Hello! I return with a modern au! This is a little different than what I'm used to, but no worries; I'm still going to have fun with it. ;) (Meaning this won't just be a bunch of soccer.)
I'll aim to post once a week for now, but I don't have a whole lot already written, so... we'll see how that goes.

The air was fresh that early Saturday afternoon, and the sun beat down strongly enough for it to be slightly too hot, but not enough so that complaining was justified. The freshly mowed lawn was littered with people, some standing impatiently within the designation lines of the soccer field, while others sat and stood along the sidelines, watching with varying degrees of interest.

Some were barely paying attention, but as far as Roy was concerned, it was a battlefield out there. He stood by the side as a simple spectator, but even from that distance, he could pick up on the intensity that radiated around the field.

A whistle was blown and cued a flurry of movement as the kids sporting two different colors clashed in the center. The black and white soccer bell went flying into the air as some chased it and others stayed behind at strategically designed distances. One particular blond in a red uniform charged through the field, swiftly avoiding the purple clad opponents until he reached the ball and immediately kicked it away to another teammate, effectively removing it from the center of the chaos.

Roy's attention was far more wrapped than he would later care to admit, idly surprised by his own interest yet again in the back of his mind. Even after he signed the adoption papers, he never thought he would feel so invested in a children's soccer game.

His eyes jumped to the others in red from time to time when either side closed in on a goal, but for the most part, his focus remained primarily locked on the two kids he had been able to call his own for only a few months now.

Edward had claimed an offensive position on the team almost immediately after joining, as he was naturally drawn into the thick of the action and overly eager to run into enemy territory. Alphonse on the other hand was further back, taking up the place of a midfielder. He has a knack for support, constantly willing and able to assist whoever would need him- whether it be back by their goal, or in the middle of the field. The two siblings both took up the center-most positions in their respective areas, acting as a deadly combination due to their excellent teamwork. The coach noticed this early on, and was smart to make use of it.

The game was nearing halftime and the purple team was one point ahead, thanks to either sheer luck or a bribed referee. Roy had to hold himself back from yelling out loud when a defender was purposefully tripped just before the point was scored, silently chiding himself for getting a little too heated.

The minutes ticked on as he was absorbed in the quick-footed movements on the players, watching with bated breath as the offenders of the purple team stretched too far into the red's territory for comfort, kicking the ball back and forth between each other as the defenders and midfielders raced to keep up and blockade their movement.

Roy wasn't sure about anyone else, but he could almost sense the countdown nearing halftime as they neared closer and closer to the goal. If the team were to get behind by not just one point, but two, it would be near impossible to recover.

The purple team had their defenses stretched thin with the bulk of their numbers gathered on the opposite side of the field in a play to overpower the red team. Roy realized their intentions, but with no way to psychically communicate that to the players, he was left to stand hopelessly on the sidelines, reminding him that he was merely watching the show.

The red goalie had been led to one side of the field, expecting an attack from that angle. But before the kid was given time to react, the ball was kicked through the crowd of red and into the grasp of a single enemy who had split himself off from the center of the action. The offender in the purple jersey slammed his foot into the side of the ball and it went flying, gathering a few inches of air as it aimed for the open goal.

But before it got far, Alphonse had intercepted it with his shin and kicked it away before he could expect any advances, straight back into enemy territory where Edward and two others were waiting. As if he had seen the entire play beforehand, the older blond easily fell into step with the ball, guiding it along as defenders scurried after him

But by then, it was too late, Roy realized as he failed to keep the prideful smirk from slipping onto his face.

Ed had reared past the majority of the purple-clad team and was left with only the goalie to stand in his way. While Roy couldn't see from his distance, he was willing to bet that the enemy was growing nervous, daunted by Edward's infamous comportment that seemed to clearly state a challenge whenever he got invested in something.

With the seconds drawling on and the others charging to catch up, Edward ran up close and personal, forcing the goalie to face him head on. In one fluid motion, he kicked the soccer ball in such a way that it rose into the air and off to the side, far out of the goalie's immediate range.

The ball collided into the net with a satisfying swoosh, seconds before a whistle was blown to signify halftime.

The red team, especially Ed, threw their balled fists into the air, cheering while the opposing team slumped their shoulders and glared as they all returned to the sidelines. The friends and family members who spectated copied their respected sides. Roy joined in the celebration, growing more enthusiastic with every game he went to.

The cheering soon died down and faded into mingling conversation as a flock of red converged to the sidelines. Roy drew his eyes away from the field to watch as the other adults began to open their coolers and pull out water bottles and snacks for the kids, the natural smile still sitting easily on his visage.

"Dad!" Roy blinked and turned his head, not quite responding to, but rather reacting to the familiar voice just as a small blond figure plowed into him. A muffled, surprised grunt forced its way through his lips as two arms wrapped around his waist. "Did you see that? Were you watching?" Al asked eagerly as he beamed up at the man.

"Of course I did," he replied, returning the hug without hesitation, which he considered to be an accomplishment. Alphonse had opened up to him much quicker than his older brother, and never bothered hiding the fact that he enjoyed that physical contact. Roy, on the other hand, had to just get used to it, lest he discourage something so innocent and, in a way, necessary. "You did great," he added as his smile widened slightly.

Alphonse pulled away and wiped at the sheen of sweat on his forehead, breathing though his grin. "Thanks!"

"Water?" Roy asked as knelt beside the cooler that he was obligated to buy for these events, and began to shift through it.

"Yes please," the kid responded thankfully as his panting began to settle.

He handed a plastic bottle to Alphonse, who accepted it gratefully, and Roy grabbed another for the other blond who he knew would be joining them soon. Before he could turn around to sweep the area in search of said kid, Edward more or less appeared between the two, wordlessly swiping the bottle that was held loosely in Roy's hand. He twisted the cap and tilted his head back, gulping the water down until he emptied half of it, then lowered the bottle again with a satisfied exhale.

Ed kept his eyes closed, holding onto the bottle absently as if he was focusing primarily on his breathing until it slowed until a more normal pace. Meanwhile, Al continued to drink his own without the risk of choking himself, unlike his brother's charming display.

The two looked natural in their red uniforms, Roy thought passively for not the first time. The jerseys were lined in a gold trim that nearly matched their hair and eyes, as if the outfits were made for them. While it shouldn't really matter to Roy, he was glad they ended up with such a complementary color, instead of a gaudy neon green or something equally as lurid. He never made a point to dress in their colors when attending games, but he was certainly not against it, even though red wasn't his first choice.

After a moment, Edward returned to chugging down the water and tossing the plastic battle back towards the open cooler once it was emptied. Roy subconsciously gave him a faint look, contemplating if it would be smart keep his mouth shut. It wasn't like there were any trashcans in arms' reach anyway. And what would he say? Don't put things back where you got them? Roy wasn't eager to give the older kid more words to twist.

"You're welcome," he said casually, knowing how much Ed loved his sarcasm. He tried to hold it back when the two first moved in, but the blond made it surprisingly difficult to do, especially when the feeling was mutual.

Alphonse giggled at the pointed look his brother gave the man in return.

"You two hungry? I think I saw someone handing out oranges," Roy mused as he turned to glance around the row of chatting parents.

"Nah, I'm fine," Ed replied without giving it a moment of thought.

"You sure? It'll help keep your energy up."

"Yeah, I think it's a good idea, Brother," Alphonse pitched in, eyes locked on him expectantly, almost with a plea in his tone.

Edward glanced and Al for no more than a second before shrugging. "Alright, if you think so," he relented indifferently.

The younger brother beamed and turned to find the lady who brought the oranges. After a moment, he pointed her out; a woman probably in her forties with short dark blonde hair, holding a plastic bag filled with peeled oranges, and surrounded by a flock of excitable red uniformed kids. What was her name again? Molly? Holly?

"Let me know if you want more water," he called after them without much thought.

"Thanks, Dad!" Alphonse replied cheerfully.

"Yeah, thanks, Roy," Edward followed up, tone all too casual.

He barely withheld a sigh as the two bounded off.

Ed had been calling him by his first name for four months now, but given the circumstances, he couldn't blame him. Back when they first met at the orphanage, both kids used his last name or his rank. Since they now shared the name, sticking with that was out of the question.

Ordinarily, he wouldn't have thought much by it, but it was strange to compare the two brothers at times. Alphonse latched onto using the title of dad almost immediately after the papers were processed, eager to finally have someone to fill that vital role. Edward on the other hand, was the complete opposite, going so far as to avoid the term as much as possible. Roy was well aware that the older blond could appear distant to anyone but his brother at times, but knew there was no resentment there. They all agreed to the arrangement after all, but Ed had no desire to refer to him as something quite so paternal.

It was fair, considering his real father walked out on the family not long before their mother died of an illness, too long ago for Alphonse to remember very well. Unwilling to replace the mother, and resentful of the father, Roy claimed an entire different role for him. Something of a caregiver, but without any more specifications than that.

"Excuse me." A voice broke through his mulling, helping him to realize he had been staring into space. He blinked at the source, a thirty-something year old woman with long brown hair and an amiable uncertainty in her eyes. He recognized her as the newest member of the unofficial soccer parent club, which was about ninety-five percent moms, and five percent him. From the gossip he had overheard, her day job took up most of the weekends, allowing her little time to attend games until recently.

"The taller one is yours, right? They looked so similar, I thought they were brothers," she began with a small smile.

He heard himself chuckle in response as he recognized the familiar situation. "They are brothers. The older one- Edward- he's still not quite used to it yet," he explained, purposefully vague. There was no point in explaining that they were adopted, since anyone with eyes would see he and the two kids looked nothing alike.

"Oh. Oh, he was older than the other?" she asked herself, glancing back at the two blonds as they stood further off, chatting jovially with their teammates.

"I know, it's hard to believe," he replied smoothing, already hearing the kid's fiery screams of denial in the back of his head.

The conversation trailed off as some of the other parents distracted the woman before he could politely ask for her name. Next time, he shrugged indifferently as his eyes wandered aimlessly across the mostly-empty field.

"I hear he's a colonel in the military," a hushed voice said nearby. Roy glanced in that direction in the corner of his eye to see the lady he was just speaking to had been wrapped up in a discussion with two other moms, who just so happened to be infamous gossips.

He withheld a smirk and casually averted his gaze, silently tuning into their voices.

"What?" he heard the younger of them gasp and felt her eyes on him for a moment.

"And he's unmarried." There was something careful in her tone, verging on judgmental.

"How does he have time to take care of two boys and work such a dangerous job?"

"No one knows," the third spoke up. "He adopted them not long before the season started. It's too soon to tell how long he can keep this up."

A few seconds of silence passed, allowing him to safely assume they were eyeing him over.

"Well he seems to be doing just fine so far."

Their gossiping came to an abrupt halt when the team of red-clad children huddled together around the coach on command, then flocked out across the field only a moment later, followed by the opposing team. Roy's eyes bounced from each figure until he found the two blonds jogging next to each other, sharing a few terse words, before splitting off to return to their designated positions.

Roy thought he could hear the other ladies continuing their chattering a little way off, but his attention had been wrapped by the game before it could even begin.

With a score of one to one, he was eager to see how it would play out.

Within minutes after halftime, he would already dare say that the second portion of the game was better than the first. Both teams had been rushing with adrenaline, determined to break the tie before time ran out. So much hung in the balance for those children; each step- every play- everything they did was vital to their loss or victory. It must have felt like so much was on the line for them, and they all behaved accordingly.

An intense game of soccer was probably the closest any of them would get to experiencing anything remotely similar to war. Roy dearly hoped it would remain that way, he thought for a fraction of a second before banishing the concept to focus on the game.

No need to get so grim. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, he wasn't miles behind on his paperwork for once, and he was spending the day watching a game and being able to enjoy seeing Ed and Al- his sons- kick the other team's ass.

It was still so strange for him to think that all of this came to be because of an act of self-convenience and charity. But after all was said and done, after all the time that had passed, it still felt so surreal when Roy's train of thought endlessly cycled back to the fact that he was a parent. He never thought it would happen, and especially not the way it did.

He would be lying if he said he never had any doubts in his ability or the decision itself. It took some time to convince himself that despite his past, he was still capable of giving them a good life and doing whatever he could to be a role model, even if it took the boys yelling at him to stop being an idiot in order to finally get it.

The game was at a stalemate in the center of the field, with the ball constantly being intercepted and redirected, over and over again. For several long seconds, it was impossible to discern which side would slip up first. But at last, the ball slid past one of the purple team's offenders, just narrowly missing the kid's foot and flying towards a red offender, who guided the ball further away from the chaos. Edward and the other offender followed as backup, both intercepting the purple team's defenders from getting in the way of the ball. The opposing team's defenses were compromised with relative ease this time around, and the ball was kicked into their net, followed by an eruption of cheers.

With moral overflowing, they continued on steadily, with the red team gaining more and more of an advantage. The opposing team was split between being encouraged by the daunting prospect of defeat, and losing motivation completely.

Several minutes later, another point was scored for the red team and victory became imminent.

The opponents fought back as much as they could, nearing the other end of the field and getting very close to scoring a goal. But the remaining minutes passed quickly; the whistle was blown yet again and the victor was clear. The red team jumped and cheered, high fiving each other in the field and waving to the excited spectators. Meanwhile, the other team clapped politely with far less excitement.

The spectators that bordered the field slowly began to pack up their things as others offered more snacks and drinks to the kids who eventually made their way over. The energetic, celebratory buzz became familiar to Roy with the more games that he attended.

He followed the others lead and pulled out more water for the kids once he saw them steadily making their way back over to him, being stopped by a teammate every few seconds.

"Good job, you two," he greeted with a soft smile as Ed and Al returned, both panting warily with prideful grins stretched across their faces.

They thanked him in unison and accepted the bottles of water. Only a few seconds of silence passed between the three as they focused on rehydrating themselves, but moments later, the kids were ranting excitably about key moments in the game. Roy mostly stayed out of it, preferring to simply watch and listen, primarily because he realized he had nothing to add once they started talking about the moves of their teammates. He hadn't paid any attention to them, and still didn't really know the other kids' names, besides sensing some familiarity when they were brought up more than once between the two.

After a few minutes, the field began to clear and families were leaving to their cars, with some still mulling about. Roy opened his mouth to announce that they should probably get going, but his eyes caught the team's coach approaching them.

"Hey Roy!" the man greeted with an amiable wave. The coach, Andrew Mercer, was maybe a few years older than the colonel and had shortly cut dark brown hair with soft hazel eyes. He had a trusting quality about him that had the kid's immediately liking him. From what Roy gathered, he began coaching when his own son joined the league, but continued on even as the kid grew out of it. He seemed to have a great love of the sport and was very helpful with integrating Ed and Al into the team.

"Hello, Andrew," Roy replied with an easy smile. "That was quite the game."

The older man expelled a hearty laugh and dropped his attention down to the two blonds. "Yes, it was! You boys did great, as always."

"Thanks, Coach!" Al grinned as Ed nodded, still downing the bottle of water.

"I suppose you three are going home to celebrate the win, huh?" Andrew asked with a smile as he glanced between them.

Roy nodded, suddenly feeling two pairs of golden eyes fall on him expectantly. He was almost afraid to look down at them. "I suppose so," he answered casually.

"Then I'll leave you to it. See you all next Monday for practice," Coach Mercer exclaimed cheerfully and walked off with a wave, which to two kids returned.

"Well, we better get going too," he announced and turned to start walking towards the parking lot without giving it much thought, searching for his black sedan.

The blonds began whispering to each other as they followed behind, but Roy thought nothing of it, having grown quite accustomed to the feeling that they were constantly plotting something behind his back.

"Hey Roy," Edward began abruptly as they reached the car a moment after their murmuring quieted down.

"Yes?"

"Ice cream."

"What?" Roy spun around just as they reached his car to face the two standing side-by-side with an alarming amount of determination in their eyes.

"Coach Mercer suggested we should celebrate," Alphonse said as if he was simply catching Roy up on something he had missed. "So, let's get ice cream!"

And then the two boys began to chant in unison before Roy had any hope of uttering a response, balling their fists in the air. "Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream," over and over again until finally he managed to string together some words.

"You two just spent all day running around, eating healthy snacks, and now you want to ruin it with ice cream? Doesn't that sound a little counter-productive?"

Long before the colonel had adopted the two, he had quickly learned that they were brilliant. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that they were fully capable of somehow convincing everyone within earshot that there was some miraculous benefit to ice cream after a two hour soccer game. And yet, in spite of everything, they only stared back at him, expressions unchanging from that same hopeful intensity, and continued the chant "ice cream, ice cream, ice cream" until he simply had no choice but to give in.

"Alright, alright, but don't expect this every time you win a game," he announced, giving the two blonds a pointed look as he unlocked his car and climbed inside. He watched with a mock pout through the glass as they highfived each other in a subdued cheer and followed into the back seat.

The black car backed out of its parking spot alongside the field and began to turn out of the lot, with its passengers completely unaware of the pair of dark eyes that watched from a safe distance. Every Saturday, every other weekday, same time, same place.

The same group.

Each parent and each child; he watched and he waited.