So it's been ages, and this has been written for over a year, but here's the epilogue to the fanfic that is Bittersweet. It was lost - and by lost, I mean I (Lex) saved it as lkasjfdjflaksdjg on the laptop and it was sitting there on the hard drive for ages. Here it is; this fanfic hasn't been as popular as we'd hoped, but I hope you all enjoyed it. We certainly did. Thanks for sticking with us all the way, and here's the final installment.

Charlotte came out of the house just in time to snatch up her nephew and shower him with compliments and kisses. "You're just too cute!" she cooed. The little boy giggled and kicked his feet, begging his aunt to let him go. "Fine, fine. Go have fun with your cousins."

Charlotte sat down next to her sister and sighed. "You've had some rough times, Alice, but that little boy makes up for everything that happened."

Alice nodded. "He's perfect," she agreed. "He's a bit proud, and rash, but polite and a musician. He's everything I ever dreamed he'd be." The brunette beamed proudly at her little boy.

They watched the children for several moments. "I don't care what you say, Alice. He looks just like Roy," the elder sister said in a slightly quieter voice, as if it were a secret.

Several moments of silence passed. "I know," she said, smiling wanly. "But he's still perfect."

"…and he always said the same about you, you know," Charlotte pressed, and Alice smiled softly, hair falling forward in her face.

"Yes, well. Roy always was a bit rash with his words. Our son is the same."

"You loved him, didn't you?"

"I still love him," Alice snapped, in a tone uncharacteristic of her usually demure demeanor, defensive at the questioning of her sincerity. Charlotte was quick to step back in line.

"I didn't mean anything, Alice. Goodness, you're becoming more and more like me every day…"

Alice laughed sarcastically, "He always said that to me, especially after Selim was born."

Charlotte opened her mouth only to be interrupted by little Selim walking up to Alice and grabbing her hands. "Mama, when is Papa coming home? I drew this for him." He held up a crudely drawn flame transmutation circle, the same one he saw on his father's gloves; the circle he used to trace whenever he couldn't fall asleep. His father would pull him into his lap, hand him his ignition-cloth glove and rock him slowly, whispering stories to him about the times he, too, had to trace transmutation circles.

Alice's eyes started to fill as she started shaking her head. "I don't know, sweetheart."

Charlotte's features softened. "He'll be back before you know it, darling. Don't you worry."

With a grin at his aunt's reassurance, Selim skipped off, going back to playing, even as Alice turned to Charlotte sorrowfully. "Don't fill him with false hope. If Roy doesn't come back, you saying things like that will only break him."

"Alice," Charlotte said seriously, "If there's one thing I know for sure, it's that Roy Mustang loved you far too much to go away to war and not come home."

"He didn't love me enough to let me go with him."

"He loved Selim too much to let you leave him, and he loved you too much to let you choose between the two loves of your life. And you know the front line is no place to raise a child, Alice."

She sighed in defeat and looked down at the transmutation oval her son had so carefully drawn in red crayon. Her life…when did it become so ironic? The girl afraid of fire married Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist. She then bore the alchemist's child, who not only showed promise on the piano, but also in flame alchemy.

Alice's tears didn't fall, but they grew closer to doing so by the moment, and she managed to mumble, "I miss him, Charlotte. I miss him so much, and I don't ever want to imagine living life without him."

"Living life without who, my Alice?"

Alice couldn't make herself turn around, to begin with, and when she finally did, it was only as she stared into a pair of black-as-night eyes that she finally began to cry.