Hughes sauntered over towards the phone room with that classic Hughes grin on his face. He picked up the phone and dialed up one of the two numbers that were permanently ingrained in his head. He waited patiently as it began to ring.

"Hello?" He heard the warn out groan of his friend

"Hiya Roy! You'll never guess what's been going on since Gracia took off."

Roy sighed "its funny Hughes, you actually sound happy that your wife is away at her parents."

"No, not at all! I miss my dearest Gracia every second that she's gone." He whined in anguish "But that's not what I wanted to talk about I…"

"I know Hughes; your daughter did something 'fantastic' again, didn't she?" On Roy's side of the line he was tiredly doodling away on a piece of paper. Once more he was attempting to avoid his paperwork which was continuously staring him in the face. For Roy it was a tough decision when trying to figure out which was worse; listening to Hughes' family stories or doing his tedious paperwork.

"Yeah, my little angel did something truly wonderful." Hughes' tone was far more calm and relaxed though his level of pride was kept intact and it caught Roy's interest.

"She stood up for someone who really needed help."

Roy placed his pen back on the table; his attention was now being completely given over to Hughes. "Do you mean like when we were in the academy and you and I beat the crap out of those upper classmen, in order to help Heathcliffe?"

Hughes suddenly recalled the memory of his youth and he broke out in hysterics "Yeah although I hope my darling doesn't get so violent and I hope she doesn't end up having to dig a ditch as punishment. I still can't believe you had us working to dig that whole, when you could have just as easily used your alchemy!" even after all these years Maes was still ticked off at Roy. Inevitably though, the laughter came to an unwelcomed halt at the recollection of what had happened to Heathcliffe.

Hughes pretended to check his watch "I'm sorry Roy, It'd love to keep on gushing over my daughter but I have to go pick her up from daycare. Bye-bye now!"

"Aright, talk to you later Hughes." They both hung up at the same time and Maes darted off to fetch Elicia.

It wasn't that they had forgotten about what happened to their former friend Heathcliffe Arbor, it was impossible to forget something like that. After Executive Order 3066 had been signed all Ishvalan's in the military were stripped of their uniforms and sent back to Ishval to be annihilated. Heathcliffe had been one of the countless lives that had been taken by none other then that of Maes Hughes, his former friend and comrade.

Elicia and Victor walked outside, surrounded by the other children and Mrs. Stein; they waited to be picked up. The brats from earlier would offer the occasional dirty look in Elicia's direction, so she maintained her stance right beside Victor and would offer them only the sweetest of smiles.

"Do you wanna come to my house?" asked Elicia

"To your house?"

"Yeah! My mommy's at her parent's house so my daddy's the one cooking dinner but…" It was then that Elicia noticed how red the boy's checks were turning. "Are you ok? You're turning kind of pink."

Victor nodded "I'm ok and sure, I'll go to your house. I just have to ask my dad."

"Oh yeah, my daddy said that he got somebody really strong to fix your truck."

"How does anybody fix trash?"

"Magic!" Elicia practically squealed "My Uncle Roy can do magic too. He can make flames appear out of no where!"

Victor's face lit up "Wow! So does your daddy know someone who can do truck magic, then?"

All of a sudden Hughes came in on the scene and he lifted his precious child up for a warm and loving hug.

"Daddy!"

While Elicia was being held, Victor stared up at the man, with intense fear and discomfort. He was wearing a military uniform.

"Daddy, can Victor come over?"

Hughes looked down at Victor, offering him the same warm smile that he had given to Elicia. "Well of course he can, as long as his parents say its ok." Hughes placed Elicia back on the ground and brought his attention back to the boy.

"Hello Victor. I'm Elicia's daddy. Please call me Mr. Hughes." It was at this point that Hughes took notice of how the boy was shaking at the mere sight of him. Hughes nodded in thought. "Elicia, could you go play for a while. I have to talk to Victor about something."

Elicia wondered why it was her daddy needed to speak to Victor but she agreed and walked off into the back where the swing set was.

Alone with the child, Hughes sat down beside him.

"You are scared of me, aren't you?"

Victor nodded

"What exactly do you think I'm going to do to you?"

Victor thought that the answer would be fairly obvious "You're a soldier and I'm Ishvalan. You sent Elicia away because you're going to kill me." The boy trembled all the more. "You're going to kill me because you hate me. You hate me because I'm Ishvalan." The boy was now so close to sobbing as his lips quivered up and down. Maes placed a hand lightly upon the boy's shoulder as he gave him a solemn look.

"I do not hate you. I do not hate Ishvalans."

Victor was going wide-eyed again. Once more another one of his childish notions had been proven wrong. "It's clear that your parents have told you far more then I would ever tell Elicia but you don't have all of your facts right. Not all Amestrians, soldier or otherwise, hates without reason. I think it's pretty silly to judge everyone by where they're from; it's like judging me because of my uniform. If I had come here with just regular clothes on, would you be afraid of me?"

Victor shook his head.

"Exactly."

The two of them smiled at one another as they now had a clearer understanding of one another. "Before I forget…" Hughes dug through one of the pockets in his jacket and pulled out a shinny red fire truck "I believe this is yours." Maes handed the truck to an awed Victor "Thank you Mr. Hughes!"

"No problem." Hughes stood up right "Now let's go see what Elicia's up to. Just remember, I do have one tiny little rule." Hughes' grin widened

"What's that?"

Hughes' face became very dark and serious "If you ever hurt my little girl. Then, I will come after you."

Victor nodded in silent horror as they walked into the backyard behind the daycare building, where Elicia waited for them on the swings.

Hughes was an agnostic and had never held much stock in the concept of God but as he watched the two kids swing back and forth, laughing, and enjoying themselves; he made a silent prayer in his mind that things would be able to stay like this. He did not wish to see his daughter having to endure a world of senseless violence and bloodshed. Her life was to be filled with simple bliss.

Originally this was just going to be a one-shot but then I got such a response to it so I decided to make it into a two-shot. I'd like to thank gilraenstar, YesMyLord666, Pocket Quasar, FullMetalWizardNerd7, NothingIWontGive, and Anquitil.

Just so you know Heathcliffe Arbor not an OC he is a character from the 4th OVA entitled "Yet Another Man's Battlefield" it can be found subbed on Youtube and if you like Hughes and Roy then I highly recommend it.

This is my official first multi-chapter FMA fanfic, so WOOT! I hope you've enjoyed this and will continue to enjoy my many Hughes related fanfics to come.