AN: I got a little obsessed with the "Parental!RoyAi adopting the Elric boys" idea and couldn't stop typing this up at 4 in the morning.

Got the prompt off pinterest (lol). Hope you enjoy!


"They keep the name Elric."

"But we're adopting them. This won't matter a few years down the road, anyway."

Riza's patience was stretched thin with her husband's reasoning coupled with the long day they've both had. "Precisely. We're adopting them, not controlling them."

"What do you think parents do?" Roy pushed his seat away and stood to clear his and Riza's plates off the table. He dumped them in the sink and ran water over them before turning the faucet off and facing his still seated wife.

"Discipline is different from control. They're 10 and 9, they know what's going on. They're smart too, especially Edward from his file."

At Roy's frown, Riza walked to him and cupped his cheek. "If they are going to change their names to Mustang, I want them to do it because they chose to, not because we forced it on them."

He held the hand on his cheek and stared at her. Choice. She wanted to give the kids the same choice she had when she dropped her maiden name and replaced it with his last name. He smiled and landed a chaste kiss on her lips. "You're already turning into a great mother."

/-/

Riza smiled as she bent at the waist to be closer at the boys' eye level. "Hello. My name is Riza." Two identical-looking boys stared at her, one with indignation and the other with tears in his eyes, and she instantly knew which was Edward and which was Alphonse.

"You can call me Ed. And this is Al."

Small smile still present, she extended her hands for them to take. "Let's get you home." Al tentatively reached out, but nonetheless held her hand while Ed crossed his arms and looked away.

"I'm not going to call you mother."

"Brother!"

Riza straightened, her hand in Al's, and led the way to her car. "It's alright. You can call me Riza, and my husband's name is Roy."

"We're home!" called out Riza as she ushered the boys in through the door of their, surprisingly blacked out, house.

A snap was heard. Small flickers of fire bounced around the living room as if they were ghosts fluttering about. Another snap, and this time Riza held both boys tight against her sides. The small flickers of fire converged together and started to form the words 'WELCOME HOME', before they dimmed and Roy opened all the curtains up again.

Riza let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "What happened to a simple banner?"

"Tada!" pointed Roy to a banner above the fireplace. "... But I got bored." He removed his gloves and placed them on the coffee table then looked at the boys Riza was holding protectively against her. "Hi."

Al's tears dried up and excitement bubbled in his throat. "Mister, how did you do that?" he stepped out of Riza's hold and approached Roy.

He patted the top of Al's head. "Alchemy."

The younger Elric's eyes cast down as he thought about it. "But how… the flames…"

"Great! Another alchemist dad," muttered Ed, wrenching himself away from Riza's arm.

Roy's smile died in his throat as his Adam's apple bobbed up and down at a gulp.

Riza sighed. She knew this was going to be difficult, she just didn't realize that everything they said and did could be a possible trigger to the older Elric.

/-/

"The one at the far end is the guest bedroom. Your rooms are those two doors, bathrooms are inside. This is ours," said Riza as she pointed to the corresponding doors. "We have the basics, but anything else you need we can get for you."

"What's that?" asked Al, pointing to the lone door beside Riza and Roy's room.

"The study. Let me show you." She read the boys' files religiously every night until the day she came to pick them up. She knew they were alchemists as well, a likely inheritance from their biological father, and hoped that they would bond with Roy easily. She led them through the study and flipped the switch on.

"It's bigger than I thought," marveled Al, eyes sweeping across the room at all the bookshelves nearly bursting with books.

"A bit cramped."

"Aww, come on, brother. Maybe Mr. Mustang will let us use these!"

Riza's ears perked up. "Yes, of course. Most of the books here came from my father, anyway. A lot were what Roy used growing up."

"Your father was an alchemist too?" inquired Ed, eyes narrowing.

At the scrutiny, Riza swallowed the bitter taste in her tongue. To call that man a father was a joke; but she couldn't let them have anymore negative first impressions about Roy just because he was trying to be a father figure who happened to be an alchemist. "Yes. He taught Roy the basics."

"He was the one who taught him fire manipulation?" asked Ed.

"You're not an alchemist, Mrs. Mustang?" asked Al.

"Flame Alchemy was developed by my father, but Roy learned it on his own." Wow. These kids asked all the uncomfortable questions. Their caretaker was specific with her note that they were naturally curious children, so Riza was going to be as straightforward as she could. "No, I'm not an alchemist." She smiled. "You can go here anytime. I'm sure Roy will be glad to help you out with anything."

/-/

A few weeks in, and the new Mustang/Elric family settled into a routine. Riza established a set of rules, including a strict bedtime, for the boys and they followed it all, no questions asked. Roy observed that they adjusted to Riza quicker than they were to him, especially Ed. He sighed. While both boys were generally respectful, Ed was stubborn and relentless when he didn't like Roy's answers to his questions, and sometimes had a bad knack for associating him with his absentee father.

He heard a knock followed by a, "Hey, Mr. Mustang?"

He looked up from his desk and saw Al at the threshold of the study. "What's up?"

"Are you busy?"

"No." What the boys didn't know was that he and Riza made their own rules for each other, too. They would never be 'busy' when either Ed or Al came knocking. He beckoned for Al to come closer.

The boy held out a book in front of him. "I can't figure something out."

Roy's eyes widened. Finally! The boy was asking for his help, not Ed's, not Riza's, him. He picked the book up hastily and swept Al up by the waist, propping him on his leg. One of these days, he was going to buy additional chairs for the study. He read the cover. "This is a bit advanced, Al… Don't you want something more basic?" He flipped the book open to the first chapter. "See, if you can't decipher this bit - "

Al shook his head. "No, I meant here." He extended his small arms to the book and flipped close to the end, where a cat post-it (courtesy of Riza) was stuck to the page. "I can understand why, but not how it works."

Roy leaned to the side to observe the boy's face. "You… know how everything works until here?"

"I'd ask brother, but he fell asleep again and…"

He patted the boy's shoulder and ushered him down from his lap.

Al's face fell. He thought it would be quicker to just ask Mr. Mustang. He was the Head of the military's State Alchemist Program, after all. But maybe Ed was right, he was too old to be patient with -

Roy stood and stretched his arms high up past his head. He grabbed the book off his desk and nudged Al out of the study. "Let's go."

"Where?" he asked, but still followed Mr. Mustang's lead.

"To the lawn. The theories you've learned this far in the book is best to be applied as you go forward. Makes things easier."

He blinked up at the adult. He wanted him to help, he just didn't expect that Mr. Mustang would go out of his way to demonstrate it. "Why the lawn, Mr. Mustang? Is the earth more reactant to wood for the calculations?" He might as well ask everything, then.

The man sat on the grass outside their patio and looked at Al dead in the eye, expression grim. "No, nothing of that sort. You don't want to experiment on Riza's floors, kid. Ever."

/-/

Ed tumbled out of the bed with a soft thud. He groaned as he sat up. Stupid dream. Stupid Al for making him chase and shout after him in the dream. Stupid dream Al. He needed water after all that dream shouting at dream Al.

He slowly made his way down the darkened corridor that led to the front of the house. It won't be good if he woke either of the adults up. He knew they worked a lot, Riza probably more than Roy, but still, they needed the rest. He paused at the front of the study. Light filtered out of the bottom of the door. He turned his head and saw that the living room had a soft orange glow to it, too. The fireplace was still lit.

So they weren't resting.

Nonetheless, Ed made sure not to make a sound as he slipped into the kitchen, back hunched as he opened the refrigerator and took his water tumbler out. He caught sight of the back of Riza's head on the living room couch as he went. Quietly dropping to sit on the floor behind the kitchen counter, he drank his water.

"Ed? Al?" called Riza.

He stiffened. How did she know? "It's Ed." He stood, tumbler in hand, and made his way to the living room. "I was thirsty," he explained, knowing it was well past their bedtime.

Riza smiled at him, her gun tucked back behind her. It wouldn't be good if she let the child know she initially thought he was some intruder. "Alright, then."

Ed sat on one of the sofa chairs and observed his adoptive mother curled in on the couch. She looked peaceful, book open in her hand and her legs tucked underneath her as she stared at the fireplace… but his mother used to always look peaceful, too. Before he thought about it for long, he asked, "Why him?" his eyes eyeing the direction of the study then back at her.

She craned her neck to look at the boy. She knew Ed didn't hate her husband, there was only that apprehension of trusting another alchemist to be their 'father'. "I love him."

He snarled and didn't bother to hide it. "That can't be it."

She licked her lips as she moved her bookmark to the proper page and settled the book on the table. "Reasons are always that simple." She adjusted her seat to better look at Ed without twisting her neck so much. She decided to pry open his curious nature, maybe help him ease into liking Roy even for a tiny bit. "What do you want to know?"

"Do you love this? How can you love someone who spends his nights like that and you're waiting here? Why is that love? Does he love you?"

"Whoa, okay, slow down." She should have known that he wasn't going to hold back in asking. "He's just caught in the middle of something right now, nights aren't always like this." She wouldn't expound further on what they do to each other on most nights, or what Roy does to her after he's done with a night like this. "I'd like to think he loves me back." She scrunched her nose up in mock disgust. "He says it almost everyday." It was best to be as straightforward as possible, just not in extreme detail, with Ed.

"But you're here alone."

She thought about her answer for a second before smiling at the boy. "He'll be out of there soon enough." Had this conversation happened at the early days of her marriage with Roy, she would have been wound up so tight that she can't be held responsible for bullet holes in the wall. Those days were behind them, and she'd developed a full arsenal of ways to pull him out of his research once she decides he's in need of food, rest, or love. "Roy's not one to choose alchemy over family."

Ed furrowed his brows. Well, that hit him hard. "How can you say that?"

She shrugged one shoulder, her golden hair shifting against it. "We've been together for a long time."

"Mom always waited for Hohenheim too. She'd look out the window and just… stare, after she's tucked us into bed and she thinks we're asleep already." He cast his eyes down at the floor. "I think that's why she got sick, with all those cold nights. I should have…" He slammed his fist against the armrest. "Given her a blanket, or…"

A gasp left her lips as she realized what the boy was trying to say. She uncurled her legs from underneath her and knelt in front of where Ed was seated. She took his fist and held it. "It wasn't your fault."

"I don't understand why…" his fist shook against Riza's palm. "Why she did it. Why she waited. Why she was always waiting. And for what? For him?! I wanted to scream at her he's not coming back!" Hot, angry tears burst through his eyes. "But I couldn't…" he hiccuped, swallowing a lump of saliva that formed in his mouth, "I couldn't say it, not to her."

She reached out and enveloped Ed into a tight hug, snuggling his face against her shoulder as she patted his blond head. "So you're saying it to me now? To warn me?"

He nodded, tears still streaming from his eyes, soaking Riza's large shirt. He didn't want to say the rest of it for fear of it coming true, as irrational as the fear of jinxes was. He didn't want to lose another mother.

"It's okay, Ed. We've got you."

/-/

"Who did this to you?!"

At the sound of his wife's rare scream, Roy rushed out of their bedroom, almost tearing the door from its hinges and dashed to the living room, his gloved hand poised to snap.

He found Riza on her knees in front of Ed, her hands all over the boy's face, cheek, shoulder, chest, arms, and legs. A soldier's thorough scan for injuries. "What's going on?"

"I'm sorry." Ed flushed, clutching a piece of paper at his side, embarrassed at having Roy witness this too.

"We're sorry," piped in Al. "Brother was only trying to help."

Riza extracted the paper from Ed's grip and scanned through it. They were being called to meet with the Principal and a certain Mr. and Mrs. McFarland tomorrow after school hours. She set it on the table then turned to her husband. "Could you please get the first aid kit?" When he left to get it, she turned to Al. "Get your school bag into your room, please, then come back here. Can you take Ed's too?"

Al nodded and did as he was asked.

"I'm sorry," mumbled Ed, eyes cast down the moment he was alone with Riza. Roy stepped back in the living room and silently handed the kit to his wife.

Riza settled on the floor, opened up the kit and took out the gun on top of the medical supplies. She handed the item to Roy who took it questioningly.

"Uh. Since when was there a gun in there?"

"Shh. You should have noticed the weight when you brought it here." She focused back on Ed and gently cleaned his bruises, inspected for cuts, and covered them up if she spotted any. "You didn't answer my question yet, Ed."

The boy flinched. How many times did he have to apologize? He knew the red slip from the Principal was bad, their school bus driver explained as much, and that was why he kept apologizing the moment he and Al got home!

"We're really sorry," came Al's voice. They've never been punished by their adopted parents yet, just an occasional scolding here and there, but since they were both in the military, the boys can only imagine how bad "timeout" can be. They've heard varying stories from the other kids to know that parents can go extreme with timeout.

Roy motioned for Al to come closer, but ultimately stayed quiet. He and Riza agreed that whoever is first to respond to a distress situation regarding the boys would be the one to control the flow, while the other provided support to keep things balanced. So this was Riza's mission, and he was only going to be backup.

"I didn't ask for an apology, Al, Ed. I asked who did this to Ed," said Riza, her voice calm, even, not letting her nerves show through. Ed was hurt, Al looked like a mess, and she was going to put a bullet through the knees of whoever was responsible for messing with her boys.

"Harry."

"Mm." She nodded, that explained who Mr. and Mrs. McFarland were in the note. "Who threw the first punch?"

Ed winced. "I did." He knew this was his fault the moment the principal scolded him and pulled him off of Harry at the playground.

"Alright, can you tell me why?"

"Please, mom," begged Al, moving to stand beside Ed, "This is my fault. Harry pushed me down and Ed saw it, and -"

"He what?!" That explained why Al looked filthy.

Roy shot his hand out to hold Riza's shoulder to calm her down.

"I saw him push Al and I grabbed Harry's collar and I punched him," continued Ed, "We fought, but the principal saw me… beating up Harry."

Pride made its way into Riza's chest and seeped all over her body. So Ed technically won that fight, even though he threw the first punch, but he was only defending Al from a bully. "Did he say why he pushed you, Al?"

"He said… I look like you, but I'm an Elric and you're not. His mama and papa told him I was a dirty child. Dirty children didn't share names with their mommies. Dirty children shouldn't play with them."

Riza's eyes flashed at the term. Whoever this couple was, they wrongly assumed Ed and Al were illegitimate children? How dare they! Even if they were, they had no right to teach their child to discriminate, no matter the background. As a soldier, she was proud that Ed punched their child and won, but as a 'mother', she knew that she had to 'discipline' them one way or the other. She patted both boys' heads. "Punching someone is not a nice thing to do," she said.

The kids nodded, their eyes looking down at their feet.

"Promise me," she tilted their chins up so that they looked at her. She turned to Ed, "that you will only punch someone if they try to punch you first. You avoid that first punch, then you land a solid one and aim for the nose."

Roy's jaw dropped.

Riza turned to Al. "Promise me that you will fight back anyone who pushes you. Your brother had his heart in the right place, he wanted to defend you today. But promise me you will defend yourself too, kick out your leg and aim for the zipper in his pants."

Ed and Al slowly nodded. So they weren't in trouble?

"Now go do your homework. I'll call you at dinner."

The boys jogged out of the living room. They didn't have to be told twice.

Riza gathered the medical supplies back in the kit and took the gun off Roy's lap, checked if the safety remained on, and returned it inside too.

"Aim for the nose? The zipper?" questioned Roy, his brain finally waking up from the shock.

She clicked her tongue. "It's basic self-defense." She made a mental note to teach the boys a few moves during the semestral break or on weekends if they weren't busy with alchemy.

He chuckled as he helped his wife stand up, then burrowed his nose in her hair, his arms wrapped tight around her.

"Don't laugh," she whispered, their proximity allowing her to lower her voice, "the kid is a bully. I'm glad Ed won."

"Why didn't you congratulate him?"

She rolled her eyes then hugged him back, resting her chin on his shoulder. "I had to tell him punching first is wrong," she murmured. Parenting was hard. Certain values came into play, values that weren't necessarily compatible with her military training.

Roy hummed in agreement. "We're being called, then?"

"Yes." She extracted herself from him and showed him the slip of paper that Ed crinkled on his way home. "Tomorrow, with that kid's parents and the principal."

"Huh. I guess we have to apologize?"

Riza's jaw tensed and her eyes narrowed at the paper in his hands, as if she could burn it with her gaze. "They're not illegitimate children," she eyed her husband's startled onyx orbs, "and those idiots have no right to assume and teach their child that, and call our kids dirty." She spat out the word, her lips twisted into vicious growl. "We aren't apologizing for shit."

She stormed out of the room to return the medical kit back in its place in the bathroom. She was going to drag Roy out of the office early tomorrow and they were both going to wear their formal military uniforms (that could be considered as smart casual, right?), all medals in full view, and her guns loaded and on display; and she was going to give Mr. and Mrs. McFarland a piece of her mind if they so much as think about receiving an apology from the Mustangs.


AN: Not sure if Roy can actually do the "Welcome Home" thing with his alchemy, but hey, i labeled it as AU so… haha!