A Family Man, An Ideal Father

Scribbling of a pen against a paper on a sturdy oak desk swished roughly in Roy's ear as he wrote up the latest report for the Storm and Volcano Alchemists. They had just brought in a small-time thief, a very basic earth Alchemist who tunneled through the ground to reach shops and banks in the West and even parts of Central through the sewage systems.

It was all about finding him at the moment of the crime, the reason he was getting away was that he was reaching local sewer systems easily and vanishing or causing cave-ins in multiple branches of his tunnels to cover his tracks where there were no sewers.

{Flashback noises! PEEWOOBWOOBWOOB}

Ed and Al arrived just in time to see the man running through his opened wall and closing it back up. Now, normally this would spell defeat for any other Alchemist, since the man's tunnels were too elaborate to follow, and even then it might be beset with traps. Most wouldn't want to take the risk, another reason the man had been active for over three weeks until the brothers were outsourced.

But they could still feel him, and he ran about as fast as an Olympic hotdog eater.

Krass le Ver had his usual smug grin on as he skittered through one of the side branching tunnels with a conspicuous bag on his shoulder that weighed him down more than he would admit. A dull boom erupted from behind him, the first entry which led to five others, all blocked Alchemically. This five-split pattern continued for every single hall until it led beyond the city.

"So the futile chase begins, hahaha!"

*Dum* Another dull thud. One of the hallways he had entered two hallways ago. "Ha, lucky gue-"

*Dum!* Krass frowned, this is getting too-

*DOOM!*

'THAT'S TOO LUCKY!'

Krass put his gloved hand on the wall and created another just as the last one leading to him blew open with another *BOOM!*. Krass stood deathly still, waiting to ambush them.

"Aww, Al, he stopped running away! This is about to end too quickly!"

"Nii-san, that's a good thing isn't it?"

"All we've gotten to fight since we've been certified is small-fry! I feel more like a company salaryman with all the nagging and paperwork Roy gives us!"

'These fucking brats know I'm here and they're having a yarn?!'

"Teacher said this is the battleground, we just have to wait longer for the real challenges," Al assured them both.

"It better, or I'll regret doing all that training if I fight nothing for real! OY! NOW YOU RUN AGAIN?!"

'They really can discern my position so accurately?!' Krass turned around and prepared for them to bust down the wall.

Krass heard a ring and looked back in a panic, only to find that nothing had happened to his wall. 'Wha-UH?!'

Krass had doubled over but his feet were glued to the ground while his ankle bent unnaturally forward.

"He Transmuted at a distance!"

*BOOM!* Another dreadful explosion had erupted and sent dust and rock chunks in his direction which pelted his back. He shielded his face, then used his gloves to break the ground that had attached itself to his feet to whip around.

Two thirteen-year-old boys were revealed, blonde hair and gold eyes adorning both of them. One had his hands clapped as if in prayer, the other winding up his arm and walking forward as if he had just blown open that wall with his fist alone. Bloody knuckles were the proof, and they were healing rather quickly.

'These are those Elric brats?! I thought they were just...brats!'

Ed stood at a greater height than he did in the original at the beginning, with most of his familiar features remaining aside from the obvious differences. His metal arm wasn't covered in his dark crimson coat, but prominently displayed as a symbol of pride for the price he paid to bring back his mother successfully. On the other arm which was also bare and organic was a familiar if slightly altered array. It was a reconstruction array, capable of not only patching up his own wounds quickly but rebuilding his arm if he theoretically needed to since he was taught the process. His metal arm has a few circles that he can use in a jiffy carved into them, most notably one that would electrify the surface scales and give a bull a heart attack.

Al stood at an identical height to Ed... is what Ed would want you to believe. While Ed has the benefit of more strength over his brother due to his age, Al is already an inch taller and growing further. Ed took more from his mother in that area, it would seem.

Al wore a dark navy coat which didn't cover the same combination of arms but reversed. Al's left hand was the automail one, and it had a very special circle. One that made him capable of casting mineral-type alchemy at any distance that wouldn't exhaust him completely. It's how he captured the man's ankles without creating another Alka circle, he sent it through the Dragon Pulse as a command.

Krass got up and grit his teeth before planting his hand on the wall. A zap was followed by rapid sprouting of stalactites from the ceiling and even more spikes from the ground and sides, like the rotating mouth of a sci-fi worm. As it flew towards them from only 20 feet away, they didn't stop looking bored.

Al stepped to his left and stretched out his metal hand, creating an opening in the tunnel wall as easily as one opens a door before waving at Ed and closing it back up.

Ed had a different approach.

He clapped, then his right arm lit up its scales as tongues of electricity slithered across the surface in a tight net. His other hand seemed to be feeding the arm another transmutation causing the already charged arm to become excited with power. A single forward thrust of this hand and the tunnel turned blue.

It wasn't an organized beam or a normal bolt, but a cloud of neon blue discharge that looked like cosmic dust clusters sharing space with a forceful wind. Any spike or stalactite it passed would quickly crumble, the Alchemist losing control and the material losing stability.

"AAAAAHHHH!" Krass only had time to shield his face with his arms and scream, believing himself to be as good as dead. The process, though closer to a force of nature, was still Alchemical so Ed stopped it short of bursting and frying the man. He looked up in confusion when he heard footsteps and wasn't dead.

Ed had gotten a running start, then clapped once more and faced his hands down and behind his back before two blasts of air erupted and sent him forward faster, his feet leaving the ground. Krass moved his hand to the wall out of instinct to make a barrier but suddenly, the wall opened up and two hands locked his arm.

In a practiced feat of control, Ed adjusted his hands slightly up and raised his knee and the final moment just before the collision, giving him near fatal torque before connecting his knee to the tunneler's chin. A spurt of blood came from his mouth as the majority of his teeth were shattered and his gums were impacted by the shards. Krass felt his brain jumping around the inside of his head before falling unconscious, luckily not feeling when his head hit the ceiling.

"Isn't this a bad one, Nii-san? Were you trying to kill him?" Al winced at the damage he did this time. Ed bent over and put his fleshly hand on his head. Ed was no brain surgeon, but using the Restoration array to heal the broken jaw and lightly fractured skull along with the gums was within his capabilities.

"At worst, he'll be a vegetable. At best, a toothless guy with a concussion!" Ed shrugged helplessly.

"You've gotten more violent since we've been certified, Nii-san," Al shrugged and sighed exasperatedly.

"Che, I've gotten better at dealing with small-fry quicker. This guy targeted small businesses because they were farther away from dispatch, it's despicable. But none of the people we've handled were deserving of death like Yuri's examples so far."

"There was that sex offender that was pretty close."

"They wouldn't even tell us that guy's whole file. Speakin' of the pot calling the kettle black, you totally trapped that guy up to his neck in burning coals!"

"He was looking at me funny..."

"Yeah yeah, he deserved it, I'm just saying."

"What are we gonna do with this guy?" Al moved on.

"Let's just push him to the surface and let them deal with him. I feel a few guys waiting up there, let me leave a note."

{BOOWOOWOOWOOWEEP}

Roy was finalizing the details and making his case: that even if the brothers left a note saying [Take care of this guy for us, thanks! - Elrics], and left the scene before technically completing the follow-up report, they should be credited for their speed and efficiency in handling the matter in another region's jurisdiction.

*DOOM SHCREE* The thud of a bursting door was followed by the startled drag of a pen across Roy's report. He looked up in annoyance and lost the frown almost as quickly.

"Yo, Roy!"

A man with a straight and clean haircut, a pencil-thin beard, and rectangle-rimmed glasses burst into the room with enthusiasm one wouldn't expect from his appearance.

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, what brings you by?" Roy completely countered it with a flat response.

"Don't be so cold, Roy boy! I heard those Elric brothers bagged another one, you should be proud as their superior officer!" Maes Hughes circled the desk, a boundary of professionalism, and clapped Roy's shoulder with a wide grin.

"They left me with the paperwork and clean up again."

"Ah, I can see that. Your desk is almost as bad as mine!"

"That's because you keep coming over to chat during work hours and delaying us both!" Roy scolded.

Maes cleared his throat, a classic topic-changing maneuver, and changed the topic.

"Those brothers have a master, the Mystic Alchemist. He seems to have appeared out of nowhere, hasn't even taken a single mission since he's been certified."

"He hasn't been given one. You don't bring a tank to a knife fight," Roy commented dryly.

While those unfamiliar with Roy wouldn't notice a shift in his usual demeanor, Maes felt Roy instinctually straighten in his chair and stiffen slightly when Yuri was mentioned. He looked around... no, the Fuhrer didn't just walk in.

"What's wrong, Roy? Is he really that big of a deal?" Maes let his grin soften as curiosity sat on his brow. "You met him?"

"I was assigned to him before. He's the real deal," Roy artificially relaxed and Maes took it as a sign to move on.

Onto his favorite topic!

"You know what you need to stop being so tense, Roy?"

"Don't say i-."

*WHOOSH!*

"You need a family like mine!"

Like lightning, Maes pulled out photographs of a blonde woman about Trisha's age and a two-year-old girl with the same blonde hair.

"Elicia just turned two! Isn't she perfect?! Don't answer that, I already know! She drew a picture of me that I took to work today. I'll keep it with the rest in my trunk tonight. Gracia says they won't matter after she grows up and I shouldn't keep them all, but who will keep track of her whole transition from now until when she's a great artist if I don't do it?!"

Roy sighed in defeat. Maes might gush about his little slice of heaven for another half hour, he might as well sit tight.

"I'm not a parent yet, but I and my lovers will be soon. I can feel it. You seem to be taking it in stride!"

A man, very predictable in his unpredictability, swiveled around in his chair facing one of the empty desks in Roy's current office. Soon, he would be sent his subordinates from East City to fill these desks. The man was in a private's uniform, the lowest rank, but wore sunglasses against military rules and had a lollipop sticking out of his mouth. He seemingly came out of nowhere.

Roy went bug-eyed before pinching the bridge of his nose. Forget half an hour, now his whole day might be taken. Maes was affable as usual.

"In stride? It's my life's calling! You seem young for a soon-to-be-father. Care for any tips from this old man?"

"Ah, I'm afraid I'm not young anymore. I'm already 31."

Maes balked with a strange face. He was only 28, he didn't look that good and young even when he was 22! "Well, that's not too bad! Never too late to start!" Maes encouraged him, "What's your name, stranger?"

"Yuri Nightingale, the Mystic Alchemist," Roy introduced for him. "Do I even need to ask how you got in here with a private's uniform?"

"Any good officer is a master of stealth and disguise, Roy boy. You'll learn when you're older." Yuri snapped and his clothes returned to their usual style, black robe with his symbol and a silver medallion hanging over his suit.

"Hum. I thought you would be busier, your town is getting a lot more attention than it used to."

"Ally started that, she can handle seeing it through."

They were talking about a new venture originally meant to pass the time and create some entertainment that would liven up the town, but ballooned into the epicenter of a growing automail town with Winry and Ally at the center.

Arenas, race tracks, shooting ranges, throwing sports, etc. Ally expanded out further and bought more land with her earned money to create testing grounds for new automail creations the two of them dreamed and made up. Arvanak took the race track out for a spin often, as well.

Customers of their specialties and the pair's own tests drew more and more customers asking for Ally's modifications, and Ally decided to open the testing grounds for a series of competitions held between owners of other automail. The Auto Games.

The reception was staggering. Since Ally refused to move to Rush Valley and more and more people were going to her and Winry for even basic operations since it could be done so quickly and cheaply, people started opening their branch shops close by. Many sent their friends to get jobs done on their own automail or purchase new pieces just to study them, while more and more mechanics who looked around or even moved to Resembool started to participate in the near-daily competitions or automail testing events. Others started to watch it as a pastime, since it was free.

The automail culture of Rush Valley is like a combination of enthusiastic gun nuts and sober car enthusiasts, and they all wanted a piece of either the competitions which were growing in popularity and frequency or the new methodologies coming out of the Nightingale's backyard every day.

Even the Rockbell couple was involved, earning a sizeable income from being the on-call doctors for incidents involving the Arena or infrequently the other venues.

Every so often, a thug with a beefy piece would come through the Arena looking to score some pride or even the prize money the competitors sometimes pooled together, but would end up nearly maiming another contestant.

This is where The Spider gained her infamy. These people who lack the spirit of testing their pieces and were on the aggressive side would find threads coming from nowhere and tearing their automail to shreds. Wherever she walked around the street past the Nightingale house, now littered with automail shops when a year ago this street was barren, Winry would be called the Spider out of fear or respect.

There were two Automail Cities now, Rush Valley and Resembool.

"So you're the Mystic Alchemist?!" Maes asked in a very friendly manner and extended his hand. Yuri reached and clasped it, the hand of one of his favorite characters. "Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes! You can call me Hughes!"

'It's times like these that make my head spin sometimes. What a great guy. Better make sure he doesn't leave his happy family prematurely.'

"Yuri Nightingale! No need for titles," Yuri smiled amiably and grasped his hand firmly.

"So you said lovers, as in multiple?" Maes backtracked.

"Legally we're married here, but we haven't had our official wedding yet. I'm all for kids, I just uh... don't know squat about being a father."

"Is that legal?" Maes muttered in Roy's direction, who merely shrugged not knowing.

"Anyway, I'm sure you'll do fine, Yuri! What do you think an ideal father is?"

"An ideal father?" Yuri perked his head.

"It's a question I asked myself repeatedly when Gracia was pregnant. I believe that an ideal father is a perfect supporter! Someone who can give their child the confidence and the attitude they need to face anything! My father was... a harsh man. He pushed me to succeed in the way he thought was best but wasn't there for me in much else. I want to be there for my kid!" Even through his melancholy, this exercise which he doesn't get to exert often was visibly exciting Maes.

"I can already tell we are different types, then. I'm the type that decides when to walk them through something and when to let them fall just to experience it. We can't be there for everything forever, they should learn how to do it themselves before it's too late."

"Well, the point is you have an ideal as a father! As long as you have it and hold onto it tightly and watch your kid's moments expecting to make a decision that benefits their future in every part, you can't say you've failed in the end."

"Oh? And what if I said my ideal was like your father's?"

"I would've beaten you up, you bastard!"