A/N: I've been wanting to write these two nerds for three million years. Edward and Winry as parents makes my heart swell with joy. Here's hoping I did them justice. (Also I apologize for the complete lack of plot. This is basically just a fic to show that Ed and Winry are adorable and very tired parents. I promise the next thing I write for them will be more dynamic. I just really wanted to write some domestic Elric family.)
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. If I did there would be definitely be a sequel series called Fullmetal Alchemist: Parenthood.
As the sun began peeking through the drawn shades, Edward fell heavily into the leather chair that sat behind the oak desk in his study. He sighed as watched dust swirl in the early morning light. He had hoped he would get a fresh start on his alchemy research this morning, but judging by the night that he and Winry had, he'd be lucky if he made it four pages into his notes without dropping dead on his desk. Connor was not exactly agreeable with his weary parents, and both Ed and Winry were woken up multiple times during the night to deal with the unreasonable eight-month-old. Saying Ed was exhausted was an understatement.
He groaned when he remembered if he put off his notes any longer, the renewal of his research grants might be revoked due to lack of sufficient findings. The military did not look kindly upon people who held off their research, even if the man in question had saved the entire country from being killed in a giant transmutation circle, and was a new father. But the military said that if they were to fund him, they needed to treat Ed like any other scientist, not "the hero of Amestris." And paternity leave only lasted for so long, he supposed.
The nineteen-year-old rubbed his face and gave his head a sharp shake, ready to begin a grueling day of alchemy research, when his wife opened the door to his study. He couldn't deny how beautiful she looked without even trying. Blonde hair disheveled, short nightgown hanging off her right shoulder, Edward's heart thumped a little faster just at the sight of her, exhausted though he was. Winry smiled at him, but he could see from the dark shadows under her eyes that she felt just as haggard as he did. Ed and Winry were woken periodically throughout the night by their screaming boy, and it wasn't until moments ago that they were finally able to get him to fall (and hopefully stay) asleep.
"Morning, sunshine," Winry whispered to Ed with a tired smile. Afraid that any noise would wake up their sleeping child, she practically tiptoed behind the desk to her husband, sitting down in his lap and resting her head in the crook of his shoulder. He was about to ask her how she was feeling when she groaned into his neck.
"Tiiiiiiiired," she whined.
"Why don't you go and take a nap while Connor's still asleep?" he whispered back just as quietly. He'd be damned if he was going to be the one to stir the kid from his slumber.
"Got another work order yesterday," she mumbled sleepily.
That wasn't good. Winry would be grumpy for the rest of the day if she didn't get some sort of rest, and adding an automail order into the mix wasn't going to help.
"You're gonna need to concentrate if you're working on another order, Win. Don't want to mess up and leave someone with a faulty limb." He prodded her softly with his finger, wondering if she had fallen asleep on his lap when she failed to respond right away.
But then she sighed. "It's not a repair today. It's a completely new arm. The client apparently smashed his old one to smithereens in a fight of some sort." She side-eyed her husband. "Now doesn't that sound familiar?"
Edward coughed slightly and avoided Winry's gaze. "I'm sure there was a perfectly good reason for his fight, and I'm sure he wasn't trying to break his arm. Sometimes these things are just unavoidable." The nonchalance in his voice and the way he shrugged his shoulders stirred some life back into Winry, and she untangled herself briefly to smack him on the shoulder. There wasn't much force behind it, however, so Edward just laughed at his wife and rested his head atop hers. "Go sleep for an hour or two. It'll make you more focused when you work on that arm. You'll be able to work faster, too."
"Fine…" she sighed. He admired Winry's determination, and wished that he could be that determined to read through copies of Flamel's old journals. While Winry often worked on very few hours of sleep, Edward could barely function if he didn't get his full eight hours of rest. He wondered if it had something to do with the fact that for four years of his life he had been sleeping not only for himself, but also his younger brother, meaning that he was napping constantly to keep Al's body functioning on the other side of the Portal. Ed supposed that this fact probably also contributed to why he had such a hard time adjusting to the sleeping schedule of a new parent.
Winry stood from her husband's lap and turned to face him. Her eyes turned devilish for a moment as she bent down and pressed her lips to her husband's jawline. Ed sighed happily and his eyes fluttered closed as Winry ghosted kisses along his jaw, finally making her way to his mouth. He captured her lips with his impatiently, pulling her back toward him to deepen the kiss. Too soon for Edward's liking, Winry pulled away with a smile.
"What was that for?" he asked, his resolve to let his wife go to sleep slowly beginning to falter.
"Just a little something to wake you up a bit," she piped cheerfully. "Have fun with your studies!"
She began to leave the room, and Edward decided that he honestly didn't want his wife to leave anymore. He skirted around his desk and wrapped his arms around her waist before she could exit his study. He turned her towards him and tilted up her face to give himself better access to her lips. He kissed her hungrily, and her response was just as eager as his.
It had been a while since they had kissed like this. Being full-time parents had left the two teens with little down-time, something that Edward missed from his time before parenthood. The stolen kisses, the quiet mornings, the time spent alone with one another—all of it was pushed aside for the time being so Edward and Winry could take care of their baby boy.
Ed's hands roamed Winry's body freely, touching her in ways that he hadn't done in what felt like an eternity, while his mouth went to work on his wife's neck. Ed worried the skin there with his teeth, listening to Winry's soft sighs to determine when to nibble and when to suck. After a while she placed her hands on either side of his face, pulling him back to her mouth to kiss him with more fervor than she had before. She pushed Ed back towards his desk, hands brushing along his hip bones as her fingers began to pull up the bottom of his nightshirt. Ed smiled against his wife's mouth as he realized her intentions and began to help her rid him of the garment.
And it was at that moment of pure contentment that everything went to hell. Within seconds of his wife pulling his shirt all the way off, barks from an overprotective dog pierced through the haze that clouded Edward's mind.
"No no no no no…." Edward pleaded, silently cursing Winry's loudmouthed dog for ruining their moment, and for the disturbing the peace in their once-silent home. His forehead touched Winry's as he squeezed his eyes shut. "Please, please don't do this, Den. You're gonna wake—" Wails of a woken baby boy echoed from down the hall.
"Shit," Winry sighed.
Edward groaned. With the moment ruined and Connor once again awake, he untangled himself from his wife and held his right fist out before him, resting on his left palm. "Shoot for it?"
Winry nodded. "Best two out of three. Loser deals with Connor."
The tired parents played a quick round of Rock, Paper, Scissors, slapping their balled up fists against their palms as Connor continued to scream his lungs out from their room. Winry smirked at her husband as her hand flattened over her husband's fist, paper beating rock. After tying two more rounds, Ed won their second game. With the third game deciding who would deal with their screaming boy, both parents leaned forward with determined stares as their fists slapped their hands during the third round.
"Damn!" Winry held up her unlucky scissors "smashed" by Edward's fist. She looked at Ed with pleading eyes, but he smiled and shook his head, unwilling to let his victory go. With a pout, Winry walked out of the study and down the hall to their room, where Connor lay in his crib. "I'm coming," she grumbled to the child.
With Winry going to check on Connor, Edward made it his mission to go silence the mangy mutt who was still growling at the front door.
"You used to be such an agreeable dog, Den. What happened?" he muttered as he grabbed the dog by the collar and pulled him away from the door. He already knew the answer, though. Ever since Connor was born, Den had become very protective of the child. Every unfamiliar person who came on their property was a threat to the baby, and Den did everything in his power to scare strangers from the house. At first it was kind of endearing. Winry and Ed had been worried that Den might not get along with the baby considering he hadn't been around kids in so long. Seeing him take such a liking to the boy was relief to the new parents.
But now it was just annoying.
Edward swatted the old dog on the rear and pushed him towards the kitchen. "Go get your breakfast, you overprotective flea-bag," Ed said, turning to look out the window to see what their dog had been barking at.
"What did he see, Ed?" He turned around to see Winry behind him, balancing a very-awake Connor on her hip.
He smiled sympathetically at her and cast a sour look to his child before turning back to the window. "I think it was just the mail-carrier. Damn dog still isn't used to the new woman who picked up our route."
"Well, how about you hold our precious bundle of joy," Winry cast a dirty glance at Connor, who merely tugged at the ends of her hair and gurgled, "and I'll go get the mail?"
"And why can't I do it?"
"Because you aren't wearing pants, Ed."
"Wha—" Ed looked down to see his bare legs (well, one bare leg and one metal leg) and red boxers. "Oh."
He wordlessly accepted Connor from his wife and moved out of the way to allow her to go retrieve the mail. As Winry made her way down the dirt path to their mailbox, Ed looked down at his son.
"You're going to kill your mommy and me with all this crying, you know that right?" His baby responded with a happy giggle that ended in a spit bubble. Edward sighed. "You're lucky you're so cute, otherwise I'd be mad at you interrupting me and Mommy during our alone time. Devil child," he muttered with a smirk, planting a loud smooch on his baby's chubby cheek. Connor squeaked happily, grabbing his dad's ponytail and giving it a hard yank. Ed winced, but continued to smile at his son's enthusiasm.
Winry walked back into the house. "Well, my little man's looking a lot happier now, isn't he?"
"I am NOT little!"
"Connor, Ed. I was talking about Connor," Winry said dryly.
Ed stood a little straighter and coughed slightly. "I knew that."
"Uh huh."
He shifted Connor to his other hip. "So is there anything interesting in the mail today? Please tell me there is, otherwise Den is getting a time-out for ruining our already-crappy morning."
Edward looked over Winry's shoulder as she sifted through the mail. Looked to be mostly bills and junk mail, but just as she was getting to end of envelopes, Ed saw a familiar piece of postage. "Wait!" he said a little too loudly in his excitement. Winry jumped and turned to look at him, as did Connor, frowning at the noise. Reaching over Winry's shoulder, Ed plucked an envelope from her hands. "That's Xingese postage! That's Alphonse!"
Winry smiled at her husband's excitement and held her hands out for their baby. Edward passed over Connor and immediately set to ripping open the letter, smiling giddily all the while. Alphonse had been in Xing with May studying alkahestry for over a year now, and every so often he would send his brother and sister-in-law letters to update them on his life. As happy as Ed was for Alphonse to be doing so well without him, he missed his brother a great deal, so the letters he received from his brother were a great source of enjoyment for him. As well as entertainment for Winry.
"Well?" Winry prodded. "What does it say?"
Ed's eyes scanned over the letter, soaking up his brother's words so intently that he barely heard his wife's question. When Winry repeated herself, Ed finally looked up, smiling. "The idiot finally decided to buy a cat. Without consulting May," he added with a snort.
"Oooh, that's not gonna be good for their relationship," Winry muttered, clicking her tongue.
Edward glanced up from the letter. "They're not dating, Win. We've been over this."
"Yet." Winry added, sounding extremely sure of herself.
Ed could only offer her a dry look in response.
"I'm sorry Ed, but despite you two being boy geniuses when it comes to alchemy, you Elrics are complete morons when it comes to love." She gave her husband a pointed look, which he merely hmmph-ed at when he couldn't think of a good retort. "Alphonse is head over heels for that girl, he just doesn't see it yet. I can guarantee you that by the time they come back to Resembool, May and Al with be couple."
"I'd slow down before you make that bet, Winry. Looks like Alphonse, May, and Mittens—? What a terribly cliché name for a cat. Anyways, looks like those three are coming up for visit in a few months for Connor's first birthday."
"Let me see that," Winry said, and before Ed could react Winry had snatched the letter from his hands and danced away from him, bouncing their baby all the while. She held the page up to her face and squinted in the morning light. "Aww, Al let May name the kitten to make up for the fact that he bought it without her permission. Now that's sweet. Almost sounds like something a boyfriend would do."
"Or something Al would do. He'd let anyone name his cat if he knew it would make them happy."
Winry merely rolled her eyes before looking back to the letter. "Well, it looks to me like Al is happy and well. I'm glad he's enjoying his time in Xing so much."
"I'll be glad when he comes home for once. And I bet this little guy will too," Edward cooed, tickling his baby boy under the chin. Connor wriggled happily in Winry's arms, reaching his hands out for his father. Ed plucked his son from Winry's arms and bounced him. "Al hasn't seen his nephew in forever. I bet he's chomping at the bit to get back here and see him."
Winry smiled. "Well if this letter is any indication, he sounds like he misses Connor a lot. And apparently has a lot of gifts for him," she points out, skimming the page a bit more. Then she let out a long yawn.
Ed smirked. "Maybe you should go take that nap. You can finish the letter after you wake up."
"Nah," Winry breathed, stretching her arms above her head. "I think I'm going to go take a shower and get to work on that arm. No point in going back to sleep now." She handed the letter off to Edward and made her way up the stairs to the bathroom.
That left Ed and Connor. "Well, let's go see if we can get some breakfast," Ed said to his son. Before he walked to the kitchen he stopped to re-fold the letter and slide it back into the envelope, but with only one hand to do so, he ended up dropping both on the floor.
"Perfect," Ed muttered, setting Connor down on the floor so he could retrieve the fallen paper. As he stuffed the folded note back into its envelope, he noticed a shiny piece of paper in his boy's hands.
"What have you got there, Connor?" Gingerly taking the paper from the baby's fingers, Ed noticed that it was a photo. It must have slipped from the envelope when it fell.
It was a candid picture was of Alphonse and May Chang, sitting in front of a fireplace and looking down at the small black cat at their feet. What was curious about the photo was the position Al and May were in. May's arms were wrapped around Al's waist, her head resting comfortably on his chest, while Al's arm was looped casually around her shoulders, holding her close to his body.
"Alphonse, you fox," Ed said under his breath. A smile he didn't know he'd been holding back broke across Ed's face. He tucked the photo in his back pocket and picked his baby boy up in his arms, ruffling the fuzzy blonde hair on his head.
"It looks like you're gonna have a new aunt soon, Connor," he said confidently to his son as they made their way to the kitchen. "And who knows, maybe one day you'll have cousins too!"
He decided that he wasn't going to show Winry the photo for a while. While he was very happy for his brother because of all that the picture implied, the I-told-you-so's he was going to receive from his wife the second she found out were not worth the risk. No, he'd let her find out for herself when Alphonse and May came to see them in a few months.
Ed set Connor in his high chair and set out to find breakfast for the two. The happy baby squeaks that were coming from behind him, as well as his brother's letter, had put Ed in a much better mood than he was in before. He even found himself humming the wedding march under his breath as he rummaged through the pantry for bread.
It was during Edward's brief moment of morning bliss as he warmed up his son's bottle that he heard a low growl at the door. The haze of contentment around him shattered in the silence that followed, and the hand that was on the stove's knob stilled.
A sharp bark pierced through the air, followed by another, and then the whole house was filled with the sound of Den's howling as the idiot dog barked at yet another insignificant thing in front of their house. Ed squeezed his eyes shut and prayed to every deity he knew not to be real that the dog would stop, and that hopefully Connor wouldn't—
The wailing of a baby interrupted his thoughts.
Ed groaned loudly and thunked his head against the countertop in frustration, whispering a forlorn "Why me?"
So much for a peaceful morning.
A/N: I need to write SO much more Elric family stuff. I need it.
So, uh, reviews? Are those still a thing?