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Nightmares	By : Khait_Khepri Category: Fullmetal Alchemist > Het - Male/Female Views: 2624 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist nor am I making money from the creation of this story. This is merely for entertainment purposes.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Summary: Their nightmares give them their dreams.
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She still remembered the day he had reappeared in East City like it was yesterday. How joyful she felt when she saw him waltz straight into her office with that smirk. He was eighteen, she thirty-two, and the mess in Central had been over for two years. She knew that he was no longer an alchemist or working for the military, but he had been admitted into the building without preamble for Fuhrer Grumman had given the teenager a more or less honorary and permanent position as a State Alchemist. The old coot had done it during his requested visit to Central Command even though the former Fullmetal couldn’t even transmute water to water. It was the most that Edward had allowed himself to accept and even that had been a serious hassle. What he’d done for their nation, even though it had been kept as good a secret as possible, would never be truly recognized by the public or the military. Those that knew, however, felt that some kind of token of honor had to be given. They also knew that the only thing he’d really wanted was Alphonse restored… and his closest friends had known he had wanted to remain at her side.
It had been a deliriously nice little vacation that Grumman had forced her on after he’d given her Ed’s discharge papers and she knew it was as much a political move as him returning Hawkeye, Breda, Falman, and Fuery to her side. Havoc, though recovering the use of his legs, was quite happy in retirement and didn’t feel the urge to return even though he potentially could in the future. Grumman had also advised her that she ought to keep hold of her dream and to work as hard as she could, but to please not to turn on him while he held office. He had also advised her to keep her dalliances among men outside of her chain of command for future reference, too. She had readily agreed to both stipulations, not bothered at all. After all, he was a good man to have about as a Fuhrer and she had her eyes set only on Edward as far as men were concerned. At that point, the matter had been dropped.
But that moment Edward had appeared in her office… It had been truly exquisite. She’d remembered the shock she’d felt, for she’d not heard any reports of him finishing his rounds, thanking the variety of souls that had helped him and his brother along their journey. She had heard about his trip to see Grumman, though, and had later learned of the job offer the man had given him. No matter what she had or had not heard, though, he had been there and, more importantly, he was now all hers. As soon as the discharge papers had been in his hand, they’d immediately started dropping hints and letting the rumor spread that both the Flame and the former Fullmetal were one of those ‘item’ things. Calls would be made, letters sent… and each one had made her happy to see when it crossed her desk and into her hands, personally delivered by one of her subordinates and each and every one of them sporting a knowing grin. Now, many knew that the former-and-honorary State Alchemist had fallen for the Flame Alchemist, Rowan Mustang, rank Major General.
Oh, yes… she’d been promoted a rather large step and when he’d called her ‘Colonel’ in his usual fashion, she’d smirked and told him he forgot that she had been promoted. He changed it to ‘Brigadier General’ and she had corrected him again. She was officially the youngest ever Major General. Of course, the moment he’d walked into the office meant only one thing would likely happen that day and Hawkeye had reluctantly given her leave to escape after the direst of the paperwork had been completed. And Rowan had taken him back to her house, not the one that she’d previously had, and promptly jumped him.
That had been nine months ago and only eight of those months were evident on her. Fingers… flesh fingers… slid over the bare skin of her distended abdomen, feeling the movement underneath. She reveled in the touch, keeping her eyes closed as lips pressed against the curve of her belly, her husband of six months lavishing attention on their unborn child. His long hair was loose and tickling her skin as he slid his tongue out and lapped at his wife’s pregnant belly. He had gained an absolute fascination with her belly, especially after she had begun showing. That had been part of the reason they’d married so quickly… because Edward hadn’t wanted to have their child born outside of wedlock. Of course, the completely poleaxed expression on his face when she’d confessed she was pregnant to him was well worth it. And she had her puppy all to herself, now.
His growth had leveled out about the same time she’d gone on vacation in Resembool, just tall enough now that he didn’t have to stretch or tilt his head too much to get to her mouth when she stood. And personally she was glad for it, if only to keep him from being too aggravated at her for being the tallest of the pair.
That tongue danced across taught skin down underneath the curve of her belly and she knew where he was going. Casually shifting, she rolled onto her back and spread her legs only to hear him chuckle. “You’re not nearly as asleep as you’re pretending,” he teased.
“Shut up and keep going,” Rowan grunted, feeling the weight of her belly bearing down on her. He laughed again even as she smoothed a hand over the pale skin holding their child. Their child… It was hard to believe sometimes. Thankfully he did as commanded and began to eat out her extremely sensitive sex. Immediately hooking fingers into her and pumping with the familiarity of an old hand, he swirled and lapped at her clit with his tongue. One thing that Rowan had discovered during her pregnancy was her increased sex drive. Coupled with his own masculinity confirmed, making his libido far more active, the pair of them had decided they really liked this pregnant thing… sans the discomforts such a condition wreaked upon Rowan’s body. But for the most part, the woman had enjoyed her pregnancy and reveled in being able to bitch and whine and actually be forgiven for it at work! Not to mention Edward had been extremely happy to cater to almost every whim she had.
Suddenly she hit peak and her entire body convulsed, sending a tense discomfort through her belly but it was one she’d come to enjoy. Their unborn child kicked inside her and she moaned Edward’s name even as her fingers, lacquered with her favorite red enamel, caressed her large belly. It was like the size of a football (soccer ball), only slightly oval and delightfully sensitive. Her breasts had become larger as well, her areolas and nipples darkening from the waiting milk within them. Where they’d been decent sized C-cups before, they’d expanded into D-cups and had become tender. Edward, for all his dislike of ‘cow juice’, had become as enraptured with the engorged mammaries as he had with her belly. Such simple undisguised lust made her feel beautiful even when she felt like an unwieldy, ugly whale.
And speaking of lust… Edward was nudging at her, urging her to roll over onto her hands and knees. She grunted as she maneuvered as he wished, dark hair flopping into her eyes as she did so. A couple pillows appeared to cradle her belly, ensuring she’d not have the weight dragging at her middle even as he murmured endearments to her, further encouraging her. There were only two ways she could have sex right now and this was one of them. The other was to crouch over him as he pumped upwards. Once he had her ‘doggy style’, he palmed her right hip with his flesh right hand, knowing she enjoyed feeling the appendage after having so long felt steel, and guided his erect member into her waiting and wet sex.
Immediately, she felt her arms give as the amazing feeling of his cock filled her up. A low moan of sheer delight burst from her lips as he pumped into her, the hand that had palmed her hip was now touching her belly and the other hand had joined it on the other side. Edward delighted in the feeling of her stomach and couldn’t help his reaction to her, coming far sooner than intended. Thankfully, her own delicate state had given her a much easier to please libido and she came right about him at the same time.
“Fuck, I’m pathetic,” he grumbled in exasperation. “A little touching on you and I’m done.”
She chuckled even as she looked over her shoulder at him. “It’s nice to know you’re so helpless when it comes to me,” she purred, her dark eyes mischievous. “Think you could make me some breakfast, love?”
He grunted sourly. It had been discovered that Rowan, despite her vaunted title of Flame Alchemist, had very poor cooking skills. Edward was better than her because of one thing… Winry had taken him in hand and forced him to learn how to cook. “Sure, sure,” he said, sliding off their shared bed to grab the clothes Rowan had taken off of him the night before.
Before he could pull on anything, Rowan was standing up as well and pressing that amazing belly of hers into his backside and he shuddered in delight as red-painted nails made an appearance on his chest as she nuzzled him as best as she could. “I’d rather you do it naked and let me watch…” she purred.
“I’d rather not get bacon grease on my dick, thank you very much,” he retorted. Getting popped on normal skin like his arms or face was startling and a touch painful. He really didn’t want to know what it’d be like on more sensitive skin.
“You can always wear an apron.”
“Then I’d not be naked, now would I?”
“No, but I’d still get to see your fine ass,” she teased, loosing one hand from about his torso so that she might palm said backside before deliberately pinching it. He jumped a little, looking over his shoulder at her. “Please?” she wheedled.
“Fine,” he sighed, giving in with little issue. It was kind of funny when he thought about it. Both he and Alphonse had fallen for girls of Xingese decent. Both females had serious political power. Granted, Alphonse had done ‘one better’ by snagging an honest-to-goodness princess but Edward felt that he’d gotten the real prize. And he mischievously turned on that ‘prize’ as soon as she took her hands off of him to walk downstairs. Grabbing her up, still incredibly strong thanks to all his training, he carried her bridal style down the stairs with an ease no other man would have been able to attain. She squealed in shock as he did so, instinctively curling her arms about his neck. It was a touch awkward due to her gravid form, but he managed it none the less.
Once they got downstairs, he settled her down at the breakfast table sitting in the kitchen and thoroughly kissed her when she made move to protest at his manhandling. “Shut up,” he told her. “You know you liked it.” And she pouted at him before crossing her arms over her breasts and making them press together to give a large amount of cleavage.
“You have no right to grab me up like I’m some doll, Edward Elric!” she hissed.
“Shut up, Rowan Elric,” he snarked back, enjoying the taste of his last name on her given name as it passed his lips. “Or I won’t make you breakfast.” She pouted even more, though there was a glitter of amusement in her eyes that he didn’t miss. And at that point, he started stroking her belly, wanting to persuade her arms away from those very nice breasts of hers. His touches were light, ticklish, and he smiled as his baby kicked at where he touched, making his wife quite cross at him.
“You’re stirring her up!” she squawked, slapping at his hands.
“Or am I stirring him up?” he shot back rhetorically. It was an old argument. Of course they didn’t know the gender and there had been a lot of debate as to what to name the baby. It had been more or less decided that if it was a boy, the name would have to be Maes in honor of the man they had both cared deeply for. Most of their issue came with the girl’s name. Edward didn’t particularly wish to use his mother’s name… not out of disrespect but rather a wish to not remind himself further than his leg of the mistakes he’d made. He really didn’t want to live in the past for the rest of his life. The issue lie in the fact that Rowan had thought ‘Trisha’ was a good name to use, wanting to use a name that connected to them and knowing that Trisha had been an extraordinary mother. She hadn’t wanted to use her aunt’s name, Chris, as she didn’t want to give the connotations of a Madame to her child if it was a daughter and she didn’t really want to use her own mother’s name as she didn’t really remember the woman.
“Or him,” she returned before her stomach gave a low whine even as the baby kicked. “Now, are you going to cook or not? I’m hungry!”
“Yeesh… bitchy, bitchy,” he grumped good-naturedly as he turned from her to get out the ingredients for breakfast. “What do you want? Griddle cakes?”
“Mmm… griddle cakes,” mused the woman, gaining a dreamy look and deliberately missing the ‘bitchy’ comment.
“As the General commands,” he mused, getting to work. Really, it had been lucky that Winry had found out first-hand that Rowan was rubbish at cooking and had insisted he learned out of self-preservation. Edward had even discovered he liked cooking as it was kind of like doing a much quieter version of alchemy. Raw ingredients went in and something yummy came out. Not to mention, alchemy was said to have been born in the kitchen. It was definitely familiar. And boy, had it been funny to watch an exasperated Rowan manage to do what a flame-wielding alchemist did best… burn things… The astonishing part was that when Winry had realized the Flame had even been capable of burning water, she had promptly booted the older woman from the kitchen with strict orders to never touch anything resembling a kitchen again while in Resembool before dragging the - at the time - newly-wedded Edward to the stove and browbeating him into learning while ranting about incompetent Colonels (even though she had been promoted twice) and not wanting to burn down the house because of that sheer incompetence.
It had taken a lot of persuasion from Edward to keep from having Rowan burn Winry’s hair off with a snap of her fingers. And it had taken a good deal of ‘persuasion’ later that night in the privacy of a borrowed room to keep her from considering it the next day. Fortunately, Winry had escaped unscathed and Rowan had discovered that her new husband was really quite canny in the kitchen. Pinako, during this entire exchange, had alternately clucked her tongue and laughed at the rambunctious trio before hauling Rowan off to spend some quality time with the wife of her surrogate grandson. The old woman still sometimes had troubles accepting Edward’s choice of woman. After all, it had been Rowan Mustang that had put thoughts of joining the military into her grandson’s head. But it was evident that they did, in fact, love each other and that soothed the old woman’s heart. In some ways, it was like watching Trisha and Van all over again, only Edward took the role of ‘Trisha’ and Van’s place was taken by Rowan. From the way things seemed, however, she didn’t think the pair would likely have the same troubles that Ed’s parents had had.
As a result of their talk, Rowan wound up with a sort of surrogate mother in the older woman, finding comfort in speaking with her about things she’d only admitted to herself and hadn’t dared admit to even her Aunt Chris. Pinako rejoiced to some degree herself, enjoying the woman’s company and dry wit and during the honeymoon phase out in Resembool, if the pair of women weren’t immediately available it was almost guaranteed they were together and out on the porch talking.
Rowan eyed Edward as he worked, enjoying the looks of his fine backside as he prepared breakfast with only an apron to protect his manhood from any incidental issues. Her salary alone was enough to support the roof over their head and any other bills they incurred, but Edward had insisted on working as a researcher despite his lack of alchemical ability. His genius had gotten him acknowledged within the criminal field as far as recognizing alchemical alterations and these days he was working as a free-lance investigator that more often than not operated with the justice system – and that prick Colonel Douglas – to bring down the alchemists who decided to help themselves instead of the people. Grumman’s vote of confidence helped smooth the initial ruffles that Edward’s newest occupation caused, considering he was kept on more as a liaison with the military than an actual enlisted soldier, thus garnering a larger pay as he was ‘specialized’. Edward just enjoyed solving the puzzles. As a result, his need for new things was satisfied and his wanderlust (mostly) quelled.
And for the two Elrics, that meant a fairly quiet life.
“What are you thinking about?” asked the long-haired blonde, peering at her over his shoulder intermittently as he minded the griddle.
“The past,” she said truthfully. “Lots of different things in the past. How much you’ve grown… how much things have changed… And how much I love you.” She didn’t see his lips quirk into a smile, but she could sense his happiness. She stroked her belly contentedly, the cool air of the house making her skin turn into gooseflesh. Fortunately it wasn’t so chilly she needed a robe.
“I love you, too.” It was something they strove to say to each other each day and before they went to sleep each night. No matter how much they wrangled, they didn’t want to go to sleep wanting their last words to be painful ones. After everything they’d seen and done, the last thing they wanted was to wake up and realize that they’d shattered something good with thoughtlessness especially as both of them were so vulnerable when it came to each other.
He turned and settled a hearty stack of griddle cakes before her along with fresh butter and syrup. He soon had his own stack before his place and he settled at the table, gratefully pitching the frilly pink apron that Breda had jokingly gotten Rowan when she’d become a wife onto the floor. No one at the time had had any clue it’d be Edward using it more than Rowan. No one at the time knew that Rowan had no ability to cook. She snickered at that.
“What?” he demanded, sighting along her gaze to see she was grinning at the pink cloth. “Oh, get that smile off your face, woman,” he grumped. “If you just listened to me and either alchemized it or bought a new one, we’d not have the damn thing still around.”
“You could always buy one yourself,” she teased before taking a bite of pancakes and reveling in the flavor. He was really good at this. He arched one golden eyebrow at her and she found herself once again hoping those golden eyes of his would appear on their child. “Anyway, I’ll have to go into the office this afternoon. Would you like to go with me?”
“Put me in proximity to the couch we screwed on the first time? Are you asking for trouble?” asked the former Fullmetal in wry tones.
“What trouble? I’m sure you can keep your hands to yourself, sweetheart.”
“Like I do around this house? Like I do when we’re out at a restaurant? Like I do… when, exactly?” Rowan had to admit he had a point. Ever since they got married, he’d not been able to stop from touching her in some fashion or another. It wasn’t like it was when she was fucking a minor and they had to keep it quiet. And, really, she was as guilty as he was. Ever since she’d gotten her puppy right where she wanted him, she’d been incapable of keeping her hands to herself.
“I suppose you’re right,” she sighed before giving him a grin. “I suppose you’re right.”
Contractions surged through her one month later, demanding all her attention as she pushed in time to the controlled seizures her body was inflicting upon her at East City General Hospital. Edward wasn’t permitted into the room and paced nervously just outside the delivery ward with Riza, Heymans, Kain, Vato, and Jean hovering nearby. Jean Havoc had come on a visit to see everyone and sporting a pretty wife of his own… a friend of his that he’d known growing up. Rowan really wished she could bitch slap Edward at this moment despite the fact she’d welcomed the night that he’d gotten her into this condition. Panting, she fell back into the bed after one hard push and wondering when this madness would end. Again, a contraction seized down on her and she went along with the doctor’s command, tensing her muscles and bearing down so that she could push out her child. Oh, god, this hurt!
“I see the head!” called the doctor. “Keep pushing!”
She cried out in a mixture of pain and frustration, sweat plastering her hair to her head, as she pushed. Really, this was overrated! Why did women want to be pregnant if this was the result?! Why the hell were there multiple births?!
“Again! Push!”
It seemed like such a long time later that she was allowed to sag back onto the bed, her feet unhooked from the stirrups, and her baby was allowed into her arms. Tired, feeling like shit, and panting from the efforts she’d just undergone, Rowan Elric was really glad she was done. And the moment she laid eyes on her little one, all thoughts of the pain she’d just been put through flew out of her head. Wonder filled her as she felt the clasp of a tiny hand as an equally tiny mouth was guided to her milk-darkened nipple. The doctor congratulated her on her daughter and went to get Ed. She barely heard the woman, entranced by her baby girl suckling at her breast. Alright… she understood now. Even though she knew it was painful to give birth, it was incredible to find one’s self in this moment.
Edward, nineteen years old and a new father, entered the room with slightly wild eyes. Those yellow eyes softened the moment they fell on her and their daughter before he cautiously came closer. The baby, he could see, already had a head full of black hair and her little face was pink and slightly wrinkled. “Hey,” he breathed, eyes not leaving the child cradled to her breast as he stepped next to them. He ran a gentle finger down the side of the tiny face, wondering at it.
“Hey,” she returned just as softly, smiling at him. He looked so young to her in this moment, clearly astonished beyond reasoning. “So… we never decided… what are we going to name her?”
“I don’t know…” murmured Ed, raising his eyes to his wife before impulsively leaning in and kissing her forehead. “But I do love you… Both of you.”
“I have an idea,” she murmured gently, feeling elated through the tiredness. “But I want you to hold her first.” There was a brief look of panic on his face as she lifted the infant up to him but his arms were instantly out like he was terrified she’d drop the precious child if he didn’t reach out. Soon, he was holding the babe and he was again looking wondrous, supporting her little head and neck, checking over her fingers and toes even as instinct demanded him to rock her slightly. “So… what do you think?”
“Can we name her after one of the strong women we know?” he asked instantly as inspiration tugged at him, his eyes on his daughter. “I mean… we know a lot. There’s Riza and Teacher and Olivier.” He flashed a cheeky grin. “I bet we could get you on Olivier’s good side if we turned up with a daughter named Olivia, right? And then there’s Winry and Granny... but I’d rather not name her after them…” His eyes darted down to his daughter again as he felt her tiny fingers grip his shirt. “We could name her Nina…” The statement came out soft, regretful, and Rowan knew there’d be no way she’d allow him to call their child that if it brought that kind of sadness out in him. It couldn’t be a name that would make him feel like he was living too much in the past. For some reason, however, the idea of naming her after a strong woman was appealing.
“What’s your Teacher’s name again?” she asked.
“Izumi,” he responded absently, eyes still fixed on that tiny hand as his daughter slumbered in his arms.
She considered that for a long time before smiling. “I like it. She has Xingese heritage, which would tie the name to me, and it’s a name connected to you as well.” Ed looked at his newly named daughter and smiled.
“Mind if I go introduce her to everyone? And I need to get Teacher on the phone. She’ll love this.” He looked up at her, realizing something. “What was your idea for her name?” he asked, blinking at her.
“Oh… to let you more or less pick,” she smirked. “Now go on… I’m tired.” She settled back into bed and watched as her young pup carried his daughter from the room with that bright, unreserved grin she so loved on his face.
When he found his way back to the waiting room, he immediately had a number of people surrounding him to ogle the new arrival. He preened delightedly as he allowed the only one of the people about him that he trusted to not drop Izumi to take her from his arms. Riza cradled the little one with a fond smile before looking at him. “What’s her name?” she asked, her usual stoic demeanor so far gone at the moment, she seemed serene.
“Izumi,” he said promptly. “After Teacher.”
“I suspect your little girl is going to be a scary person when she grows up,” mused Heymans as he smiled at the little one. He had heard stories of how frightening Ed’s teacher was.
“That’s kind of the point,” smirked Edward as he was firmly smacked on the back by Jean.
“Congrats, Boss,” he said again, having done so similarly when the birth was announced as a success. “So, can I be an uncle?”
“Sure… All of you are family, so… Of course.” At that point, Kain asked to hold his little girl and Edward knew at that moment he’d have a lot of protectors for Izumi. She’d already gotten them all wrapped around her tiny little fingers without doing much more than be introduced. Riza gave over the child to him and Kain marveled at holding her. At that point, Edward scooted off to find a phone after getting reassurances that Riza would take his baby girl back to her mother soon. He had so many calls to make. The first, of course, was to Resembool. He told Winry and Pinako of the new arrival and they immediately said they were going to head to East City to see her. Alphonse and Mei were traveling about somewhere in Xing, so it was difficult to get a hold of them. As a result, Edward resolved to send them a letter as well as a letter to Ling, feeling that the new Emperor of Xing deserved to know he was a kind-of honorary uncle.
Then came the most important call… the one to Dublith. Hopefully Teacher was there to answer. He dialed the number and waited for the phone to pick up. Thankfully, Sig answered on the third ring. “Sig!” he called into the phone when the man rumbled out his hello. “It’s me, Ed!”
“Edward?” rumbled the large man on the other end of the line. “How are you doing?”
“Great! Better than great! Rowan gave birth just a while ago and I wanted to tell you and Teacher… Could you hand the phone over to her without telling her what’s going on? I want it to be a surprise,” he babbled.
“Sure,” Sig said. “Just a moment.”
A little bit later, the phone rang with the sound of his Teacher’s voice. “Edward? How are you doing?”
“Really good, Teacher… Rowan just gave birth to a little girl.”
“Oh, she did? Congratulations!” Izumi had come around to the idea of Edward being married to the older woman when it became apparent to her that they really did love each other. It was no more unorthodox than her and her husband, really. “What did you name her? What does she look like? How big is she?”
And this was the moment. Edward grinned, already anticipating the reaction. “Her name is Izumi.” Silence hit him like a hammer and he knew he’d taken her breath away. “It… we decided we wanted to name her after someone strong and really only three names came up. Rowan liked yours best.”
“I… Oh… Edward…” gasped Teacher, sounding truly floored. “You… named your daughter after me?” There was a silent question in her words.
“Yes,” he said gently, picking up on what she wanted to ask. “I… didn’t want to name her after Mom because while Mom was great, we did do some awful things tied to her. And… well, I didn’t want to live in the past. It really came down to you, Riza Hawkeye, or Olivier Armstrong.”
“You stupid student,” she said then, tears obvious in her voice. “I need to come over there, don’t I?”
“Absolutely. That way you can pound me into the ground for my arrogance and you can see little Izumi,” he said cheerily, knowing that the beat down was extremely likely if she felt like it. She burst out laughing before calling out to Sig and relaying what she’d just been told to her husband. “Anyway… I need to get back. I’m sure Riza’s taken her back to Rowan. Everyone’s so excited, it’s kind of amazing. A new person… surrounded by those that already love her.” He remembered that they’d said much the same thing once before in reference to Satella’s birth of her son back in Rush Valley years ago.
“Truly a miraculous thing,” agreed Teacher. “Go on, Ed. Go take care of your wife and baby. I’ll get the details about her later.”
“Yes, ma’am. Bye.”
“Bye.” He hung up the phone and immediately returned to find that Riza had indeed taken Izumi back to Rowan. He went into the room where Rowan slept and their daughter lay in a bassinette nearby. Riza stood by the bed, gazing at her superior officer.
“It’s strange,” she murmured. “To see how different she is thanks to you. I think she died in Ishval… Her hopes were all but strangled out of her. Her dreams had been boiled down to just one. And then you just… exploded into our lives. An arrogant twelve year old with bright eyes and fierce hopes and a wish to fix his brother.” She looked at him then, no malice present despite the ‘arrogant’ comment. “And I think you managed to teach those of us that had walked out of Ishval how to hope again. We hoped you would find a way to fix you and your brother. We hoped that you’d not get terribly hurt on your journey. And then, one day you just changed things yet again and we saw the Major General seem to come alive again. I was the only one that had ever seen her actually happy before from all of us and I had thought that side lost. But you brought it back. And I knew it had been real because she was so worried… so afraid she was just using you. None of the other men she’d been around had ever been treated the same way. She had used them… but when you altered everything around her, she dropped them faster than you’d ever know. You had her without even trying and I think that scared her.”
Edward stared at the Major, astonished.
“Thank you, Edward,” she said solemnly. “Thank you… for saving her. For saving us.”
This wasn’t thanks for the Promised Day, he could immediately tell. This woman was thanking him for something far simpler… and as a result far more profound. “Hawkeye…” he said. “Riza… You guys… that day you and Rowan came to Resembool to pick up a pair of supposedly thirty-one year old alchemists, you wound up coming to save me from being wheelchair bound for an unknown amount of time. So, really… you saved us.” He gave a little smirk. “Perhaps you could call it Equivalent Exchange?” he teased lightly. She chuckled at that and shook her head.
“Oh, you are such an alchemist,” she said in quiet fondness. “So… how does it feel to be a father?”
“I don’t know. It’s not sunk in yet,” Ed grinned sheepishly as his eyes tracked to his daughter. “Teacher was thrilled. Totally and utterly floored. I think I finally beat her.”
“That’s a pretty nice way to beat someone,” smiled Riza, also looking at Izumi in her bassinette. “Anyway, I should get going. Not all of us have maternity leave.”
“I’m sure she’ll be back soon enough. She’s not nearly as lazy as she likes to make people believe,” commented Ed. “She hates being bored almost as much as I do. And you just make it easy for her to have a game any time she chooses.”
“Now don’t go giving away all my secrets,” grunted Rowan, opening her eyes and glaring at her husband. “You’re supposed to be on my side.” Ed merely smirked at her. “I’ll see you later, Major,” she told Riza, looking at her aide. “Take care, okay?”
“Of course, General. Take care of yourself, too.”
After Riza left, Edward settled on the stool next to the bassinette that sat next to the bed. “So… Ro…” he began in a sly tone, looking at his daughter and feeling very proud of his wife. “Did you know Alphonse is… only about a year and two months younger than me?”
“You’re wanting me to be pregnant again?” Rowan demanded, slightly aghast as she stared at him.
“Not right now, but… maybe soon,” he said gently, gently stroking fingers along Izumi’s hand. “But… I don’t want to have only one kid. It was pretty awesome being a big brother and having a best friend no matter what. I don’t want Izumi to be alone for too long.” She watched him as he smiled when a tiny hand grasped his finger reflexively and she couldn’t help but smile, too.
“Sure… we can see about that.”
“I love you,” he said to his little girl. “And I bet you’re going to be an amazing alchemist, what with your mom and me teaching you everything we know. And you’re probably going to be incredibly spoiled because of those dorks your mom calls her subordinates already love you.” He blinked and looked at Rowan with a grimace. “Aw, man… I just realized. She’s probably going to start using alchemy at a really young age. We’re gonna have to be real strict to keep her from leveling the house.”
The Major General snorted, disregarding the idea. “You’re joking. How young do you expect she’ll start learning? At five?”
“I started at four and a half! And Al started at three and a half because I was doing it!” Ed protested. Rowan stared.
“You’re joking… You can’t have started that young?” she demanded, incredulous. He nodded seriously.
“We were doing it for about a year before Mom died,” he admitted. “Started practically after Dad left and we did it because it made her smile.” He looked down at Izumi. “I remember drawing circles on the floor with chalk and transmuting stuff out of the floor boards. Mom got mad because we were literally taking the house apart.”
“Well… we have a few years yet,” Rowan said slowly, staring at Edward before staring at Izumi. “Probably.” She had had no idea. Sure, she’d known they were prodigies at eleven and ten when she’d first met them and she logically knew they likely put a lot of time and effort into their research for bringing back their mother. But part of her had thought that Edward had only started learning alchemy after he’d met his teacher at eight. To know her husband had been a true prodigy of untold proportions made her realize that she might have possibly gotten in over her head as far as a child was concerned. And with herself altered by the Gate and capable of transmutation without circles, there was suddenly no doubt in her mind that Izumi Elric was probably going to be receiving her first alchemy lessons before she ever went to school. “Hopefully. Do you think she’ll be able to transmute things now?”
The thin note of worry in her tone made Ed chuckle a bit. “I don’t think she can possibly be that precocious. But we might want to put the alchemy books on a shelf way higher than easy reach when we start teaching her how to read.”
“Do normal parents worry about this sort of thing?”
“How should I know? I didn’t exactly have normal parents,” scoffed Ed. “But I did have a mom with a firm hand, a grandma with a firmer paddle, and a teacher with a mean right hook. So… we should be fine so long as we set down rules and actually follow them through.”
“I hope you’re right,” muttered Rowan, suddenly worried that she might not be up to the challenge of raising a kid. And then she blinked. “And you want to have another kid knowing this?!”
His laughter filled the room as humor overwhelmed him. Unfortunately his mirth woke up Izumi and she cried, opening little amber eyes as she wailed in protest. Instantly, the two new parents fussed over her. Edward scooped her up and handed her over to her mother so that she could cradle her daughter.
Really, this was quite the bright future.
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Nightmares