Chapter 8: Trapped
Pairing: Royai
Characters: Riza Hawkeye, Roy Mustang
Rating: M
Summary: An overheard conversation forces Riza and Roy to re-evaluate their relationship, and what it means for their family.

Set three days after chapter 6

Riza was in the women's locker room at Eastern Command, having just finished up an hour at the gun range. Roy was back in the office, claiming to do paperwork, but she knew the truth. He had spent the entirety of the last hour playing with Sophia.

The thought made Riza smile; their baby girl was spoiled rotten.

"I still can't believe what Lieutenant Hawkeye did." A voice from the other side of the lockers scoffed in disgust. It was someone Riza didn't recognize, most likely one of the newer secretaries. She highly doubted the woman even knew she was in there with her.

No one was stupid enough to talk about Riza behind her back with her knowingly in earshot.

"What do you mean?" A second unknown voice asked.

"She spread her legs open for Mustang, and what does she do? Gets herself knocked up and traps him with a kid." The first woman reminded her companion.

"Is she even sure it's his kid? You know what they say: Mother's baby, Father's maybe." A third woman joked.

Who the hell are these women? Riza thought with a grimace, remaining quiet and still. She wanted to know who these women were, and how many there were. So she kept her mouth shut until she heard names.

"Oh trust me- their kid looks just like him." The second woman said to the third.

"Which is probably the only reason why he hasn't demanded a blood test." The first one added, disgust lacing her voice.

"Can you believe they both claim that it had only been a one time thing?" The second woman asked her friends.

"Oh bullshit!" A fourth voice laughed. "It may or may not have been the first time she spread her legs open, but I'll bet all of you money she's been dropping to her knees for him since they returned from Ishval." She added.

"She's spent half of her career watching his back and the other half on her back." The first woman teased.

"Well if she has been, it's definitely not for promotions. She'd be a Major by now if that were the case." The first woman snorted.

"I honestly feel sorry for their daughter." A fifth woman said glumly.

"Why do you say that?" The second asked in disbelief.

"That baby girl has an uptight twat for a mom and a slut for a dad. God only knows how she's going to be twenty years from now." The woman answered.

"I don't even think God knows how many kids Mustang has running around Amestris. He sure as hell probably doesn't." The first woman laughed.

At this point in time, it was taking every ounce of strength Riza had in her not to take out her handgun and starting shooting these women. How dare they talk about her daughter!

"Honestly, the only reason why Mustang probably hasn't hauled ass is because Hawkeye is so terrifying. Hard to ditch a baby mama with the ability to shoot to kill." The fourth huffed.

"Not to mention Grumman is her Grandfather, and Mustang has been Grumman's little pet for years now. That's probably the only reason why Mustang puts up with Hawkeye's psycho attitude- with or without a baby to deal with." The fifth woman said.

Actually, the opposite was true. Grumman probably wouldn't give half a shit about Roy if it wasn't for how close he and Riza were.

"If Mustang has half a brain, he'll run for the hills." The third informed her friends.

"If he has half a heart, he'll take the kid when he runs." The second added.

"The sooner that Mustang realizes that the mistake of a daughter he has with Hawkeye has ruined his career, the better off his life will be." The first woman, the one who started the entire conversation, informed them.

Riza couldn't listen to anymore of this. Without making a sound, she quietly left the locker room.

It took every ounce of strength Riza had in her body to prevent herself from arriving at the office in tears.

And just as she suspected, there was Sophia, sitting on Roy's lap while she drooled on his State Alchemist watch, all of her Father's attention focused solely on her and not the foot high stack of paperwork shoved to the far corner of his desk.

"Hey look, Phia. There's mommy!" He cooed in her ear, pointing to Riza with a smile on his face at the sight of her walking through the door.

"Mama!" Sophia squealed, her arms out in front of her for Riza to pick her up.

"Hi Princess." Riza grinned, picking her baby up and holding her in her arms.

"How was the shooting range?" He asked her.

"Fine. Do you care if I head home early? I'm starting to get a headache." Riza lied. Her head was feeling perfectly fine, she just wanted to go home.

"Yeah, sure. Go ahead. You gonna take Sophia with you?" Roy asked.

"Mhm. You need to get your work done." Riza smirked at him, bending down to pick up the diaper bag off the floor.

"See you tonight." Roy told her, a smile on his face.

"Bye baby girl." He cooed to Sophia, kissing both of her cheeks, earning a loud laugh from her.

Without another word, Riza left the office, walking as fast as she could to the garage without attracting attention to herself. She sighed with relief when she got to her car, unlocking the door and putting Sophia in her car seat. Once she was in the drivers seat, Riza exhaled shakily.

What if those women were right? What if Sophia's existence has ruined Roy's career in the long run? What if he realized it one day, blamed her, and left them? Riza grew up without a Mother, she didn't want her own daughter to grow up without a Father. She could handle it if something happened to Roy and he died- but not if he woke up one day and decided "Hey, I don't want to be a parent anymore. Good luck finding me. Adios."

The worst part? Some of what those women were saying was true. Her and Roy had been in a sexual relationship since Ishval. Every time they were able to be alone together for more then ten minutes, Riza did, in fact, drop to her knees.

Oh course Roy gave as much as he got, but you wouldn't hear a group of catty bitches talking about that, now would you?

"Let's get home, sweetie. Mommy has had a very bad day today." Riza sighed, starting her car and driving home.

Roy knew something was wrong the moment he walked through the front door.

First sign that something was wrong? The tv wasn't blasting some random children's show for Sophia to babble and coo at.

Second sign that something was wrong? Riza was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a glass of red wine, the open bottle sitting in the center of the table. Riza never drank unless Sophia was being watched by someone else somewhere else.

"Where's Sophia?" Roy asked, walking towards her and leaning down to kiss the top of her head.

Sign number three that something was wrong? Riza moved her head to avoid the kiss.

"She's in her crib, sleeping." Riza answered. Roy looked at the clock. 7:30pm. Usually they didn't put Sophia down until after eight.

"Kinda early don't you think?" His response was a shrug from Riza's shoulders.

"Okay, what's wrong?" He asked, sitting down at the table.

"Nothing."

"Oh don't you dare give me that bullshit, Riza. We have known each other for a long time now. We both know when the other is upset." He scoffed.

"Now start talking." He ordered softly.

"It's stupid." Riza sighed.

"No it's not. Wanna know how I know that it's not stupid? Because whatever it is has clearly upset you. And stupid things don't upset you, Riza."

Riza looked at him, a small frown on her face. Would he even understand why what those women had said about her- about him, about their beautiful baby girl- behind their backs had upset her?

"I... I overheard some women in the locker room talking. And before you ask, I don't know who any of them were. I didn't recognize any of their voices, and none of them addressed each other by names." Riza sighed, picking up her glass of wine and finishing it.

"Okay. What'd they say?" Roy asked. The back of his mind was telling him that these women were more then likely talking shit, but he wanted to know what was said specifically.

"That I trapped you with a kid. That I've spent half of my military career either on my knees or on my back. That the only reason why you haven't demanded a paternity test is because Sophia looks like you- because you know what they say; mother's baby, father's maybe. They also feel sorry for Sophia, because who knows how she'll be as an adult with an uptight twat for a mom and a slut for a dad? That God himself doesn't even know how many kids you having running around the country." Riza scoffed, pouring herself a new glass of wine.

Roy sat there, staring at her in disbelief. If she was someone else- anyone else- he would think she was pulling those statements out of her ass.

"Oh trust me, it gets worst." Riza snorted, seeing the look on his face.

"How? How the hell could it get worst?"

"The sooner that Mustang realizes that the mistake of a daughter he has with Hawkeye has ruined his career, the better off his life will be." Riza sighed, deciding to give him a direct quote before chugging her wine.

"And do you want to know the worst part about all of that, Roy? Some of what they were saying is true. If you don't become Führer, it'll be both me and Sophia's fault. Mine for not being more careful and hers for existing." Riza sighed, looking down at the table.

"That has got to be the stupidest thing to ever be said in this relationship. Which is mind boggling since usually I'm the one that is saying the stupid shit." Roy snapped.

Riza looked up in surprise, her eyes wide as he stood up from the chair and paced around the kitchen.

"Whether I become Führer or not, did you honestly think for one millisecond that I would blame either of you if it didn't happen?" Roy scoffed.

Riza's silence and her inability to look him in the eye told him that her answer was, most unfortunately, yes.

"Why did you even let those women get away with what they were saying? A year ago you would've screamed at them- and depending on how your day had been going, you probably would've shot at them."

"A year ago neither of us had a child to think about!" Riza yelled back.

"Before Sophia was born, any... mishaps from either of us was swept under the rug. But because of her being here, we're both treading on thin ice."

"Do you regret making the decision to keep her?" He asked her.

"No! Why would you even think that?" She snapped, pushing the chair she was sitting in back to stand up.

"Well excuse me for getting that vibe from you!" Roy yelled back.

"If I didn't want her, she wouldn't be here!" Riza snarled.

Roy was about to remind her that they didn't even know she was pregnant until after Sophia had been born, the words on the tip of his tongue. But the mood in the room changed when they both heard the sounds of Sophia wailing, their argument having scared her awake.

Both parents immediately rushed to her room, where they found her sitting up in her crib and screaming, her hands bunched into fists and rubbing her eyes.

"Mama! Dada!" She wailed, letting out a cough between screams.

"Oh baby, come here." Riza cooed, picking Sophia up and stroking her hair.

"Honey, daddy and mommy are sorry. We didn't mean to scare you awake." Roy frowned, both of them kissing her and trying to calm her down.

"Sssh. You're okay, Sophia. It's okay." Riza hummed, rubbing her hand up and down her back.

"Hughes always made parenthood seem easy." Roy sighed. It wasn't easy for him to talk about his late best friend. Especially since he died before ever getting to know that Roy was going to be a dad. Hell, Maes was gone before Sophia had even been conceived.

"Did he ever specify which part was easy? Because this isn't easy, Roy." She scoffed, kissing Sophia's temple.

"No. He was probably laying it on thick so I could quote unquote "Hurry up and get myself a family of my own." He smirked.

"I do love you. You know that right?" He asked softly, worried she wouldn't believe him.

"Yes. And I love you too." Riza nodded, walking out of Sophia's room to go sit on the couch until their daughter fell back to sleep.

"Maybe we should... talk to someone? About our problems?" He suggested, rubbing the back of his neck.

"We can't, Roy." Riza sighed. Before he got a chance to argue with her, she explained her answer.

"Our options for talking to someone is either a person that knows us personally, thus giving us a biased opinion. Or someone that's connected to the military, thus keeping us from actually talking about our issues without risk of it getting to the higher ups. Which means all our issues would stay bottled up. Therapy isn't an option for us and our problems, Roy. Whether we go to individual or couples therapy."

"Yeah... you're right." He frowned, sitting down next to her.

"Where's Hayate?" Roy asked, realizing their dog hadn't greeted him upon entering their unofficially shared apartment.

Despite having a child together and Roy spending ninety percent of his free time here, he still had an apartment across the hall with some of his things in his name.

"He ran into the bedroom when we started arguing." Riza told him, exhaling when Sophia was finally back to sleep.

"I'll put her back down." Roy said, standing up before carefully taking Sophia out of her arms and walking out of the living room.

When he came back out, he sat on the couch and pulled her into his lap.

"I'm probably gonna regret the wine in the morning." She groaned, laying her head on his chest.

"Hey. Wanna go to bed?" He asked her, both of them knowing he didn't mean to sleep.

"Yes please." Riza smirked, a smile on her face as he stood up and walked to the bedroom.

"Hayate, out." They ordered the shiba inu, the door shutting as soon as the dog ran out into the hallway.

Riza woke up with a pounding headache and in an empty bed. Sitting up, she rubbed her forehead as she yawned, her inner thighs itching from the dried cum.

Where's Roy? Is he already at work? No... today's our day off. She thought, finally noticing the aspirin and the glass of water on the nightstand. God I love that man. She smiled, swallowing the pill and downing the water. Leaning over the edge of the bed, she picked her underwear and his button down off the floor, slipping both articles of clothing onto her body before climbing out of bed.

Riza was entering the living room right as Roy was walking through the front door, Sophia in her pajamas on one of his hips and the end of Hayate's leash in the other hand.

"Good morning." He said softly, careful not to raise his voice due to her guaranteed headache.

"Morning. How long have you been awake?" She asked.

"About..." he trailed off, looking at the clock on the wall. "Twenty minutes maybe. Sophia woke me up so I decided to take her and Hayate on a quick walk." He explained, bending down to unhook the leash and hang it back up.

"You're wonderful." She smiled, walking towards him to give him a hug.

"Are we okay?" He asked softly, his voice low in her ear.

"Yes. We're okay." She answered.

They both hoped she was correct.

I highly considered having this scene be in "Stars Can't Shine Without Darkness" before ultimately deciding it would fit better for this series of stories.