Twists Chapter 9.
Ed had left Hanaki's office quietly.
He now sat just outside of the office.
'A...soul...a human soul...' Ed just kept repeating the words that Hanaki had said.
'I-I can't just create a soul out of nothing...I...can't.' He raised his hand to cover his eyes, he needed to think. Hanaki actually expected him to create something like that...or else something would happen to everyone...to Riza, Havoc, Breda, Fuery, Al...and Roy.
'I can't let them get hurt.' Ed slid himself up the wall, trying to calm himself down, He couldn't let anyone see him worked up, or they would know something was wrong.
"Alright...calm down..." He pulled himself up and squared his shoulders and walked back into the ever familiar office.
The only one still left was Riza, but it looked like she was getting ready to leave.
"Oh, Edward...where have you been?" She smiled, just asking a simple question.
Ed blinked and tried to make sure his voice didn't give himself away.
"I-I uh...General Hanaki...needed to talk to me." Yeah that was so convincing.
Riza's smile faltered and she gave him a doubting glare.
"Edward, are you alright?"
"Yes. I'm fine...I just need to talk to the colonel, then I'll head home..Al's probably going to fucking kill me.."
".. Speaking of Alphonse, he called me and said he'd be taking the train to Risembool this afternoon, and said to make sure you didn't do anything stupid..." Riza smiled as she quoted the advice that sounded all to much like Ed's far more mature younger brother.
'Great...so He's leaving me alone...Well...atleast I know who he's going to see...' Ed had to grin as he thought about his younger brother and his love interest, if anything cold get him out of a bad mood, even just a little, it was Al's happiness.
"Thank you Lt. I'll be fine...I just need to tell the colonel what Hanaki wanted, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Alright then, Goodnight, Sir."
Riza gave him a quick salute before putting her jacket on and walking out the door.
'Now, to give the colonel a summary of what happened...' Obviously he couldn't tell the colonel everything...but he couldn't just not tell him.
He walked towards the colonel's door and before he could even knock a firm "Come In" echoed through the wood. So Ed opened the door, and made sure to keep as calm as possible, trying to forget even for a second about what had happened with the general.
"Edward." Roy said his name, knowing it was him without even lifting his dark eyes from the paperwork he was supposedly finishing.
"Uh...Colonel...I...thought I should tell you...well about the meeting with Hanaki..."
"Yes. FullMetal...that would be a good idea...what did the mor-General want"
'Is it me, Or does he sound angry...and was he about the call Hanaki a moron?' The colonel did seem a little more tense than usual, not to mention he wasn't looking at Ed at all.
Taking a deep breathe Ed spoke as calmly as he could.
"Well..uh...He wanted to ask me a few questions on the research me and Al did a few years ago...so I told him that we were studying Biological alchemy..then all he did was offer me a job for...a...uh...research assignment that a special team of his were...working on."
He'd expected the colonel to sense the lie in his voice, but all the colonel did was lift his head and give Ed a small nod.
'What the hell?' Something was definitely wrong with the man if he hadn't noticed the way Ed was acting, even Ed noticed it and he was trying to act normal!
Roy was usually very good at reading people, sometimes a little to good. But he wasn't even twitching at Ed's complacent lie.
"Uhh Colonel? " He was hoping to get some type of acknowledgment from the man.
Nothing.
Ed walked up to the man's desk and repeated himself.
"Colonel!"
Roy looked up and Ed saw that the man looked like he'd been trying to figure out a fucking life crisis.
"I..think I'm going to go home...Fullmetal..."
'Uh...ok...seriously what the fuck is wrong with him?'
"Um...Ok? Then get off your ass and go home?" He wasn't actually trying to be rude this time, Ed just wanted the colonel to react well...normally.
"Yeah...you leaving too?"
Ed raised an eyebrow and just nodded. Something was wrong and he was going to find out what. He could forget about the shit from earlier for now. The colonel was acting stranger...well more than usual.
"Mm'kay...we should walk together...it's raining so...yeah we live in the same general direction..."
'Uh...Hey Bastard..no we don't...' He and the colonel lived in completely different directions...but He WAS going to find out what was bugging the man, so he agreed.
Ed followed Roy out of the office and out of headquarters quietly, hoping the man would atleast say something.
'What the hell! What could have possibly happened in the short amount of time I was gone!' He couldn't imagine anything being so terrible or confusing...but then he remembered something...
'He couldn't actually be depressed over that could he?'
The last thing Ed had told the colonel, was that he was a fool. But from what Ed had known, Roy didn't have any idea why Ed and Hughes had refereed to him as a fool...
'Could he have...' Damnit either the man hadn't figured it out and was trying to still...or the idiot had taken it the wrong way. Either way Ed was pretty sure that that's what was bugging him. Well he needed to lighten the mood, and although he usually hated the rain...
He stopped walking and eyed a mud muddle infront of the colonel and smiled.
'Yeah. That'll work.' He quickened his pace, until he was pretty close the the colonel's back.
'Sorry about this colonel, but this whole depressed thing isn't cute.'
He grabbed the back of Roy's jacket and 'slipped', dragging the colonel into the mud along with him.
With a thud and two simultaneous groans of pain, the two landed one on top of the other.
Unfortunately for Ed, Roy landed on him, which was what he wanted to avoid.
"Damnit FullMetal! What the Hell! Can't you fucking walk?" Roy grunted as he tried to pull himself up, but he slipped once more and fell face first into the puddle and over Ed.
"Ugh...Damnit you fucking bastard...get off! your fucking heavy!" Ed had thought this would be funny...but he hadn't planned on himself getting muddy too.
"Your the idiot who pulled me down!" Roy had finally pulled himself up, and reached his hand down towards Ed to help him up.
Ed looked up, and couldn't help but laugh. Roy was completely dirty, his uniform painted with the dark color of mud, and his face was matching.
"You look like shit." He laughed again, pulling himself up and using Roy's hand as leverage.
Roy smiled, and laughed in response.
"Well Fullmetal, you don't look so hot yourself."
Ed's eyes jolted towards the darker eyes.
'Well...actually colonel...you look rather..'
"Shutup you fucking bastard...we wouldn't have slipped if you weren't acting like you were dieing before."
Atleast he'd gotten the man to actually smile.
Ed saw that the colonel gave him a thoughtful look, eyes moving up and down.
"Uh...colonel..what are you looking at."
Under the dirt on that pale face, Ed thought he saw a faint tinge of pink.
"Oh..um..nothing...your just well dirty."
'Uh...No duh?' Ed frowned, that's not what Roy was staring at.
"Well sorry colonel, but as your punishment for getting me all dirty, and for making me go out of my way to walk you home, I'm staying at your place."
He saw the colonels face, at first he looked disappointed, which made Ed feel well like shit... then something that Ed didn't expect...was that...excitement? God this man was so fucking confusing.
"Um...Alright...If you..want to..." Roy stuttered.
"What's wrong colonel, afraid I'll break your house or something?" Ed laughed and walked ahead of his superior.
"No, But, Won't Al wonder where you are? You haven't seen him since you left the bar."
Ed laughed, Al would be far to distracted anyway...
"No, He's going to visit Granny and Winry."
Roy smiled. "Ah, so he and Winry are together again? The boy should just ask her out already, its painfully obvious he likes her."
Ed rolled his eyes. 'Yeah sure that's painfully obvious but of course you don't even notice my..." Ed halted his condescending thoughts, now wasn't the time for that, he still wanted to know what had upset the older man before.
"So...Uh...Colonel what exact-" He was interrupted.
"Well...We're here...don't you dare get my carpet muddy or I will kill you."
"Wait...we're here already?" He didn't know the colonel lived this close to headquarters, last time it felt like he lived alot farther away, although he'd been drunk the last time...
"OH screw your carpet."
Roy just rolled his eyes and walked in. Ed followed, and was very tempted to shake and wipe his boots all over the carpet...but decided against it.
"So Fullmetal...what's with the sudden fascination with my place?"
Ed was caught off guard. Well someone had cheered up.
"Uh...well...I just...need to clean up! and It's raining outside! You live closer so...yeah.." Oh hell yeah that was completely convincing.
"Really?" Roy had that annoyingly sexy smirk plastered on his pale muddy face.
'What the fuck so you want me to say, oh yeah colonel I wanted to come back here so I could...' He stoped there, before he had yet another problem he'd have to deal with.
'I am so NOT doing that here.'
"Yes Bastard. Really, I kinda don't like the rain, nor am I too fond of being a fucking muddy mess, now where's the damn bathroom?"
The colonel went in the kitchen and started to make some coffee.
"Up the stairs and to the right, grab a change of clothes, I'm not going to have my house covered in mud because of some clumsy midget."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE'D TRIP OVER HIS OWN LEGS!"
"Kid, that doesn't even make sense, go get cleaned up."
"Fuck you Mustang."
"Go."
Ed gave the colonel the middle finger, earning himself a laugh, and walked up the stairs.
Roy's bathroom wasn't huge, but it was a decent size. Blue tile lined the floors and the walls were a normal shade of white.
Ed had grabbed a random shirt from what he'd guessed to be a pile of clean clothes.
The shirt smelled of a spice and of burnt wood.
"Damnit...Luckily my boxers didn't get fucked up..." Ed felt his face warm. He had almost considered changing into a pair of the colonels.
'Wow...something must be wrong with me, yes I admit I think the man's fucking hot, but that doesn't mean I have the right to be thinking about things like that.'
He turned the water in the tub on and stripped the muddy clothes of his away.
"Ah..."
One of his favorite things to do when it rained was to take a warm shower, it helped him relax.
He took his time washing his hair, using some of the colonel's shampoo. God even his fucking soap smelled sexy.
"I really do need to finish talking to him about it..."
He finished his shower quicker than he liked, figuring that Roy might want to clean up aswell. He pulled back the curtain and wrapped the towel lazily around his bear hips.
'I guess I could stay in here for a few more minutes.'
He decided he wanted to relax in the tub a little longer, he'd always liked to sit in the bathroom with cool tiles pressed against his back...it was a very calming atmosphere.
Just as he'd slid down and the cool temperature of the bath tiles were pressing against his flesh and metal shoulders, the door opened quickly.
"Hey, FullMetal I don't think I have anymore soap so I-"
A pair of dark eyes settles upon the wet and almost naked blond sitting in the tub
Both faces painted a cherry red, and eyes darkening...
