Heir to the Flame

Chapter 3: Home and Safety

Roy was lying on his back in his bed, Riza sleeping peacefully on his chest snuggled up against him. He sorely wished he could fall asleep as fast as she could, but could only stare once more at the ceiling of his bedroom and stroke Riza's hair as she slept, taking comfort in this one familiar gesture. His eyes sweeped around the room once, taking in the over-large dresser that held nothing but some hastily ironed work shirts, an extra uniform, and some old shirts he wore at home; he didn't have any idea how long it had been since he had actually gone shopping for clothes, the ones that he had recently acquired were there only because Riza had insisted he get more things to wear.

A bathroom, nothing unusual about it except for a tub that he had rarely used before Riza had started coming home with him some fourteen odd months before. A closet that served no purpose because of the over-large dresser; he had turned it into a little pet room for Black Hayate where the little dog was no doubt snuggled up between pillows and chew toys somewhere inside of it. There were more rooms in the house, many more, more than a bachelor could fill by himself without junking it up with useless items that served no other purpose but to fill up space. He had been no such bachelor, he had always been a bit peevish about junk and threw away anything that he did not regard a neccessity. This went out the window, of course, the day he found out he was a father.

There were now at least two rooms that were filled with toys and he had to admit that he may have been a little overexcited when he had left work that day. Riza didn't know about them of course, because there were simply too many rooms in his so-called house to check every one. She was constantly finding new rooms every day and quickly became exasperated when she left something in one room, left one to find it, and ended up in another completely different room.

He had left the house the year of histenth birthday, bitter and loathing of the old family home, only to return to it somefifteen or so years later and had been living in it ever since. He found it was much too hard to seperate himself from the home that he had been born and brought up in, but found it equally hard to grasp that at leastone hundredgenerations of his family had thought the exact same thing. All in all, it was a pretty damn old mansion.

To lessen the commotion he got over it, he lived in an apartment closer to East HQ much of the time, but returned to the old mansion like a turtle returns to the beach of its birth. He supposed it meant too much to him, and that the fact that he had grown up here was not easy to let go. But now...

Now it was truly home, for the first time. He wouldn't be alone, walking the corridors or up and down the stairs listlessly and in a daze waiting to do something, or better yet, waiting for Maes to call him and give a suggestion as to what to do. Usually, it was get drunk on Saturday nights, a particular favorite.

Now he would be busy, a wife -sort of- and a new baby to take care of. He finally understood why Maes had gone insane the day he found out he was a father; in fact...

He eased Riza off of his chest and rubbed her belly gently. Why shouldn't he call Maes right now? What a great idea, he was glad he thought of it! He reached for the phone at his bedside then thought better of it, swung his legs over the side of the bed and trooped off to another phone in another room. He didn't particularly feel like bothering Riza, she had more things to worry about already, like her pregnancy. He picked it up, dialed Maes's number, and waited for his friend to pick up.

A groan on the other end. "Dammit, do you have any idea what time it is? It's you, isn't it Roy? You're the only one who calls so late at night!"

"Listen Maes, I have a problem..."

"Eh? That's funny. With all the girls you go around with I'd never figure you have a problem with your-"

"Not that kind of problem, idiot! Listen to me! I... how should I say this..."

"C'mon, if you really have a problem, why so shy? You've told me everything since we were kids, so spill."

"Riza... I got Riza pregnant."

Silence.

"Riza? Hawkeye Riza? Are we thinking about the same Riza here?"

"Yes, Maes."

"How the hell did you do it? She must've had a gun at your head the whole time you were-"

"Alright alright, Maes! But she is pregnant."

"I never would have guessed."

"Eh?"

"You've got every woman in East and Central throwing themselves at your feet and you go and get Riza Hawkeye pregnant!"

"I thought you'd be happy for me Maes!"

"Oh don't get me wrong, I am! Unless you forced her..."

"I'm not a rapist!"

"Okay okay, now that that's out of the way..." Maes cleared his throat.

"What do I do, Maes?"

"Well, now that you're a father... it's yours, right?"

"Maes!" Roy growled warningly into the phone.

"Just make her as comfortable as possible and don't do even one thing that might piss her off, or you'll regret it. Doubly so since it's Riza."

"...I gotcha Maes."

"Good! Now if you're lucky, while she's pregnant she'll be extra lovin' with you..."

"Oh God Maes... I don't want to talk about this..."

"Suit yourself. Hey Roy..."

"Yeah?"

"The higher ups don't suspect anything?"

"I'm not sure... the way we go at each other, I don't think they'll jump to that conclusion too quickly..."

"Can't be too careful, it's easy to over-dote on her while she's pregnant you know, especially when she's getting over stressed at work."

"Okay, I got it."

"Don't ignore her though, or she'll get upset, so give her a lot of attention once you're home. Is she there with you?"

"In another room, I thought I ought to let her sleep some more. I... told her about Tomas."

"You did... Great way to get her upset Roy, way to go. Why don't you tell her about your old man while your at it, eh?"

Roy was silent and stared at the wall vaguely.

"I'm sorry Roy... I didn't think."

"It's... it's alright, Maes. I figure everyone knows about him, just not everything."

"Listen, about the higher ups... you should try to stick around Riza as much as you can, Roy."

"But you just said not to draw attention to us!"

"Yes but... if they already know... some of the superiors might try to bump her off... they don't want another Mustang around to keep them on the run for their ranks. They'll view your child as a threat."

"I never... thought about it that way."

"They've already seen what you can do, Roy, it would be a stupid mistake to think that they would just let this fraternization breach slide. They don't want any more Flame Alchemists to contend with, and the military knows that everyone out of the Mustang family was a Flame Alchemist in the military at one point or another. Be careful."

"Thanks Maes, I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yep, I'll be dropping down by East tomorrow. I wanna see Riza with my own eyes anyway!"

"Alright Maes, till tomorrow then." He put down the phone with a click and turned, startled to see Riza leaning heavily in the doorway.

"Are you okay, Riza?" he asked. She nodded and held out her arms, and he walked to her willingly enveloping her in his arms. "I was talking to Maes over the phone, about us." She nodded and buried her face into his bare chest, breathing softly and steadily. He rested his chin on the top of her head and breathed deeply; she smelled of gunpowder and roses... gunpowder and roses... She looked up at him and smiled, rubbing her cheek against his short stubble and savoring the adverse feeling. He touched her stomach gently and his eyebrows rose, discovering that it had gotten a little bigger in half a month. He kissed her on the lips and led her back to the bedroom, laying her down on the bed and covering her in the warm blankets. He sat down next to her at the edge of the bed and rubbed her stomach, and she closed her eyes, enjoying the attention she was receiving. He was secretly savoring the moment as well, knowing full well that there was no telling how many they would have left.

"Riza... what do you think the baby will be?" She opened her amber eyes slowly. "I want a little boy... A little boy who looks just like his daddy..." he laughed softly and pushed some stray hair out of her face, and planted a kiss on her lips. "Well I wanted a girl, who looks like you! We'll see when it's born..."

She nodded and let him continue to probe and press her stomach gently, and looked up into his face. He didn't know she was looking at him, he was too absorbed with her stomach. She wondered if he'd be a good father, then reprimanded herself. She should have thought of that before she got pregnant, not now. "Roy..."

"Hm?"

"How will we hide this from... from Havoc and the others?"

"We won't have to."

"We won't?"

"No... they'll understand, they won't rat us out."

"Have you thought of anything... for Haruko?"

"No, I haven't." He moved closer to her and put his arms around her shoulders and he nuzzled her face. "I can't think of anything... but if he does take you to Central... stick with Maes, Maes and Armstrong, okay? They'll take care of you as best they can." Her hand tightened its hold on his bare shoulder and he held her wrist. "You stick with them, and keep safe, and I'll try to get transferred to Central as soon as possible, even if it means demoting in rank, I'll do it."

"But Roy... you can't demote!"

"I can and I will if that's what it takes," he said stubbornly. "I don't want them to hurt you, or the baby."

"You stay with Maes in Central City, and I'll have the excuse to come down there every weekend to visit, everyone knows I do that every weekend, so it won't be suspicious. Call me from there as well."

"But we don't know if he will even force me to go..."

"The way he's manuevering, I'd say he's going to do it, and soon... don't let him take advantage of you, okay?" he held her chin in his hand and looked into her eyes for a long while. "Okay," she whispered. "If he does anything to you, you call me, okay?"

"Yes, I will."

"I'll be there so fast they won't know it was the Flame Alchemist who hit em'."

Wowee, 19 reviews for 2 chapters? Thanks a lot guys, I hope you'll be constant reviewers in the future! Thank you, Unexpectation for the compliment to my writing, I didn't know I had such a fan! Makes me wanna cry T.T

Anyways! I'm glad this fic is doing so well in its second chapter, and I must have been having a fit of morbidness when the scene for Tomas came to mind, but this will get a bit deeper! Yay!

As to whether the child will actually be born in the story... I'd say maybe, depends on what the reviewers want! So next time you review, put in a word and I'll see what the old brain can think up! - T A