Vacation with the Mustangs

Chapter 4

"Come back here! That's my dad's watch!" The little girl who looked no more than four or five years old cast a frightened look at the furious teenager running after her and bolted down the street between to game booths. She was quick and small for her age, and Roy had a sinking feeling that he would never catch her. She wasn't just some thief either; he couldn't stand the thought of having to use alchemy to stop her, so he wouldn't.

Then he saw Riza flying down the street, a gun in her hand. She took aim at the girl and Roy yelled at her to stop. She fired three hits in quick succession and the girl fell onto the ground; Roy's heart stopped. "Riza! What did you-" she held up her hand and stopped him. The girl squirmed on the ground and sat up, looking at her hand for the pocketwatch.

The pocketwatch was hanging on the side of the wooden booth, hanging by a dart in one of the metal rings in the chain. Three of them, to be exact. Roy stared at Riza. "Don't tell me... don't tell me you aimed and fired and..." he pointed, mouth hanging, at the watch. "Yep." Roy shook his head. "I won't even... oh my god... I didn't even know you had a dart gun!" Riza shrugged. "I don't, I borrowed it from one of the booths." Roy bent down and pulled the darts out of the chain. "Why were you trying to take my watch, anyway?" the girl sniffed and Roy backed up. "Hey hey hey! Don't cry!"

The little girl burst into tears, grabbed at the watch again, missed, and then ran off with Roy's wallet. "Aaagh! My wallet!" She ran off to the square and hid behind a woman on the stage. "Awww... what's wrong Keira?" She picked up the little girl and Roy stopped to a screeching halt, puffing. "That's... that's... my wallet. I need it back!" he huffed. She looked at Keira and the girl gave up the wallet. "You shouldn't take things that aren't yours, Keira! Daddy would be sad if he knew." Keira sniffed. "Daddy said to get the gold pocketwatch, and he had it! He stole it from the other guy!" she said, pointing her finger at Roy.

"Me? Steal? I got this from my dad!"

Anri walked up onto the stage, a flute and a saxaphone in his hands. "Eh? Lira, what's up? What's wrong, Keira?" Leroy followed behind his brother and gave him a look. "I thought you said you didn't have any kids." Anri shrugged. "You didn't let me finish! I was going to say I don't have as many as you do. Keira's my only one," he said fondly, kissing her forehead. "She's so cute..."

"Now what happened?" he asked.

"Keira stole a pocketwatch and a wallet from this boy here. Did you tell her to get the pocketwatch?" Anri shook his head at first, but then a look of realization dawned on his face. "Oh no. I told her to get my gold pocketwatch from the rehearsal room. She must have gotten it mixed up with Leroy's pocketwatch."

"It's not the same pocketwatch?" Keira asked. Anri shook his head. "No, it wasn't. But I see what you were trying to do... it's okay." he smiled. "You thought Leroy had stolen the watch from me and that Roy stole it from him, didn't you?" Keira nodded and buried her face into Lira's shoulder. Anri picked her up and put her down opposite of Roy. "Now what do you say to Roy, Keira?"

"I'm sorry..." she said, looking at her shoes. Roy shook his head. "It's okay, you just got confused. I'd better get back, the others are probably starving by now!"

Maes and Jean gave him evil glares as he ran towards them. "Nice job, Roy, you almost starved us to death!" Maes said. Roy shrugged and held up the wallet. "I've got it now, so calm down. What do you guys want to eat?" The two of them drooled at the variety that was offered to them, and pointed in every direction. "Over there!"

"No! There!"

While Jean and Maes argued over what to eat, Riza was over at the table talking to Ilia and Leroy. "Look," Roy snapped, "Will you two just make up your minds already?" Maes and Jean both saluted and Roy ground his teeth. "We've decided!" Roy tapped his foot on the ground. "Okay. Out with it then!"

"The All You Can Eat!"

"I should have known. Here, you guys do whatever, I'm not hungry," he said, tossing the wallet to them. Jean and Maes drooled and went over to get their food. Roy sat next to Riza at the table. "You're not hungry?" he asked. She shrugged. "Not really... and if there's nothing in my stomach, I won't throw up anything!"

"Planning ahead, are we?"

She patted the head of the giant stuffed dog on the table and laughed. "Maybe. I'm sure you are too. Thanks for the toy." Roy nodded and Leroy blanched. "Look, you can get all romantic in the hotel, alright? I've been there, done that, and don't feel comfortable seeing my son doing it." Roy glared at him and Ilia pushed Leroy gently. "Be nice, Leroy."

"What? I'm just nervous, okay?" Ilia whispered something in his ear. "Okay... alright..."

"While I'm still thinking here, where's Alex run off to?"

Roy thumbed over his shoulder. "Cleaning out the last of the All You Can Eat place with Jean and Maes. I doubt there'll be anything left after they're through."

"True."

"Riza! Riza!" Maes called. Riza half-turned in her seat. "What?"

Maes ran up to her holding a box in his hands. "I found something you might like." She opened the box and something brown and furry leaped on her. "Yip!" Riza held it up and Roy could practically see her heart melting. "Awww... it's so cute... cute little puppy!" Roy's blood boiled and he gave Maes another of his If-Looks-Could-Kill-You'd-Be-Disentegrated looks. Maes held up his hands innocently. "Now you have to tell me the secret Riza!" Riza petted the puppy some more and whispered into Maes's ear. Roy felt oddly hostile and eager to burn something.

Maes's eyes widened. "No way! She doesn't look it! I can't believe Roy doesn't know!" Roy's eyes narrowed even further and his right hand started to shake under the table. More specifically, his thumb and middle finger started to shake. Leroy sighed. "Control, Son, control."

Roy turned quickly in his seat and suddenly became absorbed in the show proceedings, face red and heart thumping wildly in his chest. Leroy's eyebrow raised and he looked at Ilia. "Should I, or do you want to?" Ilia motioned for him to go and he got up, sitting next to Roy after Riza left to walk the puppy. "Getting jealous?"

"I'm not jealous!" he yelled, staring at the stage even harder. Leroy sighed and tilted his head at his son. "Sometimes it's not a bad thing, you know. But when you get jealous over something as little as that... well it's no good for you, let me tell you that. I had to fight with someone over your mother too."

"Really?"

"Yep. You know Basque Gran? The Iron-Blooded Alchemist?" Roy nodded. "He had the hots for your mom, and he had it bad. I won in the end tho'."

"Gran? Yuck."

"Oh, he wasn't such a bad guy back then you know. He was a bit older than me, we had the same rank. He got rotten after I succeeded the Fuhrer."

"Were you jealous?"

"Hell yeah! But I didn't fire back at first. Waited a little while to see what your mom would do. Guess we were just meant to be," he said, smiling. "So don't get worked up, okay? Don't lose your best friend over a girl. There are lots of girls out there, but very few will be true friends."

"Okay..." Leroy patted his shoulder.

"Good. Now are we going on those rollercoasters or what?"

Yay! Chapter 4! Sorry this took a little longer.. I've had to prepare for school since I'm entering high school this year. Once school starts, updated probably won't come everyday. Every week maybe. - T A

O... I gotta get crackin' on Halfmetal Alchemist too... dangit.