Chapter Text
Since the Elrics moved to Central he had been seeing much more of them, well Ed at least. Their weekly phone calls had turned into going out every Saturday. It was strange how much their relationship had changed. Ed had grown, he was an adult now, an equal. He was no longer a young boy who needed guidance and someone to push him, he was a father guiding children of his own. It was strange but in a good way. It made Roy think of Hughes. His friend had always said it was the dream of every parent to one day be friends with their children, and Roy thinks he achieved that with his boys.
Roy knew he wasn’t their father, but Alphonse admitted to him once that he was the closest thing either of them had to one. They were the closest thing Roy ever saw himself having to children too.
Even though he had seen much more of the Elrics in the past few years, they rarely visited him at work. It was even more rare for them to visit him at work twice in one week, yet here they were.
Ed stood in his office with Trisha and Naomi on either side of him. Trisha looked giddy, like she was plotting something that was slowly coming to fruition before her eyes. Naomi, on the other hand, looked petrified.
“I’m not babysitting again,” Roy said deadpan when Edward walked into his office.
Ed laughed at that, throwing his head back, “It’s nothing like that,” Ed said with a grin, “Naomi had a question for you and asked me to bring her to see you.” He put his hand on the girl's back and pushed her forward. Her eyes widened in panic at being put on the spot. She turned towards Trisha, giving her a frantic look, but she just smiled back at her making a shooing motion with her hands.
Naomi turned back towards him, shuffling awkwardly on her crutches. “I was wondering if you’d be willing to let me learn alchemy from you?” She asked timidly, glancing back to Trisha, who gave her a wide grin and thumbs up in support.
Roy blinked back at them. He was not expecting that. Of all the things she could have asked him, that was at the bottom of the list of possibilities. Roy looked into her eyes, red and nervous, and couldn’t help but see all the people he’d killed. He saw the girl's mother, kneeling in a pool of blood, leaning over her mother's body.
Roy stiffened and remembered his promise to Riza, his vow to let flame alchemy end with him. “I’m sorry, but I don’t teach,” Roy replied stiffly and diplomatically. “Why don’t you get Fullmetal to teach you?”
“Oh he is,” She replied shyly rubbing her neck with her right hand, deftly keeping balance by squeezing her crutch to her body with her elbow. “But I don’t really like metal alchemy,” she scrunched her nose, “I want to learn more about gaseous alchemy, but Mr. Ed says that there's only one person he’s known with similar alchemy to the kind I wanna research, but he’s dead so he can’t teach me.” Roy mentally facepalmed at that. Why is Ed going around telling a couple of 8-year-olds about dead alchemists he’s fought with? That guy had no filter around children. Though now that Rot thought about it, it was probably because his life was never filtered to fit his age. “But you know gaseous alchemy, even though you do fire and I’m more interested in water, you manipulate the same and similar elements, despite the fact that it seems like they would be opposite.”
It was clear the girl was just ranting at this point, too nervous and unsure of herself to know when to stop. Roy was reminded of himself, when he first showed up on Berthold Hawkeye’s front porch, begging him to let him be his student. Berthold had refused at first, saying he had nothing to teach him and cast him back out on the street. But Roy was persistent, showing up at the Hawkeye manor every day for weeks, and eventually, Master Hawkeye caved, allowing him to study under him, only if he promised to pull his weight and not get in the way of his research.
Roy sighed heavily. Damn his stupid soft spot for kids. “Alright, I’ll teach you some things,” The girl had a small hopeful smile on her face, “On one condition.” The smile fell and she looked at him in confusion. “You aren’t allowed to ask any questions about flame alchemy.”
Her eyebrows furrowed at that, but still she nodded in agreement. Shortly after their agreement was made, Fuery nervously informed Roy that he had a meeting with another general shortly and the Elrics, plus Naomi, left.
After they were gone Roy slumped back in his desk chair, running a hand through his hair, and began to wonder what the hell he just got himself into.
~~~~~~~
The next Saturday Winry dropped Naomi off at Roy’s house with strict instructions not to even think about transmuting her automail. Both Naomi and he nodded vigorously, not wanting to be the target of the woman’s wrath.
When left alone with the young girl Roy had no idea what to do. He had never tried to teach alchemy before, and his teacher didn’t set the best example of how to teach alchemy. Berthold Hawkeye was a brilliant alchemist and had a great deal of knowledge to pass down. But he was a poor excuse for a father and had cruel teaching methods meant more to make you obey than to truly learn. Roy decided a long time ago that, while he admired the man’s wisdom, he wanted to be nothing like him.
Roy decided it would be best to test her knowledge as a starting point. The girl was, quite frankly, a genius. Her comprehension and application of arrays far surpassed what it should be for someone her age, and her understanding of chemistry was impressive for someone only in the third grade. But still, Roy was out of his element.
“So,” he started after leading the girl to his office where he kept most of his alchemy texts. “What has Ed taught you so far?”
“The basics I guess,” She started after sitting down in the chair across from Roy at the desk. “My Abba taught me the basics about chemistry, ionic and covalent bonds, balancing equations, stuff like that. So far Mr. Ed has just taught me more about metal and earth elements and arrays. I really want to learn more about manipulating the elements in the air into different states of matter. Like my rain cloud.”
Roy nodded, it made sense that her father was a chemist, or maybe even an alchemist. To be as smart as she is she must have started learning at a young age. She seemed to know what she was talking about, which was good, Roy definitely had some doubts about his effectiveness as a teacher and definitely didn't know how to start from scratch.
“Okay.” He took a deep breath and began. “The elements in the air are oxygen, nitrogen, argon, neon, hydrogen, krypton, xenon, radon, nobelium, and helium. Those are the primary elements you’ll be dealing with, at least for the basics. You’ll have to start with manipulating and transmuting the atmospheric elements.” From there, he explained the general process and the arrays. She whipped out a notebook during his lesson, rapidly taking notes. At some point during his lecture he peeked over and blinked in surprise, she was writing them in code.
The time flew fast and when Roy looked up at the clock, he realized he should have had himself and Naomi break for lunch hours ago. They both hadn’t even realized, their hyperfocus being their main source of substance. Looking down at Naomi, she still hadn’t noticed the meal they’d skipped.
By the end of the lesson they were able to make a list of goals of what she needed to work on and what fundamentals she needed to learn before they moved forward into any practical alchemy.
When they finished up Roy walked Naomi back to the Elrics home, which was situated above Winry’s automail shop. When they arrived Ed was sweeping the shop floor while Yuriy and Trisha sat under the tent in the corner of the shop, talking quietly while playing jacks. Naomi quickly made her way over to her friends after offering him a quick good bye. She tossed her crutches aside and crawled into the crowded tent. Flapjack, the Elrics’ dog, followed Naomi into the tent, crowding the small space even further.
“How’d she do?” Ed asked coming up to him and resting his chin on the broom.
“Pretty well. We definitely need to spend more time on the fundamentals, but she clearly understands the basics. You’ve done great teaching her so far.”
“Hey, wasn’t me,” Ed said raising his hands, “I only just started lessons with her. She came to us already like that.”
“She mentioned her dad taught her chemistry. But her practical understanding is way more that you'd get from chemistry and an alchemy textbook. Do you know anything about her dad, could he have been an alchemist?”
Ed shrugged in reply, “Don’t know. I’ve tried to ask her about her folks, but she gets pretty cagey about it. She's an orphan, that's all we've got.”
Roy hummed, casting his gaze back toward the children, all huddled closely under the tent speaking in hushed tones. Trisha gesticulated wildley as she spoke, accidentally bumping into Flapjack a few times, though the dog seemed unbothered by the action, as though it was a common occurrence. Naomi stifled her laughter when the girl once again bumped the dog, who finally moved, causing everyone in the tent to shift as the dog settled between Naomi and Yuriy.
“She’s a good kid you know,” Ed said, drawing his attention back to him. “She’s been through a lot though and she needs someone she knows won’t leave.”
Roy looked at him inquisitively. He didn’t doubt she was a good kid. He’d seen it with his own eyes how passionate she is and how much she cares about the people close to her. He wasn’t sure why Ed felt the need to tell him this though.
Upon realizing that Roy wasn’t getting the point he sighed heavily. “Win and I can’t take care of her long-term, it’s just not realistic. We’ve tried to find a way, believe me, but we just can’t. She needs someone with experience dealing with someone like her, and she needs someone with the time to give her all the attention she needs. We can’t provide that. Not with Yuriy, Trish, and the shop.”
“Are you asking for help finding her a home? I can have my contacts look around-”
“God, you’re dense Roy.” Ed interrupted. Roy frowned and opened his mouth to retort, but Ed pressed on. “We want someone we trust to take her, someone we know firsthand knows how to deal with traumatized, rambunctious, alchemy prodigies.”
Suddenly it dawned on Roy what Ed was getting at, “You aren’t talking about me, are you?”
“He finally gets it!” Ed praised, throwing his hands up dramatically. The outburst earned his a trio of snickers. Ed stuck his tongue out towards the children before turning back to Roy, continuing with a hushed tone. “You’re the best guy I know for the job.” There was something about Ed’s eyes as he spoke. Serious and solemn. He hadn’t seen Ed look so serious since the day he learned Winry was pregnant. When Ed came to him certain he would be a terrible father, after all, he had had no one to teach him how to be one.
Roy turned his gaze back to the children under the tent. The siblings were bickering back and forth, much to Naomi’s amusement. She sat between the siblings with Flapjack's head on her lap. She was carefully twisting a piece of wire with a small pair of pliers. When she was satisfied with her creation she tied a braided leather cord to opposite ends of the wire circle, then slipped her homemade bracelet onto her wrist. She admired it for a moment before interrupting the siblings’ conversation to show off her work. Roy hadn’t even realized he had begun staring until the girl looked at him, flashing a brilliant smile and offering him a small wave with the hand not occupied with showing off the bracelet. Roy smirked back at her, before she turned her attention back to the siblings.
Ed shoved Roy’s shoulder with his own unceremoniously. “Come on, you and I both know you’ve got a thing for picking up strays.”
Roy narrowed his eyes at Ed, “Was this your whole goal with the babysitting and then asking me to teach her?”
Ed shrugged noncommittally, but the smirk on his face betrayed him, causing Roy’s glare to sharpen. Ed held his hands up in surender, “Okay maybe. At least with the babysitting, the teaching thing was all Trisha.”
Roy let out an exasperated sigh. “Who says she’d even want that?”
Ed drug his hands across his face and let out a long suffering sigh. Roy let out a sigh of his own, though his was more in resignation than exasperation.
“If there is no one else,” Roy said slowly, “And you can find a way to convince her, then I can look after her until you find something better.” He was already feeling hopeless as he looked at Ed’s excited grin. “But that does not mean I’m keeping her permanently.” He finished with a frown.
Ed rolled his eyes, a mischievous smirk present on his face, “Of course not.”