Okay, I am back from the movie! I actually had fun too! I was singing and dancing on my way out of the theater... along with almost everyone else. Woo! I'm still all hyper from it, must settle down long enough to answer reviews and then I am going back to busting moves and singing. Anyway, to answer reviews... if you left one and want to hear a reply, look below. If you didn't, or don't, then scroll a bit.
Horselvr: I like sneaky Gates... they make for good laughs.
Bar-Ohki: Mmm yes you must, the Gate is all awesome.
QuitexSoul: I rather like them as acting high... I've no idea why either.
Paon: Yes, the Gate is OOC, much in this is going to be OOC for very obvious reasons.
J Plash: At least the Gate has a sense of "hot or not."
boolinger: You're not the only one who feels special. And you liked a lot of the same lines I did, woo!
FreshwaterRain: Oops I did it again -is dragged off by the ABBA fans she was entertaining- ...right! Cause I am a da-ancing queen...
Synne: Oh yay, props for the Windy.
anmbcuconnfan: Splendid! I'm going to burst into song again. Taking me to a musical is never a good idea...
LS animal lover: Hmm, not in his head persay... but somewhat like that. shrugs Anywho I'm glad you like it so far.
GreedxEd: I'll warn you in advance, so you can get the automail clubs ready.
Ria: He and the Gate just need to draw up a restraining order against each other.
Shini: No, you did not miss it.
Tee: Most men do look nice in a uniform.
I am a dancing queen, young and sweet only seventeen... -skips off singing and throwing flowers-
Chapter Two
Mustang had been invited into Al's room, after hearing that this brother was slightly worse off than Edward. It seemed that Alphonse had a mild concussion and some bruising to his ribcage. Instead of taking a liberty and sitting on the edge of the bed, Mustang opted for the stiff chair next to the bed.
"How's brother?" Al asked immediately.
Mustang blinked at him, then smiled softly. "You'll always look out for him like that won't you."
Al shrugged, "it's what we do. We look out for each other." He returned the smile and tugged the blanket over him up a bit further with a satisfied looking yawn. "So how is he?"
"Hm? Oh, he's better than you. He only has to stay overnight for observation." Roy informed him, "you on the other hand…"
"I suppose the Gate didn't bother trying to heal up all of my injuries." Alphonse said, still smiling. "But we showed up looking better than we looked after that accident. Covered in blood… it wasn't pretty."
"Ed told me about that." Mustang said and leaned back in his chair. "He told me about his connection to the Gate too."
"Oh, good." Al breathed a sigh of relief. "He tried to hide it from me… I thought he was going insane! Always muttering under his breath and looking distracted, looking like he was carrying on a conversation in his head. One he didn't want to. I was considering having him admitted." He joked and gave a short chuckle before wincing at the pain in his head. "I'm glad to see he didn't try hiding it from you."
"So you cannot hear it?" Roy pressed.
Al shook his head slowly side to side, "no. And I don't want to. Sure, it's useful to be able to ask it something, but past that, the thing drives brother insane sometimes. I'm not sure what happened to make them forge a mental link, but it's there."
"It's made some sort of strange request of him." Mustang began, feeling that he should share the information with Al in his brother's absence. "He has to find some sort of good enough reason to stay at the end of a months time, else he'll be pulled back."
Alphonse stared at him silently for a time, as if truly thinking it over. When in reality his head just was feeling sore still and he was trying not to give in to fits of goofiness. "Interesting." Was all he said, yet he withheld a great deal more. He wondered… could it really be as simple as that? When dealing with the Gate and its grandiose notions of equivalent exchange you could never be too sure what the Gate was thinking. He hoped it might be so simple… but they'd thought that they could pull off a human transmutation just because they'd done all the prep work correctly. That had ended up in something a bit short of a disaster.
"Interesting, that's it?" Roy blinked at him in amazement. "Your brother is much more talkative."
Al smiled at him apologetically. "Did the Gate tell him anything else?"
"Just that it would leave him alone until then." Mustang shrugged. "I get the feeling though he wasn't telling me everything."
"Most likely, I know that brother doesn't even tell me some of the things he has spoken to the Gate about." Alphonse nestled his head further down into the stiff pillow. "It won't leave him alone though. This isn't the first time it would have promised that, and gone around it. It'll come and mess with his dreams again. Nothing is ever absolute about the Gate, that's what I've learned."
"How long had this been going on?"
"About a month after we both went through I started seeing the signs."
Mustang nodded slowly and then got to his feet. "I am planning to go get you both something better to eat than hospital food. Is there anything in particular you want? I know your brother will eat anything."
"Some kind of noodles… or something. That's one of the reasons we were going to Venice, for some good Italian food." Al smiled wistfully.
"Right." Roy said, though he had no clue what Italian food was. Apparently it involved noodles. He could work with that. "I should be back soon then."
Al watched as Mustang left, and smiled to himself before closing his eyes. Silently, he wished his brother good luck dealing with the Gate this time.
Fifteen minutes later found Roy Mustang at a corner restaurant called 'Olde Tyme Spaghetti Factory'.
He chose to ignore the blaring misspellings.
"You're serious, sir?" The waiter asked in amazement.
"Yeah." Roy grinned, "it's not all for me. I have a hungry alchemist and his brother at the hospital to feed."
"I'll get the chef on it." The waiter beamed and fairly flew back to the kitchen in excitement.
Half an hour later Roy tottered his way back to the hospital with several large paper sacks of boxed spaghetti and several Styrofoam containers of breadsticks. He knew he'd probably just made the day of the owners of that restaurant considering how much he just spent.
Somehow he made it back to the hospital, and nodded gratefully to the security woman who yanked the door open for him. He made it up the stairs as well, and down the corridor to Al's room first. "Here, I'll leave you one of the cartons of breadsticks, and a few of the spaghetti containers." He said, piling them onto the table beside Al.
"Thanks!" Alphonse grinned cheerfully and accepted the plastic fork Roy provided him.
Mustang smiled at his enthusiasm, "eat, then I want you resting."
"Yes, sir." Al agreed immediately and dove into the cartons with gusto.
Roy shook his head with an amused smile, knowing the flurry of eating very well indeed. It seemed that trait of Ed's had rubbed off. Leaving the younger of the brothers to his meal, Roy exited from that room and went into Ed's following a knock to the door.
"Hey." Ed smiled over at him past the nurse who was taking notes on her clipboard while peering down at him.
"I came bearing gifts of food and conversation." Roy smiled at him and nodded to the nurse. "Please carry on, he should at least have enough manners to remain sat while you finish looking him over."
Edward glared at him unreservedly. "As soon as I get my hands on that food I'm going to smear some of it all over that pompous face of yours."
"Now Edward, manners." Roy chided with a grin as Ed huffed and allowed the nurses ministrations to continue.
Edward watched with a calculating half glare as the nurse proceeded as directed, at least until he started to feel unsettled by the looks she was sending him. They were… predatory. He suddenly got the impression that he was being visually undressed by her.
It was enough to keep him shut up, and when she finally left he suddenly turned a bewildered look on Roy.
"What?" Mustang asked, looking suddenly concerned. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"She wanted me." Ed said, still looking quite befuddled.
Roy, whatever he'd been expecting, had not expected that. He burst out laughing.
"It's not funny!" Ed shrieked indignantly. "What happened to all the women who throw themselves at your feet?"
"You know, Ed, you're not exactly… never mind." Mustang fought the urge to flush and coughed suddenly. What the hell was wrong with him? Maybe he really was coming down with something, this was absurd. He should not have wanted to tell Ed that he looked well, sexy, dressed as he was. Bad thought, no, no, no! He was definitely getting ill, or suffering from lack of sleep or something!
Edward stared at him, still quite confused by this turn of events. "She didn't even pay you a second glance. You're not married, are you?" He asked, instantly knowing that came out wrong. But waiting with bated breath anyway for the answer.
Roy was caught off guard by the question, and shook his head. "No." He managed to muster at last, and then, "just don't be surprised that people are starting to notice that you're a man. And considering who you are, a very eligible man."
"Huh." Edward blinked at him and settled back into his pillows. "Are you saying that you've noticed I'm grown up now?" He asked with a shadow of a smile whose meaning Mustang could not decipher, nor the sparkle in Ed's golden eyes.
"Yes, but today is not the first day I noticed." Mustang replied with a return smile. Suddenly the air in the room was a bit more relaxed, less… urgent. Though he still could not put his finger on the reason for the sudden tension that had developed.
Ed breathed an inward sigh of relief, and let his eyes slip closed for a moment. He could not allow himself to get carried away here. Even if Mustang had realized he was an adult, it didn't necessarily mean the things he would hope it would mean. "Can I have my food now?" He asked upon opening his eyes once again.
Roy started with a bit of a chuckle. He'd forgotten all about the food during that impromptu discussion about why women might be liable to want to jump Ed at any opportunity. "May I?" Roy corrected teasingly.
Edward's answer was a hot gold glare that made Mustang hurry towards him with the food.
Not long later the two of them were sat on Ed's bed, boxes of food open between them on the attached table to the hospital bed. Mustang had accepted the surprising offer to share the meal, and found that Ed's manners had improved tenfold in the eating department. And he was actually enjoying sitting and chatting with Edward.
"You sing?!" Roy gaped at him, forgetting for the moment the forkful of twisted spaghetti coated in red sauce that was now dangling in the air.
"Sang." Ed corrected promptly and chewed on another bite of breadstick.
Roy was fighting the urge to both laugh, and ask for a demonstration, and just decided to hell with it. "Will you, please?" He asked through an amused chuckle.
Snorting in a most unmannered way, Ed shook his head firmly. "I said sang. I don't do it anymore. I did a lot of things, you know. Singing was just one of them, and it wasn't professional by a long shot." He said with a nonchalant wave of his right hand.
"Please, for me?" Roy asked in his most appealing tone, and even went so far as to bat his eyes purposefully at Ed. Somehow he managed to keep the laughter to near silent bouts of fitful chuckling.
Ed blushed instantly at Roy's actions, and turned his head away from the sight. If Roy only knew that right now he was in danger of being jumped… No, he could not allow himself to think that right now, it would do no good to get hot and bothered with Mustang in the room and more than willing to pry into every detail of his life. "Maybe some other time, I'm not feeling up to it today."
"Deal." Roy grinned and popped his now very room temperature mouthful of spaghetti into his mouth.
Ed shook his head at him with a smile. "Just don't expect anything grand. If you want a good performance, I suggest you go ask Armstrong who in his family line is talented in singing."
"No thanks, I'll take my chances on you."
Again, with those words… Edward wasn't sure right now how long he could manage to restrain himself. Sure, he was doing admirably, but the small dosage of pain medication they'd given him was having a grand argument with his self control. "Anyway, um," he quickly fought to get the trains of innocent thought back on the tracks, "anyway, eventually Al and I got to London, which is a city, and stayed there for about four months. We both earned enough money working scientific research jobs. We left for France and then Italy after that, they're countries. I started up freelance writing for newspapers."
"You actually were paid to write?!" Mustang was incredulous, to think! What was this other world coming to?
"You know, Mustang," Ed began with an eye roll, "you've not seen my writing in many, many years."
"Will I again?" Roy asked now.
"How so?"
"I was rather hoping that you might come back and be a State Alchemist again." Roy admitted, somehow no longer able to look Ed in the eyes. Almost as if he was afraid to hear the answer, but he couldn't understand why that would be.
Edward had thought about that while Roy had been gone getting their food. He had known the question would come up again eventually. Letting his gaze fall to his nearly finished meal he drew a sharp breath and stabbed at a meatball. "If several conditions are met, then I will come back." Ed finally replied, still not looking back up as he chewed on the meatball.
"Name them." Roy's reply was instant, and he felt himself again waiting with bated breath for an answer. He realized he was allowing Edward quite a bit of freedom here, freedom he'd allow no one else. To set conditions which he'd probably agree to in a heartbeat no matter what they were. He wanted Ed back though, and he was willing to sacrifice to get there if he had to.
"First, you leave Al out of it. He wants to go back to Risembool, we talked once about what we'd do if we ever made it back again. So you'll let him go, and not try to rope him into being a State Alchemist." Ed said and looked up at Mustang again at last to both hear and see the answer.
"I will not attempt to rope your brother into service." Roy agreed, meeting Ed's eyes.
"I get a pay raise."
"You were given a promotion too, you know." Roy grinned at him. "You'll have your pay raise thanks to your new position if you reinstate."
"Fascinating." Ed waved it off. He could really care less about being promoted, not even curious enough to ask what he'd been promoted to. "I get to turn down missions if I have a valid reason, which you agree with, for not wanting to go. I trust we can both act like adults."
"Done." Roy agreed readily. "Anything else?"
"I still refuse to wear the uniform." Edward stated firmly.
Roy, suddenly unable to help himself, let his eyes sweep up and down Ed's body as he took in the clothes the alchemist was dressed in. Clearing his throat he mentally kicked himself for feeling appreciative of the way Ed was dressed. "These, um, clothes are fine." He quickly said.
A bit too quickly.
Ed gave him a thoughtful look, and tried to hide the spark of happiness that had lit in him when Roy had done the once over and looked rather pleased. "I'm glad you agree." He smirked and decided it could prove interesting to toy with Mustang a bit. It was too much to hope that Roy was interested in him, but he felt sure that his life was about to get a bit more enjoyable now.
"Yes, well," Roy quickly floundered for footing again, "you've never worn the uniform anyway. I rather gave up trying to force you into one when you turned fourteen."
"One of the smartest decisions you ever made, if I might be so bold as to say so." Edward laughed.
"And what do all those others count as, oh wise one?" Roy grinned at him.
"Not as impressive." Ed returned with a similar grin.
"I'm going to go find that nurse and tell her you've said she's the hottest thing on two legs." Roy threatened in a good natured way and bit into another breadstick.
Ed gaped at him in an over-the-top way, and put in a gasp for effect. "You wouldn't dare." He fought back a snicker at the thought. There was no way he could even pretend he thought she was good looking in that way. Sure, she wasn't exactly hideous, but he wasn't interested in her. He was more interested in the two legged man sitting across from him on the foot of his bed and eating some of his food.
"Would you put it past me?" Came the devilish reply.
"Actually, no." Ed admitted with a sour expression.
Roy winked at him, "don't worry. I want you to be resting, not flirting with the hospital staff."
"Are you concerned about me?" Edward teased with a bit of a laugh.
"I always am. Whether you knew it or not." He replied with what looked like a wistful smile. "Anyway, is there anything else you want?"
Edward thought about that for a moment, besides you, Roy? "No, nothing." He shook his head to clear his mind. At least, as well as he could considering he was still feeling fuzzy around the edges.
"Then you'll come back?" Roy asked hopefully.
"I'll be back on Monday. When is Monday, though? You said earlier it's the weekend right now, but it was a Thursday when I was brought back here."
"Saturday." Roy filled him in, "tomorrow you'll be released. Al has to stay a while longer though. I want you resting still, even on Monday I don't want you to push yourself. Make sure you're feeling fine."
"Where can I stay? To be honest, I'd rather not stay in the barracks. Do you think Gracia might put me up for a while?"
"Gracia is on vacation right now with her daughter." Roy poked at his pasta as he thought, "I'm sure she wouldn't mind but I don't exactly want you eating all of her food without her knowledge. Let me see if I can get in touch with her, I'll have an answer for you tomorrow about where you can stay."
"Thanks." Ed sighed and tossed a now empty box that had contained pasta into a nearby trash bin. He pulled another one out of the large paper sacks and opened the steamy container. "Mind if I asked what's happened with you since I was away?"
Roy shrugged, "nothing too exciting. Prevented a war with Drachma, signed cease fire treaties and the whole thing. Though I made sure to keep the clause in there that said if they broke their side of any part of the treaty that I'd have no problem sending in a bunch of alchemists to blow them to the moon."
"You actually did paperwork?!" Ed asked with a grin and a laugh.
He rolled his eyes and broke off a piece of breadstick to lob at the blond sitting across from him. "Shut up. Yes, I do my paperwork, and without prompting. As apparently you will write decently now. You're not the only one who's changed while you were gone."
Ed picked the piece of thrown food off of his sleeve and popped it into his mouth. "Is that all?" He asked once he'd finished chewing.
"Well, I was made Elysia's other godfather." Roy said with a slight frown as he tried to pull up relevant information.
"Other?" Ed parroted.
"Mhm, you're the other." Roy informed him and tapped his fork against a meatball in thought.
"I saw her be born, that makes me the better godfather." Edward laughed and smirked at Roy's look. "Did you ever make it back to anything other than an enlisted man?" He asked, and blinked at Roy's highly amused laugh. "What? Am I missing something?"