Family Dynamics

Author: MoonStarDutchess

Part 2: Roy and Maeve

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership to Fullmetal Alchemist and gain no profit from this fanfiction but I do own my plot and OC's if any. Any resemblance of the OC's to anyone, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Note: Maes and Maeve's bad grammar is intentional and the misspellings in their dialogue are also intentional.



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Roy and Maeve

Riza shrugged her right shoulder as Roy placed a kiss on the side of her neck. His arms were wrapped around her waist tightly, hugging her from behind.

"Roy, stop it. You are acting like we are on a honeymoon. Didn't you get enough last night?" she asked as he placed another kiss behind her ear. She had to take a deep breath to keep from moaning at his attentions to that particular spot.

"No, I didn't. I never get enough of my beautiful, sexy wife," he said, continuing his amative attentions to her skin.

"You are such a horrible flatterer." Riza laughed, turned around, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She smiled, "I'll have to placate you later tonight. Right now I have to go."

"Don't go. Can't you have someone else do that stupid work?"

"No, I can't. It's my responsibility. You know, it's still not too late for you and Maeve to come along."

Roy kissed her and shook his head, "We'd just complain the entire time. As much as I don't want you to go, you and Maes should have a good time."

She kissed him on the nose and pulled out of his arms. "We won't be long."

"Good," Roy said.

Riza turned around to get Maes and her jackets off the wooden pegs on the wall.

"Maes, come on! We are leaving! Maeve, come say goodbye!" Riza shouted to her children.

"Coming mommy!" they heard Maes say.

--

"Now don't forget to ask mama about it okay?" Maeve said to her brother as they carefully made their way down the stairs.

"I told you I wouldn't," he said, "I'm not a mankin."

"Huh?"

"You know, what they call someone who can't do anything!"

"Oh!" Maeve exclaimed, and then glowered after she thought about her brother's words for a moment. "It's not mannekin! It is dummy, you dummy."

"I'm not a dummy! Dummies are those things they stick in cars to test em. I can't drive so I can't be a dummy."

"There is more than one type of dummy," she said with an exasperated sigh.

"Well I'm not the car steering one!"

"You are annoying."

Maes stopped in the middle of the stairs, causing Maeve to stop as well.

"What's wrong?"

Maes sat down. "Come here and sit too."

Maeve did as her brother requested, "What is it?"

"I've been thinking…" Maes started to say, nervously trailing off.

"That's very bad," she said, "Are you in pain?"

Maes frowned, "Never mind if you are going to be mean about it." He pouted and stood.

Maeve grabbed his hand and pulled him back down to sit. "I'm sorry," she said, "What were you thinking about?"

"Well, why do we have to ask them each both at the different places? Why can't we just ask them at the same time?"

"Because if we do that they will tell us the same story. If we ask them away from each other we might get more stuff!"

"Oh…that makes sense!"

"Of course it does! That's why I'm the smart one with the brains," she said, then stood.

Maes huffed, "I got brains too!"

"Sure you do! They are just playing hide and seek," Maeve said.

"Meanie," he replied.

When they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, Maes ran ahead of his sister and up to his mom. He jumped up on the bench and Riza helped him with his coat. She then lifted him in her arms.

"Are you sure that you two don't want to come to the gun show with us? It's going to be fun," Riza said. Roy picked Maeve up so she was at the same level as her mother and brother.

"I don't like guns," Maeve said, "and looking at a bunch of them isn't fun."

"She took the words right out of my mouth," Roy said.

"Guns are awesome," Maes protested.

"You took after your mommy in that Maes," Riza said. She smiled at Roy and kissed him good bye before kissing Maeve on the forehead. "Anything you want us to bring you back?"

"Earplugs?" Maeve responded, causing Roy to laugh.

"Good one," Roy said and looked at his daughter fondly.

She looked back at him and smiled, "Thank you papa."

"Stay out of trouble you two," Riza said and put Maes on his feet. He took her hand instantly as they made their way out of the house and down the street.

Roy closed the door and heaved a sigh before putting Maeve down. "So, what are we going to do today?" he asked.

"Teach me alchemy!" She said, gazing up at him with a mischievous smile that reminded him a bit of Ed Elric's devious toothy smile.

"You know I can't do that Maeve. Your mom and I decided to wait until you were older."

"But can't you just sneak and teach me?"

"I can't teach you behind your mom's back. That's wrong."

Maeve frowned and kicked one of Hayate's chew toys across the floor, the squeaking causing the dog to look up for a moment. After a minute of realizing no one was going to play, he yawned and went back to sleep.

"Mommy is teaching Maes how to shoot. It's not fair that I can't learn alchemy. I already know some stuff!" She looked down at the ground, scuffing her foot across the floor.

Roy frowned. What she was saying was true. Alchemy was no more dangerous than firearms and he would be around when she did the alchemy. Besides learning basics wouldn't be harmful. He was around her age when he got into alchemy. "I'll tell you what. I'll talk to your mother when she gets home about letting you learn some basics. I'm sure I can convince her. Okay?"

Maeve looked, up her face lighting up. "Really?"

"Yes," Roy said with a laugh at the sheer joy his daughter was expressing.

"Promise you'll talk to mama?"

"Yes, I promise."

"Yay!" She ran over to the couch and sat down upon the soft cushions.

"Anything else you want to do?" he asked.

"Yes, I want to talk to you!"

Roy chuckled and walked over to sit on the couch beside his daughter. "What did you want to talk about?"

She moved to crawl on his lap and looked up at him. "You learned alchemy from my grandpa right?"

"That's right," Roy said.

"But Gramps Grumman doesn't do alchemy so you had to have learned it from my missing gramps right?"

Roy tilted his head and looked at her in an odd manner, "missing gramps?"

"That's not important," she said. "Who did you learn from?"

Roy had dreaded the talk about their grandparents more than the sex talk, which thankfully hadn't come yet. "Maeve, Grumman isn't your grandfather. He's your great grandfather."

"I know he's great." She wrinkled her nose and folded her arms, "What's being great got to do with it?"

Roy laughed and hugged her. "No, you see, Grumman is your mom's grandpa. He's your mom's mother's father. That makes Grumman your great grandfather."

"Okay, let me get this right. Gramps Grumman, is mama's mommy's daddy?"

"Right," Roy said, hoping it would be the end of the discussion.

"So you learned alchemy from either your daddy or momma's daddy?"

Roy groaned inwardly and resigned himself to the conversation. "I learned alchemy from your mom's father," Roy said.

Maeve suddenly got a great idea in which she could benefit. "So…when do we meet mama's daddy?"

"Your mom's dad died a long time ago," Roy answered.

Maeve frowned darkly, "Darn it…"

Roy looked at her suspiciously. "You wanted to sneak and ask him if he'd teach you, right?"

Maeve looked to the side with her eyes, not moving her head in the slightest. "No…" she lied. It wasn't the entire truth after all. She waited a moment and turned back to her dad. "Was mama's papa nice?"

Anger rushed through Roy at the thought of what the man had done to his daughter. The tattoo, the lack of attention, and the uncaring looks he often gave her. It took a lot of willpower not to display that anger in front of his daughter. Roy forced himself to calm down and shook his head, "No Maeve, he wasn't nice. He was rather cruel all the way up until he died. That was the only time he showed that he loved your mother. He asked me to take care of her."

"And you do that very greatly! Mama loves papa very much."

Roy smiled at his daughter. Sometimes she said things that really lightened his day and took away his doubts about whether or not he was a good husband and father.

"So he died. Then how about mama's mommy? Where is she?" "

"She died when your mom was very little."

"So you never got to meet mama's mommy?"

"No, I never got to meet her. Your mom doesn't remember her very much either."

"There's no pictures or nothing?"

Roy lifted his daughter into his arms, stood, and took her up the stairs. He carried her into the master bedroom and over to an old black and white photograph hanging on the wall. The woman in the picture wore a peaceful smile. Her eyes were clearly shining with happiness that could be seen despite the aged photograph. Beside her stood Master Hawkeye, a small grin in his face, his hand resting on the chair the woman sat in. It was a completely different man than what Roy had known. A small bundle was resting in the woman's arms.

"Is that them?" Maeve asked.

"That's them," he said.

"The lady is so pretty! But mommy doesn't look like her. Mommy looks like the man! The man isn't pretty. He can't be pretty! But mommy is pretty."

"Guess who that is?" Roy asked as he placed his finger on the frame atop the bundle in the photo.

"A baby?"

"Maeve," Roy heaved frustratingly.

"Sorry papa," she said, "that's mommy right?"

"Right."

"So, you learned alchemy from mama's papa? So you must have known mama a long time."

"Yes, I knew your mom for a long time before we had you two," Roy said.

"How about your mommy and daddy?" Maeve asked. "Are they alive? Has mama met them?"

"My mother is called Christmas, you know that. We'll be visiting her and my sisters in Creta soon."

"But she's your, I love you mama!"

"Huh?"

"The mama who took care of you and loved you. How about your other mama?

And your papa?"

"I don't know much about them," he said. "I can't remember their faces. All I know is that they live in the capital in Xing."

"Do you want to know them?"

"No. My birth mom and dad didn't want me so they gave me to Christmas when I was around your age. If they didn't want me then I don't want them."

"Oh…But didn't that hurt you in there," Maeve asked, putting her hand on his chest, over his heart."

"Yes it did for a while but I realized I was more loved by my 'I love you' mama." Roy said, using the same words his daughter uttered. "It doesn't matter because she's my mother more than my birth mother."

"I think I get it," she said.

He carried her back down the stairs, into the living room and then sat on the couch. Roy started to sit her off his lap, but she grabbed him around the neck. "I'm glad you are my papa."

Roy's eyes widened at first upon hearing her words before he returned the hug. "I love being your papa."

"And brother's papa?"

"Yes," he said.

"And mama's… umm...um… assistant?"

Roy nearly fell over at her use of wording. "I'm your mama's husband Maeve and she is my wife."

"And we are your kids," Maeve said.

"Right," Roy said.

"And we are a nice family!"

Roy smiled and nodded. "Yes we are."


AN: I meant to have this up yesterday but there was some serious computer trouble with my desktop and everything crashed. Hence I had to rewrite this from the draft I had saved, thankfully, on my jump drive. Not to mention that my crummy net limit overran because of the viruses and its currently worse than dialup. Hope you enjoyed it. Next chapter will be Maes and Riza's talk. This fic will probably be four chapters now instead of three since I have to restructure things because of the loss of my chapters. Don't know for sure though. Reviews are much appreciated and are used to make a wall to block all the trojans my computer likes to amass. Quick! Call in the Greeks... bad joke...