“Dinner’s going to be ready soon!”

Trisha waited a moment and heard no reply from anywhere in the house. She paused her stirring and looked over her shoulder, craning to look through the doorway into the den. Where had the boys gone? She was certain that her husband had been entertaining the children in there while she fixed dinner. Really, how difficult was it to watch two small boys? Al could hardly even walk as it was, it wasn’t as though he could go very far.

“Boys?” She had taken to just calling all three of them ‘her boys’. She turned down the fire beneath the soup pot and wiped her hands on her apron then wandered into the den to find her family. Empty, as it had appeared. There were a few broken crayons lying forlornly on the rug, but no other trace of children or husband.

“Hello?” Trisha walked briskly through the den to her husband’s office, not bothering to knock. The door wasn’t closed tightly, and chances were he’d dragged the boys in with him. She stuck her head in, not surprised to see Hohenheim bent over his desk and scratching away furiously with a pen.

“Dear, are Ed and Al with you?”

“Eh?” He glanced up, wide eyed and perplexed. “No, they should be in the den…”

“They aren’t. Dear, you have to keep a closer eye on them. You know how Ed is…” Trisha bit at her lower lip, knowing all too well what Ed was capable of getting into, young as he was. She wrung her hands in her apron and made a loop through the house, calling for both boys as she did so. Not a trace of them anywhere.

Beginning to panic - and finally joined by her husband - Trisha stepped out onto the porch. It was still light, summer bringing with it long days and longer evenings. The porch was covered in muddy, Ed-sized foot prints. Her eyes followed the tracks of mud and was relieved to see Al, sucking on the ear of a stuffed bunny and sitting patiently by the steps. She scooped him up immediately, and grimaced. He was covered in mud.

“Edward Elric!” The culprit was at the bottom of the stairs, happily lobbing handfuls of mud in every direction. He was a mess. How had he managed to get so thoroughly dirt encrusted in such a short amount of time? It was like he’d rolled in it! Ed looked up, wide eyed and innocent as his mother called him. His wide grin made creases in the mud that coated his round cheeks. Trisha closed her eyes and counted to ten under her breath before handing Al off to his still-befuddled looking father and stalking deliberately down the steps to her grubby, mud-encrusted eldest son.

“Well it looks like dinner’s just going to have to wait until you two have baths,” Trisha said, deliberately putting an emphasis on the last word. She was already gripping Ed firmly in preparation for his inevitable and very physical protests.

“Bath! Yech!” Ed responded, scrunching up his dirty face. Trisha held him firmly as he squirmed, obviously not in the least bit pleased at the idea of a bath.

“And no dessert,” Trisha went on, slinging Ed over her hip with one arm and taking Al - who watched his squirming brother with a look of perplexed curiosity - in the other. Hohenheim was left holding the dirty and sucked-upon stuffed bunny. “Go on back to your study, I’ll get these two cleaned up. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready. And next time, keep a closer eye on them.”

Trisha couldn’t wait until the two boys had grown up just a bit more. But, on horrific reflection as to what more height and nimbler fingers could bring, she decided that a bit of mud really wasn’t that awful.