Heir to the Flame

Chapter 20: Naming Contest

Six months later

Roy was sleeping on his back, his little son sleeping on his chest, his chest rising slowly up and down. Riza peeked into the room and smiled, pushing the door open all the way. Roy Junior opened his small eyes and squirmed on Roy's chest, whining and scrabbling around, and Roy grunted, opened one eye, and glanced at Riza.

"Figures he would start squirming when you're around," he murmured, lifting the baby off of his chest and giving him to Riza."And what were you doing?" she asked. "Father-Son bonding time?" she asked, nursing the baby.

"You could say that," Roy yawned, stretching out on the bed. "I heard Fullmetal is back in town today... Guess that means I have to see his report. Are you coming to work?"

"No... your mother says I'm not quite ready to get back to work."

"Ah yeah... I forgot. Can I take Junior to work with me?" he asked.

"He's not a toy, Roy!"

"I know! But if you come to work and at the same time I'm bringing a kid to work, they'll get suspicious, you know?"

"Oh... I... guess so..." she said reluctantly, looking down at the baby on her breast. She didn't want to let him go, but in this case... "You go get ready... I'll give him to you after that."

Roy nodded and headed towards the shower, but stopped in the doorway. "Riza."

She looked up from the baby. "Yes?"

"I know you don't... want to let him go... but I..." he wasn't very sure how he could put this in words. "I know you want to keep him, and I'm not trying to... distance him or anything, okay? Uuumm... yeah, that's all I wanted to say." He ducked back into the bathroom. It wasn't a very good explanation, but how could you explain a feeling?

She laughed softly to herself and laid back on the bed with her baby. Men. "Just can't express their feelings..." Junior squirmed again and she lifted him up into the air. "And what do you want, hmmm?" She put him down on the bed where Roy had been lying a few minutes before and the baby's hand went under the pillow and retrieved something.

A glove.

"What! Roy!"

"Yeah?" he called from the shower.

"Do you wear your gloves to bed?"

"Sometimes, if I forget. Most of the time they go-"

"Under the pillow?"

"Yep, how'd you know that?"

"I didn't, Junior does though..."

Roy yelped from the bathroom and bolted out, a towel around his waist, saw his son with a flame glove, and jumped into action. He took the glove from his son, which was the obvious thing to do, but he didn't expect Junior's reaction. Roy Junior started to cry!

From Roy's memory, Junior hadn't cried since the day he was born, and this was certainly something that was new to him. From Riza's memory, however, Junior cried when he wanted something. Usually to be fed because he would whine constantly if he wanted to be changed. These two things usually occured when Roy was at work, so... she picked him up and tried to feed him, but he refused and kept crying.

After a while she became frustrated and wanted to cry as well. Why couldn't she figure out what was wrong? Roy, however, seemed to have and was smiling, propping his elbow on the bed, chin in his hand. "How long are you going to cry, Junior?" He wiped some tears out of the baby's eyes and Junior hiccuped, having cried himself out. Then he reached his little arms out for the gloves. Roy feigned surprise. "What? You wanted these?" he teased, holding them in front of Junior, but just out of reach. Junior reached a little further and Roy let him have them.

The baby cooed and played with them happily. "Just as long as he doesn't set fire to something..." Roy sighed. He kissed Junior's forehead and the baby giggled, touching his face with his hands. The phone started to ring and Roy stared at it. After the third ring he decided it must be serious and picked up to hear a breathless Jean.

"Keira gave birth a while ago and I've been meaning to tell you...! It's a girl, and she's okay, and Keira's okay, and... and..."

"Whoa, whoa, calm down, Jean. Have you called Maes yet?"

"Are you kidding? I'm not calling him for another hour or so, I want some time for myself. She's, she's... aaawww... she's so cute... looks like me though..." Jean sighed into the phone.

"Are you sure that's classified as 'cute', Jean?"

"YES! I mean, she looks a little like me, same hair, same eye color, but other than that, and the nose, she looks like her mom."

"Half a month behind Junior then, and about a year behind Elysia. Elysia's about a year old by now, isn't she?"

"Yeah, Maes'll be dragging us to the birthday party any time now."

"Well, I'll be bringing Junior to work today... I want to see a picture of your daughter, Jean, so bring one."

"Okay okay, I'll bring one. Keira wants me to go to work anyway... even if I don't want to." Jean hung up the phone and Roy looked at Riza.

"Keira and Jean had a baby girl."

"Awww... I want a baby girl next... maybe... if you want to have more..."

Roy shrugged. "We'll see how this goes first," he said, noncommitally.

"Okay... now shouldn't you be getting ready?"

He pulled off the towel and put on his clothes while Riza changed Junior, though he protested quite loudly, and put him into the baby outfit that said 'Fear the Flame' across the chest. Junior settled down, once deciding that he liked the feel of the outfit, and permitted Roy to pick him up.

"Now, change him when he starts whining; there are bottles and diapers in the pack, and if he starts to cry, feed him." Roy nodded. "But what if he starts crying for you, Riza?"

Riza hesitated and then whistled to Black Hayate. Black Hayate bounded up to her and sniffed the baby, wagging his tail and licking the baby's face. Junior giggled and petted Black Hayate's head. "Take Black Hayate with you, that should keep his attention." Roy looked at her sadly. "Okay... you'll be okay?"

She nodded slowly. "I guess so..."

"Alright. Well, it's only for a few hours, and I'll try to bring him back around lunchtime so you can see him too." He bent down and kissed her good-bye, and gave Junior to her to be kissed good-bye as well before he put the pack on his back, strapped Junior into a baby seat, and drove to work.

Roy was being extra careful on the road, not something, Jean testified, that Roy did very often. Especially when Jean happened to be in it, it was a wreck waiting to happen.

At work, Roy got odd looks from the staff at the baby in his arms. When questioned about Junior, he simply said, "Roy Junior. Isn't he cute?" and kept walking, humming a tune under his breath to keep the baby calm, Black Hayate trotting at his heels.

One of the staff pointed to Hayate, asking if that was the First Lieutenant's dog. He replied that it was; she was on maternity leave, if anyone remembered, and had requested that he take care of her dog for her. He headed straight for his office, got inside, and shut the door, heart pounding in his ears.

So far so good. Junior had been relatively quiet, content with playing with Roy's gloves. Just so long as he didn't stick them in his mouth, but Junior seemed to know better. Havoc checked in not five minutes after he did and made a beeline for the office. He showed pictures of his newly born daughter proudly, and Roy had to admit she was cute. Then he had an idea.

"Roy."

Junior looked up, more accustomed to being called 'Roy' rather than 'Junior'. Roy had to admit it was rather odd to be saying his own name aloud.

He picked up Junior and he squirmed some more. "You see him, Junior?" he pointed to Havoc. Junior looked from Roy, to Havoc, and his gaze stayed on Havoc.

"Havoc."

The baby squinted his eyes and looked back at Roy. "H-..."

"Havoc..."

"H-H...aaaa...v..o?"

"Almost, almost. Havoc. One more time, try it."

"Havo...c?"

"Yes, yes! Once more."

"Havoc?"

"Yes! Good boy!"

Junior pointed to Jean. "Havoc?" Roy nodded and Junior looked up at him, a smirk creeping onto his face. "Havoc!" Jean stared at Junior incredulously. "Look at him! He's even copied your expression, Roy! Look! He's got your smirk!" Roy leaned back in his seat, thinking of what kind of devestation he could do with his son's new found skill. An evil smirk crawled onto his face as an idea popped into his head.

"Put up a notice among my subordinates, Havoc. Tell them to all be stationed here in my office in two weeks from today."

"Two weeks from today at the same time?"

"Yep. That includes Fullmetal and Alphonse."

"If you say so..."

"Tell Fullmetal he just got a two week extension on his report."

"Yes Sir."

Two weeks later, all of Roy's subordinates were lined up in his office, wondering why on earth they were here. Junior was sitting on Roy's lap, trying to look over the desk at what was happening.

"I think you're wondering why I assembled you all here today..." There were murmurs of agreement and a rather loud one from Ed.

"I've just finished teaching Junior here how to say your names!"

"Yea, but I doubt he can actually recognize anyone. He can't be that smart, especially if he has your genes..." Ed grumbled, and Roy shot him a look. Oh, he would have his revenge, yesssss... Junior of course, didn't look up while he was being referred to as Junior.

Roy got up and put Junior on the floor, near the desk so he could support himself on it. He squatted down to his son's level. "Okay Roy, what am I?" he asked, pointing to himself.

"Daddy!"

"Good boy..."

"Any kid can recognize his parent, get it over with already!" Ed moaned, and Roy shot him a nasty look, which Junior copied and threw at Ed as well. Ed was at the end of the line. Junior had preoccupied himself with staring at Roy's gloves and Roy smiled.

"Roy."

He looked up. "Who's that?" he pointed to Breda and Junior squinted at him, studying him up and down. "Bre-da!"

The group ooohed.

Next Roy pointed to Fuery, which took Junior a bit longer. "F-F... Fue... ry? Fuery?" He looked at Roy again and Roy nodded. "Fuery," he said happily. Next was Vato, who was standing next to Havoc, which wasn't the best of positions, since they looked almost the same from a baby's perspective. Roy decided to test his son, he was already exhibiting above average intelligence, why not see how much above?

Junior scowled, looking like a very confused Roy, and Alphonse couldn't help but laugh a little while Ed just huffed and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Go on, Roy, you can do it," Roy encouraged Junior. Junior scowled again.

"F...F..." Falman also happened to be standing next to Fuery, two F's in a row. Increasingly confusing.

"Fal...Falman."

"Good, good..."

"And Havoc!"

"Good work, now, the shrimp over there," Roy grinned, pointing to Ed. Junior frowned, but it was soon replaced by a smirk. A smirk that Ed didn't like and was all to familiar with.

Then he shrugged and lifted a hand to point rather unsteadily at Al. "Kitty-san!"

Roy nodded and Junior's finger swung back to Ed, the smirk creeping back onto his face.

"BEAN!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ed screamed.