cornerofmadness

Title -- The Wild Rumpus
Author--

cornerofmadness
Disclaimer --Arakawa owns all
Rating -- Teen
Characters/Pairing -- Chris and Roy Mustang
Word Count -- 747
Summary -- Reading him bed time stories might not be her best idea.
Author’s Note -- Written for

fma_fic_contest and tied for first place. Thanks to

bay115 for the banner.

photo fma258tiedfirstbay115_zps8d73bc6a.png

XXX

Chris set aside the book of fairy tales she had been reading to her nephew. The five year old looked utterly adorable as he slept, probably to insure she wouldn’t kill him after all the evil he’d gotten up to all day long. Roy loved when she read to him, and when she became his guardian the year before, she had to rearrange everything, including the time she started getting ready for the evening so she could read to him.

She wondered how long it would last. Roy was already reading on his own, books more difficult than he should have been able to manage, but that was her boy all over: so damn smart. It didn’t seem to make him any less interested in his bedtime story. Tonight he insisted on a story for ‘big boys.’ Honestly with all the monsters and danger in fairy tales, Chris wondered how in the world they ever became for kids.

Leaving Roy tucked into his bed, she went back to her own rooms to put on makeup and get dressed for a night at the club. She might have to start giving up night work and leave it in the hands of her well-trained girls – not to mention a few gentlemen. Roy needed her, and she wasn’t getting any younger. The proof of that stared back at her from the mirror. She could see the crow’s feet starting around her eyes. Damn cigarettes, they were to blame. She’d quit any day now.

Chris was just beginning to apply the liner to her eyes when Roy let out a shriek. Her hand jerked, streaking kohl all over the place. Before she could even get up from her vanity, Chris heard the sounds of little feet racing her way.

Roy didn’t knock. He barely seemed to slow down for the shut door, swinging inside wild-eyed. “Auntie! There’re wild things in the wardrobe!”

Chris pinched her eyes shut. This is what she got for reading him the story of the alchemist and the forest of the chimera. “Roy, there are no wild things in the wardrobe.”

His head bobbed so fast Chris didn’t know how it stayed attached. “ARE TO!”

“Go back to bed, Roy. There are no monsters. Chimeras don’t exist.” Chris reached for a sponge to remove the errant eye liner.

“Yes. There. Are.” A foot stomp punctuated each word.

Sighing, Chris went over and scooped him up, carrying him back to his room. She deposited him on his bed, and he pulled himself up against the headboard, pointing at the wardrobe. Chris opened it up, making a show of looking for the wild things. “See? Nothing but your clothes. No wild things, no chimera, no openings to other worlds, just wood.” She knocked on the back of the wardrobe to prove her point.

“Maybe they got under the bed.” Roy trembled.

“There are no monsters,” she replied and knew he didn’t believe her.

“Uh-huh. I heard them!”

With her luck, he heard a damn mouse. “Well, come help me look under the bed then, Roy.”

He shook his head. “Staying here where it’s safe. You look.”

She smiled at his over developed sense of self preservation, which had been so lacking all day. Chris knelt down and peered under the bed. “Nope, no monsters.”

Her nephew slithered off the bed, encouraged by the fact nothing had grabbed her and dragged her under. He looked for his monsters, then sat on the floor, seemingly utterly disappointed. “Maybe they went out the window,” he postulated.

“How about you get back into the bed and I’ll get you Hong,” she offered, and when he got under the covers, she got Hong, the stuffed panda his mother had given him on his first birthday. “Now go back to sleep. Hong will keep you safe from the monsters.”

“He is a mighty panda,” Roy agreed, wrapping his arms around him.

“And tomorrow night you’re getting a nice, calm princess story.” Chris wagged her finger at him.

He made a face. “Girls are boring!”

“You could use a little boring.” She kissed his forehead, and turned on the nightlight before leaving him there. All too soon, he’d change his mind about girls being boring, and she’s probably be beating him away from her girls with a broom. As she went back to getting ready for the evening, Chris wondered just where her nephew’s overactive imagination would take him next. She was almost afraid to know.