Solid Gold Rabbits

Chapter 3

By: Lunatic with a Hero Complex

Edward pulled a foil package out of his pocket. He tapped it on his automail hand and brought it to his mouth. He bit down and pulled a cigarette out with his teeth. He lit a match and put it to the end of the cigarette, and looked at Roy while he shook it out.

Roy mused that Full Metal's current occupation had had an interesting effect on his personality. Now, his nature seemed to be seductive when at rest. Defense, or habit, he had no earthly idea.

And then he realized, belatedly, that Edward was smoking.

"When did you start smoking, Full Metal?"

Ed cocked an eyebrow, as if to say, Are you really asking that question?, and then responded through the cigarette, "Recently."

He removed it from his mouth with two fingers and blew the smoke in Roy's general direction, "Any other, more relevant, questions?"

"You're working tonight."

It wasn't really a question, but it was something that had just dawned on him, and it struck him as strange. Now that he knew, it seemed as if it just now existed, when in reality, it had been happening for weeks, why should it be any different because one more person knew.

It wouldn't be. Supposedly, Ed had gained a smidgen of hope in the possible assistance of THE GREAT FLAME ALCHEMIST, but that didn't relieve him. Hope buoyed you, but it didn't pull you into the boat out of the shark-infested waters.

Ed grinned, but it looked like a grimace, "Yes, of course."

He took another drag off of the cigarette, leaving it in his mouth to put his hands behind his head and stretch out on the couch.

Roy felt a burn. A burn that he was vastly ashamed of. It was the fierce and sudden burn of lust. It was not long lived, but it was still there, and again, he mourned for the effect that Ed's situation was having on his disposition.

He moved on, no time now for thoughts that would not help.

"How can I be of assistance, Full Metal?"

Ed kept staring up at the blinded window above the couch, but he did speak, "Don't give up on the murder case just because you know where I am now, I'll help in the day, but no more night-time study sessions, it's hard on me."

A wry chuckle, and a prod at the black eye that was fading to a dull yellow.

"If we can get that bastard in prison, then I know Al will be safe. Our military may be remarkably greedy and power hungry, but they make very secure prisons."

He finally looked at Roy, "Trust me on that."

He left unspoken, Roy noticed, that Raines' incarceration would also make a marginally safer existence for the colonel himself.

He nodded, "Fine, but what about…"

Ed looked back at the window, maybe miles away, "What about what?"

Roy looked at his desk, his hands folded on his desk, "What about you?"

Ed seemed to sink straight back down into his existence all at once, he turned, his eyes questioning, "What about me?"

Roy wanted to scream, "While we're performing these amazing detective feats, how will you be holding up?"

And away went the brief life in the face of Edward Elric, "Oh, I'll be fine, I've gone this long."

Roy felt himself jerk in his chair. He only registered that he had moved through his rage because he banged his desk sharply with his knee when he did.

"This long, Full Metal? Look at yourself, look at what 'this long' has done to you!"

Edward seemed mildly surprised to hear the colonel start yelling.

He still didn't seem to get it.

"Full Me…Edward, stop, and think about it." Roy stood up and maneuvered around his desk to go stand over the couch. Ed continued looking at him for a few more moments, mildly curious, but not really in the moment.

Roy had had enough. He leaned down and very gently gripped the boy by the automail arm. He dragged him up into a standing position; it was a sad sight that Ed didn't even try to fight him off. Bringing the boy behind him, he moved into his private bathroom, and pushed the boy ahead of him in front of the mirror.

Now he stood behind him, a hand on each shoulder, "Look at yourself, Ed, you aren't even here anymore. You're somewhere, and I'm sure its probably somewhere better, but its not here. And right now, here is the only place that's real, the only place that matters. I can't help you if you're gone."

A little more reality seemed to seep into the gold, like mixing tea into honey.

But it was still not the right amount of reality.

He had an idea. A cruel, useful, but cruel idea.

He moved his hands off of the boy's shoulder, "But perhaps it would be useless to help you. You're not the Full Metal I employed. He never would have ended up in this situation."

The tea froze.

"Maybe you're beyond recovery." He stopped, his face reflected in the mirror behind the boy's head, just enough of him visible to see that he was smirking, "Maybe," he whispered, "you're weak."

The eyes in the mirror blazed, and Ed whipped around, his braid following a puppy trail through the air behind him.

Before Roy could prepare himself, the automail fist sailed into his left cheek.

He stumbled back against the black bathroom wall and tasted the blood fill his mouth.

Ed followed his backwards trail and reached up to grip him by the lapel, pulling the tall man down to his…rather lower level, "Do you really think I want to be in this situation?"

Roy blinked calmly, this was about what he had expected, and said nothing.

The frustration would eventually lead to a moment of release.

It was after all, the male way.

Ed kept talking as though Roy had answered, "I hate being submissive. I hate having absolutely no control!"

He pulled Roy forward and slammed him back against the wall.

Roy felt stars blur his vision, but he stayed conscious, the moment was coming.

Ed continued, and he could see the beginnings of tears forming in the edges of the boy's eyes.

"It pisses me off that I have to lie there and take it from a man who is three times my size and half of my intelligence. But I don't have a choice!"

It seemed to hit him as he said it, the true impact of his situation and he looked up at Mustang, as though not truly seeing him, but some other entity, and he asked, "How am I supposed to act? I don't get it. This is nothing like anything I've ever read about, and its strange, and its frightening, a-a-and it hurts here," he beat his own chest once, "and it pisses me off!"

His voice rose at the end again and he slammed Roy back against the wall once more before he released him gently and ran the hands to rest on his chest, patting the material softly as though testing its smoothing out the wrinkles he had caused, "I miss myself, Mustang," he looked up and the tears had finally started their lonely march down the barren land of his cheeks, "I was kind of interesting, wasn't I?"

And then he was seventeen again and he leaned forward against Roy's chest, not sobbing, just resting.

Roy let out a breath and put a tentative arm around Ed's shoulders.

Ed leaned back, out of the personal space in front of Roy and walked into the office.

When Mustang followed him, the boy was already stretched out on the couch with his face to the cushions, sleeping.

He left him undisturbed, but he would have to wake him at 2:30, the time he'd left the day before.

But right now, it was perfectly all right that the boy should sleep. Blissfully, maybe not, but soundly at least.

He really did find himself becoming a bit attached to the boy. He did not know if it could be called love, he really had no experience with that particular emotion, but it was not hatred. And that was a feeling he knew.

He was, of course, not ashamed. It was not in his nature to be ashamed of his…well…nature.

Edward Elric.

A boy that seemed to be so very unaware of his own value.

Roy shook the boy awake at 2:15, gently gripping the shoulder.

At first, the boy weakly turned away from the disturbance, but when Roy shook a little harder, his eyes shot open and he scrambled out of Roy's lap onto the other side of the couch. For a moment, his eyes were wide, wild, terrified. Then the light of recognition lit in his face and he calmed down, wiping his face out of habit, clearing whatever had been there while he slept.

"Sorry to wake you, Ed, but its almost 2:30."

The boy blinked, and he was back.

"No, that's good, I have to go get dressed."

He stood up and straightened his hair, moving towards the door.

Mustang stopped him before he turned the knob, "One last question, a retrial."

Ed didn't speak, but nodded.

"Will you be okay?"

A small smile, "As okay as I can be. I'll try to get some proof, of any kind. You try to do the same, and come up with a way to trap the bastard, I'll be a little busy tonight," he shivered, "We're hosting a birthday party."

That damn bile again, but this time, Roy had a goodish bit more control over it, "I will try."

Ed turned his head back to the door, "Thank you Mustang."

He left the room.

The door closed.

It took Roy a moment to realize he hadn't been talking about the murder case.

The birthday boy of the evening was about 5'2", only about three inches above Edward himself. Or, as he was known here, Kit.

Apparently, the birthday boy was a player for the other team, and he had singled out Edward as his birthday present. Sid had walked up to him while he was in the process of chatting up a female from the party. A pretty little thing with light brown hair, a slight frame and bright blue eyes, and she was falling like an anvil in a cartoon.

Sid had leaned into Ed's seductively smiling ear and whispered for a moment, "Our guest of honor has requested you, and you better not screw this up, his friends are paying extremely well."

Ed had never stopped smiling. He turned and caressed the cheek of the woman he'd been attending to.

"I'm sorry my dear, it seems that I already have an engagement, maybe we could speak on another day."

She nodded, almost hypnotized, she had been remarkably easy to bring in.

He moved behind Sid, following the large man to the most crowded area in the lobby, swaying his hips just enough to draw most of the customers' attention to it.

Sid moved out of the way finally and revealed a man in a makeshift throne that they pulled out when parties such as these came in.

The man in the throne was approximately 22, tan, well-built, short, dark hair, dark, large eyes. He reminded him of something, but he wasn't sure what.

A circle of his friends were around him, but the man did not take his eyes off of Edward, Sid spoke, "This is Kit."

Edward moved in and knew from instinct that the way he moved instantly kept all of the people in the circle glued to his movement.

He may a new hand at the job, but he had learned very quickly what people liked to see on his body, or what they liked to see his body do.

He straddled the man's lap, seating himself firmly on the man's thighs, and he placed his palms, face down on his chest, leaning in to whisper into the birthday boy's ear, "Now, I see a lot of people come through here, but I don't think I've ever seen one that turned me on quite as much as you do." He licked the shell of the man's ear as he moved back.

The man turned a flushed pink and none of his friends knew exactly what the cause was, but as Edward turned himself around to lean against the man's chest, the look he flashed all of them was a very good indication of where the blush had originated.

He wiggled his lower half suggestively, and he felt the guy respond appropriately.

With a smile that betrayed none of the disgust he felt, he leaned his head back against the man's shoulder, and turned to once more speak un heard in his ear, "If you would like, we can retire to a room, so that I may fully," he once more wiggled over a sensitive area, "enjoy you."

Edward felt the movement of his head as the man nodded, and he moved forward off of his precarious perch, to turn and grab the man's hand, and pull him slowly, and slinkily, to his feet, "Sorry fellas, I've got to take him away," he never left eye contact with his prey, no customer, "his present is elsewhere."

Roy shuddered. It had him rather belatedly exactly what Edward's last sentence had really meant.

A birthday party.

He had the distinct feeling it had nothing to do with cake.

And it was torturing him to know that the boy was in some room with hands all over him. Hands that held no regard for the mind beneath the flesh, but instead were filled with lust and blinded by the smoothness of his skin. Or the color of his hair.

It was truly not a pleasant thing to think about, and the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to trek to the building he'd discovered Ed's secret in and storm in, charging the place and rescuing Ed.

But he couldn't do that. Because, obviously, that would give a few things away. And it would put Ed, Al, and himself in a world of danger.

Not to mention, the commotion would bring to the forefront of the military's mind, a few invasive questions concerning Edward's presence in a whorehouse in the first place.

Not a place he was sure Ed wanted to go.

So he stayed exactly where he was. He held himself down by pure force of will and explained to his own brain exactly why it was not wise to go rushing off to The Blue Leaf and demanding to see Edward Elric, the Full Metal alchemist, when he was sure everyone there but Raines knew him as Kit.

He stayed.

Ed had been instructed to skip the payment process, the bill had been footed at the beginning of the evening.

So he began at the next step.

Liqour.

"We've got Brandy, Scotch, or wine, what would you pre…!"

He was cut short when two hands gripped him from behind and pulled him away from the bar. He was thrown on the bed, and he just smiled at the man above him, he was used to overeager customers.

But then, things began to go wrong, all wrong, all too fast.

The man gripped on of his hands, the automail one and pulled it towards the post of the bed, pulling hank of rope from some hidden pocket Ed hadn't noticed before. The man had his hand lashed to the wooden post before Ed really registered what was going on and when he turned to evade the capture of the other hand, it was already in custody and mostly tied down.

The man moved, and did the same to his legs.

When he was completely tied down, the man pulled a pocket knife out of his boot.

Missed in the search before hand.

Ed eyed it warily.

This was not a normal customer.

He had fully attempted to be patient, and not rash, as Full Metal had asked of him. But he still found himself itching terribly all the way along the road to his home. And all the way down the road to the very bad door he knew existed.

A blue button up and another pair of jeans.

It had appeared as though he'd enjoyed himself last time, was it so far fetched, that he would come back for more.

He tried to look nonchalant. As though this was not this important. He walked up and knocked on the door.

There was plenty of money in his pocket, he knew he'd need to please the obscene man once more, and he was more than sure that the man would not make him aware of his vast overpayment.

Once again the Armani suit ushered him into the building, and he saw as he entered the lobby what he assumed was the birthday group. They seemed to be a happy bunch.

He looked around for Ed, but he didn't see him anywhere.

He must be with a customer.

Roy didn't have long to contemplate it, as once again, the oily voice was at his ear. Pleased as punch it sounded like.

"Back again sir? We are indeed very glad to have you. Do you have the funds?"

Roy held up the wad of cash.

The smile almost split the man's face in two.

"Good, now, any requests."

"Yes, I'd like the blonde from last time, Kit I think it was."

A tiny crease in the man's bliss, "Oh, I'm sorry, Kit is busy with another customer, but one of our other people would love to…"

He stopped and looked at the stairs. As Roy followed his eye-line, he saw a twenty something young man walking down the stairs, buttoning his pants and looking extremely sated.

Raine's voice rang in his ear once more, "Strike that sir, it looks like Kit is now available, just give me your payment and head up to the second door on the left."

Roy forked over the cash and moved rapidly towards the stairs. It wasn't noticed, many people were eager here. He almost ran up them, something felt wrong.

He opened the door, and stepped in cautiously, his eyes looking for the blonde head.

When his eyes came to rest on the bed, he had to bite his hand to keep from screaming.

Edward was laid out on top of the sheets, with his hands loosely placed in spread eagle position. The ropes were still attached to his appendages, and the boy was, it appeared, to weak to move them.

Roy quietly closed the door and made quick work of the steps from the door to the bed.

There was blood everywhere. On the sheets, in his hair, on his face, on his body, everywhere.

The boy looked like he was barely conscious, Roy gently shook his shoulders to alert him a little more, worry flooded his veins, "Edward, Edward wake up."

His eyes fluttered open, the dried blood on the lids cracking with the motion, "Roy?"

Weak, rusty.

Screaming.

"Yes, Ed, its me, now I need you to stay awake for me."

He was untying the rope from the boy's wrists and ankles, and he hissed at the red bloody tracks where the ropes had cut into his flesh.

"But I'm tired, Bastard, I need to sleep."

And he attempted feebly to turn towards the wall.

Roy stayed his movement and picked him up, grabbing his pants from the floor and slipping them up over the boy's legs.

A sharp intake of breath when the leather slid over his thighs made Roy look down.

He was cut badly there, and the bleeding hadn't completely stopped.

He hated it, but he pulled the pants up anyway.

He had Ed by the legs and shoulders, but the boy hit him on the chest, "Let me walk, Mustang."

Roy almost didn't, but another at another insistent thump, he lowered Full Metal's legs to the floor, but he did not relinquish his grip on the metal and flesh shoulders.

"I never should have let you come here," Roy muttered. Ed cawed harsh laughed, "And just how would you have stopped me?"

They were limping towards the door, the game was up, Ed would not be coming back here, and Roy had seen enough to grab Raines on prostitution and neglect, and he was sure he could pin some kind of murder charge on the man.

"I have my ways Full Metal."

A weak chuckle, and they begin to make their way down the stairs.

When they clunked into view of the lobby, the movement there stopped and everyone watched them descend, eyeing "Kit" nervously. Save one, the birthday boy watched them take the stairs with a cocky grin of satisfaction.

He was proud of what he had done.

Roy felt Edward tense up against his side and he tightened his grip gently on the flesh shoulder.

A slight wince.

Too hard.

They gained the ground floor and moved towards the door.

Halfway there, they were stopped by the ominous footsteps and greasy voice of the proprietor, Raines.

"Where do you think you're going, Kit?"

Ed turned to the broad man and looked at him sarcastically, "I'm leaving, Sid."

Ed turned back into Roy's grip and continued to thunk towards the door.

Roy felt, more than heard, Sid run at them, and he slipped on his glove, turned to the herding mass…and snapped.

A bout of flame leapt from his hands and blew Raines back 10 feet.

He sat smoking on his own wooden floor, dazed, and watched Roy.

Roy was fixing to move forward and incarcerate the man when a voice sounded off right next to him, or rather, right next to Edd.

"Oh, don't tell me you're leaving, you little whore. I thought I turned you on?"

The birthday boy was standing there, playing with Ed's hair and grinning like a shark.

Roy almost had an apoplectic fit.

He poised his hand to snap, but Ed beat him to the man.

Ed limped out of Roy's arm and put his hands on the man's chest, and leaned up into his ear, whispering just as he had earlier that evening, "I don't get turned on by sick trash, trash belongs on the floor."

And his automail knee came up into the man's groin.

Birthday boy's eyes crossed and he hit the floor. Before much more could happen, Ed clapped his hand and, with a wince, hit his hands to the floor.

A blue light twined over the people in the room and matching hands simultaneously rose from the wooden planks of the floor and gripped both Sid and the birthday boy.

He turned, "Come on Roy, lets go."

And promptly collapsed.

Roy caught him.