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serendipitioussurvival · 5 years

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Bind Me - Yours Eternal

Peter Hale, one of the last three descendants of the former Hale pack in North America, was a suspicious and manipulative man. He survived being burned alive in his home when eighteen others did not, he had enacted the revenge killings of those that had been responsible, and then he had survived being set aflame again. Then he had his throat slashed by his nephew in the middle of a spar session, been shot multiple times by Hunters coming after him, and then the literal disembowelment from Berserkers. As a Werewolf he was able to heal through almost all of this with little to no scar, no evidence to the trials and tribulations he’s faced, but it was because he had been through so much that he was so suspicious and untrusting of the general populous, human or not.

His family had burned because his nephew had been tricked and the pack emissary did not have strong enough wordings of their territory. He had been killed again because his beta had been tricked into thinking that, by killing the alpha that had bitten you, you could reverse the transformation. His nephew had slashed his throat while training because he thought, childishly so, that he deserved the Alpha spark instead of his ‘murdering psychotic uncle’. His Emissary, similarly, failed to have the proper wardings or abilities needed for something so powerful as the Hale Spark, and so the Berserkers had gotten passed the wardings once more and made wine of his insides.

Needless to say Peter rarely ever trusted anyone, let alone anyone that would be in his pack or be his pack Emissary. Especially the pack emissary, it was why he had found himself searching through supernatural lore and texts as to how he could bind another life to his - just as insurance, at the very least. It took him a year before he found anything of note, it was a year well spent for the information he discovered.

Not only could he bind a life to his, but he could summon a being of power that would fit the Emissary role he needed as well as have influence over how his pack functioned. It took him a week to get the desired materials and another to wait for the blood moon. The ritual went perfect, like most of everything Peter did, but nature was cruel to Peter and rarely ever gave him a break.

“A demon,” he blanched, staring at the pitch-black eyes that stared at him from the twig of a female in front of him. “the figurehead of humanity for my pack,” could one kill Fate? He’d try, by the gods he would try because this was cruel, it was too much. Had he truly not suffered enough to have not even a single break? Sure he wasn’t a good man - and he had plenty of deaths shrouding him, but what did he truly do to deserve this? “Is a demon.”

“Buddy, no offense, but between the two of us I’ve got more humanity than you.” his eyes narrowed dangerously, ignoring the way its voice was just a tad husky in its attempts to stifle its amusement. “It’s chill though, I’m not the average demon. So, what’d you summoned me for? You did the ritual so you know about the whole ‘equivalent exchange’ bullshit.” a demon with a mouth, maybe it wouldn’t be truly terrible.

“Our lives are tied until your service to me is complete,” the corner of its peach pink lips curled into a smirk.

“Till death do us part,” the smirk dropped into a frown, “you’re pretty famous in Hell chief, don’t suppose you remember your time in Hell?” he shook his head in answer, “damn, well okay. Anyway, you need an Emissary and, while that normally goes against a Demon’s very nature I’m not a normal Demon.”

“You’ve said that twice,” she didn’t look like much, no horns or tail, no red skin tone - in fact, she was actually quite pale with moles dotting her moonglow skin like constellations - and she - not it anymore as she was most definitely feminine, naked as she was - was at least half his width with maybe an inch on him height-wise. “So what kind of Demon are you?”

“In a long, boring history lesson that holds no true amusement, I’m a Prince.” he eyed her very feminine breasts with a raised brow. “Like I said a, long, boring history lesson. If you ever remember your time in Hell you’ll remember it.” now both brows were raised. “Whatever, want me as your Emissary or should I take your soul again?”

Peter Hale was a suspicious man, he rarely trusted anyone, but this summoned being whom he bound his life to was - legitimately - his last option. She would protect his life with hers, and her abilities would protect his pack, for however long her nature allowed her to because that is what he summoned her for. If she weren’t able to meet at least one of those criteria then she wouldn’t have been able to answer the summons. He truly only had one option.

“I accept.” The summoning rune burned into the ground and filled the air with the scent of brimstone and - strangely enough - sandalwood. When the rune was completely gone the black bled from her sclera, exposing the creamy-white and looking a tad odd with the pitch of her iris until it, too, bled away and revealed gold. Not a whiskey amber, not a wheat brown, not even beta gold - though hers was just a tad lighter - but true, heated gold eyes. “Do I have to name you?”

“What, like a puppy? Fuck off, my name is Stiles.” his brow rose yet again and he worked to temper his anger at the partial lie. “Look, names are power, Peter. If someone were to know a Demon or a Prince’s true name they would hold complete power over them. I’ll tell you it someday, if you’re a good boy.” ah, dog jokes, how tasteless.

“Well then, come with me. I’ll have to get you a wardrobe and identification.” he expected her to want Goth clothing or all black or, or something that insisted what her true nature was. Instead, she wanted worse.

“Plaid? Plaid?! I think not you tasteless creature!” oh he was getting nasty looks from the other customers, “I relented on the monstrosity of a cell phone, I relented on the scentless soaps and shampoos, I even relented on the goddamned gaming consoles, I will not relent for plaid.” when the walked out of the store it was with three plaid button-ups, two overalls, and then six different bags of appropriate clothing befitting the role of the Hale pack Emissary.

Stiles, of course, wore the plaid and overalls first with a triumphant grin and mischief twinkling in her gold eyes, daring him to say anything. She had a healthy appetite he approved of, at least, and more often than not would cook meals for him - she was all too happy to spend his money (and in truth he was all too happy to let her when it evoked a strange, content feeling in him and his wolf) and often made changes to his suite that he begrudgingly approved of.

It took a single month before his pack - a whopping nine people - had situated themselves in Beacon Hills California and finally got to be introduced to the new Emissary.

Peter Hale was a suspicious man, he rarely trusted anyone, but watching her as she surveyed each of his pack before sitting them down made him think that maybe, just maybe he could trust his life to her, and not just because of their pact.

“Alright, Education time kiddos.” Peter was able to hide his amusement from her but not from the other werewolves in his pack. “What’s the role of a pack Emissary?”

“To be our humanity,” a blonde haired blue eyed muscled up American boy answered with an eye roll.

“Wrong,” all sets of eyes shot immediately to her then, “Over time the role has been so convoluted that people actually believe it. One person is responsible for a whole pack’s humanity? What, do I spray you with a bottle labeled ‘Humanity’ when you’re being a bad boy?” he didn’t have to see her face to see the very predator like grin that stretched across her lips, didn’t have to know her as he did to know that she would have the very thing by the end of the day. “No, the role of Emissary is to help in the union between your primary and secondary species.” she crossed her arms and leaned back against the island of his open floor kitchen, staring at each of his pack thoughtfully.

“You,” Erica rose a challenging brow in retaliation to her call out, “What are your species?”

“Human, Kanima, Werewolf.” her sandalwood and vanilla scent spiked with rain at her interest.

“Badass, then you’re a Kanima/Werewolf hybrid. What harmonizes all three of your beings?” Erica Reyes had been bitten and turned by his nephew while Peter had still been dead, and then she had been abandoned when her transformation did not turn out complete. It was Peter when he returned from the dead who had found the genuine connection she had with Vernon Boyd - her now mate - that helped her synergize her wolf and the Kanima inside her. “Close your eyes,” Stiles ordered, softer in tone when Erica’s features remained pinched in confusion. “Start with beliefs, what do you believe so strongly that you can feel the power in your soul hum to?”

“I believe,” she started after a moment or two passed, frustration waning just slightly, “that the family you're born into is not the one you have to stick with, that you can choose your real family.”

“Good,” god but her tone was soft and it made his knees weak with the affection pouring out of Stiles - affection from a demon. “Now think of people, pick two, at least two and do the same.”

“My mate,” Vernon Boyd, the muscled statue of a man to her right squeezed her hand affectionately. “and my Alpha.” Peter was not preening, he was not, not from his favorite telling him that he was what helped keep her in balance. “They both showed me that I was enough, that I could be a badass without being a monster.” Then, softer, “and that I could kill without being damned.”

“Good,” Stiles nodded, “a lot of people mistake killing as a sin.” a perfectly groomed eyebrow rose on the cherry haired goddess standing beside the couch. “Need convincing? Okay. You’re being raped and you kill your rapist. Are you going to Hell for taking the life or Heaven because it was in self-defense? Were you righteous in your killing because it was a piece of shit soul or must you repent and pray for forgiveness? Don’t like that scenario, pops is beating your mother within an inch of her life and you hit him over the head with a lamp, a frying pan, whatever. He dies and you’re only seven or eight, are you going to Hell? Will you be forgiven?” she rolled her eyes and waved her hand. “Killing is situational, you can kill to survive and still not go to Hell.”

“What about the rapist or the dad?” Malia Hale, Peter’s estranged daughter, perked from her position on the floor.

��Oh, the rapist is definitely going to Hell. The Dad is situational too, despite a lot of controversies.” she waved her hand again as if to clear the air and smiled at Malia. “What are your species?”

“Human, Werewolf, Coyote!” her energy was adorable, her naivety brought a strange warmth to Stiles’s scent that reminded him far too much of simpler times when he was younger. “I spent ten years as a Coyote so I’m still learning human things.”

“Ah, but it’s because of your time as a Coyote that your human side will be strong. Coyote’s naturally fear humans and larger prey, so you’ll always be cautious. Most humans are too trusting, and your werewolf will bridge the gap of inclusion and pack sense that your Coyote lacks and will help harmonize your human.” If his daughter had a tail it would be slamming against the ground in pleasure, “Do you still have trouble with your shifts?”

“Yes,” a short nod from Stiles.

“Am I right in assuming that you don’t shift to your coyote regularly anymore?” a confused nod, “Okay, next full moon is in about a week?” she looked over to Peter as he nodded. “Alright, Malia, a night before the full moon you and I are going to go on a hunt.” two sets of alarmed gazes set upon her then, “There’s a forest nearby with plenty of large prey. You cutting off your Coyote so suddenly will make it restless, it’s not used to the human, nor is the human to the Coyote.”

“What if I can’t shift back?” he hated how small her voice got when she was uncertain. No daughter of his - though he only knew of her as his daughter for the past year - should be so unconfident in herself.

“You will.” maybe it was the certainty in Stiles’s voice that drew reluctant agreement from Malia, or maybe it was the sole fact that she had an unwavering belief in her as the Emissary that had convinced her. Maybe it was both, whatever it was, Peter truly appreciated it. He found himself relaxing little by little as she went down the line of his betas until, at least, she got to Lydia Martin - a Banshee that was, reluctantly, a part of his pack - and Scott McCall - his Beta who had a hand in one of his deaths.

“Neither one of you like what you are, whatever you are.” a deep sigh, then a rolled wrist, indicating they go ahead and tell her their species as everyone else had.

“Human, Reluctant Banshee.”

“What, no seriously? You’re a Banshee and you hate it?” another perfectly manicured eyebrow raised in question. “Okay, put it this way, you’re not the spectral banshee who eats frontal lobes, you’re part human, so you have it so much easier than most. Let me guess, it’s morbid how you can tell when someone’s about to die?” a short, agitated nod. “Have you done any research into Banshee lore?” another, more agitated nod. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume you believe the ‘If a Banshee wails for someone’s death then it can’t be avoided?’ rumor?”

“Rumor? Quite a few mythoi have stated much the same.”

“Right, well quite a few mythoi say Werewolves full shift frequently and walk on humanoid hind legs like some eight-foot-tall dickery.” Lydia’s lips pinched into a frown, “Also, knotting? Not a thing less one of you is full shifted, shame though that is.” Isaac and Vernon spluttered in embarrassment at the sudden fact. “You not responsible for the deaths you scream for, you just announce them. You’re a Medium, and most times - if you hone your abilities enough - you can commute with the dead and feel the death of someone hours before it happens. Might give you enough time to save them, might give you enough time to figure out if they deserve to be saved.”

Lydia said nothing more though she clearly was thinking over the new revelation thoroughly. It appeased Stiles enough that she moved her gaze to Scott and frowned, clearly not liking something she saw. “Hold your hand out,” he looked warily to his Alpha and did so only after he gave a hesitant nod. “I’m going to draw a drop of blood, something’s wrong with your wolf.” It was said so Peter could tell her to stop if he disapproved, not for Scott’s benefit.

He knew for a fact that she had gotten Malia to use her claws to pierce the flesh of his finger was just so she could be included, he just wasn’t expecting the reluctant anger that seeped into his veins when she drew the finger to her lips and encased the tip in her mouth. It was unhygienic, it was abnormal, it was - now she was doing the same to him with a pensive furrow to her brow. How she had gotten his finger to bleed he had not seen nor did he care in the face of her tongue curling around his digit and retreating. Peter was not a teenager, nor did he have an uncontrollable sex drive, but her mouth tested that control in ways that threatened to unravel him.

“Oh,” she breathed, wicked delight and murderous glee permeating her scent like blood and wine. “You’ve had a tail re-entering California, Peter. He’s priming your little wolfling for madness,” she turned to a confused Scott once again, “ have you been taking any new medications, drinking blood, smoking something different?”

“No?” her brow rose in a challenge at his unsure answer, “I haven’t had to use my inhaler since I turned, I don’t drink blood, and I can’t get high. I was poisoned with wolfsbane once but that was almost a year ago.” he rubbed the back of his neck, somewhat agitated and now knowing why. “I’ve noticed a new smell in the Clinic but Dr. Deaton said it was a new incense to -” realization hit him the moment it hit Peter, the moment it hit them all. “-to calm my wolf. He uses it every day a week before the full moon.”

Scott was firmly against killing anyone, least of all Deaton, so Peter had Stiles, Malia, and Jackson do a ‘patrol’ around the clinic and his home. Jackon was the one to find the evidence Stiles needed, Malia was the one who brought it back to him, and it was Jackson and Stiles that… dispatched, the good Dr.

It made page five news, beloved Veterinarian dies of a heart attack in his sleep. It was a surprisingly tame death for a Demon - or of what he expected from a Demon - and had bred a surprising alliance-turned-friendship between Jackson and Stiles.

Peter was a suspicious man, he rarely trusted anyone, but all that faded away when the two emerged from the forest, naked as blue jays with bloody jaws and adrenaline coursing through their veins a week later. He began to think that he could trust Stiles and cemented the very ideal when his daughter, for the first time in a little over a year, faced no trouble with her control on the night of a full moon.

They continued to live together - it was easier for her to protect him if she were directly near him - and have meals together - she was a good cook and he was never one to deny quality food - for months. The pack thrived, Malia was able to shift at will and Cora, his niece was able to finally get a good workout group going with most everyone involved. Most of them began their first year in college while others, like Cora and Jackson, remained independently wealthy, passing most of their free time by investing in certain businesses - Cora even started a job as a fitness instructor and started teaching classes at the local gym.

He had a demon for an Emissary and his pack was thriving better than they ever had, even before when his sister was the Alpha and Hale Pack was near forty strong. Stiles, he found, was a quick wit with humor that matched his in intensity. She enjoyed reading - the few times she managed stillness - and sparring, Jackson, Cora, and Erica being her opponent more times than naught. She liked most types of music and enjoyed teasing him by singing along out of key with every song he tuned the radio station to - he had been alarmed and mildly impressed when she even went with the Opera playing over the classical radio station.

She grew restless easy though, rarely ever slept (‘Don't need it’ she explained irritably, ‘four hours or so every two days is all I need, acclimating to this plane is more difficult than I gave it credit for.’), and was an absolute child when it came to curly fries or bacon cheese fries. She killed without remorse - he’d never been so turned on as when she drove her hand up under the Omega’s rib cage and crushed his heart with her hand - and had the shittiest taste for movies and comics.

She was also kind - surprisingly so given her species and nature - and remained ruthlessly honest - traits he (and his pack) were growing to appreciate. They knew where they stood with her, they knew the extent to which she would go to protect them, and just how brutal she would be if they were injured stupidly. She took to sparring with Peter when their free time extended and scoping out potential betas to assist in the building of his pack.

He was a suspicious man, but he trusted Stiles to protect and care for him, both as his summoned companion and his friend - gross sentimentality aside. Opposing packs were cut down if they refused to leave and remained hostile, treaties were made with dire consequences should the laws be broken, and Hale pack grew from nine to eighteen. A whole year and his pack had doubled, adding to its already unique ranks a Hellhound, a thunder Kitsune, a human bounty hunter turned Enforcer, two humans, a Chimera who could turn invisible, another werewolf/werejaguar chimera, two werewolves, and a human emissary in training.

A whole year of her rarely ever being injured and decimating his enemies where they stood before the first Angel appeared in an attempt to smite her. He had watched in horror as it pressed its palm to her forehead and blood began pouring from her orifices. The Angel didn’t get to question why it wasn’t smiting her around the fist she’d shoved up from the soft side of his chin and crushed the brain of its vessel. She was gasping when the vessel dropped to the ground and angel wings burned into the ground, then she was ripping the corpse apart, flinging tissue and chunks of flesh here and there, painting her perfect skin in blood red.

She stopped only when her hair hung limp, soaked with blood, and looked as if she had been dipped front first in a blood pool. Her pitch-black eyes met his from where she had frozen him with her abilities and released him, giving him just enough time to catch her before she fell unconscious.

In the year he had her at his side she had only ever had to tend to his wounds thrice, each time were ones she had inflicted during their sessions. Never once did he have to tend to her, not until now. Never once did he get the chance to really feel the bond that had formed between them until now, it staggered him how weak she felt. It took all of three seconds of thought before he opened their bond up completely and let her draw on his strength to heal.

Peter was a suspicious man, but not of her. He trusted her, he liked her. It was hours later when she was cleaned and rest in his arms in his bed that he truly gave himself time to think of her. Her taste in clothes wasn’t completely abhorrent, he could and did trust her, she complimented him in nearly every way, and he did like her. Romantically? Perhaps. Sexually? Her body was alluring of that there was no doubt. Could Demons be monogamous?

Was that what he wanted? He had used to dream of a partner such as her, one who he could depend on and be depended on in return. One who met him wit for wit, who took his anger and cold fury and fanned it to flames or extinguish it with just a look or a word. He could love her if he didn’t already.

“ ‘m naked,” she murmured earlier the next morning just as he was stirring awake himself. “ ‘m naked in your bed.” she dug her nose deeper into his chest and inhaled long and hard, “you smell good.” his laughter made his chest rumble against her that turned a tad deeper when she pulled herself flush against him.

“Be my mate.” he hadn’t meant to blurt it out so childishly. He had imagined using her candles for a candlelit dinner of her favorite dishes that he prepared, perfect suit and maybe even a ring. This though… though wasn’t all that bad of a comparison, he supposes.

“You really don’t remember your time in hell,” she murmured, chin resting against his chest while she looked up at him. When he rose his brow at her not-answer she rose to her elbows and traced his brow line with her fingertips. “We Princes are given our choice of the souls being tortured in hell, our own personal playthings.” she hesitated, gold eyes glowing impossibly warm as they stared into his sea-blue ones. “You were there maybe two days and were sassing your tormenter, I was bored and you seemed funny. We spent three months getting to know one another. You’d make me laugh, would come up with nicknames for the other Princes or demons that came and went. You tried to leave me twice and I ripped you limb from limb,” he shivered and clutched harder at her hips when she straddled him, pensive expression deepening.

She wasn’t lying, he shouldn’t have found her penchant for murder and violence so sexy.

“About a week before you left you told me your plan, that you’d be resurrecting soon, but that you’d found me ‘surprisingly amicable company, for a demon’.” he grinned when she tried to mock his tone. “You asked me to be your mate then,” she took his hand at her hip and drew it under her breast, pressing the palm flat against her ribcage. Her lack of heartbeat had always amused him, but now- “ask me again.” she was about to do something life-changing.

Peter Hale that was would’ve refused, he would’ve suspected her intentions and would’ve never wanted her to be his mate. Peter Hale now, though…

“Stiles,” he was acutely aware of the way her skin broke out in goose flesh, “Will you be my mate?”

“Yes.” with her answer came a thud from her ribcage, with her answer the bond connecting them as a summoner and the summoned twined with their pack connection and then was reinforced with the mate bond, connecting them in ways no one would ever be able to break. “My name,” glossy sea blue eyes rose to meet her warm gold ones, both of them breathing heavily as the air around them crackled with energy. “Is Mieczyslawa.”

“Mieczysława,” he breathed then suffocated her with a kiss, firm hands gripping her jaw and the back of her head. He tried, many times, to release her from their summoning contract, only for her to refuse so ardently that he never again tried.

“I’m not going to Heaven, Peter, and neither are you, this contract… we’ll be together in hell, just as we once were, only you’d be a Prince too.” being with her in death as they were in life? It sounded like Heaven to him. Three months later she became Mrs. Hale, two months more and she was heavily pregnant. Their firstborn son became a Demon/Werewolf hybrid that they lovingly referred to as their little Demon Wolf became one of the most feared and respected Right Hand of Hale pack.

There’s a tale, passed down from the thriving Hale family, that if one were in desperate need of help one only had to ask for Stiles or Peter and they would appear. Their love story is a fairytale, their ending a new beginning, their story hope for their descendants and a report of amusement to other demons. It was for this that a sullen sixteen-year-old was chanting with tears in his eyes in the forest far from his home, dying even in the skin he was in.

The runes lit the same moment the teen fell to the forest floor, balling. He had been ruined, fouled by another werewolf of an allied pack, and he could tell no one.

“Hello,” his great-great-grandmother greeted, kneeling before him with a kind, maternal smile. “I know,” she hummed when he launched into her arms, wailing into the night. “Don’t worry, Derek, Peter is taking care of the rest.” The next day word had spread that an entire pack had been decimated per the old treaty that had been signed in blood. What had been taken from Derek had been repaid in flesh and blood and he knew that his great-great-grandmother and grandfather were responsible and he wept.

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saiilorstars · 4 years

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It Had To Be You

Ch.22: The Queen Bee // Story Masterlist

Fandom: The Flash

Pairings: Barry Allen x Female OC

Pronunciation of OC’s name: Bell-en. The last syllable has an emphasis so it’s not pronounced like ‘Helen’ would be.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter Summary: Barry struggles keeping his suspicions about Wells a secret and Belén conducts her own investigation against Noah. Along the way they discover killer bees and one Queen Bee trying to enact a revenge plan.

"So I just heard something interesting," Belén walked into Barry's lab yesterday in the afternoon.

Barry sat at his desk, working on a current case, when he looked up to see her already standing beside him. Her face spelled a mixture of annoyance and confusion. He leaned away from his work to properly give her his attention.

Belén cleared her throat before beginning. "I talked to Iris, and, uh, she told me something...interesting."

"Interesting?" repeated Barry, still not getting the jist of the problem. But he was sure this was going to end with him being in trouble. "What kind of thing?"

"The kind where Eddie has told her not to worry about Mason because he's in Brazil hitchhiking with some girl," Belén now crossed her arms and settled quite the sharp look on Barry.

Yup, he was going to get into trouble. Barry immediately shifted in his chair despite silently telling himself not to blow it. He, Joe and Eddie had all come up with that plan and all promised not to say anything. Somehow, he saw it wasn't going to work for him. "Th-that's...that's weird…"

"Yeah I thought so too," Belén agreed with a small nod. "Because…" she started to walk behind Barry's chair, her nails lightly dragging over the tip of it. Barry felt he was in one of the interrogation rooms and this cop was not going to let him go until she learned the truth. Belén leaned down beside him. "Mason would never go to Brazil. He hates it. He once went there to cover some story and he came back complaining about some stupid bugs. He vowed to never return. And I doubt he would go back for a woman."

Barry met her challenging eyes. She was no cop but the reporter side of her was intense enough to be a cop. "W-well...people change their minds…"

Belén tilted her head in a 'really?' manner. She straightened up and moved to lean against his desk, just beside his chair. "I've known Mason for three years. He doesn't change his mind. He still hasn't changed his opinion on my talent as a reporter. Wanna tell me what's going on before this ends up with me smacking you?"

"Um…"

"I assure you it's your best option."

Barry gave up with a long sigh. "It's a long story…"

"I've got time," she promised him. "I wanna know why Eddie lies to Iris that way and more importantly, why you would belittle not only Iris' intelligence but mine as well thinking you could fool both of us with that lie."

"First of all," Barry pushed himself out of his chair, "I did not mean to belittle anyone's intelligence. I was doing this to keep you safe-"

"Safe?" Belén frowned. "Safe from what?"

Barry took a moment for himself, considering the two pathways before him. If he kept everything from her, they would definitely get into an argument. They hadn't been going out for very long and he was not interested in creating their first big fight.

So, he spoke.

He told her everything he and Joe - featuring Eddie - suspected from Dr. Wells and how Iris' life had been put at risk from their search for the truth. They had no option but to give Iris a false story just so that she would stop digging into Mason's disappearance. Barry never intended on feeding Belén the same lie.

"So you're saying…" Belén now freely walked about in the lab, thinking, "...that Dr. Wells is this...Reverse-Flash?"

"Shh!" Barry rushed up to her and gently covered her mouth. "We can't discuss it here, it's dangerous."

"Sorry," she lowered his hand. "But, okay, just for clarification, why do you believe this again?"

"When Wells was talking me through phasing so I could get the Trickster's bomb off my wrist, the way that he described my being The Flash, running, feeling the wind and the power, it's like he was talking from experience. I know it's him." Barry knew what he said sounded completely ridiculous, but he knew in his gut that it was true.

Belén thought it was ridiculous - the idea that Dr. Wells was actually an evil man who murdered Barry's mother? It was ridiculous; it was a fact. But Belén also knew that Barry wouldn't just throw this accusation at the man he basically idolized for God knew how long. He wouldn't come up with all this if he wasn't 100% sure of it. She could see even now, when he explained, that it pained him to admit that he'd been working with the man who murdered his mother, who destroyed his family...who murdered her father.

"So...how do we get him?" she asked in a determined stance.

Belén spent countless nights thinking about that conversation with Barry. He disclosed everything he, Joe and Eddie had in their case against Wells. It made her sick that she'd felt support and affection for the man who murdered her father - the murder Wells had expressed condolences for. She made fistful grabs of her blanket as she turned to the side and looked at the bed stand where her family portrait stood. Her family was no more, and Dr. Wells took a big responsibility in that with his Particle Accelerator.

She forced her eyes shut and prayed that she could get some sleep. She already had an idea of what she would be doing the next morning.

~ 0 ~

Noah had seen better days. Granted his double life was difficult sometimes to maintain, but at least he could freely go to one place and the next. Now his days were pretty predictable living in a squared prison beneath the frikin ground. So when he felt his entire compartment begin moving forwards, he quickly got up and moved towards the wall where he could see light getting closer. He took quite the surprise when he spotted Belén waiting with crossed arms and a grim face.

"Well…" he had only managed to say when Belén cut him off, her voice unusually cold.

"Let's cut the crap and go straight to the point," she stepped forwards, glancing back to see if anyone was passing by the pipeline. "You and your crew have hated STAR Labs and everyone in it. Why?"

"We told you why. The Particle Accelerator ruined each of our lives. I lost my mother in the chaos, Plasticine lost her partner, Pixel lost her sister...and do I even have to say what your brother lost?"

"Who are they?" Belén's question came in fast and demanding, not sounding like a question really. It was more like a command and it made Noah smirk. "Who's Plasticine? Pixel? Say something!"

Noah brought a finger to his lips, still wearing that annoying smirk. "I'd rather wait till you find out on your own. I just wish I could see your face when you do."

Everything that Barry had told her about Wells was coming back to her and it just made her even angrier. People truly loved to mess with her and her friends. Did they have a sign on their faces saying 'come and mess with us, please' or what?

"There's something else," Noah tilted his head. He was studying Belén while the woman was in her pensive state. He'd worked with her long enough to know that she was harboring something else. "I make you mad but there's something else that's making you even more mad...what is it?"

"You, my brother and your stupid team is enough to make me angry for ages," Belén meant every word. "Every day I have to live with the fact my brother is off committing crimes for fun. You think that's easy?"

Noah gave a carefree shrug. "Eh, if you knew these days he's not really doing much." Belén raised an eyebrow at that, wondering what he meant. "Those powers of his are messing with his head."

"What do you mean?"

Noah sensed the interest and immediately shut down the topic. If he was going to remain in prison, then would at least keep something over her. "Nothing."

Belén scowled. "What's wrong with my brother!?"

Noah's snort irked her even more. She never realized how annoying he was. "Now you want to know about your brother? He's been wanting you to join him and you've dissed him at every opportunity you got. And for what? Speedy in red?" Belén's scowl grew and deepened, but it just made Noah smirk. "You think I didn't notice? I wonder how your CSI boyfriend would react if he knew his girlfriend had a thing for another guy?"

Belén pursed her lips, forcing herself not to laugh at him right there. It was better if Noah hadn't made the connection Barry was the Flash, but it didn't stop being funny. "Listen Noah, with you here I know the others are going to come after my team and I. So, I'm going to make sure they all end up here to keep you company...in different pods, of course."

"That include your brother?"

"I told you I'd lock him if I have to and with what you told me, it sounds like Rayan really needs to be at STAR Labs for his own health." Belén didn't want to hear more from him so she shut the pipeline down.

She watched him disappear into the pipeline and couldn't help feel prickly tears fill her eyes. The feeling of betrayal wasn't a new feeling for her, but it didn't mean it hurt less. This had been her co-worker, and granted they've had their differences...but she never would've guessed he would turn out to be one of her enemies. It just seemed like everyone was betraying them.

~ 0 ~

CCPD was brought upon a curious murder case in a University parking lot. Barry had finished taking what he needed to come up with a reason for death when Joe came by. The corpse of the woman had been placed into a gurney with only her face visible - full of purple, sizable bumps - as the rest of her body had been placed into a proper bag.

"Victim's name is Lindsay Kang, engineering professor at Hudson University. Just got tenure," Joe explained what he had learned from the witnesses.

"Her whole body's covered in these puncture wounds you see on her face," Barry gestured to the woman's face. "Bite marks maybe. Whatever it was, she must have gone into anaphylaxis."

Joe leaned forwards to get a closer look and immediately went wide-eyed. "Daaaamn."

Yeah. The blood sample should tell us everything we need to know. I'll run tests back at my lab."

"They can do it faster at STAR Labs," Joe gave him a pointed look for his odd behavior.

Barry shifted in his spot, thinking it was obvious why he would be reluctant to take everything to that place now. "Well, yeah, but, I mean, it's just…it's kind of weird being there right now."

"Barry, you know we have to play it cool with Wells. If he finds out we suspect him…"

"I know. I get it," Barry assured, but sighed. "I just think that we should tell Cisco and Caitlin. They could help us."

Joe shook his head in disapproval of this idea. "The more people who know, the more chance Wells is gonna find out we're on to him. Don't think I'm too happy you told Belén about this. I mean, what if one of slips up? Or panics? Or what if…"

"What?" Barry arched an eyebrow.

"What if they're not on our side?"

"Wait," Barry stepped back. "You want me to consider the idea that my friends - that my girlfriend - are involved in whatever he's planning?" he honestly couldn't think of a more ridiculous idea than this one.

"I mean, Wells is Caitlin's and Cisco's boss, their mentor. They've been with him for a long time. I've seen plenty of people make the wrong choice for loyalty. Please do not include them until we can be sure."

Barry hated when Joe made sense like this. But still, he refused to believe it all. "Belén met everyone after me. She came in afterwards. It's impossible for Wells to even consider she would have more loyalty to him than me."

"Okay," Joe relinquished that idea after deeming it logical, "And Cisco? Caitlin?"

Once again, Barry despised this logical side. "Fine," he mumbled and walked away.

~ 0 ~

Belén was pouring herself some coffee from the refreshment table at work when Iris approached her.

"Hey Bells," she greeted and received a very quiet 'hello' back. Considering she herself was having problems, it wasn't very difficult to figure out Belén had some of her own. Iris leaned forwards to catch Belén's falling gaze on the table. "Hey? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Belén snapped out of her thoughts and turned to her friend, plastering on a smile for the sake of no more questions. "But um, what's wrong with you? I, uh...I hear there's some...things happening between you and Eddie?"

Iris made a small noise that basically told Belén the rumors were true. She reached for a styrofoam cup on the table and poured herself some coffee. "Hmph, lately Eddie's been very distant with me. I get the feeling he's hiding something. I mean, I try to get him to talk to me but he keeps giving me these lame excuses. Sometimes-" she paused just as she was about to pour sugar into her cup, "-he doesn't even give me an excuse. He just goes 'uuuh' and leaves." She rolled her eyes and dumped more sugar than was needed into her cup. "Can you believe that?"

"I mean, cops…" Belén bit her lip nervously, "...they're so...complex...and weird. That entire business is skewed."

"It isn't," Iris disagreed with a shake of her head. "Does Barry tell you things? Like...what he's feeling?"

"Um…" Belén tried finding a honest answer that wouldn't release anything that shouldn't be, "...sometimes I have to ask him...over and over...at times, I have to interrogate him. See? They're just like that. There really is nothing to worry about." And at this moment Belén hated herself for lying straight to her friend's face, the friend who had helped her through so much. Feeling overwhelmingly guilty, Belén gave a widened smile and hastily walked away.

On her way to her desk, she happened to pass by Noah's...and her feet seemed to stop automatically. The days were passing and people were beginning to notice Noah's absence at work, but thankfully no one had gotten through to anyone of Noah's family. It made Belén conclude that he truly didn't have anyone. It also made her realize that his place had to be empty too...and with no one there to guard his things…

She plopped down on Noah's desk before she knew it. Knowing where most of his things were, she went directly for the last drawer on the bottom of the desk, hoping to find a clue of where he lived. She couldn't believe that in all this time she hadn't bothered asking him where he lived in the city. It proved she really didn't know him.

How could she have been so ignorant?

~ 0 ~

Going against his primary instincts, Barry had brought the case to STAR Labs for the others to look at it and offer up different opinions. They had pulled up the profile of Professor Kang on one of the computers on the wall.

"Death by apitoxin," Caitlin said, sounding a bit bemused. "Honeybee venom."

Unlike her, Cisco was almost glued to the spot he stood as he stared at the profile. "Bees," he pretended to shiver. "Why did it have to be bees? Y'all, I don't do bees. Ain't nobody got time for bees."

"But when a honeybee stings, the stingers are literally torn from their abdomen, and they die," Caitlin said as she took a look at the tablet she held which contained the apparent evidence of murder of the woman. "But there were no stingers in the body and no dead bees in the car. A honeybee can only deposit .1 milligrams of apitoxin when it releases its stinger."

"And yet, Ms. Kang was found with enough venom in her system to kill a herd of elephants," Wells recalled the information. "It appears not only is a meta-human controlling these bees but also increasing their toxicity."

"Bees communicate by releasing pheromones. Maybe this meta's controlling them through secretion?" elaborated Barry.

"Anyone want to join me in getting a beekeeper suit?" Cisco said, eyes still glued to the screen.

"I'm pretty sure I can outrun a bee," Barry smirked.

"Just don't run into a lake," said a very familiar voice from the entrance. Everyone turned to find Felicity Smoak standing there with one of her quirky smiles. "Bees will wait for you to come up for air and then they'll sting you. Discovery Channel. Turns out there's a lot to discover."

While everyone was pleased to see the blonde techy, Barry couldn't feel this was the worst time possible for her to make a visit. "Felicity, what are you doing here?"

Felicity thought her answer would be better suited outside. "Can you guys come outside for a sec?"

Five minutes later, everyone stood outside the building waiting for whatever it was Felicity was going to show them. But then passed on more minutes and nothing happened except Felicity staring into the sky.

"What exactly are we waiting for, Ms. Smoak?" asked Wells after a decent moment passed by.

Felicity beamed at the sight of a figure in the sky. "Up there!"

Caitlin squinted her eyes trying to get a clearer look. "Is that a bird?"

"It's a plane," Cisco said, making a face as the figure grew closer.

A man in a metal red and gray suit came to a rather wobbling landing on the ground, actually making several cracks from the force.

"It's my boyfriend," Felicity anxiously announced, gesturing as the man removed his helmet.

"Hi," he beamed a flashy smile. "I'm Ray."

~ 0 ~

Meeting Ray Palmer turned out to be quite an interesting sight. As soon as he got his suit off Caitlin took him in for a check up while Cisco and Dr. Wells began examining his suit.

"So...he seems a little tall for you," Barry remarked as he and Felicity watched Caitlin and Ray behind the glass wall of the side room.

Felicity faked a small gasp. "Barry Allen, are you jealous?"

"He better not be," Belén surprised them both with her presence. She'd come in taking quite a surprise at their new visitors.

"I'm not!" Barry exclaimed defensively, raising both his hands.

"That's what I like to hear," she came by his side and pressed a kiss on his cheek. Then she turned to Felicity wearing her first expression after hearing of the blonde's arrival. "Felicity, what are you doing here!?"

Felicity chuckled and gave Belén a hug. "My boyfriend-" Felicity jerked a thumb towards the room Ray was in, "-needed some help with his suit." She then gestured to the ATOM suit on the metal table.

Belén looked into the wall for a better glance at Ray Palmer and was deeply impressed. "He's your boyfriend?" Felicity nodded her head. "Wooooow."

"Ahem?" Barry coughed, making a face at her dazzled face.

"Hi," Belén smiled at him, in the dark of his brief moment of jealousy. "Now shh. He's cute...what is he exactly?" she asked Felicity.

"Businessman - really rich businessman."

"Daaaamn," Belén looked to the side as if she were it considering this for herself.

Barry could not believe her and waved one hand in front of her face. "Hello!?"

Belén looked up in confusion. "Barry, I already greeted you."

Ray and Caitlin emerged from the room after a nice check up that bore no consequences as far as Caitlin saw.

"Ah, well, my ears popped, so that's something," Ray cheerfully said.

"You're lucky you didn't break your neck," Caitlin felt the need to point out. "What is it with billionaires being superheroes?"

"I think they get bored," Belén said in thought then looked at Ray. "Did you get bored? I'm Belén, by the way."

Ray laughed but shook his head to answer her. "Ray," he shook hands with her.

"So have you... picked a name yet?" Cisco inquired afterwards.

Ray nodded excitedly. "I'm kind of partial to The Atom."

Cisco squinted his eyes at the name, not quite feeling it. "Sooo, you married to that, or...?"

Wells turned away from the wall computer after a thorough examination of the suit's compartments. "Your ATOM suit... it's quite the technological achievement, Mr. Palmer. I'm impressed."

"And he is never impressed," Caitlin added afterwards with a tiny smile.

"Well, thank you, but I can't quite seem to keep it up," Ray had innocently said, prompting Felicity to run for him to clarify.

"He means the suit!"

Ray quickly went to clarify as well. "Yeah, I mean the suit."

Barry's eyes widened in horror as the two continued trying to clarify what they'd been referring to. Belén giggled and buried her head in his chest, hoping to god they would just stop talking.

But they didn't. It seemed like they were incapable of it.

"I can attest that everything else works just fine. There's nothing we need to fix in…" Felicity clicked her tongue, "...that area."

"No, no, no. The sex is great," Ray sounded like he was letting his words tumble out before he thought of them completely.

"My God, there's two of them," Caitlin whispered to Cisco but she was heard by everyone else.

Ray shook his head, paused for a moment to recollect his thoughts, and explained himself completely. "I know from Felicity that you have been very helpful with Barry and the Flash suit, and I was hoping to get another set of eyes on my...problem…"

"Please don't continue elaborating," Belén pleaded when she saw Ray opening his mouth again. "We really do understand what you're trying to say."

Wells jumped in as well before anything else was said. "Any friend of the Arrow's is a friend…"

"Hell, yes!" Cisco interrupted excitedly.

"Uh, guys. We kind of have a lot going on already," Barry made the unusual call for everyone to slow down. "There's the meta-human killer that can control a whole swarm of bees?"

"Cool," Felicity blinked.

"There's a what now?" Belén looked up at him like he was crazy.

"You missed news," he explained distractedly to her and consequently missed her frown.

"I'm sure Caitlin and I will provide ample support, Barry," Wells assured, not that it mattered to Barry. His words meant nothing now.

"And I will be happy to sit this one out," Cisco raised a finger.

Seeing Barry was overly disappointed - because he was beginning to see what Joe was talking about in regards to loyalty - Belén stepped up for the job. "I can help," she volunteered cheerily.

"Thanks Bells," he smiled softly at her. He gave a kiss to her hair and looked at the others, meeting Felicity's eyes. The blonde was even more wide-eyed at them now.

"Ray, why don't you stay here and work on your suit while Barry, Bells, and I run to Jitters for some java?"

"Sounds like a plan," Ray shrugged, glancing at Cisco to see if it was alright with him. Cisco gave a thumbs up and turned for the suit to continue the examination period.

"I, uh….can't," Belén said once they began heading out of the cortex. "I've got, um...a work thing…"

"Oh, you can't go later?" Felicity made a small pout with her lips. She really wanted to know how Belén had advanced in her powers dilemma, plus she wanted to know when the hell she and Barry ended up together.

There was a nervous flicker in Belén's eyes that neither Felicity nor Barry noticed. Belén shook her head, gripping the strap of her bag as she picked up her pace. "I really have to do this today - but I'll catch you guys later okay? We can work on that bee problem."

Being who he was, Barry watched her leave making a mental note to discuss this with her later...because he was sure there was something she wasn't telling him. Felicity didn't give him a chance to think more about the subject as she practically dragged him to Jitters for that pending conversation.

When they received their orders from the counter, Felicity got straight to business. "You know I left Starling City to get away from the mood and brood, but it looks like it followed me here." She sipped her cup while narrowing her eyes Barry, prompting him to speak now.

"I know. I'm sorry. It's like I said before, now is not the best time," Barry was running out of ways to structure that sentence. He didn't want to tell Felicity anything that might put her danger.

Felicity sat down at an empty table and watched him take a seat across her. "Barry, I have been through enough with you to know when you're holding something back. Is this because I told Ray your secret? Because he is trustworthy, Barry. He wants to help people, just like you."

"I know, that's not what I'm worried about. It's... I really don't want to put anyone else in danger."

Felicity scowled and put her cup down. "In danger of what?"

Eddie chose this moment to approach their table, but in his defence he had quite the problem himself. "Barry, hey."

"Eddie, hey. You remember Felicity," Barry gestured to the blonde who gave a small wave and took to her coffee.

But the more she looked at Eddie, she realized - and was not remotely surprised - to see the similar expression on his face as Barry's. "What is wrong with you? Is everyone in Central City in a bad mood? I thought Central City was supposed to be the fun one."

Eddie gave a tilt of his head, muttering, "It's, um... It's not…"

"Felicity knows," Barry said once he realized Eddie was trying to be incompsicious.

"Wow," Eddie glanced at the blonde. "So everyone but Iris?"

"It feels that way…"

Eddie sighed and turned to Felicity for some honest answers. "How do you lie to everyone you care about?"

Felicity made a humming sound as she thought. "For starters, don't think of it as lying. Think of it as protecting her from getting hurt... with a fib."

"But Iris can tell I'm hiding something, and it's putting this distance between us!"

"I have an idea. Why don't we all go to dinner tonight?" Felicity suggested, glancing at Barry. "We can get Belén to come too. A little wine and dine is sure to bridge the gap. Come on, we all had fun last time."

"Suuure," Barry mumbled under his breath, thinking this dinner would be full of awkwardness and deceits.

"It'll be fun, I promise," Felicity said to both men when she saw their grim faces for her idea.

~ 0 ~

"He's not going to answer, darling," an elderly woman with short, white hair said after hearing the first knock on her neighbor's door. "Hasn't been back for days now. Probably out doing God knows what. Youngsters," she chuckled and went inside her own apartment.

As soon as the woman had locked her door, Belén stepped impossibly close to Noah's apartment door. She placed her hand on the doorknob and put all her focus on getting one of her vines - an extremely small one - to go through the locks. Having no key was a pickle, she admitted to herself, but not impossible for the Azalea. The moment she got the lock picked she stepped right inside and shut it as quietly as possible, locking it too.

She turned around to face quite an unusually clean apartment. Her bag was left to drop right on the carpet floor as she stepped further inside. Her eyes passed over the dull, gray walls that held several family portraits she assumed had been Noah's family. Getting a closer look at them, she saw an older blonde woman she suspected was Noah's deceased mother.

"If she could see you now, Noah," Belén whispered and turned away from it. She stopped by the coffee table that held several papers, some of them - she realized - were newspaper clippings.

She sat down on the couch for a moment as she stifled through them. Very quickly she discovered they were news about the particle accelerator before it had been activated, then its aftermath including cases of missing people. She paused at some of the obituaries.

"Lucianna," she read aloud the name of Noah's mother. She'd died in an accident caused by the particle accelerator. Belén sighed and lowered the clipping to her lap to think.

Noah's mother had died because of the accelerator and somehow, he too had gathered powers. What she wanted to know was how the hell Noah came in contact with Rayan. If she got lucky, she could even discover who Plasticine and Pixel were. She kept the clipping on her lap but continued to go through some more. Seconds later she began to see trends: most, if not all, were about the Flash and Dr. Wells. There was nothing about her and Belén wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. She remembered something about being 'off limits' apparently thanks to her brother.

~ 0 ~

Barry had just finished his coffee when he felt his phone vibrate in his jacket's pocket. He took it out and saw Cisco's text. "Another bee attack. Folston Tech."

Eddie nodded his head, making a move to leave. "I'll see where Joe is!"

"I'm gonna call Bells," Barry said as he too got up to leave. He dialed her number when Felicity gave a very poor call.

"Bee careful!"

Barry turned around with a face. "For real?"

Felicity winced. "Bad pun. Sorry. Just don't die. Same for Bells."

Barry shook his head and went off, still trying to reach Belén on the phone.

~ 0 ~

Inside her bag - still on the floor - vibrated Belén's cellphone. The woman in question however, was moving through the clippings that now had a lot of Plasticine's latest crimes of that week.

"What was your obsession with her…?" she couldn't understand as she flipped through them. There was plenty of Plasticine's odd robberies that included milk and other various snacks. She remembered her previous investigation and how stumped she was when she saw the things that Plasticine would steal. She gathered the clippings into one neat pile and left it on the couch where she would come back for them after finishing the rest of her search.

Her phone continued to vibrate as she walked into the hallway. This time the call rang from Cisco.

Belén walked into Noah's bedroom that had been left unmade. She looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

She extended several vines from her palms that did most of the job for her. Drawers were opened and ransacked, closets were opened and clothes were sifted through - everything was going to be searched through.

~ 0 ~

Barry had arrived at the building in trouble where people were already running out in terror. He'd come straight to the office of the man but found he was too late as the man's corpse was languidly lying on his chair.

"I'm too late," he spoke into the suit's comm.

"Where are the bees?" asked Cisco who thought it should be a number one priority.

"I don't know. There's no sign of them," Barry said after a quick look around. But then he began hearing a small buzzing noise he configured to be of a bee's. He leaned forwards after seeing something poking out from the man's mouth. One bee came out...and then a swarm did. Barry stumbled back. "Found them."

Not a minute was wasted in him getting away. However, the swarm of bees chased after him.

"Uh - how do I get out of here?" he called for his friends' help.

"Take the northeast crossway. It's the quickest way out of the building," replied Cisco not a moment after.

Barry followed the instructions but came to a glass wall where more of the swarm was already waiting for him. "Guys, they're everywhere. I'm surrounded!"

He looked around and saw many more bees coming for him. Seeing no other way out he decided to go through them, despite it costing him parts of his skin. He felt many of the pricks on his face and parts of his suit, but he managed to find another exit through the back, downstairs.

As soon as he made it out, he collapsed on the ground. Thankfully, Joe had made it to the site in time to see him get out. He got out of the car and ran for Barry. He could tell he was unconscious and when he checked for a pulse he was terrified to find there was none. He pulled out his phone and dialed for Cisco's number then placed it on the ground beside Barry.

"Barry, stay with me!" he began performing the first aid rituals in which both hands pushed on Barry's chest. As soon as the call was picked on, he shouted. "Cisco! Barry doesn't have a pulse."

"Step away from him!" Cisco exclaimed, running for the desk.

"What!? Why!"

"We need to jumpstart his heart. There's a defibrillator in the suit," he quicky set up the program on the computer and let Wells take over.

Caitlin stepped behind him and gave the command. "Charge it to 360 joules."

"Charging in three, two, one!"

Back in the field, Barry's body did a jolt as a the surge of electricity went through. Still, he remained unconscious.

Knowing it didn't work, Caitlin gave a second command. "Hit him again. 400 joules."

"Charging in three, two, one!"

The second jolt of power did it for Barry. He awoke with a deep gasp and began coughing. He didn't really remember quite what happened but he was sure it would come back to him eventually.

As soon as he made it back to STAR Labs, Caitlin took him straight to one of the exmination side rooms. He had come in with sizeable bumps on his face - one that had made Cisco declared to stay far away from him for the time being - and Caitlin wanted to make sure he was alright.

Afterwards, Cisco had taken a look at the suit and was forced to come to the conclusion that it no longer worked. "That is it for the defibrillator. It is completely fried."

"You're lucky to be alive, Mr. Allen," Wells shook his head.

Felicity was giving Barry a very serious look as she reminded him, "I was very specific that you not die."

"Yeah, that's a pretty big thing for her," Ray mumbled.

"Cisco, what happened out there?" Barry glanced at his friend, completely puzzled. "I followed your directions exactly."

"I'm sorry. I led you the wrong way. The schematics that we had, they... they weren't up to date."

Barry frowned. "What, they weren't up to date? What do you mean? That's never happened before."

"What, you think Cisco was trying to get you killed?" Felicity meant as a joke but chose the absolute worst time to use it.

"No. Why would he do that? That doesn't make any sense," Barry frantically looked around, unable to keep hearing Joe's words run through his mind.

"I know. That's why I was joking," Felicity tilted her head at him.

"Barry, it's our job to protect you, and today, we failed, but that'll just serve as a warning for all of us to be more vigilant in the future," Wells managed to continue being calm despite the awkard silence that had followed.

"Good news... the apitoxin is out of your body," Caitlin declared as she studied the results of his check up on her tablet. "Your levels are back to normal."

"Terrific," Barry sped out of the place and returned a second later wearing a gray suit with a white, buttoned up shirt. "Ray, Felicity, Bells and I will you for dinner-" he paused and looked around, "Where the hell is she actually?"

"I don't know man, we called like crazy for her to come help you but she never answered," Cisco shrugged his shoulders, giving off his light worriment over the woman.

"We tried calling her home too but no one answered either," Caitlin felt the need to add.

"I'll find her," Barry nodded, determined to figure this little issue out as soon as possible.

"You know Barry, we could just cancel-" Felicity began to say when Barry immediately shut her down.

"I'm fine. Alive. Hungry. All right?" he shrugged. "We'll see you there. I've gotta find my missing girlfriend." And with that, he sped out of the place, leaving everyone with no choice but to continue with their pre-made plans.

~ 0 ~

Belén had everything she had taken from Noah's place spread around her bed. She had her bedroom door locked in case Maritza - or even Axel - decided to barge in. Clippings where everywhere along with other papers and...even a laptop. Yes, she had even brought Noah's laptop with her. It would've been grand...if she could figure out the password on it.

"C'mon!" she growled and banged on the side of the computer after another failed attempt of logging in. "How can I figure out what you're up to when I can't even get into the frikin computer!?"

The tapping on her balcony door made her jump in her spot, gasping loudly. On instinct she shut the laptop's lid and looked up to find Barry making a gesture to let him in.

"Uuh…" she slowly got out of her bed and looked down at her mess. If Barry saw any of it she would be in a full-on interrogation session. She grabbed a blanket set against the wall and dumped it over everything.

Afterwards, she rushed to go open the balcony door.

"Hey, I've been looking for you everywhere," Barry said as soon as he got inside. "I went to the park, to your work, made a fool out of myself in front of Linda Park-"

"Not a surprise," Belén couldn't help flash a little smile at him. Linda had taken to making fun of Barry after discovering he got flustered really easily.

Barry rolled his eyes. "And then I went to your old college just in case, followed by your community theater meeting - which I have to say I don't quite like-"

"Wha - now wait a minute," Belén crossed her arms. "I love that place."

"I don't like those guys that stare at the girls-"

Belén laughed. "I can assure you it's all platonic. We're a team - well, I'm kind of a special team member but-"

"Bells," Barry cut her off laying a hand on her arm, "Where the hell have you been? Everyone tried calling you earlier and you didn't answer. There was another attack today and a man died. I almost died."

Belén gasped. "Oh my god, are you okay!?" she quickly looked him over for any signs of physical injuries.

"I'm fine now," Barry took hold of her arms and captured her attention, "But I'd like to know if you are."

"M-me?"

"I know you're doing something behind my back - behind everyone's back. You weren't doing a work thing, I know because I asked Linda."

"I...I was…" Belén pulled away from his hold and walked a couple steps away. "It doesn't matter," she shook her head. "What are you doing wearing a suit?"

"We have a dinner date with Felicity, Ray, Iris and Eddie tonight," Barry responded and went after her, gently grabbing her by the arm and turning her back to him. "But you still haven't answered my question. "What have you been up to, Ms. Palayta?" He tried being fun with her but she couldn't find it in her to follow his game.

"Like you have your secrets, I'd like to have mine," she came out with instead. Barry was taken aback by her so blunt response. "At least for the moment," she added with a quiet sigh.

"You...you're realize what you're asking me right?" he scratched his head. "You're…"

"It's just for the moment, trust me," she gave him a warm hearted smile he simply could not return.

It was that word that plagued him with terrible turmoil. He didn't realize it would be a problem between him and Belén, until now. Joe's words followed him once more, and for a split second, he had to wonder if he could truly trust Belén at a time like this.

"Just for a bit, I promise," Belén reiterated and gave him a short, sweet kiss. "So, we're having dinner then?" It took a long moment for Barry to force himself to just go with her plan for the moment. He gave a small nod and watched her backtrack towards her closet. "Fancy restauraunt I imagine if Ray's inviting…" she hummed to herself as she began searching through her closet.

Meanwhile, Barry continued to stare at her, feeling enormously guilty for beginning to consider if he could trust her like she had asked him to. Could he?

~ 0 ~

It wasn't long before everyone met up at the restaurant Ray had chosen for them. Iris and Eddie had been waiting for the two couples at the entrance bar, and it appeared they were having a small disagreement.

"Wow Iris, check you out," Felicity praised the tight, white dress Iris had chosen for the night.

Iris chuckled and looked at Felictiy's bright red dress. The woman had abandoned her usual glasses and curled her hair. "I think we're all looking pretty good," Iris declared, then glancing at Belén. She'd worn a baby-blue, laced at the top, dress and mildly curled her hair for the occasion.

"Guys, this is Ray Palmer," Felicity introduced the man to Iris and Eddie formally now.

"Hi. Nice to meet you," Ray shook Iris' hand first then Eddie's.

The lead waiter came in from the grand room inside. "Bienvenue chez Massimo Restaurant. maitre d': Mr. Palmer, your table is ready."

"Great. Shall we?" Ray looked at the rest of the group who nodded, for the most part eagerly.

"Hey, how did he get a reservation here?" Iris whispered to Barry as they walked in. "We've been trying for months."

"I don't know," Barry admitted with a light chuckle.

"Could be the rich part," Belén added from his side with a chuckle of her own.

The waiter led them into an entirely empty restaurant save for one decorated table designated for them. "Here's your table, sir."

"I thought it'd be nice if it was quiet, so I bought out the entire restaurant," Ray cheerfully said to the group was looking far too surprised for his taste. "Too much?"

"Just a tad, sweetie," Felicity patted his arm, looking very unsurprised for this event.

And so everyone took their appropriate seats. After ordering their respective meals, they conversed to pass the time.

"You know, I'm a little surprised that I never got a phone call from you Belén..." Felicity swayed her head in Belén's direction. The woman in question blinked in confusion so Felicity just said it. "I didn't know you and Barry just magically started dating!"

"Oh," Belén laughed shortly and glanced at Barry. The speedster was more strained in his expressions but he did smile at her. "Sorry, I guess we never remembered...?"

"Yeah," Barry agreed. It truly had slipped his mind but in his defense there was a lot going on in his life.

"They were so slow, it was agonizing," Iris' remark made the two metahumans blush.

Felicity kept her laugh to a minimum seeing the red-faced metahumans. "Well, I'm happy for you two."

"Thank you," both Belén and Barry simultaneously said.

"So how did you two meet?" Eddie inquired from Ray and Felicity.

"Work," both scientists answered him.

"Well, actually," Ray cut in to explain, "I bought the company where Felicity was employed, and so she was forced to join me at Palmer Tech."

Felicity made a face and quickly clarified. "It's not as creepy as it sounds."

"Leave it to you two to make it awkward," chuckled Belén who took a sip of her drink.

Iris, on the other hand, seemed far less cheery than normal. "So you two work closely together?"

Felicity nodded her head. "Mm-hmm."

"Interesting," Iris said innocently, although her gaze was leaning now towards Eddie. "I guess you guys share all of your thoughts and feelings and…"

"Yeah...I share everything with Felicity," Ray said, beginning to get confused.

"It's nice that you guys have that level of communication."

It was then that Ray noticed the tension between Iris and Eddie and ventured to at least try to help Eddie. "Oh, well, no, not every-everything. I mean, sometimes it's good to just shut up."

"I get that," Eddie laughed with him. "Some things are better left unspoken."

Iris frowned at him, almost taking offence to that. "Really?"

Eddie didn't know what to say anymore. Barry spotted the waiters coming by with their food and mumbled, "Oh, thank God. It's the food." He cleared his throat and spoke to the others. "Food's here."

"Our first course on the tasting menu is a quail egg frittata. Bon appetit," the lead waiter placed a plate in front of Ray while the rest attended to the others.

"Barry, I got to admit, I envy you spending so much time at STAR Labs," Ray chuckled as he admitted. "Harrison Wells is, like, a personal hero of mine. I mean, it's amazing just to actually be in the same room with him." Barry nodded very slightly, but his insides were screaming for him to tell Ray how wrong he was. In fact, the more Ray went on, the more sick Barry felt...that and frantic. It felt like a ticking time bomb had been placed and Barry wasn't sure when he would explode.

He got up fast from his chair, like an instinct. "I'll be right back. Just excuse me." His break away from the room didn't go unnoticed.

Belén cleared her throat and put her fork down, giving a small smile to the rest as she stood from her chair. "I...have to go to the restroom," she weakly made the excuse and rushed off in the direction Barry had gone into.

By the time she caught up with him in a winery room, Barry had been pacing back and forth letting his mind fill him with different thoughts.

"Okay, what the hell was that back there?" she tried not to sound angry seeing he was clearly upset himself. He wasn't one to act this way, and she had a pretty good hunch why it was happening now.

"I can't - I can't take it anymore, Bells," he frantically gestured to himself. "Can I - can I trust you? Can I trust him? Can I trust Caitlin? Cisco? I don't...I don't know!"

Belén's neat eyebrows rose simultaneously. "You think you can't trust me?" it appeared she had been wounded.

Barry felt worse, but he couldn't keep quiet anymore. "What weren't you telling me today? Why didn't you answer your phone when we needed you? What were you doing?"

"I didn't know this was going to be an interrogation," Belén frowned, crossing her arms and pursing her lips together. "At least when I did it, I knew you, Eddie and Joe had lied to Iris but you have no basis on accusing me of anything."

Barry stormed up to her with a ferocity Belén had never seen before. "Just tell me what you were doing so that I can trust you!"

There was flicker of pain that crossed through Belén's eyes, along with the inevitable disbelief. "I'm going to do something," she spoke quietly, swallowing hard, "I'm going to leave, and I'm going to hope that you come to your senses and see how ridiculous you're acting." She shook her head and turned to leave.

The feeling of desperation had never been so high for Barry. He watched her go feeling like the worst boyfriend yet still, on the other side, feeling justified in asking for her explanation. He balled his fists and growled turning away just as she opened the door and left.

On her way out, Belén almost bumped into Felicity. "Woah," Belén shook her head.

"Oh my God thank God you're back - Iris and Eddie are having a bit of a problem," Felicity quietly, and quickly, said to Belén. She nodded back to the table where indeed Iris was once again hassling Eddie for the truth she knew he wasn't telling her.

Belén sighed. "Men are idiots but I'm pretty sure metahuman men are morons. I want nothing to do with them tonight."

"What?" Felicity frowned as Belén went past her. She grabbed onto the ombre-blonde's arm and stopped her. "What happened?"

"Iris, please," they heard Eddie pleading, clearly their argument getting no better. Belén turned around in time to see Iris frustrated dropped her napkin and fork.

"Okay, so it's my fault that we're not having a nice evening? I am your girlfriend. Who you live with. I shouldn't have to beg you to talk to me."

"If I could talk to you about this, I would, believe me. But I can't," Eddie was also growing impatient with her.

Iris' eyes filled with tears. "You know what? I am not hungry anymore," she got up from her chair and grabbed her plate. "You know what? When you are ready to act like we are two people who love each other, call me. I'll be at my dad's."

"Iris," Belén hurried towards her friend, grabbing her bag in a hurry, "Wait up. I wanna go home too." Iris seemed surprised of this request, able to realize she'd also had some sort of argument with Barry. Well, Iris wasn't going to judge. She nodded her head, with that look of 'solidarity and understanding', and the two walked out of the place.

Awkwardly, Eddie excused himself as well, calling it a night. Felicity made a gesture with her arms at the disaster this date had turned into. As she turned to Ray, the winery door opened and out came Barry. While surprised to find the table empty, it didn't confuse him as to what must have happened.

"Iris and Eddie had a fight," Ray explained thinking he hadn't yet connected the dots.

"And apparently so did you and Belén," Felicity crossed her arms. "Care to explain?"

"Felicity," Ray gave her a meaningful look. However, Felicity was done asking questions. She wanted answers and she was gonna get them.

"Barry? Explain. Now."

Barry looked between the two and figured what more could go wrong after tonight. With a deep breath, he began his story. "Okay. Joe and I found out that Wells isn't who he says he is. He...he is the man that killed my mother."

Felicity's eyes widened, her arms dropping to her sides. "Oh, my God. But he's been helping you. Get faster, stronger."

"I know."

"Why would he do that?" frowned Ray.

"I don't know. I don't know anything anymore, especially who I can and can't trust!"

Felicity raised an eyebrow then. "What? So you think Belén, Cisco and Caitlin are helping him? Barry, that's impossible."

"I keep telling myself that too but then...then I start to doubt-"

"-then stop doubting!" Felicity exclaimed.

"I thought that Wells was a great man, and I was so wrong about him. What if I'm wrong about everything else too?"

Felicity shook her head, the idea far too crazy to even entertain. "Look, I may not know Caitlin and Cisco as well as you do, but I do trust them. And what's more, I do know Belén, and I can assure you - swear my life on it even - that she's not in league with Wells. She's always been with you."

Barry sighed, of course he knew that. But it was that little paranoia bug inside his mind that didn't allow him to see it completely. Hearing his phone, he cut short the conversation. "Uh, emergency at STAR Labs."

Felicity looked nowhere near done, but for the sake of the others she let him go. "Go!"

~0~

At STAR Labs, there sure was an emergency - a bee emergency. Caitlin and Cisco stood back to back, Caitlin holding a fire extinguisher and Cisco a small gray device.

Containment breach. Foreign object detected.

Caitlin thought she saw said bee and activated the extinguisher. But, at the same time, Cisco thought he saw it and fired with his device at the desk. A good chunk of the desk vanished into melting metal.

"Did I get it?" Cisco quickly asked and looked around. "I think I got it."

Caitlin wasn't too sure and just held the fire extinguisher for protective measures. "Where is he?"

Wells had come out of the side room, completely calm until he saw the bee heading his way. Well, he wasn't going to allow himself to be killed by an idiotic bee. He'd rather get up. And he was going to do that when Barry sped in and captured the bee in a tiny jar.

"Thank you," he smiled at the metahuman.

Cisco took the jar with the tips of his fingers. "Let's see what makes this bee so poisonous."

"You saved my life," Wells once again thanked Barry, but only god a small nod in response.

Cisco had gotten the 'bee' under a microscope in the side room again. Caitlin leaned beside him and squinted her eyes at the motionless bee.

"That is one odd-looking bee," she mused at the sight.

Cisco soon realized there was more to it. "That's because it isn't a bee at all. It's a robot."

"No way," Caitlin took a turn on the microscope to see for herself. "Unbelievable."

"This bot's got a 360-degree vision system," Cisco began to explain as Barry and Wells entered the room. "I mean, we're talking multiple micro-cameras all coming from various angles at the same time. Which means…"

"It can see all around the room at once," Wells concluded. "That is…"

"Amazing," went both.

"Disturbing," Caitlin sharply corrected them.

"It's also next-gen hardware that's nowhere near the market," Cisco added as they began filing out of the room.

"So we're not dealing with a meta-human?" Barry asked, just to be sure.

"It's just a mad scientist."

"Robot bees?" Belén's voice called their attention to the entrance where she, Felicity and Ray had just come through.

"Can you believe that?" Cisco didn't know whether or not to be impressed or even more terrified of those bees now.

Belén thought about it for a moment then quickly nodded her head. "Actually, I can." She walked further inside, heading for one of the desks where she took up a computer. "Because I know someone who once had a maniacal experiment with robot bees."

"You do?" went the entire room, much to her amusement.

She rolled her eyes and continued to type. Eventually, she pulled up a profile of a young blonde woman with thick-rimmed, black glasses. She looked up just as everyone else noticed the profile. "Her name was Brie Larva," she stood up from her chair, casting narrowed eyes on the stranger's picture.

"And how do you know this woman?" Cisco made a funny face for her.

Chuckling, she crossed her arms and replied. "She used to work at Mercury Labs. I sometimes saw her when I visited. She was like...ridiculous smart status."

"What happened?" Wells inquired.

Belén shrugged. "My dad never told me the full story. He just said that Brie had different ideas than the ones Mercury Labs had and she had to be let go. But I saw her once, with her mechanical bees, and she looked creepy. She yelled at me to leave, though. Apparently, I wasn't going to understand the purpose of her oh-so-grand experiment."

Taking all this into consideration, Wells called for Cisco to perform a task for them.

"Cisco, you said the second victim, Bill Carlisle, was a robotics engineer. Let's cross-reference his previous employers with those of Lindsay Kang."

Felicity practically broke into a desperate run for the nearest computer. "Allow me. Mama's been away from a keyboard for far too long." In no time she had pulled up the two profiles needed and sure enough they had a similar employer: Mercury Labs.

"They both worked at Mercury Labs," Wells mused, unsurprised.

"I don't know who they are," Belén said after a well thought examination of the two victims' pictures. "But if you ask me, Brie is probably coming for some revenge."

"Which means Dr. McGee might be in trouble," Caitlin looked at the rest in alarm.

"I think it's time we paid a visit to an old friend," Wells resolved quick.

Belén gave them an approving nod. "From my part, that's all." And for that, she looked directly at Barry. "I only came because Felicity told me the problem."

"Actually, we could use your help," Dr. Wells said, surprising her. "Dr. McGee might not be so welcoming towards us anymore considering what happened the last time we visited."

"I-I mean...is that really necessary?"

Wells nodded. "Absolutely. Unless…" he began to look between her and Barry, "...there is a problem we don't know about…?"

Barry cleared his throat, eyes on Belén. "Not really," he spoke quietly. "Bells?" immediately after saying that he knew Belén was eager to tell him he wasn't at liberty to use her nickname at the moment.

But, for the sake of time, and lives, Belén swallowed down that urge and agreed. "Course. After you guys," she languidly gestured the way out with one arm.

Yes, everyone could see the tension then.

~0~

After talking to Joe, it was agreed the best they could do was warn McGee of the possible attack and also to verify with her if they were truly talking about Brie Larvan. Using their strongest weapon - who was still in fancy gear - Belén walked into the office of the woman first.

"Evening, Dr. McGee," Belén greeted politely as she walked towards the desk.

"Belén, how nice to see you," McGee reached over her desk to shake Belén's hand. "How are you?"

Belén recognized the meaningful look on the older woman's face. It had been long since she entered the lab building, and to be honest McGee thought it would never happen again. "I'm doing better now," Belén replied with a slight nod.

"What can I do for you?"

"Well...see," Belén nervously smiled, "I don't know if you've heard about some recent killings in the city with potential evidence of it being animal vs human sort of thing."

"I haven't," McGee shook her head, momentarily stumped on where Belén was going with this.

"Um, well, see I have friends in the police force and they told me something interesting about the culprit. She's killing them with robotic bees."

The moment the words left Belén's mouth McGee was on board. "Brie Larvan," she automatically said. She remembered the young scientist quite well.

"You think it's her too, then?"

"Has got to be."

"Good, so then, uh…" Belén cleared her throat and looked back at the open door, "...you guys can come in. It's her."

Before McGee could question who Belén was talking to, she saw the familiar faces of Wells, Barry and Joe coming through her door. "I didn't know these were your friends, Belén."

"Conditional," Belén clarified, shooting a warning look to Barry.

McGee was frowning at the three now. "Twice in one year, Harrison. You really are vying for comeback scientist of the year."

"Always a pleasure, Christina," Wells gave a widened, fake smile.

Mcgee sighed and looked at Belén in question. Belén quickly jumped in To clarify their purpose. "They're just here to clarify and to give you protection."

"Protection?" McGee nearly laughed.

"Brie Larvan, remember?"

McGee sighed. "Brie was a brilliant roboticist who went down the wrong path. But I assure you she can do me no harm. I can tak care of myself."

"But Dr. McGee-"

"Good day, Belén," McGee gave her that look that said it was over.

Belén sighed and looked at the others to see what they could do. Unfortunately, McGee made herself very clear again and the group had no choice but to leave the building. And even though Belén tried once again to leave, it was made impossible with the reminder Brie Larvan was still out and probably scheming her final blow.

"So is this Queen Bee going down soon?" Felicity asked after Belén and Barry returned to the cortex. Dr. Wells had stayed back to speak with Joe in the hallways.

"She'll show up, eventually," Belén shrugged carelessly and walked up to a screen where Caitlin was currently watching. Felicity arched an eyebrow at Barry, gesturing what the hell were they still doing angry with each other. "What are they doing?" Belén questioned Caitlin once she saw Cisco and Ray working over Ray's suit.

"They're working on the suit in hopes of getting it done," Caitlin mused, crossing her arms. "It is so fun to watch grown men play with their toys."

Belén snickered. "Rayan used to play with these little metal things for hours in his room. I used to make fun of him for that." Caitlin looked at her from the corner of her eyes, apparently disagreeing with Belén's actions. "What? He made fun of me for aerial dancing. It was only fair I get him back where it hurt."

In this meantime, Felicity had been expectantly looking from Belén to Barry as if one of them would come up and say they needed to discuss their previous argument. But, seeing this wasn't going to happen on its own, she jumped in. "Belén?"

"Hm?" the ombre-blonde glanced back.

"Can we talk?" Felicity pointed at the threshold and before Belén could give her answer, she pointed another finger at Barry. "You too - let's go!" And she began a hasty walk towards the threshold.

"What?" went both metahumans, exchanging a quick look between each other before turning.

Felicity merely stopped underneath the doorway and nodded her head to the corridor. "Let's go."

Caitlin giggled as she made way for a side room, of course not before teasing, "You guys are in trouble."

"What is she doing?" Belén broke in a stalk after Felicity, Barry doing the same beside her.

"I - I don't know!" he answered truthfully, although looking more mortified than anything.

"This isn't getting you out of anything, mister-"

"I don't intend it to-"

"Good," Belén shot him a look.

Barry sighed. "But it wouldn't be bad if maybe we talked…"

"Oh, what for? To accuse me of leading a metahuman riot against you now? What other false accusations are you gonna give me?"

"Look, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said what I said-"

"But you meant it," Belén stopped abruptly to face him, her eyes soon to tear up. "And that's what hurts."

Another sigh escaped from Barry. He happened to see Felicity standing across them, now smiling warmly at them. Giving her a small nod, she slipped away into a nearby room to give them some privacy.

Belén was still waiting for him to make a response, while simultaneously doing her best not shout again.

"I shouldn't have said that," Barry began after taking in a small breath. "Not because it was wrong, but because...you could never do that to me."

"Is that what Felicity told you? Or is it because you believe it?" Belén crossed her arms and waited for his answer.

"It's what I believe. I promise."

Belén kept her eyes locked on her boyfriend whom she knew was possibly going through the most horrible time of his life. With a sigh, she placed a hand on his shoulder and stepped closer to him. "You can trust me, okay?" she whispered, "With anything and everything." Barry nodded, although couldn't help let his head hang a little in shame. "Listen," Belén began after a moment's pause, lowering her voice to a faint whisper so that only he was able to hear her, "I do have something that you don't know about. It has nothing to do...with him. I need your help, Barry. Again."

Barry raised his head to see her concerned eyes, and instinctively matched his own with hers. "Wh-what do you need?" Belén bit her lip nervously, eyes roaming the hallway as she considered if this was the best place to reveal. "Belén?"

The woman snapped her attention back in front of her. "Maybe you can...come to my room tonight?"

"O-okay," Barry agreed to her terms without a single word of argument. Although he was a bit curious why he needed to visit her at a late hour just to hear this secret.

"Guys!" they heard Caitlin's call from the cortex. Almost immediately, they ran back to their friend thinking they were in danger again. A couple seconds later, Felicity joined them as well.

Caitlin was frantically watching Brie's lonesome bee buzzing underneath the computer it had been placed at. "It must have re-activated."

Felicity smirked. "And if it's being controlled wirelessly, I can trace its signal and figure out where it's trying to go!"

"I'm going to get Dr. Wells and the others," Caitlin moved towards the desk to get the comm. And missed the looks of the other three.

"Oh, no. Oh, boy," Felicity gaped as she pulled up street security feed for them to see. A swarm of bees was heading its way down to Mercury Labs.

"Dr. McGee is in trouble," Belén gasped. "How do we stop them?"

Wells, Cisco and Ray entered the cortex with anguished expressions as they figured what was going on.

"She's got to be remotely piloting those bees from somewhere," Felicity was in the middle of explaining.

"We need to stop this bug-eyed glasses woman," Cisco shook his head.

"And her mini bandits," added Ray.

Something clicked in their minds and they quickly looked at each other as both said, "Bug-Eyed Bandit. Bug-Eyed Bandit."

"Not one of your best ones," Belén side-commented, earning herself annoyed looks from the both of them.

"Got her. She's in an abandoned greenhouse," Felicity glanced back at the others with a widened smirk.

"You have to take out Brie," Wells said to Barry and Belén. "It's the only way to stop these nanodrones."

"I'd love to get a piece of Brie Larvan," Belén smirked at the idea, surprising Barry with the comment. "What? Did I forget to mention that besides being stupid smart she was ridiculously a bitch?" Now Barry tilted his head at her, eyes slightly widened as he rarely heard her curse. "I don't like her!"

"We can tell," he couldn't help chuckle.

Belén smiled, now giddy, but glanced back at the screen where they could see the bees on their way. "But what about Dr. McGee?"

"The defibrillator in Barry's suit is broken and I am not letting you go anywhere near bees," Cisco warned her with a pointed finger her way, making her chuckle. However, Barry had a different look set on both of them. There was that little feeling again, the very one Iris advised him not too long ago to get rid of.

"Bees can't penetrate my suit. I'll go," Ray volunteered, holding a hand up.

"Whoa. We haven't tested out the new power system yet," Cisco reminded him, now turning to him in concern as well. Did no one understand how dangerous bees were? Even more so that they were talking about robot bees!?

"We'll do it now," Ray assured, waving them to get going.

"I'm following you," Cisco said as a warning.

Caitlin nodded and made to leave as well. "I'm driving."

Felicity got up from her chair and rushed up to Ray. "And I'm kissing you!" she cupped his face and planted a kiss on him.

"You don't get a kiss yet," Belén warned Barry in case he got any ideas. "That's your punishment."

Barry swayed his head, letting it hang back in the end. "I deserve it."

"Yeah, you do," she patted his arm and turned for her suit.

~0~

Ray soared through the city night to find the robotic swarm of bees. With the sight so illuminated it wasn't as difficult. "Found her. Felicity, can you jam their frequency?"

Felicity had remained back on the computers to hopefully help them. "I already tried, but I might be able to redirect them onto a new target. Ray, get ready for incoming."

Ray smirked just a little, and Felicity knew that. "We have the technology."

~ 0 ~

Brie Larvan sat on a raised platform, inside what looked like a makeshift hive where all her computers and equipment were set up. She was busy overseeing her bees through one screen when she heard a...rubbery noise? Least that's what it sounded.

But then Barry came in, and remained a bit behind. "It's over, Brie. I know you're trying to kill Dr. McGee. You think that she betrayed you. I can imagine how that feels."

Brie turned on her chair, her delicate eyebrows furrowing together as she took a look at the speedster. "You think you understand the sting of betrayal? I'll show you what it means to be stung."

On command, a new swarm of bees flew up from behind her desk and went straight for Barry. He had no choice but to speed away for the moment.

Just when Brie thought she'd have some quiet again, something cold latched onto her arm. "Eugh!" It turned out to be a green vine, and it swung her chair over to face in the direction Barry had been seconds before.

"Hello, Brie," Belén stood straightened and did her best to hide that ill feeling she still got when using her powers. While it wasn't the same fear she had weeks ago, she still felt like at any moment her other side would try to come out. "We gotta talk about your stupid bees."

Brie made a quick move back to her desk to activate more bees when Belén used two more vines to turn her back around.

"I wouldn't do that, I can use poison too you know," Belén gave a half smirk as she released a tint of pink poison through her lips. "And I assure you mine is deadly too."

Brie struggled to move with the vines around her arms. "You can't stop my bees from hurting your friends anyways," she said as a last resort.

But then Felicity made the announcement she had managed to get control of the bees.

Belén smirked at Brie then. "Look at that - you're out of a hive."

Although that struck a chord inside, Brie maintained a glowering look on the metahuman, reminding them, "I still have a swarm outside - good luck getting them."

Perhaps it was just all of Belén's pent up frustration or maybe she really did just hate Brie, but she snapped and used a vine to punch Brie across the face. The blonde scientist was out cold before she hit the ground. Barry was able to return after the swarm of bees after him literally dropped dead. He blinked at the unconscious scientist then gazed over to Belén. All she had was a smirk on her face and no regrets.

It felt really good.

~ 0 ~

Ray had managed to stop the remaining bee swarm by leading them into the city ocean. Now as Cisco gave a little lookover on Ray's partially wet suit, Ray and Caitlin had stepped from the van to take a little break.

"Ah. Some kind of team you have here," Ray remarked, feeling quite euphoric after that triumphant battle. His suit was a little ruined but he was confident it wasn't something permanent.

"Helps to have friends in your corner," Caitlin gave a small smile.

Just as Cisco was coming to them, he heard a buzzing noise behind and turned to find one remaining bee making way for them. He didn't think properly but automatically blocked the way to Ray and Caitlin, allowing himself to be stung. Hearing him drop to the ground, both Ray and Caitlin turned around.

"Cisco!" Caitlin ran for her friend who was already going unconscious. She pulled out her phone and dialed for STAR Labs, immediately shouting, "Cisco's been stung!" the moment the line was answered.

"He's going into shock!" added Ray loudly for the phone.

~0 ~

"Go," Belén told Barry in a hurry. "Brie and I will wait for the cops."

Barry nodded and hurried for Cisco and the others. He found Ray trying to do cpr on Cisco to a failed attempt.

"Hold on. Back up. I'm gonna try something." Barry began vibrating his hands until they managed to conjur up electricity. Like a machine would, he pressed his hands on Cisco's chest and watched his friend jolt. He waited another couple seconds and thankfull Cisco came to life again.

Cisco coughed violently but was otherwise alright. "Either my fear of bees is over or it just got a lot worse."

Caitlin laughed happily and hugged him. "Thank God you're okay!"

~ 0 ~

The moment she was back at STAR Labs, Belén went to see how Cisco was. Needless to say she had him hugging for a good, straight five minutes.

"Bells, I'm really okay," Cisco couldn't help release a couple laughs here and there, patting her back.

"Why the hell would you purposely let yourself be stung by a robotic bee!?" she pulled away and smacked his arm.

"Ow!" Cisco clapped a hand to his beaten arm, taking a good step back. "What happened to you being worried?"

"You know how crazy Brie is," Belén sighed, shaking her head. She walked back to the desk where Caitlin and Felicity sat.

"Hey, you know what I just realized," Cisco began pointing at Belén, the widening smile telling her this wouldn't be good, "We finally figured out a person that did hate Bells."

Barry chuckled as he saw Belén gape at the statement. She seemed in disbelief, which only made it funnier.

"I don't get it," Ray spoke up after pausing his suit examination from the other side of the room.

"See-" Cisco turned around fast to explain, "-Barry, Caitlin and I are all self-proclaimed nerds who got bullied at school but Bells over here-" he gestured with both arms towards the ombre-blonde who was now crossed-armed and glaring his way, "-apparently had no bullies whatsoever."

"I didn't," she assured.

"Until today," Cisco pointed at her. "Brie Larvan!"

"She wasn't at my schools!"

"But she still hated you."

The face on Belén spelled utter doom. "I punched her and I sent her to jail, so I win."

It was then that Barry decided to cut in before he saw his friend murdered. "I think we should call it a night," he walked towards Belén who still had a glare glued on Cisco. "Coffee?" he tried to get her attention but she wouldn't budge. With a sheepish smile at the others, he tugged Belén out of the room.

"Everyone likes me," she huffed as they left.

Barry chuckled at her seriousness. "Of course they do." He slipped an arm around her waist and gave her a kiss on the head. "But no one more than me."

"Cheesy," she playfully rolled her eyes.

While he did enjoy their quality happy moments, Barry did have a high curiosity about her apparent secret he'd been sort of right about. He stopped them down the middle of the hallway and turned to face her.

"Wanna talk?" he asked cautiously.

Belén took a quick scan of their area before she answered. "My room?"

Barry nodded and in less than a minute he had taken her to the balcony of her bedroom.

"One of these days someone is going to see you," she couldn't help but joke as used his vibrating powers to get himself through the door and thus open it from the inside. As soon as she walked in she made a beeline for her bed. "Now, I really didn't want to cause any problems between us-"

"I know, I really do," Barry nodded quickly, "It's just with everything that's going on with Wells-"

"I get it too," Belén promised him. She bent down beside her bed and reached for something underneath. "And I should have known better than to ask you to trust me on a secret. It was my problem, not yours."

"So what is it, then?" Barry curiously asked, taking a step forwards once she had pulled out a bag from underneath the bed.

Belén sighed as she stood up again. "I thought that maybe for once I could solve things on my own instead of getting you and the others to help. But, as usual, I am horrible with technology." She sighed deeper and handed him the bag so he could see for himself.

He dug a hand inside and felt the curious feeling of papers inside along with a couple of other objects he couldn't quite make out there. "What is this?" he took out a file and let the bag fall to the floor as he began going through.

To say he was surprised to find a file about his girlfriend's family was far from what he felt. He was utterly lost.

Belén waited until he looked up at her again. "Weird, huh? Imagine what I felt when I found that in Noah's bedroom."

And perhaps she could have worded that sentence a bit better, for now Barry was close to losing it. "You were where now!? In his bedroom!?" for a moment he forgot that Maritza Palayta could be in the next room.

Thankfully, Belén knew her sister was out with some friends. "Barry, calm down, it's not what you think."

"You said you got this from his bedroom so you were-"

"Ransacking his place this afternoon," she finished for him with an amused smile. "I snuck in and took what I found." She then turned to her bed and pulled down the covers to reveal Noah's laptop underneath. "I also took his laptop which I can't seem to get into."

"Bells you're going to have to help me here," Barry shook his head and let the file fall flat on her bed.

"I wanted to know what Noah and my brother were up to, maybe even learn who Plasticine and Pixel were. So, I went into Noah's apartment and I got all this stuff."

Even with his speed it took Barry a couple minutes to understand it all. "Belén, you broke into an apartment?"

"I locked the door on my way out," Belén said as if that made it all better. "I was just so mad that I've had an enemy so close to me - working with me - and all this time he's been laughing at me."

"Yeah, I get that..." Barry gave a small nod of his head. "People you thought you trusted...turn out to be completely the opposite…"

"I just can't believe it. And it makes me even more angry when I remembered how hard he fought just to make you look bad in my eyes as the Flash. It makes sense now. My brother wanted Noah to convince me to come work with him so what's a way to do that? Make me see that my partner is not what he says he is."

"Oh, now I'm mad," Barry turned to the laptop beside him and reached for it. "Trying to make me look bad in front of my girlfriend - I don't think so!" Belén giggled and inched closer as he opened the laptop. "So what do we have here, then?"

"I wish I knew," she sighed, getting a look from him in return. "I haven't been able to get through the password. I was kind of hoping my super-duper intelligent boyfriend could help me with that?"

"Oh, you got it," he smiled. Belén looked up at him with a smile of her own.

"Thank you," she said quietly, curling one hand around his. "And I'm really sorry for keeping all this from you. I just thought I could do it on my own."

"You don't need to do it on your own anymore, Bells. We're a team," Barry leaned down a bit kiss her cheek but at the last moment surprised her with a kiss. "I'm sorry I forgot about that for a moment."

Belén took a leaf out of his book and stole a kiss from him. "I forgot too, but the important thing is we're together again. We won't forget ever again."

"We won't," Barry agreed.

"And you know...maybe it's time we're all together. As in...Caitlin and Cisco? I don't think they could ever be with Dr. Wells in all this. No matter how much loyalty they have for that man, neither of them would ever condone murder. They're first and foremost, you friends, Barry. Our friends."

Barry decided to gamble on that. There were too many things coming at them and it would make things easier if they were together when the storm hit.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~0 ~ 0 ~0 ~

Author's Note:

I loved this episode simply because it guest starred the wonderful Emily Kinney (Brie). Spoiler alert I love her and her music. I was so sad they only had her for one episode and that she wasn't a metahuman .

#ocappreciation #arrowverseocs #the flash #barry allen #the flash fics #barry allen fics #oc: Belén Palayta #oc: Belen Palayta #fic: it had to be you

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jeminy3 · 5 years

Text

Our Winter Was Warm.

Originally written for a secret santa exchange on an FMA fandom server with my friends for Christmas 2018. Specifically for Ange, a sweetheart and lovely au/headcanon-jammer in regards to anything with Roy/Hughes/Gracia. They wanted Hyuroi fluff + Gracia, and we'd talked about Hughes wanting a 2nd child named Elias with either Gracia or trans man Roy (referenced in their fic here), so this seemed the best gift for them. Not published till now because of life shit + bonus drawings I've added.

My original summary: Secret Santa gift for Ange. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I did the fluffiest hyuroigracia I could think of - married and having a baby on Amestrian Christmas <3 16k words and yet it still doesn't feel like enough, I could write forever about them ;_; but then I'd never finish, lol. This was very self-indulgent for me. Anyone is free to read if you are into it, I put a lot of work into it, and tried to be tasteful about the pregnancy and trans stuff, hopefully it is ok! Read the Google Doc here.

Read it on AO3 here. Features: hyuroigracia poly pile, trans man Roy being pregnant, Amestrian Christmas, baby Elias arrives, lots of headcanons, mostly fluff with bits of angst. Set in a divergent 03-ish universe where Hughes lived.

---

Roy wakes from dreaming, startling a little.

The nightmares seem to have lessened lately - maybe, he's not sure - either way, at least he wakes somewhat gently this time, the horrors of his brain ebbing back into his subconscious to be forgotten, for now. They leave him to blink at his surroundings and realize that he is not there again - he is in bed, at home, safe and warm within his bedsheets.

His eyes adjust to the dim, warm light of morning streaming in through the window curtains, casting everything in a sort of glow - the cozy wooden furniture, the haphazard toiletries on the dresser, the white porcelain lamp on the nightstand beside him, with pink flowers painted across its surface. Roy takes it all in, and for a hazy moment, wonders how he even reached this point in his life.

A lot has happened this past year - over a year and a half now, actually. It's been a whirlwind of events since the scarred Ishvalan appeared, and the Elrics made their grisly discoveries. Since then, Roy has exposed a deep-seeded corruption with his own government, lead a quiet, deadly rebellion against it, and personally destroyed the monster at its heart - or at least, its strongest pawn.

He gave up his dream of Fuhrership in the process, becoming branded and cast out as a traitor to his country afterwards, but in the eyes of many, he was a hero - a real hero this time, not a monster with a hero's title. Despite occasional bouts of regret, he thinks this particular exchange was worth it - figuratively, and almost literally, conquering his own Pride and ambition for the greater good.

But what feels more poignant in this moment is his more intimate accomplishments.

With enough funds and string-pulling, Roy has fully buried both his past, and past identity. Within the past few years, he finally changed the last of his records to reflect his chosen name, cutting all ties to the lonely, miserable child he once was. And even more significantly, he's changed his body as well, with an expensive, secretive chest surgery that took great pains to arrange, endure, and recover from - all without drawing suspicion. But it was done, and Roy couldn't be happier with the results.

More surgeries were a possibility, of course, but for now Roy was content with himself - he's not looking to change anything internal quite yet anyway.

Not long after that, in the midst of the chaos of the unfolding conspiracy, he finally gained the courage - or just enough blind idiocy - to finally confess the depths of his love for his dearest, dearest friend. If it made him less of a man, or even a person of dignity, ultimately it didn't matter. To keep his heart closed to it, to hide it any longer, would have slowly destroyed him.

And unbelievably - his feelings were reciprocated. Wholeheartedly, genuinely, and for a period of time that Roy had been foolish to blind himself to. The love of his life loved him back, and nothing had made him happier than in those moments when they finally consummated the years of tension and affection between them, and promised to never again be apart.

And with the blessings of a mutual friend just as dear, and their renewed devotion to each other, they could all face the danger of the previous years together.

Roy eases out of his own thoughts as he listens to the quiet breathing of another body next to him - and he turns to see the aforementioned dear friend and dearest love, Maes Hughes, lying next to him in their bed.

To his mild surprise, Maes is also awake. His usually-slick hair now a messy, unkempt mop on his head, his bare, glasses-less green eyes squinting at him. It's unfair that he's still attractive like this.

"Mornin'," he says, smiling warmly.

Roy gives him one of his many incredulous smirks. "Awake too, huh? Why didn't you say anything?"

Maes shrugs, then reaches up with a hand to brush at Roy's hair with his fingers. "I like watching you wake up. You're cute."

"No I'm not," Roy growls, but there's no real bite to it, and he's trying and failing to bite back a smile at Maes' touch. "I'm smart, charming, suave, sometimes irresistible- but I am not cute."

"Wrong. You're adorable," Maes says matter-of-factly, and he leans forward to peck him on the forehead, as if he were a precocious little child.

Roy grumbles again, frustrated both by the gentle contact and being momentarily unable to think of another retort - instead, he decides to enact his revenge by reaching up, wrapping an arm around Maes' shoulders, and gently, but assertively, pulling their mouths together for a kiss.

Maes is the one to growl a little now, and returns the gesture with affectionate lips and tongue. He's strong and hearty beneath Roy's touch, in good health save for a few new scars across his torso, some aches and pains he'll complain about sometimes. But he's allowed to - it's not every day one faces undead, unkillable homonculi and lives to tell the tale. The same went for Roy - he has his own share of injuries, resulting in several new scars and a small limp in his step, but between the two of them things could be much worse.

Eventually they are sated with their kissing, for the moment, and the two pull away to gaze at each other warmly.

"So- how you feeling?" Maes asks.

Roy blinks at him. "About what?"

"I mean- you know, in general. Still don't feel any different?"

"Oh. Mm... I don't know," Roy murmurs, searching the ceiling with his eyes. "But I do feel a little weird in the stomach, as I think about it..."

Maes' eyebrows lift up significantly. "Oh ho- stomach, huh? I think we know what's coming, then," he says, with a maddeningly knowing tone and even more maddening smile.

Roy rolls his eyes. "Ugh- I'm really not looking forward to that."

Maes just snorts. "You signed up for it, hun."

"I know," Roy says with a deflating sigh.

"You'll be fine, darling, it's only for a few months," Maes says. "...And I promise, I'll be right there keeping the hair out of your eyes when you're barfing your guts into the toilet."

"My hero ," Roy drawls with sarcasm, snickering lightly.

Maes snorts again, then rolls forward to kiss him on the cheek. "Hey, I'm your husband now. I'm supposed to do stuff like that."

Roy smiles, but there's something wavering in his dark eyes, a bit of sadness in his tone. "Ah, Maes- if only that were true in the records..."

Maes is crestfallen for a moment, reminded that in the eyes of the Amestrian law, their recent betrothal was bare-bones at most - a loophole in the civil partnership clauses, really - and kept tightly secretive from anyone who wasn't a friend or accomplice. A proper marriage between men like themselves simply wasn't possible (yet) - much less a second marriage to give an already-taken man another partner.

But the moment passes, and Maes reaches forward and takes Roy's hands in his, considers the second ring on his finger - a brilliant silver-white band, complementing Gracia's gold one and matching Roy's own.

He intertwines their fingers, and kisses lightly at Roy's knuckles. "Someday, darling, someday. Things'll change. But even if it doesn't, as far as I'm concerned I'm yours forever, and you are mine, and I'm the luckiest man in the world to have Gracia and you both."

Roy just looks at him the whole time, looks with eyes soft with love and affection, and a smile just as warm.

- And that smile falters slightly as Maes lids his eyes and tugs his smile into another knowing smirk. "...Besides, since when did you start caring about the legality of a situation?"

Roy blinks, looking adorably bewildered as he searches the ceiling for an answer. "Er- When it involves the man I love?"

Maes' eyes crinkle, and he releases their hands to wrap an arm around Roy's shoulders and draw him in to laugh into his neck. "That's a shitty answer."

"I know," Roy says, snorting softly.

They cuddle together 'till the laughter dies down, and Maes proceeds to kiss Roy again, now along his neck and collarbones, working steadily down towards his chest. He nuzzles his face into the dip between his pectorals, presses his lips against the variety of scars there, surgical and otherwise. Roy sighs with contentment, petting at Maes' hair and squirming slightly when a ticklish area is touched.

Maes moves down further, trailing kisses until he's reached Roy's belly button, where his stomach is still flat and toned - but there's a bit more softness to it than usual, at least to Maes' senses. Which are, admittedly, fairly clouded with excitement due to recent developments.

He hums into his Roy's skin. "Mm. You feel softer already."

Roy snorts against him. "Bullshit."

Ignoring that, Maes keeps humming as he nuzzles at his stomach, his voice rising into a recognizable melody - a children's lullaby, one he often sang to Elicia when she was smaller and more frightened of the night.

Roy snorts again. "They can't hear you, you idiot- Gracia said it's barely the size of a pea by now, there's no organs yet."

"You can never start too early," Maes sing-songs, his lips tickling the skin of Roy's belly.

Roy suppresses his laughter. "Start what? Inducting them into appreciating your terrible singing voice?"

"Oh c'mon, I'm not that bad," Maes grumbles, drawing away to frown at him. "Honestly, I feel sorrier about them listening to you for the next eight months."

"Shut up," Roy laughs, and lightly shoves at Maes' shoulders to get him off him. Maes, being the larger and broader man, responds with a playful growl and a lunge, trapping Roy in a bear-hug in which he is helpless to a barrage of kisses against every part of his face. Knowing better than anyone when he's strategically out of his depth, Roy surrenders to being nothing more than a giggling mess in Maes' arms.

Suddenly there's a shuffle of footsteps, a creak of the bedroom door, and the voice of a four-year-old girl cuts through their rough-housing.

"Daddy! Stop it! You're gonna squish the baby!" Elicia cries out, a little arm stretched precariously up to the doorknob, her other arm pointing accusingly at her father.

"And Mommy says to wake up, breakfast is almost ready!" she adds, the original intent of her interruption.

Roy and Maes stare at her - then at each other - before Maes throws back his head in laughter.

"I am not squishing your other dad, honey," Maes wheezes, "I'm keeping him nice and warm, see?" He demonstrates with a much gentler version of his previous bear-hug, enveloping Roy into his warmth. Roy himself merely smiles with bemusement, and enjoys the attention.

Elicia sticks out her tongue in disgust, at both her father's blatant affections and complete disregard for her concerns. "Then put another blanket on him! If you squish my baby sister I won't ever forgive you, Daddy!"

Maes laughs again, but relents this time, releasing Roy and sitting up from their bed. "Alright, alright, honey- I'm sorry. Tell Mommy I'll be up in a minute. Does she need any help?"

"Nope! You burn things!" Elicia exclaims, hilariously irreverent, and she turns and darts back into the hallway, haphazardly closing the door behind her.

Maes rolls his eyes - "No respect, even from my own offspring," he mutters under his breath - as he rolls himself up and out of bed, and makes his way towards the dresser to prepare for the day.

He stops midway to circle around to Roy's side and give him another quick peck on the forehead. "You heard the little lady - time to get up. We've got that thing to get to, after all."

"Of course, " Roy sighs despondently, wishing he could spend another hour or so basking in the heat of Maes' body and bedsheets instead. But the day must begin eventually, and he follows Maes' example and rolls himself in the direction of the bathroom to freshen up.

---

After a quick shower, a change of clothes, and a delicious breakfast courtesy of Gracia's fine cooking, Roy returns to the bathroom to brush his teeth and apply the rest of his usual toiletries in preparation for the outing this afternoon.

He was looking forward to it - it's a clear, sunny day of the weekend, and so, members of his and Maes' former squadrons have planned a get-together on the outskirts of Central, in a park popular for such gatherings, per Havoc's recommendation. ("It's perfect for families," he'd said. "Or at least mine - my folks n' I went there all the time.")

It's far from the first time they've held such gatherings together since he and Maes retired, and it certainly won't be the last - they're opportunities for their still-military-bound colleagues to unwind from their stresses, discreet exchanges of updates and information, and of course, quality time to spend with good friends.

Roy's mind wanders as he continues his routine - he wonders what bitter complaints Riza will no doubt bring up, seeing as she’s stuck helping navigate the massive power vacuum in Central as it’s officials scramble to appoint a new Führer - when a strange feeling jerks him out of his thoughts suddenly.

There is an odd, twisting sensation in his belly - the "weird feeling" he'd mentioned to Maes earlier, but it was more intense now. Not incredibly so, but certainly more noticeable. Roy quietly ignores it for now, praying it won't get any worse as he continues with the gelling and smoothing of his hair and light application of face-powder.

But, of course, minutes later his stomach is slowly churning, definitely turning nauseous now, and Roy rolls his eyes toward the ceiling and sighs again. He's not sure what's more disappointing - that Maes was right after all, or that he'll be throwing up most of Gracia's wonderful meal.

Instead, Roy decides to prepare for the inevitable - he washes the gel out of his hair and powder off his face, lifts the toilet seat, and calls into the bedroom:

"Maes? Come here a moment - it looks like I'll need your hair-lifting services after all."

"I told you," Maes calls back.

"Just get in here."

---

An hour or so later, Roy has recovered from his nausea enough for their little family to be well on their way to the hangout - namely, through one of Gracia's odd variety of home remedies. This time it consisted of making Roy suck on a slice of lemon, claiming that its sour, citrus-filled scents and flavors were a natural counter to nausea. Despite his reservations (and intense dislike of said flavors), the remedy worked, and his stomach has settled (for now).

That still didn't stop him from complaining about it through most of the drive.

"-Still, of all the days for it to start ," he groans from the backseat. "I'll be spending the whole time refusing everyone's food and drinking nothing but fruit juice, I just know it."

Gracia, sitting next to him, has been comforting him with a hand rubbing his shoulder. "You should be fine, dear, it's been a while already... but if you start feeling queasy again, just stick to small things, like crackers. You know, nothing heavy on the stomach. Besides, if worse comes to worse, I brought more lemons."

Roy only groans again, rolling his eyes this time. "Everyone's already getting suspicious of me after quitting alcohol, cold turkey, without even an announcement - and now, nibbling on crackers and lemons for my stomach? I may as well wear a damn sign on my head."

Maes, in the driver's seat, glances back at them with a frown. "And what's so bad about that? You're gonna have to tell them eventually , Roy, it's been a month already. If you wait any longer, well-"

Roy cuts him off, anxiety filling his tone. "You know why I can't tell them yet, Maes, not until we know for sure- wait, what's that?"

He cuts himself off because at this point they've entered the park at Central's outskirts - a lovely, well-kept swathe of grass and trees within sight of its eastern river, dotted with tents, benches, playgrounds, and other recreational structures. But what's strange is that, in the distance, one can see a particular group of benches that's decorated with flower bouquets, bunches of balloons, and strings of ribbons, all in pastel colors of blue, pink and white. The people setting up these decorations, along with various food and drinks, are hard to make out at this distance - but they appear to be their friends and ex-coworkers, all in casual wear.

Maes makes a curious "Huh," sound at this, and makes another, more worried sound as they pull into a nearby parking space and see more clearly that the distant human figures are definitely their friends (Major Armstrong's massive frame is unmistakable at any distance).

"It's a party now? What's the occasion?" Roy asks out loud. "It's not a holiday today, is it?"

"Not that I know of," Gracia says. "The colors look like something for Children's Day... but that was a month ago, wasn't it?"

Maes glances nervously between his partners and the apparent celebration, chewing his lower lip. "Uh- yeah, yeah, pretty sure. I, uh- I dunno, hun."

In the meantime, Elicia, who had been spending most of the drive quietly busying herself with her favorite doll's hair and dresses in the passenger seat, has tossed it aside in favor of bouncing in her seat at the mention of a party. "Party! A party!" she cries, clapping her hands. "I wanna go! I wanna go! Can I go to the party please, mommydaddy?"

Maes shushes her with promises of yes, she will be going, right now in fact, as he carefully unclips her seatbelt and helps her out of the car as everyone else steps out.

As the family approaches the party area, sunlight glints off a pair of large glasses on the distant face of Kain Fuery, and when he notices them, he waves a greeting with an exuberant wave of his arm. Then he turns to the others and distantly calls, "Hey! Looks like the guests of honor finally arrived!"

The others turn to him, then to Roy and the Hughes', and break out into excited waves, hellos, and even a little applause. Fuery, meanwhile, jogs down the small slope between them to take Roy's hand in an enthusiastic handshake, giving him a beaming smile. "Ah - salutations and congratulations, sir! We're all very happy for you and the good news!" he exclaims.

Roy hardly has time to wonder at all this strangeness going on, for as soon as he opens his mouth to speak, he finds that he can hardly get a word in edgewise as his other former squad-mates approach him with the same boisterous congratulations.

Havoc (who Roy briefly realizes he might need to either put distance from, or ask him to put out his cigarettes around him for his health), runs up and claps a hand to his shoulder, all but shouting, "Mustang! You old so-and-so, I didn't think you had it in ya! Congrats, man!"

Breda flashes a cheeky grin from behind Havoc's shoulder. "Good luck with the new additions," he chuckles. "You'll need it."

Meanwhile Falman approaches from behind, somewhat cautiously, as he often is in social situations. But he seems nonetheless chipper as he claps quietly, saying, "Wonderful news, Colonel, congratulations." The addressing of Roy's military title was a habit he still had to break.

And bringing up the very rear was Riza, a bit hampered by her dog, Black Hayate, attempting to entrap her legs with his leash in his excitement. But she still offers a warm smile in his direction as she makes her way down the slope.

Maes' friends, consisting of Major Armstrong, Maria, Denny, and Sheska, also swarm him and Gracia with the same amount of bewildering praise and applause, and the same greetings of "congratulations" and "great news" (and Armstrong nearly crushing Maes' bones with one of his hugs, again).

All the while, little Elicia claps her hands in a mimic of Falman and intensifies her bouncing, singing "congratulations" right along with everyone else.

Between Roy's sputtering and Maes' breathlessness, Gracia was the one to finally get in the burning question - she spreads her hands, gestures in a shushing motion, and raises her voice in a tone not unlike one she'd have used in her days as a librarian.

"Hey- excuse me, everyone- what's all this about?"

At that, everyone quiets, their greetings devolving into confused noises and stares. For a moment, an awkward silence falls, but its quickly broken by a nervous, mousey Sheska. "Well, you know- you said you were, um- expecting again, with Mr. Mustang, sir," she says, addressing Maes. "At least, you told me over the phone that time. You seemed so excited, so I thought it was only fair to-"

"-Y-you what?!" Roy blurts out.

"Uh, yeah," Denny Brosh chimes in, "she told me when we were drinking last weekend, so of course, I told Maria-"

"-And since they knew, it seemed only fair to tell the Major," Maria continues;

Armstrong, smiling merrily through his mustache despite the confusion in his eyes, says "-And I was so moved by the blessed news, I simply had to tell your former squadron, Mustang sir. They seemed to know already, informing me of your behavior as of late;"

And Havoc, quirking his mouth around his cigarette, finishes with a shrug. "-So we decided to turn this hangout into an early baby shower for you guys to save you the trouble. I did say this place was great for families, after all."

If Roy could see himself in these moments, he'd be amused at how quickly the color drained from his face, then returned tenfold and turned his face and neck a bright scarlet color. By the time Havoc finishes his last sentence, he's covering his face with both hands and wishing he had his ignition gloves on hand in order to obliterate his own existence - but of course, that wouldn't be fair to his unborn child, so perhaps a better target would be his damnably excitable, loose-lipped husband.

He loosens his grip on his own face to better see said husband, who is now also sporting a deeply flushed complexion, scrubbing at his neck and avoiding eye contact with everyone except Roy himself - a mistake.

As soon as they lock eyes, Roy's shame boils over into an unbridled rage, and he brings down his hands, clenches them into fists, and proceeds to wave them erratically while shouting obscenities at Maes.

"Goddammit Maes, you goddamn big-mouthed idiot ! I told you not to say anything! Now everyone knows and we have all this bullshit when we don't even know if it'll even-!"

Maes spreads his hands in surrender and shrinks away from his incensed partner, spluttering, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Okay okay, I got excited and let it slip to Sheska, and maybe one or two others, but I swear that's all-"

Quickly, Gracia gets between them to play peacemaker, attempting to seize Roy by the shoulders and saying "Roy, stop, please, it's alright-"

Thankfully, the mood passes. As soon as she lays hands upon Roy, a pallor passes over his face, and he grows pale again - then he keels over and starts dry heaving, his nausea returning with a vengeance.

The others can only look on with equal parts worry and amusement as the Hughes family tends to their newest and oddest member(s) - Gracia supporting Roy as he wobbles on his feet, Maes offering apologetic hugs and forehead-kisses, and Elicia looking upon the whole scene with the most amusing look of confusion a four-year-old could wear.

Riza, having finally given up on making Hayate stop squirming and barking at all the excitement, rolls her eyes and sighs deeply behind Havoc and the others.

"I told you this was a bad idea," she grumbles.

---

But the party wasn't a bad idea after all - after the initial misunderstanding, Roy calmed down from his nausea and somewhat-violent mood swing, and everyone was readily understanding, considering his condition. The party was enjoyably smooth afterwards.

True to his fears, Roy did end up consuming mostly crackers and more lemon slices, broken up by the occasions he was brave (and hungry) enough to eat more. But he did avoid actually-heaving, so it was a victory overall.

Besides refreshments, their friends also brought gifts, ranging from congratulatory cards to supplies for the new family member - mostly diapers and cleaning supplies, safe options and arguably, the most useful. No clothes except for a pair of tiny, white-ribboned shoes from Armstrong - purchased from a clothier who has provided high-quality infant clothing to the Armstrong family for generations, he claimed - and as Roy held the tiny articles in his hands, he found himself fighting an onrush of tears at the idea of the tiny person who would be filling them someday soon; then proceeded to angrily deny the redness in his eyes, curse at his hormones, then at Maes for cooing over him and attempting to calm him with more hugs and kisses.

As evening approaches and the small party winds down, Roy finds himself pretty much spent on the social side of things. After making this known, his friends and partners courteously allow him some needed time alone, which he spends sitting at a bench slightly apart from the others, pecking at leftover food scraps, as his stomach's settled again.

"Roy," the voice of Riza says softly as she approaches, and he turns to her with a smile. Close friends since teenhood, he's never minded her presence even when his energies were spent, and he nods for her to sit beside him.

"I tied up Hayate by the tent poles," she says as she settles in. "Looks like Elicia finally tired him out." She jerks her chin towards the black-and-white-furred dog flopped on the grass near the pole he was tied to.

"And likewise for her," Roy adds with a chuckle, nodding towards a bench nearby, where a content Gracia gently rocks her daughter's exhausted form in her lap.

Riza smiles warmly at the scene. "Aw- so sweet. Hard to believe that'll be you too, months from now."

Her smile takes on a mischievous slant as she turns it back on Roy, looking at him from the corners of her eyes. "Or maybe not. You seem to have that 'motherly glow' already."

Roy scoffs loudly. "Oh, don't you start too- I get enough of that crap from Maes as it is. Besides, that's a myth anyway - your skin might change color in some areas, but it doesn't glow ."

Riza doesn't laugh much, not outwardly - but you can see it in her eyes, clear as day, if you know what to look for. Which Roy does - and it always annoys him.

"Probably, yeah," she replies. "But you do seem happier."

"I am," Roy says, pursing his lips, then bothering the bottom one with his teeth for a moment. "And, honestly... kind of terrified?"

He phrases it like an unsure question to take the edge off - he isn't sure why, he should know by know that Riza can always see through his bluffs, and always has over the years. And it's been equal parts annoying and comforting, because on the one hand, nothing gets past her, but on the other, there is no one better than her to divulge one's honest insecurities. Especially ones that he hasn't admitted to any of his other friends at this party.

So Roy can only blame his own niggling demons of anxiety for trying to mask this admission at the last moment.

Familiarly, and thankfully, Riza just looks at him, nodding. "That's understandable," she says matter-of-factly.

"I mean, I'm sure it is," Roy stammers, trying to spill himself freely in her understanding presence. "It's a lot to- you know- it's just so much . Between the pregnancy and the birth, that'll be hard enough, and not just physically. And then with everything afterwards- I mean, it's a whole person , Riza-

He takes a breath in response to a pleading look in Riza's eyes, one she often uses to silently tell him, Please, sir, try to breathe.

A little more centered, he continues. "I just- I've never done this before. And... to be honest, I never thought I would . I've never really thought of myself as a parent before. I mean- let's be honest, I haven't made the best decisions with children lately..."

He runs a hand through his hair, feeling his nervous heart pounding in his chest. But Riza only nods slowly, considering him and his words.

"True enough," she says finally. "But things were different then- and those boys were an exceptional case, one that wasn't always in your control. In the end, I think they made their own decisions... I wish you wouldn't blame yourself so much for them."

Roy only sighs despondently. It's something he's heard before, from multiple people - a nice reminder, but it seemed there would always be a part of him that would blame himself for what happened to the Elric brothers (among many, many other things).

Riza meets his eyes. "Honestly, I think you'll be just fine, Roy. You've changed. You might not have noticed it, but I have."

Roy suppresses the temptation to laugh at that, since she's being sincere. "Really. How?"

Riza cocks her head slightly, searches the surrounding grass for words. "You are... kinder," she says. "More gentle, more selfless. Which only makes sense, I suppose - in giving up your ambition, you let go of some of your selfishness, in a way."

She meets his eyes again. "But I think the fact that you even agreed to this, and decided to see it through, is what really shows who you are now. The Roy that I knew only a few years ago would never do this."

At this point Roy is flushing nearly to his neck again, staring down into his lap and trying vainly to do something with his hands. "You- You flatter me too much, Lieutenant."

He can practically hear the cheeky smile in her voice. "I only speak the truth, sir."

Roy scratches idly at his neck before finally deigning to look at her again. And she is smiling, but its less cheeky than he imagined. It's equal parts sincerity and amusement, and she brings it closer as she moves to put a hand on his shoulder.

"Even if you mess up, you have not one, but two partners by your side - loving, protective, and already experienced in child-rearing. Between the three of you, the baby will want for nothing."

And now she's all sincerity, almost beaming at him. She leans further and offers him her other arm in a rare gesture, coming from her - a hug. Which Roy welcomes, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and welcoming her warmth against his. Riza isn't the sort of person to give physical affection very often, if at all, so when she does it's for something she deeply, deeply cares about.

He has to fight back an urge to cry, again - and again blames it on his rampant hormones, damn them.

"I'm proud of you," she says softly, pulling away and meeting his eyes. "After losing so much, starting from nothing- and now, you have a family."

Roy blinks away the wetness from his eyes, wipes them with one hand. "Well, so do you- I mean, you've come far as well, Riza."

And she has - she was, like him, a fellow orphan of Amestris’ constant warring. However, she was courageous enough to forge a new name for herself and her future, distancing herself from what little family she had left when they ultimately proved to be cold and uncaring. In some ways, she is far braver than him - so Roy never minces his words about her.

She brushes at her bangs with one hand, slightly flustered. "I guess so- I'm happy too, work troubles notwithstanding. I do have my work cut out for me, after everything's that's happened."

"You have support too," Roy assures her. "And mine as well, even if I can't be there leading the charge anymore. You'll be fine - both of us will."

"Here's hoping," Riza says, smiling warmly.

---

Months pass, and the blooming Spring mellows out into a lazy Summer around Central. The flowers fade, the grass dries, and Roy no longer complains of nausea - now he gripes about his weight as he slowly grows rounder.

His fairly-toned physique from years of military training had already started smoothing out since his retirement, but the pregnancy only hastens this process - at this point, he's outgrown most of his dress pants and shirts and has surrendered himself to wearing mostly loose shirts and casual short pants. Maes and Gracia have no qualms with these new developments.

Despite his anxieties, Roy's progress is smooth, according to Gracia, their books on the subject, and the specialist he's hired for this occasion - they came with high marks after overseeing his chest surgery and successfully keeping it under wraps. And if all goes well, they'll be overseeing his delivery soon.

One morning is particularly warm, and Roy trudges into the kitchen, already tired and sweating - it is entirely the worst time of year to be hormonal and gaining weight. As he opens the fridge to search its contents, he’s tempted to stay there just to bask in its cool air for a minute longer - and to look for something cold and sweet to sate his hunger.

“If you’re looking for more cookie dough, don’t bother,” Gracia’s voice pipes up from across the room, startling him slightly. “I’m not making any more.”

Roy plays off his flinching by smoothing his hair and forcing a chuckle. “Ah- I was not doing that, actually, just cooling myself off a bit,” he says, which was partly true, so it definitely wasn’t a lie. “But, uh- no cookies today, Gracia? Why?”

Gracia, making breakfast at the kitchen stove as usual, rolls her eyes at him. “Because a certain someone nibbled at the dough so much throughout the day that when I finally baked them, at least a third of it was already gone. And even after the cookies were done, someone ate so much of them there wasn’t nearly enough to last everyone for the month. Elicia was looking forward to having dessert every night instead of, you know- only two or three.”

Roy stares, gaping dumbly at her for a moment - then snaps his mouth shut into a frown, huffing softly. “Well- that wasn’t entirely my fault. If it weren’t for the baby giving me these damn cravings-”

“You’ve had a sweet tooth for as long as I can remember, Roy, don’t blame the baby for that,” Gracia tuts at him. “You’re just using them as an excuse to give up your self-control.”

“I- Well- Ugh. Fine, I’m sorry,” Roy relents, ears burning with shame at this point. Not for the first or last time, he wonders why he insists on surrounding himself with people who had a penchant for seeing through his bullshit.

Gracia laughs brightly, finishing off the last of her cooking and turning off the stove. “Don’t apologize to me,” she says smugly, leaning against the counter with her arms crossed. “Apologize to your future self when you’re spending twelve hours in labor to deliver our child.”

Roy’s mouth drops open. “Twelve hours ?”

“That’s what happened to one of my old coworkers,” Gracia says, nodding grimly. “Too much ice cream, too small in the hips. They had to open her up to deliver her son - and no surprise, he turned in at nearly eleven pounds at birth. And his mother never did lose all the weight she gained.”

Roy swallows nervously, feeling a chill up his spine - then remembers he’s still standing in front of the open fridge. Feeling plenty cold enough, he carefully closes its doors. “That’s, uh- that’s rough.”

“Oh, that’s not even the worst of it,” Gracia chuckles, and she straightens and turns to pour herself some coffee from the pot on the stove. “I’ve heard so many horror stories, you wouldn’t believe it - bearing children is very difficult. A lot can go wrong, and badly.”

“So I’ve heard,” Roy mutters, recounting articles he’s glanced over in the newspapers, about mothers losing their lives in the effort to bear their children; babies born with terrible illnesses or deformities that claim their lives before they’ve even lived a year, or leave them crippled for a lifetime; countless tragedies that leave orphans, widowers, and other such suffering in their wake. To say he was anxious about his own child’s birth was an understatement.

He glances nervously at the small curve of his stomach as he moves to sit at the kitchen table, sighs harshly and runs a hand through his hair again.

Gracia hums sadly across the way, and after an awkward silence, she joins him at the table while setting down their plates of breakfast. Roy looks at it, but does not feel hungry anymore.

“I wish I could say it gets easier,” Gracia says, still crestfallen in her tone. “But then you have a newborn on your hands - totally helpless, completely dependent on you. Your whole schedule revolves around them, which usually means you’re alternating between sleeping or staying awake for two hours at a time. And that lasts for a year, at least.”

She smiles a little, plucking herself up. “But then they start getting a personality - it’s so fun, watching that develop. And then they’re walking and talking - of course, that’s the toddler years. You’ve seen some of that already.” She chuckles at this last part.

“I do,” Roy says tiredly, now recalling the evenings he’d spent babysitting a smaller, more hyperactive Elicia in the years before he married Maes. In his misguided, pining state, he probably thought he could win favor by looking after his daughter - and this partly worked, as it led to a closer friendship with Gracia, tearing down the awkward walls between them.

He bows his head and sighs again. “Ah, Gracey- if I didn’t know better, I'd wonder if all this was even worth it."

Gracia chuckles again. "Well, you are bringing a whole human being into the world. Then raising them as your own, giving them the best possible start towards their future- Of course there's going to be prices to pay for that sort of thing."

When he looks up, she’s twirling her fork at him, wearing a wry smile. "Didn't you Alchemists have a rule about that? ‘Equivalent exchange,’ right?"

She lowers the fork to rest her chin on her knuckles. "It's kinda like that - this is our version of Alchemy, in a way."

Roy stares at her for a long moment - then crumples into a long and loud fit of laughter.

"Ah, Gracey," he says as he comes down from it. "You're so much better than any Alchemist."

Gracia laughs too, at that - then suddenly leans over to peck him on his cheek. "So are you, dear."

The affection catches Roy off-guard, a bit, and he spends a few moments blinking dumbly. He opens and closes his mouth to retort, but when nothing comes to him, he grumbles, and busies himself with poking at his breakfast. "Hmph."

---

Roy still suffers the occasional mood swings as he progresses, which is normal, according to Gracia and the doctor.

But what isn't normal is how deeply, deeply low Roy's mood becomes at times - when his movements become sluggish, his appetite diminishes, and he no longer finds joy or laughter in much of anything. At his absolute worst, he spends one morning unable to get out of bed at all - and both his partners know this can't entirely be blamed on the pregnancy.

"Dear, please," Gracia says softly, kneeling by Roy's bedside, gently brushing his mussed hair out of his eyes. His plate of breakfast sits on the nearby nightstand, untouched. "You need to eat, now more than ever."

"I know," Roy mutters, but he doesn't move, still curled within his bedsheets with his face half-buried into his pillow. His eyes are red and tired from too little sleep and too many tears.

"At least a few bites, or a nibble," Maes murmurs at his other side, his form curled around Roy's own, hugging him from the back, his face nuzzling his husband's ear. "You need it. So does the baby."

"I know," Roy repeats, but again he makes no move to obey them.

"Darling," Maes kisses into his hair, "Please. Try."

Roy squeezes his eyes shut, and his breath hitches, but he says nothing and still doesn't move.

Gracia keeps gently stroking his cheek. "At least say something," she pleads. "Tell us what's wrong. We're here, we'll listen."

Roy's breathing becomes erratic for a few moments, as if pushing back a quiet sob. But eventually he settles and opens his eyes, seeming to get up the nerve to speak his mind.

He chokes out, "What... did I do... to deserve this?"

"Deserve what?" Maes asks.

"All of this," Roy says, voice watery. "You, and Elicia, and the baby- how..." He swallows, and clears his throat. "...How can I bring life into this world when I've brought nothing but death?"

Gracia and Maes exchange glances, understanding. Gracia less so, but she is very familiar with the look of helplessness that again crosses her husband's features, the look that Maes gives when he remembers that Roy went to Ishval and he did not, and he will always, always be sorry about it. That he couldn't be there to stand by Roy's side, to share in its horrors, its suffering, and all he could do ever afterwards was try to put him back together with kind words, soft smiles, slices of Gracia's homemade pies.

It wasn't enough - never enough - but it was something , and it helped.

So again, Maes blinks back his tears, then adjusts himself so he can wrap his arms around Roy's shoulders and take his hands in his own, gently intertwining their fingers and bringing them down to touch the small dome of Roy's belly.

"You saved my life, darling. Multiple times. That's not nothing," he says, kissing into the crook of Roy's neck. "You've saved all of us - our friends, our family, even the whole nation."

Roy squeezes his eyes closed again. "But, Edward-"

"That wasn't your fault, dear," Gracia interrupts, her hand joining Maes' and Roy's. "Whatever happened down there, that was his battle, not yours. He's strong - wherever he is, I'm sure he's doing just fine."

"Yeah," Maes agrees. "We have to believe that... He'd hate for us to worry over him anyway. You know him," he adds, forcing a chuckle.

Roy sighs, but he nestles a little within Maes' hold. "Mm. I wish I could... Believe, that is. In anything."

"...What about our child?" Maes asks, his hand at Roy's stomach rubbing gently. "You can believe in them. They'll be here soon, after all."

Roy's eyes lose focus, and he exhales again. "Ah, even then- I'm still... scared they might not."

Gracia starts, her face pinching with worry. "Dear, please, don't even think of it. You're doing so well, even more than the doctor predicted- please, don't risk it all by worrying needlessly. Don't-"

She takes a breath, bows her head slightly. "Don't be like me."

Maes makes a strained sound. "Honey-"

"It's fine." Gracia flashes a small smile in Maes' direction, then turns it toward Roy, who still stares out at nothing in particular.

"Roy," she says. "You remember before I had Elicia, don't you?"

"Mm." Roy makes a noncommittal noise. He must remember those times, but he makes no effort to make it obvious, so Gracia sighs and decides to remind him.

"We miscarried so much," she continues, exchanging soft glances with Maes. "The doctors never could find out what was wrong with me. It was awful - and neither of us breathed a word to anyone, we were so ashamed. At least, I was."

She squeezes Roy's hand in her own. "We only told you after you found me crying after dinner, that day. I thought I was broken, and worthless, and all these terrible things - and that only made it worse. I was my own self-fulfilling prophecy."

She bows her head and leans in, planting a kiss on Roy's knuckles, near his stomach. When she looks up again, his eyes are looking intently at her, soft with pain and sympathy. He does remember.

"Without you and Maes, Elicia wouldn't even be here," Gracia says. "And she'll always be my little miracle, but I can't put myself through that again. You'll never know how truly, truly grateful I am for you doing this for us, Roy. For our family."

When she meets Roy's eyes again, they're wet with tears on the verge of spilling. This time she leans over to kiss his cheek, and wipes away the wetness with her thumb.

"I'm so proud of you, darling," Maes says behind him. "All of us are. Even Elicia - she's so ready to be a big sister. It's kind of funny, actually - she acts like she'll be ten years older instead of four."

"God, she does," Gracia says, chuckling softly. "All she talks about lately is all the toys and clothes she's going to share with her 'little sister,' and all the food she's going to make for her. She keeps asking me to show her how to cook dinner now - and she can't even reach the stovetop without standing on a chair."

Maes snorts with laughter. "God, that's adorable - how is she doing by the way, cooking-wise?"

Gracia levels a knowing smirk at him. "Well, she's a step up from you, Mister Water-Burner."

"Oh, ouch- ouch . You're so cruel, honey," Maes whines, feigning hurt.

Gracia laughs harder now, shaking her head. "Cruel? I've been trying to show you how to cook for years , but when you're not making jokes out of everything, you're turning it into something not even dogs would eat. It's pretty sad when a toddler's a better student than you."

Maes laughs, hard, dropping his forehead against Roy's back until he composes himself. "Oh Gracey, you're so mean ," he drawls out. "That's it, I'm only sleeping with Roy from now on. He wouldn't make hurtful jokes about his poor husband's cooking skills. Isn't that right, darling?"

Roy doesn't appear to respond for a moment - but listening carefully, one can hear erratic breaths and a slight shifting of fabric, and his shoulders and chest tremble within the blankets and Maes' arms. But there are no tears - Roy is quietly snorting into his pillow and suppressing soft laughter.

"Hey- are you laughing ?" Maes exclaims. Roy tenses within his grip, now squeezing his eyes to suppress a grin threatening to break out on his face.

"You're laughing, aren't you. I can't believe this. Both my wife and husband, laughing at my expense," Maes says, withering into laughter. Gracia does the same, and Roy's resolve crumbles, and it isn't long before all three of them have devolved into a shared laughing fit.

The mood was lighter, and it was warmly welcomed.

And later on, after more lighthearted conversation and gentle encouragement, Roy's depression lightened to the point he could sit up and eat a slice of toast and spoonfuls of porridge without much issue. He still stayed in bed most of the day, and only ate a bit more as it went on, but by the evening his body's needs began to outweigh his lack of appetite and he ate ravenously of his dinner, and he could sleep soundly through most of the night.

He improved slowly - at least, his mood didn't often dip into such a low point after that, but when it did, Maes and Gracia were once again there to hold him and remind him how much he was loved, and loved others in turn.

...Or to make more jokes at Maes' expense. Those helped too.

---

Fall is here; the greens and yellows of Summer have faded into shades of red, gold and brown, the leaves of trees darken and cover the ground, and the air grows colder.

Roy's moods have improved, along with his health, and now his child's movements can be felt within him. At first, it was strange and exciting - there are few words he can find to express how simultaneously incredible and incredibly weird it is to feel a tiny person moving around inside him.

By now, the novelty has worn off - Roy could swear that the child shifts only in ways to spite him, pressing up into his lungs when he's trying to eat, or down onto his bladder when he lays down for the night, and he ends up struggling against his own unwieldy body to get up and use the bathroom for the umpteenth time. Or, usually, they just kick him constantly. At this point he's welcomed Maes' attempts to sing lullabies to their unborn child to soothe them. It actually seems to work, sometimes.

Between all this, even more egregious weight issues, and his ever-rounder appearance, no one blames him for his complaining now. Maes and Gracia offer as much comfort as they can, like taking turns offering him massages every evening, especially for his sore feet.

At least one positive is that the colder weather means he can sequester himself in large, billowing sweaters and pants, offering much in comfort and hiding his un-flattering figure.

Elicia, however, delights in these developments, as it proves that the reality of her becoming a big sister is drawing ever closer. She often puts her hands to Roy's stomach to feel its movements, and keeps asking him and everyone else when the baby will arrive.

One morning, Gracia, after making some calculations, says the delivery should occur right in the middle of winter - "Right around the Winter Solstice, actually," she says, jabbing her pen at the day marked on the kitchen's calendar. "Could even be the day of- that'll be interesting," she chuckles.

Maes scratches at his chin. "Well- shit. We'll be with your folks all week to celebrate... We really should have planned this better, hun," he says, directing this last statement at Roy.

Roy, seated at a nearby table with his chin balanced on one hand, rolls his eyes at his husband. "Don't look at me- You're the one who decided knocking me up in Spring instead of Winter was a good idea. It's usually the other way around, you know."

Maes turns several shades of scarlet at this and starts spluttering. "I- Well- Y-you agreed to it!"

"I did," Roy sighs long-sufferingly, closing his eyes and leaning back in his chair to ease his sore back a little.

Gracia giggles at the two of them. "Oh well," she says. "It's fine, really. I'd rather it happen with more people around anyway. Feels safer."

"True, but- what're we gonna do for the kid's birthdays?" Maes wonders aloud. "They're going to live the rest of their life being forgotten. I had a coworker like that, y'know- poor girl was born on Couples' Day, so people either didn't believe her, or treated all the cheap chocolates as her birthday presents. Terrible."

"Yes, the poor thing," Gracia says, shaking her head. "But I think this is different - city-folk don't really celebrate the Solstices anymore, so maybe they'll end up getting birthday presents from their city friends, and Yule presents from the family."

Maes rolls his eyes. "So they'll be spoiled rotten instead. Great."

"I don't see anything wrong with that," Roy says, grinning.

"You be quiet," Maes tuts at him. "I thought you were an orphan , you hypocrite. Don't you want our child to appreciate things?"

"Of course I do," Roy says, patting his stomach with an air of pride. "They're going to appreciate getting lots of money and free things every year."

Maes sighs, shaking his head. "Terrible. Absolutely terrible."

Gracia just laughs harder.

---

Weeks later, and it is only a few days before the Winter Solstice - or Yule Time, as some people still call it, like Gracia’s family.

Roy is due any day now - and at this point he's more or less numb to the constant dysphoria, anxiety, and dozens of other unpleasant symptoms. He is very heavy, very grumpy, and just wants his child to be born so he can finally hold them in his arms and be done with this.

The family does their best to make him comfortable in these final days - which now includes Gracia's kind-hearted parents and their siblings, as they are now rooming in their family home for the holiday.

The house isn't massive, or terribly luxurious, but true to Gracia's family, it is the very picture of coziness: old rugs and paintings adorn the walls and floors, wood and earthen furniture throughout, and large, worn sofas with plenty of throw pillows and blankets.

It’s a proper abode for generations of a country-born family staying true to its roots, constructed by a patriarch of Gracia's forefathers. This is most evident in the Yule decorations that now adorn everything - the front of the house wears wreathes of pine needles and sprigs of holly on its doorways, tied together with ribbons of red, green and gold. Within the house proper are various bells, knick-knacks and decorations on the walls and furniture, wicker baskets filled with candies in the kitchen, and all sorts of pleasantly-scented candles throughout.

Everything is concentrated in the main parlor, where a small evergreen tree stands proudly in its corner, covered in the highest concentration of these decorations. More baubles, ribbons and bells; dolls and figurines made of fabric and clay; preserved pinecones, berries and flowers; garlands of tinsel and colored beads. And it's all topped off with a hand-worked, golden metal star at its tip, allegedly made by a grand-relative skilled in metalworking. It’s construction is somewhat rough, even at a glance, and makes the part of Roy that was still a haughty State Alchemist wonder why the family didn’t hire one to make the star with a much more efficient metal transmutation - the rest of him chastises himself for being so shallow. He is deeply privileged to now be a part of such a family, rich in its history and heirlooms.

Beneath the tree's branches and surrounding the large pot holding its trunk, is a pile of wrapped presents, glimmering with shiny colored paper and bows. It captures the fascination of child and grown-up alike - mostly the children. Some of the more excitable ones, like Elicia, need to be kept under close watch to ensure they don't open them ahead of time. Roy feels grateful that his child is not yet among them.

And yet, for Roy, this place inspires a strange mix of both homeliness and alienation in him - the first and last time he was here was over four years ago, on the Solstice that followed Maes and Gracia's wedding.

It was a bittersweet occasion for him, marked with equal amounts of happiness and heartache because of still-buried feelings for Maes. In the presence of his friend's family, and that of his new wife, he felt like an intruder with no business being there; his attempts at socializing were cold and aloof when he wasn't drowning his feelings with rum and hard nog. Between his awkwardness and the chaos of the past few years, he'd politely declined further invitations back here.

But things are different now. He is different - it's just as Riza said all those months ago. Roy feels more relaxed, less caged within his own defensive walls, and has been having an easier time opening up to everyone - and in turn, others open up more to him. Of course, it helps that his partnership to Maes and Gracia now makes him a more proper member of the family, but even without that difference, the overwhelmingly warm vibes here suggests they would have welcomed him just the same, even all those years ago.

(Being very heavy with child also helps - he's too exhausted to put up many walls to begin with, gets plenty of sympathy and attention from just about everyone, and can't retreat back into a bottle even if he wanted to.)

Right now, sitting with Gracia's mother and father in the parlor, wrapped in conversation, he is the very picture of comfort: wearing the loosest sweatpants and the biggest, puffiest, Yule-colored sweater Gracia could find for him, covered in large throw blankets, and sipping from a mug of warm chocolate milk in his hands.

His only source of discomfort is of course, his unborn child, who still shifts constantly - there's also an occasional, somewhat-painful pressure inside him that comes and goes, but Gracia says these 'fake' contractions are common at this stage, so he does his best to ignore it.

Sebastian, Gracia's father, leans from the sofa with his elbows on his knees, recounting tales from his past as a war journalist, when times were simpler, and war was as well. His talk of the old-fashioned photography and recording equipment they used back then would be of endless fascination to Fuery. For Roy, he appreciates the wartime experiences, and can share his own to a sympathetic ear.

Gabriella, Gracia's mother with a history as a nurse, is more concerned with baby-talk: both embarrassing stories of Gracia's early childhood, and concerns about Roy's health and that of their new step-grandchild.

“-And that’s why Amestris never tried to push its borders eastward, and thank God for that,” Sebastian is saying. “We already have our hands full with the North.”

“You can say that again,” Roy groans, recounting the almost-war with said country not long ago. It’s still a wonder that his efforts dissipated the conflict, even if it’s merely boiled down into a cold war now. “Anyway,” he continues, not wanting to dwell on the subject, “This eastern desert - what’s beyond it?”

“Eastern countries, and then the ocean, I presume,” Sebastian replies, idly scratching his beard. “They say Xing is over there too, but who knows, no one’s heard from them in decades. Probably for good reason, knowing us.”

“True,” Roy hums sadly.

“It had a name too, that desert,” Seb continues, searching the ceiling for a memory. “And a weird one - something like... Silk-sees? Serk-sees? Or was it more of a "z" sound..."

Gabriella interrupts him, one of many times already. "We get it dear, the name was weird. Say, Roy, have you all picked out a name for the baby yet?"

Roy, slightly awkward but becoming familiar with these rapid changes in subject, stutters in response. "Ah- we do, actually-"

"C'mon Gabby, what d'you take us for?" Maes cuts him off, balking. "Of course we've got names picked out. If it's a boy, Elias. If it's a girl, Eleanor. Easy."

Gabriella laughs, shaking her bobbed hair. "Easy, huh?" she teases, "Sure it's easy, when it's more "el" names. Couldn't think of anything else?"

Maes blanches at her, sputtering again. "Hey- they're nice names! It'll be cute when they match with Elicia! Gracey likes it too!"

Gracia was giggling softly. "C'mon Mom, it's Yule Time. Lay off the teasing a little, yeah?"

"Aw- But it's so easy ," Gabriella says, smirking mischievously.

Sebastian, rolling his eyes at most of the exchange, turns back to Roy. "You're the one actually having the child - did you have any names in mind, Roy?"

Roy shrugs at him, pursing his lips. "Honestly? Not really. Naming things isn't really my strong suit."

"You could've asked me," Riza suddenly pipes up, leaning above them on the sofa with her elbows on the head-cushions - she's here early on in the week to help with party preparations.

"I would have suggested some good names," she says, pouting slightly.

Roy cocks his head to look at her, giving her a stink-eye. "You named yourself after a bird of prey and your dog after a violent weather pattern. Forgive me if I don't exactly trust your particular taste in names, Lieutenant."

Riza rolls her eyes. "Fair enough."

---

Another difference this year is the absence of Maes' family members - aside from one of his nicer cousins, none of the Hughes are here. There were a few phone calls giving well-wishes and happy-new-years a few weeks ago, but other than that, it's been radio silence from them.

It's fair to assume that this was foretold by a letter they received about a month prior - one that Maes frowned down at and said, "Hm. It's from my parents."

They had not heard from his parents, or most of his relatives, since Roy and Maes announced their retirement from the military and their romantic partnership thereafter (which didn't go into detail, but the fact that Roy had permanently moved into Maes' and Gracia's home should've been enough of a tip-off).

The letter spent the majority of that day laying on the kitchen counter, untouched - only towards the evening, after Gracia had retired to put Elicia to bed, did Maes finally open it.

Roy didn't get a chance to see its contents, but did witness Maes' expression darken considerably as he read it, and heard him mutter something about "lifestyle choices" and "unsightly partners" under his breath with intense disdain.

"Maes?" he'd asked him, out of concern, but his husband only spared him a glance before briskly turning and walking back into his office. Roy followed him, cautiously- and peered into the room soon enough to see him crumpling the letter into his fist, raising it to throw it into his trash can.

"Maes," he said again, softer this time. Maes lowered his arm, and turned to look at him fully - and Roy could more clearly see how his eyes burned with something cold and bitter.

Maes let out a long, angry breath through his nose, and a beat passed. "...You're lucky, in a way," he finally said. "You lost your parents before you got to know who they really were."

"Mm," Roy hummed, starting to understand this now.

Maes turned away, sighing again. "You never had to grow up and realize that you've been living with a pair of hypocrites all your life. Talking all the time about how much they loved you, how much they cared - but when you needed a shoulder to cry on, or an ear to listen, they pushed you away, told you to suck it up. Nothing you did was ever enough for them."

He unfurled the crumpled letter, stared at it. "I did everything they expected of me - I got good grades, I joined sports teams, I even got a girl and settled down. And I worked hard - I reached Major without ever even touching an Alchemy textbook, Roy, you know how much I busted my ass for that. And you know what they said to me? When I showed them my credentials? 'Oh, that's nice, but your cousin's a lawyer and makes even more money than that. Don't you think you could do better, dear?'" He mimicked a flighty, nasally voice, probably mocking his mother.

"And now, after all this time, they send me this shit- " And Maes slammed the letter onto his desk, violently, causing a whipping sound of paper-on-wood that made Roy flinch, but the suddenness of the act was what really made him shrink away - he rarely saw Maes so angry like this.

Maes, meanwhile, seemed to snap out of whatever rage-like stupor he was in once he realized Roy was frightened - he blinked, then started toward Roy and wrapped him up in his arms.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, kissing Roy's hair. "I'm just- I'm so tired. The things they said about you..."

He took a breath, then drew away, giving Roy weak smile. "But it's fine. They're not coming to Yule with us anymore - and good riddance."

"They're not?" Roy wondered at him, recalling the very few times he'd seen Maes' family - who seemed like fairly well-off people of the upper middle-class, decent folk, if a bit stilted in their mannerisms. Maes never seemed comfortable around them, and he rarely spoke of them in all their time together - it seemed there'd been good reason for that.

"No, they aren't," Maes said, kissing at Roy's forehead again. "And you know what? I'm fucking relieved . This could actually be the best Solstice I've ever had, because for once I don't have to pretend that I'm happy around anyone."

He lowered his hands to Roy's stomach, looked at him softly. "Because I am. With both of you."

Roy had felt his eyes watering, at once heartbroken and brimming with joy for his dear husband, and he returned his affections with a long, tender kiss and embrace.

When they drew away, Maes asked him one last thing. "Roy- just do me a favor, okay?"

"Anything," Roy said.

"Keep me honest," Maes said, his expression soft, open, painfully vulnerable. "When I tell the kids I love them, make sure I mean it."

"Aw, Maes," Roy said, resting his head against Maes' chest. "Don't worry. You already do."

When Gracia heard the news later, she readily agreed with both ideas - good riddance to Hughes' family, and "Goodness' sakes, Maes, if you were any more earnest about your children, even I couldn't stand you."

---

The absence of Maes' family was not long missed - in their place are select members of Roy and Maes' former squadrons this year. They're a welcome presence in the house, and a great help with the preparations. Gracia's parents welcome them warmly - and are in agreement that Maes' family are better off gone, after hearing the news.

Some, like Armstrong, Maria, Fuery and Havoc, will only be here for several hours of Yule's Eve, planning to spend the holiday proper with their families; those without much of a family to go back to, like Riza, Breda and Falman, are here for the entire week; and those who are absent entirely are spending the extra time with loved ones who need it, which are Denny with his many younger siblings, and Sheska, who is staying with the Rockbells to offer her support.

Sheska even sent a letter in advance, and when an evening wound down and allowed time to spend on it, Maes reads it aloud to Gracia and Roy in the parlor:

A wonderful Solstice to you and your families, Mr. Hughes, Gracia, and everyone else. Special regards to Mustang and the new baby, I hope everything goes well. Miss Winry and her grandmother need all the help they can get after everything that's happened - you know, with Alphonse and that homonculus boy - I think they're all in need of a good Solstice. Rose and Paninya are here as well, and they send their regards. Miss Winry does too, and sends congratulations for the new baby to Mr. and Mrs. Hughes.

Maes frowns a little after reading the last line. "Nothing for the man actually giving us the baby," he mutters under his breath.

"Honey," Gracia whispers, catching his attention to shake her head at him. He looks at her, seated at his side on the couch, then looks to his other side, where Roy lays curled within his throw blankets against the armrest. He stares out at nothing, seeming to be in a low mood again, and Maes isn't sure if it's from the day wearing him out or his comment on the letter.

Maes lowers his eyes. "Sorry," he says.

Roy glances at him, then away, and just shrugs. "It's fine," he says distantly. "It's what I expected from her."

He's not talking about Sheska.

---

Days later, and it is finally Yule's Eve. The merriment in the household only grows as Fuery, Havoc, Maria and Armstrong arrive to partake in the festivities.

True to Roy's prediction, Fuery spends most of the evening deep in conversation with Sebastian about the technical wizardry of years past; Havoc enjoys playing Big Brother with Elicia and her little cousins; Maria aids in the last of the holiday dinner preparations, to the appreciation of Gabriella and her sisters.

Armstrong, meanwhile, does what he does best - being himself, as grand and boisterously as possible.

Early on, when his loud greetings rang out through the house and his massive frame approached Roy and Maes in the living room, a look of real, genuine terror flashed across Maes' face for a moment - and within the next moment, he'd whipped out a protective arm in front of Roy.

He said quickly, "M-Major! I would ask that you, uh- refrain from your usual form of affections, seeing Roy's current condition-"

Roy attempted to protest at the same time. "Wh- for goodness' sake Maes, I'm not made of glass -"

But both were drowned out by Armstrong's bellowing laughter. "Ah, please, no need to worry, sir! I wouldn't dream of laying hands upon your husband in such a state. I merely wished to extend my congratulations again - and a humble offer, if you do not mind."

He extended a massive hand forward, which Roy took, surprised at the man's gentleness in his grip, for once - at the same time he asks, "An offer, Major? What kind?"

Armstrong nods, and after exchanging less-gentle handshakes with Maes, replies, "In regards to your coming child, sirs - I've heard they will arrive very shortly! If you have need, the Armstrong family midwife and her assistants are eager and ready to help at a moment’s notice! They come highly recommended, believe me-"

He starts into what will no doubt be a tirade about the many good qualities of this midwife and her team, and how they assisted in bringing multiple generations of Armstrongs into existence, but Roy hurriedly gives him a polite shushing gesture and cuts him off.

"Ah- I'm sure she is, Major but uh- we have the midwife thing covered already, don't worry."

Armstrong stuttered mid-sentence, stared in confusion. "Ah- Oh. By whom, if I may ask?"

This would be answered just later that evening.

---

And sure enough, there is one last guest who has arrived fashionably late to the house - one that Roy has waited for anxiously.

When the doorbell rings and an all-too-familiar voice is heard across the living room, he lights up brighter than any flame could produce, and grunts his way to his feet to meet them at the door personally.

Shuffling in through the doorway, in a flurry of winter fur coats and bags, is a somewhat-portly woman of middle age, dark-haired and dark-eyed, well-dressed and made-up, with a beauty mark on one cheek. This woman is known to most as Madame Christmas, the owner of a once-prolific bar-and-brothel in East City; In reality, she is Chris Mustang, Roy’s aunt and foster mother.

She is the only living relative of his family, having survived either by miracle or her own wit; she took him in and raised him as her own, bringing him out of the orphanages and under her wing, in honor of her brother and sister-in-law; she and her girls gave him the ideal home and family to rediscover himself in the wake of losing of his parents; and they have taught him everything he knows about secrecy, subterfuge, and weaponizing one’s charms into a fine, precise point.

Her knowledge spans a grand swathe of subjects that most people would call “unsavory,” but among her clientele and employees, they are nothing less than essential. Among her skills is several years of experience in midwifery, and ensured that Roy’s mother had a safe, successful delivery on the day of his birth - she has, quite literally, known him for his whole life - so it is only appropriate for her to do the same for Roy and his own child all these years later.

In short, he would be nothing without her, so Roy he gives her the best hug he can muster, despite his large stomach getting in the way. But she squeezes back with just as much affection, even as she draws away with a sarcastic frown on her face as she looks upon him. Her first words to him are, "My goodness, Roy, you're huge ."

Roy snorts, then breaks down into a fit of giggles. Maes and Gracia laugh their way to the doorway to also greet Chris, along with several women that are both her fellow charges, and Roy’s adoptive sisters.

They’re equally surprised and delighted at Roy’s condition. “Oh my! You all must be so excited;” “Wow, you weren’t kidding, you look ready to pop!”; “Roy dear, you should really sit down…”

“She’s right, darling,” Chris says, agreeing with the last one. “You didn’t tell me you were this close! Goodness, didn’t I teach you any sense? Sit down, sit down, before you throw your back out…”

Roy, still laughing, lets himself be lead away and back to the sofa. “You did, Auntie, you did- It’s just- ah, it’s been too long. I missed you.”

And he means it - Chris and the girls were a constant well of support for him until recently, as when the string of serial killings and conspiracies started up a few years ago, Roy was quick to call her up and advise her to leave the country for their safety. Chris begrudgingly obeyed, moving out westward and re-establishing herself there as best she could. Now that things are relatively settled (finally) and changing for the better, she’s recently moved back to Amestris - just in time to spend their first, proper Solstice together.

“Hmph! Then you could have called or written me more often, you sap,” Chris retorts, but there’s rarely any bite to her banter.

“Calls don’t go out to Creta,” Roy says as he settles back into the sofa. “And I wrote you as often as I could, Auntie. It was, ah- pretty crazy for a while there. I’m sorry I didn’t write more.”

“I’ll say,” Chris says, rolling her eyes. “The Cretan newspapers were having field days with it. I almost started getting worried about you - then I heard you blew up the Führer.”

Roy laughs again. “I did, I did. That was… ah, man. There’s so much to tell you, Auntie.”

Chris smiles at him - a real, genuine smile - and takes his hand, gently, something she hasn’t done in a long time.

“Well, I’m here now, darling. Tell me all about it.”

---

And talk they did, for many hours - between introductions to Gracia’s family and Roy and Maes’ squadron members, the details of the past few years’ adventures, and plenty of embarrassing stories of Roy’s childhood, there was no shortage of conversation.

Soon enough, it is near-midnight - Armstrong, Fuery, Havoc and Maria bid their farewells and left long ago, the children have been put to bed, and most of Gracia’s family have retired for the night as well. Only Roy’s little family (minus Elicia) is still awake, bleary and yawning as they curl up together on the parlor sofa, still exchanging stories.

Chris, slightly buzzed from the wine, is still deep into the ‘embarrassing stories of Roy’s past’ part of their conversations. “I always knew you’d tie the knot with Maes someday, always knew,” she’s saying, side-hugging her adopted son and admiring the silver ring on his and Maes’ fingers. “It was just a matter of time - for you to get up your nerve, of course.”

“Oh, c’mon ,” Roy whines, suppressing a yawn at the same time. “I wasn’t nearly that bad. And you know there were other reasons I was hesitant.”

“I know, darling- but it’s still funny,” Chris says, smirking.

“Was he, now?” Maes says, grinning wolfishly. “I have an idea of how long you hid it from me, but I’m dying to hear your side of it, Ms. Mustang.”

“ Maes- ” Roy starts, but Chris leaps upon the chance before he can protest it.

“Oh, it was practically star-crossed ,” she waxes. “There were sparks from the moment you first met. He’d talk about you all the time when he called me from the Academy - as in, how much he hated you.”

Roy groans, and Maes throws back his head in laughter. “Ah, man- that checks out,” Maes wheezes. “I was a pretty big asshole back then.”

“ Was ,” Roy drawls sarcastically, earning him a playful jab in the shoulder from his husband.

“Shut up, I’m better now!”

“Debatable,” Gracia murmurs sleepily from the other end of the sofa.

“Don’t you two start again-”

“You three are adorable ,” Chris laughs. “I’ll admit, I was worried when you and Gracia hooked up and poor Roy was left out- but I’m glad it’s worked out now.”

Maes’ laughter grew uncomfortable. “Ah, well, I- I didn’t know. Or I wouldn’t open myself to it, I guess. I just- didn’t think it was an option at first, you know?”

“I know, dear,” Chris says. “I’m sure your family didn’t help there. We’ve all had our run-ins with conservatives - my brother probably would have balked at the idea if he were still here, rest his soul.”

“My father,” Roy muses at the mention. “Do you think… would he have accepted me, Auntie?” He asks with genuine curiosity, only tinged with sadness at its edges. Chris frowns, and thinks, and hugs Roy more closely.

“With time, darling, with time,” she says finally. “He was still a good man. And people change, they always do.”

“Yeah, we changed,” Maes says, after pecking Roy’s cheek with affection. “We went from hating each other’s guts to this . Pretty crazy, huh?”

“Yeah, Roy hums, growing quiet as he feels another pang from a fake contraction creeping upon him - he’s been dealing with them on and off all day, but they feel more intense than earlier in the week...

“And say, I wanted to ask,” Maes continues. “If you liked me for that long, why didn’t you say anything? I mean, I’m sure Ishval had to do with it, but-”

“That is part of it,” Roy murmurs. “But- hm. It’s uh, hard to explain,” he trails off, suppressing a grunt of pain.

Chris eyes him for a moment, then takes over in his explanation. “You see, Roy was in a very… tenuous place in his life, you could say. When he started attending the Academy, he’d only recently changed his name and started his medications, as I recall.”

She exchanges glances with Roy, who nods to confirm this.

“-Oh,” Maes says. “So you were still… in-between, kind of?”

“In a sense, yes,” Chris replies. “Physically and emotionally. Very insecure, very frightened, poor thing. He’d call me many times to talk about how scared he was of anyone finding out about his ‘secret’. And we all know how the military tends to treat people who are… different .” She says the word with a disgusted sneer.

Maes hums, nodding. “Yeah, yeah… didn’t want to get too close to anyone, then.”

“That, and he couldn’t allow himself to,” Chris continues. “Opening up his heart to anyone would risk his career, maybe his life, but most of all, it would’ve betrayed everything he was building up about himself. Admitting to being in love with you, a man , would’ve made him no different than the young lady he once resembled.”

She shrugs, frowning slightly. “...That was misguided, obviously, but like I said, he was young and insecure. And, obviously, Ishval didn’t help with that.”

Maes nods slowly, frowning. “Mm. I see.”

He looks back to Roy, seeing something pained in his husband’s face, and huddles closer to wrap his arms around his shoulders and press his face into his dark hair. “But I wish I could… y’know, really understand, completely. So I can be better for you,” he murmurs softly.

Roy snuggles against him, his warmth a small balm for his pain, both from his stomach and the memories. “That’s okay,” he whispers. “Just trying helps. Just being here, for me- that helps.”

He feels another pang, more acute this time, and can’t quite suppress a groan from it. Chris sits up at his other side. “Darling, what’s wrong? Are you-”

“False alarms, Auntie, false alarms,” Roy says hurriedly, a little strained. “It’ll pass in a minute-”

“Roy, you’re due at any moment , Gracia says, now sounding more awake. “Those might not be false anymore.”

“Hey hey, easy now,” Maes says, supporting Roy against him. “I know I kept joking about the baby being the best Yule present, but I wasn’t serious- ”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Roy cuts in, leaning away, breathing easier since the pain was now fading. “It’s passing now, I’m okay- just like I said.”

There’s a beat of audible relief between everyone. Chris shakes her head, still frowning with concern. “Still, too close for comfort- you should really get some rest, dear. It’s late anyhow.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Maes says. “C’mon honey, let’s go to bed already.”

Roy gives a small sigh, mainly at the prospect of trying to stand up again. “Alright, alright…”

---

Maes was a light sleeper for as long as he could remember. This was useful after becoming a soldier, needing to be alert at all times on the warfront - it was not useful after he came back to city life, gained a stressful, overworking job, and was expected to still function as a normal human being. After that, he was nearly an insomniac.

He has spent many long, lonely nights alone in his own bed, with his own wife and child - he has spent countless more before he was married at all. Being married a second time, to a second partner, has not lessened this - but it has made it a little easier. Because at the very least, he can be comfortably trapped between two partners and feel safe, no matter what his paranoid brain tells him, and lying still and quiet between them for long enough can finally set him drifting into unconsciousness.

So it’s just his damn luck that on this particular night, Yule’s Eve, of all evenings, he is tired and content enough to actually fall asleep within a reasonable span of time, and sleep soundly - and then be rudely shaken awake only a few hours later by a trembling hand and distressed voice.

“Maes- Maes, Gracey, wake up. You were right, I think- ugh- I think it’s coming-”

“Ngh- Roy?” Maes drawls out sleepily. “What- What’s coming?”

“The baby , you idiot, we- ow- we need to go- ”

“Coming…?” Gracia yawns awake. “What- Oh, oh god, Roy-”

Gracia’s form jerks to an upright position at his other side, jostling Maes further, and now there is no hope of him returning to that blessed space of mind where he is genuinely sleepy - instead it is replaced with panic over the realization that Roy is in labor.

“ Shit- ” he curses, and all but leaps to his feet from their shared bed - tight quarters in an already-small guest room - and haphazardly gets himself dressed as Gracia eases Roy to his feet, taking him through the breathing exercises they’d been practicing for months in preparation for this. They ease the pain, allegedly.

Maes can’t really tell as they shuffle out into the hallway, watching Roy double over from the contractions when they come, wishing he could do something, anything - he hates feeling helpless, and didn’t enjoy this when Elicia was born.

They turn a corner towards the living room, and he nearly jumps out of his skin - coming down another hallway is Chris and a few of her girls, wearing robes and holding oil lamps.

Chris’s eyes widen at the sight of them, and she lifts her lantern to look better. “It’s happening?” she asks.

“Yes, ma’am,” Maes and Gracia say, almost in unison.

“Hmph! I knew it. C’mon then, we’ll take my car, it’s roomier.”

---

The next several hours are a blur, between the haze of pain Roy is experiencing and the panic everyone else is having. The car ride consisted of Gracia sitting by him in the back seats, breathing in time with him in their exercises, and Chris at his other side, instructing him to rock himself to and fro to ease the pressure. Maes and one of his sisters, Bridget he recalls, sat at the front of the car, struggling with maps and directions in the pitch-black of the night, toward the Central hospital where his specialized doctor would ensure a discreet delivery.

There was a lot of yelling and cursing, mostly from Maes against Central’s ‘backwards-ass street system,’ but at some point they finally arrived and Maes all but launched himself from the driver’s seat to run inside and schedule with the doctor. Soon, Roy was being lowered into a wheelchair and sped along into an operating room by a nurse, meeting with his doctor, and then entering the painful, arduous process of childbirth.

He tries not to dwell on anything - if he does, it’s on the small things. Gracia and Chris squeezing his hands as they lead him through various pain-relieving positions; Maes kissing his sweating forehead and muttering small prayers; everyone’s praise and encouragement at even the smallest amounts of progress.

In short, it’s as awful as Gracia warned him it would be, even with painkillers - but eventually, blessedly, he hears the tiny cries of the child he’s brought into existence, and when they are cleaned and brought into his waiting arms, he is told they are a healthy baby boy. As planned, he is named Elias Mustang Hughes.

Poor Elicia - she was looking forward to a sister.

---

The golden light of morning peaks over dark winter clouds, and gently streams through the plain curtains of the hospital room - morning is here, on the Winter Solstice, and Roy’s family has welcomed the birth of their son.

There was a flurry of emotions within and without him as Roy first held his child in his arms - rampant thoughts of “oh my god I’m holding a tiny person in my arms that I made inside my body and he’s here and he’s mine ”; Maes kissing him over and over, practically sobbing with happiness; Gracia all but climbing into the bed with them to hug him, also crying; Chris nearly shoving them both aside to get a closer look at her new grand-nephew and saying, “Oh, Roy… he looks like your mother, a little.” And that got Roy’s waterworks flowing as well.

Things have calmed down by now - Gracia has taken Elias aside (making Roy begrudgingly let go of him) to feed him milk formula she’d prepared ahead of time, seeing as Roy was not equipped to do so; Maes is pacing the room and whispering curses at himself for forgetting his camera in all the rush; Chris has pulled up a chair by Roy’s bedside to tell him more stories about his parents and the days he himself was an infant.

Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door, and it creaks open - a nurse peeks in, saying “Excuse me - Hughes family? You have visitors- erm, a lot of them.”

“Oh, uh- let them in,” Maes stammers as he goes to the door, and he opens it fully.

Once again there a flurry of activity, for as soon as the door is thrown open, a small throng of people and things make their way inside the room. Gracia’s parents and aunts, Elicia and her cousins, Roy’s sisters, and Riza, Breda and Falman, all file inside with armfuls of boxes, baskets, and other containers filled to the brim with Yule decorations - the decorations from the house, Roy realizes, as they set about placing them around the hospital room in a similar manner to how they were back at the house.

Sebastian, broad and strong, even carries the entire Yule tree into the room with Breda and Falman’s assistance, setting it in the corner and piling the wrapped presents underneath it, just like it was in the parlor.

The nurses and doctors, of course, are none too happy about this; neither is Gracia, because the noise and commotion makes little Elias start crying again, and she has to place him back into Roy’s arms to calm him. Gabriella apologizes for everyone, but soon the work is done and things have settled again.

Bridget, who was nowhere to be seen during his labor, Roy realizes belatedly, turns to them and smiles triumphantly after placing the last of the decorations. “Sorry for the mess,” she says. “I called the house while you were in delivery to tell them the news, and Ms. Gabby had the best idea - since you guys would be stuck here and missing the party, we brought the party to you !”

Roy doesn’t know what to say to this; Gracia’s anger is calmed, but still thinks the whole thing’s a bit excessive (but it is something her mother would absolutely do); Maes is completely flabbergasted, mouth hanging open stupidly.

This is quickly rectified by Elicia approaching her mother and father to berate them - “You made me miss the baby! Why didn’t you wake me?!”

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” Gracia tells her, lifting her into her arms to make up for it with hugs. “But it was the middle of the night, and we were in a hurry.”

“You wouldn’t have liked it anyway,” Maes says nonchalantly. “Just a lot of screaming and crying. But look, honey- this is your baby brother, Elias.”

Elicia stares at the bundle in Roy’s arms - then pinches with disgust. “I thought it was a girl- and he’s so ugly .”

“He was just born , dear, give him a break,” Roy says tiredly, but he’s laughing too. “You looked a lot like this when you were born too, as I recall.”

“Gross!” Elicia cries, shaking her pigtails, and Maes and Gracia are laughing as well.

And the rest of that day was just as enjoyable - the other guests acquainted themselves with little Elias and extended praise and congratulations to the family; presents were given out and opened with much joy and appreciation; food and drink was brought and shared over happy conversations; even music was brought in the form of Riza’s portable radio to smooth out the atmosphere with pleasant, quiet jazz.

The Yule gifts ran the gamut from clothes and candy to tools and appliances, some a perfect match to their recipients, others not so much, but nonetheless appreciated - after all, the most important aspect of the gift-giving was the well-wishes given alongside the physical presents. According to Sebastian, the ancient tribes of Amestris who started this tradition exchanged nothing more than small good-luck charms under their trees, for hope to survive the rest of the bitter winters.

For indeed, there is an overwhelming atmosphere of hope in this hospital room - for love, living, and a brighter future, especially after the strife of the past several years. For Roy, this is most evident in the new life he now holds in his arms.

---

Nearly a month later, the Hughes family have long since returned to their home with little Elias in tow - and as Gracia also warned, it is very tiring to care for a newborn. Especially with a somewhat-bratty four-year-old who must now deal with the reality of no longer being the sole center of attention from her parents.

But between the three of them, it’s manageable - two people to exchange shifts of sleeping and tending to the baby, a third person to tend to Elicia’s needs.

It was harder in the beginning, with Roy not only being new at this, but also very drained from the effort of delivery - luckily they received helpful visitors every few days after the Solstice, in the form of Gracia’s relatives, Chris and the girls, or members of Roy and Maes’ squadrons. For those who were absent, it also serves as their first opportunity to see little Elias and extend their congratulations (Armstrong, in his usual form, burst into tears at the sight of the child, he was so happy).

So far, only Elicia is unimpressed with her baby brother - on top of not being a girl, she complains of his small size and inability to walk, dashing her hopes of a new playmate anytime soon, and that he does nothing but sleep, eat, cry, and soil his diapers.

Again, her parents must remind her that he is mere weeks old, and she was much the same at that age. And again, she does not believe them. Ah, children.

One morning, finally feeling hale and healthy enough, Roy spends a few hours sitting outside on the porch with his coffee, watching morning traffic go by as the sun rises over Central’s skyline.

And it’s strange - he feels kind of empty, somehow, despite how full his life is. He must be slipping back into his low moods again - Gracia warned of postpartum depression as well. He tries not to dwell on it, as usual - he sips his sweetened coffee, watches the sunlight dance upon steel and wood rooftops, and wonders what sort of person his son will grow up to be.

He can’t settle on an answer - who could, with how broad the possibilities could be - but he does hope beyond all hopes, that Elias, and Elicia as well, will be better than the terrible mistakes their fathers have committed and still live with.

There is a shifting behind him suddenly, and the opening and closing of the front door - Roy turns to see Maes joining him on the porch, pulling up a deck chair beside him.

“Good mornin,” Maes says, pecking Roy’s cheek. “You’re up early. Feeling okay?”

“I’m fine,” Roy says, shrugging. “How are the kids doing?”

“Eli’s been fed, so he’s down for the count for now,” Maes says. “And Elicia’s still sleeping. Gracey’s tucking in for a nap while it’s safe, and sent me to check on you.”

“Oh,” Roy says. “Well, like I said, I’m fine, so…”

“Are you?” Maes asks, eyes searching. “I mean, I know it’s been a while, but you had a rough time of it- if anything’s bothering you, you can tell me, hun. You know I’m always here.”

Roy frowns, and attempts to deflect him again - but as usual, his husband’s pretty, pleading eyes make it hard to keep up any facade for very long.

He sighs sadly. “I don’t know- I’m still tired, I guess. And I keep thinking…”

“Of what?”

Roy pauses, thinks for a long while, bothering his lower lip with his teeth again.

“Maes,” he says finally. “What are we going to tell them? About us, and what we’ve done?”

He swallows, thick with emotion suddenly. “How- how do I tell my son about Ishval ?”

Maes’ smile fades, his mouth a thin line, and he sits back, turning away. He searches the skyline for a small eternity, eyes squinting, as if searching for the answer. But eventually, he closes his eyes and exhales, and turns back to Roy.

“We’ll tell them everything,” he says solemnly. “The good, the bad- all of it. They deserve to know. We have to be better than the old bastards at Headquarters.”

“Mm,” Roy hums sadly. He’s right. He usually is.

“And then,” Maes says, taking Roy’s hand, squeezing it. “We’ll tell them to be better than us.”

He meets his eyes at that, and Roy can see something misty behind Maes’ glasses - and feels a prickling in his own. He dips his head and leans in, letting Maes hug him by the shoulders and lean against him in kind.

They watch the rest of the sunrise together. They hope that someday, their children will see something similar - a sun rising on a better world.

END.

#hyuroi #hyuroigracia #trans pregnancy #jeminy3 art #jeminy writes

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