Chapter Ten: Where'd You Go? (Fort Minor Ft. Holly Brook)
A/N: Ah. Another Kai one. She's fifteen in this one, and Roy's been gone for a while, as you'll see. Don't ask me why, but he's been gone. Oh, KAIVERSE. See my profile if you don't know, because it's pretty important concerning who's around and who isn't.
Kai looked at her calendar and sighed. Three years.
Three years of birthday cards instead of hugs.
Three years of letters and calls instead of face-to-face discussions.
Three years of pictures.
Three years of her mom celebrating their anniversary alone, if at all.
Why, oh why did her father have to go? Why could he not take them with? He was not seeing combat, he told them. So why could they not see him?
"That's just the way life is, Kai," her parents had told her.
But why? I'm sick of it! My dad doesn't belong holed up in some bunker; he belongs with Mom and me, and we need to be a happy and normal family! They said I'd be able to handle it, but that isn't true. Nobody can really cope with someone they love being away for that long. And poor Mom. She does the best she can, but there are just some of those days where even she has to cry.
That pretty much summed up Kai's thoughts for the past three years. In the beginning, they had been childish, but even as time wore on, the sentiment did not change; it just got more mature. Possibly mature beyond her years, even- Kai did not know. She just wished that she could have her father back.
"Kai, would you get the door, please? I'm cooking!" Riza called from the kitchen.
Kai had been so absorbed in her own thoughts that she had not heard the knock, but went to the door, anyway.
She opened it, then stood stock-still: there was her father!
Roy smiled. "Pictures do not do my daughter justice."
"Dad," Kai breathed, tears welling. Then, louder, she cried, "Dad!"
No soon did Roy step in the door, then Kai latched onto him, sobbing. "Don't ever leave again, Dad, please!"
Riza, hearing the commotion, entered the room almost as cautiously as quickly. When she saw who it was, she, too, hurried over and clung to him. "I don't believe it!"
"Believe it- I'm here to stay," Roy informed them, now with his own tears flowing.
They just stood like that for a while, hugging and crying and assuring each other that all this was real.
When they finally broke apart, Roy headed up to his and Riza's room to change quickly, before coming back down to the kitchen. This whole being together thing was so new, and so important at the moment.
Over the course of the next few hours, Roy was told all of what he had missed: Kai's school accomplishments, her budding relationship with Max Elric (something she rather vehemently, but blushingly denied), her birthdays, her important outings with friends, and all that Riza had done.
"There was this one guy who kept on trying to convince her that you were never coming back, Dad. I did everything I could to drive him off, and Jean and Breda actually threatened to drag you back here just so that he'd go away," Kai told him. "Mom never did pull her gun on him, but I think she should've."
"Kai, that is not how we raised you," Riza told her daughter sternly, though she smiled at the memory of Havoc and Breda guarding her door for the next few weeks, refusing to let the guy anywhere near.
"Yeah. What happened to my sweet, innocent little girl?" Roy teased. "Must be that Elric boy. Kai, I've changed my mind. If you marry Max, I'll disown you."
"Dad!" Kai blushed again.
Riza shook her head. "I'm glad you didn't change, Roy."
Kai nodded. "Yeah, Dad. We missed you so much."
Roy looked at each of them, taking one of their hands in each of his. "And I missed you ladies, too. I promise you, the next time they try to send me away, I'll tell them no. They can't do that to us again. They won't."
It was the best thing anyone could picture: a family reunited, never to be separated again.
A/N: I totally tackle my big brother whenever he comes home. Within five minutes, we're beating each other up like he'd never left. I think I prefer the mushiness- it's far less injurious.
Reviews will be used to fund Roy's staying with his family! They're getting a happily ever after if I have anything to say about it!