For Her. For Him.

A/N: I'm not sure how much longer this story will be, but I'm figuring somewhere around Chapter 40 I should be done, whether or not I make a second will be up to those who show they'd like to see what happens next.

Chapter 32

Birthday

It had taken some time to revive Shezka, and after explaining the entire situation to her, she explained to Ed that she’d come over with research she’d done into Maes’s death. There had been a lot of convincing on Ed’s part to make her trust Roy; after having watched his displays of unwavering loyalty to the military, she was obviously less than inclined to believe he genuinely was looking for his friend’s killer. Promising to return with what she could carry, she’d excused herself from the colonel’s house, obviously uncomfortable with the new couple even more so than the idea of Ed’s pregnancy.

Al returned back at the house with four officers in varying stages of inebriety, Ed had been at the kitchen table, eating once again, and nearly fell off of his chair in laughter when Raine opened the door and Breda slurred out, “Holy crap, the colonel’s in drag!”

In a sarcastic way that must have been an inherited trait to the Mustang family, Raine said, “Please tell me I’m at least a little better looking than my baby brother.”

Looking across the table at Roy, who was rubbing his temples and groaning, Ed snickered. “Is she always like this?”

“Always.”

“Roy, you’ve got a huge suit of armor and a bunch of drunk officers at your door,” she called out. “Do I let them in or not?”

“Let them in, but if they throw up in my house, you can personally pitch them out.”

Raine made her way back in the kitchen, followed by Al and the staggering men. Of the bunch, the only one who looked only mildly buzzed was Fuery. As though she was just noticing, Raine grabbed hold of the lit cigarette in Havoc’s mouth. “That’s a filthy and unhealthy habit, you know.”

“Ssso what’re you? A doctor?” Havoc slurred.

“Yes. I am.” She threw the nicotine stick into the sink, then placed a hand on Havoc’s chest, much to his dismay. “Yep, you’ve been smoking so long, I’m guessing since your early teenage years, that you’re already showing early signs of three different lung conditions.”

“Is she really your sister, Colonel?” Al asked.

“Yes. Meet Raine. Raine, meet my inebriated subordinates, Ed’s brother Al, and Marta.” He looked to Al. “Is Marta in there?”

“Yes," Al answered. "She passed out. She tried to drink Sergeant Fuery under the table.”

“Not passed out!” She yelled. “I didn’t know the bastard could drink so much.”

“We tried to warn you,” Falman said, repeatedly blinking and squinting his eyes. “He only looks like a lightweight.”

“Two people in one suit of armor?” Raine asked.

“Al is the suit of armor,” Roy explained. “His soul is bound to it.”

Raine mumbled, “No arm, no leg, no body. No wonder Baby’s strong enough to manage the transferal transmutation.”

“Al, let me out,” Marta ordered. “If big sis there knows I’m here. Might as well get out before I get sick.”

Marta wiggled herself out of Al, Ed watching for Raine’s reaction. She merely raised an eyebrow.

“A chimera and an empty suit of armor,” she mused. “Pyro, you certainly keep some interesting company nowadays.”

“Now, does someone want to explain how exactly you managed to get Marta into the bar without taking my underage brother in with her?” Ed asked, only trying to sound perturbed. As long as it wasn’t a strip club, it really wasn’t anything Al hadn’t seen before, but he did love the guys’ frightened reaction whenever he raised his voice. Even Fuery, who was obviously coherent, was bumbling over his words.

********

Roy had told Ed to go to their bed by himself so that he could talk to his sister. Without comment, Ed did, giving Roy a quick peck on the cheek before waddling his way up the steps, refusing to accept his younger brother’s offer to carry him.

Sitting on the sofa, the seat that thanks to Ed had become his new favorite in the study, Roy watched as his sister sat down beside him. It had been over five years since they’d seen one another, and over a year since they’d spoken.

“Do you love the little guy?” she asked.

“Yes.” Roy said, trying not to look too dreamy or goofy when he said it, afraid of teasing from his older sibling.

“Good. I like him.” She stretched out a long, soft hand and brushed aside Roy’s bangs, just like she’d always done when he was little.

“Why did you come here? Really.” He pulled away from her touch just a bit.

“Well, honestly, if I’d heard you were a father first, I’d have come anyway. I was in Xing when I’d heard about Maes’s death. I knew I couldn’t get to Central because of the rebellion, which was probably nearing its end by the time word of his death reached me.” She shook her head. “I had probably spoke to him a week before he died.”

“You two talked?”

“Well, you certainly wouldn’t.”

“But, I wouldn’t have thought…”

“He forgave me a long time ago for leaving him at the dance.” She elbowed Roy. “Besides, you wouldn’t have gotten your first kiss if I hadn’t left with the jock.”

“How did you--”

“Maes told me about ten years ago, Pyro.” She ruffled his hair. Roy hated how easily she made him feel like a kid. He was thirty years old and sitting next to his sister, he felt twelve. “Believe it or not, we’ve been on speaking terms even longer than that.”

“He had a huge crush on you, you know.”

“I know.” She wrapped her arm around Roy. “I came back as soon as I could leave Xing after I’d heard about Riza. I’d have been here sooner, but your damned fuhrer changed the passports, and I wasn’t allowed back into the country until I’d received clearance saying I wasn’t a terrorist. By the time I got here, I heard you were about to be the father of twins.”

Roy looked down at his feet. “Then you heard about what I did during the rebellion.”

She rubbed his shoulder. “Yes, Roy, I heard.”

“And you don’t hate me for it?”

She kissed his temple. “Of course not. You’re my kid brother. Besides, your girlfriend had just died. The fact that you held onto your sanity never fails to amaze me.” Roy’s eyes stung, he wanted to cry, but not in front of his sister.

“I killed people that day.”

“I’m sure you did.” Roy looked at Raine, brows meeting in confusion. His older sister abhorred the military and couldn’t stand killing for any reason. “Roy, ten years has passed since we were really able to talk, and I don’t mean a call to see how one or the other is doing. I mean talk. Back then, I was an idealist who was pissed you went and became a military dog, a decision I still don’t understand.”

“I didn’t want you having to take care of me after mom and dad… If I was in the academy, I wasn’t your responsibility anymore.”

“You’re a colonel in the military and thirty years old, Pyro. You’re still my responsibility. Deal with it.” Raine put her head on his shoulder. “And as far as what you did in Ishbal goes, I don’t hate you for that, either. Yes, I did the math and realized that the time we started to become so distant coincided with that war. I’ve lived through enough now to know that my kind of idealism simply isn’t realistic, so if you need to talk about anything, really talk, I’m not leaving until I at least get to meet my niece and nephew.”

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, Roy not wanting to explain that part of what had shaken him so badly during Ishbal was that he had killed two doctors who were only doing what she very likely would have in their position. Still, with a sister with a little more wisdom and understanding than the one he’d remembered from his teen years, the explanation might come a little easier.

“Now,” she said, lifting her head and turning her body to him, “what are we going to do for Baby’s birthday?”

“You want to get him a good gift, stop calling him Baby,” Roy said, knowing full well that once Raine decided on a name, she didn’t stop using it until she found one she liked better.

“Do you have a gift for him?”

“Yes. I’ve had it for a few weeks now.”

“I think a party might be in order. The poor kid’s been cooped up, the least you could do is throw him one.”

********

“I don’t want to go to the party,” Ed said from the master bedroom. “I’m fat.”

“You’re pregnant, Baby,” Raine said, standing outside, trying not to sound too irritated with the young alchemist. “Besides, I have chocolate galore down there. And there are presents.”

“I’m sure there are. They probably all brought presents for the baby. They’ll treat this like some baby shower.”

“Roy gave them strict orders not to. Any presents that are baby-related are to be second to a real gift for you. Now, are you coming out of that bedroom, or am I going to have to drag you out?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Want to bet, Baby?”

The door creaked open, as Ed stepped out in an oversized gray sweater and black maternity pants. He had refused to wear a shirt that was labeled as such, but had very little choice when it came to the bottoms, and conceded when Raine had discovered several colors in a style that from the thighs down looked like any other men’s dress pants.

“Are you going to ever stop calling me that?” he asked.

“No.” She patted his cheek, amazed that this kid, so near adulthood, but still looking every bit the boy was as strong as he was. Not to mention volatile. She’d mentioned one time how short he was and he’d flown off the handle in a way that told her this wasn’t just the hormones. Her little brother was going to have his hands full with this one, but when she looked at those coal black eyes that had seemed to hollow the last time she’d seen them, she actually saw life behind them. If it meant a lifetime of petty arguments, Raine really didn’t think Roy would mind, and she knew she wouldn’t as long as the little spitfire kept her brother looking alive.

She helped Ed down the stairs, making sure he had the railing at one side and her arm at the other. It was slow going, but they made it into the study where nearly a dozen people, friends of the two state alchemists waited. The one, semi-bald one, with his ridiculous single curl and mustache was smiling, literally sparkling as he saw the teen. Of the group, he’d been the only one still in the dark of the true reason for Ed’s sudden “illness.”

There was a knock at the door, which Roy answered.

“I come bearing cake,” the smoker said. He walked in with what looked like a homemade chocolate cake on a silver tray. “Gracia said she and Elysia will be over after Elysia's party. Right now, we’ll just have to be satisfied with the cake they made.”

“She shouldn’t have done that,” Ed said, letting go of Raine’s arm in order to brace his back as he walked over to the blond man.

“Well, you know Gracia. It didn’t matter that she had twenty five-year-olds coming over her house who expected a cake in the shape of a unicorn. She was baking your birthday cake, Ed.”

Ed stuck his finger in the icing rosettes at the base of the cake, but just before he could get the finger in his mouth, Roy had grabbed his left hand and licked the chocolate icing off.

“No fair,” he said, playfully backhanding Raine’s younger brother on the stomach. “It’s my birthday cake.”

Roy stuck his finger into a second decorative piece of icing and stuck it in the young blond’s mouth.

“I’m taking this into the kitchen before I have to witness any more of this,” the smoker said, disappearing from the hall. Roy watched him leave out of the corner of his eye, then leaned down and kissed the small blond. Raine stayed out of sight, watching her little brother and his boyfriend. She supposed for her this was less awkward, since she didn’t already have a preconceived notion of Ed and had known for over fifteen years her brother’s romantic interests weren’t exactly specific.

“Ed, I’d like to give you my present now, if I can.” Watching her brother drop to one knee in front of the teen, Raine’s own heart began beating faster with excitement. She looked at the blond, who stood, hands pressing into the small of his back, eyes welling with tears. They both knew what was coming, and both were shocked as hell that it was coming from Roy Mustang.

Roy reached into his pocket and pulled out a jewelry box, opening it for the teen. From her distance, Raine couldn’t exactly make out what was inside, though she could guess. “Ed, I know we can’t do anything while you are still technically my subordinate, but the moment that none of that matters any more, the moment I can officially call you mine, I want to be able to.”

“There’s two rings in here,” Ed said. Raine rolled her eyes. That was the kid’s answer?

“Yes, Fullmetal,” Roy said, shaking his head. “An adjustable one for you, since you’re still a growing boy and your hand keeps swelling, and one for me, so you don’t complain about being the girl in this relationship.” Ed was staring at Raine’s brother, occasionally darting his eyes to the open jewelry box. “Ed, you want to answer? Like you keep telling me, I’m an old man, and if you keep me like this much longer, I might not be able to get back up.”

“You really want to marry me one day?”

“No, I won these in a box of candy, and I thought they’d make a nice gift.” Roy groaned. “Yes, damn it. I want to marry you. I’d marry you today if it wouldn’t get both of us court-martialed.” Ed began to sob. “Great. I made you cry.”

“Yes,” came the answer quietly, barely audible.

“What?”

“Yes, Colonel Bastard,” Ed said, considerably louder. Roy stood, hugging and kissing the blond until Raine was certain neither of them would be able to stand once they were through. Then, her brother placed the ring on Ed’s flesh middle finger, while Ed placed it’s partner on Roy’s corresponding finger. Raine knew it was a concession that had to be made to keep people from suspecting the rings’ true meaning, but the two lovers knew and that was what mattered.

She gave them time to enjoy the afterglow of the moment before pouncing them with congratulations.

********

Going to the office the next day, Roy honestly didn’t care if he never stopped smiling. He was engaged, he was going to be a father, his sister was home and they were talking like they used to before their parents had died when he was fifteen, and Ed was now seventeen, so he felt like slightly less of a pervert that he’d had sex with him again last night.

Images of the teen beneath him, telling him how much he loved him, reminding him to use the right hole since he didn’t want the new one to become a “permanent feature,” begging for Roy to go faster and harder all went across the Flame Alchemist’s mind as he twirled the platinum band on his middle finger.

When he was called into the fuhrer’s office later that day, he was still smiling, though part of his mirth faded as he saw Frank Archer standing in front of the fuhrer’s desk.

“Colonel Mustang,” the fuhrer said, “you seem to be in a rather pleasant mood today. The prospect of new fatherhood perhaps?”

“You have heard, sir?”

“Yes, I have. I hope you plan on making an honest woman of the child’s mother.”

“My proposal was accepted last night, as a matter of fact, Sir.” Roy saw Archer’s body stiffen at those words.

“Congratulations, Colonel, though I am afraid I am the bearer of bad news.”

“As you are aware,” the fuhrer’s secretary said, “there has been unrest in Lior since Father Cornello was proven to be a false prophet by Fullmetal. Unfortunately, things have reached such a frenzy, with threats even reaching as far as Central.”

Roy was not pleased, but there was still a month left before the babies were born, if things went smoothly, he could go to Lior and be back before he missed even a moment of his babies’ lives.

“We have no choice,” King Bradley explained, “but to send troops into Lior, troops I would like the two of you to lead. Also, because he is the only one in the military with familiarity to the town, Fullmetal will be pulled off of sick leave, as he should be recovered by now well enough to at least serve as a scout for our troops.”

“Of course,” Archer said, with a cool smirk, “that means his brother would have to be left behind. The people of Lior might not remember Ed’s face, or his now rather sizable body, but they will remember the seven-foot-tall suit of armor.”

“He is right,” the fuhrer said. “And if the people of Lior do not recognize his brother, Scar, who it seems is also in the city, would. But, because I know the brothers are close, I will allow Al to travel along with the troops. An alchemist as skilled as he is could still prove useful as a sort of reserve troop.”

Roy thought he was going to be sick. They were pulling Ed from leave, but there was no way they could hide how pregnant he was and if he was a scout, there was no way Roy could go to protect him, or even have the guarantee of Al's presence. Trying not to hyperventilate at the thought of Ed, who would be thirty-four weeks along by the time they reached Lior, alone on the streets where Scar was running loose, Roy struggled to remain standing.

“Very well, Sir,” Roy said.

“You are dismissed, Colonel.”

Roy left the office, finding the nearest bathroom to throw up.