Shorter chapter this time! A little bit of world building and filling in some gaps. Nothing too crazy in this chapter.

"Hey, Mom, you busy?"

Winry looked up from the magazine she'd been reading. It was early afternoon on a Saturday, but she was done with clients for the day. Ed was down in the shop stress-testing their newest knee joint prototype and the rest of the kids were out either out with friends or, in the case of their two oldest, at their jobs. She'd planned to spend the rest of the afternoon kicking back. "Sure, Erich, what do you need?" Winry sat up from her spot on the sofa, patting the cushion next to her.

Erich, their middle child, flopped down on the seat. "Got a history project for school I need help with," he said, opening his notebook on the coffee table.

"History, huh? Need to write something up for the military coup?" Despite it being nearly 20 years ago, the military uprising tied to the Promised Day was a popular topic in the schools, as she and Ed had discovered when seven-year-old Xander had brought home history textbook and showed them a picture of Ed from his military days.

Her son shifted, looking mildly uncomfortable. "No, we, uh-" Erich glanced around. "Is it just us in here?"

Winry frowned. "Yes. Why?" He wasn't normally this secretive.

Erich sighed and pulled out a pen. "I need to do a family tree."

Oh. Winry shifted forward. She and Ed had told Erich and the older kids the full truth about their past and ties to military, but the youngest were still too young to have that information dumped on them. "It should be just us for a while. How far back do you need to go?"

"Great-grandparents, but they want occupations and hometowns, too."

Well, shit. If they only needed to go to grandparents, they could have fudged it well enough. Winry took the pen he offered her. "Alright, let's work from the bottom up, then."

There was Erich and his four siblings. Then her and Ed. A line for Al. Then their parents- Yuriy, Sarah, Trisha, and Hohenheim. Then Pinako.

Then it got sparse. Winry knew Pinako had married, but her husband had died before Winry was born. They had both been automail mechanics. The same went for Sarah's parents- both drafted into a war and killed in combat before the turn of the century. Both from Resembool, and had been farmers. Sarah had two brothers, who moved out of the east, but neither had married or had any children.

Trisha's parents had been shepherds. They had died before Trisha, their only child, had even been married and later been forced to sell off all the farm land with the exception of the home. Pinako had been the only one to have known them, and as far as Winry knew, there weren't any photos of either of them.

And then there was Hohenheim. Winry sighed. Lying about his occupation ("researcher" was technically true) was easy enough, but any parentage was out the window. Hohenheim certainly hadn't known, and there was no way to find out now.

"We could just say unknown?" she offered.

Erich finished scrawling shepherd under Trisha's father's name. "We have to present it, talk about our heritage or whatever." He paused. "I guess I shouldn't mention Xerxes?"

"Better not. I don't think you want to try to explain that." It had been hard enough to explain the Elric side of the family tree to the kids, even with all the evidence and the full story around it. "Your father's been going with the story he was orphaned and we just don't know his parents." It wasn't too unusual, especially given Amestris's history with wars. She'd learned from a client that a common joke in Creta was that orphans were Amestris's top export.

It was a shitty joke, but it was probably true on some level.

"Okay, I'll use the orphan story. I'll say he's from East City."

Winry hummed in agreement. From below, there was the sound of something falling over, followed by Ed swearing loudly. Erich didn't even pause in his writing; he was far too used to things like that.

"I'll save a copy of this," he said, connecting Pinako and her husband with a dotted line. "If Addy or Edith have Mr. Stoll for history, he'll probably assign this again."

The door to their first-floor shop swung open and Ed limped in, one hand on the wall. Winry and Erich both looked up. Ed paused in the doorway to living room. "Found the weight load for the joint," he said, gesturing down at his left leg. "What're you two working on?"

"Homework," Erich replied. "History assignment."

Ed made a face. "Do you need my help?" His tone held a very clear please don't ask me to give another speech in your history class plea.

Erich shook his head, straightening the papers. "Nah, Mom got it all. I just need to go clean it up." He stood up and ducked out the living room. "Thanks, Mom!"

I made up almost all of this family tree. We get some info for Pinako but all the other relatives aren't ever really touched on. So I had some fun putting all this together and tossing some historic worldbuilding. Also I don't actually know much about doing family trees. I did one when I was like 10.

Also, ending chapters is hard. One day I'll learn how to do it.