Diego leaned in his doorway, watching with idle amusement as his wife countered every attack from her new student while barely bothering to even glance up from her lawbook.
"Take THAT!" Phoenix yelled, trying out some sort of flip maneuver. Mia kicked him aside and turned a page.
"You're telegraphing your moves too much," she scolded. "You need to be able to bluff that you're going to do one thing, and then do something else instead. Don't be so predictable."
The kid rolled to a halt in front of Diego, panting heavily. Their eyes met - or, well, his eyes locked onto Diego's automail mask, at least. He looked sort of pleading, like he hoped Diego would give him some helpful advice or encouragement or something. Like he hadn't been the one to cheerfully abandon him on that island last week.
Still looking directly at Phoenix, Diego loudly slurped another long gulp of coffee.
"Kitten," he said, still not looking away, "how long will it take you to destroy his spirit this morning? I'll put another pot on for when you finish."
The kid slumped in disappointment, before steeling himself to jump back into the fray. Diego smirked, and watched his wife watching her protege stand on shaky legs; she looked so fond. He still didn't really get what was so great about the kid, but anyone who made Mia feel happy had his approval. And it was kind of fun to get to see her practicing her alchemy and martial arts again; it'd been a while.
"Oh, I think we'll be out here at least an hour or two more," she called back. "Phoenix doesn't look done, quite yet."
The kid puffed up as though she'd given him some great compliment, instead of promised to beat him black and blue for even longer. Despite himself, Diego couldn't help a tiny bit of fondness.
"He makes it to two, I'll make him a cup as well," he promised on sudden impulse.
Phoenix whipped his head around to stare at him in surprise, but Diego's attention was entirely on Mia. Her warm smile, red-tinged though it was now, went straight to his heart like always. He grinned back at her, thinking again how good his life was, how lucky and undeserving he was to be married to this woman, to live in peace and happiness together like this. Her smile softened immeasurably, and he knew she felt the same; Dublith was as much an escape for her as it was for him. For a long, long moment, they simply smiled across the yard at one another, both basking in this quiet joy they'd built for themselves.
Then her student tried to take advantage of their distraction, and Mia turned away to punch him halfway across the grass. Diego lifted his mug to take another drink of his coffee, admiring the way her hair shone in the sun as it spun out around her when she kicked Wright's ass.
Mia's definitely more the Izumi in this verse. I thought about giving her and Diego more Mustang/Hawkeye roles but it just doesn't fit her character to have joined up with the military I think. I mean, it could, but I like her more as like... the Feys being like the Armstrongs, a prominent family of mostly military/State Alchemists, and while she still becomes an alchemist she leaves to pursue her own life. Diego could definitely be a soldier that she met when she was training though. He mostly lost his eyesight in some battle (possibly between Mia and another alchemist with a grudge against her??) and got an automail aid that helps him see. Instead of getting killed by Redd White, Mia tried to commit human transmutation to save him or maybe her mother, and had some internal organs taken from her. They've both retired to be lawyers in Dublith, because I want them to still be lawyers for no particular reason and it still lets them help other people.
Phoenix, Edgeworth, and Larry are very loosely Ed, Al, and Winry. Phoenix and Edgeworth were friends who did some human transmutation to try and bring back Edgeworth's dad, Larry was just their childhood friend who didn't do alchemy. The difference is that afterward they were separated and Edgeworth becomes a little bit more of a Mustang/Ed fusion figure as well, with von Karma basically adopting him and training him up to join the State Alchemists (dismissing Phoenix who is hurt worse and maybe he assumes will die?), with Gumshoe and some other characters being part of his team, while Phoenix and his new BFF Maya (who he meets when he saves her using his alchemy after going to Mia for more teaching - this all probably after the failed resurrection, leaving her still only Phoenix's mentor) fill more of Ed and Al's roles in the main story with searching for the philosopher's stone magatama or whatever, and then uncovering more conspiracies and starting to work with Edgeworth's team to protect people, etc. I don't know if Phoenix has lost his body or what but something, and he still wants to 'save' Edgeworth, and so forth. The timeline of the Ishval genocide would change as well, and a lot of other little stuff but I think it could be really cool overall!
(I thought a lot about making Mia and Maya Ed/Al, and Misty being Hohenheim, and Morgan Fey be Father, etc. It works really well and I really love that for the whole Fey emphasis and especially Mia and Maya taking center stage. However, this scene popped into my head first and I had to write it here. It's nicer for Miego too probably, with them being just very in love and very competent, and getting a happy ending.)
send me a relationship/set of characters and an AU, and I’ll write at least 3 sentences for it!
