RoyEd Week 2018

Day 7 - domesticism/war

So this is gonna be a two parter I think! I just wanted to get the first chapter up and posted since I'm already late for the end of RoyEd week. So here is what I have for day 7. Let me know what you think :)

I hope you enjoy it (and its not been reread or beta'd or anything)

All Is Fair In Love And War

"You are such a bastard." Ed growled, glaring at Roy who sat against the opposite wall. "Such a bastard, and an idiot. No wonder you need to take Hawkeye everywhere with you, just to make sure you don't do something stupid like tripping over your own feet and stabbing a child on the way down to the ground."

"I would hardly say that I was that bad, Edward." Roy replied calmly, and that just pissed Edward off more. The blonde snarled in reply, shooting him a look that could kill before he turned his attention to the chains around his wrists. "Besides, defying the odds is something you're rather good at, Edward. I don't want your skills getting rusty. Thought that you would appreciate the practice, especially since you've not been out in the field much these last few months."

"Oh bite me, Mustang!" Edward snapped, tugging on the chains, hoping to find some weakness in them. He ignored the older man's laugh.

"Well Edward, I wasn't aware that you had such a kinky side."

Edward snapped his head back down to look over at Roy so fast that he was surprised he didn't get whiplash. He could feel the blow rising to his cheeks, burning them as he spluttered at the older man who just sat there smirking like the bastard he was. "That- that is so not what I meant!" He had almost shouted it, his face warm from the blush and his stomach in knots over the thought of Roy actually biting him, leaving his mark on him. Now was not the time to get distracted with thoughts like that. "Have I ever told you that you're a bastard?"

"You might have mentioned it once or twice."

Edward just pulled a face at Roy, turning his attention back to the chains. They didn't seem to have any structural weaknesses, which was just fucking brilliant, and he couldn't make his fingers touch so his alchemy was completely useless too. Fuck. How the hell were they going to get out of this. Stupid bastard just had to get them both fucking kidnapped, and now they were locked up in some tiny cell, only just out of reach of each other. Heavy footsteps drew Ed's attention as four huge men entered the cell, taking up all the available space and Edward didn't like the looks in their eyes.

"Gentlemen..." Roy started to speak, cocky bastard. He was silenced almost instantly by a loud smack across the face. The sound echoed through the cell and it made Ed flinch, even as he glared at their captors. Two of the men came to him, while the other two went to Mustang. They were both unchained from the wall, but they had kept the shackles on so Edward still didn't have use of his hands. Rough hands grabbed his arms tightly, dragging him out of the cell and away from Mustang, but if the footsteps were anything to go by, Roy wasn't too far behind him.

"So, where we going?" Ed asked, looking between the two men who pulled him stumbling forward. They both just ignored him. "Hey! Look I know that you are bad guys but really, there's no excuse for bad manners." The blow to the back of the head made him lose his footing, but the men didn't falter in their steps, and Edward was just dragged along with them until he was able to get his legs to cooperate again. Damn he really needed to stop getting hit in the head. "Well that was as rude as ignoring me was." He muttered, receiving a growled warning in reply.

The room that they were led to was bigger, and not any place Edward wanted near by the looks of the stains on the floor. It was in this room that they chained Mustang to the wall and dragged Edward into the middle of it, making sure that he was directly in sight of Mustang. Edward frowned, eyes darting between Roy and the men that still held his arms tight enough to bruise. Mustang met his eye, and there was concern there that did not comfort Edward.

"Tell us what the military wants with their peace talks with Drachma!" One of the men demanded in broken Amestrian. Roy looked at Edward for the briefest of moments before he focused his attention on the man.

"We want peace, the talks are to discuss terms for a peace treaty and the potential..." Roy started, his words stopping when one of the men holding Edward pulled a knife out and stuck the sharp point of it into his shoulder where the flesh met the automail port. Edward had hissed in pain, flinching away in an attempt to escape the burning pain that shot through him as the man worked the tip of the knife in under the metal plates.

"Truth! Or we will hurt the boy."

"I'm nineteen you bastards!" Edward snapped, glaring at the man before his eyes shot to Roy. He knew that Roy cared for his men, everyone did. That's why they were going to hurt Ed and not Roy, it was a faster way to break the older man but Edward wasn't about to let that happen. These thugs weren't going to get military secrets out of Roy just because he was in a bit of pain. "Besides, he's a General, its not like its up to him to decide what the military want!"

"Shut him up." The leader called over his shoulder, and Edward struggled against the two that held him.

"Don't you fucking dare. At least do your homework asshole. Me and Mustang do nothing but fight, as if he'd betrayed his country for..." Edward's words were cut off but the damp rag that was forced into his mouth and the strap that covered his nose and mouth. Edward struggled more, but a punch to the stomach had him gasping in a breath, a breath that was wet with the moisture from his gag. It burned down his chest and brought tears to his eyes as panic threatened to take a hole of him. He couldn't give into that.

"Now, General, give us the truth or the little one pays."

Edward forced himself to not rise to the insult, knowing that his fighting would just cause him to choke on the rag in his mouth. When Roy didn't answer straight away the knife dug in a little more and Edward heard himself whine with the pain. If they fucked up his automail, Winry would kill him. The third man slipped out of the room and Edward couldn't find it in him to care where he was going.

"I'm not sure what you want me to say. They are peace talks, hurting a state alchemist will not do you or your country any favours." Roy replied, seemingly calm but his eyes told Edward a different story. "We don't want a war with Drachma."

"What if we want war?" The leader laughed, nodding to the two silent men that held Edward. Before he was aware of what was happening, his knees were hitting hard stone and pain shot through his flesh knee and from the cut left on his right shoulder. A hand in his hair tugged sharply, forcing his head back as footsteps alerted Edward to the arrival of the third man. He focused on breathing through his nose as the moment caused the wet rag to fall to the back of his throat. It made breathing difficult though.

"Stop this!" Roy snapped, and Edward shut his eyes against the panic in the older man's voice. He didn't have time to consider it or its cause before ice cold water was poured over his face slowly. He grunted in shock at the cold, and tried to turn his head to the side to stop the water running up his nose and down the back of his throat but the hand in his hair tightened at his flinch and refused to let his head move at all. It didn't take long for panic to claim him, he couldn't breathe and before long his lungs were burning with the need for oxygen. Edward tried to fight them off of him to let him move from the water, but he was overpowered and the water was seemingly endless. How could something so cold burn that much? There was shouting somewhere, but Edward didn't know who it was, couldn't make out the words in his panic.

After what felt like a lifetime the water stopped and he was shoved forward roughly. Without the warning, Edward didn't have time to try and save himself so his head smacked into the stone floor and he grunted as his vision swam for a moment. There was still talking, and the world was slowly coming back to him as hands were at his mouth, taking the strap off, fingers in his mouth and he wanted to bit them so badly, poking around, shoving the rag further into his throat before they plucked it out and he was finally able to breathe properly.

Edward took in a greedy lungful of the stale, dank air and instantly regretted it as it scorched down his chest, forcing him into a coughing fit. Around him the world was settling back to how it was meant to be and the raised voices were making more sense, one accented Amestrian, the other was Roy. The other man sounded furious, he was shouting at their captors and as Edward pushed himself up onto his knees he looked up to see Roy, bleeding from a cut to his lip, shouting at the enemy leader.

"... if you think torturing him will help your country you couldn't be more wrong!" Roy shouted, and was he shaking with his emotion or was that just Edward's mind playing tricks on him?

"Perhaps you care too much for him, General Mustang." The leader sneered, unchaining Mustang from the wall and pulling him towards Edward, shoving him to his knees. Up close Mustang didn't look as pissed off as he did before. When Edward met his eyes there was only concern there, concern and something softer, something more desperate. "If he is as meaningless as you make out then we might just need to kill you both."

Edward saw the glint of metal and reacted before he fully thought the action through. He pushed himself up, launching himself in front of Roy just as the leader swung the knife up. Somewhere outside of the room there was the bark of a gun, and shouted orders in a language he didn't know. He felt like he'd been punched, and the breathe was knocked out of him. There was a strange sensation of wetness around his abdomen and Edward's brain had slowed down too much for him to recognise what it was at first. It was only when the man pulled away, bloody knife still in his hands that Edward knew what had happened, but it was in a detached way. His hand went to the wound, the wetness was warm, and sticky and the world titled on its axis without warning and the next thing Ed knew he was lying down in Roy's lap, a pressure on his torso as the shouting grew again.

Their captors fled, and Edward heard more gunshots outside the room that they were in. He shivered, still soaking wet and freezing, and instinctively pulled himself closer to Roy's warmth. The older man pushed down on his stab wound harder and Edward whined at the pain that finally caught up, turning his head into Roy's lap and resting his forehead against Roy's stomach.

"Why the hell did you do that, Edward?" Roy snapped, and Edward heard himself laugh softly. "Its not fucking funny, Ed! You could have died. What were you thinking?"

"He would have killed you." Edward mumbled. Wasn't it obvious why he had done it? It made perfect sense to him. "You can't die until you achieve your goal." Edward coughed, turning his face into his hands, his eyes blurring around the redness of his hands. His blood. He was sick of seeing his blood. "I don't want to think about you dying."

"Dammit Ed!" Roy snapped, keeping up the pressure on the wound as the fighting apparently stopped outside. "You are such a fool. You shouldn't have done this, do you have any idea what you've done?"

Edward frowned up at Roy. Were his eyes glistening? That didn't make any sense to him, so with a slight shake of his head he pushed the thought away. "But... You seem upset." Edward said softly, reaching his bound hands up to brush a thumb along Roy's cheek. It left a streak of red across his skin, like some kind of warrior paint. "Why are you upset, Roy?"

"Because I'm in love with you, you little brat!" Roy snapped, pushing down harder, hard enough that Edward whimpered. "I love you, and you went and got fucking stabbed for me. So yeah of course I'm upset, Edward."

Edward smiled at Roy, before he frowned when he saw tears slip off of Roy's lashes. "I love you too." He mumbled, and then it was too hard to keep his eyes open. When they drifted shut he heard Roy grow frantic, begging him to stay awake, to open his eyes. He wanted to tell Roy that he was awake, just that his eyes were heavy, but his tongue was also heavy and clumsy in his mouth. A door opened, and there was running feet approaching them.

"Sir!"

"Brother!"

"He was stabbed. We need to get him to a hospital now!"

Edward didn't want people to worry about him. He didn't want those that he cared about to be upset. He would be fine, he just wanted to sleep now that the bad guys were gone.