Family Day, another cookie
Victor walked into the park, shielding Nicholas from the cameras as he had an arm wrapped around the blond’s waist.
“Nicholas!” the reporters called out. “Why is it you’re on limited schedule for the military?” “Have you put on weight?” “How long will you be on limited schedule?” “Are you sick?”
Nina glared at the entire crowd of them, and Victor had to smile. He was often a protective guard dog. She was the attack dog. If they dared to say the wrong thing, he knew she would go after them, and he would have to hold her back. Being the stable force in the midst of these two wild forces had him generally blending into the background, but he didn’t mind. He had their attention, and if he was overlooked by the rest of the world, so be it.
Then came the blessed silence of the park. There would be some reporters here, and photos taken by the public at large would probably end up on the front pages of the papers the next morning, but there was nothing that could be done about that. At the very least, this was to be a place for the “first family” to relax and celebrate the anniversary of freedom from the former fuhrer.
Victor held onto Nicholas as they walked through the park and Nina took the blond’s hand. “Do I look fat?” Nicholas asked.
“Not to those of us who know,” Victor said, kissing his lover’s temple. “I think you look incredible.”
“More than incredible,” Nina said.
“Oh, stop trying to top me,” Victor jibed good-naturedly, and hopefully distracting his pregnant lover.
“Did that last night, actually. And I don’t recall you complaining then. As a matter of fact, you were too busy screaming my name,” Nina said.
Victor did his best not to blush. Nina and Nicholas thought he blushed an awful lot for a man of his age, but in his own opinion, he had quite a lot of skill at not blushing. Nina was still learning proper decorum, but she often disregarded it because she saw some of the public’s sensibilities as ridiculous. Nicholas often didn’t think before he spoke, and when he did, it was sometimes worse.
Nicholas smiled. “That was fun to watch.” He had taken a slightly voyeuristic turn lately, which wouldn’t be a terrible thing if it didn’t mean that Nina and Victor regularly had to satisfy Nicholas’s growing sexual appetite. They had honestly hoped to be able to switch off once in a while, but no, leave it to their lover to get turned on with the guaranteed way they had to participate.
Victor saw Nicholas glance down at the growing bump beneath his shirt where their twin boys-nearly identical according to Aideen-rested. Nicholas liked to rub over his stomach, even when he didn’t realize that he was doing it, and Victor instinctively knew that Nicholas was making the effort not to touch it.
Then, there was a hair of bobbing brown curls coming at them at a fast pace.
“Uncle Nicholas, Uncle Victor, Aunt Nina!”
Nicholas got a hug first from Nikki, but she made her way to Victor and then to Nina. He saw Ed running after her.
“Nikki, don’t get too far away from someone in a crowd like this,” he said. The older man smiled up at the trio. “How is everyone?” That was code for, “How are all of you and the babies, but I can’t ask that in public.”
“We’re doing fine,” Nicholas said. “All’s well, all healthy.”
Ed smiled. “Good to hear it.” He put his hands on Nikki’s shoulders as he stood behind her. Looking at his, sort of, father-in-law, Victor thought back to the pictures he’d seen of the man when he was pregnant with Nicholas and Aideen. Edward Elric had held some sort of androgynous quality in his pregnancy.
That was definitely not true of Nicholas. It might have been that he was over ten years older than Ed when he’d been pregnant, or it could be the broader and taller form of Victor’s lover. Victor was truly curious what would happen as the chest continued to grow as the stomach continued to swell with the twins.
Nicholas would always look good to Victor, but he really suspected he wouldn’t pull off the pregnancy quite as well as his father had before. With a smile and another kiss to Nicholas’s temple, Victor reminded himself that even if he looked hideous, he wouldn’t care.
“Well,” Ed said. “The whole family is over at a bunch of blankets and folding chairs in a corner of the park. They’re waiting on you.”
Nikki took Ed’s hand and headed back to the corner of the park. Nicholas looked embarrassed as people pointed and whispered at how the usually fit Lionheart Alchemist was now sporting a noticeable paunch. Victor gave him a reassuring squeeze and he could guess that Nina was doing the same to his hand.
“Oh, we have a chair here for you,” Kain said, immediately moving from his place in a folding chair beside Frank to gesture to a fairly comfortable-looking one on the edge of the blanket.
Nicholas smiled and took the seat. Victor knelt on the blanket beside him as Nina stood behind the blond and ran her hands through his hair. “Can we get you anything?” Victor asked.
“Um… Chicken with chocolate sauce?” Nicholas asked. He looked between his two lovers. “That’s going to be too weird, isn’t it?” He sighed. “Never mind. Just get me a chicken sandwich.”
“I’ll grab it,” Nina said. She ran off to one of the vendors. Victor felt Nicholas’s automail hand rubbing over his head. He was very careful when he did this, and even with the automail managed to pull fewer of Victor’s dark curls than Nina. He swore the woman managed to find the one knot in his hair every time.
For a while, as Nina went to get food, Victor talked with the family which had become his own. Ed and Al particularly seemed to understand him better than the rest, largely because their own father had left them at an early age. He smiled as he saw Raine and Aideen fussing over Nicholas. The Drs. Mustang were so similar at times it could be frightening.
“Hi everyone,” a voice said. Victor looked up to see Elysia Hughes-she and her husband had stuck with her maiden name long after the financial scandal with his father had been forgotten-and her family. Glancing over at Nicholas, there was an obviously mortified expression on his face.
Victor knew that Elysia, for all her understanding and kindness had never quite grasped why Nicholas needed two partners, and had certainly not seen him since the pregnancy began. The slightly older man knew as well as Nicholas did that she would assume that his lover was putting on weight, just as everyone else at the park did.
Running a hand through Nicholas’s coarse hair, Victor smiled up at Elysia, Nicholas’s first crush. “So how are things going with work now?” he asked.
“Very good. Thankfully, the people at Southern Headquarters are fairly good with their bookkeeping.” Elysia smiled, and if there was any recognition of the sudden change in Nicholas, the woman was good enough not to show it. It was likely thanks to the part of their relationship that had become more sibling-like. That relationship was why she was beginning to feel a little worried “So, I understand I’m going to be an aunt.”
Both Victor and Nicholas looked over at the woman, both wearing a slightly surprised expression.
“You heard about Sasha and James, didn’t you?” she asked.
“Oh…” Nicholas chuckled. “Sorry. Yes. I heard. My mind’s just, elsewhere.”
Elysia knelt down on the blanket to eat a bite of watermelon to talk about Nicholas’s cousin and her brother. When Nina returned with food for Nicholas and Victor. She’d gotten Nicholas his chicken sandwich and a sauce that looked deceptively like it belonged on her cup of ice cream, but to anyone who didn’t know, might be mistaken for barbeque sauce. She then handed Victor a cheeseburger-he was a simple man at heart.
“I got us a large order of fries,” she said. “I promise, no vinegar. I got myself a container separate.” She saw Elysia nearby. “Oh. Hi.” Nina smiled, but Victor knew it was forced. Nina never seemed comfortable around the other woman, knowing that Nicholas had once been infatuated with her. Victor looked up at Nina with a smile and rubbed her arm. He reminded himself to remove those gossip magazines from their house. She didn’t need to read any more of those ridiculous rumors.
There were the sounds of two children fighting. “You hit me!”
“You pulled my hair!”
“You hit me!”
“You pulled my hair first!”
“Your hair shouldn’t be gray!”
“Your brain should be there! You don’t pull hair.”
Victor turned around to see Nikki arguing with a boy a bit taller than her with black hair and wire-rimmed glasses.
“Michael,” Elysia said, sternly.
“Nikki,” Aideen said, her voice icy.
Both children looked to the ground, Nikki rubbing her head and Michael rubbing his cheek.
Nicholas chuckled. “Just a few years, we’ll be dealing with the same things,” he said quietly. “We’ll have to perfect the parental tone of voice.”
“I think you’ll manage fine. Coming from your parents, I don’t doubt it.” Victor smiled. “Your dad yelled at me once or twice when we were growing up. Scared the crap out of me. And I still get enough reaming-outs from your papa to fear him.”
Nina and Nicholas both laughed quietly at that. Victor took the moment to lean over and kiss his male lover on the lips, allowing him to slip a hand over the rise in the man’s stomach.
Nicholas smiled, but dismissed Victor. “Okay, enough. I want my chicken sandwich.”
Victor settled down again as the two mothers disciplined their children. He ate his cheeseburger.
After getting some crafts and more food, the fireworks for the evening started, with little Fiona completely unfazed by the loud thumps that frightened other children her age. She simply sat on her father’s lap and watched in awe. Nikki was laying on the blanket between her grandfathers, pointing to the flashing lights and different explosions in the sky. Oliver was sitting with his mother, asking her detailed questions about how they had created each color, which chemicals and compounds would make each effect. He was ever the scientist, wanting to know how they made things like this.
Near Nina, Frank and Kain were in folding chairs, hands clasped as they turned their heads upward.
Al and his children were on a blanket nearby. Sasha and James were with them, along with the rest of the Havoc/Hughes clan. Sasha was a few months more along than Nicholas, and she showed it as James had a broad grin of pride each time he placed his hand on her stomach. The other four children, two with their significant others, watched the fireworks beside them as Al and Winry held hands and playfully bantered throughout the fireworks.
Victor and Nina provided the support for Nicholas to sit down on the blanket. They were a comfortable pile of clasped hands and positioned legs. Victor saw the look of happiness on Nina and Nicholas’s faces. His adoptive family was watching the fireworks, but he was watching them.
The next day when a photo of them all was plastered across the paper, with the headline “Happy Family.” Victor couldn’t disagree.