Before we begin, I'd like to run a sort of survey. There are a couple of ideas I've been considering for a little later in this series, and I wanted to get some reader feedback.

Question No. 1: Should Olivier and Shua have a child? Others have entertained this idea, usually with Miles as the father, but should the major general jump on this particular bandwagon? Plotwise, it doesn't matter. I could go either way. I know I've got my characters pumping out babies right and left, but mostly it's for a reason.

Question No. 2: This may only be of interest to me, but should I find Stanno a wife? I made him the last of one of the old noble houses of Ishval, and when he's gone, that's the end of the House of Dreva. That sort of bothers me. I would not make it a story all by itself, but more of a subplot. I also wondered if I should pair him up with a canon character rather than make up yet another OC. So who's left? Once I started thinking about it, I sort of liked the idea of Rose. Is it worth it? I realize I do a lot of pairing, but I'm a gooshy romantic and that's what I like.

Anyway, thanks for your time! And thanks for all the reviews and the favorites!

Chapter 16

As the sun began to dip down in the west, groups of families and friends walked along the worn dirt road that led to the circus. It was set up less than a mile from the edge of town in a wide area that was clear of cactus and desert scrub. Neighbors chatted with each other, school girls giggled, and small children ran on ahead and were called back by their parents. All of them, though, were conscious of the presence of the reporters who joined them along the way.

The pullers had been hired (with yet another generous tip) to convey many of the reporters out to the circus. They had already walked all the way from the train station to Ishval and they were damned if they were going to hoof it any more than they had to.

"Behind you!" an eager voice cried out. "Step aside!"

Winry and Ed, who had Mattas up on his shoulders, moved to the side of the road, taking care to not back into a spiky cactus. Two pullers trotted past them, each conveying three passengers. Up the road ahead of them, Danika and Rada, who was carrying Little Winry on her hip, scooted to the side as well. Rada's eyes followed the rickshaws with a calm glare as they passed by. Danika glowered and stuck out her tongue at their backs.

As they continued on their way, Stoyan jogged up, falling in step beside Winry. He jerked his chin contemptuously at the backs of the rickshaws.

"They've been like a plague ever since they got here!" he grumbled. "They kept coming to the offices to see the khorovar. I kept telling them that he wasn't in, or he wasn't available, or he was out inspecting the barley fields. We'll be going through it all tomorrow, too! I don't understand why they even care so much."

"Maybe news has been slow lately and they're not selling enough papers," Ed suggested.

"So plain greed is behind all this?" Stoyan asked contemptuously. "Or are Amestrians just that jaded?"

Ed started to voice a retort, but Winry gently cut him off. "No more than anybody else," she said smoothly. She patted Stoyan's arm. "I'm sure you'll come through it all with flying colors. Andakar will be very proud of you."

Despite his irritation, Stoyan gave her a pleased smile. "Thank you!" He glanced over the top of Winry's head at Ed. "I see Winry got your leg fixed."

"That's right," Ed replied. If he wasn't trying to keep a secure hold of the toddler on his shoulders, he would have put a proprietary arm around Winry. "She's pretty amazing."

"Oh…" Winry gave a little shrug. "I don't know about that."

"You are!" Ed and Stoyan answered in unison.

"All right!" Winry laughed. "It must be true, then!"

The two young men laughed with her and exchanged grins that were cordial but sent an underlying message of I've got your number, junior!

"Hello! Hello!" a cheerful voice behind them called. A tall, lanky Ishvalan with a long braid bouncing behind his back came trotting up and wheeled around to face Ed, walking backwards. He thrust out his hand. "You must be Edward Elric!"

Holding Mattas carefully with one hand, Ed extended the other, which the man gripped and pumped enthusiastically. "Dejan Shua! I am delighted to make your acquaintance! Absolutely delighted! I understand nuptials are in the offing! What a lovely couple you and dear Winry will make! Set a date yet?" Dejan gazed at him with intent anticipation.

"Uh…"

"Don't put it off too long, my young friend!" Dejan warned. "Let me tell you, wedded bliss is like no other joy on this earth! Am I right, Nai, honey?"

"Oh, yes!" Ed turned to see a slender woman move in between Winry and Stoyan. She threaded her arm through the young Ishvalan's and smiled brightly at Ed. "You'll wonder why you ever waited so long!"

"My lovely bride, Naisha," Dejan told Ed, blowing his bride a kiss. "And here…" He held out his arm as a young girl skirted around Ed. "This is my daughter, Mika!"

The girl looked up at Ed with a perky smile much like her father's. "Hi!"

Ed glanced back and forth between the two women. "Nice to meet you."

"Isn't she adorable?" Dejan went on, wrapping an arm affectionately around his daughter. "Just think what a gorgeous creature she's going to be in just a few years! Eh-h, it's going to go by so fast!" he sighed wistfully. "Next thing you know, I'll have suitors lined up at my doorstep, begging for her hand!"

"Stoyan!" Naisha exclaimed. "You have to come and sit with us! Dejan heard that the circus has its own band."

"Oh, they do?" Stoyan's interest was instantly piqued.

"Yes, so you and I need to compare notes," Dejan said. His eyes widened and he laughed. "Compare notes!" he cried. "That's good! I didn't even plan that one!"

"Come along then!" With a firm grip around Stoyan's arm, Naisha quickened her pace and hauled him off with them as they strode ahead.

Ed watched them distance themselves with something of a feeling of relief, which ended up being short lived. As he turned to Winry, the spot on her other side that had just been vacated by Stoyan was filled by yet another Ishvalan male. This one was older and rakishly attractive, and he was not anywhere near as reticent as Stoyan. He wrapped an arm around Winry's waist.

"So, tell me," he said to her but looking at Ed. "Is this my hated rival?"

Ed's mouth dropped open and he was about to make a scathing reply, but Mattas chose that moment to let out a loud squeal and start using the top of his head as a drum. Winry took matters into her own hands and elbowed the man in the ribs.

The man grunted and jerked away, clutching his side. He gave Winry an affronted look. "That hurt!"

"Oh, it didn't either!" Winry scoffed sternly.

Still rubbing his ribs, the man gave a nod in Ed's direction. "This is Ed, then, is it?" he asked pronouncing the name like it amused him.

"Yes, this is Ed," Ed replied stiffly. He would have liked to put on a more intimidating demeanor, but Mattas had grabbed two small fistfuls of his hair and was pulling on them. "You must—ouch! Winry, help me out here—you must be Stanno."

As Winry managed to pry Ed's hair out of Mattas' fingers, Stanno's eyebrows went up. "I am. You're a sharp one," he said, surprised.

"Process of elimination," Ed told him, trying to resettle the little boy on his shoulders. "The only one left is the monkey."

Stanno frowned. "Excuse me?"

Winry waved her hands. "Never mind!" She held her arms out. "I'll take him now, Ed."

"There you go, kid," Ed said in relief, handing Mattas over to her. "It's not like it hasn't been fun."

Winry settled the little boy on her hip. "Your pullers are sure having a field day with those reporters," she said to Stanno.

The carpenter chuckled uncharitably. "Haven't they? Those Amestrians have been hauled front, back, and sideways and they're no further ahead than when they got here. They'll leave poorer, as well."

"At least somebody's having fun with this," Winry remarked.

"I suppose." Stanno looked up ahead at Rada, who was striding along with a determined step. He lowered his voice. "How is she taking it?"

Winry gave him a sharp look out of the corner of her eye. "How do you think?" she replied. "She's miserable."

Stanno nodded thoughtfully. "So where's himself?"

"They've got him—" Ed began.

Winry cut him off sharply. "Shh!" She frowned at Stanno. "That's privileged information."

Stanno gave her an incredulous, wounded look. "Oh, now that hurts, Winry! I'm not—"

The slapping of feet signaled the approach of another rickshaw. "Coming through!" Yoru called out.

The pedestrians stepped aside as the reporters rolled by, waving pleasantly. Stanno gave them a wave back, for which Rada sent him a seething look back over her shoulder. He replied with a helpless shrug.

"She's upset, all right," he commented under his breath.

"Told you!" Winry muttered.

"Anyway," Stanno went on, "I'm not likely to betray Andakar to those Amestrian scum. No offense!" he added with a smirk to Ed.

Ed rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"I'll admit I might have thought about it in the past, but that was in the past." Stanno put on a solemn expression. "I have nobler ideals these days."

"Oh, Stanno," Winry sighed. "You just want to suck up to Rada. You're so transparent!"

Stanno raised an eyebrow and let out a curt laugh. "And you're an impudent little girl!" He looked around her at Ed. "Good luck with this one, lad. She's got us all running around in circles."

Ed just laughed, and now that his hands were free he put his arm around Winry's waist. "So I've noticed."

Music and cheering could be heard, muffled somewhat by canvas and distance, but it was remarkably quiet in the large backstage tent now that it was empty. Just a few moments ago it was full of animals and people of various species. They had filed out for their opening promenade inside the "big top", as Darius called the main tent. The women strutted out in bright, sequined, and (in Scar's opinion), revealing costumes. Darius and Heinkel looked dashing in royal blue swallowtail coats with sequined lapels and shiny black top hats. Even Manfred was decked out in a tiny coat and hat. The clowns marched out in all manner of colorful and exaggerated costumes, including Yoki, who trudged after them with a melancholy expression on his face, a shovel over his shoulder, and a garishly painted trashcan on wheels behind him.

Two tigers, a leopard, and a thickly-maned lion padded out behind Heinkel. His "kitties", he called them. He was accompanied by a woman who was also clad in a royal blue coat but wore black lace tights instead of trousers. She moved with a sinuous swing of her hips, and Scar had the impression that there was something definitely feline about her. He also had the impression that Heinkel was rather fond of her, judging by the way he preened his mustache in her presence. To each his own, Scar supposed.

The elephants had filed out, with Daisy giving Scar a shy wave with her trunk before following Violet through the tent flaps. Todd, in a bright red silk vest and loose-fitting pants gathered below his knees, sat astride Hyacinth's neck. Petal, who would not be separated from her mother, trotted eagerly out with them, wearing a pink headdress adorned with matching ostrich feathers. Todd said she was really starting to enjoy show business.

Alone for now, Scar sat on a hay bale, his elbows propped on his knees and his hands clasped. He tried to picture the look of delight on Danika's face when she saw the baby elephant make her appearance, and he smiled to himself for a moment. Then he grew deeply sad. His family was everything to him, second only to God. The family he grew up with had been taken from him; now he was separated from the family he had made for himself. He knew it was only for a short time, but that didn't make his heart ache any less. It was ridiculous to have to hide here, of all places. Darius had suggested that if he wanted to see his family, they could make him up in comedy whiteface and send him out with the rest of the clowns. The glare Scar gave him cut that joke short.

He dropped his head forward, resting them on his hands. He was fully aware that he was indulging in shameless self-pity. He himself had only minimal interest in the circus performance, but he was missing out on sharing this experience with Rada and the children. It seemed such a trivial thing. Miles, who saw this as a necessary inconvenience, would shrug it off and tell him to suck it up, or whatever he told his men if they complained about something. Scar looked forward to when his friend would begin to experience that particular mental anguish unique to parents. Suck that up, my red-eyed brother.

How many more times would they have to go through this charade? The Amestrian government let him go about the business of quietly governing Ishval, which suited him just fine, but it would not publicly acknowledge him for who he was. The khorovar of Ishval was a mysterious, nebulous character. No official photos of him existed, a bullet he had managed to dodge. Until now, of course. Now everyone was scrambling to keep him from the public eye. Some were trying to protect Ishval, some were simply trying to protect their own reputations, and the entire situation was taking on grotesque proportions. Well, the Ishvalans had officially bound their fate to the Amestrians, and this was the harvest they were reaping. It was his considered opinion that politics had to be one of the lowest forms of human endeavor.

Human and animal noises heralded the return of the circus performers, minus the horses, whose act was first. The elephants lumbered in behind the aerialists. Yoki, looking particularly martyred, slouched in after the other clowns and dropped down next to Scar on his hay bale.

He heaved a tremendous sigh. "I don't know why I submit to this!"

It was difficult to muster up much pity for someone who seemed to take such pleasure in being pathetic. "Perhaps because you can't do anything else," Scar remarked.

"Aw, quit whining!" Darius growled at Yoki as he stepped up to them. "This is the closest thing to a family you've got!" Yoki just sniffed and the chimera shook his head. He turned to Scar and grinned. "I saw Ed out there! I didn't know he'd shown up here!"

"Yes, he showed up here," Scar replied wearily.

"I saw him and Winry sitting with your little girl and an Ishvalan lady," Darius went on. A look of wonder crossed his face. "Is that your wife?"

Scar found his spirits rising a little from his dark mood, knowing that Rada was so close. He looked up at the chimera, affection and pride welling instinctively. "She is."

Darius whistled admiringly. "Damn, son!"

Yoki perked up and looked back and forth at them. "What? Really? I wasn't looking!"

"Don't worry, you'll see her," Darius assured him. "When the elephants do their show."

"Hm!" Yoki slumped again and crossed his arms. "I can hardly wait!"

In the entirety of her seven and a half years, she had never seen anything like it. Even after having seen all the people and the animals the day before, it didn't prepare her for the amazing spectacle of all these creatures in so many colorful costumes. The horses, large and small, pranced daintily on silver painted hooves, plumes of feathers sprouting from their halters. There were pretty ladies in sparkly outfits who smiled and waved at the audience. The clowns jumped and danced and even ran up into the stands and make funny faces at the audience.

Around her, the other people in the stands let out gasps at the sight of the big cats that prowled along with the rest of the parade. Danika just smiled to herself. Just the day before, she had been scratching Snickers' belly as the tiger lay stretched out on his back. But when she saw the elephants, Danika let out her own gasp of delight. There was little Petal, trotting bravely beside her mother, all decked out in pink. Danika bounced in her seat and waved, and Petal lifted her trunk and let out a squeak of a trumpet in reply.

Danika giggled and clapped her hands. "Did you see, Mama!" she cried. "Petal said hi to me!"

"Yes, sweetie, I saw." Mama was too busy keeping a hold of Little Winry while Mattas was trying to climb into her lap, too. Mama also seemed like she wasn't really enjoying herself, and with a sudden sting of guilt and sorrow, Danika remembered why. Her joy and delight evaporated. Papa wasn't here with them. He had to hide from the stupid stupid reporters who were trying to take his picture when he didn't want them to. Nobody had explained to her exactly why all this was going on, but it made her angry. He should have been there with them. She should have been able to lean against his strong arm and point out all the wonderful things they were seeing. He should be having fun, too.

The wonderful parade of color swam before her eyes and she gulped a little sob. Next to her, Winry put her arm around her and gave a little squeeze. She bent down close to Danika's ear.

"It's going to be okay," she told her.

Danika knew she was meant to be brave, but it was hard. "I wanted Papa to watch the circus with me!" she whimpered.

"Well, he sort of is," Winry told her. "He's not that far from here. He's in one of the other tents, so he's seeing all the animals, too." She gave Danika another hug. "And I bet he's thinking about you."

Danika drew in a quick breath. That was true! She'd forgotten about that. She even started peering around at the dark shadows behind the stands, hoping maybe that Papa was hiding there. She couldn't see much of anything that wasn't illuminated by the bright lights, which was a disappointment, but the thought gave her hope and she wasn't going to give up.

Around the corner, in another section of the stands, McGraw munched on a bag of popcorn. Half his attention was on the circus parade and the other half was on the other members of the audience. He was big on remote possibilities. He'd had a fair amount of luck with them in the past. It was highly improbable that Scar would make an appearance in a crowd like this, but it wasn't completely impossible. Heck, the guy had been living a pretty rough life. Maybe he'd want to relax a little bit like everybody else. In the meantime, McGraw made a quick study of the faces in the audience. There were a number of soldiers, not to mention the other members of his news profession, and he even saw that Elric kid in the stands. But the crowd was made up mostly of Ishvalans, who all looked pretty much alike to him.

Well, maybe not quite. Right there with Elric and some blonde girl, sat an Ishvalan woman with a toddler on her lap. She definitely stood out from her countrymen, and McGraw's attention was arrested by her. She was a real looker, even with the frown on her face. She must really light up when she smiled.

McGraw nudged Bates, who along with Greggs, was ogling one of the dames in the sparkly leotards.

"What?" Bates muttered irritably.

McGraw gave a subtle tilt of his head. "There. Up in the stands. Don't stare, dumbass! Next to the Fullmetal Alchemist."

Bates scowled, trying to search the crowd without looking like he was doing so. "Who? Oh! That guy on the train this morning?"

"Geez, was that just this morning?" Greggs remarked from Bates' other side, his eyes also travelling over the audience. "There he is!" He looked back at the parade in the middle of the tent and made a show of laughing at one of the clowns. "What about him? He was kind of a dead end."

"There's a woman a couple of seats over from him," McGraw went on. "A real doll!"

"Huh?" Bates glanced back over in that direction. "I don't—oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!"

"Not too shabby," Greggs agreed. "That's one hot mama! Is there a papa in the neighborhood?"

"Doesn't look like it," Bates said. "Maybe that's why she looks kind of out of sorts, what with the handful of kids she's got."

"Maybe her old man was killed in the war," Greggs wondered.

"You kind of stink at math, don't you, Greggie?" Bates chuckled. "Those little ones on her lap can't be more than two years old. The war's been over for something like eight years now."

Greggs shrugged dismissively. "Okay, so maybe she gets around." He grinned and winked. "Active duty. You know what I'm sayin'?"

"Not around here," McGraw said. "I've heard these Ishvalans don't go in for that. They're laced up pretty tight."

"Okay, fine. Maybe he just sent his family off to the circus while he sat back and relaxed." Gregg gave a laugh. "That's probably what I'd do."

"And let a sweet-looking dame like that outta your sight?" Bates scoffed. "I'd have sent the kids off and kept her home!"

"So what's that other little kid looking for, I wonder?" McGraw mused. "She's got a whole damn circus marching around in front of her, and she's looking everywhere else like she lost somebody. Daddy, maybe?"

"Maybe," Bates agreed, not too eagerly. He gave a slight start. "Oh, hey! Didja see that? She stuck her tongue out at me!"

"Probably because you're gawking at her," McGraw replied, keeping his face pointed toward the performers in the center of the tent. "Very subtle, Bates."

Danika let out a frustrated sigh. Papa wasn't anywhere in sight. But maybe it was just as well since those stupid stupid reporters were here, too. Well, she showed them exactly what she thought of them!