Feedback: Constructive feedback is very welcome
Notes: Sorry it's taken such a long time to update...this chapter gave me headache (introspectives always give me a headache, I like verbal bickering more...lol) and life's been busy, of course.
Also, I was working on these...am I forgiven?
Aurum Resurrection.jpg (rated PG13)
www dot deviantart dot com slash deviation slash 17679027 slash
Psychedelic Morning.jpg (rated PG13)
www dot deviantart dot com slash deviation slash 17679097 slash
I'm sure you all know how to translate that into symbology. Heh.
Roy's face is hard to draw... But his uniform's great fun. And Edward's just...always fun. Hee hee.
Felis Catus: Circle Thirteen
"You're cutting it pretty close there, cat," Ed scolded rather abstractedly, as he leafed through one of Mustang's journals. "We're leaving in about half an hour."
That's half an hour that I came back early, Roy corrected rather meticulously. There was an art to being on time. Exactly on time, that is - as in neither one minute early nor one minute late. It took supreme talent and skill, both of which he had in abundance, of course. That he was half an hour early, only bespoke of his boredom - there was really nothing left he could do to torture his neighbors more for today, at least. He permitted himself a small, feline smirk, leaping up on the couch where Edward was sprawled haphazardly.
Edward smiled at him over the top of the journal and carefully put it facedown on his chest before leaning up on one elbow and scratching Roy's ears with his other hand. "Well, someone looks pleased with himself," Edward murmured. "Did you satisfy your urge towards destruction?"
Roy purred happily. Oh, and did he! There were holes and tears in embarrassing places on all the clothes he'd managed to find, toilet paper rolls decorating multiple living rooms, not a smidgeon of chocolate to be found anywhere, and plants thoroughly de-potted. Not that Roy had anything personal against plants - it was just that they made such a nice mess when they fell!
"Good," Ed grinned, leaning back down to continue reading the journal. "Now shoo - go amuse yourself for half an hour until we leave."
Roy's tail began to swish about irritably. I came back early and you're just going to ignore me! I don't think so! He stalked across Ed's prone figure, the claws on his small little paws purposefully extended.
"Hey! That tickles!" Ed laughed, making a half-hearted attempt to shove the irritated black cat off onto the floor.
Hmph. Roy simply leaped on top of Edward's automail arm and clawed his way up to Fullmetal's shoulders, settling himself down with a small noise of discontent and a glare. You will pet me if you know what's good for you! Roy's eyes bored into Edward's amused ones.
"What? You think I'm ignoring you, is that it?" Edward snorted, reaching up to scratch the ears currently laid back in annoyance.
Roy ignored him pointedly in return, although one ear twitched in response to the petting.
"Nah, I'm just having too much fun reading Roy's journals - d'you have any idea how hard it is to get a subscription to this particular journal? It's one of the best out there, with the very latest in alchemical research! Even on my salary I'd have to shell out a fortune! And that's not even considering how many hoops I'd need to jump through to prove I'm certified, blah blah blah! I can't believe they were just lying around...and all those rare books he's got..." Ed continued happily for several minutes, while Roy yawned loudly.
The alchemy journal subscription was actually a gift from his mentor, and Roy honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd read one, he'd been so busy lately - although he continued to stack them into his bookcase for the eventual "just in case" that would inevitably arise once he finally got sick of the pile and tossed them. The rare books were likewise gifts - from himself to himself. Roy couldn't think of anyone who deserved them more.
"I'd give my left arm for some of these," Ed moaned tragically. "And he just leaves them all over the place!"
It was strategic camouflage, Roy thought bemusedly. So that no one would notice the battered little collection of little black phone books - which were Roy's actual working alchemical notebooks - hidden around them, between them, under them... They were coded using phone numbers, drawn directions to previous girlfriends' apartments, names, dates, and anything else Roy could think of or plausibly make up, all cleverly disguising his research notes and data. Hah! He'd like to see Edward crack those...or anyone else for that matter.
It was rather fun actually, to see the looks on his team's faces every time he scribbled into one of them. He wondered what they'd think if they actually knew that those were his notes.
Edward, meanwhile, was looking thoughtfully around the small living room of the apartment. "I wonder if he'd consider lending them or giving them to me if I made a suitable offer? Wonder what he would consider equivalent trade..."
Roy choked, as his mind supplied him with possibilities. Hmmm that was a rather open-ended statement with lots of room for interpretation...maybe he ought to ponder the implications of that a bit more. Truffles would be nice. Maybe even free meals? Roy couldn't cook to save his life. Literally. He could at least boil water. Dried noodles were a staple, but even those got dull after a while.
"Hmmm. He's a total slob. Maybe I could offer to clean up every now and then and take a stack of journals home each time? It's not like he's reading them; they've even got dust all over them! It's sacrilege!" Edward groused morosely, before sinking back into the journal he was reading with dark mutters, punctuated by occasional wistful and covetous sighing at Roy's bookshelves, to the cat's amusement.
Well now. Roy would really prefer it if Edward just moved in with him. Cleaning up was a bonus, to be sure - after all, Roy never cleaned and he wasn't dead yet - but what he was really after was Edward's cooking. The company wasn't all that bad either, he mused. There was something extremely reassuring about having Edward around, and Roy was beginning to think that it had nothing to do with being a cat.
Even as a human, he'd enjoyed Edward's presence and penetrating wit, although, to his eternal amusement, that wit was usually caustically directed at him. If Roy was honest with himself, it was something he actually found himself looking forward to - the real reason he never missed a briefing with Fullmetal. Zayna was right about one thing - Roy found his life rather boring, and Edward had changed all of that.
The job was easy on a day-to-day basis, too easy for him in fact. Paperwork? A scrawl of his pen and he was done, although he was suspiciously certain Hawkeye conspired to give him more and more paperwork at every turn. He was proud of the fact that his signature was now refined into one illegible scribble, negating the necessity of lifting pen from paper. No no, Roy wasn't lazy - he was efficient. There was a difference. It was subtle, but it was there, Roy thought piously.
Administrative duties? Roy delegated. He was good at that. Why work harder when there were others to do the work for you - willingly even? He was a sadist, not a masochist. He had perfected the smirk to an art form of sadistic intent, and he was proud of it.
As for his long-term goals in the military that was stealing his life, youth and soul? His plotting was like a prolonged chess game on a grand scale, requiring careful consideration before moving the next piece - hence, lots of time spent waiting to make a move or for his opponents to make their move. As the opposing king in this chess game, he could afford to wait while his troops played the battlefield under his directions, venturing out only when he could deliver the most damage with the least danger - since if he fell, the game was officially over. The waiting got to him after a while, though.
In summary, his job was Dull - an adjective so profound, it needed a capital letter to properly denote its character.
Hence, Roy needed different outlets through which to sharpen his wits.
Dating? Roy didn't even want to start on that. It was too depressing.
Every woman he'd dated, with the possible exception of Zayna, who had simply been setting up a trap for him, was a silly twit more interested in his reputation, good looks and suave nature to bother with him as a person. In their eyes, he was Colonel Roy Mustang, Infamous Flame Alchemist and Perfect Boyfriend Material. The upper case letters were all visibly stamped upon their infatuated expressions. Each time he met a new date, Roy would feel a bit hopeful, thinking inwardly, maybe this will be the one...until he saw that vacant expression and everything soured.
It wasn't, as Zayna had implied, that he didn't understand love or let himself feel affection - it was that there had been no one so far who was deserving of it! Okay, so he did have some personal issues from his past as Edward had mentioned...and he did put up barriers, and oh, all right - so maybe he did push people away on purpose, but if they gave up that quickly, well then...it wasn't HIS fault, now was it?
Truth be told, Roy could not and would not let just anyone past his barriers, but it would have been nice had any of his dates tried to understand him - as opposed to immediately trying to objectify him and change him to fit their conceptions or misconceptions.
Refreshingly, Edward did no such thing, Roy mused thoughtfully, sparing the intensely reading Fullmetal a quick, speculative glance.
It was becoming almost painfully obvious at this point that all of Roy's defenses and his ability to keep people at a distance were both slowly being worn away by the inhumanly determined blond alchemist. Edward saw too much.
No, actually, Roy corrected himself, the problem wasn't that Edward saw too much - it was that he saw through everything to the truth behind the facade.
Straight off the bat, he met Roy on his own ground, trading insult for insult, but wordlessly backing him up when the situation called for it. He accepted Roy the way he was, unconditionally. He even tried in his own way, judging from Edward's commentary of the past few days, to quietly understand Roy and figure out what made him tick without attempting to change him in the process. He had become, somehow, not only an important member of Roy's team, but his unspoken equal as well - white to Roy's black.
Wait...his equal?
Roy's head fell down on Edward's shoulder with a smack.
"Hey...you okay up there, cat?" Edward asked, a note of concern in his voice as he looked up from the article he was reading. There was an implied question in his golden eyes.
Roy couldn't bring himself to meet them; instead he ducked his head around and curled up again, using his tail to block his view of Edward's face. Edward looked confused at his pet's odd reticence, but shrugged and went back to reading the article, resting his face gently on the sleek black fur almost unconsciously.
Roy caught the involuntary purr before it had a chance to bubble out, but he couldn't stop the hot chocolate feeling from warming him inside at Edward's silent support. He was a cat. A cat! Yet Edward still provided that odd measure of comfort, just by being there.
Wait, wait, wait...still? As in, he did before? And comfort? Edward's presence, a comfort? Wasn't he more liable to be a headache rather than a comfort? But...
Roy blinked, utterly stupefied at the paths his thoughts were taking. All of a sudden, a few things seemed to fall into place, puzzle pieces forming portions of the larger picture that had frustratingly eluded Roy before.
He'd been concentrating so much on being stuck as a cat, that he'd almost forgotten he was still actually human. He could blame his new understandings on his feline emotions, but he knew better - what Zayna had done to him hadn't really changed his thinking, it only offered a newer, more raw perspective of his relationships to people, blowing away the cobwebs that had been cluttering his mind in the first place.
Once he admitted that realization, Roy groaned aloud.
Edward looked at him again, concern written all over his face. However, this time Roy ignored him. He was too busy struggling with a concept that was too big to cram down the proverbial throat.
Quite simply put - Roy liked having Edward around, in fact, had always liked having Edward around though he hadn't allowed himself to realize it. Yet in the short span of the last three to four days of Roy's being a cat, Edward had somehow become an even more permanent and important fixture in his life, one Roy couldn't ignore, or put out of his mind anymore. Edward wasn't quite a friend, considering the way they fought and bickered - yet neither was he a subordinate; it would be the day Hawkeye missed a target that Edward would obey an order without question. However, Edward was a good companion, and Roy's intellectual equal - and equal in many other ways as well. Roy wasn't quite sure what Edward was, or was becoming, to him.
There was only one conclusion Roy could draw.
This was not a good thing.
To be con't...