Cost of a Secret

Review Replies: Baroqueangel, I thought it right to give the cat to Roy's son. Thanks for reading. Loqui, well, here is more for you. Thanks for reading. radcat, thanks so much. I think you'll like this chapter. You'll get to see a little of the things you wanted to last one. Thanks for reading. Phil, thanks so much. Nope, not entirely mindless smut here.

Chapter 7

Is There Love?

Roy woke to an unceremonious knee to his stomach. Liam had gotten frightened in the night, and Roy had moved the boy to sleep with him, and his son remained curled up against him. They just had a short while until they were in Central, and the alchemist felt he had more than enough knowledge to ensure he didn’t lose his son.

Much to his own fear, he’d found that Falman had been right about the markings on Liam’s back. The same drawing they had seen in Liam’s letter had been backwards because the boy could only see it in a mirror. And it was nearly complete. Just one symbol remained from the one he’d found in Shou Tucker’s notes.

He cursed Karen for using this on their son, a transmutation circle to create chimeras, and furious at the military for sweeping the darker aspects of Tucker’s research in order to cover up a potential dark mark on the military’s already dark past. There were no restrictions against the study and practice of Tucker’s work because the military knew that deeming it anything but a beneficial scientific endeavor would open the can of worms of Lab 5 and Nina Tucker.

Roy looked down at his son and ran a hand through the straight black hair. Roy could see that all those years of trying to pretend to a majority of the world that he didn’t have Liam were absolutely pointless. The seven-year-old was looking more and more like the alchemist every day, save for the milk and honey, freckled complexion and brown eyes he inherited from Karen. Every feature was a mirror of Roy’s and it would have only taken a chance meeting with someone who wanted to hurt Roy to have put the boy in danger.

He hadn’t counted on a not-so-chance encounter.

Roy didn’t understand how Karen could do this to their son. Sure, she could be vindictive when it came to not getting her way or the possibility of losing her state alchemist title—this was the second time in Liam’s lifetime she’d been close to losing it all together—but he’d never anticipated that she could be capable of hurting their son. There was no doubt in the man’s mind that part of the reason she kept Liam rather than aborting him was as a way of ensuring some favors from Roy, but not once had the man questioned her love for the frightened child now trying to carve a hole in Roy just to get closer to him.

Roy sighed and rested his chin atop Liam’s head as the boy’s hands fisted in his shirt.

He knew he’d need to check the cat next. He had a suspicious feeling that Liam’s Ed had been the other victim in Karen’s… was it revenge? Or was it genuine research?

They’d first met over a conversation about how the military just wasn’t funding her current research. As a water alchemist, she was working on ensuring there were water sources available to all towns within Amestris. It was good work, benevolent work, which meant the old administration had no interest in it at all.

In talking to one another as, really, only two alchemists can, Roy and Karen slept together on more than one occasion, one of which resulted in Liam. They had both been happy with now marrying, and Karen had seemed to understand why Roy wanted Liam to stay a secret.

However, Karen also realized that she now had an easy way to manipulate the lieutenant colonel. She said that it was all well and good that he wanted to care for the boy, but he wouldn’t be able to send regular checks to ensure that Liam had a comfortable life, and as she seemed destined to lose her title as a state alchemist, she wasn’t sure how she could provide for him.

It had been a not-so-subtle hint at Roy to get her the research support she needed.

Roy then had to try to prove to the fuhrer and the rest of the higher ranking officers why Major Tyler deserved to be given a grant for her research. He was certain there were those who suspected some of it boiled down to the birth of the woman’s child, but at the time, no one could prove with certainty that Liam was his. It wasn’t until two years ago that Roy’s name had officially appeared on the boy’s birth certificate.

So, Karen was granted her work, through Roy’s persuasion of the powers that be, and the country benefited from it.

That was all well and good then, but Karen’s timing on her research was never very good, and this same process repeated itself with a new administration and a new research idea.

“I’m going to lose my state alchemy license, Roy,” she said, looking at him pleadingly as they drank coffee in her house. Roy was all-too-familiar with the look in her eyes, that false begging she did so well.

“Then you need to find something that this administration is interested in supporting, Karen,” he said, taking a drink of the coffee. “They are working very hard on diplomacy, convincing the rest of the world that our country isn’t solely focused on warfare. The creation of a bomb that no one else has and could possibly spread radiation throughout the world just isn’t quite the new administration’s cup of tea, I’m afraid.”

“The hydrogen bomb would—”

“Would be something that even the old administration was afraid of. Edward and Alphonse Elric, I believe, destroyed the original prototype some time ago.” He set his cup down on the table and looked at her. She was pacing, and he could see her chocolate eyes trying to find a reason for him to help her in this.

“This bomb would guarantee our safety. We could work on it in secret. Have it as a back-up.” She was getting agitated. It was obvious in her voice. Karen had always been an overachiever like Roy, but had never gone the officer pathway.

“The only way it ensures our safety,” Roy said calmly, “is if the world knows we have it. If the world knows we have it, we will once again be considered a hostile force in the world. Keeping it a secret does not ensure us safety. We could still be attacked, Karen. Then we use the bomb, and the radiation would spread gradually to us. If the world knows, they will begin recruiting alchemists to design it for themselves, since have already set the bar for it.”

“You sound like a typical officer,” she accused. “What happened to the alchemist? The man who delved in the realm of hypotheticals?”

“He became a father and saw what some of the hypotheticals do to people he cared about,” Roy said, harshly. “If you want to pursue this, then do it, but the only support you receive from me will be child support.”

She’d lost her funding six months ago, and had another six before her license as a state alchemist was revoked. The state thought it kinder that way, to let state alchemists prove themselves without the funding, rather than cutting them off altogether once they had failed to prove their usefulness for some time. For Karen, it seemed to have created a madness, that loss of status and power that Roy knew she craved as much as he once had—still did at times, when he was being honest with himself.

“Twenty minutes until Central Station,” someone yelled outside.

Roy knew he’d have to wake his son, and hoped the person he’d see waiting for him was Riza and not armed officers.

********

Ed sat on the bed he’d been sleeping in for nearly a year. He was all packed up, had even begun setting up his room at Havoc’s. He’d be back to a twin bed like the one now in the spare bedroom. He looked around the room and felt seriously like breaking something. Maybe everything, and then taking away one or two crucial pieces so Roy couldn’t transmute them back together.

He’d leave the bed because, despite everything, he knew it belonged to Roy’s parents, and even in the rage he currently found himself in, he was not that cruel to take something from the man of the parents he’d lost years ago.

Still, he was feeling malicious, if not the slightest bit petty, so he transmuted his arm and slashed through Roy’s precious down pillows that he could “only get in a shop outside of Eastern Headquarters,” which he proceeded to scatter through the room. He sighed. It was ridiculously petty, even sounded more like something a girl would do—he cringed at the thought—but as he stood amidst the feathers falling like snow he knew it was too late.

“Do you have everything, Brother?” Al asked from downstairs.

“Yeah, just the stuff in the bathroom’s left now.” He headed into the bathroom and got his toothbrush, comb, shampoo, all the stuff he used that Roy didn’t. Funny, he thought as he took away whatever hair products he had, even with all of his items gone, there didn’t seem to be a dent in the groupings on the sinktop and medicine cabinet.

“Man always was a prima donna,” he muttered, putting the items into a cardboard box. Then again, Ed hadn’t seen all of this junk, at least he thought it was, the first few times he visited him. He didn’t seem to put the effort into his appearance for a while there. Come to think of it, a lot of it mysteriously appeared after Ed told him he looked good without the eyepatch. It was only a scarred cheekbone and some scarring on the lids. Roy was a good-looking man, so what did he think a little scar would do?

Ed didn’t want to think about the implications that maybe all of this “junk” was for his sake, because he thought Roy was handsome when maybe Roy didn’t.

The young man dismissed that thought immediately. The man had an ego the size of an entire continent.

And if Ed could have this kind of effect on the other alchemist, then wouldn’t he have just let him in, just a little, on what the big secret was? Would he have possibly cheated on him? Would he have let Ed go one thinking that he had?

********

When Roy stepped off the train to face a very angry Riza, he suddenly wished it was police officers greeting him instead. Standing next to her was an equally displeased doctor who was already showing signs of her fifth month of pregnancy. Roy felt Liam’s hand tighten on his own, and he returned the glare he was receiving from both women.

“Ladies,” he said. “This is Liam. Liam, you probably remember your Aunt Riza.”

Liam nodded and like a polite gentleman, extended his hand to Riza for her to shake. The blonde’s face visibly softened at that, and she crouched down until she was at his level before shaking his hand.

“Liam,” Roy said, then directing his son to the doctor. “This is Melissa Rosenberg. She is a doctor, and she’s going to give you a quick check-up.”

Liam nodded and extended a hand to the doctor, which she took and shook. “You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t kneel down.” She rubbed over the bump at her stomach. “It’s getting harder to get back up once I do.”

The alchemist saw his son looking wide-eyed at the woman’s belly, but said nothing. He wondered if after meeting the doctor, Liam was going to need a little talk about the birds and the bees. “Now,” the doctor said with a smile—Mel could be disarming with one; Roy knew, having dated her for nearly a month a few years ago—“let’s go have you checked out.”

Brown eyes were seeking answers from Roy, and he looked down at them with a smile. “She’ll take good care of you, and I’ll be there the whole time. Promise.”

Liam nodded. “Um… are you having a baby?” he asked of the doctor. “There was a friend of mine. His mom was going to have a baby and looked like you. Then there was another friend of mine who wasn’t having a baby and looked like you too…” He frowned. “Mom said I shouldn’t have asked her about it.”

“I am having a baby,” Melissa said with a little chuckle. “You’re a talker like your dad, aren’t you?”

“Well, I guess so,” Liam said. “Dad? What about Ed?”

The two women both looked at Roy in surprise, and it made the man hastily explain, “His cat. It’s named Ed. I have to go claim him.”

Riza nodded and offered Liam her hand. “Will you come with me, and your dad can meet us in the second office to the right inside?”

“I’ll be just a minute, and then I’ll have Ed with me,” Roy said to his son.

“O-okay,” the boy said, releasing Roy’s hand and taking Riza’s. Roy ruffled his son’s hair and reminded him, “I’ll be back. Promise.”

Liam nodded and Roy went to retrieve the cat.

There were forms to sign and a few levels of people to go through before he had the cage with the ruffled-looking cat inside. He peered down at the gold-green eyes, which narrowed at him. “Yeah, I know, you wanted to be with Liam. But you better start behaving yourself because you’re stuck with me now.”

The cat growled at him and Roy rolled his eyes. “Just like your namesake.”

********

Ed had stalled as long as Havoc and Al would let him. He knew he couldn’t really justify staying another moment, but it was hard to leave the place that he considered his home, even if it had been Roy’s first.

Of course, that hadn’t stopped him from completely disorganizing the man’s clothes, looking as though he’d been a little more haphazard than was necessary to retrieve his own clothing, even though he’d done it long after he’d had everything packed away. In reality, he had just let them fly about the already feather-covered room.

The bathroom, so maybe he’d “accidentally” tipped over a bottle of expensive cologne into the sink and a bottle of shampoo into the bottom of the shower.

Ed wasn’t proud of his behavior at the moment, but as he didn’t have Roy there to just punch like he wanted to, he had to settle for doing a little petty vandalism to their home, no, Roy’s home. It wasn’t Ed’s anymore and since the man just couldn’t open up, no matter what Ed did. Maybe the place never really was Ed’s to begin with.

He heard the door open as he was heading back downstairs.

“Yeah, yeah, Al, I know, ‘Quit stalling.’”

He came down from the stairs and turned at the bottom banister to find Roy standing at the door, a little boy at his side. Ed froze, grateful he hadn’t dropped his box as he saw the two. The boy… there was no denying the resemblance. Save for slightly lighter eyes and some freckles, the boy was Roy’s spitting image. The boy had stopped midway as he was opening a cage with what looked like a very rumpled and perturbed cat and was staring at him.

“Roy,” Ed said, not really certain what else to say. The kid was about the same age as Elysia Hughes, maybe a year or so younger. Definitely not like Roy had cheated on him in the last year, at least to create the kid.
But Roy had a family, or at the very least, a son, maybe brother, who he’d never told Ed about. Was this kid the big secret, the thing he couldn’t tell Ed about?

Okay, so Ed knew he wasn’t great with all kids, but there were some he could really get attached to. So did the man think this would change things somehow? But the boy was about six or seven years old. He’d been friends with Roy for at least three or four of those years, so why hadn’t the man trusted him just to tell him?

“Ed,” Roy responded, looking as though he’d expected and even hoped that the blond would be long gone by the time he got home.

“Like my cat?” the boy asked as he pulled the orange ball of fluff from the cage and looked at Ed, who was currently raising an eyebrow in curiosity why the boy had a cat sharing his name. “Mr. Ed, sir,” the boy asked. “Why do you have feathers in your hair?”

Ed turned a little pink, but whether in embarrassment that he still had the down feathers through his braid or in anger at the man he was facing now, he wasn’t sure.

“Dad,” the boy asked, looking up innocently at Roy, “did you name my cat after him?”

There was only a small nod, and for some reason that made Ed feel even more like punching Roy.