Heir to the Flame

Chapter 14: Nightmares

Roy tossed and turned in his sleep at Maes's house, asleep but unfitfully. Riza watched as he turned onto his back, scrabbled at something, then groaned like he was in pain. He turned onto his stomach and curled into a ball, and Riza reached out a hand and touched his shoulder.

He cried out and jerked away violently, saying something that she couldn't understand. Then he gasped suddenly and woke up, panting and sweating heavily. Riza moved closer to him and touched his face. "What's wrong?" she asked, and he lookeddownwards and put his face in his hands.

"Ishbal," he whispered, hands stillcovering his face and Riza hugged him sympathetically. Ishbal had done muchmore damage to him than to her, she knew that. But at Ishbal... theyhad both lost something there.

"Anything in particular about it, Roy?" she whispered in his ear, trying tomake him talk so he would feel better. She rested her chin on his shoulder and he shuddered. "Roy, what's bothering you so much?" she asked.

"James," he said with great effort. His shoulders shook and he buried his face farther, if possible, into his hands. "I lostJames, Riza... I couldn't protect him..." Tears clouded Riza's sight and shehugged him harder from behind. "It wasn't... Roy..."

"I lost my own son; how could I ever forgive myself for it? I could have... I could have..." he broke down again and Riza cried with him.

It had happened in the earlystage of the Ishbal War, Officer Riza Hawkeyewas pregnant. Roy had sheltered her, protected her,and supported her until she gave birth to a boy nine months later: They named himJames Mustang.

Roy had only been aMajor in the army, carted off to war at the young age of nineteen, and Riza likewise, and James was born on a battlefield. A year passed in the Ishbal War, a year passed without sufficient breakfor Royto safely remove James from the battlefield completely. Then there was finally a gap.

The fire had ceased for a good while and Roy snuck out at midnight from hisbarracks in the Amestrisbasewith one year old James in his arms. All had gone well and he could see the border of Amestris and Ishbal in sight. He sighed with relief; James would be safe now.

That was when he heard a shot from behind him and felt his leg blaze with a piercing pain. He cried out and fell down, trying to get up on one arm and drag the rest of him to the border. James was crying from the jolt of falling down, holding onto him tightly and wailing. Roy gritted his teeth and got up on one leg and his two good arms trying to quiet James and tell him everything was alright when it really wasn't.

He heard a cry and looked behind him. His face paled and a mob of Ishbalans were on him, kicking and punching. He groaned and quickly balled up around James, and his son whimpered softly. Finally his strength gave out on him and James was pulled from his arms, he had no strength to resist, just dragged himself forward bleeding mess that he was, trying to catch up while James screamed for him, over and over and over again.

Then he blacked out.

When he woke up Riza was sitting over him sobbing, demanding to know what had happened. He looked away and acough wracked his entire body. He wouldn't speak to her, couldn't speak to her, and Riza realized slowly, what had happened.

Then she had left him and they had grown apart for five odd years. Both of them were unable to cope, both were unwilling to talk to the other about it, so they had drifted apart. They had been that way until Riza was once again stationed under Roy's command in Central Command and the old spark was reignited.

But Roy never could forget about James, and neither could Riza. He laid his head on her swollen belly, now close to seven months, and closed his eyes. Riza lay back and stroked his hair, asking what he was doing. He smiled and said without opening his eyes, "I'm listening to his heart. And yours. And I promise I won't let anything happen to him, ever."

She nodded and continued to stroke his hair. She wasn't exactly sure why she had left him in the first place. She thought it was because she was just too distraught over the loss of her baby, and that the thought that his own father had lost him just angered her. But she had realized later that she probably could not have done any better. She had realized it eventually, when she was too far away from Roy to apologize or make up to. It had been a stroke of luck that she was placed under his command again, and she had to admit that it was even harder to resist him as a handsome twenty-five year old than it had been when he was a self-assured but somewhat awkward nineteenyear old. She couldn't help it, she just fell right back for him.

And here she was, the two of them twenty-six years old and she was pregnant again. She wondered if she was making a mistake by getting pregnant again, no marriage, no baby-showers forthcoming because their baby had to be a secret. There would be nothing but secrecy until the law of fraternization was abolished.

And the best way to do that was to push Roy to become Fuhrer.

Another chapter guys, have fun. As for my periods of updation, it is extremely hard to update during the week, and I have um... parentely-predetermined weekend activities, so I don't know how much time I get every week to actually write. I do it in bits and pieces and I'm going as fast as I possibly can. Except for the one hour I break in and play Ratchet:Deadlocked.

-T A