Summary: A few scenes showing Rockbell-Elric family’s Halloween celebration

A/N: written for @edweenweek day 7: candy (could be trick or treat as well)! Special thanks to @criis55 for the ideas and the dog’s name! ❤ Please enjoy and review! Also, I guess this is an AU in which Halloween exists, but that goes without saying..

Words: 1700+

Genre: family

---

People
stopped on their tracks on the street when they saw the Rockbell-Elric family
walking past them. There were two small children in the family, a 3-year-old boy and
approximately a year-old girl. They were dressed in a way that made those who
knew the family believe their father had picked the costumes. The son was
wearing an armor made by his mother, and the daughter was wrapped into ripped sheets
like a mummy. Edward himself was sporting a vampire outfit, with a black suit,
cape and fake teeth. Winry was dressed as a witch, carrying their smallest in a
huge cauldron.

The son,
Alan, seemed way too pleased about the fact that he had managed to get half a
cauldron (thankfully, a bit smaller one than the one with her sister inside it)
of candy by trick or treating. Winry had been a bit reluctant to let him do it
in the first place, as he was still so young, and as a daughter of doctors and
nearly a doctor herself, she knew the dangers of overeating sweets. Ed (not
having all too fond memories of his own childhood Halloweens, but wanting his kids to experience better) had managed to
persuade her, however. Alan had beamed of happiness when Ed told him he could dress up and trick or treat.

---

As Alan’s
parents tried to figure out what kind of costumes they should make their
children (something both were excited about even though especially Ed didn’t
want to admit it), Alan was watching an old picture of his uncle from when he was
just a suit of armor. Suddenly he shrieked: “I want the same kind of costume
uncle Al had!”

“What
costume… oh!” Ed understood when he saw where Alan had gotten his idea from.
“Are you… are you sure about that?”

“Yes, dad!
I want to look like him!”

Ed couldn’t help but feel upset when he was reminded of the times he rather forgot these days.
Alan didn’t know Al’s story yet… and Ed wasn’t looking forward to the day when
he would have to explain it to him. He hid the sadness quickly and forced a
smile on his face instead: “I think we still have some leftover metal from that armor left!
What would you say if your mom made you a similar looking armor?”

“Yay! Mama
is the best!”

“I know,
kid, she is. But don’t tell her I said that.” Ed told him.

He hadn’t
noticed Winry had sneaked behind him and heard everything.

“Edward, we
have two kids. You had better think I
am the best or we might just as well get a divorce.”

“O-of
course you are the best!” he stuttered, expecting a wrench on his head. “H-how could you not be when you have created something
alchemy never could, two new lives!”

“Alan, your
father is a dork. But maybe that’s why I married him,” Winry smiled at her boys
fondly, ruffling Ed’s hair a bit, then scooping the smaller one into her arms.
“C’mon, let’s get you measured so I can draw the blueprints for the armor.”

---

A day later
Alan walked around in the living room wearing his armor, beaming of excitement.
Ed had to admit his wife had done an amazing job, the armor looked like a
miniature copy of Al’s. It even had a little hair tuft in the helmet.

“Look,
daddy! I am uncle Al now!”

“You sure
are,” Ed said, trying to keep his voice happy even though his throat felt a
little bit dry. While Alan was looking beyond thrilled, Ed couldn’t shake off the
feeling that he was staring at his worst nightmare in front of him. What if his
son had to go through the same he and Al had? No, he stopped himself, he would
not allow that. He would always make sure to be present in Alan’s life and make
him understand how dangerous alchemy can be. If he ever got interested in that.
So far he had seemed to be more into tinkering with his play tools.

“Hey, let’s
take a photo of you!” Winry suggested and pulled her granny’s old camera from
behind her back. “C’mon, Ed, you should be in the photo too. Please. It’d make
me happy!” She tried to coax him, and to her surprise he did what she told him
to do.

“Ed! At least try to look a little more
excited!” Winry scolded him when he still looked reluctant with Alan on his
shoulders.

“OK, say ‘equivalent
exchange’ now!”

That and
the fact that Alan lifted the visor of his armor and looked at his father right
in the eyes, saying “dad doesn’t need an armor because he already has the
coolest leg!” lifted his spirits and he gave the camera a genuine, wide smile.

---

The young
parents regretted taking their kids trick or treating about 5 minutes after
leaving their house. Emma had been cranky the entire day and seemed to find
the tiny armor walking in front of her frightening. She wailed so loudly
that Ed and Winry wouldn’t have been surprised if the families who they tried
to visit pretended to not be home when they knocked their doors. She didn’t
like the wraps around her either, thrashing around in the cauldron so angrily
Winry declared she would never have another Elric baby. That made Ed pout and soon
Alan was the only one who was still enjoying the trip.

Thankfully,
Emma finally fell asleep once Ed took her into his arms, and after that the mood got
calmer. The family saw many different kinds of households on their trip. In one place a
cranky middle-aged man nearly didn’t give Alan anything because apparently his
armor didn’t look ‘real’ enough. That infuriated Ed to no end because in his opinion, no one
in Rush Valley could have made it better. He happened to notice the man had an
automail arm, and it ‘slipped’ from him that Winry was one of the best known mechanics
in the entire town, having a lots of ‘relations’ to other talented people in
the industry. The man understood it meant she could make his life miserable. After that he had
been busy to give Alan half a kilo of candies and Ed smiled wider than Alan as
they left the house.

In another house
the family met an old granny who nearly didn’t let Alan and Emma leave the
house at all. Apparently she was very lonely and seeing kids coming to her door
during Halloween was the highlight of her year. Ed and Winry promised they could
visit with the kids more often in the future, seeing they enjoyed her company
as well and the kids needed a grandparent just as much she needed them.

Finally,
they got to Garfiel’s where also Paninya was spending her evening. Garfiel gave
Alan almost more candy than the cranky man with the automail and Paninya seemed
to get along with Emma exceptionally well, promising to teach the kids all
kinds of mischief once they were a little bit bigger. Ed started yelling at her,
revealing his fake teeth, and Paninya noted: “Oh, so you are a vampire? I thought you were only dressed as yourself, just look at
that outfit.”

Winry had
to drag her family (mostly: Ed) out of there before things escalated any
further, but overall the trick or treating trip had been rather successful. Especially for Alan who had gotten enough sweets for an entire year.

---

Late in the
Halloween evening, the Rockbell-Elric family was lighting the candles in the
pumpkin lanterns they had carved earlier (Ed had been surprisingly enthusiastic
and carved more skulls and dragon heads than Winry could count). Suddenly Winry
realized it was weirdly quiet in the room. She had seen Alan about 5 minutes earlier,
saying he would take the pumpkin he was carrying (with no candle in it) outside, but she hadn’t seen
him since then. Worried that Alan would go too far in the darkness and get
lost, she decided to go and look for him. When she opened their front door, she
could hear the dog’s howling nearby. She went to check what was wrong and found the
poor puppy the family had gotten only a few months earlier from Brigadier General
Mustang with a pumpkin in his head. Somehow, he had gotten his head through the
hole on the top of the pumpkin. The culprit
was hiding in the doghouse, giggling loudly at the silly sight, and Winry
dragged him inside, irritated, after removing the pumpkin from the dog’s head.

“No more candies
for you! Alan, how do you think Doggo was feeling when you did that?”

“I… I
thought he’d like it…”

“Would you like
it if someone put a pumpkin on your head?”

“Sure!
Pumpkin is delicious!”

‘Oh boy,’
Winry sighed in her mind, ‘why do I even bother? He’s got Elric blood in him’. Then she came up with a plan.
“But honey, Doggo doesn’t like pumpkin. He hates it as much as you hate milk.
What would you do if I forced you to drink milk?”

“I’d be
angry!”

“Right. So do you understand now why you can’t put a pumpkin on his head?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Let’s
go find your dad, he’s probably worried already.”

---

Finally, Ed
managed to get Alan and Emma to sleep. He had wished to get some alone time
with his wife that night but he was rather exhausted after a long day out with the
kids and he knew Winry was tired as well. The couple was cuddling in each
other’s arms, about to fall asleep, when suddenly something white
started moving in the room. Winry asked, slightly panicked:

“Um, Ed… do
you believe in ghosts?”

“No, why
the fuck would I… WHAT IS THAT?!” He screamed when he saw the ghost like
creature getting closer.

“I don’t
know but it’s definitely moving.”

“Could it
be Doggo?”

“Doggo is
outside, there’s no way that’s him.”

“Alan?”

“No, I know
he’s sleeping soundly in his bed.”

“OK, that’s
it, I’m putting the light on.”

Ed did that
and saw that the ‘ghost’ was a sheet under which was…

“Emma! How…
When… Winry look, she’s walking!”

“I didn’t
know you already knew how to do that! Aw, sweetie, that is amazing!”

The little Emma just giggled at her parents silly expressions. They hugged her excitedly, both wondering where the girl had gotten that idea from. And how had she gotten out of her bed?