Whoo, chapter three! I promise, Roy IS more perceptive that I make him out to be in this. He's waiting for Ed to tell him the truth before he reveals that he knows the truth himself.
Anyway, I'm home from school today, bleh. I got next to no sleep last night and my eyes are all puffy from being out in the woods yesterday. I LIVE in the woods, you'd think I'd be immune by now.
NOPE!
Well, enjoy. Sorry if it's a bit boring.
Oh, by the way, I'm looking for a Beta. I have excellent spelling, grammar, etc skills, but it's hard for me to catch those few and far between mistakes on my own. So, if you would like to Beta my work (and be mah buddeh? xD) feel free to send me a message, comment on this story, etc. If I really like you, I'll give you my YIM so we can talk.
Disclaimer: Bah...not mine.
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The rain poured in buckets from the sky the next morning, soaking absolutely everything. Al was certainly glad that he wasn't stuck in the armor anymore, else he'd probably collect a lot of rain really fast, wash off the blood seal, and die. And they said a bit of water never killed anyone, ha. But, he wasn't armor, and thus all he had to worry about was finding an umbrella for himself and Ed. They only had one, so Ed had to walk with Al to the flower shop so they could share the umbrella.
The elder blond had certainly not forgotten the previous night. He had the book safely tucked away in his jacket, an attempt to keep it dry. He hadn't told Al about the contents of the book. And he certainly wasn't going to confront Roy about it.
The brothers hurried down the streets, dodging people and trying to stay dry at the same time. It was a relief to stumble awkwardly into the shop, where Gracia, Hughes, and the newborn stood waiting. Maes was just on his way out the door when he caught Ed's eye, snatched the baby from his wife and began to proudly show the poor child off. :Edward! It's been a long time, how have you been? Oh, you missed the most adorable thing yesterday! Elysia was getting put down for her nap and I could have sworn that she said daddy for the first time!"
Ed just smiled and nodded, used to this. "That's great, officer. I'd stay and chat more but I need to get to work." He turned to Al, who was greeting Gracia. "I'll see you later, Al." He called, unfolding the umbrella once again and venturing out into the nearly flooded streets. Al waved back, calling out something that Ed couldn't hear over the pouring rain.
The blond ran through the downpour once more, keeping his hand over the lump in his jacket that was the book. Once he reached the shop he gratefully shook the rain out of his hair and folded his umbrella, leaning it up against the wall and sighing. Somehow, he still managed to get drenched.
Havoc laughed heartily at Ed, thoroughly amused by this. "Need a towel, Ed?" he asked, half sarcastically, fighting a fit of chuckles.
Ed rolled his eyes. "No, I'm fine. Is Roy here, yet?" Ed hadn't noticed if his jacket was hanging up or not, and quite frankly was a little scared to look.
Havoc nodded, "Yeah, he's upstairs." With that the older man went back to sweeping the floor, though he should really be mopping it with all of the water on the floor. Ed nodded to him and hesitantly walked up the stairs to the second floor, still keeping one hand on the book. He reached the familiar door that led to Roy's office, knocking a few times before hearing Mustang's voice tell him it was all right to come in.
The blond peeked around the doorframe, stepping inside the office and meeting up with a normal-looking Roy. "Hey, you uh, left this here last night." He said, taking the book out of his pocket and handing it to the man.
Roy's eyes widened a small bit but returned to normal in a matter of seconds. "Oh, thank you. I thought I'd lost it." He smirked his trademark smirk, tucking the book away into one of his desk drawers and folding his hands under his chin. "So, Edward, fall into a cup of water this morning? You look like a drowned rat."
Already with the jokes. Ed glared at him, "In case you haven't noticed, it's pouring buckets outside." He grumbled, folding his arms stubbornly over his chest.
The older man laughed, "I think I have realized that." He sighed, leaning back in his chair and asking casually. "Did any of that sound familiar to you?"
Ed looked up, having been glaring at the floor, with a surprised look on his face at the change of subject. At least, he thought it was a change of the subject. "Um... what?" The blond looked genuinely stumped, a look he hadn't really felt on his own face since having to study for the Alchemy Exams and being quizzed by Shou Tucker. "Any of what?"
Roy's expression remained impassive. "The notebook. I know you read it." It wasn't hard to read the slight look of guilt that the other had on his face when he first walked through the door. "Did any of those passages seem familiar to you?"
He wanted so badly to say yes... "No, sir, they didn't." Ed averted his gaze, looking to the floor again in thought. "...they sounded like nice stories, though." He quickly tried to amend.
The older man's expression hadn't changed still. "I'm not sure what they are, myself." He admitted, leaning forward again to rest his head in his left hand. "I have those dreams nearly every night. Always of the same places, people, things... Through those dreams I've seen a lot of familiar faces. It seems that once I see a person for the first time, they start showing up in my dreams." Fresh, new, for a while. There were a few dreams, or rather nightmares, that reoccurred and never failed to wake him up breathless, his heart racing, and on the verge of tears, feeling immense guilt or worry.
Ed listened intently. "So... you have dreams of some other world?" He inquired, knowing full well what the answer would be. He was curious to learn more, though. Was it just a coincidence...? He'd never even dreamed the older man would just open up to him like this. The Colonel would have never... he couldn't even imagine it happening.
Roy nodded, "Yes, that seems to be the case. But they're so real, I actually feel the pain, smell the smells, hear the..." He didn't finish his sentence. "Either way, sometimes I don't know one world from the other."
Ed couldn't help but crack a small smile. "Who knows. Maybe this world is the dream and the one you write about is reality."
The raven-haired man sighed, "Yeah... who knows..."
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The day sped by after that, with Roy hanging out downstairs more often than he normally would (or Hawkeye would let him), even occasionally helping Ed with his work (aka: reaching high places) while the two of them talked. Ed spoke about Al a lot, Roy was surprised to find that the blond had a younger brother.
"Really?" The older man's voice was incredulous, yet suspecting at the same time, making Ed laugh as he worked on helping Jean carry boxes into the storage closet as an end-of-the-day job.
Ed nodded, "Mmhm. He's..." Ed had to stop and think for a minute, so as not to slip and accidentally say, 'he's one year younger than me' when now, the other Elric was really about four years younger than him. "He's four years younger than me." God that felt weird to say... it made him a little homesick. He sat the large brown box down, kicking it the rest of the way into the closet. He was getting lazy. "But you wouldn't know it." He wouldn't go into more detail than that.
Thankfully, Roy let that subject drop, but started a new one. "So, is it just you two?" The older man watched as Ed untied the work waist-apron from around himself and stuck it under the counter. The younger got an odd look on his face when he'd heard the question, a mix between thought and ... was it despair?
"Yes, it's just us. Our mom died when we were little kids, and our dad got killed just two years ago." Neither of which were experiences he wanted to relive. One of few times he hadn't despised and hated his father, the Thule Society had to go and use him as Envy-Bait. He didn't mind answering the questions, it was just the mental images that came with them.
Roy looked honestly surprised, and yet at the same time, he looked as if he'd seen that coming. "I'm sorry..."
"Don't be, wasn't your fault, right?" The blond grinned happily, trying to portray that he really wasn't worried by it. He'd long since gotten over it all. History seemed to be repeating itself. He and Al were on their own again, only this time, they weren't chasing anything. Sure, they attempted Alchemy in their spare time, but... it was always a futile attempt. Like he'd said a couple of years back, Ed was a sucker for nostalgia.
Roy still looked a bit depressed, though. "Still, that's a lot to go through before you even his twenty-five." Both of his parents were still alive, although they lived in a different country.
Just then, a rock flew in and broke the window.
"Aryan's only, all else be gone" was written to a piece of paper tied to the rock.
"So...they haven't given up yet..." He looked up at Roy, who had picked up the rock and was now tossing it up and down in his hand. He now felt a bit of concern for the older man, who looked thoroughly unscathed and, very quickly, pegged the rock back out the now broken window.
"Damn kids. They need something better to do than listen to their parents ideals." And of course, now they had a broken window to patch up. Thankfully, a bit of glue might work, since all of the pieces were fairly large (Ed counted ten pieces of broken glass with no small shards lying around).
"I'm guessing this happens often?" Ed asked. Roy was, really, the only person that worked in this shop with dark hair. The rest of them were blond(e) and had (mostly) blue-like eyes. Ed remembered clearly the praise Alphonse H had gotten because he and the others working on the rockets were all 'perfect models of the Aryan race.'
Roy sighed, getting a large, flat, wooden board out from the closet and sitting it in the window to cover the hole for the night. "Every so often some smart ass does something like this. It's the first time they've broken a window though."
Hating someone just for their hair, eye, and skin colors... Ed remembered that well. The Ishbalan race back in Amestris was a perfect example. Now he understood a bit...exactly how closely connected their two worlds were. "It was the same way... they had dark skin and red eyes, and were ostracized because of it."
Roy raised an eyebrow at the younger, having been in the middle of picking up what he could of the glass. "Are you referring to my note book again?" He asked, somewhat skeptically.
..."No. This time, I'm going from memory." As he said this, Ed couldn't help but look down at his right arm, paler than the rest of his body, that hid the mechanical limbs of Winry's creation.
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Oh the suspense! Hehe. I looove cliff hangers. I'm sure you all don't, but they're fun to write!
Read and review please?
