Riza

"Have you got your passport?"

Riza fussed over her daughter's luggage as she checked everything one last time. Her daughter was due any minute to leave and travel the world. Alone.

She'd already gone through everything at home, but just wanted to be sure. Mia Mustang was always too excited about the journey ahead and the destination to remember to prepare properly for the trip. More often than not, Riza had to drive somewhere to drop off whatever it was Mia had forgotten but was vital for her night out or her classes.

Today, after Mia went through security, Riza wouldn't be able to walk through and hand over something she'd forgotten or overlooked while packing. While Mia was travelling the world in the coming months, Riza wouldn't be able to hop into her car and drive twnty minutes along the road to drop it off for her excited, yet slightly forgetful child.

"Yes, Mum, I've got it," Mia reassured her, waggling said passport that held her boarding pass inside it.

Riza straightened from being hunched over her daughter's luggage. Suddenly, her baby girl wasn't a baby anymore. Staring back at her was a young woman with a mildly exasperated, but amused look on her face.

"Don't worry, Mum. I've got everything. You've checked it over five times already. At this point, I'd be surprised if something was missing," she chuckled.

Riza smiled fondly at her daughter, despite her continuing anxiety, and dropped her worried checks of Mia's luggage.

Rationally, Riza knew her behaviour was overbearing but… She knew what Mia was like. It always paid for someone to make that extra check. A trait she must have picked up from her father, Riza always thought.

"Sorry, Mia." She smiled tightly before pulling her into a fierce hug. Riza's face screwed up as she remembered this was their final few minutes together. She wouldn't see Mia again in person for another six months – far too long.

It had been the two of them for such a long time… The house would be too quiet without Mia around.

But she deserved to go off on her own and live her own life. Find and have her own adventures. Riza wanted that for her.

"I made sure to pack everything, Mum. I have the most important things," Mia reassured. "I have my passport and money. Anything else I've truly forgotten, I can buy if needed."

"I love you, Mia," Riza whispered in her ear as a call went out over the speakers, stating that check-in was now available for Mia's flight.

Riza gave her one more squeeze, unable to let go so soon.

"I love you too, Mum." Mia hugged her back just as tightly.

"And so does your father. He's sorry he couldn't make it today too," Riza started to explain, "he's -"

"At work, I know." Mia smiled.

There was no hint of disappointment in her tone, simply understanding. Mia knew how busy her father was but growing up he'd always made the effort to see her as much as possible. He was always around, and even though Roy and Riza weren't together anymore, he was still happy to come and visit them both.

"Okay," Mia grinned, taking a deep breath. It exhaled in a rush, her face lighting up with pure excitement. "Time to go."

Riza couldn't resist bringing her in for one more hug, causing Mia to laugh.

"Call me every day, okay? And call your father too. I'll text you his schedule as soon as he lets me know it, but at least he'll be home in a few weeks time. Please, make sure you do."

"I will, Mum, don't worry," Mia reassured her with a confident grin. She shouldered her backpack and lifted her suitcase into her hands. "I won't forget about you two. I promise."

Kissing her daughter's cheek in a final farewell, Riza watched as her eighteen-year-old checked her baggage in all by herself. Mia turned and gave Riza a quick wave before hopping onto the escalator which would take her out of sight to airport security. Riza waved back, her free hand clutching her purse tightly as she tried to reign in her anxiety and worry. It was natural. Her only child was going off to face the world all by herself, without her parents to watch over her.

Letting out a shaky breath, Riza let Mia go so she could fly the nest and be her own person.

Roy

Roy checked his watch, as he'd done so numerous times throughout the day. The little hand was slowly creeping towards the hour he was looking for, the time dragging on for far longer than it should have.

It was almost time for Mia's flight to take off.

He clicked open a new tab on his laptop and typed in a search for a flight tracking website. If he really wanted to, he could use the military's resources to track the flight. He would be guaranteed to gain quicker, more accurate results, however there was something… mundane, he supposed, or comfortable, in searching for his daughter's flight. Almost as if he would if he were he not at work, and at home instead.

In all honestly, if he weren't at work, he'd be at the airport, sticking as close to Mia as possible before she had to leave him to go through security on her own.

Roy sucked in a breath and let it out, hoping the yearning in his chest to be anywhere but here would grant him peace, at least for a little while.

He didn't want to be working. He wanted to be by his daughter's side, seeing her off on her adventures.

But flight radar was the next best thing while his hands were tied.

Riza had made sure he knew the flight codes before he left for this stint. Mia assured him she'd send him the information, but in her daughter's excitement, she'd never got round to it. Typical Mia.

The thought made him smile.

The flight popped up on the screen, in the form of a small yellow aircraft, sitting stationary at the airport gate on the map.

Roy had been hoping he'd be free from the confines of his work before Mia left for her six-month jaunt to Xing, Creta, then Aerugo, but the plans fell through. There was a severe weather delay in the delivery for the contract, so their completion date had been pushed back another week. Irritated, but unable to help the weather, Roy had accepted his fate and managed to email Riza to let her know that he wouldn't be there with them both. She couldn't reply to him, but at least he knew she'd received his disappointing news.

One of many, over the years.

He didn't hate his job. It was challenging and offered great rewards, however the setbacks like this irritated him because he wanted to hug his daughter and see her off as she started travelling. He wanted to give her a tight hug and a kiss as she left to hop on a plane to another country, hundreds and thousands of miles away from him.

Riza would have been there though, obviously, so that was something. Those two were inseparable, so Roy hoped she'd be okay on her own.

Their breakup was amicable. They were both going in two different directions with their lives and where Roy was going - the military and the numerous off the grid sites for weeks or sometimes months on end – he wouldn't ask her to wait for him. She deserved to live her own life, not wait around for him and his ambitions.

She said time and time again that she'd wait for him, but Roy couldn't ask her to do that. And he supposed, Riza knew too, she wouldn't be happy to do so.

The military owned him until his contract was up, and he could be shipped off to war at a moment's notice, should the worst happen.

He couldn't do that to her.

He loved her too much to subject her to it.

And Riza would feel the same way too, if the situation was flipped. It would be an endless cycle. One they would never be able to break free from. So, for their own happiness, they'd separated. Given it a try, at least, and Roy guessed, they'd just got comfortable. They'd found a routine which suited them best, and just stuck with it.

Roy was currently losing sight of why he'd remained in his current employment for so long.

He wanted to be with his daughter.

He wanted to be with Riza.

Of course, he still loved her. He always would. Riza Hawkeye owned every part of his heart, and there wouldn't be another who could compare to her. There never had been.

She was the mother of his child. There was a special kind of bond between them.

That news had come as a surprise. Shortly after their breakup, Roy had been shipped out to work in the north for six months. No contact with relatives, no contact with the outside world. Despite it being mutual, he still took their breakup hard. Those six months would help him get over her, Roy thought. Within a week of being released he'd discovered she was seven months pregnant.

With his child.

He'd fought the military and managed to be at the birth of his daughter. It was the happiest day of his life. They'd spent two months together, unbothered bythe outside world and their responsibilities.

However, after those two months, his leave was up, and he was dragged roughly back to reality, and had to return to working on site, away from them, from everyone, with a brand-new contract.

He'd signed it, overwhelmed and desperate to be able to provide for his child.

It was the hardest thing he'd ever done, walking away from the woman he still loved and his new-born daughter.

He'd been young and terrified. Unsure and uncertain of how to even proceed. But he knew he needed money. And his work could provide that, at the very least.

By the time he'd been released again, Mia was already crawling.

Riza - bless her heart - had recorded everything for him and sent it all. She'd documented Mia's development from a squishy, pink ball of an infant, to a happy baby with her own cheeky smile and personality.

The ugly head of reality reared its head every time he managed to get a brief moment with Riza and Mia. It killed him he couldn't be there with Riza to raise his child full time. However, that was what he'd signed up for when he'd left Riza to join the military.

His biggest regret.

Over the years it had gotten easier, but it'd taken its time. He tried his damnedest and fought to see Mia at the biggest events in her life. He'd managed most of them, however most wasn't enough. He should have been at all.

Sighing, Roy watched as the yellow pixels started to move across the screen, signalling Mia's flight was taking off, heading due east to Xing. Her first stop.

"Have a safe flight, Mia," he murmured, glancing at the photo of them both on his desk. Roy smiled softly at the memory of her grin. "Go and have fun in the world."

Mia

Take off had never been Mia's favourite part of a flight. Once they levelled out though she made herself comfortable and pulled out her tablet. Her headphones went in and Mia scrolled to the playlist she'd made specially for this flight. Once the music was playing, she sighed and leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes, ready to relax for the next eight hours of this flight.

A fleeting thought occurred to her.

Mia's eyes flew open. She opened her emails app and opened it to a blank screen, ready to take in her thoughts.

Her fingers paused, hovering over the keys as she pondered over the use of sending her message, but decided to go for it anyway in the end. Her fingers flew across the screen as she typed in her father's email address. It was familiar to her, it was the way they always communicated while he was away on a contract.

He'd end up with an influx of emails when he got home, but Mia didn't care. She knew he appreciated them and coming home to them would make him happy. Mia smiled to herself, thinking of his pleased smile when he saw he had an email or two… or ten, from her.

Hopefully they might make him feel a little less alone out there too.

Hey Dad,

I'm on the plane.I know you won't get this for a while, but I still wanted to send you a message. Hope all is going well with you.

Mum was freaking out at the airport. She was worried I'd forgotten something again, but she literally emptied and repacked my bag for me so many times, so there's no way that would happen.

I think she's scared about me going off by myself.

Could you give her a call when you get out? I don't want her to feel alone while I'm gone, and I know she'll appreciate it.

I'll speak to you soon.

I love you.

Mia hit send and closed the app. It would go out to him when she next connected to WiFi.

She settled back in her seat and tried to control the grin threatening to overtake her face.

This trip, this moment, had been a dream for her for so long and now it was finally here.

It didn't feel real. It felt like she'd get off this plane and still be in Amestris, not in Xing – her first stop of many. It had always been this far off place, never quite in her reach. But now it was.

They'd never ventured out of Amestris for holidays before. Mum wasn't poor by any means, but she never liked flying. In fact, she hated it. It almost gave her panic attacks. Mia hadn't minded though. She was happy to go anywhere new with her mother, regardless of where it was. So long as they were together, it didn't matter to her.

However, with Dad, he'd told her all about her Xingese grandmother and Cretian grandfather. He'd told her about where they'd both grown up, and how beautiful it was.

They'd met in Xing when grandfather was travelling himself. They'd fallen madly in love, married, and lived there together for years. They'd then moved to Amestris, before Dad was born, but they'd still taken trips back there with him when he was a young child, before they died, splitting their time between Xing and Creta.

Now, it was Mia's turn to make a trip to both small towns, countries apart, where her father's parents were from.

Ever since Dad had told her about it, she'd fallen in love with those places.

Now she was on her way to see it.

Ideally, she'd have liked to have travelled with her father, however it wasn't meant to be.

It was the start of her summer and in September she'd be starting university. This was her only window of going on this trip but because of his work, Dad was still in working on site.

Mum had been so disheartened on her behalf when Mia told her about Dad's change of plans, but it couldn't be helped. Mia understood that. Dad worked for the military, and they essentially owned him. If he was given orders, he had to follow them…

Mia had learned that very early on in life. It had stung at first, but she would never get mad at her father for it. His work made him happy, and Mia wouldn't take that away from him, or make him feel bad about it.

She worried for her father. Mia didn't think it was healthy to coop people up working away from everyone for so long. He could be there for a month, minimum, and a year, maximum. He missed out on so much that was happening in the world around him.

He missed out on his time with her.

When she was really young, Mia hadn't fully understood why her father was so absent all the time. When they were together, they had so much fun and when apart, she missed him so much. As Mia grew older, she realised that her constant questioning and tears wore down her mother a lot. She had made excuses for him because Mia was a child and couldn't understand.

"Daddy is working away. He can't be here right now."

"How about I give you a hug instead? Will that make you feel better?"

"Daddy won't make your birthday this year, sweetheart. I know, I'm so sorry. So is he. But we'll do something fun together, okay? Just you and me."

It wasn't fair – hadn't been fair – on her mother, but Mia wouldn't hold that against Dad. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't like he could up and leave the military. He was bound in a contract. While the thought terrified Mia, it was his choice. He was old enough to make his own, and Dad wouldn't do anything that was really dangerous, right?

The pilot's voice came over the PA system, signalling the seatbelt sign had been turned off and they were free to move about the cabin. Mia settled back once more, pushing aside her always worrying thoughts of her parents and opened a game on her tablet.

It was time to look forward, to the future. To this trip she'd been planning and dreaming about for years.

Mia couldn't wait.