"Time in a Bottle" (Fullmetal Alchemist, Maes & Elicia, 1/1)

[mjules.livejournal.com]

Title: Time in a Bottle
Author: m.jules
Rating: PG?
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Prompt: Pumpkin
Characters/Pairings: Maes & Elicia, OT4 mentions
Author's Notes: This is for cornerofmadness's birthday, because Maes insisted that nothing could be better than a story about his daughter. It is also for the "pumpkin" prompt of the color_i_fic Garden of Eden challenge. Not only that, but it serves as a very-far-in-the-past prequel to my as-yet unposted story, "Daddy's Girl." Title and opening quote from "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce.

Happy Birthday, Dana!

---

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you...




"Daddy! Daddy!"

Maes turned toward the sound of the sweetest word he'd ever heard, a grin splitting his face before he even caught sight of the honey-haired angel as she came careening around the corner, her eyes wide with excitement and her arms flung open.

"Hi, princess!" he greeted her as she flew into his arms. The impact of her against his chest belied her tiny size and he squeezed her tightly, inhaling that peculiar scent of sunshine and modeling clay that clung to her linen dress and creatively-stained hands.

"Daddy, come see what I made!" she squealed as she squirmed against him, and though she was clearly ready to go again, he wasn't done holding her. She already felt heavier than she had the week before, and he didn't want to let her slip away. Surely it wasn't his imagination that she was growing up much more quickly than she should be. "Da-addy!" she protested, wiggling more insistently. "Put me down! Come see!"

"Okay, okay," he sighed, and she slid out of his arms like a wriggling fish, running almost before she even hit the floor. "Show me what you made, honey." He really did want to see what she'd made, but he wanted to hold her just a little while longer...

He followed her down the hall and through the kitchen, and though he lengthened his strides to keep up with her, she kept dashing around corners and through doorways, giving him the unnerving sensation that she was leaving him behind. Every time she darted around another door frame, flashing through the house in glimpses of honey hair and bright blue fabric from her dress, he quickened his pace just a little, unwilling to let her out of his sight.

She led him out to the back yard, and the first things he noticed were the pumpkins set around the picnic table, reflecting the glow of the autumn afternoon sunlight. The glint of light from something metal caught his eye just before he felt the strong tug of his daughter's hand on his pants.

"Daddy! Look!"

He complied, and looked down at the papers she was waving at him. "Oh, honey, what have you got there?" He crouched down and smiled happily as she snuggled against him and thrust her new artwork into his hand. "What beautiful pictures!" He could tell what they were without her help, but he asked her to describe them to him anyway. The longer he could keep her in his arms, her voice happily chirping in his ears, the better his life would be.

"This one's of Mommy and me. See? I'm helping her bake a pie!" Elicia pointed at the two stick figures on the paper, and though the picture wasn't terribly detailed, the figures were easily identifiable. And sure enough, the Elicia-figure held an apple in her hands while the Gracia-figure proudly displayed a pie.

"And this one is Auntie Riza with her doggy." She turned to her father and whispered conspiratorially in his ear, "I like her doggy. Can I have a doggy?"

Maes' first impulse was to tell her that, sure, honey, we'll get one tomorrow, but he remembered that Riza wasn't the only woman in his life who knew how to wield a weapon. Gracia had received a wooden rolling pin for their anniversary two years ago, and it was with that thought that he said cheerfully, "Well, we'll talk to Mommy about it, okay, honey?" Elicia's disappointed look prompted him to add, "But I'm sure she'd like a puppy, too."

He winced and prayed that Gracia would, in fact, find the idea of a puppy appealing.

"Yay!" Elicia proclaimed, turning to the next picture in her collection. "This is Unca Roy." She'd drawn him standing in front of the fireplace with a frown on his face and black, cold logs in the fireplace.

"What's going on in this picture?" Maes asked, amused and curious and already imagining the look on Roy's face when he saw the portrait.

"He wanted to start a fire in the fireplace, but he can't because it's summertime and it's so hot." Elicia giggled with the air of a child who has just told herself a funny joke, but fortunately for her, her father shared her sense of humor and laughed with her. When their giggles had died down, she smiled beatifically and said with bright confidence, "But it's okay, because now it's cold and he can build fires and we can roast marshmallows. Right, Daddy?"

"I'm sure Uncle Roy will love to roast marshmallows with us, honey," Maes answered confidently. He didn't have to guess about that one -- Roy had a soft spot for Elicia that was the source of many amusements. The big bad colonel had been known to spend hours snapping his fingers and making brightly colored sparks for the benefit of the pretty little girl who curled in his lap and squealed happily about her private fireworks show.

"And this one," Elicia chirped, continuing with her show, "Is you."

The figure on the page bore a remarkable resemblance to the image he saw in the mirror in the mornings. The black wiry hair stuck out at all angles and he assumed that the pained-looking grimace on his portrait's face was actually supposed to be a confident smirk. But there were big, bright red hearts drawn all over the page, and a large red kiss-mark on his cheek.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing to the crayon-colored lips.

"That's a kiss!" she explained happily.

"Who's it from?" he wanted to know, his fingers creeping to her ribs to tickle playfully.

"From meeeeeee!" she squealed, writhing away from his tickling hands. He followed her, and she laughed so happily that his heart hurt to hear it as he wrestled her to the ground and danced his fingers over her sides.

"Daddy, stop, stop!" she giggled, and finally, when she was gasping for breath so deeply that he briefly worried about her, he relented. She wiggled away from him again, and he thought with a small moment of panic that she seemed to be slipping away from him in so many ways...

"Daddy, I wanna carve pun'kins."

"What, honey?" he asked, surprised at the change of subject.

"Unca Roy said that sometimes people carve pictures in pun'kins an' put candles in 'em. I wanna carve a pun'kin so he can light a candle inside." She put her tiny little hands on a rather large pumpkin to illustrate her point. "But Mommy said I can't do it. She said you had to carve it because knives are sharp and you know how to use them. I can't use them 'til I'm older."

He blinked at the idea and thought he was going to have to have a talk with Roy about encouraging his daughter to play with sharp objects. "Okay, princess. We can do that. What kind of picture do you want to make?"

"A heart," she said decisively, and Maes nodded in agreement, already reaching into his pocket to pull out a knife.

"Why do you want a heart, honey?" He cast a glance around and saw that Gracia had anticipated her daughter's request and her husband's acquiescence. There was a bowl and a wooden spoon on the picnic table beside the pumpkins, obviously for use in scraping out the pulp. Maes had a thought of pumpkin pie and licked his lips.

"Because!" she said, gesturing as if it should be obvious. "A heart means love." She clambered onto the bench beside him and watched, rapt, as he began to cut the top off the pumpkin. In the way that children have of asking questions they already know the answer to, she chirped, "Daddy? Do you love Auntie Riza?"

"I sure do," he answered as the knife slid into the orange flesh of the fruit.

"Do you love Unca Roy?"

"Very, very much." He smiled briefly as the blade circled the stem. Roy would already be turning pale if he could hear that statement. He didn't mind Elicia knowing that her parents had a special kind of relationship with "Uncle" Roy and "Auntie" Riza, but he got nervous whenever Maes skated too close to the edge of exactly how special that relationship was.

"Do you love Mommy?" Elicia continued, her eyes sparkling.

"I love your mommy so much it makes me crazy," he told her with full confidence, setting the pumpkin top to the side and reaching for the spoon.

The way she sidled against him and looked up at him through her eyelashes -- and where, exactly, had she learned that coy move? he wondered -- he knew what the next question was going to be.

"Daddy?" she drawled. She didn't say anything else, and he glanced at her as he scraped the pulp into the bowl.

"Yes?"

"Da-addy?" she called again, and he paused in his actions, looking at her and giving her his full attention.

"Yes, princess?"

"Do you love me?" The sly little grin on her face warmed his heart and he knew she already knew the answer he was going to give.

"I love you with all my heart, princess. I will always love you, no matter what." He set the pumpkin and spoon down, freeing up his arms to wrap around his daughter. He kissed the top of her head and she snuggled against him briefly before she pulled back and squished her hands on either side of his face, holding him still so she could place a smacking kiss on his mouth. She pushed in with her hands, making his face pucker comically, and giggled madly.

He exaggerated the funny face, crossing his eyes and moving his mouth like a fish. She dissolved into laughter, and he chuckled with her, the sound of her high-pitched giggling like the sweetest music to his ears.

When the laughter had died down, she pointed to the pumpkin and commanded, "Hearts, Daddy! Hearts." She leaned her head on his arm as he worked and sighed happily, "Because I love you, too."

Maes couldn't resist pressing one more kiss to the part of her soft hair before she reminded him of the project he had undertaken at her command. His life, he felt certain, was perfect.