Waiting: Mother Arc: Chapter 1

Either she had forgotten how trying crossing the desert was, or she was simply getting older. Either way Yu was glad they had arrived early, because it had given her more time to rest up before the embassy was officially greeted by East City Command. Roy was the highest ranking officer, the messenger they had sent to inform the command of their arrival had confirmed that, which meant he would be doing the greeting. Her little boy was a brigadier general, that was higher than his father had reached, and at such a young age, too.

But alongside the pride was the anxiety of seeing her son again after all these years. How many years has it been? More than ten, she was sure of that, she could kick herself for letting it go this long. She remembered how he had been just after the war. He had been keeping something from her, hiding something dark and painful, but whether it had been the trauma of battle or something more she didn't know. There had been a darkness inside him then, and she had hardly recognized him. It had scared her. What will he be like now?

When the time came Yu stood toward the back to watch the formal exchange take place. Part of her was assessing how well Princess Mei had learned Amestrian. Another part was admiring the casual poise and charm with which Roy conducted himself. He was so much his father's son. But most of her attention was fixed on the left side of her son's face. When he'd mentioned he'd lost an eye, she had not expected the patch to be so large. Just what had happened to her baby?

"‹That's my little cousin?›" her niece, Li Xue, leaned over and murmured. "‹The one who used to follow me around like a puppy?›"

Yu had to swallow a laugh. Roy had been rather puppy-like in the way he'd tagged along after his elder cousin in Xing. "‹There doesn't seem to be much puppy in him now, does there,›" she murmured back. She hadn't told her niece what Roy had been like after the war, letting her keep the image of the sweet eleven-year-old boy.

"‹He has grown up rather nicely, hasn't he.›" Li Xue sighed theatrically. "‹Too bad about his preference, there must be a lot of disappointed women here.›"

"‹I had thought he liked women,›" the older woman muttered, mostly to herself. His letters had once been filled with descriptions of the young women he'd been going out with. She couldn't imagine what had caused him to suddenly start seeing a young man—a very young man, from the sound of it. She found herself looking around the room, and realized she was looking for a man who could be her son's—her son's what? Consort? Partner? "Special friend"? There didn't seem to be an appropriate term; at least, not one that didn't make her want to twitch.

It was foolish trying to find this person when she had no idea what to look for, so she turned back to wait for the formal pleasantries to be over. Roy was currently explaining the services Eastern Command would provide for Mei and her entourage. Then he bowed, said that he hoped everyone would have a productive and enjoyable stay in Amestris, and ended by suggesting they all go to the next room, where refreshments were waiting.

"‹Did he mention in his letter what happened to his face?›" Li Xue asked as they followed the others.

"‹He said he was shot,›" Yu replied. "‹He didn't go into detail.›" He had been keeping things from her, major things, ever since Ishval. She was determined to see that habit stop, if nothing else. This was her little boy, he should be able to trust his mother.

"‹Poor little cousin,›" her niece muttered.

When they got into the room she couldn't find him among all the other uniforms. She finally recognized his eye patch when he turned to say something to a blond boy with a ponytail who was standing next to him. His back was to her, so she touched Li Xue's arm to get her attention and then made her way over.

He was scanning the room and so caught sight of her before she'd gotten far. He broke into a smile and quickly crossed the distance between them, and gave her a hug. "Mom! It's so good to see you,"

"And you, sweetie," she said, giving him a tight hug. When she pulled back she gestured to the younger woman next to her. "And you remember your cousin, right?"

Roy blinked, one eyebrow raised (or maybe both eyebrows, the other one was hidden behind the patch), then smiled. "Li Xue? What are you doing here?"

"‹Hello, little cousin!›"

He chuckled as they embraced. "You can't call me 'little' anymore, Li-Li, I'm taller than you."

The blond boy, who had followed Roy over, snorted and looked at the older man with an incredulous expression. She wondered what he was doing here; maybe he was the son of one of Roy's men.

Li Xue laughed. "‹That doesn't matter, you're still my little cousin.›" Then, switching to Amestrian, "I study foreign cultures now, so I am here to study."

He chuckled again. "I'm sure you'll have plenty of material." Turning back to Yu, he said, "You both look well. I hope the journey wasn't too harsh?"

"The desert is the same as it's ever been." Yu reached up to pat her son's cheek. He had scars here, two thin lines marring his pale skin. "You don't look so well, though. Have you been sleeping all right? You shouldn't stress yourself out, it's not good for you."

"I'm fine, I've just been busy preparing for all of you. A week and a half is hardly enough time."

"Oh? Then these aren't grey hairs I see here?" she said, brushing back the hair at his temple, just under the strap from the eye patch.

"Mother. . . ."

The boy snickered, and Roy turned to glare at him. He had to turn; the boy was on his blind side. "You hush. That white hair I found in the shower the other day certainly wasn't mine."

"What?" The boy's gloved hands flew to the fringe of hair framing his face. "I don't have grey hair!"

Roy smirked. "No. Yours are white."

"But—I can't have grey hair! I'm too young to have grey hair!"

"White."

"Fuck off, bastard! You're delusional."

"Am I?"

Yu exchanged a look with her niece as the boy sputtered some more obscenities and Roy chuckled.

"My apologies, Mother, Cousin." He extended a hand to indicate the scowling boy. "This is Edward Elric, the one I told you about in my letter."

This was—?

The boy—young man, she saw now that he was older than she'd first thought—scratched the back of his head, the scowl fading to a look that was sheepish and more than a little uncomfortable. "Eh . . . hi."

This was Roy's—?

"Edward, this is my mother, Yu Mustang, and my cousin, Chen Li Xue."

He was little more than a child!

"Pleased to meet you, Edward." Yu could only hope her smile was hiding the swirl of confused feelings.

A short time later, Yu took advantage of the small crowd to get a better look at Roy's . . . boyfriend? Lover? She suppressed a twitch. She had expected him to be young, she had remembered his name from past letters when Roy had talked about an alchemic prodigy, but she'd still been shocked. For one thing, he was no taller than she, quite small for a westerner. But aside from that, he was simply . . . not what she'd been expecting.

When her son—her son, who had always dated women, who used to go on for pages about women—told her that he was involved with a man, she had unconsciously expected said man to be, well, feminine. But this boy. . . .

She watched him as he talked with a couple of the diplomats. Broad shoulders, narrow hips, strong features, and every movement—his gestures, his stance—seemed to speak of a sort of controlled, easy strength. Even with the ponytail that fell to just past his shoulder blades, there was nothing feminine about him. In fact, one could even say that he was more masculine than Roy. Wait, did that mean Roy was the one who—

Her mind screeched to a halt and hastily retreated from that thought.

She had to admit that the young man was attractive. Definitely striking, with his allover golden coloring. If she'd been thirty-five years younger, she might be attracted to him herself. But she would have never thought Roy would go for someone that. Someone who was so . . . utterly male. And then there was the age difference. . . .

Would you be so concerned about the age difference if he was dating a woman? a corner of her mind asked.

Yes, she told it firmly. There has to be more than a decade between them!

She caught sight of Roy just then, talking with another blond, ponytailed boy. This one was taller than Edward, but several years younger, early teens at best. They turned and came up to her.

"Mom, I'd like you to meet Alphonse, Edward's younger brother," Roy said, nodding to the boy. "Al, this is my mother, Yu Mustang."

The boy smiled brightly and bowed, the thick, honey-colored ponytail falling forward over his shoulder. "Pleased to meet you, Mustang-san."

She smiled in return. "Please, call me Yu. There's no reason to be so formal."

He smiled again and bobbed his head. "All right, Yu-san."

These two brothers couldn't be more different. The elder one was all harsh angles and attitude, while the younger rather reminded her of a teddy bear. A very polite teddy bear.

"Alphonse is also a talented alchemist," Roy continued. "He actually got a better score on the written portion of the state alchemy exam than Edward did, although circumstances prevented him from completing the exam."

The boy ducked slightly and rubbed the back of his head. Well, there seemed to be at least one trait they had in common. "That's only because Nii-san didn't get to the last question. He would have gotten it right."

"Ah, but part of the exam is finishing within the time limit. You finished, while he didn't, and therefore you got the higher score."

Alphonse blushed, looking pleased.

"You're awfully young to have taken the exam," Yu commented. "That alone is quite an accomplishment."

He shrugged. "Nii-san and I grew up with alchemy. We learned to read from Dad's books. We were always doodling arrays in school—our teacher used to get really mad and throw chalk at us."

She chuckled. "I see! So your father's an alchemist as well?"

"Yes, he was. He was really smart—"

They were distracted by an officer rushing up to Roy and saluting. "Brigadier General—may I speak with you a moment?" Roy nodded and he and the woman went off to the side. As she spoke, Roy's face seemed to close off, and then he nodded, said something, and then left as she saluted again.

The woman—a warrant officer, if Yu was reading her uniform right—sighed and walked back over to them. "Brigadier General Mustang wants me to tell you that he won't be gone long."

"Oi, Allensworth," Edward called as he trotted over to them. "What's the big deal?"

"Oh, Edward-san." Allensworth nodded in greeting. "It's nothing major, just a detail that happened to get overlooked. It shouldn't take the Brigadier General long to corrected it."

"Overlooked," Edward said in a low voice, folding his arms and narrowing his eyes, "or deliberately misplaced?"

"I'm sure it was completely accidental," she said. "There was a lot of paperwork, and a sheet could easily end up in the wrong stack."

"Uh-huh. Very easily, I'm sure."

Allensworth looked like she wanted to say something more, but then sighed again and bowed to the young man. A look of understanding passed between them as she left.

Yu raised an eyebrow. "You think it was not an accident?"

Edward growled. "I think that jackass Marcus is trying to fuck Mustang over."

"Nii-san!" Alphonse grabbed his brother's arm.

"What? That fucker isn't here."

"But someone else could over hear you! Besides, you don't know he did anything on purpose. He might not even have been the one who misplaced it. Just . . . try being polite for a while?"

The elder one made a disgusted noise and rolled his eyes. "Fine, Al."

Yu hummed a little and filed this information away. Edward blinked at her, then turned away, looking both annoyed and sheepish.

"So, Alphonse-san was just telling me about your father," she said, thinking a change of subject might be diplomatic. "I understand he was an alchemist."

"Yeah, Al and I grew up on his books and journals," Edward muttered. "Wasn't much else in the house."

"He was really smart," Alphonse said again. "Some of his theories were really amazing."

"Old bastard was too smart for his own good. And ours."

"Nii-san, you can't really blame him for what happened. . . ."

"I can too blame him for the things that're his fault." At the look on his brother's face, Edward sighed. "It's not like I blame him for everything, I know what things were not his fault . . . I don't hate him anymore, you know that."

"Yeah, I know. . . ."

"It sounds like you and your father didn't get along too well," Yu commented.

"The old man wasn't around when we were growing up to get along with. All we had were his books."

"He came back, though."

"Can we talk about something else?"

As fate would have it, Yu got pulled away just then to serve as a translator. She couldn't help but wonder if maybe Edward had been looking for a replacement father figure; and if that was the case, she wondered what Roy had been looking for.

* * *

Ed stared at himself in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. He supposed it hadn't gone horribly . . . but he hadn't exactly made the impression he'd been hoping to make. Still, Roy could hardly blame him for that, since the older man had been the one to provoke him that first time.

He leaned out of the bathroom to regard the other man as he was changing. He never got tired of that sight. "Oi," he said after a moment. "Wha' wassa deo' wi'da pa'ur wirk?"

"Now I know I've been spending too much time around you, I actually understood that."

Ed flicked some toothpaste foam at him.

"It was a minor detail, but it could have caused problems later on." Roy finished buttoning his pajamas and came to join him in the bathroom. "It dealt with the paperwork for traveling . . . it's straightened out now."

The younger man grunted and leaned over to spit. "Can't you replace that jerkoff based on incompetence?"

"Not for something like this. Besides, I don't even know he's the one who misplaced it. Although he is the most likely," he added in an undertone.

Edward grunted again.

"it is a shame, though," Roy went on as Ed finished up. "I wanted to spend more time at the reception. And with Mom and Li Xue—I didn't even know Li-Li was coming, that was a complete surprise. I haven't seen her since I was a boy."

"I like your cousin, she called you 'little,'" Ed snickered.

"When I was eleven and she was fourteen, I was smaller."

"She did seem nice, though. And your mom seemed to like Al. But I dunno, I think she kept giving me funny looks."

The older man sighed quietly, and when Ed glanced at him in the mirror he had a distant expression on his face.

"You take some getting used to," he finally said. "I wouldn't worry about it. Overall, I think it went pretty well."

The younger man frowned, but didn't say anything.

"Speaking of impressions," Roy said as he wrapped his arms around Ed's shoulders, resting his cheek against the blond's hair and looking at them in the mirror, "I've been meaning to ask you: how do you see yourself?"

"Huh?"

"Do you see yourself as attractive?"

"Attractive? No. Not really."

"No? Why not?"

He shrugged against the other man's arms. "I've got those piss-yellow eyes and funky hair—I always liked Winry's hair, she's a proper blonde. Not this. . . ."

"If you say 'piss-yellow' again I'm going to smack you."

He gave him an irritated look. "Well, it is. And it's got that cowlick I can never get rid of. And I don't like the way my eyebrows angle, and my nose turns up like a rat's—that's one thing I wish I had taken after the old man. I think this rodent nose came from my mom's side."

"'Rodent nose.'"

"Not like it matters." He shrugged again, reaching up to rest his hands on his lover's forearms. "I look like what I look like. Not like I'm going to try to alchemize my face or something."

Roy burst out laughing, smothering it in the shorter man's hair. "I certainly hope not. Oh, Love. . . ." He pulled away, leaning against the counter and turning Edward to face him. "I never imagined your self-image was so skewed."

"What d'you mean?" Ed asked, frowning.

Roy's hands were on his face then, stroking over the features the young man had just described, smoothing away his frown, his smile soft and fond. Then he cupped his face, his fingers tangling in the loose hair. "You're one of the most beautiful people I've ever met."

"Yeah, well." He couldn't duck his head with the other man holding his face, but his eyes darted away, and he could feel his cheeks heating. "You're biased."

"It's not just me. Hawkeye—" he chuckled, "—when you first joined my command, when you were twelve, Hawkeye said, 'that kid's going to be breaking hearts in a few years.'"

"Hawkeye said—?"

"You can ask her yourself. Anyone could see how attractive you were going to be. Well . . . anyone but you, apparently."

Edward did duck his head this time, burying the lower part of his face in the other man's palms. Roy leaned forward and kissed his forehead.

"I did wonder about that flip, though." He removed one hand to flick at the errant lock of hair.

"My hair just does that. Here, watch." The blond pulled back and finger-combed his bangs, smoothing the flip down with the rest of the hair. Then he shook his head and, sure enough, a lock of hair sprang up at the peak of his forehead. "See? I can't get rid of it. Believe me, I've tried."

The other man chuckled, reaching up to tug gently on the flip. "Even your hair is contrary. I shouldn't be surprised."

Ed snorted and batted at the hand, then edged forward, leaning against the dark-haired man's shoulder and sighing when strong arms settled around him, one hand gently rubbing the small of his back. "I just want your mom to like me," he muttered.

"I want her to like you, too."

"I'll try not to be such a brat."

Roy chuckled softly. "Oh, but you are a brat. There's no getting around that."

"Bastard."

"I know."