I'd apologize for the wait, but I think we've all come to sadly expect it from me. I hadn't actually intended it to be so long between chapters, but between this one and the prior I ended up moving 2,000 miles. So if anyone else is in the middle of nowhere on the Canadian border in upstate NY, hi! I'm your new neighbor. Anyway, real talk? I truly don't intend to keep going so long between chapters for this. I have half of the chapter after this already written, and we'll see what happens for me this week. I even have almost a separate fic completely done that's ready to go up as soon as I'm done with this one. I was considering uploading that one all in one go, but then it kind of turned into a monster, so I'm thinking two parts? We'll see what I decide.
Thank you all for being patient with me. I do know that some of you sent me some lovely PM's that I didn't have a chance to get to because of my cross-country move and getting settled in and all that, and thank you so much for them. I would like to reply if everyone who sent me one is still okay with that? I just thought it could be weird, me getting back to you almost half a year later, in some cases.
And kudos to those who are INSANELY close to guessing what happens with Edward. It makes me delighted that some of you are Sherlock Holmes'ing this.
Chapter Sixty-One
As much as Edward ached to be able to touch Roy, even if just to shake him awake, he was unable. He was, however, perfectly capable of grasping the end of the blankets that Roy was buried under and in one swift motion, whipping them entirely free of the bed.
Roy jolted awake with a yelped curse, flailing into a seated position whereupon he glared at the smug ghost standing there and winding the blankets around his arms into an untidy mess.
"Don't you look at me like that, Roy Mustang." Edward grinned as he plopped the blankets on the foot of the bed, at the furthest corner from Roy's reach. "I thought you were the Flame Alchemist, surely you aren't cold."
Roy didn't even dignify that with a response, instead grumbling as he ran a hand back through his sleep-mussed hair in a manner that did nothing at all to tame it and rather only made it stick up worse. "Juvenile little spirit… lucky I love you."
Edward's smirk split into a fond grin, "careful how you insult the one you love, I can learn how to turn the hot water off in your shower if you insult my height too much."
Roy shuddered even as he worked on getting himself off the bed and onto his feet, "anyone else I'd call their bluff."
A laugh burst from Edward, and as Roy got to his feet he floated towards their bedroom door. "I'll make you breakfast, don't be too long?"
"I'll be down soon." Roy promised, and eagerly went to start the shower so that he could warm back up again.
One intensely hot shower later, Roy exited the bathroom with only a towel around his waist into a bedroom that was a third of the way filled with steam. There was no sign of Edward, only telltale clunks from downstairs where the kitchen was that let him know the ghost was still working on breakfast. It was only with care but no struggle that Roy dressed himself without snagging any of his stitches, which only served to reaffirm his opinion on how well the healing process was coming along.
After he'd finished dressing himself he returned to the bathroom, now mostly devoid of steam, and finished getting himself ready before returning to the bedroom in order to sort out the mess Edward had made of the bedspread.
That done, he went in search of Edward and breakfast.
"Everything okay?" Edward asked as he heard the sound of Roy's boots coming towards him.
Roy walked up behind where Edward stood at one of the counters, busy decorating a stack of waffles with slices of banana. Placing his hands on the counter, on either side of the ghost, he leaned forward to peer over Edward's shoulder as the ghost worked. "Everything looks fine. No pain today so far."
Edward smiled and looked up at Roy as he deftly arranged the remaining banana slices onto the waffles. "I'll look at them again tonight. Now be wonderful and get me the whipped cream from the fridge?"
Roy laughed as he moved to do as he was bade, "would you like it to decorate the waffles, or yourself, for my dining pleasure?" He opened the refrigerator and ducked down to begin trying to find the canister of whipped cream he knew he had somewhere.
Startling with a rush of embarrassed exasperation, Edward barely kept from fumbling the squeeze bottle of honey as he retrieved it from a cupboard. "While normally I'd say you're a smart man and can figure that out yourself," he began as his exasperation became suffused with fondness, "I'm not sure I can ever underestimate your libido."
Roy grinned as he shoved aside a bottle of ketchup that he honestly couldn't recall buying, and honestly he wasn't sure it should be that color, but figured he'd deal with that later as he finally found the canister of whipped cream. "Both it is then, darling," he announced as he straightened and shut the refrigerator door, giving the canister a few shakes as he walked back over to where Edward hovered in waiting and looking positively radiant in his lingering embarrassment.
Edward eyed him suspiciously, "both? How can – it may have escaped your notice, but I'm a ghost and really can't…" he trailed off as Roy came to a stop in front of him before leaning one hip against the counter while never once looking away from him. "Roy?" His tone was wary under that mischievous dark-eyed gaze.
"You've forgotten something, love." Roy announced with a nonchalance that he knew would never fool Edward, and gave the canister another shake before reaching past Edward to squirt a substantial amount of whipped cream over his waffles while never once taking his eyes from the increasingly wary ghost.
"Have I?" Edward questioned with rising suspicion.
Roy smirked and nodded as he drew the canister away, but not before having swiped some of the whipped cream onto his fingers. "You're still holding that honey," he pointed out helpfully as he set the canister of whipped cream onto the countertop.
"Yes?" At this point, Edward was starting to wonder if he'd been too involved making the waffles to hear Roy slip and fall in the shower, or otherwise hitting his head.
With one smooth movement, Roy reached up to tap the glob of whipped cream onto Edward's cheek. "Meaning I can do that."
Edward gaped at him, before beginning to laugh as he turned to drizzle the honey onto the waffles, over the whipped cream atop them. "You still can't touch me though. I'm afraid you'll have to settle for these."
Roy hummed in amusement and as Edward turned to offer him the plate, still adorably smudged with whipped cream and looking far too happy and a little bit shy, he took it. After all, he didn't want the plate to be dropped and all of Edward's wonderful cooking go to waste and laughed, low and filled with warmth as he leaned back down to whisper into Edward's ear, "we have our whole lives to work on something called fantasies with you."
"Roy!" Edward didn't even try to pretend it hadn't been a squeak.
With another hearty chuckle, Roy turned to go over to the table and set his plate of waffles down. "You haven't fantasized about me at all? I'm wounded."
"You're a pest is what you are," Edward grumbled fondly and after wiping the mess from his face with a kitchen towel he began floating around the kitchen to put everything away that he'd used in his cooking project.
Had Roy not suspected that Edward was growing close to the point of being flustered where he'd melt through the floor or something equally dramatic in an effort to feel under control again, he'd have pressed the fact that Edward hadn't exactly answered the question. As it was though, he didn't want to push too much further this morning; especially given he did in fact want the pleasure of taking Edward on their date today. So he stayed quiet and ate his waffles, while he followed Edward's movements around the kitchen with an admittedly smitten smile.
When Edward was done cleaning up the kitchen, and the only thing left to do was for Roy to finish eating, he floated over to take a chair next to Roy's, angling it so he was able to sit facing him. "How are they? I've never done them this way before."
Roy smiled around the fork currently in his mouth before slipping it free and taking a moment to chew and swallow before tilting his head contemplatively at Edward. "Delicious. Everything you've made has been. You would have made an amazing chef if you hadn't taken up alchemy."
Edward was about to point out that he didn't see how those particulars kept him from being an amazing chef, when Roy piped up again.
"Fine housewife material though." He added wickedly.
Edward propped an elbow up on the table, resting his chin in his hand as he considered Roy with a resigned amused irritation. "Don't get ahead of yourself and buy me an apron with 'wife' written on it."
"At least not until I manage to convince you to marry me." Roy agreed nonchalantly as he popped another bite of waffle into his mouth.
"Yes, because that makes it sound completely romantic." Edward smirked.
Roy nearly choked on his breakfast for his laughter, and with an effort forced himself to focus a bit more on his food and a bit less on the ghost beside him. After all, they had a date, and he could hardly keep that plan if he choked to death.
After the leftovers had been securely stashed from Hazel's prying paws, they loaded into the military sedan and Roy began to drive away from the house. The trip took little more than half an hour, and landed them near to the city limits. Even this early in the morning, the dirt parking lot was already beginning to fill with vehicles, and one of the city buses had just finished unloading a herd of families.
"Now remember," Roy began with a serious overtone as he shifted the sedan into park and half-turned in his seat to look at Edward, "no attempting to smuggle out any animals for any reason."
Edward held up both hands in a gesture of surrender, "I promised you then, I promise you now. I won't."
A smile lit Roy's face and he took the keys from the ignition, "good. Now then, let's go have some fun."
Edward grinned back, unable but to help being positively excited about getting to see and experience animals he never had before, and being able to do so with Roy at his side. He exited the sedan somewhere between the front of the closed door and the rear of the hood, before floating over to join Roy at the front of the vehicle.
"This way, dearest." Roy softly announced before beginning to stride off towards one of the few buildings within view.
Edward was quick to leap up through the air to catch him, but once he had he settled down to the ground on two feet and began to walk along beside Roy. It was getting a bit more crowded the further they got from the vehicle, and by the time they got to where the tickets were being sold, it had become a disorderly crush of people who were all standing about clueless of anyone else perhaps wanting to get by them.
Roy navigated it easily enough, noting that Edward kept up with him doggedly, and soon enough he'd reached the ticket booth, paid for himself, waved off the offered map of the grounds, and led Edward into the zoo itself.
Edward followed Roy a short distance after the ticket booth, through a garden filled with water features and blue jays, until the man stopped and turned to him as an absence of other people being directly nearby occurred.
"Lead on, wherever you want to go." Roy's voice was quiet, even in their semi-privacy, as he glanced down to the ghost at his side.
A rush of excitement that Edward hadn't expected caught him off guard, but he recovered quickly and bounced into the air to dart towards the left, "come on then!"
Roy couldn't help the grin that bloomed across his face, and with a fond shake of his head, he followed after the bouncing ghost.
For a time they only saw swans and ducks, which young children were feeding while their parents either supplied the feed machines with the required coins or yanked around on the handle that would insert said coins into the machine until they'd rigged it into dispensing amounts of food for free. A bit more walking finally took them into the zoo proper, and found Edward darting over to the first massive enclosure of a wire and wooden post fence that sectioned off a rather large field dotted with boulders.
The noise that made it out of Edward was something Roy would always treasure, a bright and purely-enamored and not-at-all-self-conscious squeal of delight, and he was unable to help his wide smile as he caught up to the ghost.
"They almost look like Hazel…" Edward whispered in a fascinated adoration, "but cuter!"
Laughter escaped him before he could help it, but Roy figured anyone would just blame it on watching the antics of the mottle-coated animals with their black and white heads and thin, furred tails romping around in the enclosure. He vowed that the next time Hazel was acting like he preferred Edward, he'd tell the squirrel of this moment.
"What are they?" Edward whispered delightedly, watching three of them tumble over one another in play.
Normally, Roy would have just taken Edward over to the information plaque, but seeing as how over here, they were actually rather alone, he stayed. "Marbled polecats," he revealed quietly and with a bit of a distant smile, "saw them when I was in Ishval. Always better from a distance, as we learned."
Edward actually found his head turning so that he could look at Roy as he frowned, "how do you mean? They don't look dangerous."
Roy smirked, "you had skunks around in the woods where you grew up, right?"
"Yes," Edward confirmed in confusion, before the light of understanding lit his eyes and he turned back to look at the animals with a new respect, "oh… who…?"
"Some upstart enlisted girl didn't want to eat her rations. Thought she'd have some fresh meat instead." Roy commented lowly, mindful that people were gradually getting closer to them by sheer nature of wanting to see more of the polecats. "She was on distant sentry duty until the smell wore off."
Edward grinned wickedly as he watched them, and now he was beginning to fully understand why Roy had made him repromise that he wouldn't attempt to smuggle out any animals, especially ones that would be perfect to set on Grand. "I love them."
Roy smiled and couldn't exactly disagree.
They stood there together for a time, watching the marbled polecats play and eat, until it began to get a bit too crowded and they stepped away to continue their wandering. For his part, Roy had been surprised that Edward hadn't gone to see them closer, but he wasn't about to say anything. He'd enjoyed having the ghost beside him just as much, and realistically he knew it was only a matter of time before Edward found something he wanted to see closer up.
Together they toured through a massive enclosed aviary filled with birds as bright as jewels or as muted as the sparrows that kept sneaking in through the netting to steal food. The noise was almost chaotic from the multitude of birdsong and screeches and the sound of Edward happily pointing out each secretarybird he saw – commenting that it reminded him of Roy.
Roy wasn't sure whether or not to be insulted.
The next direction Edward took them, once Roy had been reassured that he had escaped the aviary without an additional gift from the hundreds of birds flying about, led them to another fenced off field where a small variety of slender four-legged animals meandered in the distance.
"I know those…" Edward muttered in distraction as he wracked his memories of what few books he'd read as a child that hadn't been on alchemy, "antelope? Right? Some of them?"
Roy smiled and nodding off to where there was some shade and a wide absence of other people, they walked over to it before he answered, "yes, some." Raising a hand he pointed off towards one of the groups, "you see the squatter ones? With the horns curving all the way back?"
Edward nodded.
Roy caught the motion from the corner of his eye and found his gaze dropping so that he could watch the fascination play across Edward's face, "those are ibex. And those," he pointed off towards a gathering of spindly trees, "are oryx."
"Did you see those in Ishval too?" Edward asked in a hushed tone.
Roy grunted in a denial he soon put words to, "at least not alive. Sometimes we'd come across them near an oasis, after a lion had found them first."
"Did you see those?"
Roy's lips pursed a moment, and he muttered lowly, "too many times. Stalking us at night… and the hyenas… laughing so shrilly."
Edward frowned a moment at the distant, haunted tone of Roy's voice, before a lopsided smile took over his face as he looked up at the man, "are you going to be disappointed when I inevitably like them?"
A smile flashed across Roy's face, and he rolled his eyes as he finally looked away, back to where the antelope were grazing. "You will, and no, I won't be. They're just animals doing what nature intends them to. You're just a ghost doing your best to be chaotic."
"Doing my best? My best?!" Edward spluttered as Roy tried to smother a laugh, "my best…" he huffed as he looked around back to the animals once more. "My best, he says… I'll show him chaotic. Won't even have to break my promise not to smuggle out an animal to do it."
Roy smirked, "I love you."
Edward glowered up at him, but couldn't help smiling softly. "Don't use that against me."
"Me loving you?" Roy enquired with a smug look.
"Me loving you back." Edward grumbled fondly, and only shook his head as Roy began softly chuckling.
They stood in a comfortable silence watching the grazing herds for a time, before eventually by a mutual unspoken agreement they wandered away to find something new. Besides, now a part of Edward dearly wanted to see a lion or hyena, or even better, both.
Edward knew what the next enclosure held without so much as a hesitation, and with wide eyes he suddenly let out a loud groan as he gestured at the elephants, "nothing ever needs to be that big!"
Roy snorted as he joined Edward near a railing, but being a popular exhibit, he couldn't exactly say much to his short and feisty love without risking being overheard. So he stayed silent, smirking nonetheless as he listened to Edward ramble about how impressive the elephants were, but also taking more than enough time to grumble about the size of the beasts.
"Did you see these in Ishval?" Edward finally asked, turning his attention to Roy expectantly.
Roy shook his head subtly, honestly a bit glad of that. He'd had quite enough to deal with out there in that desert without worrying about elephants suddenly charging into camp in the dead of night. Not that he thought they'd do it purposefully, but there were just some accidents of fate he didn't intend to experience.
Edward hummed and turned back to watching the elephants for a bit, before deciding it was time to find something new again.
Together they wandered through a brick building that was filled with all sorts and sizes of reptiles, some of which Edward couldn't even see for the foliage of the enclosures they were in. This building was more absent of people, and during the times the hallway they were in was empty of others, Roy and Edward had whispered, and for Roy's part, softly laughing conversation, until they inevitably encountered the sight of another person.
By the time they had finished their tour of the reptile exhibits, Roy knew that if he ever took Edward to Xing, he'd have to make doubly sure when it was time to return home that Edward wouldn't try to somehow smuggle back a collection of poison dart frogs.
The next enclosure that Edward found was one that Roy, admittedly, had been one of the most nervous about the ghost seeing. His concerns becoming completely founded given the gasp of impressed and excited approval that emitted from the silvery apparition. Roy spared enough attention away from Edward to ensure that no one else would be close enough to hear him as he whispered tersely, "you promised!"
Edward snorted and sent Roy a sidelong look of reproach, "I also recall telling you not to freak out if I go into their enclosures to get a closer look."
Roy had long ago come to the realization and acceptance that there were just some things, some dangers, where the fact that Edward couldn't be harmed by these outside forces was something his brain disregarded. Something where he'd still react with the same concern as he would if Edward were flesh and blood, because really, that's how Roy saw him.
A smirk flashed across Edward's face at the look of consternation on Roy's face, "be back in a bit!"
"Edward!" Roy hissed as quietly as he could, ineffectively as it turned out.
Edward ignored him as fascination and an eager excitement thrummed through him the nearer he floated towards the massive tawny lions laid out in the sunlight.
As he reached the nearest, Edward came to the conclusion that massive may have been a bit of an understatement. The lioness in front of him now had paws the size of his head, and even lying entirely prone on her side, that side very nearly came up to Edward's knee as he alighted on the grass.
"You are gorgeous," Edward whispered in unfiltered awe as he walked around to kneel down in front of her head.
The lioness had been dozing, not entirely asleep, and it didn't take long for her to sense that something else was nearby her. She couldn't smell it, and as she cracked open her eyes she couldn't see it… but instinct told her that something was there, and she slowly rolled to her belly as she began to pant in deliberation.
Edward didn't startle back as the lioness moved, although it was a near thing. Her head was easily the size of his torso, and the glinting fangs he spotted were more than a little intimidating, even in his incorporeal state. Slowly he reached out, placing his hand just up to the side of her head. "Oh Roy would not like me trying to keep you."
After a time, the lioness determined that whatever was there was not of any threat, odd though it was. Regardless, she still rose to her feet with a great huff of breath and a full-body shake that sent loose fur flying.
Edward rose up as well, still in awe despite the intimidating fact that when standing, her shoulder was as high as his own waist. He hadn't realized that lions could get to be of such a size, and glancing around, found himself a bit disappointed that there weren't any males that he could spot. He was certain that they would prove to be even larger.
In his slight distraction, Edward hadn't noticed the lioness prowling into him with a low growl until her muzzle was already passing through his stomach. He jumped back, despite the fact that he hadn't actually been able to feel anything, it was the principle of the matter! "Personal space, kitty."
Kitty had decided that whatever this being was that she was sensing was of no danger, but that left two other options: food and toy. Given that she'd already eaten her fill and had been sunning herself through the resulting food coma, that left play.
She pounced after the retreating invisible being.
Edward spluttered out several choice swears as he instinctively whirled to one side.
The lioness turned in confusion, tail whipping back and forth a moment before she crouched low on the ground, shoulders slowly churning as she considered the semantics of her next pounce.
"You're going to give my boyfriend a heart attack," Edward chastised her, ignoring that he'd likely done that himself the moment he went into the enclosure, already beginning to backtrack towards where he had left Roy, "and I'll be the one who has to hear about it."
At the reinforced fence line that separated the guests from the animals, Roy put a hand up to his forehead in rubbing exasperation as a silvery ghost rocketed back towards him with a lioness hot on his heels.
Honestly he was lucky they hadn't run afoul of any lions when they'd gone to the Xerxian ruins, given it was a part of their territory. He imagined that Edward wouldn't have been too pleased with him if he'd had to fend any hopeful lions off with firebombs.
Roy lowered his hand from his forehead as Edward shot past him with a peal of alarmed laughter, and promptly stepped back several paces away from the fence line to allow an excited crowd to quickly fill where he'd been standing as the lioness barely kept from skidding at full force into the reinforced wiring. He turned completely to begin walking away from the enclosure, unable to help the faint smirk that crept onto his face as Edward caught up with him.
"The animals that you told me of," Edward managed to sound somewhat breathless despite the fact he didn't have lungs, "the rhinoceros? Surely they can't be any more dangerous than one of those lions. Why wouldn't they have chimeras of that roaming around the lab instead?"
Roy faintly smiled, and pointedly turned his steps to the right without saying a word.
Edward followed along without complaint, beginning to tell Roy very animatedly about how huge that lioness had been, and how shocked he genuinely was. None of the very few books he'd ever encountered that mentioned them had alluded anything as to size.
When they reached the enclosure where the rhinos were kept, Roy guided them over to a spot where they could view the magnificent beasts without him risking being overheard or seen speaking presumably to himself.
"They're…" Edward tilted his head with a frown, "not what I expected."
There were three in the enclosure, at least three which could be seen, and they stood unmoving in a loose group as their thin tails swished flies away. Three bulky beasts standing a goodly amount taller than Edward, covered in a dull grey hide and with two differently sized horns weighing down their heads.
"What would Grand want with creating chimeras from these?"
Roy rested his forearms down on one of the railings that sat a goodly distance from the actual fence perimeter. "True, they can't maul in the way that lion you were playing one-sided tag with could do," he let out a low breath before continuing with, "but they have enough power to knock down walls, crush vehicles. And those horns may not look sharp, but they'll eviscerate a man easily."
Edward looked from Roy and back to the animals with a new respect glinting in his eyes, "and now he has a chimera one."
Roy hummed in bitter agreement, "seems so, yes. A chimera, he can control… at least a far sight better than he'd be able to control the animal itself. And that level of intelligence and awareness is not something I'm looking forward to coupled with the power one of these things has."
"Do you think a chimera would still have enough animal instinct left to be puzzled by me?" Edward broached after a long moment of frowning deliberation. "Do you think I could distract one long enough for you to get inside?"
Roy looked over at Edward fully, "the goal is not to encounter it at all."
Edward leveled him a meaningful look.
"But," Roy pressed on obediently, "if that plan fails then yes… I believe you could if it came down to it. Even though I'd much rather that Hawkeye get in a good shot."
"I'd have rathered she got in a good shot with Kimblee," Edward muttered with only a flash of guilt for saying the words.
Roy watched him regretfully for a long moment in silence before he slid his hand along the railing to slip it through Edward's as it rested there, and mutely he watched the way it caused his own hand to faintly glow with that silver ethereal light before he looked back up to meet Edward's gaze. "If she didn't take the shot, it was because she had no opportunity to make sure I wouldn't accidentally get shot instead."
It took Edward a long time to admit "I know," before he hung his head with a regretful breath. "Sorry, I know I'm not being fair."
"Don't apologize," Roy denied and looked back to the rhinos, "you're not a soldier like we are… nor do I want you to be. Besides… how can I regret anything about that day, when it helped you realize that you love me?"
Edward fought against the smile, he truly did, but it was honestly hopeless as he looked sidelong at the man beside him. "Actually I'm fairly sure I only realized that you're a ridiculous patient. The love came later."
"It did not," Roy chuckled smugly, "it actually came well before that, even before Kimblee tried to kill me, not that you'd have ever admitted to it then, or now."
"Oh did it now?" Edward's eyebrows darted up as he turned to Roy now with a laughing expression, "and do tell when it is you think I started loving you?"
Roy smiled fondly and shook his head, "like I told you, I hadn't known for certain for long but… I started suspecting after I took you to the theater."
A flash of an amused smile flicked across Edward's lips and he ducked his gaze, "that seems like so long ago now… but it really hasn't been."
Roy hummed in agreement, "no."
"That was the most ridiculous play," Edward laughed brightly, head shaking.
"Don't recall too much of it, I was busy watching you." Roy admitted without much embarrassment at all.
"You never did answer me though," Edward recalled as he steeled himself to look back up and meet Roy's gaze, "what would happen after you got someone onto your lap."
Surprised laughter escaped him, and Roy looked away, reaffirming they were still in a rather private area before he looked back at Edward's shining silver eyes. "We need to work on fantasies with you anyway… what do you imagine I'd have done?"
Edward was fairly certain that he'd never stop being grateful that he lacked the blood that would cause him to blush, because he knew just as certainly that he definitely would be right now otherwise. Even so, he still felt warmth spark through him and the phantom sensation of a heart he no longer had skipping a beat. "Is a public venue really the place you want to discuss fantasies? While seemingly by yourself in front of an animal enclosure?"
Roy barely managed to keep from dissolving into uncontrollable laughter, barely, and as it was it took him a moment to be able to get any words out as Edward merely watched him with an expectant smugness. "I'm not sure it'd be better if they could see you in such an event."
Edward grinned with his own chuckle and looked away from Roy, back towards where the rhinoceros stood placidly. "Anyway, knowing you it'd have been something highly embarrassing for me."
"As long as you enjoy yourself, there's no cause for embarrassment." Roy informed him fondly.
"This coming from a hedonist." Edward smiled and shook his head.
Roy huffed in exaggerated affront, "may as well take pleasure in what I can in life," he pointed out sensibly before straightening. "Speaking of which, it's a bit of a long walk towards the nearest snack stand if I recall correctly, and I really need something to drink. Did you want to join me?"
"I'm surprised you'd trust me to stay here alone and not try and cause chaos." Edward remarked with a grin, although he cast the rhinoceros a last lingering and uncertain look before he turned to follow wherever Roy was about to go.
"Momentary lapse of judgment, I assure you." Roy smirked, although he wasn't sure he really ever had anything to worry about when it came to Edward following him. The ghost was as loathe to let him out of his sight as he was to let Edward from his under most circumstances.
Eventually they did locate a snack stand, although Roy was certain it had taken longer to accomplish with Edward than it ever had with Elysia. Unlike whenever he'd come here with Maes and his family, there hadn't been another adult around to watch over the child, and childish delight certainly described what Edward had devolved into when the ghost had spotted the otters.
It had taken quite a while for the ghost to come back over to him, and out of the enclosure where he'd been quite happily allowing the otters to chase after him. Not that Roy had really been all too put out about the delay, there'd been no hiding his chuckles and fond grin as he watched Edward play. And the bright smile and carefree laughter as Edward finally did rejoin him made any dryness in his throat entirely worth it.
Even so, Roy was still quite happy to finally buy a lemonade.
"My mom used to make that stuff." Edward commented as they continued walking, heading in the direction of the hyenas, if the exuberant children seven paces ahead of them could be believed.
"Lemonade?" Roy murmured in question as he took the straw from his lips just barely.
Edward nodded, casting it an askance glance before looking away with a distant smile. "I didn't quite hate it, but Alphonse would drink an entire pitcher if she didn't catch him in time."
Roy cast Edward the briefest, smiling look. One easily passed off as inconsequential had anyone noticed it but Edward.
"It was supposed to be for special occasions… company at the house, birthdays and such." Edward continued, "Alphonse always told me I was being silly, because I liked lemons and sugar on their own. Just not together."
As they took up a spot to view the hyenas that was removed enough from any other observer, Roy rested his drink on the railing as he half-turned in order to be able to watch the hyenas while at the same time being able to see Edward. "Normally I mix it with alcohol, but seeing as how I'm driving…"
"If you'd just teach me how to drive, you could." Edward pointed out with a smirk, before resuming his fascinated gazing at the hyenas and their strange yipping laughter. "One of my dad's old alchemy books had a transmutation circle that required the skull of a hyena. Fresh."
"It what?!" Roy whispered in horror, eyes wide, "to do what?"
"Not sure, I never finished reading about it. Was one of the few I did that with. I flipped the pages once I noticed, didn't want Al to see it." Edward admitted wryly, "you'd probably have to ask my dad."
"Darling, I am pretty sure that there is some ancient alchemy he knows that is better left forgotten by the rest of us." Roy asserted before he took another drink of lemonade.
Edward smiled faintly at the sentiment, "I think he might agree."
While Roy could easily believe that Edward was correct about that, he also couldn't put aside the suspicion that it would hardly keep Hohenheim from doing such alchemy if he felt it was necessary. He just sincerely hoped he never witnessed what sort of alchemy required the skull of a freshly killed animal.
"Wouldn't a chimera from one of these be not only a lot scarier, but more effective at killing?" Edward frowned in further consideration of the creatures. "Why wouldn't he have chosen something like this?"
"Honestly? I'm hardly complaining." Roy grimaced at the thought of facing a chimera created from the blood of a hyena. "What I need to do is going to be hard enough as is without adding some bone-crushing jaws and massive fangs to the list."
Edward couldn't help but wryly agree, and pushing thoughts of that to the side a moment, he walked a few steps closer towards the enclosure in curious contemplation, "they are beautiful though. Strange looking… but beautiful."
"So like yourself, then?" Roy couldn't help but tease from around his straw.
Edward shot him a glare over one shoulder, then reached back to give the bottom of Roy's paper lemonade cup a squeeze.
Roy yelped as lemonade burst out at him, scuttling backwards as if it would help save more than his shoes. "I should be grateful I don't need to get past you at that lab," he grumbled as he switched the lemonade into his other hand so he could try and shake his other dry.
"You never would." Edward looked away with a smirk that soon sobered into something more thoughtful, "but I'd never help someone like Grand anyway. He'd have wanted to use me like a weapon from the start… you've only ever wanted to keep me safe."
"I'm sure feelings can change on that," Roy muttered as he poked the straw around in his cup in an attempt to see if any lemonade was left after Edward's horribly violent and entirely unprovoked attack on it.
Edward snorted in indignant and wholly disbelieving amusement and gave the slightest roll of his eyes, "You've changed some of your ways since we first met, but I sincerely doubt that you could ever change that."
Roy huffed, but found himself unable to keep from smiling a bit – because he knew Edward was right, he had tried and failed before to rid himself of how he felt for Edward. To say it hadn't gone well was a gross understatement. He was hardly about to make such a fool of himself again. "It makes me happy that you're so proud of that fact," he admitted.
Even though he was uncertain if pride was acceptable to feel given the fact that he, an incorporeal and rather dead being, had somehow caused someone living and vibrant to cast aside the potential for a normal relationship… perhaps he did feel a bit of pride, admittedly. Edward looked away, back to the animals with the slightest of fond smiles. "You've made everything worth it," he confessed quietly.
Roy frowned for only a moment before he understood just how wholly Edward meant everything, and he let out a low breath of content as he followed Edward's gaze. "So have you."
Edward's smile grew at the softly-spoken comment, and somehow only felt his love for the man flare fiercer in his chest. It may have seemed a throwaway comment coming from anyone else, but not to him. Edward knew just how much Roy meant those words.
"You know," Roy said at length, after having drunk some of what remained of his brutally assaulted lemonade, "given time we may yet give Maes and Gracia a run for their money on sappiest couple."
A snort escaped Edward, and he shot Roy an amused glare. "If it's that important, just claim to him that we are. He can't see me, so he can't exactly deny anything." And as Roy chuckled softly beside him, he rolled his eyes and turned, dropping to the ground in order to begin walking off in a direction he'd not seen yet, "come on. I need your eyes."
Roy smiled and obediently turned about, catching up with the ghost quick enough.
They walked side-by-side for a time, making their way unhurriedly to the next of the enclosures. Something that was, as usual, taking them quite a bit of time given how much space each of the enclosures was. By the time they finally came upon the telltale signage indicating they'd reached a new animal, Roy had finished what was left of his lemonade, and detoured briefly for the trash bin before moving to join the ghost where Edward stood at the railing with an awed expression.
"Roy…" Edward breathed in shameless adoration, "I want one!"
A snicker of a laugh caught in Roy's throat, and he surreptitiously eyed the group of people that had been passing by them until they'd gone far enough off before he muttered in response, "I thought you wanted some of those poison frogs?"
"I do," Edward confirmed matter-of-factly, though the sudden seriousness of his reassurance on that fact did little to diminish the bright gleam in his silver eyes as he watched the red coated, black legged, and white speckled furred animals waddling about. "And one of these too!"
Roy huffed in laughter, and took another quick glance around to assess, given that this was a fairly common exhibit to have more people around, and only once he felt that he was in the clear did he respond. "Red pandas are rather aggressive, it may not try and bite you, but it would me."
"Red panda…" Edward repeated as he still gazed awestruck at the furry creatures, no bigger than large housecats. "That means there are other colors?"
Roy hummed in confirmation, before adding, "yes. They look nothing like this, the name is one of the only similarities. But you'll never see one of the others outside of Xing, or with a Xingese noble of some sort. The black and white ones are much larger, and much more valuable to the Xingese people. These ones are rare, but not as beloved."
"That's absurd," Edward growled in offense for the charmingly adorable creatures gamboling around before him, "I'll take two."
"Gate forbid," Roy muttered and for the first time wished he could touch Edward not for the obvious desires to, but to be able to physically pull him away.
A smile darted across Edward's lips and he finally peeled his gaze from where three of the red pandas had engaged in a playful wrestling match, and turned his attention onto Roy. "The Gate and I don't really see eye-to-eye, I'm afraid it won't take your side when it comes to dealing with me."
"Honestly?" Roy let out the barest of sighed breaths as he watched the red pandas almost unseeingly, "if it ever tries to touch you again, it'll have me to deal with."
Edward couldn't help but smile, yet did not give voice to his gladness that only his father – that he knew of – knew how to get to the Gate. At least, without the roundabout process that Edward had utilized to invoke its wrath.
"Let's just call it fair and I buy you a pony in about a decade." Roy determined, smiling faintly as Edward laughed beside him with a carefree lightness that honestly, he could listen to for hours.
They watched the red pandas together for a time, Edward unabashedly delighted with their antics, and Roy unabashedly watching them and the ghost beside him in turn. Only when it seemed that the playful creatures were about to cozy up for a nap did they wander away.
The next destination Edward found, Roy really couldn't be surprised that the ghost was practically over the moon. He knew that Edward adored animals, it was almost the entire reason that Roy had brought him here, after all. So he could hardly object when the ghost went bounding through the air at the sight of a little petting area for the children to be able to pet and interact with smaller, safer animals.
Roy ended up leaning sideways against a tree, watching contently as Edward milled around the goats, fawns, chickens, and overweight rabbits. He was hardly about to go in and get his clothes nibbled by opportunistic goats, and with the way the animals were congregating around the presence they could sense but not see nor smell, there was no reasonable way he'd be able to get close to Edward at this point.
So he watched and patiently waited, while at the same time doing his best to not attract attention to himself for seemingly happily staring at an area full of children.
He felt it was going well, all the same, he was still happy when Edward finally returned to him. He knew with just a glance at the shining silver eyes and the unreserved happiness on the ghost's face to know that Edward had enjoyed himself, he still couldn't help but ask as they turned to leave the area, "did you have fun?"
Edward promptly began to regal Roy with all of the excited details of being the center of attention for a great many animals, Roy listening contently at his side as they walked in search of the next exhibit.
They toured for another few hours, until Roy began to get hungry for lunch, and only then did they take a break in the shade of an out-of-the-way grouping of trees nearby an exhibit of lemurs that few people ever seemed to view.
"I can't believe how much that cost you," Edward remarked, unimpressed, as he stared at the sandwich and bag of apple slices on the paper plate that Roy balanced on one knee.
"It's highway robbery," Roy agreed in between bites of apple, "but, I wasn't about to cut our visit short. And I still have to take you to the gift shop."
Edward's eyebrows rose in mild amusement but curiosity glinted in his eyes, "I will hazard a guess that they don't sell live animals there."
A snort issued from him, and Roy shook his head faintly, "but if there is something that you want in there, I'll buy it for you."
"Not after buying that lunch you're not!" Edward declared with laughter.
A smattering of laughter escaped Roy, but his mind was unchanged. Even if he chose not to argue it with Edward. Maybe one day he'd sit the ghost down and explain his personal finances, but he was hardly going to do so today.
After Roy finished his lunch, they resumed their tour of the zoo until Edward noticed that not only was it getting on towards late afternoon, but that Roy was starting to slow.
"Leg?" Edward asked with concern as he floated around in front of Roy, causing the man to stop dead in his tracks and cause several other patrons that had been following them a bit closely to curse and dart around them.
Neither Roy nor Edward paid them any mind.
Roy waited until he could see no one nearby before meeting Edward's concerned gaze and nodding once. "It's just sore." It had been the worst of his injuries, and while up to this point he'd been doing infinitely better, it wasn't surprising to him that the worst of it was now causing him some discomfort after walking around for the better part of the day.
Edward gave him a soft smile and brought a hand up to rest it just through Roy's chest, "will you take me to the gift shop now?"
Roy knew exactly what Edward was doing, and he was equally flattered as much as he was willing to be stubborn about this, but when Edward looked at him like that? He couldn't imagine denying the spirit anything. "This way," he agreed, and as Edward fell in beside him again, he led them off.
Presently they came to a building near where Roy had purchased his ticket, and Edward found himself in a veritable sea of novelty clothing, hats, backpacks, books, stuffed animals, and countless other gadgets and toys which were all but thrown on top of each other in semi-organized displays.
"This is," Edward paused to take it all in before declaring approvingly, "chaos!"
Roy snorted at the rather apt description, although he was hard-pressed to approve of it the way Edward did. There were just too many memories of trying to help Maes and Gracia keep track of an overexcited toddler in this security nightmare.
Luckily, he thought, as Edward zipped off through the air, keeping track of his lover should prove far easier. And when confirmation came in the form of a delighted shout for Roy to "come and see this," he couldn't help but laugh faintly and grab a shopping basket from the pile beside the door and ease himself into the crush of other patrons.
They left some time later with Roy carrying under one arm a large stuffed red panda that Edward's voice insisted he didn't want even as the silver eyes shone with longing, and in his other hand he held the handles of a shopping bag filled with all the other little odds and ends that Edward had poorly attempted to convince him were unnecessary.
Of course they were unnecessary.
What was necessary, was the way Edward had tried to hide how touched he was when Roy had bought everything against protest.
Roy didn't say anything to it until they were both back in the sedan, the gift shop bag in the backseat and the large stuffed red panda sat in Edward's lap with the ghost's arms wrapped around it tightly. "Are you going to name it?"
Edward smiled into the stuffed red panda that he squeezed in his arms, a distant part of him pretending he could feel its softness. "Don't be silly."
Roy chuckled as he shifted the sedan into gear, and began to drive them out of the lot.
"Her name is Garnet," Edward informed him loftily, "it says so on her tag."
Roy nodded emphatically even as he tried not to outright grin.
"Thank you," Edward told him then in a soft voice, tilting his head sideways in order to smile up at Roy.
Roy lost his battle against grinning, although it soon softened to what he was sure was an utterly smitten smile as out of the corner of his eye he saw Edward curl back in around the stuffed animal. Guiding the sedan out onto one of the main roads, heading them for home, his thoughts drifted to the fight he'd soon have on his hands, the worry he knew it would cause Edward, and couldn't find a single ounce of himself that could possibly regret the smile on Edward's face in this moment.