#wined

Hi!! ;D Iron Clad Parenting is part of my Winry fics (well, WinEd fics, I guess) that focuses on her post-canon. And for once it is mostly fluff? Well, at least the parts of it I've written so far.

Eventually it's supposed to deal with the fact that their oldest is nearing her twelfth birthday and neither Ed nor Winry anticipated that this would bother them as much as it does. They thought they worked through their trauma in their early twenties and now they can be loving (workaholic) parents. But something about the impending birthday of their daughter just... triggers some fears and irrationality they'd pushed down.

A snippet:

“You’re suffocating me, mom!” “Well, it’s your fault for being so cute.” After pressing one last kiss on the crown of Melli’s head, Winry allowed her daughter to ‘free’ herself from her embrace. Stepping back it was easy to see that Melli’s hair color hadn’t been the only thing that changed, she had also gained a few inches in height, her travel coveralls ending well above her ankles. “I think you’re taller than Ed was at your age, Melli.” Winry didn’t have to look at Ed to know he was rolling his eyes, Melli’s delighted giggle proof enough that Winry wasn’t the only one who had noticed. “Uncle Al said the same thing when he visited us! He also said that I would be taller than dad one day if I kept this up.” “Uncle Al is a filthy liar who has no idea how tall I actually was at eleven because his freakishly tall perspective was obviously skewered.” Ed was moving deeper into the shop, his voice livelier and lovelier than Winry remembered it to be. No telephone connection would ever do Ed’s voice justice – a spark of pure happiness raced through Winry as she looked at her husband. It was good to see him again. (and it was good to see him joke and smile about something horrible they had all survived) “Uncle Al is probably the only person I would trust when it comes to your father’s adventures, Melli, and his height.” Winry said.

Oh, this is a wild one - and I am not surprised you picked that one :D

Unsurprisingly, it is quite angsty. Surprisingly enough, it doesn't have that much Roy. At least the first part.

It is basically a story set a few years post-Promised Day in which Riza gets pregnant - the child is Roy's. She knows she cannot have this child, because a) she never wanted to be a mother for very complicated reasons and b) because it would destroy their plan to save Amestris in the long run if it ever came out that she had an affair with her superior officer. And duty always comes first. No matter how painful.

So, she reaches out to Ed and Winry, who just had their first child two years ago, and asks them to cover for her during her pregnancy - and they end up adopting the child.

(inspired by how in the late 19th/early 20th century unmarried women who got pregnant would go on "travels" or "vacations" on the countryside for six to nine months, and some aunt would suddenly have a new baby)

Here's a snippet from it:

“Ed said you had to ask us something?”  Winry was drinking sweet tea from a pitcher left in the icebox, her smile friendly, her skin glowing.  Riza opened her mouth to answer, only to find the words missing. She knew why she was here, knew how stupid her plan was, had gone to all this length just to make sure— and now that she was supposed to reveal it all, she couldn’t. “Riza asked if she could stay here. For about five or six months.” Edward’s words were a gift, and Riza gratefully accepted it. She knew she wasn’t imagining the look Winry sent her way, her eyes taking in the state of Riza’s clothes and the fit of them around her stomach. It was easy to forget, but Winry was awfully clever as well.  “How far along are you? We can introduce you to a woman’s doctor, if you need.” One hand resting on her own stomach. Winry’s voice was free of judgment. Still, her words felt harsh in their directness, Riza not prepared for the younger woman to go straight for the kill shot. Maybe she should have. Winry dealt in severed arms and legs, her business dependent on people with broken bodies in search for something more. How often did people make that mistake, Riza wondered, when looking at Winry? With her long blond hair, the big blue eyes, and friendly face it was easy to forget that Winry had helped stitch up her childhood best friend when she was only eleven years old.  Riza knew the calluses on her own hands intimately, knew they came from carrying her favorite rifle – a cherished Winchester – through countless battlefields, knew the dent on her shoulder to be permanent after hundreds of hours on her stomach shooting straight. The lines carved into Winry’s palms came from different tools, the scars on her arms an unavoidable byproduct of countless nights spent helping others, the paths they had chosen in life impossibly far apart. Looking at the strength in Winry’s stance, the love and affection on Edward’s face, it was easy to understand why her heart had urged her to seek them out. Whatever came next, those two would be able to help. “A little bit over four months.” Riza had no reason to lie. “And I can’t— an abortion would be too dangerous. Especially considering how far along I am. I cannot risk dying over this.”

We like to think that there are some festivals in Resembool where people can dance and enjoy themselves. Ed and Winry's first participation ♥