roy walked over to the door wearing a dressing gown and his ignition gloves.
The knocking came again. "Hey, Roy? Are you and Ed in there?" came Maes's worried voice.
Roy sighed and went over to open the door, still keeping the ignition gloves on because the Roy-thing was able to change its form and voice at will. Roy therefore pulled off the ignition glove he wore on his left hand and stuffed it into his pocket to have an element of surprise should he need it, before he opened the door, finding Maes standing there, looking worried and with a paper bag in his left hand. "Hey, Roy, Gracia told me that Ed was having a bad day, how is he?"
Roy decided pretty quickly that there was no way in hell that something as cold-blooded as the thing they met in Dublith could mimic anyone this well, and especially not Maes Hughes.
Roy sighed and let him in, instantly heading for the bathroom. "Hiding in the cupboard under the sink," he explained, before opening the bathroom door, walking towards Ed's hiding place. "Ed, it's okay, it's only Uncle Maes," Roy told him softly, kneeling down in front of the double doors, gently opening them.
Ed looked up at him with scared, round eyes, then he threw himself at Roy's neck, clinging to him tightly. "Did you smell him, Daddy?" he whispered into Roy's ear, reminding Roy of that sure-fire way of recognising the Roy-thing.
Roy hadn't smelled him, but there was also no need. "There's no doubt that it's your Uncle Maes, Ed," he told him kindly.
"Can we go back into the jacuzzi then? I'm cold," Ed said quietly. He was still covered in water, so it only made sense.
"Of course, Ed, I'm sure he won't mind."
Ed clung to his neck as Roy carried him back to the jacuzzi and placed him on his feet so that he could pull off his dressing gown. Maes had been waiting outside the bathroom, obviously to give Roy some time to calm Ed down. Roy then lifted his son up again and he sat down, Ed on his lap, finding the warm water a blessing as Roy hadn't had the time to dry himself after stepping out.
"Want the bubbles, Daddy," Ed said, pressing the side of his face into Roy's chest.
And so Roy turned them on, hugging Ed tightly to him.
"Uncle Maes? You can come in now," Ed announced after a minute's silence, having calmed down considerably.
Maes walked inside the bathroom, looking just a bit surprised at finding them like that. Then he pulled a giant lollipop out of the paper bag. "Hey, Ed, I thought you might want one of these."
It turned out that Ed definitely did, and Roy could read from Maes's face that he knew very little about just what had happened, but was reluctant to ask.
"Maes, Al and Hawkeye are bringing pizzas back here in about an hour, why don't you join us?" Roy asked, giving him a silent look saying, "And I'll tell you what happened when Ed's asleep."
"We're getting pizzas with lots of meat," Ed explained.
Maes smiled at them both. "Sounds really good, Ed, I'll just call Gracia to tell her that I'll be home late."
