Fun Fair Haunting
Ed sighed as he walked past the 2nd clown he'd knocked out today. Colonel Roy Mustang had insisted a trip to the amusement park would be the perfect team building activity, and of course that meant Edward and his brother, Alphonse had to go as well. Al was not part of the army but since he was around so much the others thought it would be a good idea to include him, also they hoped it would help calm down the annoyed, pissed off Edward. Ed hated amusement parks, he was always too short to go on the carnival rides or they thought he was too young to go on them. The mascots and clowns thought he was a child and would follow him around not knowing that Ed couldn't stand that sort of thing and he would tend to either hit them or run away from them. He honestly couldn't understand how Roy had talked Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye into letting them slack off for the day, Ed would rather have to give Roy a report on a mission where he had trashed a town than walk around getting chased by freaks wearing too much make-up and being told he's too small. Also to make things worse as soon as they got there everyone had gotten so excited they all ran off in different directions leaving Ed on his own, even his brother had abandoned him in his nightmare!
Ed decided to go and find his brother so he could let Al know exactually how he felt about being tricked into coming to the amusement park. He decided the best place to look for his brother would be a stall that had toy cats; his brother's obsession with the animal was quite scary sometimes.
After passing a few stalls Ed finally found his brother at a ring toss game which had giant toy cats as the top prize. Al was throwing the rings but his accuracy was terrible and he kept missing. Ed knew his brother was amazing at alchemy but Al still wasn't used to his human body yet and found some things difficult. He managed to get right next to Al before he was noticed. Al turned his head a flashed a bright, adorable smile, "Oh, brother! Would you-" Ed quickly cut off his brother before the request could be finished, "No way in HELL am I going to help you Al." As Al put on his sad face Ed quickly dashed off, he knew that if he helped his brother he would then somehow get roped into carrying that toy around all day. Well so much for giving his brother a piece of his mind thought Ed as he turned a corner and his brother's cries downed out. After putting a safe distance between himself and his brother Ed decided to see what some of the others were doing. He walked a bit further on and found the 'Test Your Strength' stall. Then he noticed Havoc was leaning against the side with the mallet in one hand and his trademark cigarette in the other as he brought it up to mouth. Next to Havoc was a tall blond with big, bright, clear eyes that sparkled as he rambled on about some military mission and flirted with her. There was also a very bored looking Fury standing next to Havoc, he had probably been roped in to have an attempt at game to make Havoc seem stronger and more impressive. Ed sighed, there was no way he was getting involved with Havoc's attempts at getting a girlfriend and walked off to find someone else. He walked around for a while before he found anyone else. He passed a few different places to eat and then passed a couple of roller coasters as well as the giant Ferris wheel. Then he came across a hot dog vender and saw Breda and Falman buying a couple of hot dogs. Breda was wolfing down one, had two in his right hand and another in his left, while Falman was looking at his with a slightly disgusted face as a drop of grease hit his shoe. Breda spotted Ed and waved him over with a hot dog and mumbled something as a few bits of bun flew out of his mouth. Ed shook his head to refuse the offer of a hot dog and walked off. Edward turned a corner to see the rifle range. There was Hawkeye with the gun in her hands, she was hitting every target with precision, excellent accuracy and blinding speed, shocking the carnie that was running the stall; well she was the most dependable of all Roy's men when it came to guns. She was too focused to notice Ed and there was a large crowd of spectators applauding every shot and eagerly awaiting the next. Ed couldn't help but wonder if Mustang had used the rifle range as a way to bribe her into this stupid trip.
After approaching a restaurant, Ed decided this would be the safest place to hide until they could leave. It was a Chinese-themed restaurant, there were red and gold paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling, a tank of exotic looking fish was humming near the entrance, ornaments and statues were placed throughout the place and the tables had small empty rice bowls with chopsticks next to them. The place wasn't particularly busy so Ed was quickly seated by a polite red-headed girl. Inside it was quite dark, the walls were a maroon/dark red colour and the floor was tiled with pictures of dragons on it. He sat at a table near the back that was against the wall. He had just been handed his third coke with ice and lemon when out of the corner of his eye, Ed saw the tall black haired, smug man he called his boyfriend, walk in. Edward watched Roy walk over with the grace that had made him first notice the attraction that had started to build between the two. The older man sat opposite Ed as he sucked up some coke through the bright yellow straw. He noticed the flame alchemist watching his every move as he started to play with the straw in his mouth. After a few minutes of silence Ed released the straw, "Any reason why you're here bothering me?" He let it show that he was still annoyed about being forced into coming to this hell hole. Just because Roy was his lover now, didn't mean the guy was any less of a bastard at times. Mustang just stared back at him with a look of mocking shock on his face for a few moments then chuckled; winding Ed up even more. Since the colonel was being uncharacteristically quite as if to piss Ed off even more, the chibi downed the rest of his drink and went to get up when he felt a hand rest on top of his own. When Ed went to turn his head and glare at Roy he was met with charcoal black eyes and Ed felt his breath being stolen away and his heart beat faster; not understanding how Roy Mustang could still have this sort of affect on him. He felt a blush colour his cheeks as a grin spread across Mustang's face; Ed knew he wouldn't like the reasoning behind the smile.
Ed was standing in front of a large gothic style mansion-like building looking up at the rapidly darkening sky. There were cotton cobwebs draped all over it with fake furry spiders resting in the middle of them. There were gravestones either side of the path leading to the house. The sign on the mansion read 'Haunted House'. Sighing, Ed turned to Roy to ask why he had been dragged away from the restaurant to this haunted house at the amusement park. At first Edward had thought Roy would end up taking him home from the lustful look the colonel had on his face but found out this was where the older alchemist wanted to take him; a crappy fake haunted house. "What're we doing here?" Ed was a little agitated at having to leave the sanctity of the restaurant; they had nearly bumped into another couple of clowns on the way to the haunted house and Roy had to hold Ed back from rugby tackling them. Roy just gave Ed a dazzling smile as a response and lead the way inside, holding Ed's hand as he went. The doors were are a dark brown-almost black- colour and made the traditional creak that was typical of houses in horror movies; Ed scoffed at how fake all of it was. Roy, still holding Ed's hand, led them through one room and into the next. They passed through one room housing plastic skeletons standing on green lights attempting to look menacing, another room held a wax werewolf hanging from a glass chandelier on the ceiling as its partner looked as though it was sneaking in through the open window as the moonlight from outside reflected off its fur and in the corridors people where jumping out at them while wearing blue goblin costumes, Ed had punched one of them in face as well. Edward was not impressed by any of it; he hated how obviously fake everything was and wished they would put a little more effort into it.
They walked up the stairs for more cheap tricks and Ed sighed at the thought of what crap was awaiting him next. Roy led him into the room on the left at the top of the stairs, like all the others it was pitch black except a few coloured spotlights set up on the floor and ceiling and the slither of moonlight that leaked in through the window. Ed's eyes were naturally drawn to the blue spot light on the ceiling that lit up the vampire figure dipping a woman's head back with his fangs digging deep into her neck as fake blood dripped into a small puddle on the floor. Roy started to chuckle to himself and Ed turned to stare at him in confusion. The fake vampire scene was crap, but not really crap enough to be funny; so why was Roy laughing? "What the hell is wrong with you? It's not that funny!" Ed snapped at Roy, his already dwindling patience running low as Roy's laugh got louder and more confusing. The older man calmed himself enough to actually speak and not burst out laughing again. "I was just thinking about what you would be like as a vampire" was mumbled out as a smirk grew on his mouth. Edward couldn't help but ask while damning his curiosity, he had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer. "And why the hell are you laughing so hard about that?" His voice quickly taking on a pissed off tone at the way Roy's face light up. As Roy spoke Ed could hear the edge of laughter in his voice still, "Well it was just the thought of you trying to suck someone's blood," Ed raised an eyebrow, still not understanding Roy's point fully, "Since you're too short to reach anyone's neck." Roy diverted his eyes and his smirk grew bigger as he held in his laughter. Ed's anger built up to bursting point in half a second, but he was more mature now and used to Roy making these sort of comments, he gave Roy the finger and accompanied it with a quick "Fuck you!" as he stormed off through the doorway leading into the next room, leaving a laughing Roy behind attempting to apologise. In the room Ed had barged into, there weren't any windows; the only light was from three red spotlights. There were two figures about a metre apart, each standing on top of a bright red spotlight in the centre of the room. They were oddly deformed figures with piercing yellow eyes, even brighter than the spotlights. At first the yellow eyes of the zombie figures were all Ed noticed, then his gaze shifted to the third figure in the room. It was closer to him than the other two; it was in between them and looked as if it was lying on the floor. This one also had yellow eyes although they weren't as bright as the other zombies. He moved closer to the figure to get a better look at it. Ed froze as he took in the whole scene in front of him and his eyes widened. The figure on the floor wasn't a zombie, it was a young woman with long dark hair that looked red from the spotlight and her face was twisted with agony and in Ed's head he could hear her screams of pain. She was lying on her back with her stomach sliced open showing off her ribs and below her was a huge puddle of fake blood as the two zombies stood looming over her. Suddenly Ed's head was full of visions from his past; a creature lying in the middle of a large transmutation circle, it's stomach open exposing it's organs as blood spilled out from the dying monster, it had his mother's face which was trying to scream at the pain it was in and Ed watched the sight in front of him in horror while clutching his stump of a leg that was dripping blood onto the floor. He felt his knees buckle and hit the wooden floorboards beneath him as he covered his face with his hands to try and block out the agonising scenes unfolding in his mind as well as the one in front of him. Ed only just heard the hurried footsteps as they got closer and twitched at the arms that held him in a loving embrace and someone whispered calming, reassuring words in his ear as he sobbed.
What happened next was a blur to Ed, since he was just trying to focus on Roy's soothing words. He was pretty sure Roy had carried him outside since he could hear the distant sounds of screams and chatting, then he was having his hands gently removed from in front of his face and gloved fingers intertwined with his. When Ed eventually managed to suppress his sobs he looked up to see a blurry Roy wiping away the remaining tears, "You okay now?" Roy's voice was thick with concern. Ed still felt slightly sick as the images lingered at the corners of his mind and he could feel the colour drain from his face. Ed tried to speak but there was a lump in his throat and he felt like he was going to be sick but he nodded at Roy anyway. He then received a sceptical look; clearly Ed was looking as horrible as he felt. Roy pulled Ed into a hug so quick that Ed couldn't see the new emotion that flickered onto his face. The heat from Roy was almost like an instant cure and Ed couldn't help but smile as he felt the fear fade away and managed to choke out "I'm fine now" along with a slight smile. Ed moved closer into Roy's hug relishing in the warmth and wrapped his arms around the older man as he kissed his lips, as he pulled away Roy smiled and let out a sigh of relief. "You don't know how scared I was when you collapsed back there" Ed shook his head, he didn't want to relive it, not here, luckily Roy understood and focused on trying to help Ed to stand up. It took a few tries as Ed was still feeling a bit weak but Roy let Ed lean on him and they managed it. They started walking back up the isolated path back to join their friends in the main part of the park. It took some time since Ed could only hobble but after they had made it about half way down the path his strength had returned and he was able to walk on his own. They made it back to the main attractions without saying a word about what had happened, but Roy broke the silence "It's getting late. Do you want to go on one last ride before we leave?" Ed was feeling weary of what ride Roy would choose but after the haunted house incident but it was unlikely that Roy would pick a ride to wind him up, "Sure I guess one ride would be alright." Roy's eyes darted about as he looked from one ride to the next, trying to find the perfect last ride for them. All of a sudden Roy's eyes stopped wandering and seemed to sparkle at the sight of whatever ride he had picked. Ed followed his line of sight and refused to believe that this was the ride Roy wanted to go on. The ride Roy was looking at was quite big, it was coloured bright pink and the entrance was in the shape of a heart and had red fairy lights around the edge. "You've got to be joking!" Ed uttered in disbelief as he was dragged-unwillingly-towards the 'Tunnel Of Love'. They sat in a red car with pink seats; Ed felt ridiculous getting on this ride and was starting to regret agreeing to this. Then he felt Roy lean in close as the car started to move and felt Roy's breath caress his ear as the older man whispered "You turning as red as the car" and chuckled, Ed turned around to protest but Roy had leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. Maybe this ride won't be so bad Ed thought as they entered the dark tunnel and all the sounds from outside died away.
~The End~