Prompt 242, Juicy, 'The Heir'
Title: The Heir
Author: catlin_hunter
Series: Brotherhood
Word Count: 1126
Rating: G
Characters: Armstrong family
Summary: Olivia's family learned who she wanted to leave the Armstrong Mansion to. They aren't pleased by her choice of heir.
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Not mine, unless they're the OC's
A/N: Not beta'd, so any spelling/grammar/homophone errors are all mine. Post Promised Day. Set in the Tiger and Bear story cycle, though this is a stand-alone.
Phillip Armstrong sighed deeply at the message his two middle daughters gave him. The family patriarch had just returned from a long vacation in Xing with his wife and youngest daughter, and he wasn't wanting to confront any interfamily squabbles just yet. He wanted to at least unpack and unwind for a night first; surely there wasn't anything so pressing that it couldn't wait a day for his attention.
His middle daughters clearly thought differently. Strongine and Erimine had just found out their eldest sister's plans for the future of the Armstrong Mansion, traditional home base of the head of the family. Instead of leaving it to either her younger brother or one of her three sisters, or to any current or future nieces/nephews, Olivia had instead opted to leave the mansion to an outsider. Specifically, one Colonel Roy Mustang, a State Alchemist, and proclaimed Hero of Ishbal by Fuhrer King Bradley himself. And a professional rival for Olivia's eventual goal of becoming leader of Amestris. Though this latest move had Phillip wondering - again - if there really was a more personal relationship between them than either let on to anyone. He made a mental note to look into the matter more closely when he had time to spare for it, and when his other children weren't forcing his hand in the problem of who got the mansion.
Despite what the middle girls' believed, though, not all of the Armstrong family heads lived in the mansion all the time. Phillip had always figured rebellious Olivia would be one of them, after she officially took over the family before sending Phillip and his wife out of the country for safekeeping. The mansion wasn't strictly necessary as anything other than a symbol of their wealth and power in Amestris, and possibly elsewhere, if the contacts he'd recently made bore fruit. Whomever owned the mansion usually became the de facto head of Family Armstrong, with all the control of the purse strings and other property that implied. All else being equal, though, he did agree with his middle daughters (who were not interested in politics of Amestris like Olivia and Alex were) that the mansion had to stay in the family. Thankfully everything with Mustang was still in the negotiations stage; no-one had signed anything. Yet.
So Phillip called a family meeting, to take place that weekend, to discuss who should be inheirenting the mansion if anything should happen to Olivia before she officially married. Once everyone had gathered, Phillip had Olivia defend her choices. "I don't want to be tied down to a tradition that inhibits strength. Too many resources are needed to keep this place open when nobody uses more than a quarter of the rooms at any given time. Why not hand the place off to someone who can use the space for something more useful to society? It's not like the family doesn't have any number of smaller mansions in the city to call home instead. Why not turn one of them into the family 'home base'?" Olivia testily pointed out. Her unitarian streak had gotten more pronounced over the years, Phillip noted to himself.
With Alex and Catherine mostly keeping quite about the matter (neither really had strong feelings about it one way or the other), Strongine and Erimine presented their objections to Olivia's pratical arguments. Essentially they saw no reason to change a tradition they didn't consider broken to begin with. Their arguments against Olivia's choice of heir were more spirited. Phillip swore the girls dredged the tabloids for the most juicy and scandalous rumors about Mustang they could find, then used them as proof of his unfitness to inherit the mansion. The rumors Strongine and Erimine found most horrid, Phillip noted, weren't the ones about his many women and lackadaisical work ethics, but the ones about his long-term affairs with two men (both conveniently dead, so no-one could ask them to confirm or deny it), and several children Mustang was supposed to have sired and left to be raised by charities. Typical deviant Xingese, they sniffed, born fatherless in a whorehouse, and spreading his mongrel taint among the good decent people of Amestris.
Phillip knew, and suspected Alex and Olivia might know, the truth of the man's parentage, and he genuinely had no wish to bring up an old decades-dead scandal now, or ever. At the moment he was just thankful that the middle girls didn't know about it, lest they bring that to Mustang's attention. Phillip liked the man okay, but he didn't want him - or the relatives he did know were still alive - get ideas above his station. They were decent enough people, but they wouldn't be welcome in the social circles and clubs the Armstrongs normally moved in.
Finally, after hours of arguing, Olivia agreed to amend her will to leave the mansion to a legitimate blood relative of hers, whomever she so designated it to be, and she wouldn't be required to marry anyone until she wanted to (something she had never wavered on, to Phillip's memory). Mustang was to be little better than a caretaker, if the designated heir happened to be underage at the time of Olivia's death. Strongine and Erimine, at least, were satisfied with the agreement, happy that they wouldn't have a half-breed rifling through the family coffers any time soon. Olivia was simply her usual "Whatever" over her shoulder as she left. Phillip was happy everything seemed settled for now, the family at peace for the moment. However, he noticed Alex's frown, and privately asked his only son what troubled him about the discussion. "There's at least one loophole in the agreement that she'll use to give everyone a figurative middle finger, and she's mad enough about this meeting that she'll use it, more than likely." Alex told his father what he thought it was, then shrugged. "Nothing to do now but wait and see what she chooses to do."
Realizing he had little choice now, Phillip waited to see what his independent-minded oldest child would do. It was really no surprise to him when Olivia announced her pregnancy a couple of months later, without saying who the father was. And later, when the blonde baby girl was born with dark eyes and with a dusky Xingese complexion, Phillip was disappointed but not surprised about it. He was just not looking forward to discussing it with Strongine and Erimine, who would not be happy about either Olivia's choice of heir, or the fact that no-one could change her will now. Phillip would just have to make sure the infant girl was raised properly, and not bring shame to the family name when she was grown.
That was all.
Author: catlin_hunter
Series: Brotherhood
Word Count: 1126
Rating: G
Characters: Armstrong family
Summary: Olivia's family learned who she wanted to leave the Armstrong Mansion to. They aren't pleased by her choice of heir.
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Not mine, unless they're the OC's
A/N: Not beta'd, so any spelling/grammar/homophone errors are all mine. Post Promised Day. Set in the Tiger and Bear story cycle, though this is a stand-alone.
Phillip Armstrong sighed deeply at the message his two middle daughters gave him. The family patriarch had just returned from a long vacation in Xing with his wife and youngest daughter, and he wasn't wanting to confront any interfamily squabbles just yet. He wanted to at least unpack and unwind for a night first; surely there wasn't anything so pressing that it couldn't wait a day for his attention.
His middle daughters clearly thought differently. Strongine and Erimine had just found out their eldest sister's plans for the future of the Armstrong Mansion, traditional home base of the head of the family. Instead of leaving it to either her younger brother or one of her three sisters, or to any current or future nieces/nephews, Olivia had instead opted to leave the mansion to an outsider. Specifically, one Colonel Roy Mustang, a State Alchemist, and proclaimed Hero of Ishbal by Fuhrer King Bradley himself. And a professional rival for Olivia's eventual goal of becoming leader of Amestris. Though this latest move had Phillip wondering - again - if there really was a more personal relationship between them than either let on to anyone. He made a mental note to look into the matter more closely when he had time to spare for it, and when his other children weren't forcing his hand in the problem of who got the mansion.
Despite what the middle girls' believed, though, not all of the Armstrong family heads lived in the mansion all the time. Phillip had always figured rebellious Olivia would be one of them, after she officially took over the family before sending Phillip and his wife out of the country for safekeeping. The mansion wasn't strictly necessary as anything other than a symbol of their wealth and power in Amestris, and possibly elsewhere, if the contacts he'd recently made bore fruit. Whomever owned the mansion usually became the de facto head of Family Armstrong, with all the control of the purse strings and other property that implied. All else being equal, though, he did agree with his middle daughters (who were not interested in politics of Amestris like Olivia and Alex were) that the mansion had to stay in the family. Thankfully everything with Mustang was still in the negotiations stage; no-one had signed anything. Yet.
So Phillip called a family meeting, to take place that weekend, to discuss who should be inheirenting the mansion if anything should happen to Olivia before she officially married. Once everyone had gathered, Phillip had Olivia defend her choices. "I don't want to be tied down to a tradition that inhibits strength. Too many resources are needed to keep this place open when nobody uses more than a quarter of the rooms at any given time. Why not hand the place off to someone who can use the space for something more useful to society? It's not like the family doesn't have any number of smaller mansions in the city to call home instead. Why not turn one of them into the family 'home base'?" Olivia testily pointed out. Her unitarian streak had gotten more pronounced over the years, Phillip noted to himself.
With Alex and Catherine mostly keeping quite about the matter (neither really had strong feelings about it one way or the other), Strongine and Erimine presented their objections to Olivia's pratical arguments. Essentially they saw no reason to change a tradition they didn't consider broken to begin with. Their arguments against Olivia's choice of heir were more spirited. Phillip swore the girls dredged the tabloids for the most juicy and scandalous rumors about Mustang they could find, then used them as proof of his unfitness to inherit the mansion. The rumors Strongine and Erimine found most horrid, Phillip noted, weren't the ones about his many women and lackadaisical work ethics, but the ones about his long-term affairs with two men (both conveniently dead, so no-one could ask them to confirm or deny it), and several children Mustang was supposed to have sired and left to be raised by charities. Typical deviant Xingese, they sniffed, born fatherless in a whorehouse, and spreading his mongrel taint among the good decent people of Amestris.
Phillip knew, and suspected Alex and Olivia might know, the truth of the man's parentage, and he genuinely had no wish to bring up an old decades-dead scandal now, or ever. At the moment he was just thankful that the middle girls didn't know about it, lest they bring that to Mustang's attention. Phillip liked the man okay, but he didn't want him - or the relatives he did know were still alive - get ideas above his station. They were decent enough people, but they wouldn't be welcome in the social circles and clubs the Armstrongs normally moved in.
Finally, after hours of arguing, Olivia agreed to amend her will to leave the mansion to a legitimate blood relative of hers, whomever she so designated it to be, and she wouldn't be required to marry anyone until she wanted to (something she had never wavered on, to Phillip's memory). Mustang was to be little better than a caretaker, if the designated heir happened to be underage at the time of Olivia's death. Strongine and Erimine, at least, were satisfied with the agreement, happy that they wouldn't have a half-breed rifling through the family coffers any time soon. Olivia was simply her usual "Whatever" over her shoulder as she left. Phillip was happy everything seemed settled for now, the family at peace for the moment. However, he noticed Alex's frown, and privately asked his only son what troubled him about the discussion. "There's at least one loophole in the agreement that she'll use to give everyone a figurative middle finger, and she's mad enough about this meeting that she'll use it, more than likely." Alex told his father what he thought it was, then shrugged. "Nothing to do now but wait and see what she chooses to do."
Realizing he had little choice now, Phillip waited to see what his independent-minded oldest child would do. It was really no surprise to him when Olivia announced her pregnancy a couple of months later, without saying who the father was. And later, when the blonde baby girl was born with dark eyes and with a dusky Xingese complexion, Phillip was disappointed but not surprised about it. He was just not looking forward to discussing it with Strongine and Erimine, who would not be happy about either Olivia's choice of heir, or the fact that no-one could change her will now. Phillip would just have to make sure the infant girl was raised properly, and not bring shame to the family name when she was grown.
That was all.