dormantdrake: I heart you too! ...I mean, the story does XD
fireotaku18: Thank you!
Barranca: A psychoanalysis of Roy... that's a story all in itself. But oh so intriguing an idea... I must resist.
Cheru-chan: I'm of the opinion that Ed and Roy fighting is foreplay. Sweet, head-butting foreplay. And I'm pretty sure that Daphne likes watching Roy squirm too.
Mesonoxian: Careful, you'll make me break out into cheesy Disney song.
SuperNekofan: I enjoy making as much of Roy's backstory a comedy as reasonably possible. He's so perfectly left open for it in my first anime mind.
silvers-edge: Roy was doomed when he decided to take Ed there, he just didn't have the foresight to know it. Even though he really should have, but what can you do when you're distracted by Ed? And I love ominous feelings -cackles-
moonstone: Daphne is a stealthy woman, she knows how to plot and plan ahead.
Kimba: I do love the fluffy XD And trust me, I do get those comments a lot, but it's all part of the master plan. So yeah, I do know how the story will progress from here and end.
elemental: Those two just can't help but get in deeper with each other. Not that they mind, the adorable idiots.
GhostMajor: Yay! That makes me so happy to hear, I love creating my OCs... and if you've caught yourself wondering where they are in the anime, woo!
Alex: Naturally I did think about something like that, her being able to see Ed. But yeah... I know there are some things that have to stay little fantasies about my own main fantasy XD
80x18: Yes, Roy doing work just goes against the universe. Something isn't normal with him if he willingly does work. And gimme Cheez-its! You tease.
Halftere: Yes, do your homework. And never fear, Daphne never lets a fun opportunity slip through her fingers.
Neena: I think it's because their byplay could totally be foreplay XD
Shinigami Clara: He totally is head over heels for Ed, if only he'd said it aloud he might have realized he's committed as hell.
Batsutousai: I'm glad WalMart has given you back your soul. And you know you want to see Roy in a dress. Maybe that can be a goal of Ed and Daphne teamwork?
softdreamer: Thank you!
gali-o: Do not resist chocolate addictions! Embrace!
blame-my-ADD: Roy does have it good. Although he'd definitely be happy if all he had was Ed, he's a sap like that deep down.
ZemyxDexion: Roy is the exception to the "men can't multitask" idea. And come now, this is -me- we're talking about, would I angst things up? XD and yay! Theme song with accordians.
fuu: Oh many fun, terrorizing things will happen at the end... certainly to me, as I am always sad to end a story.
secret25: Baby pictures of Roy would be adorable things, I agree. I bet he was a chubby one XD
Eli: Mmm... a sweaty Roy working out... I just died a little. I can say nothing else, I will just be a drooling goo puddle.
greedxed: Roy secretely likes it when Ed fights him.
SanitysOverrated: Now I have this image in my head of Daphne and Maes fighting over who gets to be told first.
PALC: Oh I like that title! I'm putting it on my business card.
chibinaru: Yeah, these two are certainly taking their sweet time.
Soaha: I think she'd be grateful if that were the only thing wrong with him.
black-klepon: Grand will be hard pressed to one-up Ed. And I will never escape Armstrong, will I... oh my poor brain.
Liloi: And you know Daphne would enjoy bashing it into Roy's head that he's as good as married to Ed.
Chiyon Shi: Oh but questions are delicious! And I love yours. Remember them. And I do hope Al is able to be happy again, if only he knew how well off his brother is now. But all such things take time.
cynder81: I'll have to listen to that song, I'm not familiar with it. And Ed and Roy are definitely maturing their relationship, that they can fight about something like that and not have hurt feelings all the way around.
Koneko: You had a moment, that's all -P. And I'm kind of surprised I got no "omg mpreg" comments regarding that line.
lex1621: Thank you, and they do too. Deep, deep down.
McAnything: Hey, nice random find. I'm glad you did find it, I like meeting more random people -P.
cHAOsrulesoverall: Ah my baby sister? She is too good to me, though I'll never tell her that XD And I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed being sent on this reading mission.
Plimsoul: I'm always happy to fill the fluff void. As much as I love angst, I also like to be happy. Otherwise I'm in a mood the rest of the day XD
Toki Mirage: Oh I think everyone would.
arya21: Trust me, I have a master plan. And lovely little Hazel will be there through it all.
lmao: I've given it before... but approximately around 20.
So in the time we've been apart, dear readers, I have moved apartments, been screwed over by Qwest, and was sick to the point of needing my steroids again so my throat didn't swell shut on me. Fun, fun times. But enough of that boring stuff. If I remember right I have a few things I need to mention, there were probably more, but you know me and my memory sometimes.
Firstly, a fellow reader created a facebook fanpage for Nitro. I do not run it in any fashion, I am a member, but I play no part in managing it. Being that I am a member, that also means I now have my own facebook account. And I have seven friends! Yay me! XD So if anyone would like to... what is it, "like" any of that aforementioned stuff? the links are in my profile.
I'd also like to remind people that I do not add on my messengers anymore unless I know who you are. So if you've been being ignored over the past week, send me an e-mail.
I went to Comicon, and the fanfiction panel was absolutely a nightmare. Basically, if anyone is wondering, everything comes down to tentacle rape. I was not aware of this, but don't worry, I don't plan to join the new movement and turn this story into some kind of Stargate fandom mess. No offense meant to Stargate, it's just the most probable thing I can think of at 8am.
And I blame Comicon for getting me slightly addicted to Vocaloid. Damnit.
But anyway, I shall stop stalling you... even though it's fun as heck XD
I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Chapter Thirty-Three
"Where is my sundae?" Roy looked around in confusion upon finding himself in the kitchen with his mother and there being no ice cream in sight anywhere.
Daphne glanced at him over her shoulder and opened the freezer door to pull out several different tubs of the stuff. "I haven't made it yet." She said and opened a cabinet to fetch a bowl. "Sit down, I need to talk to you about something. And in here you have less chance of running off."
Edward raised an amused eyebrow at Roy, "do you have a tendency to run away from her?"
Roy gave Edward a withering look while his mother's back was turned before turning his attention back to her. "Running off?" He echoed, and didn't move to sit at the table, instead moving over to stand next to her at the counter and fix her with a stubbornly insistent look. "What is it, mom? You're not on some crazy 'I want grandchildren' binge, are you? I can bring Hazel to visit next time if it would mean that much to you."
"Hazel is not a suitable child, he is practice." Daphne told him helpfully, as any seasoned parent would.
Edward darted through the air to set himself on top of the table in the dining room, tilting his head with a grimace. "Hazel is practice? Please never marry someone like she suggested and have kids. Marry them, but no kids."
Roy was hard pressed not to laugh. But he turned a fond look on Edward all the same, while knowing that like his mother, he could probably never tell Edward that he didn't plan on marrying anyone. Or letting anyone else live with them, for that matter. It would interfere with their time together.
Daphne flicked a quick look at her son from the corner of her eye before smiling and continuing to dish the ice cream into the sundae bowl. "I want you to be happy more than I want grandchildren." She said as she began to put away the ice cream and went in search of the chocolate and caramel sauces.
"So you want to see Hazel then." Roy determined with a teasing smile.
"I am never opposed to seeing your idea of a pet." She reassured him as she began to drizzle the sauces over the ice cream. "Now go sit, Roy, honestly. Unless you plan to help me."
"Am I in your way?" Roy smirked at her as she had to lean across him to get to the fruit on the countertop.
"Since you were still an unborn child." Daphne informed him quite seriously despite the twinkle in her eyes.
Roy made an affronted noise in response and stomped his way over to the cutlery drawer with a huff. Daphne merely grinned at his actions and went for the whipped cream. Edward meanwhile was watching them both with amusement, and the distant thought of whether or not he and his mother might have had this sort of relationship, had they both lived.
When Roy finally snatched away his sundae with a childish grin of delight, he retreated to a sunny sitting room filled with cozy armchairs and a brown leather couch heaped in throw pillows and afghans. The walls were almost filled with framed photographs, what space on the wall wasn't taken up by the few bookcases and trinkets.
"How is it?" Daphne asked, unable to really complain as her son settled into one of the armchairs. Despite his size, Roy was almost dwarfed in the thing it enwrapped him so completely. He would have a difficult time getting out of it quickly if he decided to make a run for it.
Roy shifted back and forth several times in the chair, burrowing deeper with a content smile on his face as he held the spoon loosely in one hand. "As good as I remember." He acclaimed, turning a smiling look briefly down onto Edward who had settled at his feet, looking up at him.
"That's not my favorite either, in case you were wondering." Edward told him a bit smugly, watching all the same as Roy continued to happily dig his spoon into the sundae and slip obscenely large globs of the stuff into his mouth.
Roy barely resisted the urge to grumble at the ghost, knowing it would be taken the wrong way from his mother, so he settled for mocking Edward later tonight about what dessert could possibly be better than an ice cream sundae! What kind of picky child had Edward been? So he attempted to drag his attention away from it, turning his attention back to his mother who was watching him over her cup of coffee. "So what is this thing that you wanted to talk to me about that requires bribing me with ice cream sundaes? You're not getting married again, are you? Trying to buy me off to be nice to the guy?" And then raising an eyebrow added for good measure, "girl?"
Daphne laughed into her coffee and drew the cup down to hold it on her lap as she considered him with fond amusement. "I'm happy being a widow. Any fun I need I can get without strings attached."
Roy grimaced and worked on getting a much bigger spoonful of ice cream therapy. "I don't need details."
Edward could sympathize with that, he wouldn't have wanted more detail than that on his own mother either. Unfortunately he felt that Daphne got more information on Roy than she probably wanted just due to the fact that Roy was Roy, and the man wasn't exactly a discreet figure among the public, still being a celebrated war hero and all.
Daphne grinned around the rim of her cup before she took another sip of coffee and then shifted more towards the edge of her seat, just in case, as she leaned forward to engage him. "What happened to you when you got to Central?"
"That's the question you were going to ask that you thought would make me bolt?" Roy worked on scooping up another spoonful of sundae. "Do I need to get you in to see a mental health professional?"
"You'd never risk a shrink getting claws into one of the few people you trust." Daphne pointed out, unconcerned, before leaning casually against one of the chair arms as she considered her son. "I don't mean the little things, I can guess as to those. You've only been in the military almost half as long as you've been alive. I mean what happened to you. You're different, you know."
"Different?" Roy echoed, sitting up a bit straighter as he frowned at her. "Different how, exactly?"
Daphne smiled at him gently. "Roy, you've been stable for a long time after Ishbal. Sure, you still have some issues relating to it, and anyone would –"
"Are you seriously going to bring up Ishbal with me when I'm enjoying ice cream?" Roy asked, turning away from both her and his ice cream sundae with a sigh to frown out the windows overlooking the front yard. "I need something a bit stronger for that conversation."
"Hear me out." Daphne appeased him in that motherly tone that hinted under the warmth that he had no choice in the matter. "I've never seen you this confident before in yourself. Usually when you have issues with something happening in the military, take this recent development with Grand for example, usually you unload it all over a bottle. Not standing calmly in the kitchen. I'm not saying that unloading like you used to wasn't a stable thing to be doing, it was better than the choices you made right after the war, but today… something's happened to you."
Edward looked up at Roy from where he was reclined at the man's feet, said man having long since looked back at his mother with a closed-off expression. But he found himself unable to say anything. He didn't even know what to say. He'd heard from Roy that he'd been suicidal at one point, but he knew nothing about Roy coming here in the past to unload his troubles. So he stayed silent, leaning his head against the very edge of the chair to look up at him.
Roy finally tore his gaze away from her to stare unseeingly at the sundae he was now unconsciously mashing into a thick puddle with the spoon. "I can't afford to be that man anymore. If I'm going to make it to Fuhrer, a goal I now can actually see close in sight, I can't do it by facing it after climbing from the bottom of a bottle like I used to."
"Which I'm glad of, don't get me wrong." Daphne smiled, "I always have considered you sound in the head after you got the initial freak out over Ishbal out of your system. You've never exactly been a raving lunatic or a drunk."
Edward snorted.
Roy kicked at him, despite knowing it'd do no good, and smugly rested his foot inside Edward's thigh.
"Get out of me!" Edward hissed, but Roy's attention was smugly back on his mother and clearly, the man was actively pretending not to hear him.
"I'm just wondering," Daphne continued with quiet intrigue, "who it is that you met. I know you met someone, and you're different for it."
Roy suddenly didn't feel quite like ice cream sundaes anymore, and he rested the spoon back in the bowl as he turned away from her, closing his eyes with a silent, slow exhale of breath.
"Roy?"
It was not his mother's voice, but Edward's, and he looked down to where he knew Edward was, meeting the concerned silver eyes. He knew Edward was waiting to see what he'd do, what lie he'd give this time. Finally, he looked back up at her and shook his head. "Mom, not again. I know you want something like that for me, enough to have little delusions considering how much wine you drink. But there's no one. If I'm different, it's because I've finally got an opening in my goals and I'm taking it."
Daphne smiled gently at him, more aware that her son was effected by her question than anything else. Effected in a way he'd never expressed before, and it only spurred her on. "So when you were out in the yard ranting about not using someone you care about," she tried to keep her smile in check at his sharp look, "who were you referring to that wasn't there?"
"You need to learn to keep your voice down when you're yelling at me." Edward muttered as he looked between them both with a worried frown, shifting closer to Roy.
Roy wasn't sure how helpful that was right now, and he pinned his mother down with the same sharp gaze he'd had since she'd mentioned that incident. "How much did you hear, exactly?"
"Does it matter?" Daphne asked as she tried to gauge whether or not Roy was liable to try fleeing, more uncertain of whether or not he actually would with her son now seeming more defensive than flighty. "So there is someone?"
"Does it matter?" Edward echoed up at him, silver eyes still filled with worry. "How are you going to explain this one away?"
Roy fought the impulse to look back down at the ghost, as if afraid to let his mother know where Edward was. "Are you going to try and pull some psychotic episode card on me? After all this talk that I was stable? Is this where you're leading to? Trying to corner me, mom?"
"Nothing I've not done to you before, Roy." Daphne agreed, her green eyes suddenly serious. "I don't believe any such thing, but if someone's gotten in your head so well that you'd vent about them aloud, then I think I'm entitled to know who. Else you've definitely got some psychotic thing going on."
"Technically I'm not in your head," Edward muttered as he directed a sour look to Roy's foot. "You, however, are still in my leg."
Roy had enough attention to spare Edward to give a wiggle of his foot, just because he could imagine the ghost's expression. But otherwise, his attention was solely for his mother as he sat forward protectively, ice cream sundae forgotten. "Even if I told you what's going on with me, you'd think me crazy. I'd rather keep my silence and still be crazy. Just leave it alone."
"Have you so little faith in me?" Daphne asked him in tired surprise. "Roy, that's more like a challenge to me than a warning."
Roy was more shocked than anything when she stood up.
"Don't run off, but think about letting me in." Daphne told him, green eyes searching her son's defensive face. She knew he wouldn't run, not with the way he was standing his ground. "Whoever it is… they clearly mean a lot to you. You've had few and far between people like that in your life, is it really so hard for you to understand why I want a little information so badly?"
Roy didn't have the heart or the ground to stand on anymore to refute there being anyone. Not when she'd dropped the bombshell that she'd heard him ranting about a someone. "Mom…" he began softly as he looked down impassively at the melted ice cream sundae, "thanks for worrying about me, but I'm okay, really. And you know it. So let's move on from there."
Daphne, having walked to the hallway entrance rested her hand on the frame as she looked back over at him with an unseen smile. "You of all people should know that secrets can't be kept forever. Have a little faith that your mother might believe in you, no matter what crazy things you might say. Because I'm your mom, honey, and I've seen you crazy before… this, this is not it."
Roy heard her walk away, and his eyes slipped shut with a tired sigh as he slumped back into the chair. Only feeling now how tense he'd been, leaning over Edward as if it did any good in blocking him as the subject, albeit unknowingly to her.
"You should tell her." Edward said at last from where he sat, tone as subdued as the silver eyes that were turned down towards the floor.
"She may not turn me over to a mental facility, but this is a bit more serious than if I were to tell her I have an imaginary friend. I'd be telling her I have a ghost friend." Roy muttered glumly from under the hand that had fallen over his face.
Edward looked up at him with a sympathizing frown, before reaching up and taking the melted ice cream sundae from Roy's hand which had been letting it dip rather precariously to one side. "You love her. You've expended a lot of effort to keep her safe and the world thinking you don't have a living mother. To have her not believe you about me… we've become very close. I know it would make you feel sad."
Roy lowered his hand to look down, intentionally drowning himself in those silver eyes and feeling desperate to do so. Edward was right… about all of it. Edward was special to him in a way that he couldn't even fathom, and had been trying to fathom most of the train ride here. But it wasn't entirely worry of being disbelieved that made him draw back with a stern "no."
Edward blinked, drawing back just slightly in shock at Roy's tone. "Just like that? I know something like this you don't get a second shot at but –"
"I don't want a first." Roy interrupted before briskly standing up, eyes still firmly fixed on the silvery apparition staring back up at him in shock. "Nor do I want you to attempt to tell her about yourself in your own clever ways."
Edward set the melting ice cream sundae aside carefully, his frown more curious than angry as he floated up off the floor. "I wouldn't, if this is what you want. She's your mother and I respect that boundary, but at least tell me why?"
Roy had to look away, frustrated at the guilt whispering against the back of his mind. What right, truly, did he have to feel this way over Edward? It had been the same with Elysia, when he'd thought for that too-long moment that she could see Edward. He'd been jealous. Far more jealous than he could remember ever feeling before. Jealous that a little girl might be able to wiggle into the circle that he lived in with Edward. And with Edward now suggesting they tell Daphne about his presence? What right did he have to condemn the idea because of what, jealousy?
"Roy?" Edward asked in growing concern, floating around to Roy's side.
Roy felt the frustration flare up hotter, and suddenly he shot an almost angry look at Edward. "I won't let anyone, even her, push you to do anything." And he wondered at how easily a convincing cover, barely free of being a lie, could come so easily to him in this moment. But he took it anyway.
Anything to spare him the misery of this day also being tainted by Edward's revulsion of the truth.
Edward was confused, but that confusion only grew when Roy suddenly strode, defensive, from the room. "Roy!" And he pelted after the man instinctively, only to find himself alone in the hallway beyond, with Roy nowhere in sight. "Damn it, Roy! Where'd you go? What's the matter with you all of a sudden?"
A growl of frustration escaped him, and Edward chose one of the few directions that was not certain to encounter mostly whiteness he could not cross. He could only hope Roy hadn't crossed it, he'd never find the man then.
After several minutes of searching he'd uncovered neither Roy or Daphne, and was beginning to panic just a little at being alone in a strange place when he found himself outside again. With a dawning idea, he made his way around towards the back of the house where he and Roy had been much of the time since coming here. And when he saw a familiar frame against the railing he breathed a sigh of relief.
"That idiot." Edward murmured as he dropped to the deck and began to walk across it towards Roy. The man was standing there like a glaring statue, looking out over the vineyards as his hands gripped hard to the railing. Edward turned a rueful look up at him as he slipped beside Roy, standing similarly. "I'll think of a better idea, Roy… I will."
Roy startled, not having realized Edward was there, before a different sort of guilt crashed down around him as he looked down at the spirit's hands. "It's not that. You don't have to fix anything, Edward. There's nothing to fix."
Edward considered him worriedly. "But you're not happy. What's wrong? I know it's not about your mom, you were fine up until she left. So that leaves me."
"What?" Roy looked stunned at the very idea, before "fucking hell." Which earned him a look he ignored in his haste. "Edward, it's not you! It's me I'm upset with!"
"Then what's so wrong that you stormed out on me?" Edward demanded rather more calmly than he felt.
Roy grumbled his way through several choice phrases which Edward dutifully frowned at. Then he was closing his eyes as a deep sigh escaped him. "Sometimes I realize I'm an asshole. It's not a pleasant thing for me. So let's just leave my faults alone."
Edward found himself smiling, and he slung his arms forward over the railing, bending over to rest the side of his head against it as he gazed warmly up at Roy. "I already figured you can be an asshole. But perfect or not, I'm still here, aren't I? I don't leave you so easily… or haven't you noticed."
And for a long time, they stood there together in silence. Edward still peacefully smiling up at Roy, Roy at internal war that Edward could not discern. Until at last, Roy's stony expression wavered into something more vulnerable.
"I've become selfish over you." Roy bit out before he lost his nerve, and his shut eyes clenched in a visible repression of anger. Whether it was the so-far truth of Edward's words, or the sadistic need to test them, or a moment of sheer idiocy in his natural desire not to lie to Edward, out of anyone, he said it.
Edward studied Roy closely for several long seconds, too long, as far as Roy was concerned, before he began to smile again. "Selfish? I hate to disappoint you, Roy Mustang, but being selfish doesn't automatically make you an asshole. A bastard maybe, because it has a nicer ring, but –"
"Don't you get it?" Roy snapped, rounding on Edward in self-loathing. "The very thought that someone else might see you makes me jealous. I want you all to myself. When I thought Elysia might be able to see you, I was jealous. And then I was glad when she couldn't. Now do you understand why I can't tell my mother about you? I want you, and I want to be the only one to have you."
Edward slowly straightened, silver eyes wide as they gazed up at Roy, a feeling so unfamiliar yet so close to excitement welling up inside him. He couldn't explain it, by all rights he should be mad at this confession, and yet… "I chose you, Roy. Remember?" He asked softly as he drew closer, "I chose to stay with you. Want me all you want, but you're a fool if you can't see I'm already yours."
Roy searched Edward's face almost desperately, and then in an alert sort of intense relief as his hands fought to stay on the railing. Knowing it was futile to try and touch the ghost before him, and not understanding why he so desperately wanted to hold onto Edward in this moment and not let him go. It scared a part of him, to realize just how badly he seemed to need Edward in his life. So he kept his hands where they were. "I'm being so unfair to you. I'm sorry… but I don't want anyone to come between us."
Edward smiled lopsidedly as he settled in next to Roy, almost passing through the man, and contentedly he looked up to meet regretful and troubled dark eyes. "No one could. Even if she knows, or Maes knows… at the end of the day I still live with you. But I understand now… you don't have to tell her."
"At least let me try to wrap my head around it. Something like this isn't easy for me." Roy compromised quietly, feeling more than soothed by Edward's words and continued presence at his side. If anything it made him feel even guiltier for feeling so selfish about the silvery ghost. But at least Edward accepted it, and he began to smile back, albeit nervously. "I want to deserve you."
"Deserve me?" Edward echoed with the beginnings of a laugh. "Roy Mustang, you really are a fool. It's not about deserving me, you have me." And he met Roy's gaze with a glimmer of a tease in his own eyes. "So don't worry about keeping me around, I'm not going anywhere. No matter who else might enter the picture, or not."
"Even another ghost?" Roy asked, surprising himself with his own abrupt, verging on suspicious question.
Edward grinned and couldn't help himself, "as long as they find their own living human. I think you'll find you're not the only one who has it in them to be selfish."
Roy couldn't help but feel overwhelmed as he began to slowly smile back. He still wasn't sure how he could ever deserve Edward, no matter what he said… but he was exceedingly grateful to whatever power had allowed them to be together. "You couldn't be selfish if you tried."
Edward merely smiled.
"We should have at least three more hours until she hunts me down for dinner." Roy continued quickly, "want to see some other memorable spots of the Flame Alchemist?"
"I am a fan." Edward smirked with a glimmer of humor in his eyes. "And so far I can't complain about my tour guide. He seems very knowledgeable."
"So I'll be getting a good tip, then?" Roy smirked back as he drew away from the railing that had been his anchor.
"I'll think of something." Edward assured him, and this time when Roy began to leave, he was able to keep up. He wasn't planning to lose sight of Roy again so soon, especially not with another tour on the horizon.
It came as little surprise and as something of an unsaid relief that for their walk they were removed from possible prying eyes. Lost deep in the vineyard or the woods beyond, Roy introduced Ed to those spots a child really could never forget. Much like the secret base Edward had spoken about in Risembool, these places had stories behind them. And for the first time, Roy was letting someone else into that chapter of his life.
About the time that Roy knew his mother would be finishing up whatever was for dinner he was lounging with Edward in grass far too high to see over, granting him only a view of the sky and the strange sight of bronzing blades of grass spearing up through Edward.
"It's strange," Edward mused as he stared up at the wisps of clouds and a dimming sky, "how this can make you feel entirely alone, but it doesn't matter, because it makes you feel secure. The world seems so much smaller it just makes you be you."
"A child with invincibility delusions and a penchant for fire loose in a field, thinking he's the only one around for miles." Roy chuckled at the images that conjured. "It's a miracle that I never started a forest fire."
"That you'll admit to." Edward smiled amusedly.
Roy felt a grin creep onto his face, and he didn't denounce the claim. Instead he sat up straight, his head just barely poking out over the overgrown wild grass. "Come on, we've been laying in here a while. We should head back."
Edward rose up into the air agreeably, hovering near Roy's height as the man stood. "Just no more yelling at me unless you're sure we're alone."
Roy fought back a flinch, sending a guilty look towards the apparition. "I shouldn't ever yell at you anyway, raise my voice to you like that... I just worry about you."
Edward's head fell curiously to the side before he shook it with a smile. "At least I know you were serious. Not just trying to be a stuck-up prick. I know you want to take care of me… you told me yourself on the train. So don't worry about it, instead let's go get you dinner before I discover if starvation makes you grouchy."
It wasn't exactly a proposed plan that Roy could argue with, and so he led the way back to the house , a house that he believed to have far too many windows after the events of this afternoon. He'd let his guard down being here, by habit. Something he knew he would not be able to do again so long as he kept Edward's existence a secret.
"Roy?"
Roy grunted curiously in response, flicking a quick gaze the ghost's way as they walked.
"Thanks, for bringing me here." Edward answered, staring closely at the grass. "I know it hasn't been easy for you."
"Our friendship isn't exactly simple, but don't ever start thinking that I don't like it that way." Roy replied with a brooding expression, and they finally reached the house again without being dived down upon by inquisitive mothers.
They entered the kitchen, both feeling reasonably apprehensive about what dinner would bring, but Daphne only greeted Roy with a cheerful smile and told him to help her set the food out on the table. Which was puzzling and only served to make Roy more suspicious and on guard. Edward could only watch with worried amusement as Roy put himself through it.
But he knew he had no right to try to change Roy's mind and make things potentially easier on him, it was something the man would have to do himself.
When the two Mustangs sat down at last for dinner, Edward could only sit himself in the air beside Roy, unable to take a chair for himself considering how far they were pushed in. But it didn't matter to him much, it still gave him an acceptable vantage point to watch the dinner events unfold.
Over the salad, Roy proceeded to do the classic human self-preservation technique of averting attention as far away from himself as possible, questioning his mother into the scalloped potatoes about how the business was doing.
Daphne countered over the salmon, grilling Roy in a clearly enthusiastic way about how the State Alchemist certification exams had gone.
Roy fought back by giving her all the details. At least, all the details not pertaining to some involvement of Ed. From the weather of the practical exam day to the number of pencils snapped in the written exam. He gave it all to her.
Edward was torn between exasperation and amusement at the both of them.
The ghost had ended up resting an elbow down on the table to rest his chin, and he kept pivoting his head back and forth as the two of them engaged in a sort of strange ritual, as he suspected this wasn't uncommon between mother and son based on what he'd already witnessed. He wondered what exactly the point of it was, as it did seem to have one judging on how seriously they both took it despite the evidence that they were both having fun with it.
It was in the lull between dinner and dessert, wherein Daphne got up to get the apple pie and Roy was clearing away the dishes that Edward felt something in the air visibly relax.
The dishes were cleared, the pie was cut into and served, and Roy finished topping his slice with whipped cream before, after a pause, he set aside the canister with a final-sounding dull clunk.
"I'm not saying this because I want to," Roy began quietly, fork stabbed through the triangle of pie, staring resolutely at the wood grain of the table. "I'm saying this because, no matter what he says…"
Edward's head whipped around sharply, silver eyes wide in shock.
"I won't become like what keeps him caged. That's not who I am in this… even if right now I wish you were a deaf fool."
Daphne set her own fork aside delicately, as if any noise or swift movement might break the spell. "He?" She ventured cautiously against the internal buildup of excitement, not that she'd been right, because she knew she'd been right, but that her son was clearly so affected by whoever it was that he'd do something he didn't want to do just to appease his conscience regarding the person.
"Roy…" Edward whispered in a tone not far from being saddened, "I'd never think that of you."
Roy lifted his gaze from the table not to look at his mother, but to look into silvery eyes. "I won't take the chance," he answered softly, "you mean too much to me." Only then did he look over at his mother who, for once in her life, looked absolutely speechless and confused. He might have enjoyed the look on her more if what he was about to say wasn't so serious to him.
"His name is Edward, and he's a ghost."
A true silence fell over the table at Roy's words, one that seemed interminable, and when broken felt too abrupt.
Daphne let out her breath slowly, her green eyes never leaving her son, who had been staring her down ever since his admission. Everything about him from his unyielding posture and hard eyes told her that he wasn't backing down in this, he'd meant what he said. It was times like this that she was reminded of just who her son was, no matter how much she'd like to always imagine him as just her child. "And I imagine he came here with you?"
"I brought him here." Roy agreed firmly, "I wanted him to see this place."
"I can prove I'm here, just tell me to." Edward offered to him, his eyes fixed on Daphne.
Daphne continued to watch her son closely, bafflement at the idea of what Roy was telling her and amazement at the possibility both jockeying inside her. "I wasn't expecting this." She admitted at last with something of a laugh.
Roy smiled at her, getting a bit of enjoyment from the confession. "I never expected it either… but I can't imagine him not being around." And he turned his gaze to Edward with a small nod. "You can do what you want, just try not to break anything, hm?"
"I only break Grand's things." Edward scoffed, before turning thoughtful, adding, "and Grand. He's fun to break." Before perking up and dropping to the floor so he could assess what he had to work with.
Roy chuckled, rolling his eyes before looking over at his mother and holding his hands up so she could visibly see he wasn't doing anything with them. "I don't know what he's going to do, as you can see I am totally innocent and not participating in this."
Edward leered Roy's way, "you gave me permission, remember." And stepped over to where Daphne was sitting.
Daphne was giving her son an odd look, seeming torn between laughing and bafflement at this one side of a conversation she was hearing. Only to swiftly abandon both with a fork-clattering startle as the whipped cream canister suddenly flew into the air and nozzle pointing downward, began to top her pie for her.
"You want to get me the caramel sauce while you're at it, Ed?" Roy suggested with a laugh at the look on his mother's face.
Edward promptly abandoned topping the pie, which was now sufficiently topped as it was, and aimed the nozzle of the canister at Roy to spray the man with handy projectile whipping cream. Smirking as Roy cursed and dove off his chair for cover.
Laughing, Edward set the whipping cream down and grabbed the caramel sauce on his way over the table to peer down over it to where Roy had fallen for cover. "Look, I've got your caramel sauce."
"Why is it you're always attacking me with dessert toppings?" Roy asked through a laugh as he grinned up at Edward.
"Because you're always asking for it." Edward informed him happily, but didn't launch any caramel sauce as Roy picked himself up off the floor. Only handed over the caramel sauce when Roy held out a hand for it, smiling in success as the man wiped whipped cream off his neck with his other hand.
"Brat." Roy chided the happy spirit fondly.
Edward only beamed, watching contently as Roy licked the whipping cream off his fingers.
"This has happened before between you two?"
Edward startled, mostly at realizing he'd forgotten she was there. Roy, on the other hand, was more composed as he looked at her with a smile, setting down the caramel sauce. "Once. Except that time he chased me around the house."
Daphne didn't bother hiding her smile. Although she believed that if Roy realized what she were truly smiling about she'd be in mortal danger. She didn't want to risk her life needlessly… and besides, she didn't want to cheat herself out of watching her son. Not when he was acting the way he was. "You two get along well, I've never known you to be chased in your own home."
"You try having a ghost intent on revenge come at you with cake icing and see what you do." Roy defended over Edward's laughter… not that she could hear it. "Ghosts are inescapable, and it's not like I can grab him to restrain him. Even if I'd want to."
Daphne felt as if time had momentarily jerked to a stop before resuming as she stared at her son, "you mean… you can't touch him?"
"I know he's there, even if I can't feel him." Roy answered quietly, sharing a look with Edward that ended in a lopsided smile before he looked back at his mother. "He can only touch inanimate objects. I think it's because he's… well –"
"Not among the living." Edward filled in quietly.
"Yeah." Roy ended lamely, not even bothering to fill in what Edward had said for his mother's benefit. She was a smart woman, she could fill in her own blanks.
Daphne sat back with a silent, thoughtful huff as she considered her son who she could only now assume was looking at Edward. "Well for the record, I believe you." And at Roy's look, smiled. "Hard not to after Edward's little demonstration."
"Nothing about me is little." Edward pouted.
Roy grinned, but at his mother's enquiring look, shook his head.
"And," Daphne continued, "I do know you Roy… have a bit of faith in your mom that she can take some strange news. I did raise you after all."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Roy scowled at her, crossing his arms over his chest.
Edward laughed, ignoring it when he was scowled at as well.
Daphne chuckled lightly, before clearing her throat and sitting up a little straighter. "Now then, I think it's very rude of me not to get to know a guest. Are you feeling up to being my medium?"
Roy thought about it a moment after having almost answered affirmatively, and he looked over at Edward with a raised brow. "I don't mind… but if you want to write to her? I know you've tried to do that to people before, she'll not think it's the drugs. Although whether or not it's all the wine making her so agreeable is another matter. But I don't want to make you feel handicapped if you don't need to be."