Thanks a lot to TheSleepingNeko for beta read again! Of course I own not FMA!
Shy
While Ed normally took his showers at home, today, he didn't really have that option. He'd been on a field exercise with Havoc out in a forest— a very muddy forest, to be precise. They'd had to play a paintball match for training. When they had returned, they'd been soaked with sweat and covered from head to foot in splatterings of mud and multicolored paint.
Edward was on his way to the colonel's office to report in when Havoc stopped him.
"Hold it, Ed. You can't go in there like that; there's mud all over you, even in your hair, and I'm pretty sure you stink just as badly as I do. Hawkeye would kill you! C'mon, we both need a change and a shower before anything else."
"There are private bathrooms and showers here?" Ed asked, taken aback.
"No, of course not. It's a regulation shower for all the soldiers," laughed Havoc.
"You mean…I have to shower with other people around me…who can watch me the whole time?"
"Not 'people', Ed, it's just us men!" Havoc jovially assured the boy, starting off.
'Gyaah…!' Ed thought, unsettled. The notion reminded him of a public bath he had come across during his travels; one that he had fled from immediately after taking a single peek. Elderly men had been scrubbing each other's hairy backs in there!
Havoc lead the two of them to their lockers. There, Edward retrieved his usual clothes and proceeded to follow the older man to the showers.
The showers seemed to be very crowded. There were many soldiers from various units present to attend the field exercise, and now they were all getting washed up. Simultaneously.
"Wait, I don't have any shampoo or soap or anything," the younger blond pointed out, halting in his tracks.
"Don't worry. You can use mine," Havoc offered with a smile.
Ed swallowed uncomfortably at the over-crowdedness of the bathroom. No fewer than twenty men—ranging young to middle aged and all taller than he was—were standing beneath the spray of shower nozzles…and each and every one of them was naked!
Ed had never beheld to many bare asses and penises together like this before. It was like some kind of wiener party, or something.
The men in question, however, seemed completely oblivious to their environment. Instead, they were chatting away, laughing while soaping their bodies as if it were the most common thing on earth to do.
But it was certainly not that way from the standpoint of the thirteen year old, adolescent mind of Edward Elric. He blinked several times to rid himself of the of the awkward picture, but couldn't help but gawk while waiting. Around his waist was wrapped a towel that matched Havoc's own.
At last, a shower-head became available and Havoc discarded his towel, hanging it on a nearby rack, before smiling at the younger and encouraging, "C' mon, Ed, we can share a nozzle."
Ed's mind went blank. He just stood there, staring, So, upon a lack of response, Havoc took charge and pulled the towel from the boy's waist, shoving him into the bustling dis-assemblage of bodies.
'This can't be happening,' Edward thought to himself with a grimace. There he stood, exposed between all the naked backsides. One of them belonged to his fellow officer, and was disturbingly close.
Havoc handed Ed his shampoo and shower gel, which smelled strange to Edward. They were like moschus and wood. Ed preferred his strawberry shampoo and his Spongebob soap, not this stuff. Still, he got to work lathering up his small frame. He tried to conceal most of his body by standing near the shower wall whenever possible. Cleaning himself off as quickly as he could, Ed tried not to dwell on the uncomfortably on the situation he was currently finding himself in.
Havoc, though, didn't seem to care. He was standing right beside Edward, soaping all over his body, including his well-exposed public hair. A tune was sounding from his closed lips, a rough melody projecting itself over the constant sound of running and splashing water. He seemed so relaxed.
"Is this your kid, Lieutenant?" one of the surrounding soldiers suddenly asked. The aforementioned grinned at Havoc in a familiar kind of way.
"Nope. He's my superior, the Fullmetal Alchemist, y'know?" explained Havoc.
"Really now." The soldier saluted, looking Edward in the eye. "Nice to meet you, Sir!"
However, Ed's mind wasn't focused on the formal greeting. It was elsewhere: namely, the man's lower parts dangling in front of him!
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