AN: Hope you enjoy! (Small Reminder: The Ishval war never happened in this little world of mine, so Roy didn't burn Riza's back here.)
No Man's Land
Riza sighed in contentment, her husband's hands knew exactly where to hit or knead her stiff back and help her relax. "There," she murmured, drifting along the lines of unconsciousness.
Roy smirked as he leaned down, pressing a firm kiss on her exposed shoulder. In exchange for her request to get a massage, he asked her to take her shirt off.
When his lips ascended to the back of her neck, Riza twisted her head to look at him. "I'm starting to think you're getting more out of our deal than I am." She had no qualms being bare from the waist up, laying stomach down on their bed like she was, as long as he massaged her like he promised.
"I doubt it." He kissed her temple. If it were his wants to take precedence, he'd have had her moaning his name by now. Weekends were the best.
"Later." Ed and Al developed the habit of checking for unlocked doors and barging in to locate either of them. "I unlocked the door when I woke up," she reminded him.
"Okay, where else?"
She rolled her shoulders back and winced. "Right shoulder."
"Hmm." His hands trailed the spot in question and he rolled his knuckles over it, eliciting a groan from Riza. He frowned. Truth be told, for Riza to ask for a massage meant she'd reached her pain/annoyance threshold a long time ago. In the office, he noticed her bending her back farther than normal or punching the juncture of her neck and shoulder when she thought no one was looking. "Have you not been sleeping well?"
"Just been waking up wrong, I think." She rolled her shoulders back again and this time, a slim smile appeared on her lips. "All good. Thank you."
Roy eased away from her and sat on the corner of their bed, eyes tracking Riza's movements as she wrapped the blanket around her. "The boys got any plans today?"
"They told me they'd meet with Winry." She brought all her hair in front of her and attempted a braid, the blanket barely holding up against her chest. "Not sure what time."
"Still using Al as a shield, huh?" He huffed. "I guess I would too… Izumi and Sig," he shook his head, thinking about the couple who adopted the blonde girl, "intimidating, to say the least. If they knew about Ed's little - "
"Oh, Izumi knows." When Roy stared at her like she'd grown a second nose, she smiled. "What do you think PTA meetings are for?"
"I don't think about them," he admitted. After the debacle with the McFarlands when Ed and Al first moved in with them, Roy had sworn off being friends with any of the other parents. They made a deal, like many of the others they've had since adopting, that Riza would attend PTA meetings and Roy would be in-charge of claiming the boys' report cards.
"Huh. Fair enough." With her hair in a somewhat-decent braid, she grabbed him by the collar and pushed his back against their headboard. A soundless gasp escaped him at the sudden yet welcome force. She smirked when she settled on his lap, his hands finding solace on her hips to steady her.
Her amber eyes seemed to glow brighter in Roy's point of view and he dared to look down at her now-bare body staring back at him.
The blanket she used to wrap around herself earlier had oh-so-tastefully dropped behind her, taking his capacity to speak down with it. His wife miraculously managed to keep things up after all these years, not that it mattered much, but it sure helped in making him quiet and pliant. He was certain she knew that.
Riza lowered her shoulders to lean down towards him, placing a chaste but rooted kiss against his lips.
"Hey, mom, we're -"
Her back stiffened at the sound of the door swinging open and the voice that came with it. With a gulp, she grabbed the blanket to cover her body again despite knowing it was a futile attempt.
Turning to look at her sons by the doorway only confirmed what she already knew. They saw it.
Al had a look of abject terror on his face while Ed, with his fist shaking against the doorknob, looked ready to strangle Roy at any second. "How could you do that to her?!"
"Boys…"
The door slammed shut.
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"Shit, shit…" Riza paced their living room, fully clothed this time, with her hands on her hips. "Shit." How could she forget? She was the one who reminded Roy about the door being unlocked, yet she was the one careless enough to forget!
Roy, from his seat on the sofa, would normally find the sight entertaining but her reaction was completely valid. They never counted on the boys discovering Riza's tattoo, at least not until they were buried underground and by then, it would have been too late to ask questions.
Now the boys not only saw her tattoo, but also thought he was the one responsible for it.
He grimaced. Ed's hypothesis wasn't completely off-kilter. Any clever person who has seen his gloves enough could easily deduce they match Riza's back… and to call the Elric boys 'clever' was an understatement. "Maybe it was about time they knew?"
Riza halted at his murmuring. "Discovering Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy are fake… those are things that in time, it's good they already knew, or even where babies come from…" She raised a hand to gesture and wave at her back. "Not this, Roy."
After cracking his knuckles as if warming up for a full day of paperwork, he tugged at the hem of her shirt. "Okay, we can't lose our heads now. The boys are still bound to come home tonight." They had a curfew and no matter what happened, much to the relief of the Mustangs, the Elrics followed it.
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"'No secrets in the family', my ass!" Ed stomped on the ground and kicked a nearby rock out of the way.
"Brother, maybe there's another reason why…"
"Why what, Al? Why Mustang's notes are all over mom's back?!"
"We don't know those are his notes…" he said weakly, betraying what he truly believed, eyes down on the ground as they continued their trek to the Curtis residence. Not too long ago, they asked their pop to teach them the secrets to Flame Alchemy and it had been a quick, definite, and resounding 'no' from both parents.
At first, Ed protested and argued they could figure it out and their pop told them he didn't doubt they could, but it was 'dangerous to learn'. He then pushed them into focusing their attention on circle-less alchemy, Izumi Curtis' expertise, since the woman had gracefully accepted them as students and promised to let them in on her secret if they proved themselves worthy of it.
Eventually, talk of Flame Alchemy and its secrets vanished as the boys got excited about the prospect of earning their teacher's trust enough for her to give them her secrets… until today. Ed realized the secrets of Flame Alchemy were only 'dangerous' because their arrogant and sadistic adopter tattooed them all over his wife! It was dangerous for his career, not for anything else.
"Brother…"
Al's whine snapped Ed back to where they were.
"Should we tell Winry?" If anything, Winry should be able to calm down Ed and help them think of a more logical, if not practical, solution that didn't involve punching or kicking their pop.
The older Elric stopped in his tracks, the Curtis Meats store looming up ahead. He wanted Roy to pay for what he did but the teen also knew their mother would willingly suffer alongside him in the process. "Come on." He grabbed hold of Al's forearm and pulled him across the street, away from their initial destination.
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"Thank you," murmured Riza before putting the phone back in its cradle. "They didn't go to Izumi's today… but Winry said they're most likely in the park near the docks if 'something bad'happened."
"Tsk. Alri - " The sound of the front door opening and locks clicking back in place stopped him.
"Boys," greeted Riza, no small amount of relief washing over her features. They still came home. And on time for their curfew.
"Al and I…" there was a beat before Ed forced out the word, "talked."
"Mm-hmm." Her amber eyes raked their forms, taking in their messed up hair, bruised cheeks and fists, and dirt on their clothes. "Why don't you two shower then we can all talk?"
The boys complied while Riza settled herself onto one of the chairs around their kitchen counter. She had to compose herself lest this spirals further out of control.
Roy walked up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. They hashed it all out earlier, going back and forth on what and how to reveal the tattoo's origins until they ultimately decided the boys could use the full truth.
Fresh from the shower and both in clean clothes, the two teenagers piled around the kitchen counter across the couple.
Riza's back straightened, her posture not unlike how she presented herself during military presentations. "No secrets in the family." Secrets caused a rift between her father and society, and they were what drove him to tattoo the cursed/blessed thing on her back. "We haven't kept up our end of the deal. So this hopefully rectifies that."
She cleared her throat before continuing, knowing Roy was intently watching from behind her. "Berthold Hawkeye. That's the name of my father." She realized she'd never said his name out loud to them before, and at the same time acknowledged there was no other way out of this topic but through. "I told you he was the one that developed flame alchemy."
Ed's fists shook. "You told us he taught Mustang."
"He did." She moved her head to force Ed to meet her gaze from across the counter. "He taught the basics, but I believe I also told you Roy learned everything on his own. The formula and secrets were already… perfected when -"
Riza felt her husband's warmth disappear and she twisted in her seat, grabbing hold of his hand. "For the last time," her voice went up so loud it made the boys jump in their seats, "you didn't use me. I chose this."
She knew. She knew Roy hadn't truly come to terms with the fact his teacher, her own father, would do something as cruel as that to her. She knew he felt guilt for what he believed was 'taking advantage' of her when she showed him her back.
She assured him every time that he need not feel guilty, that she wanted him to have Flame Alchemy and he earned the secrets when decoded it himself; but of course with his tendency to self-blame, it never got through.
Roy turned his face away. "I'll let you finish this conversation."
She gripped his hand tighter and pulled him back to her. "We need to finish this conversation."
Al stared at his pop with the downcast eyes and pursed lips. That wasn't the face of a man who was so proud of his alchemy secrets he felt the need to tattoo them on someone.
Using enough force often reserved for when she needed to manhandle him, Riza tugged him to take a seat beside her. "The formula and secrets were already perfected when I showed Roy." She decidedly kept her hand in his, partly to keep him seated and partly to keep them both emotionally steady. "This was years after the tattoo dried, by the way. I showed it to him and he figured out the secrets on his own."
Al then snuck a glance at his brother only to find Ed was already scowling at him. When they fought this afternoon, Al insisted they had to first know the reason for the tattoo before freaking out and it turned out he was right.
The brothers' silent exchange was not lost on Riza. She ran her thumb across Roy's hand.
"If the secrets to Flame Alchemy had been there all this time, why is it dangerous to learn?"
"I lost count how many times your father almost burned down my previous home while practicing. You are not doing that here."
"Yeah, but that was before his notes on how to decode it…" As far as Ed was concerned, with Mustang's notes on decoding the tattoo and the tattoo itself on Riza's back, it would be a piece of cake to get over the trial and error stage of mastering the craft.
Roy grumbled, "He thinks I have notes," almost spitting out the last word.
"You don't have notes?" asked Al.
"Of course not!"
Riza yanked his hand at the outburst.
He cleared his throat, getting back in his seat, hand still nestled against Riza's. "No, Al, I don't have notes."
At the Elrics' incredulous stares, Riza said, "We agreed to let Flame Alchemy die with us."
"What the hell have you been writing on those notebooks of yours, then?" asked Ed. They weren't blind. Roy always had one on him like any typical alchemist.
"Information, or… Which people to approach with what kind of information." He and his team were playing the long game, after all, he had to be sure of who to let in on the loop. He ran his free hand through his hair. "Everything tangible related to Flame Alchemy was burned down or with your mother." He paused, memories of the Hawkeye house going up in flames he caused washing over him. Riza asked him to do it shortly after she agreed to marry him.
Sensing where Roy's flow of thought was going, she piped in, "You see, I asked Roy to burn my home and we left the notes and books related to my father's life work in there." She shrugged. "No going back." At that time, seeing the house burn through the same flames her late father developed was cathartic for her. If she was honest though, she'd admit to it being one of her favorite memories.
At that, Al smiled at her. "Thank you for telling us." An evil dead grandfather was a whole lot better of a reason than their pop being the cause of their mom's pain.
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Ed idly sat on the living room couch until he was sure Al had already retired for the night.
"Lights out goes for you too, Ed. You promised to visit Mrs. Curtis first thing tomorrow."
"Hey, mom?" A gentle hand landed on the top of his head, a sign she was listening. "Why was he bummed? It wasn't his back that got tortured."
She took a seat beside him. "Roy hates what my father did to me." Letting out a slow exhale, she continued, "The tattoo is large and incredibly intricate. Can you imagine it being placed on a young child?"
"But you're okay now?"
"I am okay now, yes." She has come to terms with it, that the thing on her back was both a curse and a blessing.
"And he benefited from it."
Her eyes narrowed at the fireplace. "I think he hates that more sometimes?" She clicked her tongue. "Roy is ambitious and bless his soul, he means well, but Maes is right he won't get anywhere with him being soft on someone's feelings. I almost had to beg him to decipher it. I wanted him to have it." She bumped her shoulder against Ed's. "I'm a big girl. I knew -"
"Yeah, yeah," interrupted the teen, finger digging into his ear. He's heard this one before. "You know what you're doing."
AN: I honestly don't know if I'm capable of ending chapters properly lol. Sending love xx
'Til next time!