This one is pretty short compared to my last one hahahaha... TBH I finished it ten minutes ago with two hours left of day 5 on the clock so yeah... Anyways, I'm a hoe for royalty AUs so here's my contribution to that lovely mess!


Once Upon a Time, there was a large kingdom.

All across the land, the royal family of the Mustang regime was known to live life to the utmost standards of grandeur. The King and Queen had one son, Roy, whom they treasured with their lives. Roy loved his parents dearly, but no dearest parental love can merit the lack of secrets. The teenage prince had a secret he would keep from the king and queen with his very life, for if the secret were uncovered the royal family would have no living heir.

There were secrets he confided with his cousin Maes, including but not limited to: he hated long ceremonies filled with frumpy old men, he was, in fact, the one who slipped the rat into Riza's boot that one time, and that the aforementioned chambermaid scared the living hell out of him. Roy's biggest secret, however, he kept only to himself.

Just because he hadn't told anyone this secret by no means meant nobody knew, however. In fact, exactly one other person knew this secret, namely because he was the secret. Or rather, the entirely-sexual-and-definitely-not-emotional-but-actually-kinda-emotional relationship between Roy and the stable boy, Edward, was a strict secret.

It had started when the prince had gone out on a leisurely ride in the woods.

As was customary for the stable boy of a prince's horse, Edward had tagged along behind on a horse of lesser breed than Roy's own. A torrential rain had hit them in a valley east of the castle, so Roy decided to wait it out in a small alcove built for archery. With their horses tethered close under the thick forestry behind the covered platform, the teenagers sat beside one another, both drenched from the downpour.

"How long do you think the rain will last?" Roy asked nonchalantly, "I have schooling come dusk."

Edward rolled his eyes, "No damn clue, 'highness, or else I'd tell you and we wouldn't be out here. I have things to do too, ya know." The blonde pulled at his woolen tunic sleeve disdainfully.

Roy smiled. Whilst his father may think it offensive, Roy liked Edward's rash attitude. It felt more genuine than the stiff formality of the other servants, save Riza. His smile faltered a tad as he noticed slight tremors in Ed's hands. He was shivering. Personally, Roy felt quite hot in such close proximity to Edward, so he was glad to shed his cotton riding-coat and drop it unceremoniously around Ed's shoulders.

The blonde jumped, startled by the sudden feeling of warmth on his back. Realizing what the prince had just done, he glared up at the other, tugging the coat further around his body.

Roy smirked, "You were shivering."

Ed pouted, "It's just that my metal limbs get a lot colder than the skin ones and give me chills. Now you'll be cold, and my punishment for you getting sick will be much worse than if I get sick."

"I'll tell them I gave you my coat." Roy shrugged.

Ed quirked an eyebrow, "How do you think they'll interpret that one? I'm the lowly peasant, I should be the one taking my clothes off for you."

There was a small silence where Ed realized how exactly that might have sounded, and turned an adorable shade of beet red. Roy laughed loudly.

"You'd strip for me, Ed? How loyal you are!" Roy said through bursts of laughter.

Ed looked away from the amused royal, hands clenched tightly around the large coat, "Shut the fuck up! You know I didn't mean it like that!"

"Why not?" Roy asked, silencing his companion.

"…What?" Ed turned back to look at Roy in the face. He looked contemplative, rather than joking, which confused him.

Roy met his gaze, "Why shouldn't you?"

Ed's blush spread, heating up his belly and making the large coat feel incredibly uncomfortable, "W-well, we're both men- I'd be killed were we found out, you probably would be too."

"Nobody's out here." Roy commented, moving a hair lower towards Ed's face, "We wouldn't be found out."

Ed's voice grew breathy the closer Roy drew, "They'll come looking."

Roy smiled, his voice uncharacteristically low, "No they won't." Ed would deny it, but the tone made him throw away his inhibitions and meet Roy's mouth as it kept nearing his.

Their lips were damp from the rain but hot against one another. The cheek that Roy brought his hand up to cup felt equally so. Feeling bold from Roy's reciprocating touch, Ed ran his tongue along the bottom of Roy's lip. Roy readily let the kiss deepen, pushing his tongue past Ed's chapped lips and around the wet heat of his mouth.

Ed wasn't able to hide a quiet groan, the new sensation sending bursts of feeling down his body. He wrapped his arms around Roy's neck, turning to sit on Roy's lap for better leverage. Roy moved his hands to the back of Ed's head and waist, pulling the younger teen flush with him.

As they made out, the rain seemed to pick up, pelting the roof of the shack relentlessly. They didn't get any further than just kissing on that day, for the rain soon cleared and their horses had grown impatient enough that they were making frustrated noises.

Roy stopped the kiss, poking Ed lightly on the nose with a grin, "We should probably continue this later, yeah?"

"Yeah," the stableboy replied, shrugging off Roy's jacket and handing it back to him, "I probably should arrive back at the palace wearing your shit."

The prince laughed as Ed awkwardly stood from his lap, "You're blushing."

Out of sheer adherence to Roy's title, Ed refrained from snapping back that he was also blushing violently, "I'll ready the horses." He stepped out of the archery stand, not altogether excited about the long, wet journey back to his workplace.


So, obviously, this secret was a strictly between Ed and Roy… as well as maybe Ed's younger brother.

"He kissed my face, Al!" Ed exclaimed inside the small cabin he and his brother owned just outside the town's gates.

Al had been startled when Ed nearly kicked the door in, hours after his rendezvous in the forest, with a red face and confliction written across his features. He had been even more startled when he found out why his brother looked so out-of-character.

"Okay yes, you've told me this several times already, Brother. What did you do when he kissed you?" Al asked, attempting feebly to assuage the situation. The cabin had been leaking since the rain, and the youngest Elric brother was already frustrated with the fire that refused to burn hot enough to boil the stew. He absolutely did not want Ed to leave him hanging on this turn of events.

Ed threw his hands up, "What the hell was I supposed to do? I would much prefer making out with him than being flogged, thank you."

"You're being dramatic, Ed. You know what you two did is just as dangerous for him as it is for you." Al reasoned

Ed paused, letting his hands fall from the air, "Yeah, I guess so."

"So…" Al started as he threw a tragically damp log into the smoldering fire, "How was it?"

Ed flushed, "I'm not talking about this with you."

"Was it that bad? Oh my God, was he unimpressed?" Al asked, unsure whether to laugh or be sympathetic.

"Wha-NO! Why would you assume I'm the bad one?" Ed shrieked, feeling about ready to go outside and drown himself in the village cesspool.

"So he was bad?" Al prodded.

"No, he was grea- wait, why am I telling you this?" Ed groaned and planted his face into his arms folded atop their small, rickety table.

Al laughed, "I'll go get some more firewood and let you die in peace."

"Thanks." Came Ed's mumbled reply as Al left the tiny room, closing door tight behind him.


About a month had passed, and Roy had found opportunities to spend time with his stable boy almost every day, most of these consisted of them riding out somewhere and finding a niche or cove in which to share quick, passionate kisses.

With these adventures came a lot of time spent talking and generally associating with Ed. Roy began to know him much better than as a prince and stable boy should probably know one another.

He knew that Ed only refused to live in the castle because he had to look after his younger brother, and that Ed had lost his limbs in a farmer's dispute-gone-wrong in the marketplace, and that the only reason he was lucky enough to get metal replacements was because his close cousin was the automail mechanic for the castle, Winry Rockbell. Ed had also explained that this connection had landed him his current job.

Roy knew beforehand that Ed could be brash, but he hadn't expected just how brash and sarcastic he really was. To Roy, this upfront attitude was almost a breath of fresh air from the formality he received from his peers on a regular basis. It made him enjoy the blonde's company all the more.

Considering how routine being with Ed had become, Roy was more than slightly taken aback when, on a particularly cold afternoon, the stableboy was nowhere to be found.

The stable-master, the butcher's temperamental wife Izumi, curtsied unemotionally and told Roy that the younger teen had felt ill the previous night and was probably not going to be at the stables for a while.

So, donning a commoner's tunic and cloak Riza had bought him (because he tended to attract too much attention when he came to visit her home in the market), Roy set solitarily on Ed's horse to the wintry fields outside the village gates. The cabin Izumi had described sat roughly one hundred meters from the frozen-over cesspool (Roy could only imagine the smell the pool emitted during the summertime). The hut's wooden walls almost seemed to quiver with the chilling wind.

A boy who looked a few years younger than Ed answered the door. Roy guessed this was Al, Ed's brother.

Al stood in the doorway for a moment before he gasped, "Wha- Your Highness?"

Roy sighed, "Was I that obvious?"

"U-um, not at all! You just look like Brother's descriptions." Al squeaked, "Come in!"

Roy thanked the boy and briefly observed his surroundings by the light of two windows to the left and right of him respectively. The entire place was a most eighteen square feet all around, but a rickety table in the very middle, papers and candles strewn about it. A chimney's fire crackled across from Roy, over which a large pot boiled, from what Roy could smell, with stew. Beside the fireplace, a sleeping pad of sorts took up the entire space between wall and table.

"Did you come for Ed? Pardon my upfrontness, prince, but he is in absolutely no shape-" Al stopped when Roy held up a finger.

"I'm not here to make your brother work, Alphonse, I was just worried for him." Roy explained.

"Don't be," Came a raspy reply from the sleeping pad, "It's not your- cough- problem to be worried about. Go make out with some other servant while I'm away."

After a nod from Al, Roy moved to sit cross-legged beside Ed's curled form, "You know I don't want to do that. Plus, if I kissed Riza I'd probably die a crueler death than what even the executioner could bear."

From the pillow-end the bundle of scratchy blankets and limbs Ed's blotchy and tired face popped out, "You're an idiot."

"You're probably right, but I don't really care." Roy replied indignantly, "You look terrible, by the way."

"Thanks, I try." Ed was about to extend his retort when a peal of coughs wracked his body, "Damn, I hate this. You should probably go, Roy, I don't want to make you sick. Remember what I've told you; I'll probably be punished if I get you sick."

"Not if nobody finds out," Roy shot back. He turned to Al, who had been tending to the soup and pointedly distancing himself from the couple's conversation, "Hey, Alphonse?"

Ed's brother turned and placed his stirring spoon beside the fireplace, "Just Al, please. What is it?"

"Could I perhaps borrow some ink and parchment?" Roy asked.

"Of course!" The younger chirped, whilst Ed added a grumbled, "You're paying us back, though. Those are precious resources."

"Ed!" Al yelped, "He's the prince!"

"A prince who's not getting any action once he pays me back, even if I'm not sick when the time comes." Ed grumbled, "Got that, fancypants?"

"Loud and clear," Roy laughed. He hastily jotted his note onto the sheet, excusing himself briefly to secure it to the saddle of Ed's horse. With a slap on the backside, the horse began to gallop back towards the castle (as royal horses were trained to do) and Roy was back in the cabin, "I should be fine to stay until tomorrow if you'd like the help, Al."

"I'd love that!" Al said back, "Would you like some stew? Ed won't eat much of his."

"Please," Roy accepted the small bowl and crude wooden spoon, set on being useful for once.


Izumi was replacing a stall's hay when he heard the sound of Ed's horse galloping into the barn. It was panting heavily, and her blood froze when she saw no prince on its back.

Dropping the hay, Izumi rushed to the animal's side, desperate for a sign that her carelessness in foregoing a chaperone had resulted in a tragic end of their heir's life. That sign came in the form of a sheet of rolled-up parchment shoved into the satchel on the mare's saddle.

She unrolled it and read:

Izumi,

This is your prince, Roy IV of Amestris. I can confirm that Edward Elric is indeed very sick, and I will be staying with him and his brother overnight to aid in his recovery.

Please don't show this page to the King and Queen- I have in the satchel on the horse's other side a page for them, which is a complete bullshit story to make them not worry, as well as my medallion of royalty to prove that it is I who wrote this message.

Adieu

Izumi breathed a deep sigh of relief and pulled from the horse's other side the aforementioned items. After she tied up her apprentice's horse she would deliver the letter under her prince's orders, she reasoned.

With a small smile Izumi mumbled, "Edward Elric, you're going to cause my death someday," before yanking on the horse's reigns and continuing with her work.

All in the kingdom was peaceful, and Roy's little secret remained so forever after. The End.

[END]