Heir to the Flame
Chapter 2: Higher ups
Roy got up from his chair yet again after slumping into it once already after a meeting with Brigadier General Haruko from Central. Riza, now two and a half months down the road stumbled into the office awkwardly, still not used to her swelling middle. He caught her quickly as she stumbled again and let her rest in his chair. "Two and a half months and it's already that big? It'sa big kid," he said proudly, scribbling signatures over a few more papers. Riza did not laugh, but fiddled with the buttons of her uniform over her stomach; a gesture, Roy now recognized, as one of anxiety. "What's bothering you now?" he asked, flicking some more of the sheets into the 'finished' tray. She stayed silent for a moment, then took a deep shuddering breath.
"He tried to flirt with me," she seethed, jaw clenched angrily. Roy's mouth twitched quickly downwards and tightened his hold on the pen, then released it before he snapped it in two. "Flirting... eh?" he said slowly, almost mechanically. "You're talking about Haruko, aren't you?" She nodded.
"Damn... what did he say? I mean, did he say anything else?"
"He saw my stomach, my baby... and he grinned at me and tried to touch me, and he said he was going to pull me out of your jurisdiction and into his... can he do that?" she whispered. Roy stiffened, enraged, and snapped his fingers without warning, causing his desk lamp to explode into tiny pieces. "He... He can do that..." he murmured. "He has every bit of power to do it. If it was my word against his, a Colonel versus a Brigadier General's, I would lose, no matter how celebrated I am as a war hero," he spat.
"But I don't want to go..."
"It would make no difference; he would make an excuse, a hundred different excuses on why you have to be in Central with him, and not at East with me!" he had almost lost all hope; how could he win with all the military's strongest against him?
He put his face down on the desk and groaned softly. "Damn that Haruko... damn him... It'll be just like last time..." She hugged him from behind and giggled softly as her stomach kept her from putting her arms all the way around him. "What do you mean 'last time'?"
"I... by law, I'm illegitimate. But that's only in the records because my parents... fraternized. They could never figure out who my mother was, they just knew my father. But I think they suspected... and she..." he stared at the floor, a dull look in his eyes.
"They seperated my parents when I was six, I never saw my mother after that. My father couldn't even say good-bye, because it would incriminate them both and then I'd be... taken away as well. But they don't just 'take away' kids born from fraternizing, no... they... they kill them. They say they're sending them away to orphanages or foster homes, but they kill them!"
Riza's eyes widened and she suddenly felt very faint, her legs wobbled underneath her, unwilling to support her body for much longer. "H-how do you-?"
"How do I know?" he asked. "I know because... Jean... he had an older brother, fraternized, and I knew him; Maes and I used to play with them all the time when we were kids. They had two different mothers. Tomas, the older brother, his mother was in the military as well... and... one day, they just took him away. I know because..." he put his face in his hands. "My father was stationed in 'Relocation of Fraternized Children'. They shoot them the minute they come in; I know he wasn't lying because I saw it myself!"
He remembered clearly, that horrible day his father had taken him to work. He had given specific instructions not to leave the office, a haunted expression in his eyes. Roy, being only seven at the time, was instantly curious and decided to investigate. He had followed his father at a distance down to a basement, dark and dank, overflowing with mold and an overpowering metallic smell that made him feel like throwing up. He hid while his father yelled at another officer, a higher rank, to transfer him out of this God-Forsaken department, to which the man sneered; it was Basque Gran. "Afraid for your little Fraternized brat, Mustang? The truth hurts, doesn't it? It'll only be a matter of time, the day we find the mother, he'll be stationed down here and it'll be you who blows his little head off." His father restrained himself with difficulty and stalked away, leaning against a wall for support once he was out of Gran's vision, tears of hopeless frustration sliding down his face. Then Roy found the window.
It was looking into a room even more disgusting and mortifying than the last, and inside standing against the wall quietly, was Tomas Havoc, his arms bound behind him and blindfolded, a set expression of defiance on his face though his little body trembled terribly. "Tomas!" he called, and the boy turned his head to the sound, mouth opening to answer. His father gasped and hurtled towards him, pinpointing thesound and grabbing him around the shoulders as the firing squad opened fire and Tomas was thrown backwards into the wall, where he slid down in a bloody heap, unmoving. Roy stared in shock, his hands grasping at his father's uniform. His father cried and shook him angrily. "Why Roy? Why did you come downhere? I-I... you shouldn't have seen this, Roy!" His father held him close andRoy buried his face into his neck, tears leakingout of his eyes. "Why did they do that to Tomas?"
"Why? Because he's like you, Roy, and I swear I'll neverthis... I'll not stand by and let this happen to you!" Roy sobbed into his father's shoulder and he rubbed his back and picked himup. "I promise, I swear, I'll protect you from this, I will!"
When he went back home, he smiled at Jean and said, "He got a nice family, Jean."
But he always remembered the truth.
"Oh my God..." Riza sank down onto the floor and held her stomach, feeling the urge to vomit welling up in her throat. Roy looked at her from his position on the desk and sighed. "I... don't knowif they still do that or not, and I hope to God they don't."
"Did you ever... did you ever tell Havoc?"
"I did. It's why he's in the military now, to get revenge for Tomas," he smiled. "It's why he's backing me now, pushing me to become Fuhrer, because I'm the only one who will change things. But now... now I have to keep my baby a secret, for all our sakes." He stroked Riza's hair and pulled her up from the floor. "Do you want to go home? It's been... It's been a rough day, for the both of us," he murmured, and he realized that there was nothing closer to the truth.
"Let's... I want to go home," she whispered, strained.