Oooh pretty colors…

Chapter 1

Silmarion stood, shifting the five year old in her arms so that he wouldn't wake up. Now sixteen years of age, Silly was a natural beauty. Her long blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders in waves, and her golden eyes showed her exhaustion. She had only managed to get her younger brother to sleep a couple of minutes ago, and she could only hope that he wouldn't wake up again. Five year old Adonai Tadeo Elric was a rambunctious boy. It was always difficult to get him to take a nap, and not to bother his parents or sister. Silly brushed a stray lock of hair behind one ear and moved swiftly towards the house.

The McDougall household had become a lot busier over the past five years. Ever since the new babies had arrived, and the main house had been remodeled once again. Now the house was bigger and could very well accommodate the now even larger family. There was a large playroom and baby room that had been added for the care of the new additions to the family. Silly ignored her father talking to the chickens and ducks, and entered the house. The main house was still basically the same, only now it had another floor, a second basement. She walked down two flights of stairs and entered the baby's nursery which now house three five year olds. Silly set her little brother down in his bed and kissed his forehead gently.

"Silly." A quiet voice asked.

The girl turned to see a small five year old girl with bright flaming orange hair and blue eyes. In one hand was a small teddy bear which she dragged everywhere, and the other was now clenching the hem of Silly's shirt.

"Yes Sagiri?" Silly answered.

"I want a snack."

Silly complied, taking one of the small girl's hands and lead her up the stairs onto the ground floor. Dess was currently trying to tame Oz into simply sitting and watching the TV. It would seem that she was failing, miserably.

"Hey Oz, would you like a snack? I'm going to make some ants on a log for Sagiri in the kitchen." Silly called, instantly Oz's head shot up at the sound of food being mentioned.

"Uh huh!" He leapt off of Dess's lap and hurried over to Silly.

"Snack!" He squealed.

Silly gave Dess a sympathetic look, before leading the two munchkins to the kitchen. The two teenagers were the ones stuck with babysitting duty that day because everyone else was working. There were points during the summer harvest where Silly wished she were out there helping instead of taking care of five year olds. But then again, (as Dess liked to point out) it was much better then helping with the harvest; that ended with much more severe exhaustion then babysitting did.

"Why is it that the little monsters like you more than they like me?" Dess moaned, entering the kitchen and pulling up a barstool.

"I'm not really sure. I don't do anything all that different I think. But maybe you should try not to let them bug you that much." Silly quirked a smile, watching her cousins wolf down celery covered in peanut butter and raisins.

The two baby sitters sat in companionable silence for the first time that day. If they had it their way, they would keep the kids eating for hours, so that they would stay quiet. But that was not possible; their parents wouldn't let them that was for sure.

"How could a child with a mom like Uncle Al turn out like that?" Dess questioned, pointing at Oz.

"Probably because his Dad is Roy Mustang." Silly supplied.

"Ah."

Oz smirked, (never a good sign). He eyed one of Sagiri's celery sticks and made a grab for it. Sufficient experience as a babysitter of small children aided Silly's quick reflexes. Before Oz could successfully snatch the celery stick Silly had taken hold of his small wrist and said in a threatening voice, "NO."

Oz looked guiltily down at his empty plate and then hopped down off of the barstool. Dess turned lazily to look at the quickly escaping five year old thing.

"Where do you think you're going, Oz?" She asked.

"To go be with Mommy!"

"Nuh uh….no you're not. You know you're supposed to stay inside. That's what mommy said. If you go out there, then you'll get in trouble." Dess said plainly.

"But I want to be with Mommy!" Suddenly, tears burst out of the small boy's eyes.

Dess was about to groan, but Silly held up a hand, motioning for her to stop.

"If you get upset, then you'll be giving him what he wants. Ignore him and eventually he'll stop. It's that simple." Silly said quietly.

Sure enough, ten minutes later, Oz realized that he wasn't going to win that way. Groaning, he slumped out of the room. Minutes later, thumps echoing from the stairs leading to the basements were heard. It would appear that he was giving up and retiring to the play room. Dess and Silly high-fived each other.

"Sagiri, you know that you're my favorite munchkin? You're the quietest." Dess whispered, gently patting the little girl on the head.

Sagiri cooed appreciatively, before taking another bite of her snack. All the while she barely made any sound, except for her quiet munching. Silly softly told her partner in munchkin care that she was going to go and check on Oz and Adonai. Dess nodded and cleaned up Sagiri's snack mess once she was done.

"You want to go down to the play room now?" Dess asked.

Sagiri sleepily nodded, and allowed herself to be carried out of the room and down towards the playroom.

Meanwhile, outside in the fruit orchards, the adults were all working hard. Now that the grandchildren were old enough to babysit the younglings the adults could focus solely on working. Phage, Jack, Amelia, Hugh, Hughes, Steven, Joey, Matt, Jimmy, Timmy, Roy, Al, James, and Ed were all working in the orchard. They were getting so much work done that it was more than likely that they would be done with the summer harvest by the weekend.

Phage broke out in a loud heaving cough, at the sound of which Jack asked concernedly, "Are you okay honey?"

"I'm fine," Phage wheezed, standing back up to continue working, "Just a little chest cold is all. Really, brunette babe, I'm fine. I promise."

"Alright, if you say so. But if you have a cold you shouldn't be working like this." Jack pouted but Phage ignored him and continued on working.

Hughes was ranting to Matt, Jimmy, and Timmy about how Elysia (his daughter) had just graduated from college and was going to be a great actress. None of the men were listening to the ranting father. Hughes had shown up to help for two days, and after dinner that night he would be heading home to be with his wife Glacier. But still, his help was greatly appreciated. Thought the price paid for his help was endless fatherly gushing about his fabulous daughter. It was slightly frightening but in the end, tolerable.

Phage and Jack had decided to finally return to the orchards and begin working again, though many a time the bobsy twins had told them to go back inside and relax. At the comment that they were too old to work, both men refused to stop working.

Phage was quite happy with himself at the moment. He had finally created a will, all of the animals, buildings and land that was Myishi farm went to Jack, as did all of that 'emergency' money in the bank. That money had added up to over a billion dollars by now in case anyone was wondering. Phage had done this in town without telling his family. The family still wasn't aware of their 'inheritance' at all. He was sure they would take it well when he died, wouldn't they? Hopefully they would.

Chapter 2

The family was gathered around the dinner table one evening, when suddenly while everyone was being served, Oz sneezed quite loudly. Everyone was about to say 'bless you', but were too shocked to do so at the sight of fire coming out of the boy's nose. He looked up at his parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, and grand parents in confusion as to what he had done. He sneezed again, burning the chicken on his plate. Oz looked at the still frozen butter on his bread and frowned in frustration. The small boy raised his fingers and snapped them right above the bread, a small flame extended from his fingers and stayed lit just above the butter. In a matter of seconds the butter melted and Oz snapped his fingers again, making the flame go out. Adonai giggled, clapped his hands together and plunged one finger into the melted butter. It resumed its frozen form and Oz growled angrily while Adonai continued to giggle hysterically.

Al, Roy, and Ed were all staring at each other in part-amazement, part-confusion. How could their children do these things? Roy couldn't snap his fingers and make fire, unless he was wearing his special ignition gloves, and even then he couldn't keep a small flame going like that and then be able to turn it off at a whim. Ed knew that you could only do transmutation without a circle ifyou had performed human transmutation, but he was pretty darn sure his son hadn't tried anything. What the hell?

Over the next couple of days the confused parents kept a closer eye on their children to make sure they didn't damage anything, or each other. It would seem that little Oz was as much of a pyro as his father, and would continue to light things on fire simply to stare at them. Adonai would constantly pull pranks on his cousin, and then such acts would escalade into all out brawls between both boys. It was hard to keep them under control.

None of this really worried anyone as much as Phage's condition. He had been hacking up a lung all week, and once Jack had sworn he had seen his husband cough up blood. Phage refused to stop working however, despite how horrible he felt. He was convinced that he would be fine and that no one should be worrying about him. Besides that Phage could take care of himself, or so he told anyone who bothered to even send so much as a concerned LOOK his way.

The next night, while everyone was asleep, Phage was creeping towards the kitchen. He was intent on getting some pudding; he had had the strangest craving the other day. On his way to the fridge however, he was forced to his knees by another coughing spell that tore through him. He could feel his throat tear and begin to bleed at the horrible spasms contining to wash over him. Soon enough, Jack, and the rest of the family hot on his heels were trying to ask Phage if he was alright.

Phage retched, clutching his throat, he heaved again and a loud splat echoed through the kitchen. There was a thick puddle of blood on the floor, and the sight of it made his stomach empty its contents. His dinner rushing up his throat only aggravated the cuts even more. Phage looked up at his husband, tears running freely down his face. His throat burned, and the after taste of hurl still lingered in his mouth. He felt horrible, but stood wiping his eyes, and his chin. Then, ignoring everyone's frightened stares; he left the room and went straight to bed.

Jack walked into the bedroom he shared with Phage, and crawled into bed next to his husband. Phage's back was turned to him, and Jack curled up behind him, wrapping thin arms around his mate's waist.

"I want you to stay in bed tomorrow, honey."

"No, I'm going to keep working." Phage retorted.

"Honey, you aren't fit to work right now, you've obviously come down with something. I'll call for Hardy tomorrow morning, and he'll come and see what's wrong with you. Until he says its okay for you to work, then you aren't working." Jack gripped his husband tighter in his arms, and snuggled against Phage's back.

"I'm still going to be working tomorrow." Phage mumbled.

Jack sighed; he decided that it would be best to let Phage think he'd won, then to continue to argue. Phage needed his rest.

The next day, Jack woke up to find Phage missing. He wasn't lying next to him like he had been the night before. Growling furiously, Jack scurried out of the house, still in his pajamas. Sure enough, Phage was out in the orchard working. It was as if he was determined to be contrary no matter what. Jack marched up to his husband and was tempted to smack him if he weren't worried about Phage's health.

"What do you think you're doing!" Jack screeched.

"Working, I thought it would have been obvious." Phage replied.

"Are you trying to kill yourself? You are in no condition to be working, you know that, I know that, the whole god damn family knows that, so you get your ass in bed and stay there!" Jack screamed.

"No." Phage ignored his mate as though he were a pesky mosquito.

Jack was seething, "I can't believe you're doing this, what is wrong with you!"

"I don't know, I thought you were going to go get Hardy to come to the farm so that he could figure that out for the both of us." Phage said, but as he was about to pull another fruit from the tree, he dropped the basket he had been holding.

Phage stood stock still, until suddenly he started coughing again. In an insane attempt to make the burning pain in his chest go away, he clawed at his shirt ripping it open. Then his nails dug into his skin, making it bleed as his throat continued to rip and tear as the coughing spells wracked his weak frame. Jack had called Silly to go and get Hardy as quick as possible. Phage could feel Jack at his side, but in a blinding rage, and fit of pain he smacked his mate away from him. He continued to rip open his chest on instinct, his hands seeking the thing that was causing the cough. But after only minutes black circles rimmed his vision. His breathing became shallow and less frequent. Phage fell backwards and could vaguely hear Jack screaming his name. Then, everything went black.

Phage looked around him. Everything was white, and fluffy. To his right he heard a loud honk. There was a big white bus trying to get around him. Phage backed away from it and fell over a curb. He whipped his head around, staring at anything and everything trying to figure out where he was. There were cars driving down a road that looked just like the ones he had seen in the city. The people walking past him were wearing modern fashions that Phage had seen in Amelia's closets, and Jack's wardrobes, but the one difference was that they were all white. A heavenly white, just like the wings sprouting out of everyone's backs. Phage reached behind him and realized that he had wings too. Above his head, he felt a warm ring; pulling it down in front of his eyes he discovered it to be a halo. Was he dead? Was this heaven?

"Phage! My friend, when did you get here? What happened man?" A familiar voice came from behind him.

Phage turned and saw Rock standing there, holding out a helping hand.

"Just a couple minutes ago I think. Is this heaven?"

"Yeah, it is. We need to go and get you some new clothes, you've got the standard issue robes that they give all newbies. I doubt you want to be walking around in those for long." Rock nodded, starting to lead Phage down the side walk.

"Probably not…" Phage nodded back to his friend, wondering what his family was doing back on earth.

Jack and the rest of the family were sitting around the rarely used dining room table back at the farm, while an attorney read Phage's will to them. The tall aging man that was the attorney was finally getting to the matter of the money that resided in Phage's bank account.

"At the present time there is 1, 568, 985, 235 G in Phage McDougall's bank account. All of that will go to Mr. Jack McDougall. Complete ownership of the farm, its land, animals, and all its properties will be passed down through the line of the oldest family member. So after Mr. Jack McDougall died, the ownership would pass to Mr. James Elric, and after he died then the ownership would pass to Mrs. Amelia McDougall, and so on and so forth…"

As the attorney rambled on Jack, and the whole entire family sat dumbstruck not believing what they were hearing. And all the while, Rock and Phage were sitting in a bar near heaven's main shopping mall watching the events concerning Phage's family, laughing their asses off.

Epilogue

Over the years, decades even, Phage McDougall realizes how much the farm has changed, how much HE changed. It all started with him moving to the farm, and meeting Jack that one night down at the beach. Now he has a family, a big family, one that he loves dearly. However wretched it is to watch them mourn from the comfortable seats of heaven, Phage knows that one day they'll wake up and be able to move on. He can't wait for that day. But for now, he's happy to look down and watch his children, and his grand children, and his husband Jack run the farm. Phage would have to say that his favorite part of this whole deal was the shocked look on their faces while the attorney read to them their inheritance. That was just funny. But, that couldn't compare to the hilarity of coming back to earth to visit his family. Even if it was only for one day, it had still been a hoot…

Silly had been sitting in between Oz and Adonai to try and keep them from pranking on each other, but so far her efforts had been futile. They kept using alchemy against each other. She couldn't stop alchemy when she didn't know how to use it herself. But while the rest of the family was enjoying their lunch there was a sudden blinding light in the room.

Silly shot out of her chair, thinking that the light was another one of Oz's pranks but instead out stepped Rock, and Phage, and Bob & Joe. Rock saluted the family with his left hand, and Phage doubled over laughing.

"You should have seen the looks on your faces!" Phage continued laughing.

Bob and Joe ran over to James and Amelia, lapping at their hands happily.

"But you're dead! You're not supposed to be here!" James cried.

"Alchemy doesn't apply to everything my son. In heaven there's such a thing one day visit cards. If you get a job and work hard enough for a certain amount of time, you get a card and you can visit anyone you choose for a whole day. Rock, Bob & Joe, and I worked hard enough. So we thought we'd pay you a visit." Phage explained, coming to sit at the table in his usual place.

Rock also sat down, and began eating, "Damn it, see I told you Jack had better cooking!"

"I know! It's not fair, Jack has better cooking then heaven does, and he's still alive!" Rock crowed in between mouthfuls of food.

Jack looked slightly sheepish, staring down at his shoes.

The next several hours, work was forgotten as the family sat around the table catching up with Phage and Rock. Sometimes Jack would talk about what was going on, on the farm. Sometimes, Phage would talk about what heaven was like, and so forth.

In the middle of detailing to his husband the latest discovery about heaven, Phage had a major realization. Looking around at his whole family, he then discovered that he had had a good life. Even though, thinking back on Mark's death, and James going away, Amelia's depression, and Oz and Adonai's sparring matches…he had really had a wonderful life…

Fin…