Chapter Twenty-Six
"Ed!" Julia called out to wake up her girlfriend. "Ed, Cori! Come on!"
Ed let out a groan as she crawled out of bed. Julia wasn't in their room so Ed could only assume she was in the kitchen cooking. The first thing Ed did when leaving their room was head to Cori's room.
They had adopted twelve-year-old Corinna from Ishval two months after Alphonse and Winry had Maddie. Winry would call all the time and tell Ed what little things Maddie had done, and Julia had already been working Ed to try and start a family. So, the two had gone to Ishval and organized an interview with Corinna. They stayed in Ishval until the adoption was finalized and finally returned to Creta.
"You up, Cori?" Ed asked, though she could clearly see that her daughter was not. Her daughter. How weird did that sound? Cori was curled into bed with a notebook by her side. After doodling on every napkin and scrap paper she could find, Ed had gone out and bought her a sketch book. That was the book currently beside her. Ed gave a happy sigh before going to the kitchen.
"Is she up?" Julia asked as she set the table for breakfast.
"Nope," Ed answered. "She's sleeping with that sketch book again. I bet she was up all night doodling in that thing."
"Well, they do say artistic people stay up later in the night," Julia commented.
"Who the hell is they?" Ed asked. She leaned against the kitchen counter to watch her girlfriend bustle around the kitchen. "Holy shit, I'm domestic now."
"Don't use that kind of language in front of Cori," Julia said. "We've talked about that."
"And I told you she's probably heard worse," Ed said. "But I'll try to watch myself."
"Thank you," Julia thanked. "Now hurry up and eat something. You need to get to work and I need to try and get Cori awake for school," Julia said.
"Hold it," Ed ordered, pulling Julia close to her. "You eat something. I'll get Cori up and we'll all eat together." She let Julia go and walked to Cori's room once more, mumbling something about how if they were going to do this domestic shit, they were going to do it right.
"Cori," Ed called as she walked into the young girl's room. She was Ishvalan and it showed through her dark skin and red eyes, though the people of Creta were more tolerant now than they had been when Ed and Julia were teenagers. "Come on, Cori, you've got to wake up."
"Any luck?" a voice behind Ed asked. She turned to see Julia leaning against the door frame.
"I told you to eat," Ed said. "I'll get her up if I have to carry her to the dining room."
"Just don't hit her head against anything," Julia warned as she walked away. Ed cringed at the memory of walking with Maddie in her arms and swatting her head against the door frame on the way in. Ed had reasonably freaked out and Al and Winry tried to calm her down. They said they had done the same thing before.
Ed didn't disappoint, lifting Cori from her bed and carrying her to the kitchen table. By the time they were at the table, Cori was awake.
"Were you awake that whole time?" Julia asked with a smile. Cori had grown attached to her adoptive parents in the four months she had been living with them, and sometimes pretended to be asleep so Ed would carry her.
"Maybe," Cori said.
"You sly dog," Ed responded as she sat down beside the Ishvalan. "But that's my girl."
"Don't encourage her, Ed," Julia warned.
"Ed!" Alphonse called out when the family of three appeared at the Rockbell-Elric doorstep. Al quickly let them in, admiring the new addition. "You must be Corinna," Al said with a smile. "I'm Alphonse, Ed's brother. It's nice to meet you."
"Hi, Uncle Al," Cori greeted. "But you can call me Cori."
"All right, Cori." Al was shocked. He never would have expected his sister to ever have a family, really. She was always so independent and never stopped moving. She often complained when they were teenagers of being fidgety if she stayed in one place for too long.
"It's too bad we had to wait until Christmas to come around," Ed said. It wouldn't be Christmas for a few weeks, but they hadn't been able to come before that. They had made too many trips into Amestris and needed to wait for Julia's legal sake.
"Well, we did see you right before you adopted Cori," Al said. "Look at you, being all domestic and stuff."
"Yeah, it's weird," Ed responded. "Never thought I'd do something like this. But, I guess it's about time the Elrics settle down. I'm twenty-two now, after all."
"Almost twenty-three," Al reminded.
"Don't remind me," Ed groaned out. "Where's Winry?"
"Upstairs with the baby," Al answered. "I'll go get her." Al disappeared up the stairs and Cori found her way to the corkboard fairly quickly.
"Whoa..." Cori trailed off. "There are a lot of pictures of you here, dad!" To cause less confusion between the two, and because Ed felt more comfortable as a father than any sort of mother, they had Cori call Ed 'dad' and Julia 'mom'. Of course, that was only after the three had become comfortable with each other and Cori had asked if it was okay if she called them that.
"Yeah," Ed said. "This isn't the house I grew up in, but I did grow up not that far from here. I lived here when I was ten years old until I joined the military." Cori frowned a little. It was understandable for her not to be comfortable with the military, which was why Ed didn't talk about it much. Though, the military was helping Ishvalans more than ever now that Mustang was actually the Furher.
"Who's that?" Cori asked, pointing to a picture of Trisha holding Ed and Al when they were toddlers.
"That's my mom," Ed said fondly. "She would have loved to meet you." Cori knew that Ed's mother had died. It was the way they had related to each other during the adoption process.
"She's pretty," Cori said.
"I'm here!" Winry exclaimed as she walked downstairs with ten month old Madison in her arms. "It's so nice to see you guys."
"You look ridiculous with a baby in your arms," Ed commented. "I keep expecting to see a wrench in your hand instead, but every time I've seen you since Maddie was born, it's just been a baby."
"Do you want me to get my wrench?" Winry asked. "Because I have it."
"Not in your bra, I hope," Ed said, remembering a time when the blonde woman had stored it there.
"No, the baby needs to be fed from there now," Winry said. "But near." Ed didn't want to think of what that meant.
"Cori, this is Winry, Al's wife and my childhood friend," Ed introduced. "She actually made my automail for me when we were a few years younger than you." Ed had been ten years old when he had been fitted, and Winry was eleven when she had designed, built, and helped attached the automail.
"What's the baby's name?" Cori asked excitedly. Ed rolled her eyes. Every woman - or girl in this case - that saw Maddie was enamored by her.
"This is Madison," Winry said, kneeling a little and letting Cori get a good look at her. The baby girl's hair had come with age to be a golden blonde. Her eyes opened to reveal the same golden Alphonse and Ed carried.
"She looks like dad," Cori said. Winry and Al both shot a confused look to Ed who just shrugged. She would explain it later if they really wanted to know.
"Well, Ed and Al have a lot of the same features," Winry said. "So, how old are you, Cori?" Ed had already told them, but Winry was trying to get to know the girl on her level.
"I'm almost thirteen," Cori said. "My birthday is in a week!"
"Yep," Ed said with a smirk. "December twenty-fourth."
"Well, we'll definitely have to celebrate," Al said. "Luckily for you, Winry makes the best desserts I've ever tasted."
"Except she makes way too much apple pie," Ed remarked.
"Oh, shut up," Winry said.
"No yelling?" Ed asked. "I'm impressed."
"The baby," Winry said, pointing to the infant in her arms as an explanation. "And speaking of babies..."
"No," Julia said, a smile growing on her face.
"Yes." Winry nodded, also gleeful.
"Am I missing something here?" Ed asked. She wasn't picking up on the internal language Winry and Julia were sharing with each other.
"Winry's pregnant again, sister," Al said. "We just found out yesterday."
"Holy..." Ed trailed off, glancing at Cori. "cow."
"Nice save," Julia commented. "Congratulations, Winry. Do you know when you're due?"
"I'm due in August," Winry answered.
"You just won't give her a break, will ya?" Ed asked Alphonse. "Give this horse some time to recover from the last calf."
"Did you just refer to my wife as a horse?" Al asked in a confused tone.
"Maybe."
So, I figured Corinna for the name of Ed and Julia's daughter because in the Brotherhood, Lust used the name Solaris as her name. I looked that name up and saw that it was Greek. Since in the original, Lust was actually an Ishvalan, I went for a Greek name for a girl and found Corinna. I liked it because it could be shortened to Cori.
Also, Corinna's birthday is in a week in this chapter because mine is next week (woo nineteen; I'm gonna do shots).
I also genetically mapped out what Alphonse and Winry's kids would look like through the biology I was forced to learn this past summer. I did the same thing with Ed and Winry and am considering doing Ed and Julia in case I decide to take them to another fic where Ed's actually a guy again.
And one more chapter! It'll be published tomorrow for all you guys :)
Lily (Guest): "Aaaaaw! Al is a dad! And Winry is a mom! Everything is adorable!"
Thanks! I hope you still think that with Ed's new addition.
