AN: For Royai 100 themes: #100: Until That Day.

Summary: Ed and Winry are getting married! Roy and Riza arrive early to help with the wedding and find themselves wondering where all the time has gone and if they'll run out of time for themselves. RoyAi, EdWin

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA.

Until That Day

Chapter 1

Back to Where it All Began

Resenbool, 1917

The Rockbell home was already prepared for the wedding despite the big event being almost three days away. When Roy got out of the car he expected to hear screaming, see Ed scrambling across the yard trying to avoid being beaten and Al and May struggling to get everything ready in time. He agreed to come a few days early just to help, figuring Al would appreciate someone else with alchemy to assist. "I expected it to be chaos around here."

Riza walked around to the other side of the car and took in the quiet of the country home. She rarely missed her childhood, but there were moments like these when she could take in the clean country air and the stunning views and get a twinge of homesickness. "Winry is clearly in charge. You should know, sir, how smoothly things go when a woman is in charge."

He glanced down at her with a slight smile. "Orders from that commanding blond in question were that we leave our uniforms and military everything back in Ishval. Clearly Fullmetal still chokes on his tongue when he has to address me as a superior and his fiance is trying to make it easier on him. So, quit calling me 'sir'."

"If you insist, Mr. Mustang." She replied and he chuckled.

"Nice." He bowed and extended his arm towards the house. "After you Miss Hawkeye."

She took a few steps forward before he could stand up straight again, for some reason that made her blush a little. It had been years since the two of them walked up this path, but the house looked exactly the same. Other than the decorations, she felt like time stood still and her gut twisted a little as she recalled the first time they met the Elrics. She hadn't been expecting to see a mere boy with his limbs missing sulking in the corner, nor Roy lifting him out of his wheelchair and screaming at him. She would have never suspected those two would grow close or even the impact they would have on each others lives. The extraordinary adventure aside, she marveled at how she and Roy could be welcome into the Rockbell and Elric home like extended family.

Roy looked up as the door opened and Al's face greeted them. It was still so strange to see the kid as human and not some towering hunk of armor. He had that ridiculous panda sitting on his shoulder like a parrot. "It looks like you didn't need our help after all, Alphonse. The house looks great."

Al smiled. "Colonel...I mean General! Yes! Mei and I got everything done yesterday. I cheated, we used alchemy since Brother is a horrible carpenter. I think he's trying to get an automail hand as much as he smashes his fingers with a hammer."

Mei squeaked as she ran up besides Al. "Oh Good! You're here! You need to help Winry with her dress. She's fussing with it and quite honestly I don't know anything about Amestrian fashion to help."

Riza was yanked into the house by the strong little princess who didn't even give her a chance to wave a hello at Edward who was sitting at the kitchen table.

Al shrugged. "Come in sir. I was hoping you could look over my speech. I remember Mr. Hughes saying your speech as his best man was perfection."

Pinako walked over to the door and looked at the man who had yet to set foot over the threshold. She gave him a look over, glad he obeyed the request to not come in uniform. "Why don't you ask if they want to bring their bags in."

Roy shook his head. "We were planning to get a room in town."

"Nonsense." Pinako said and turned her back on him. "They have a room for you two already made up."

"A room?" Roy asked as the woman started to climb the stairs.

"This isn't the Grand Hotel, Mustang." Pinako replied. "Either share the back room or use the doghouse. It's up to you."

Al shrugged. "Come in sir, sorry."

Roy wasn't that upset that they kept him waiting on the porch. It was difficult to take that step into the home as it was like taking a step back in time. Back when they were all younger and still so naive, he and Riza included. He followed Al into the kitchen where Ed was staring at a blank piece of paper. The blond stood up and narrowed his eyes at him, waiting for the opening volley of insults that marked their unique relationship. "I'll be damned, you actually are a little taller."

Ed smiled. That wasn't so bad...

"Did you get platform boots for the wedding?" Roy grinned.

"Did you forget to dye your hair for the wedding? I'm seeing a lot of gray hairs. Only the bride should be wearing white." Ed countered and saw Roy grin.

"Good to see you, Fullmetal."

"Yeah you too Mustang."

Winry smoothed out the dress again as Pinako backed away from pinning it for the tenth time this hour. She looked in the mirror and exasperated she said, "My God, why didn't anyone tell me my boobs were this big?"

Riza sat on her bed and watched the bride try to add some material to her dress to avoid the incredible amount of cleavage that was threatening to overflow from her dress. "Why don't you just have one of the boys add some height to the neckline with alchemy?"

Pinako glanced at the woman soldier. "So my lace looks bad?"

Mei nodded. "Like you're trying to hold back her boobs with a fishing net."

"Take it off, I'll see if I can redo the seam and change the bodice." Pinako grumbled and went back downstairs.

Mei jumped up to help Winry out of her dress. "So Hawkeye, when are you getting married?"

Riza could see Winry's smirk in the mirror before she disappeared behind a screen to take off her dress. "I'm not seeing anyone."

"Oh don't even try to play that card." Winry chirped. "Mei told me what happened on the Promised Day. Don't even try to act like there's nothing between you and Mustang."

Mei gave a bashful smile. "What? It was really romantic in hindsight. Once we weren't in imminent danger of dying or being destroyed by evil...well you should have seen how you two looked at each other."

Winry stepped out from behind the screen now back in her shop clothes. "So tell us, Riza, how can anyone ignore that?"

Riza blushed as the two younger woman looked at her with an all knowing gaze, daring her to defy their statements.

Ed looked at Mustang as he grumbled and fished in his jacket for something. "What's your problem? Are you suddenly illiterate?"

"No." Roy spat. "It's my damned eyes. My vision was returned but not exactly as before. I can see, but...I need reading glasses."

Ed didn't know why that was so bad. Being blind versus some vision limitations didn't seem like that big of a deal. Well unless you were Mr. Perfect who prided himself on his looks and apparently 20/20 vision.

"And driving glasses." He put them both on the table. "I'm not used to these damned things yet."

"I doubt the glasses improved your driving any." Ed snorted, then asked, "Isn't your job reading paperwork most of your day?"

"Shut up Ed." Roy tried on the one pair and then put it down in favor of the other one. "You know damned well that I just sign paperwork. I never read any of it."

"Yeah," Ed said dryly as Roy donned his glasses to read Al's speech. "I remember that from the out of context comments you would write on my field reports."

Roy huffed and looked over his glasses at Ed who was still sitting there tapping his pen on the table looking at a blank piece of paper. "What are you trying to write? Your autobiography?"

"His wedding vows." Al chirped and grinned. "Winry told him if it had anything to do with alchemy or equivalent exchange she was going to punch him."

Roy pushed the glassed back up where they needed to be and looked at Al's speech. "I feel like I'm helping you two with homework."

Al cleared his throat. "Maybe...you can give him some ideas? I'm sure you've thought about what you were going to say at your wedding? I mean, Hawkeye does deserve something really special instead of generic...right?"

Roy didn't even glance up from the speech. "Nice try Al. Don't forget that my team, my boss and my Mom also are on my case about getting married and I deal with this on a daily basis."

"Mei said...well she likes to tell the story of the Promised Day to people in the royal court a lot." Al shrugged.

"Do you want my help with this speech or not?" Roy glanced over at him.

"I'll pay you to write my vows." Ed said and shoved the blank paper across the table to him.

"With what? The money you still owe me?" Roy glanced at the other Elric who was looking at him like he'd sell his soul just to be rid of the responsibility of writing his wedding vows. He took off his glasses and set them down on the table. They hurt his nose. "I can't believe you invited me to your wedding to do your paperwork!"

"If you're never going to get married, then what's the harm in letting me buy your ideas from you?" Ed asked.

"General Mustang is..." Riza began only to see Winry's expression darken. No wonder she kept Ed in line.

Winry put her hands on her hips. "I said no military anything was allowed here this weekend! Not at my wedding."

"Mustang, " Riza restarted and watched the two girls grumble at her clever sidestep, "Is my boss and a friend."

"He almost squeezed your guts out he was so happy I saved your life! He was on the verge of crying!" Mei squeaked. "I saw it with my own eyes!"

Riza stood firm. They were used to this by now. "Because a man deeply in love would refer to me by my rank."

Mei shook her head, her braids dancing over her shoulders. "Then why did the bad guys call you , 'his precious woman'?"

"RoyAi shipping has become a national past time." Riza replied.

"Look, " Winry brushed her hair away from her face. "I think the man can be an ass but the fact remains that he was there for Ed and Al when they needed someone most. Not Hoenhiem, Mustang. So in some weird way you two were like the parents they both should have had. They're both so independent and stubborn, they would have never been happy having some warm home and cuddly family to come home to everyday like the Hughes'. Sure it was great for a while, but then they get wanderlust and off they go again. Anyhow I guess what I'm trying to say is that they just needed to know someone was always standing behind them. They never wanted to worry me, so they didn't tell me anything. I guess...he's not all bad, Mustang that is."

Mei leaned forward and smiled. "I think you might want to do something about it before it's too late."

"Are you calling me old?" Riza narrowed her eyes at them and they replied in unison.

"Yes."

Al's lip trembled as he looked over his speech. "You...crossed out almost all of it!"

Roy rubbed his eyes. He had a hard time adjusting his focus after he moved from glasses to normal vision and his eyes always teared up. "If Ed is going to get hit for mentioning alchemy, I'm pretty sure the rules apply to you as well."

Al looked up at his brother, panicked. "Oh my God! What am I going to say!?"

Roy stood up and looked down at the two Elrics and shook his head. "You have three days. Come up with something. It's not human transmutation, it's just a paragraph of simple words."

"There is a minimum word count!?" Ed screeched. "Where are you going!?"

Roy walked to the kitchen counter. "I imagine you have coffee? Or are you really that uncivilized out here? Is the reason you hate milk because there isn't anything else to drink?"

Al looked to Ed. "Brother what if we recite something, maybe a poem?"

Ed growled. "We burnt our house down with all those books in it!"

"Why did we do that!?" Al looked down at the redacted speech. "The only thing in this house is medical books and automail manuals!"

They glanced at each other before exploding out of the kitchen and into the workshop. Roy looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes. Idiots.

Riza walked down the stairs, no longer interested in playing matchmaking games with the two girls half her age. They were following behind her uttering apologies about the slight but she really didn't want to forgive them yet. She was not old. She was not getting too old for a family. She was not developing age issues. She was however, going to take out her frustrations on Roy for leaving his damned glasses lying on the table! How many times was she going to have to get on him about this? He never lost his pocket watch, but somehow managed to leave his glasses everywhere but in his shirt pocket!

Winry watched Riza walk over and swipe something off the kitchen table before walking over to where Mustang was trying to read a coffee can. She and Mei leaned around the corner to see how this would play out.

"Sir, use your glasses!" Riza snapped and Roy turned to look at her. She could see him put on that helpless moron look, expecting her to just make the coffee for him instead of forcing him to read how many scoops it required to make it himself.

Winry piped up. "No! I said NO military formalities this weekend!"

Riza slapped the glasses into his hand. "Wear your glasses, idiot!"

Roy watched her march out of the kitchen and heard the front door slam. He looked over at the two girls and frowned. "What did you two do?"

Winry put her hands on her hips and stepped forward with the princess Mei right beside her. "It's what you haven't done, mister!"

Mei pointed an accusatory finger at him and said with the authority of a princess, "You haven't asked her to marry you yet!"

Roy put his glasses on so the two girls would fade into blurry blobs. "Yes, I did. Several times."

Winry and Mei looked at each other as the man went back to trying to make his coffee. "What?"

"I work long hours. We get married and she's no longer allowed to be by my side." He replied. "Also something about be being an idiot who might get blinded, killed or turned into a human sacrifice if she's not there to watch me. Good luck to both of you if you're trying to wear her down."

"So the Promised Day..." Mei said.

"Is going to happen again if someone doesn't help me make some damned coffee." He mumbled and picked up the glass carafe. "All the numbers are worn off the side of this thing! How do I know how many cups it is? How can you live in a house with an alchemist and not have adequate measuring devices? Do you know what goes wrong if you don't put exactly the right measurements into something?"

Winry went over and took the carafe from him and the coffee. "I'll make it."

"Thank you." Roy looked up as he heard the front door open and something smack against it. Riza was bringing in their bags by herself. He swiftly walked out of the kitchen and grabbed a bag from her as she tried to wrestle both through the door while holding it open. Pinako came out of a back room as they flawlessly navigated the hand off like they did this on a daily basis.

"I'll show you to your room." Pinako puffed on her pipe as Mustang closed the front door.

"Room? Singular?" Riza asked and saw Roy shrug.

"Pretty sure our secret's safe here." Roy gave her a smile and saw her roll her eyes in response.

"You mean with the kid who told everyone he met that he performed human transmutation?" Riza whispered.

Roy watched her follow Pinako down a hall and followed behind both of them.

Riza set her bag down in the back room and looked at the queen size bed. "This was her parents room, wasn't it?"

Pinako puffed on her pipe and nodded. "Yup."

Roy walked in and set his bag down next to the door and Pinako quickly disappeared and shut the door behind her. Riza was looking at some pictures on the nightstand of the Elrics and Winry as kids. He sat down on the bed and flopped backwards. "I wasn't expecting this weekend to be like this."

She looked at him, his eyes closed and his fingers undoing his collar button and the one below so his neck could be less restricted. She looked around the room; Winry's parent's bedroom that still had pictures of their daughter and her two friends. Neither of these kids would have parents to attend the ceremony on Saturday. Instead, Winry gave them this room because they were filling in for Ed's parents. It made her heart ache. "I know."

Roy took a deep breath, happy to relax a little. "It seems like just yesterday when we walked in this house for the first time. Now that little shit is getting married. Instead of hanging up his ridiculous pictures of homunculus on the refrigerator, I'm helping him write his wedding vows. "

She was about to say something but he kept talking. He started to play with the dog tags around his neck.

"It used to be us sitting at the kitchen table doing our homework. You don't realize how quickly things move along when you're living in the moment. I didn't think I'd live through this. Now it's so painfully obvious how short life is, now that we've come back here. Back to where this all began, when I had my eyes fixed on the top and nothing else. Nothing else, not even the morality of using some damned kid to get myself a promotion. That damned kid..."

She knew why he stopped talking because she too was tearing up. "We're going to keep our eyes fixed on the top because we need to change this world still...for that kid and his kids."

"Riza, the world is never going to be perfect. It's what makes it so damned beautiful."

"Roy..."

"I won't ask. I promised you that last time. I won't ask again, I'll keep that promise to you." He sat up and rubbed his eyes, putting the necklace with his dog tags and his mother's engagement ring back into his shirt. That ring and his name stamped into the metal tag was going to have to be as close as he got to having Riza be his wife. Two symbolic pieces of metal, hanging around his neck reminding him of the path he had chosen. Yes life was beautiful: beautiful and cruel. How one simple question had been something he fantasized about asking, then eventually learned to dread the answer to. It finally got to the point where she asked him to stop, just because of how painful it was becoming for her to say no. "Coffee should be ready, do you want some?"

"Sure. I'll...be out in a few minutes." She wiped away a tear and listened to him softly walk to his bags, rifle through them and find a more comfortable shirt. The rustle of fabric as he pulled his dress shirt off over his head, something she didn't want to see because she knew that her eyes would only see that ring dangling over his chest. He must have quickly thrown on a tee shirt as she heard him open the door and leave. No, she wasn't expecting the weekend to be like this either.