From the Eyes of a Child

"My older brother's an alchemist!" A boy, around seven-years-old, cried out as he stood in the middle of a circle of kids no more than his age.

The group of kids around him approached wide-eyed and amazed at this revelation. "Really, Drake? You're brother's an alchemist?" One kid yelled out.

"Uh-huh!" the blonde boy replied. "He can do all sorts of stuff with his alchemy." He waved his arms out with his index finger pointed out and started drawing wide circles.

"Wow!" The kids said almost in unison.

One kid, however, was not at all that amazed.

"Hear that, Elicia? His brother sounds so cool!" A brown-haired girl began to speak. She was beside Elicia, her eyes sparkling as she clasped her hands together listening intently at the young man proudly talking about his brother's abilities.

Elicia, unimpressed, held her hands together behind her head. "Naaaah! he's not that cool," she remarked.

The boy seemed to have heard her since he stopped all his bragging to pay more attention at Elicia. "Oh, you bet he is!"

"Nah-uh!" She retorted. "I know someone wa~ay cooler! The coolest in all-ah Amestris!" She waved her arms around with her excitement now obvious through her expression, now she had the young crowd's attention.

"You have an alchemist brother, too, Elicia?" One boy asked.

Elicia giggled. "No! My unca Roy is!"

Suddenly the door of the front door flew open and footsteps could be heard entering the room. Probably one of the many parents coming in and out to pick their kids up. It was that time of the day where all the children, too young to be in grade school, would be picked up from the daycare and were taken home.

"I'm here to pick you up, Elicia!" A voice resounded the room. It seemed like a familiar voice to Elicia, but sounded too deep to be her dad's voice. She turned around in wonder who it was.

"Unca Roy!"

"Hey there, kiddo!" Roy knelt down to welcome the girl into his arms, where at that point in time, Elicia was running towards him for a hug. "You're dad's still at work, he asked me to pick you up so we can meet him at the park."

"Hey there, Elicia," the little girl looked up as she heard the soft feminine voice.

"Auntie Riza!" with a quick release from the man's arms, she quickly made her way towards the blonde woman, hugging her on the leg. Riza knelt down to return the young lady's embrace.

So as not to draw any attention, the officers were in their civilian. Roy with his white dress shirt, tucked inside dark grey slacks and dark brown leather shoes; and Riza in her black turtleneck shirt under a beige long-sleeved cardigan, black pencil skirt, and some conservative heels.

"Unca Roy, Unca Roy! Come with me," she tugged the pants on the man's right leg as he was gesturing to stand up. Roy obliged as the little girl took Riza by the hand as well towards her group of friends.

Gesturing to the man beside her, she began to introduce him to her friends, "this is my Unca Roy! He is the co~olest alchemist in all Amestris!"

Astonished voices and clapping could be heard from the young group as they gathered around the tall black-haired man.

Riza let out a soft giggle. "Looks like you're as popular among the kids, Colonel."

"I didn't know today was 'show and tell', Lieutenant. I didn't prepare an act." He mused to Riza in a whispered tone which earned him another light giggle from the blonde.

"So…" the kid, Drake, spoke with his hands crossed on his chest in a rather unamused tone, "...what does your alchemy do?"

Roy seemed challenged, but he didn't want to provoke a kid that was less than half his size and around five times younger than him. All he could do was stare, wide-eyed, at the kid. 'He's got spunk,' he thought.

Elicia suddenly responded to the boy's question, "my unca Roy can create fire with a snap!" The little girl then imitated a snap using her little fingers.

"Whoah!" the kids gasped in unison.

"Show 'em, unca Roy; show 'em!" Elicia cheered.

"Now; now, kiddo. Fire is dangerous. I can show you something else, if you want." Roy knelt down to pat Elicia on the head.

"You panzy! I bet you can't do it!" The boy yelled. His use of words for a seven-year-old shocked Roy very much and just gave another wide-eyed stare at the kid.

"Uh-huh! He can too!" Elicia began to retaliate.

"Take it easy there, Elicia," Riza interrupted using the softest voice her stern tone could muster. "It's not nice to fight."

"He started it, auntie Riza!" she yelled, teary-eyed, pointing a finger at the other boy.

The other boy then began to stick his tongue out. Roy wasn't sure if that was meant for him though, his face began to return to its serious expression.

"Drake Carrson!" a woman's voice broke through the commotion. "What did I tell you about picking fights with other kids?" The woman was making her way towards the young boy, "and with a young lady too; in front of her parents no less! You are better than this, boy."

The woman was now standing a few feet beside her son with both hands on her waist. She was looking down at a guilty-looking young blonde who had his head bowed down. He looked angry, but didn't speak at all.

"Go and apologize to her."

He still had his head down, but he turned his head to meet with Elicia's gaze. With a barely audible yet irritated tone, the boy said his apologies, "I'm sorry, Elicia."

"Now get to the car with dad and we will talk about this later."

Just as the boy headed out the daycare, the woman approached Roy and Riza, who was each holding Elicia by the hand, standing a few feet away.

"I'm Drake's mom, Natalie Carrson," the woman held out her hand to introduce herself, "I'm sorry about that, mister and missus…?" she broke off in question, realizing she didn't get their names.

The couple blushed at the false assumption. "Oh, we're not…" as if a defense mechanism, Riza responded to reject the idea that she and her superior were any sort of couple.

"Oh no, we're not her parents," Roy explained, a little nervously and a hint of red on his cheeks. "Her dad is a good friend of ours and is stuck at work today, so we offered to pick up this little lady, right here," he added while taking the woman's hand to shake it as casually as he can.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I assumed you were her parents. How embarrassing."

Riza began to shake her hand as well, "no harm done," she said with a warm smile. "It wouldn't be wrong to assume that in this place."

The woman giggled. "Oh, yeah. Having this little girl with you around, people are bound to mistaken you as her parents."

"They're my Unca Roy and Auntie Riza!" Elicia exclaimed.

Mrs. Carrson giggled, "isn't that just adorable? Thinking of having kids soon?"

Riza flushed uncontrollably, "uh, I'm sorry, we're not…"

"I'm just teasing you! There's no need to rush at this sorta thing. Take it from me!" the lady casually interrupted. "Well, gotta run. It was nice to meet you both."

Before anybody else could utter a response, a little voice echoes through the halls, "bye missus Carrson!"

Roy was paralyzed. Unsure how to respond to that remark, he looked away. Meanwhile, as Mrs. Carrson exits the daycare, she swore she saw a tinge of red on each of their faces. She didn't want to intrude on their existent or non-existent relationship though, so she bid her farewell and exited the room, leaving the pair in awkward silence both holding each of Elicia's hands.