Waiting: Mother Arc: Chapter 2

"What's that thing?"

"Ah, sir, no, she—"

Chomp.

"Yaaaah!!"

"—bites."

Yu and Li Xue both winced and ran over to help as Edward let out a string of curses and tried to shake the miniature panda off his finger.

"Edward-san, calm down, if you stop moving, she will let go," Li Xue tried, holding out her hands in a tentative attempt to still his arm. All of them had learned great respect for the little panda over the journey.

"What are you doing to Xiao Mei??"

"‹Princess Mei!›"

"Get this monster offa me!!"

"How cruel! Xiao Mei is no monster! ‹Xiao Mei, come here.›" Xiao Mei dropped to the floor and ran over, and the girl bent down to scoop her pet onto her shoulder. "‹You shouldn't bite him, you might get sick.›"

"Your little mutant cat bit me for no reason!" The young man brandished his bleeding finger as proof.

"Edward-san—"

"It was your fault for teasing her, you—obnoxious bean of a boy!"

"What did you call me, you bean girl??"

"Animal hating bean boy!"

"Mutant loving midget girl!"

"Edward-san!"

"‹Princess Mei!›"

Yu guided Mei back to the other side of the room while Li Xue and a few of the others herded a still-cursing Edward over to medical to get his finger tended.

"‹Princess, maybe you should keep Xiao Mei with you from now on,›" Yu suggested, eyeing the panda's teeth.

"‹You're right,›" Mei allowed, patting her pet fondly. "‹I wouldn't want her to get lost. Besides, who knows what diseases she might pick up from biting strange bean boys.›"

"‹Ah. . . .›" The elder woman smiled nervously. "‹Perhaps it would be more diplomatic if you refrained from calling him that.›"

"‹He started it!›"

"‹Oh?›"

"‹He called Xiao Mei a monster!›"

"‹Ah. Then maybe I should speak to him as well.›"

Other than the incident between Edward and the panda, the informal exchange of knowledge was going well. The biggest problem had been the language barrier, but Yu wasn't the only one who could act as a translator.

When Edward returned, finger bandaged and left glove removed, he stood across the room and glowered at Mei and her "little mutant cat." Yu decided that now was not the time to get into the significant difference between cats and pandas.

"‹I suspect that before long, I shall be fluent in Amestrian swear words,›" Li Xue commented to her aunt.

Yu giggled behind her hand. "‹And more. Those weren't all Amestrian.›"

"‹No?›"

"‹I don't know if they were from another language or if he made them up, but they certainly weren't ones I recognized. And trust me, after being around my husband's military friends, I knew them all.›" Both women giggled at that.

"Oi." Edward had turned his glare to them. "You're talking about me, aren't you?"

"What makes you say that?" Yu asked, with false innocence.

"We were only commenting on how . . . interesting your language is," Li Xue added.

The young man looked like he couldn't decide whether or not to be insulted. Yu tried to suppress her laughter, but ultimately failed, sputtering and giggling behind her hand. Li Xue nudged her and made a disapproving gesture, but was only marginally better at containing her own giggles.

"Edward-san, we're not laughing at you, honest." Yu reached over and patted the blond on the shoulder. "It's . . . it's this situation. It's ridiculous, you have to admit."

He stared at her a moment more, his face screwed up into something between a scowl and a pout. Then he scoffed and looked to the side, scratching the still-gloved fingers of his right hand through his bangs. "I guess, if you're not the one being chomped on."

She patted his shoulder again. "I'm sorry, one of us should have warned you to stay away from Xiao Mei."

"She bit me on the way over," the younger woman added, showing the mark on her hand.

"I just didn't think she would be wandering around, she usually doesn't leave the princess's side."

He hmphed, but she thought he appreciated their efforts. Rather like a sullen child who wasn't quite ready to stop pouting.

"Still, maybe you should be a little more . . . tactful, with what you say to Princess Mei?" Yu continued.

"She started it," Edward grumped.

"Ah. Of course."

She left the young man alone, and eventually he rejoined one of the groups (though not, she noted, the same one as Mei). Curious when she saw him talking, she made her way over and stood at the edges to listen. He was explaining the three stages of Amestrian alchemy, the knowledge, deconstruction, reconstruction way of thinking that was much more rigid and compartmentalized than the Xingian method of working with the flows of energy. He then started talking about different kinds of arrays, the limits and uses of simple arrays, and different kinds of specialized arrays and when and why an alchemist would use them. At a question from one of his Xingian counterparts, he grabbed a piece of chalk and sketched several symbols on the table, explaining their different meanings and uses. After the first few he had to switch the chalk to his right hand because of his bitten finger, but this only seemed to slow him down marginally. This calm, logical Edward was quite a contrast from the boy who'd gotten into a shouting match with Mei a few moments ago. It wasn't so much that both sides existed in the same person as how quickly he had gone from one extreme to the other.

"It's been a long time since I studied," Yu commented at one point, "but I don't remember those runes being used to purify water."

"No, the traditional water purifying array simply mimics the effects of boiling." He quickly sketched the array as he talked. "That'll usually make it safe to drink, but it doesn't do anything about the minerals or particles in the water. That's why I added these. . . ." He modified the array, moving some symbols and adding others, explaining each rune and its position as he went along. ". . . But if you're not careful, this makes distilled water, and that's not good for you, either, so we added these, here, and switched these two around to weaken the effect. . . ." Someone asked him where he'd gotten the array, and he shrugged. "Al and I came up with it ages ago. I got tired of drinking nasty water when we were on the road."

All right, she was impressed. She was more than impressed. She could see now how he could have gotten a state license at such a young age.

The conversation shifted over to pharmacy, with one of the Xingian practitioners explaining about the flow of energy through the body and how it can be realigned to help a person heal. Yu stayed around to help with the language barrier.

"Healing alchemy," one young man, a state alchemist whose name she hadn't caught, mused some time later. "Wasn't there a doctor in Ishval who was doing that? I wonder what happened to him."

"Marcoh's dead."

Edward's tone was low and clipped, and his eyes had gone hard.

The other alchemist apparently didn't catch the hint. "His research should—"

"His research has been destroyed. All of it."

The other man finally looked at the blond, then quickly looked away from the intense gold gaze.

"Who is this person you talk about?" one of Yu's countrymen dared to ask. She had an impulse to hush him, but decided instead to see how Edward would react.

"No one," he said, quietly. His eyes went distant, and were suddenly much too old for his face. Then they snapped back into focus, and the look was gone. "Never mind him. You were telling me about feeling energy flows. . . ."

Almost gone, Yu realized as she watched him. There were still shadows behind his eyes. Ones that reminded her a little of the shadows she'd seen behind her son's eyes after the war.

Toward the end of the day the group packed up, people dribbling off to eat or return home or do whatever else they had to do. Roy stopped by, finally done with the day's paperwork. It still twisted something inside her when she saw that eye patch. She hid it, not wanting him to think it revolted her, but she hated the thought that someone had hurt her baby that badly, and she hated that she hadn't been there for him the way a mother should. She didn't regret returning to Xing, but there were times where she sorely wished she could have both her son and her home.

"Major Carter," Roy said to the state alchemist. "How did it go?"

"Oh, it—it went well!"

Roy gave the man a flat look, having missed neither the hesitation nor the flick of his eyes toward the ponytailed blond standing off to one side. "What did he do?"

Said blond sputtered. "You—why are you assuming it's my fault??"

The brigadier general gave him a raised-eyebrow look, then turned back to the major in front of him.

"It wasn't entirely his fault, sir. The animal did bite him."

"Animal?"

"The princess's pet, Shie—Zao—I forget what she called it. It bit Edward-san, and then . . . he and Princess Mei sort of started yelling at each other. . . ."

"Did they."

"Nothing came of it, though, sir," Carter hurried to say. "And everything else went really well."

"Fullmetal?" Roy said evenly, regarding the scowling boy with a level stare. "Please don't start an international incident."

Edward's mouth fell open and he glared at the older man. "Why the fuck're you blaming me? It was her mutant cat that bit me! I didn't do anything!"

"You were teasing Xiao Mei!" the princess called from the other side of the room.

"The hell I was!"

"Fullmetal."

The boy turned his glare back to Roy as one of Mei's attendants spoke with her. The two men—or man and boy, as Yu couldn't help but think of them—regarded each other for a moment, then Edward snarled, "Well, fuck you, too, bastard!" and left, striking the doorframe on his way out. Roy sighed and went to go speak with Mei.

* * *

"I hope that earlier has not caused trouble for you? At home?"

Roy smiled at his cousin's question as he unlocked the front door. "That? That was nothing to be concerned about."

"He did seem rather upset," his mother added.

He chuckled and shook his head. "Fullmetal gets himself worked up rather easily, but he rarely holds onto it for long. He'll be fine," he assured them as he pushed open the door. Saying that that was simply the way Ed was, that it was simply their dynamic, not only seemed inadequate but could cast both of them in a poor light, so Roy decided to let his family discover Edward for themselves. He couldn't think of a way to adequately describe the young man, anyway.

"Ed? Al?" he called once they were inside.

"Up here!" came Al's voice, from upstairs.

"Why don't you wait in the living room?" he said to the two women. "We'll be down in a moment."

Up the stairs and down the hall to Alphonse's room. Al was leaning on the doorframe with his arms crossed. He smiled at Roy, then turned to look expectantly at the room's other occupant. Edward was sitting on his brother's bed with his chin resting on his automail hand. He glared briefly at Roy, then turned away.

"We should leave, we don't want to be late to the restaurant," the older man said. "How's your finger?"

The blond grunted, not bothering to look over.

"Nii-san, stop being so difficult."

Roy regarded his petulant lover fondly for a moment, suppressing an urge to smile. "While I meant what I said about an international incident . . . I don't blame you for losing your temper. Those teeth looked sharp."

Ed snorted, glancing up. "She did as much yelling as me, y'know. Why don't you get mad at her?"

"I would, but she has diplomatic immunity."

A corner of the young man's mouth twitched up in spite of himself.

"Besides, I'm not really mad," he said, finally allowing himself to smile. He cupped the back of the younger man's head and leaned over to press a kiss to his hair. "Now, come on. We need to leave for dinner."

"All right, all right, just let me get another pair of gloves." He shoved the older man aside and stood, but Roy didn't miss the way the metal hand lingered on his chest just a moment longer than necessary.

"It's odd," Alphonse commented as he and Roy went downstairs. "Nii-san doesn't usually have a problem with animals."

"This one is apparently very particular about who it likes, and is prone to biting." He chuckled. "I was afraid to get too close, myself. Ah, speaking of animals, I see you've met Magpie."

His mother looked up from the grey-and-white cat that had claimed her lap. "'Magpie'? That's an odd name for a cat."

"But, in this case, very appropriate."

Li Xue paused in cooing over the cat in Xingian long enough to ask her aunt what 'magpie' meant. Just then there was a thundering on the stairs as Edward ran down to join them.

"Shall we go, then?"

"I can drive," Ed offered, reaching for the glasses he kept in his breast pocket.

"I'll drive," Roy countered. "I'd rather not have you giving my family any heart attacks."

Yu raised an eyebrow as she stood, shooing Magpie to the floor. "I'm hardly fragile."

"And I'm not old," Li Xue added.

"Are you implying that I am?"

"Edward's driving could give even a young person a heart attack."

"There's nothing wrong with my driving!"

"‹Auntie! I was not implying anything!›"

"You are rather . . . abrupt, Nii-san."

"It did sound that way, Li-Li."

"What do you mean, 'abrupt'?"

"‹Cousin!›"

"Like when you stop. . . ."

"Now now, if you're going to insult me, just come out and say it."

"Or when you turn corners. . . ."

"‹But I wasn't insulting!›"

"Or when—"

"There's nothing wrong with my driving!"

"This old woman can take it."

"‹Aun-tieee!›"

This carried them outside and into the car and most of the way to the restaurant. Roy had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing out loud.

* * *

Alchemy was the main topic of discussion at dinner. Edward was eager to tell his brother everything he'd learned that day (leaving out how sharp pandas' teeth were). Yu found herself trying in vain to explain some of the finer differences between the two sciences.

"You have to understand, I have been using a combination of the two methods for over thirty years, now," she said at one point. "In my mind they've gotten very mixed."

The topic unfortunately left Li Xue out of much of the conversation, but she seemed to have more than enough to occupy herself simply trying to eat with Amestrian utensils.

"It's not a weapon, Li-Li," Roy said with a chuckle when the Xingian woman tried unsuccessfully to jab the fork into one of the little potatoes on her plate. "I thought you had studied foreign cultures."

"I had not gotten to eating, ‹little cousin.›" She frowned and took aim again.

He held out a hand to stop her. "Woah, hold on, let's try this again. Hold it against your hand like you would a chopstick."

"But there's only one of it."

"Improvise. Oh, no, other hand. That's it. Tines the other way. Now pick up the knife in your other hand. No, hold it under your hand. Not so tightly—no, never mind, you'll get the feel for it later. Now, use the fork to brace the food while you cut it with the knife."

"Like . . . this?" Li Xue awkwardly trapped the potato between the utensils and pushed the knife into it.

"Yes, that's right."

"‹Chopsticks are so much easier,›" she muttered.

Yu hid a laugh behind her arm. "Be glad we are eating steak and not noodles."

Roy chuckled again, neatly cutting a piece off his steak. "I'm looking forward to watching some of the soldiers try to eat with chopsticks on Saturday."

"We'll try not to laugh too hard," Yu assured him.

Edward snickered, shoving a piece that was far larger than was polite into his mouth. He seemed to be having a bit of trouble with the fork himself, because of his sore index finger.

"You might have an easier time if you took your gloves off," she commented to him. "Doesn't the fabric interfere?"

"S'fine."

"Nii-san! Don't talk with your mouth full."

Roy had winced slightly at the lack of manners, but hadn't said anything, apparently leaving it to the younger brother to police the elder. It had been Yu's understanding that eating with gloves on was also considered rude, and she was surprised that no one had commented on the behavior.

After the meal was done and they were waiting for dessert—though really, only the two Elrics had much room for it—Yu indicated the coats the boys had draped over the back of an empty chair. "That symbol the two of you wear; that's an old alchemic sign, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Alphonse said, startled. "I'm surprised you recognize it."

"I did study alchemy," she told them wryly.

"Yeah, but that's really old," Edward said, jerking his thumb at the coats. "Even Al and I didn't know what it was used for for a long time."

Roy turned to regard the hand-sized appliqué on the front of Ed's coat. "Even though you described it to me, I still have trouble picturing your crest in an array."

"Yeah. . . ."

There was something, a lot of something, left unspoken there, and after seeing the shadows flicker behind the eyes of both of the Elrics and, to a lesser extent, her son, Yu dearly wanted to know what.

"Sensei just uses it as a crest, though," the younger boy said, reaching over to smooth out the coat. "That's why Nii-san and I wear it."

"May I see it?" Li Xue asked. "I have studied symbols some."

"Of course." Alphonse smiled in that charmingly open way he had and stood to pass her one of the coats. It was almost enough to make Yu doubt the shadows she had seen in the young boy's eyes.

Dessert came while she studied, a chocolate cake piece they divided between them, with the boys getting the largest shares and the two women getting the smallest. Yu wasn't sure she'd be able to finish even that, the cake was quite rich.

"Snake is wisdom or knowledge, right?" the younger woman asked, taking a nibble of her piece of cake. "Crown is also wisdom, sometimes. A cross . . . restraint or bonds? Or protection. But wings is usually freedom. This is . . . the same and different." She frowned and said what she meant in Xingian.

Yu nodded, chuckling. "She means it seems to be made of contradictions and redundancies. It does seem so."

"Huh," Edward commented, halfway through his piece of cake and leaning on his right fist. The slight gap between the cuff of his sleeve and his glove revealed something that seemed to be metallic. "I guess. I never thought about it."

"The book I found it in—and you're right, the book was quite old—said it was used for . . . let me see . . . containing or tempering something volatile or dangerous."

"Did it say what?" The young man's slouched posture hadn't changed, but there was something sharp and wary in his eyes. Alphonse was also watching her intently, but his hazel eyes lacked the edge of his brother's gold.

"No, not that I remember," she told them. "But there were many notes in the book that I didn't understand. The original author's personal code, I think."

"Hm." The brothers exchanged a look, then seemed to shrug something off and went back to eating.

"Tempering the volatile, hm?" Roy mused, resting his elbows on the table and lacing his fingers together.

Yu raised an eyebrow at the look of mischief on her son's face. "Yes, I believe that's what it said."

"Seems to me that it's not too effective."

Ed paused with is fork raised. "Uh?"

The older man turned to smirk at the blond. He had to turn, because, once again, the young man was on his blind side. "After all, you've been wearing it for years."

Edward just blinked at him but Alphonse made a sudden choking noise and slapped a hand over his mouth. Yu caught on a second later and started giggling behind her hand.

"Wh—oh—you bastard." He smacked Roy's shoulder with the side of his fist and Roy winced. "Real cute, Colonel."

Al hastily drank some water to clear his mouth, then laughed out loud. "You're right, Roy-san. It's not effective."

"Al!" He aimed a punch at his brother but the younger one deflected it. "Stop taking his side!"

"Well, he's right!"

"Okay, you two, not in the restaurant," Roy said, still chuckling.

"You started it, Colonel Shit," Edward muttered.

"I did, I know, but you're escalating it."

The young man huffed, but Yu thought she saw a hint of a smile at one corner of his mouth.

* * *

Roy drove them back to the embassy after leaving the two boys at the house. Li Xue bade her cousin good night and then went inside, leaving mother and son alone together for the first time since they'd arrived.

"You do look well," Yu said as she put her arm around his as they walked along the embassy grounds. "Despite what I said about not looking like you've been sleeping."

"And the grey hair?" he asked with a smirk.

She laughed. "Yes, and despite the grey hair. You seem to be . . . enjoying life, at least." Unlike after the war, when he'd seemed to be only going through the motions of living.

"I suppose I am." He went thoughtful, staring off into the distance. "Especially if you're comparing me with the last time you were here . . . that was one of my lowest points."

One of.

"We really shouldn't go so long without seeing each other."

"No, we shouldn't. I kept thinking I should go and visit you, but then things kept happening, one after another. . . ." He sighed and fell silent again. "You don't . . . completely approve of my relationship with Edward, do you." It was a statement more than a question.

Yu linked her hands around his elbow. "It's not really my place to approve or disapprove."

"Approval doesn't work that way." He was watching her out of the corner of his eye. "It's not a right or a privilege. You just don't feel you can say anything." After a pause, he added, "That's why I'm asking."

She reached up to the back of his head and ruffled his hair, around the strap from the patch. "You always could tell when someone was trying to talk around something."

"It comes in handy," he said wryly, ducking his head slightly under her hand.

"I'll bet." She re-linked her hands, sighing. "My honest answer? I don't know. It . . . came as a surprise. I had always thought you liked women. You certainly seemed to enjoy dating them."

"I like women just fine, I've just . . . always liked men, also."

"Something you never felt the need to tell me."

"Mother. . . ." He gave her a pleading look. "How was I supposed to bring it up? I wasn't dating men, so it couldn't come up that way. Until recently, it hadn't played a very significant part in my life." They came to a bench and sat down, under the light of one of the lamp posts in the courtyard. "Edward isn't the first man I've been attracted to, but he is the first man I've had a serious relationship with. The first person I've ever been this serious about."

But he's a child! part of her wanted to cry. An immature, petulant, ill-mannered child!

"I also . . ." Roy was saying, ". . . could never quite be sure how you would react."

"React? To you liking men?"

"Mm." He nodded, turning to look at her. "I've known people whose families have disowned them for liking the same sex. I know you're not likely to do something that extreme, but . . . views on homosexuality never has come up as a topic of conversation."

"Oh, sweetie. . . ." She put her arms around him. "You're my son. Nothing can change that."

He didn't say anything, but she thought she sensed relief in the way he returned her embrace. She would be lying if she said she was completely comfortable with this. She'd never had a problem with the concept of homosexuality—she'd never understood it, but she didn't have a problem with it—but that was thinking in the abstract. This was her son, and that . . . made it different.

"Still," she said a moment later, hooking her arm around his again, "I had so wanted grandchildren."

"Mom."

Yu smiled sweetly at his put-upon look.

Roy looked out across the courtyard for a moment, then said, quietly, "There's still something that bothers you about him."

"He . . . seems like a dear boy." As well as rude, and obnoxious, and childishly quick-tempered. "But . . . I am concerned about his age."

Her son smiled in a way that made it clear he'd been waiting for her to bring that topic up. "Edward's twenty. There's fourteen years between us, give or take a handful of months. And yes, he used to be my subordinate, when he was in his early and mid teens. I've known him since he was eleven."

"I see. . . ."

"I never took advantage of my authority over him. Not in that way."

She looked at him, appalled and slightly offended by the implication. "Sweetheart, I never would have accused you of that."

"But the thought must have crossed your mind," he said with a small smile. "If only to think that other people would see it that way. And I did start having feelings for him when he was still technically a minor. He was fifteen."

"Fifteen. . . ."

"Mm." He chuckled suddenly. "Even if I had been so inclined, I would have been too scared to try anything. There wouldn't have been enough left of me afterwards to identify."

"Oh, my." She smiled wryly. "Is his temper so dangerous?"

"Oh, I suppose so, yes, but I would have been more worried about his brother."

"Alphonse? But he seems like such a sweet boy."

He chuckled again. "He is, to a fault. But he's also an experienced combat alchemist and a talented martial artist, as well as highly protective of his elder brother. I wouldn't want to get on his bad side. Luckily, his bad side is incredibly hard to find."

She thought back to the casual way he had deflected his brother's punch over dinner. "Well. It seems there's more to him than I thought."

"As is always the case with those two." His smile was thoughtful and fond.

But when Edward was fifteen, wouldn't Alphonse have been about eight? Ten, at the most? How much of a threat could he have been then?

But before she could voice those thoughts, Roy went on: "It did disturb me that I was attracted to someone who was so young. But it was the maturity in him that attracted me, not his youth." ("Maturity" was not a word Yu would have associated with the blond boy, but she stayed silent.) "Edward was young, but he was not a child. Still, I never said anything. Aside from it being illegal and inappropriate with both of us being in the military, we both had goals from which we couldn't afford to be distracted. And then . . . the goals were gone, but . . . so was Edward."

"Gone?"

"For three years, nobody—including his brother—knew where he was or what had happened to him. My life had fallen apart at that point, as well."

"The demotion and transfer you mentioned."

He nodded. "But that's another topic. When he disappeared, I promised myself that if I saw him again—if, when, sometimes I believed he was still alive, sometimes I doubted—I would tell him how I felt." He chuckled. "I thought the best I could hope for was a tolerant smile or a sympathetic look. I never—never—imagined he would return my feelings." He smiled softly. "I'll never forget the look on his face when I said that yes, I had feelings for him. And I'll never forget how it felt when he hugged me, and told me he'd missed me."

Yu wasn't sure how to feel. Roy seemed genuinely happy. She had worried that she might never see him that way. Of course she was happy for him, as well as relieved. But even so, she couldn't get over the fact that he was . . . together . . . with a boy. A boy almost a decade and a half younger than he was, who was ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, and insulting. Like any mother, she thought her son deserved the best, and she just couldn't be sure that that meant Edward.

"Where had he gone?" she finally said.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you where he was," Roy said slowly. "It's not my place to tell."

"I see."

"I'm sorry."

She put her fingers to his hair again. "I am a little tired of you keeping things from me."

"It's not always by choice, Mom. You know that."

"Not always by choice."

He was silent for a long time, staring out across the courtyard. In profile like this, with the low light obscuring his scars, she could almost pretend that the eye patch wasn't there, that her baby's face was still whole and perfect. But then he turned, and that triangular patch of shadow clung to his face like a void, and there was something dark and unreadable in his remaining eye. "No," he said, his voice low. "Not always by choice."