HEIR TO THE FLAME

CHAPTER 21:

"Elysia's a year old now!" Maes sang, hearts popping out around his head, and Roy groaned, trying to keep his fingers under control. Junior laughed out loud and grabbed his fingers with both hands, trying to keep them still. Roy used his other hand to stroke Junior's head; five bitten fingers and a punch in the nose told him that Junior didn't like to be patted.

"When's the party, Maes..." Riza had come back to work now, under the story that she had had a miscarriage, and she was doing a good job of acting depressed. Then again, maybe she wasn't acting, Roy thought, she might just be sad that she can't have any motherly contact with Junior...

He felt sorry for her, but as soon as they got home everyday she would swipe Junior out of his arms and go cuddle with him somewhere. At the moment, Riza was standing behind Roy's chair, looking over his shoulder to see if he was doing his paperwork. It had taken a lot of work to convince Junior not to call Riza 'Momma' while they were at work, and he knew it pained her to have Junior call her 'Riza', but it was necessary. He wished that Junior looked like his mother instead of him, that way, Riza could have time with Junior.

"Next week's the party, and you're all invited! I've invited the whole office!"

Roy put his cheek in his hand. "I'm surprised you didn't invite the whole world, Maes..." he grumbled, and Riza interjected, saying that he should really finish his work. She took some paper from his desk and a few crayons she had brought from home and gave them to Junior, and the baby lay on his belly on the floor trying to draw Black Hayate, his mother's beloved dog.

Black Hayate sat on the floor patiently, his head resting on his paw, waiting for Roy Junior to finish drawing his picture. Roy wasn't expecting a work of art, but he wasn't expecting it to look like a dog either. It was passable, he supposed, as Junior held it up for his examination. Then Ed busted down the door for the second time that month, and Junior looked up again.

"Bean Nii-San!" he cried out, running over to Ed. Ed fumed inside and directed a glare over to Roy, who shrugged and looked at him innocently. "What? I can't stop him now that that's what he's identified you as. Besides, I did you a favor and told him to add 'Nii-San' on the end."

Ed sighed again and patted Junior's back, and Junior pulled away to jump on Al. "Kitty-San!"

Roy laughed at his son's antics; Junior loved to pounce on people and shout their names, and his subordinates adored the little eight month old.

Junior had already started to walk, with undying encouragement from Roy. Riza muttered darkly when he said he was going to teach Junior to walk so early, calling him a 'Baby Slave-Driver', but she later gave her permission and completely melted when Roy finally got Junior to walk without assistance. Riza was hard at work trying to increase Junior's baby vocabulary, which wasn't so hard since he soaked up words like a sponge. This meant that Roy had to be extra careful about his language when his son was near.

Eight months and he was running around already; Roy didn't think Elysia could walk steadily yet! Oh, Maes was jealous, jealous out of his mind, but how could you be jealous of Roy Junior? Maes was very fond of him, being his Godfather and all. It had been an agreement between the two of them, when they had children they would name each other the Godfathers, and Havoc was backup.

Al bent down and retrieved a kitten from his suit of armor, giving it to Roy Junior. "There, now you have your own little pet; and a kitty can finally have a good home!" he would have poked his tongue out at Ed if he had one. Junior was delighted with the little black kitten and cuddled it. Riza practically glowed behind Roy's desk but he nudged her gently and her face became expressionless again. Just to be fair, Roy decided to be expressionless as well.

"Roy, you have to take good care of that kitty, okay?"

"Kitty! From Kitty-San!" Junior seemed not to have heard him. Roy wasn't sure he was old enough to be taking care of a pet, so the responsibility would probably fall to him.

"What are you going to call the kitten?" Riza asked. Junior frowned and looked around, and Roy pouted. He listened to his mother, but not so much him. Junior shrugged. "Don't know."

"How about Belcini?" Al suggested. He had always wanted to name a cat Belcini, but his demonic older brother would never let him keep one. Junior nodded happily and the kitten meowed. Roy got up from his desk, his chair slipping back and hitting the wall. "Lunch time, Junior, let's go." Junior gave him a wrathful look. "I'm Roy!" he declared, putting his kitten down into Roy's paper tray, which was blissfully empty. Roy picked him up. "No, I'm Roy."

"You're Daddy!"

"But I'm Roy too."

"No, I'm Roy!"

"You're little Roy."

"Just Roy."

"I'm 'just Roy', you're Roy Junior."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Waaaah... no fair."

"Life's not fair, kiddo."

Roy carried him off to the mess hall, where he was greeted by Havoc and Maes.

"I thought you'd be going home for lunch, Jean?"

Jean shrugged and smiled. "Keira said she's tired, so I decided not to bother her and leave her and Luna some time for themselves. I'm going to take it slow with Luna, she'll walk when Keira says she's ready. She's so cuuuuuute... She looks like her mommy... and a bit like me, only my hair color, my eye color, and my nose, unfortunately."

"Ah, that's not so bad..."

"Hey, has anyone seen Armstrong around? I hear he got transferred here for a bit," Roy said, and Junior wiggled around in his arms. "Uncle Sparkly Teddy-Bear!" he sang, and Roy's eye twitched. "Don't ask me how he got the Teddy-Bear part, I honestly have no idea," Roy said as the others started to look at him strangely.

"He looks likea big teddy-bear!" Junior said indignantly.

"Really...?" Roy said, disbelievingly as he sat down at the table. He usually brought lunch from home now, or rather, Riza packed him lunch; he just carried it to work. He sat Junior on his lap and sighed getting a bottle of baby food. Then he excused himself and went to the bathroom, leaving Riza to put spoonfuls of food into Junior's mouth. They all took turns, but Riza took the most joy in feeding Junior. Roy came back in an old shirt and pants (they had holes in them!), and picked the spoon from Riza. Junior clamped his mouth shut and turned away, and Roy persisted in trying to feed him. "One," Riza said, and Roy looked at her strangely. He kept the bottle down and Junior quickly snatched it. "Two." He looked at her again, what on earth was the woman counting for?

As his head was turned towards her, she said, "Three," and ducked under the table. Junior cried out loudly and Roy's head swung back around just in time to have baby food thrown into his face, with a triumphant Junior still holding the bottle.

"Food on Daddy!" he said happily, and Ed suppressed a snigger. He was beginning to like the kid. Riza walked around to the other side of the table, sitting between Junior and Roy, and took out a cloth and wiped Roy's face.

"I warned you," she said, and Roy grumbled something, squinting as she wiped it out his eyes. "How come he doesn't toss it on you?" he asked, and she leaned forward near his ear. "Because I'm Mommy," she whispered, and he grunted sourly. Everyone's heads were turned the other way to watch an ensuing food fight between Armstrong, who had just appeared, and Hughes, and she kissed him quickly, but not quick enough to escape from Ed.

"OOOOH, they're kissing!" he howled, and Roy and Riza pulled apart, but Roy seemed to have forgotten to remove his arm from Riza's waist. She plucked it off of her and they both directed glares at Ed, which was copied by Junior, who soon became confused as to which he should copy. Jean's hand clapped down on Ed's mouth from behind. "It's a secret, dimwit, you need to keep quiet!"

Ed shrieked an indignant 'Why? The colonel's an arrogant-' before being cut off by Havoc's hand tightening against his jaw. "Becaaaaause... if the higher ups find out, they'll seperate them and God knows what'll happen to Mini-Roy over there," he said, gesturing to the helpless baby who was sitting in Roy's lap again and playing with his fingers, remarking how big they were. Roy seemed to have forgiven Junior for the babyfood, and had gone to sleep on the table. Riza sighed and poked his shoulder. "Wake up, Colonel." Roy muttered something and buried his head in his arms.

"Wake up," she said. He turned his head the other way.

"Roy, wake up," she whispered in his ear, and he groaned.

"Not with the way you work me over at night; I don't have any energy left."

Riza blushed and Jean and the others raised eyebrows at her. "Get up, there's a general heading this way!" she hissed, and Roy's head shot up out of his arms, looking around wildly. Then he stopped. "Oh, good morning, Brigadier General Grummon..." Roy saluted wearily. Junior bounced up and down on his seat.

"Grampa!" Riza picked up Junior and told him to say it quietly, and Junior lowered his voice. Grummon picked up the baby and grinned, letting Junior play with his moustache. "Well, how's my great grandson, hmmm? Oww, ow ow ow, don't pull too hard! And my little granddaughter, how are you?"

"I'm fine, Grandpa... have you seen Dad in the area?"

"Once or twice perhaps, but he looks preoccupied, like he's got something on his mind."

"I see... where did you see him?"

"Outside the park, a couple times, sometimes down near the lake."

"Okay... Roy looks like he's getting lonely, why don't you give Junior back to him?"

The general nodded, handing Junior back to a fidgety Roy. "Looks just like his father; I'd be careful around them, Riza. People might suspect."

"I know, but I said I had a miscarriage, and well... you know Roy's reputation as a womanizer..."

"Mm-hmm... it's a pretty good alibi, I'll admit, now why don't you go see your father?"

"Is he outside?"

"Last time I checked, which couldn't have been more than ten minutes ago. He can't have gone too far."

"Alright, I'll go see..."

"I wanna come, I wanna come!" Junior shrieked, jumping off of Roy's lap and onto the ground. Black Hayate quirked an ear and followed close behind the baby, and Riza lead them outside to find her father.