Fullmetal Alchemist Tangled in Christmas

**AN: So, I finally went through all of my past writing stuff and I found a few of my unpublished one-shots. This was one of them. I also discovered that if I put all my writing into one place, I filled a three inch binder...Damn...**

**Disclaimer: Nope, don't own it.**

**Special thanks to my dear friends, MoonStarDutchess, Rinoax, and Mals for being so awesome and putting up with me for so long. Love you guys!**

Tangled in Christmas

Riza Mustang had decided that decorating a Christmas tree was a real pain in the ass.

She and Roy had just bought a gorgeous tree that was perfect in every way. This was after they had spent half the day outside trudging through the snow looking at every tree and trying to find one that they both approved of. Riza had given up about half way through the day and wished that Roy would just pick a damn tree so they could finally get out of the cold and go home but he refused to leave without finding _the_ tree. Finally, Roy found one he was satisfied with, and they chopped it down and dragged it back home. This lead to their current problem; getting the damn thing through the front door.

"Roy, I don't think it's going to fit. It's too big." Riza said as she tried to push the tree through the doorway. She was wet and cold and she had pine needles sticking into her face and she couldn't even see her husband who was standing on the other side of the tree.

She heard him grunt from inside the house. "Don't worry, Riza, I'll make sure it fits. We just have to add a little more strength into it," he said pulling on the tree, which didn't budge an inch.

Riza sighed and pushed harder, but even with their combined strength, the tree refused to move. A bead of sweat rolled down her face from the effort and she silently wondered why she had agreed to this endeavor in the first place.

"Just a bit…more," Roy growled, and gritted his teeth.

"Maybe we should cut it down a bit." She suggested releasing her grip on the tree and leaning back against the side of the doorframe next to the tree. She knew that the tree wasn't going to move but the problem was how to make her husband realize that his efforts were useless.

"No, we can't cut it! It's the perfect tree," he protested, still straining against the tree unaware that he was no longer being aided.

Riza rolled her eyes and silently counted down. _"…5, 4, 3, 2, and 1."_

"Okay, maybe we should cut some of the branches off," Roy said, letting the tree drop to the floor. Riza smiled at the victory.

"Good idea, now let's get this out of the door so we can cut it." She pulled at the tree and dragged it out into the snow-covered front lawn. Roy stepped out onto the porch and down the steps. He walked around the side of the house to the shed they had in the back yard to get a saw. While Riza waited out front with the tree, Black Hayate trotted out onto the deck and bounded over to where she stood. Riza smiled and knelt down to pat his head and scratch behind his ears.

"Daddy is silly isn't he, Hayate?"

Hayate barked in agreement, his tongue dangling out the side of his mouth looking happy as could be. She let out a light chuckle and the sound of crunching snow made her look up to see Roy returning with a hand saw in hand. She stood and he came to stand next to her looking down at the tree. He looked like someone had fed him something sour.

Roy turned to her. "Do we really have to cut it down?" She raised an eyebrow at his pouty expression and gestured to their front door.

"Only if you want to get it inside the house." Her tone brooked no argument and Roy let out a heavy sigh and began to trim down some of the larger branches. Riza watched him work and told him to stop after he had a cut a few more of the branches. "Alright, I think that might be enough, let's try this one more time."

He nodded and set the hand saw aside and together they lifted the tree and headed back towards the house with Hayate trailing behind them. Now that the larger branches were gone, the tree easily fit through the door and they were able to get it inside. They gently laid it down on the floor in the hallway and closed the door. After taking off their heavy coats, hats, gloves and boots, they stood beside each other and gazed into the living room.

"We should put it by the fireplace."

"No, I think it should go by the front window."

"But it would make more sense if it was near the fireplace. You know, more traditional."

"How is a burning tree more traditional?"

"What makes you think it would be on fire?"

"If it involves a fire, it's either you or it's the fireplace that's to blame and I will not have it burning the house down. We're putting it by the front window." Riza glared at him with her arms folded across her chest.

A Riza with her arms crossed and a stern look was not something one wanted to argue with so Roy was quick to give into her demands. "All right, we'll put it by the window." She smiled and Roy sighed as they moved the furniture around a bit making room for the tree. Roy set the tree holder in place and they secured the tree into it. That done the couple stood back to admire their work.

"It looks good, now we can get the lights and tinsel," Roy pulled Riza into his side and kissed her on the forehead. Riza smiled giving her husband a quick squeeze before pulling out of his embrace to fetch the box of tinsel while Roy got to work on the lights that they had brought up to the living room earlier.

Roy knelt down next to the box and pulled out a strand of multi-colored Christmas lights. He sat back and tried to untangle the strands from all the others. "What's with these damn things?" He muttered angrily under his breath as he pulled at the mass of wires. He was trying to untangle the green lights from the red and white ones and was making little progress. Anything that he did seemed to make the tangles worse.

So, there he was, sitting on the floor, wrestling pointlessly with a tangled mess of Christmas lights when Riza re-entered the room with the box of tinsel. Her eyes widened in amusement and her lips curled into a smile as she watched her husband tug and shake the wire ball cursing vehemently.

She set the box down on the couch and walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Need any help, Roy?" she asked in a soft voice, her eyes betraying her amusement.

He growled in response and continued to fumble with the lights. Riza chuckled and put a hand on his to stop his attempts. "How about I deal with this since you seem to be making it worse."

Grudgingly, Roy handed the knot of wires over to her, grumbling all the while. "Damn wires…don't know who they're dealing with." He murmured while Riza let out a snort at his antics.

She smiled and sat down next to him and began to sort through the wires. "Of course they don't know who they are dealing with, they're inanimate objects." She couldn't resist the grand opportunity to tease him.

He huffed. "Oh shut up…"

She giggled and continued to work on the ball which was already less tangled than it had been while in Roy's possession. "While I work on this, why don't you get to work on the tinsel?" She paused in her work and pointed to the box she had placed on the couch a few minutes before.

"Fine, what do you want me to do with it?" he asked, standing up and opening the box and taking a peek inside.

"Just pick out the colors that you want to use and put them into a pile so we can put them on the tree." She said pulling and untangled string of lights from the ball of knots.

They set to work on their tasks and soon, Riza had finished sorting out the lights and she turned to check on how Roy was doing.

Roy was scratching his chin thoughtfully, his eyes darting back and forth between the red tinsel and the gold tinsel.

She gave him a curious look. "Is there something wrong?"

He shook his head. "No, I just can't decide which color I want to use." His eyes never left the two piles. Riza pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. She was beginning to wonder if they were going to be able to finish the tree before they had to go to work in the morning. Why did he have to make things so difficult?

Hayate wandered back into the room and caught sight of the piles of tinsel. His tail started to wag back and forth and he began to advance towards Roy, his attention focused on the shiny piles in front of him.

Riza caught sight of him but decided to see what was going to happen. Hayate cautiously came closer to the piles and still Roy didn't sense the danger. Hayate was about two feet away when he pounced. Roy didn't have a chance to stop him and he fell sideways in surprise as the dog shot by him diving into the pile of golden tinsel. He flopped around in the tinsel for a few moments before he gathered a strand up in his mouth and dashed off with his newfound treasure.

Roy quickly recovered and lunged at the retreating dog. "Get back here Hayate!" he exclaimed as he missed the dog. He jumped to his feet to chase after the culprit leaving Riza alone in the room covering her mouth with her hand in an attempt to suppress her mirth. She hadn't had this much fun in a while and she fully intended to enjoy it while it lasted. _"At least until I give Roy the good news…"_ She thought a warm smile creeping onto her face as she rested her hand on her stomach. She had only found out for sure two days ago and she couldn't be happier. She had agonized for a majority of those two days on how she was going to tell him when she came across a shop where she had found the perfect thing. It was now carefully wrapped up in a box hidden in her gun safe where Roy couldn't get at it.

She heard Roy's muffled curses and Hayate's scrambling paws and growls move throughout the house. She waited patiently for them to come back into the living room.

Soon enough, they both came barreling into the room and Riza was ready for them. She enjoyed seeing them happy and getting along but she didn't want them destroying the house. It was time to put her foot down.

"Hold it right there you two!" She commanded in a stern voice.

Both chaser and chasee froze where they stood at the sound of her voice turning to gaze at her with frightened and guilty expressions.

She pushed herself to her feet and walked over to them. She glanced down at Hayate. "Hayate, drop it." She ordered and Hayate was quick to obey, plopping down on his haunches and looking down at the floor in shame.

She turned to Roy, who looked just as nervous. "And you. Don't go destroying the house. We still have a lot of work to do." She said and picked up the discarded tinsel and wrapping it around Roy's neck and she smiled at his confusion. "Come on, let's finish decorating or you won't get to see the surprise I bought for you."

At the mention of a surprise, Roy smirked. "A surprise? What kind of surprise?" He pulled her closer to him wrapping his arms around her waist.

"You'll have to wait and find out after we finished decorating the tree." She replied in a sultry tone. She stepped out of his arms and turned back to the tree. Still smiling and excited at the thought of a surprise, Roy joined her by the tree and they quickly finished putting the tinsel and lights onto the tree. While they were finishing up, Hayate had made a hasty retreat.

When they were finished with the tinsel and lights, it was time for the ornaments.

"Which ones do you want to use, Riza?" Roy asked pulling over the bags of brand new ornaments.

"Hmmm, let's start with the red, gold, and green ones first and then we'll add onto that." She replied opening one of the boxes with green ornaments.

Seven broken ornaments and two unhappy campers later, they had succeeded in decorating the tree. The couple stood in front of the fruits of the labor and gazed appreciatively at their elegant tree.

"There's only one more thing missing." Roy said with a grin.

Riza had been about to say the same thing and frowned in confusion. "What's missing?" she was hoping that he hadn't found out about her surprise already. He gave her a quick kiss before he pulled something out from behind his back. "The star," he said simply, handing her the star.

It was pure white and had silver flakes speckled all over and it glistened in the dancing light of the fireplace. It was made in the shape of a perfect snowflake.

"It's beautiful Roy, where did you find such a thing?" she asked, turning the snowflake over in her hands admiring its beauty.

Roy smiled. "I didn't get it anywhere, I made it."

"With alchemy?"

"A little. I made the snowflake by hand and transmuted silver into little flakes and stuck them on." He puffed out his chest proudly with a smirk and a twinkle in his dark eyes.

Riza matched his smile. "You did a beautiful job on it Roy, do you want to put it on the tree?" she asked holding out the star to him.

He shook his head. "No, I believe you should have the honor Riza. It's our first Christmas together as a married couple and I want you to do it." He pushed the star back to her.

He turned her towards the tree. "Go on, put it on." He pointed to the stool that they had been using to put the lights and tinsel on the higher branches.

She smiled, her eyes sparkling. "I will, but first I have to give you something. Wait here," she gave him the star and she strode out of the room and soon returned holding a small square box. She came back to stand next to him and offered it to him. "Open it. I want you to put this on the tree too."

He set aside the star and took the box, opening it with care. Inside was a spherical, blue and white ornament. Roy pulled it out of the box and froze. Riza waited anxiously for his response. Roy gaped at the ornament and then at her disbelief etched onto his face. "Riza? Are you…"

"Yes." She beamed and Roy whooped with joy quickly setting aside the ornament that said, "Baby's first Christmas," and gathered her into his arms and twirled her around the room.

"I can't believe it! We're going to have a baby! I'm going to be a father!" He laughed and tears of joy ran down Riza's face. She couldn't believe it either and she was so happy.

It took them a while to calm down enough to sit on the couch snuggled and snuggle together. Riza couldn't help but think that everything was perfect and she was happy and content. She had a good job, a wonderful husband and now a baby on the way. Everything was perfect.

CRASH

Roy and Riza bolted off the couch at the loud sound only to find that Hayate had snuck back into the room and had tried to get the tinsel that was on the tree. He had apparently pulled too hard and the whole thing had come crashing down. Silence permeated the room for a few moments and then Riza let out a snort of laughter which turned into a guffaw and Roy soon joined in. In a matter of moments the couple had been reduced to crying themselves into tears on the couch.

Once they calmed down enough to catch their breath, Roy gazed at the fallen tree with remorse. "All that work for nothing." He muttered.

Riza hummed. "I wouldn't say it was for nothing. We definitely learned what we will have to do next year in order to avoid all this mess."

They decided to leave the mess until morning, too content to bother cleaning it up and relieved that the star and ornament still sat on coffee table, gleaming in the light of the fire.


End file.
