I don't own FMA

Day 34 - Dream

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Buccaneer couldn’t help but grin at the staring contest taking place between mother and daughter.

A woman in a practical black dress rolled a cart into the room and silently poured a cup of steaming tea for each woman. On her way out she held up a cup to him in question and he shook his head.

The quiet squeak of the wheels had nearly faded away when Olivier opened her mouth. “You wanted to see me?”

Augustina nodded and blew on her tea.

Just when it seemed her oldest was about to grow impatient she took a sip of her tea and held her index finger to silence the complaints she knew rested behind those pouty pink lips.

She smiled over her cup at the impatience building in those icy blue eyes.

Olivier curled her hands around the warm teacup and watched as her mother put the cup back down on a saucer.

Augustina sighed.

Olivier leaned back in her chair, ready for the impending lecture. Private tea always meant a lecture.

When she’d loped off Alex’s hair when it got longer than hers, when she’d thrown a fit after Führer Sparkles had disappeared, when she’d refused to go to an all girls school, when she’d signed up for the military academy, always a private tea with mother afterward.

A storm in a teacup is what her father called it.

She knew the rules, knew her mother wouldn’t speak until after she’d taken a drink of the tea set in front of her.

She had two choices, either take a sip and let the storm begin, or let her tea go untouched and deal with the silent treatment for weeks. The second option was so very tempting, but she could already feel the nagging of her sisters and Alex for her to fix things if she chose that path.

She delicately lifted the piece of china to her lips, holding out her pinky finger in a mocking imitation of her mother.

As the warm liquid filled her mouth with the flavor of spiced oranges, she closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes, her mother's had narrowed and her fingers were laced together, hands resting on the table.

Olivier rolled her eyes. Those looks didn't work on her anymore, though she did owe her ability to give blood-freezing glares to her mother(something she'd never tell her, of course).

"Don't roll your eyes at me," Augustina scolded.

Olivier raised a brow in challenge.

"I don't know why I even bother with you!" her mother huffed as she threw her arms up in agitation.

Olivier opened her mouth to agree, but her mother continued, "When I first held you, I dreamt of the day you would debut, of the man who would ask your father and me for your hand in marriage, they day you would so loving look upon the firstborn you held in your arms. I dreamt the same things for each of your sisters. And where did all that dreaming get me with you?"

"You're dreaming, not mi-"

"To you corrupting your younger sister, that's where," she huffed, cutting off Olivier.

Olivier shrugged. "I didn't pressure her," she argued.

"But you let her get inebriated!"

"It's not like she said no. She took each drink of her own free will."

"She got sick in the car and on the porch. Allen's family is here. What if they had been awake to see that?" Augustina demanded through clenched teeth.

"I'm sure they would have rejoiced that Allen hadn't picked that particular sister," Olivier remarked.

Trying to muffle his laughter, Buccaneer snorted.

"And you!" Augustina hissed glaring at him. "Don't think that you're not to blame, too!"

His mouth worked open and closed, trying to respond, but that look was just as piercing as her daughter's.

"Some guard you are! Catherine told me you were drinking. What if someone had attacked you two on your way back to Laurel's?" she demanded.

"I...I...sorry," he stammered, shame a burning weight in his stomach.

Tension he hadn't even realized had filled his muscles left his body as that gaze turned back to his commanding officer.

"I told Arm-e you must have had an ulterior motive, and I know what it was. You wanted to taint her innocence," she accused. "You knew she's enamored with him, and that she would drink to try and calm her nerves."

Feeling the need to defend herself, Olivier opened her mouth, but quickly closed it again when her mother took a sip of tea.

Olivier silently sighed and followed suit.

"Now, you're going to take your sister some water and the aspirin Alex was so kind as to fetch for her and apologize to her. And you," she focused on Buccaneer again, "will assure her that she didn't make a fool of herself," she ordered.

He nodded.

Augustina looked between the two and, after deciding that they would do as told, left the room by the door that lead to the library.

Olivier let out a long sigh as the door swung shut behind her mother.

"You're just like her," Buccaneer observed, still in awe.

"No I'm not!" Olivier snapped.

"Did you see that glare?"

"Well, that I did learn from her," she admitted as she walked out the door to his right.

In the hall on the wrought-iron table that usually held a vase of flowers from the garden sat a perspiring pitcher of water, a glass, and an envelope with Alex's extravagant hand-writing.

Olivier rolled her eyes as she shoved the envelope in her pocket.

With the pitcher and glass in her hands, she made her way to Catherine's room.

She rapped on the door with her elbow, grinning at the weak moan she could barely make out through the door.

"I'm coming in," she warned.

The room was dark, all the curtains still shutting out the daylight. She assumed the lump under the blankets was her hungover sister.

"Not so loud," Catherine groaned, poking her pale face out from under the light pink comforter.

"Here." Olivier sat the pitcher and glass on the white bedside table and shook two white pills out of the envelope she'd pulled out of her pocket.

Catherine gave the pills a weary glance.

"I'm not trying to poison you," Olivier huffed. "Would you feel better if he gave them to you?" She pointed over her shoulder.

Slowly shaking her head, Catherin accepted the aspirin and glass of water Olivier had poured during their exchange.

"Alcohol is evil," she muttered after gulping down the water.

"If you don't drink it in moderation, especially the first time," Olivier agreed.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Catherine whined.

Olivier shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry?" she offered, unsure she'd be able to say the word if she didn't now.

Catherine motioned for her sister to come closer, and Olivier complied, leaning over until she could hear Catherine's whisper.

"I didn't..." she gulped, sending a quick glance to Buccaneer lurking in the shadows, "...do anything foolish, did I? Arm-e and Strong-ko say I didn't, but I know you'll be honest."

"Aside from when you got home?"

Catherine nodded, going green as she recalled what happened in the car and at the porch.

"No, nothing foolish at all," she reassured. Sure, that was supposed to be Buccaneer's job, but she doubted Catherine would like him to get any closer.

Catherine managed a weak smile.

Olivier refilled the empty glass. "Just drink a lot of water," she advised and made to leave the room.

"Thanks," Catherine called.

Olivier closed the door behind her and stood there for a moment. "I wouldn't have been so nice, had I been in her position," Olivier commented as she let go of the door knob.

Buccaneer waited for her to continue, but only silence followed her words. "She's different from you," he reminded her.

She looked up at him, almost dumbstruck by the hint of fondness in his voice.

"Reminds me of my sister," he mused.

She nodded and started towards the end of the hall. He followed her, smirking at her back.

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A.N. - Buccaneer, you're officially on her mother's "not so great" list. Thanks for reading!

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