Each individual chapter will have a different rating, different pairings, different spoilers, and a different setting and timeline. Multiple people were involved in writing this fic, I do not claim to have written anything other than my own characters. I do however claim to have come up with the plot, story idea, and organizing it all. The others who write characters in this fic are well aware that I am posting it, and contribute willingly. This fic is an ongoing project with an unknown number of parts, with alternate storyline as of the fifth laboratory incident. Enjoy!
Smoke and Tinder
Rating: PG(13? For one kiss...cursing...etc..?)
Pairings: Implied and impulsive RoyxEd.
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA. Alphonse and Roy were written by two of my friends, plot written by me. It's like a collaboration fic.
Spoilers: If you squint I suppose end of series spoilers, but I've completely rewritten half of it so yeah. It's mostly just me.
Setting: Roy's office at Central HQ.
Timeline: About a week after the end of the anime, and no, things aren't exactly canon.
Roy Mustang was not asleep at his desk.
Bored, perhaps. Dozing, quite possibly. Asleep? No. Being asleep at one's desk would be a lapse in duty, now wouldn't it?
So no, Roy Mustang was not asleep at his desk, even though his face was becoming very well aquainted with its polished wooden surface.
Outside, there was a really...rather...really very loud pounding of boots along a hardwood floor, followed by a scream that increased in volume before decreasing, followed by a second scream in a similar manner, a crash, silence.
Footfalls that were far too dramaticized approached Roy's door, and within the next second, Edward had barged in without so much as knocking, paying heed to the fact that this was his superior officer, or, that his intrusion was annoying for that matter. Smug grin in place, the blond alchemist dragged another boy behind him, with a lighter mop of blond and a dumbfounded expression on his face. "I QUIT!"
Roy Mustang, beleaguered champion of miniskirts, wiped the drool off his face with one sleeve and tried to get his eyes to focus on the elder Elric's face.
"...Edward. What a nice surprise. Sit down, why don't you. Have some tea."
"No tea, stupid Colonel! I.QUIT.NOW." Ed slammed the silver watch down on Roy's desk, still maintaining that arrogant, cocky, self-assuring, oh-I'm-plotting-something smug grin of his.
The raven haired man paused, considering, expression mildly deceptive. "Uuuuuuuuuh-huh. Might I ask why?"
The blond's pasted on grin faltered for a second as he opened his mouth to make a witty retort and found none lingering on the tip of his tongue, to which he snapped his mouth shut again and glowered. "Why should I have to have a reason! It's MY JOB I can QUIT if I WANT to!" That was childish, Ed. Very childish.
Another, rather more pregnant pause. "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuh-huh." Roy smirked.
After getting dragged through the door of the office, Al turned his head to look at Ed. The older boy looked happy, but Al was unsure why. Looking to Roy, Al blinked, not recognizing him at all, but having faith that his older brother knew what he was doing.
Oh GOD not The Smirk! Edward could feel the tension building from the bottoms of his feet to the tip of his antennae, and was sure his face must be red by now. But Al wasn't holding him back...Al? Ed blinked, all possible seriousness or anger fading away to wonder and loss. "Al?"
Roy waved a hand at Edward, trying to catch his attention. "Hello? Elric? Your superior asked you a question."
Al blinked, looking at Ed. He tilted his head a bit and gave his brother a puzzled look before looking at Roy. The black haired man looked pretty dull over there only saying the same thing over and over again, and Al looked back at Ed, blinking. "...What exactly are you quitting, brother?"
Ed was slammed back to reality as Al's words came back to hit him full on in the face. He stared for a second, jaw agape, as though he had been dealt the worst insult from the least likely of people. "N...nothing, Al...nothing..." Ed didn't even look up after his head tilted to the floor, and he shuffled away from Roy's desk, pulling the silver watch by the chain with him. It dragged on the floor, but he didn't take notice, as he sighed, flopping down on the couch.
"...Elric? Edward? Hello? Question. It needs answering." A quirked eyebrow conveyed his mild annoyance effectively... Roy felt too lazy today to do anything but conserve energy.
"I'm not quitting..." Defeated, dejected, depressed. Some other 'de' words.
Al ran after Ed, tripping on his coat as he went. For some reason he felt like he hadn't been used to a body like this for quite some time, though he couldn't quite figure out why...after all, he always had this body, didn't he? Alphonse then sat next to Edward, giving him a worried look. "..You ok brother?"
"Then why the..." Roy made a vague gesture. A number of words presented themselves to him in rapid succession only to be discarded one after another. "...display?"
Ed huffed slightly, and turned to curl up on the couch next to Al, leaning against the younger boy for support and at the same time in a supporting manner. "It's alright, Al..."
Roy twitched irritably. "Elric. The question. Stop avoiding it."
"Why the hell does that question even matter anymore, I already told you I wasn't quitting..." The blond alchemist sighed to himself, ruffling Al's hair, seemed the boy had fallen asleep...poor kid... "And do you mind...I'm not the only Elric in here you know..."
"You're concious," Roy pointed out. "Your brother is not."
"And it matters, Elric, because I say it does. Answer the question."
"The answer's right in front of your arrogant, miniskirt-obsessed face, Colonel..." Ed was seriously starting to reconsider the quitting idea.
"Answer the question or I'll have you court-martialed for insubordination," Roy snapped.
Today was not a good day to get on Colonel Roy Mustang's bad side.
"You wouldn't be able to if I quit would you?" Golden eyes pointedly averted his superior's gaze.
"Then either resign, now, or answer the damn question," Roy gritted out. A headache was beginning to form just behind his eyes.
Al yawned, opening his eyes a bit to look around the room before falling back into Ed's arms, asleep. He must have been rather tired.
"If I were me, which I am, I'd have to say that you're almost trying to make me snappy, Colonel..." He hadn't meant for it to come out that way, but Ed numbly registered somewhere in his deft mind that the words sounded almost teasing, like a purr...and to say that that didn't get him jumping out of his skin, was saying a lot. Edward was dead tired, and god knows he needed the sleep. Dull amber eyes vaguely caught a glimpse of military blue and raven black before closing to surrender to dreams.
The Colonol put a hand on his phone. "Now, Elric," Roy said, deadly serious. "I am not playing games. You are defying my authority."
But Ed didn't even stir, mind already gone into a dreamy oblivion, as he curled slightly, blond braid falling over his shoulder and onto Al's, his head resting on top of the boy's. Edward was peaceful. For once he didn't have so many burdens riding on his back. At least in sleep he could be free.
The older man stood there for a minute, watching the sleeping brothers, feeling more off-balance every passing second. Fury was slowly giving way to--something... softer. Roy swayed slightly, then abruptly sat.
Shortly thereafter, Ed was slumped a bit more heavily against Al's smaller frame (HAH! TAKE THAT!), and ended up causing the both of them to tilt, falling over, but not waking either up.
Edward shifted slightly and clung to the silver watch he still had in his hands, mumbling something in his sleep.
"Heey...Al...do you...think that...Roy hates me..."
Startled, Roy glanced up. Ed's face had that luminous quality that everyone's gains in sleep--serene. His hair cast over his face in a bright fall, scarlet coat half-open, he was the brightest thing in the office. Al's face was turned away from Roy, expression hidden, but Edward faced him.
Brows furrowed suddenly as muscles tensed, if Ed's eyes were open they would simply add to the look of terror and helplessness on his face. He reached out blindly for something that wasn't there, whimpering.
Roy buried his face in his folded arms.
Isn't it funny what things hurt us and what things leave us untouched? Like a flood that can't quite reach the highest part of the land. Like a tornado demolishing an entire town except for just one house.
"Hey...don't...leave me...don't...don't go...Flame..."
There was a glistening drop that ran down Ed's cheek from his visible closed eye, hands clutching at empty air more and more frantically.
Roy flinched. Silent minutes passed.
He sat, tensely, almost afraid to look up. Afraid to see again that glowing boy.
"Colonel..."
The sleeping boy slowly relaxed once more, one arm hanging off the couch and idly pawing at the carpet that he couldn't quite reach. "Al...no...I can't tell him...he'd laugh...and I'd cry..."
Roy blinked. He was kneeling in front of Edward, looking into his sleeping face, but he couldn't remember moving... Was this what insanity felt like? This sensation of falling, of there being no solid, dependable ground in the world?
The braided blond alchemist's nose wrinkled slightly as the smell of smoke and tinder passed by.
Heey...Al...do you think...Roy hates me...
"I can't...it...would hurt too much..."
Ed's brow creased again, but this time it was more obviously pain and sorrow that laced his sleeping features, as another tear followed the path of the first, a sad smile barely lifting the corners of his lips.
Pale, gloveless fingers hovered over Edward's lips, the urge to wipe the tears away nearly unrefusable.
Roy swallowed and lowered his hand. He needed a drink.
Ed's eyelids fluttered open just slightly, weary gold registering blue and raven black in a blur...but so close...
Still clouded by the haze of dreamland, Edward turned slightly, one gloved hand reaching out to brush against Roy's cheek, moving a few strands of black hair before trailing down again, and his eyes followed, to rest momentarily with the lightest touch upon his lower lip.
The boy's lips curled into a tired, but genuine smile, everything felt so distant and fuzzy...still a dream..."Just a dream...huh...can't be real...but...I don't care...please...kiss me again, Roy..."
The military man froze.
And for the first time in many years, Roy found himself obeying an order for something other than means to an end. For something other than a leverage for power. For something... that perhaps he wanted for different reasons.
He leaned in and touched his lips, feather-light, to Edward's.
By the time it was over, Ed was sleeping soundly again, blissfully oblivious to everything but his own dreams.
Roy raised a shaking hand to his lips.
What was happening?
What was happening to him?
Looking down at the two boys sleeping on his bland couch in the middle of his properly anonymous office in a typical authoritarian military building, Roy Mustang felt the urge to run. To run anywhere, as fast as he could, shedding his stiff uniform, shedding his identity, his name. He felt the urge to leave, to become someone else, anyone else.
Instead, he only stood, waiting for his shaking hands to still.
The red-clad blond cringed as light filtered past his eyelids and his brain shoved him back into an unwilling state of awareness. One hand moved up to shield his eyes from the bright overhead lights, as golden orbs opened regretfully, and most definitely grudgingly.
Edward sat up and stretched, yawning, rubbing his eyes and turning his head to look groggily at Roy.
"What the hell're you doin' in ma...oh...right...not my room...gimme some coffee..."
"You can get your own, Fullmetal Alchemist," Roy snapped. "And I suggest you remove yourself and your unfortunate brother from my office."
Good. That was good. No quaver.
That woke the boy up...
"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ABOUT AL YOU STUPID COLONEL!"
Ed was fuming.
"How dare you storm into my office, then pass out on my furniture?" Roy shot back, brow quirked.
In the blink of an eye, the enfuriated Edward Elric had lept from the couch, landing a hard blow (with his automail fist no less) to the jaw of a particular Roy Mustang.
"You INSENSITIVE...LECHEROUS...(Sexy...).. .MORON!"
What the hell was that??
"You've got no right to insult somebody who actually WORKS HARD for what he believes in!"
Ed didn't even realize the hot tears streaming down his face as he glared at his superior, hefting Al onto his back with the younger boy's arms around his neck and legs supported by Ed's hands. It was almost cute how Al clung automatically like that.
Turning his back to Roy and walking to the door of the office, a bit slowly due to the burden of his brother's weight...damn the kid was growing way too fast...grr...Edward kicked open the door and didn't even look back. "We're going to Dublith...goodbye...sir."
And with that, he walked out.
The man addressed stared for a moment at the empty door, realized that one hand was still raised to his gaping hurtinglikeamotherbitch mouth. Lowered the hand.
"Memo to self," Roy murmured, licking his now-split lips. "Have that insubordinate son of a bitch put in solitary confinement for assault on a higher-ranking officer."
He wiped the back of his hand over his jaw, moving into the hallway. "Hawkeye?"
The sounds of his footsteps faded, leaving the office silent.
Please review, constructive criticism and questions appreciated, flames will be deflected back at you by Roy. n.n;
