Father & Son (Part 3 - The Lake)

After paying their final respect to Matilda, Roy and Riza went to visit Berthold Hawkeye's grave with their son. Berthold's tombstone was very empty, and it had always been that empty after he was buried. That man shut himself out after his wife's death, because of which even his daughter never came to visit his grave. Roy knew that Riza never liked her father, so he brought two daisy flower with him, one of which he placed on Berthold's grave. Riza, on the other hand, was holding Oliver in her arms. "This small town had always felt like home to me than any other place in the planet," Roy stood up and offered the other daisy flower to Riza, "Here."

Riza gently put Oliver down and took the flower from Roy's hand. She then walked closer to the grave beside Berthold's grave. She placed the flower on the grave where the tombstone read one other member of the Hawkeye family, Elizabeth Hawkeye, Riza's mother. Roy knew that Riza was never going to pay respect to her father but she would definitely pay respect to her mother. And all the time, Riza didn't hold Oliver in her arms, Oliver kept latched to her.

After Riza was done, Roy proposed, "How about we take some food from the market and visit the lake? It's been a while."

But, Riza denied by saying, "It's better if we go to my house. If someone will recognize us without our uniform and Oliver in my arm, then we might face some problem."

"Come on, stop worrying for a moment. Would you?" Roy said and continued, "Please, only this time…I don't want this moment to get just wasted."

Riza sighed and picked up Oliver. "Alright, let's go to the market to have something to eat," Riza said.

Roy smiled upon hearing Riza's agreement, and the small complicated family went to the market to prepare for their first family time. After buying some fruits and snacks, they went to the lake and sat at their old place, which was under the shade of the black olive tree close to the lake.

Roy was leaning on the slope under the Olive tree while Riza was cutting some apples with Oliver sitting near her. Roy looked at the branches of the Olive tree and asked, "So you named him after this tree?"

"Yes," Riza replied.

"There couldn't be a better fitting name for our son…I still wonder how come this unique tree ended up here?" Roy said.

Meanwhile, Oliver was clinging on to Riza while she was cutting apples. So, Riza requested, "Can you take him for a moment?"

Roy was waiting for the exact moment, but he was nervous as well. He sat up and looked toward Riza. Then he answered hesitantly, "Sure."

Roy was figuring out how he should approach his son for the first time, and fortunately, he came up with an idea. He used alchemy and made a small wooden dog figurine out of the broken branches lying there while Oliver was watching. Oliver got fascinated, and when Roy offered him the figurine, he ran toward Roy and took it from Roy's hand. But, soon after that, he returned back to his mother. Roy again tried to get Oliver's attention by making a small wooden tree, and as expected, his plan worked perfectly. Oliver ran toward him and picked up the tree figurine and sat near him. Roy then made some more figurines out of the broken branches, and whenever Roy was making some figurine, Oliver was clapping his hand with joy and whenever Roy was finishing a figurine, Oliver shouted: "more, more".

Riza was looking at them, smiling at the inception of the bond between father and son. While each of them was enjoying their moments in a different way, there was a fourth person present near, who was also smiling watching the happy family. He came near them and commented, "You are a very adorable family."

Roy and Riza looked at the man. It was an old man, in his early sixties. The man was holding a tripod and a camera with him. "Thank you," Riza smiled.

The man looked at Roy and asked, "So are you planning to teach alchemy to your son? "

"When he is old enough then maybe I can teach him," Roy replied, but when he looked at Riza soon after that, he saw the scary disapproval. So, he quickly fixed his sentence by adding, "But, he should be the one to decide and not me."

"It's been a while since I saw an alchemist in this town," The man said.

Roy noticed the big camera with a big flashlight along with the tripod stand, which the old man was carrying. "Is your camera working, Sir?" Roy asked politely.

"It will have to. After all, I am a traveling photographer," The man replied.

"Can you please take a photo of me and my family?" Roy requested.

"Of course son, it will be my pleasure," The man smiled.

Riza looked at Roy with a confused face but, Roy ignored her. Riza understood that he won't listen to her so, she went with the flow. The Old man set his tripod and camera. Roy and Riza stood up, while Oliver was busy with his new toys made by his father, so Riza persuaded him and carried him on her arms. Then she walked toward Roy who was smiling. "Why are you smirking?" Riza asked.

"Nothing. It's just that you seem like a very different person today," Roy answered with a smile.

When Riza was close enough, Roy moved his hand closer to Riza's face and moved his finger through her short blonde hair and finished his movement by feeling her cheek by his palm. He didn't know what he was doing at that moment. "Damn, she is so beautiful," he thought.

Because of Roy's action, and a smile on his face, Riza started blushing. She was unable to speak at that moment. It was as if she was feeling the warmth of love once again. Her heart was beating the same way when she kissed him the first time, and Roy had also stopped perceiving what was happening around him because his hand was still on her cheek. And suddenly, Oliver bit Roy's thumb and ruined the moment between them. Right at that moment, the old man clicked the photo.

Roy groaned in pain and succeeded in taking out his thumb from his son's mouth somehow. Upon watching that, Riza and the old man laughed. "It looks like your son is possessive about his mother," The old man said.

Roy shook his hand while gritting his teeth to get some relief from the pain. "I guess, you are right," he yelped and continued with a grin, "I guess you captured that."

The old man smiled back and replied, "Yes, after all the invention of the camera was to capture the moments which happen, and not the moments we want to show."

That was the first family photo of the Mustang family, in which the son was biting his father's thumb while being in the embrace of his mother.