Hey everyone! This one is a little longer than I expected it to be. I hope you like it!
There's a few things in there that seem to not make sense but they'll be explained later on in the main story.
This is the last part of the Post-Christmas Special.
Don't own FMA, just Alexis.
Enjoy~!
Chapter 9
Growing
Roy grumbled under his breath as he trudged through the snow-covered street. His best friend on his left, his little sister between them and Riza walking slightly behind.
"Hey, Cutie! Why don't you hold your Big Brother's hand while we walk?" Hughes teased, grinning down to the young girl.
The Mustang siblings tensed.
"The elves would think you're a REALLY good girl if you did!" He urged.
Alexis looked between the adults, sending a look to Riza behind her, before slowing holding Roy's hand. They all caught the flinch on her face but were proud she didn't pull away.
Hughes gaped, almost forgetting his camera.
That worked? He thought before a wicked grin appeared on his face.
"And you know what else? If you called him 'Roy' or 'Brother' too!"
"Hughes!" Roy snarled, a hint of embarrassment on his face.
Hughes chuckled but dropped the subject. Riza laughed quietly behind them.
"Alexis, why don't you and I go look for a tree and decorations, while Captain Hughes and Major Mustang look for gifts?" Riza suggested, subtly nudging Hughes out of the way before he could take pictures. The older man pouted.
Alexis looked up to Riza, some of the coldness gone from her eyes since the last time she'd seen them.
She gave a silent nod to the older woman and Riza held her hand out to her.
Hesitantly, the younger took it in her gloved hand, releasing Roy's with the other.
Hughes snapped pictured violently.
"Aww~! It could only be cuter if my darling Gracia were here to take her other hand!"
Roy rolled his eyes.
"I'll take my leave now, si...Brother..."
A large squeal deafened the flame alchemist and he glared at the source, Hughes.
Riza had already pulled Alexis away down the street.
The blonde looked down to the black-haired child still holding her hand and a sad smile graced her lips.
She remembered the first time she'd seen her. She remembered the despair and horror on the older Mustangs face when he saw her.
So much blood.
Riza ripped herself from those thoughts to see Alexis looking up at her.
"I'm sorry" Alexis told her, baffling the older of the two. The girl turned her eyes to the floor. "I'm sorry"
"What are you sorry for, Alexis?"
The younger hesitated.
"You, Mr Hughes and...Brother...all get a look in your eyes when you look at me. It looks painful" She answered.
Alexis jerked when she felt Riza stop in her tracks; she turned to her with small surprise.
"Alexis...You should know that it's not you that's painful to us. It's what you've been through. We want to do everything we can to help you. So don't worry about looking at us" Riza's voice was firm and determined as she spoke, but her eyes were soft, connecting directly with Alexis'.
"Now! Let's find a good Krisdnas tree!"
Alexis gave a tiny smile at the mispronunciation but said nothing.
"Ok Roy! We gotta get you a red suit and a beard!" Hughes exclaimed.
"What?"
"Rooooooyyyyyy, you gotta be Santa Claus for our cute lil Alexis!"
"She'll never fall for that, you know"
"Yes she wiiiiilllll Roooooyyyyyy~"
Roy sighed, his shoulders hunching slightly under the weight of the other man's arm.
"WHATS ALL THIS ABOUT MISS ALEXIS?" A voice bellowed.
Roy sighed again, turning toward the large sparkly man.
"Oh! Why doesn't Major Armstrong be Santa Claus?" Hughes pondered.
"SANDA CLAWS? IS IT SOMETHING I WOULD BE PROUD TO BE?"
Hughes grinned up at the man.
"Of course! I'll tell you all about him!"
Christmas Eve
Alexis looked between the pictures and the tree they had cut down and decorated.
Disappointment entered her eyes.
The decorations in the pictures were much prettier and they had a shiny, fluffy-looking rope thing that wrapped around the tree. She'd seen it called 'Tinsel'. Their tree had random objects and snow from outside on it, the snow inside his house almost made Roy blow a fuse.
Hughes looked between the pictures and their tree as well, looking at the sadness in Alexis' eyes.
"Well! Now it's time to add our own special touches!" He proclaimed, taking things out of his pockets.
Alexis' head snapped towards him. "Special touches?"
"Yup! We have to put something special to us on it now! Something that means something to us!" He told her.
Gracia stood beside him, a smile on her face.
Hughes took something from his pocket and turned to the tree.
Alexis tried her best to see what he was doing, standing on her tiptoes and craning her neck.
When he pulled away, they saw a picture of him and Gracia together hanging by a string on a tree branch.
Alexis blinked in surprise at it.
Gracia stepped forward and put another picture of her and Hughes on it, this time with him making a silly face.
Armstrong transmuted a, rather-large, tree-topper of himself, making Gracia giggle.
Riza hung one of her hand guns near the top.
"Riza~ You can't put a gun on the tree!" Hughes protested.
"Why not? It's important" she argued back, leaving her other gun in its holster.
"How does it have something to do with Christmas?"
"You said it was about the people you care about, I protect people with my guns"
She countered, Hughes mouth snapped shut, pouting. Gracia laughed again.
"Roy? What are you going to put on the tree?" Hughes asked.
Roy grumbled "It's in my house? That's special"
"Rooooooyyyyyyy~!"
"Fine!"
Roy pulled his gloves from his pocket and hung them beside Riza's gun.
Hughes opened his mouth to complain but shut it quickly afterwards.
"Alexis? What about you?" Gracia asked, kneeling down to the child.
Alexis eyes went blank, making almost everyone in the room freeze.
"Something...special?" She wondered. "I don't know..."
Her eyes fixed to the floor, thinking as hard as she could.
Suddenly her head shot up and she ran into the kitchen.
Roy went after her, but wasn't in time to stop her from cutting a lock of her shoulder-length hair off.
"Wha-? Alexis?"
She ran past him, clutching the hair in her hand.
"I want to put this up!" She held it out to Hughes, looking to the string in his hand.
"That? Why that?" He asked.
She gazed up to him, her eyes taking a soft look.
"It's my last hair-cut" She answered.
Everyone blinked; some had confusion on their faces, some pain.
"Why's that sweetie?" Gracia asked.
"I've never had long hair before" She told her.
Hughes took the lock from her, tied a string around it to hold the hairs in place and hung it on the tree.
"This should be fine for now, but after Christmas you'll have to find something else. We can't keep hanging hair on the tree." He told her.
Alexis nodded.
"Understood!"
"Right! Well we should all go to sleep then, Santa won't come if he knows we're all awake" Hughes said, leading Gracia towards a guest room that Roy had, begrudgingly, let them use.
Alexis took Riza's hand and pulled her towards her room, the two sharing the bed for the night.
Roy looked up at Armstrong and sweatdropped at the man staring down at him, sparkles present.
"Let us depart to the bedroom, Major! Santa Claus cannot be interrupted!"
Can't he say that differently? The Flame Alchemist complained, letting the larger man pull him to his room.
Roy took the bed while Armstrong slept on cushions on the floor, after they put all the presents under the tree of course.
Alexis fidgeted under her blankets, trying not to disturb Riza.
"Too excited to sleep?" The blonde asked, smiling slightly in the darkness.
"What if the Elfes forgot to tell Santa about us?" The eight-year-old questioned.
Riza brushed some hair from the girls face.
"I'm sure they didn't. You've been a very good girl and Santa knows that. He'll come."
Alexis gave a small smile, closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep.
Riza waited until the small girl's breathing slowed before drifting off as well.
Everyone woke to a small, fast pad-pad-padding noise through the house.
Hughes door flung open and a black creature threw itself onto his bed.
Hughes coughed, the air leaving his lungs in an instant.
"He came! He came!" A voice cheered.
Hughes opened his eyes to see the girl already dashing out of the room, hearing the same thing happening in Roy's room.
"Alexis?!" Roy yelled.
Riza chuckled as she watched the girl run around the house excitedly.
Roy dragged himself out of his room to the lounge, Armstrong bounding behind him. Alexis sat herself in front of the Christmas tree, gazing at the presents as if they were magical. The older sibling smiled.
Hughes and Gracia made their way out of their room, Hughes snapping various pictures as he did.
"He came~!" Alexis sang, rocking back and forth on her butt.
"Well, hand out the presents, Alexis!" Gracia said, sitting beside Riza on the couch.
Alexis looked back to them with a smile. A collective gasp rang through the room.
Her eyes? Roy stared at his sister, her eyes no longer the knife-silver he had hated.
"Alexis! Your eyes are black!" Hughes exclaimed.
"Coz Santa granted my wish!" She smiled as she pulled out some presents, almost dropping some. "This one is for Riza, This one for Brother, OH! This one is for me!"
She handed the presents around before sitting between the two women and ripping open her own gift.
Hughes subtly shooed Armstrong out of the room.
"Ohhh" Alexis held a necklace in her hand, a small star hanging from it. "Pretty"
She fumbled with the clasp and Gracia took it from her, helping her to put it on.
Alexis looked around to everyone, her new-coloured eyes shining.
The best Christmas ever! She thought to herself.
"HO HO HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS!" A voice boomed.
Alexis jumped as Armstrong walked in, wearing a make-shift Santa suit they had made.
"Santa?"
"YOU'VE BEEN A VERY GOOD GIRL ALEXIS, I CAME TO GREET YOU PERSONALLY!" Armstrong said, hands on his hips.
Alexis then noticed the sparkles surrounding him and deadpanned.
"...Major Armstrong...Why are you dressed as Santa?" She asked.
Everyone in the room froze, sweating.
"What are you talking about? I'm Santa Claus! The gift-giving business has been in the Claus name for centuries!"
Roy slapped his hand to his forehead and Hughes chuckled.
Alexis stepped forward and pulled his beard down, showing Armstrong's face.
It was silent for a few seconds till they heard laughter ringing out.
All eyes turned to the youngest in the room. she held the fake beard in her hands and was laughing.
Hughes snapped a quick photo.
"You looked ridiculous!" The girl giggled. Then she looked at the beard, then to Roy.
She held the beard up to him and squinted before laughing again.
Everyone joined in, except Roy, who glared at the fake beard.
Alexis went to him, hugging him around the waist, surprising everyone.
"This is the best Christmas ever" She told him. "Thank you, Brother, everyone!"
The day continued with a home-made breakfast, made by Roy, then re-made by Gracia and Riza because he burnt it. They played games, chatted and ate happily together.
"So what did you wish for, Alexis?" Hughes asked, gazing at her new eyes.
"...I wanted to be normal" She told him, a small smile playing on her lips.
He blinked a few times before smiling and ruffling her hair.
Alexis grinned up to him.
Alexis woke as the car pulled up to the hospital, Riza looked at her worriedly.
Havoc was already outside the car, opening the door for them.
"You ok, Alexis?" Al asked from the seat across from her.
The girl winced, holding her bandaged arm before a contented smile pulled her lips.
"I just drifted off for a bit, I'm fine, Al. Thank you" She told him.
Ok so the thing with her hair will be explained later.
Also this is the first time she started acting like a real child, she did it because she didn't like seeing the sad looks everyone had when they saw her. She still has most of her old memories but they've started to be pushed back, which is why her eyes changed colour.
Eventually she forgets all-together, until she starts working for the military again, which is a little before Ed gets his license.
I hope it's not too confusing to everyone!
The normal story will continue in the next chapter.
Till then, See you!