HEY MY LAST TWO CHAPTERS WILL BE LATE SORRY
Roy's face itched. More specifically, the mask that obscured half of his face chafed against his jaw as he talked, and thus his face itched.
Not that he could really complain, though, for as it were, his mask was comparably lighter than many of the men and women populating the sparkling ballroom. For once in his miserable life, Roy found that he couldn't afford a mask so extravagant for the annual military masquerade.
It was astounding that he was actually here, if he were perfectly honest with himself. He wouldn't have even known it was the right time of year had Riza not shown up at his snowy cabin weeks before and demanded he come; the days all seem to blur into one when the only thing for miles is barren snowy wasteland. Roy had agreed to go, but only because he was fairly positive nobody would try to invade at the current height of winter.
He felt a tap on his elbow, and turned to find the aforementioned blonde, eyes and forehead masked in shimmering blue and an uncharacteristic smile gracing the corners of her mouth, "Glad you could make it," She greeted simply.
"Glad I could leave that hellhole for a weekend," Roy murmured back, "Five years its been since I traveled any further than the nearby town for food."
"Your eye hasn't been a trouble?" Riza asked, nodding towards the masked area of his face. Roy had forgone his eye patch in favor of the mask, but visually it didn't make a huge difference- this just itched a bit more.
"I've gotten used to it. Care to dance? I'll have to warn you in advance; I haven't danced since before I lost my depth perception." Roy offered Riza his hand, which she took, and led her to the center of the large ballroom, where couples twirled glitteringly.
Luckily, Roy's muscle memory seemed to be unaffected by time, as he found himself easily maneuvering the steps of each dance smoothly, only occasionally hit by a woman's dress tassel as she swung about or brushing another dancer's back when the temp increased suddenly. As the mass of people began to become vibrant blurs of beads and feathers, Roy caught a glimpse of gold. There was a lot of gold in the room, but only one set of golden eyes that pierced through a mask of tanned, ornately carved leather.
Roy only realized he'd stopped moving when Riza prodded him sharply with her elbow, and several annoyed dancers cursed him. Although he couldn't see her facial featured amazingly, Roy could read the concern that poured Riza's blue eyes like a current. Roy hastily moved them to the edge of the dancing crowd, smiling apologetically at his former subordinate, "I have to go check on something."
"What? Is something wrong?" Riza asked, reaching down to place her fingers at her thigh, where Roy could assume her trusty pistol was strapped.
He shook his head, "No, I just… I need to find someone."
"Okay…" The blonde woman nodded, "Well, I'll go make sure Jean hasn't gotten himself wasted on champagne."
Roy nodded absently, already intent on his curiosity. As Riza melted into the crowd, he began to ponder. Had he really seen golden eyes? Or was he just projecting his wants into the extravagance of his current setting? Was he really that sad and desperate?
He decided to slip through the crowd, keeping a very sharp eye out for the leather mask and golden set of hair and eyes, towards a gigantic stone balcony, whose doors were kept open for the partygoers to admire the expansive gardens of whoever's wealthy family home this was.
He assumed the air was cold for central at this point of winter, but he simply couldn't find the air anything but pleasantly fresh and not violently windy. It wasn't even snowing! Just to feel the chill he once mistook for real cold, Roy shed his jacket, holding it folded under one arm.
The smell of freshly mown lawn hit him as he approached the edge of the balcony, resting his arms against the ornate railing. The stars twinkled above him as populous and vibrant as the dancers behind him. Several glass lanterns hung from hooks along the balcony, shedding light into the otherwise dark nooks not brightened by the flood of ballroom light. He appeared to be the only person on the balcony, he guessed because of the apparent cold.
The golden eyes claimed his mind. How long had it been since he had last seen the gleam of confidence- of total faith in success- that had rested so permanently in those eyes?
Ed would be, what, twenty now? Was it futile to believe he was still alive, as Al so ferociously persisted? After all, they hadn't found a body, and the Rose girl had said that she saw Ed sacrifice himself for Al.
Was it possible, after all this time, Ed had found his way from the gate?
He vaguely heard the sound of footsteps behind him. The steps stopped a few paces away from Roy, and then resumed until they stopped again on his blind side. He was too focused on his thoughts to really care about whoever currently stood beside him.
The dumbfounded, "You gotta be fucking kidding me!" broke Roy from his stupor. He turned around to find Edward Elric's golden eyes burning into him behind the leather mask, "There's no way you're not cold right now."
"Fullmetal." Roy said stupidly, unable to really process the situation.
Ed rolled his eyes, pushing the mask to the top of his head, "No shit- took you long enough to see me, I've been standing here for like five minutes." He looked older, unsurprisingly, but seemed to have maintained his small frame.
"Y-you're standing in my blind spot," Roy momentarily flipped up his own mask in explanation, exposing the rough scarring that now replaced his left eye, "Where the hell've you been? It's pretty rude to up and leave everyone worrying about you for nearly five and a half years, you know."
The blonde looked off to the side, resting his arms against the railing as Roy had previously, done, "I was in another world- on the other side of the gate. Alchemy wasn't a thing there, so it took a bit of creativity to find a way back."
"Another world?" Roy repeated, "What kind of world was it?"
Ed paused to think, "It was like… the same, but… I don't know, not?" Roy must have looked incredibly confused, for Ed slid a hand down his face and elaborated, "It's a lot. The people there were the same people as there are here, like everybody has a doppelganger from this world in that one, but they were all… off, like something wasn't clicking to make them just like the people here- FUCK, it's cold."
"Inside, then." Roy suggested.
"Yeah," Ed agreed.
They left the balcony to seep in the nighttime darkness. The air back inside was much nicer, but the noise was obscene. Ed led Roy to a cluster of tables, one of which was empty in the very back corner of the room. He had pushed his mask back down over his face, as was the dress code of the night.
They sat in silence for a minute, Ed with a conflicted look on what Roy could see of his face, "…There was- I mean- I met you there. Like, your other version."
Roy raised an eyebrow, "Oh?" He hadn't expected Ed to tell him something so specific.
"Yeah, we were, uh… friends," Ed explained, a blush poking out from under his brown mask that made Roy question Ed's use of 'friend', "Every bit as stupid as you, but he was more… naïve, I guess."
"How do you mean?" Roy asked, choosing to ignore the 'stupid' comment.
Ed sighed, "I don't know, I guess it was just because he's like my age there? I guess I've always been closer to adults than people my own age, so a lot of my peers in Germany just seemed so naïve, especially with that Roy. I couldn't help comparing him. Same thing with Al's double; I saw him and could only see how much he wasn't Al," Ed frowned, but quickly snapped out of his stupor with a change of topic, "How'd your eye go?"
It was Roy's turn to sigh, "Archer's bullet got me after I was done at Bradley's mansion the night you left. As you can imagine, I was demoted to Enlisted Man as soon as I came to, and I've been cooped up in a cabin up north freezing my ass off ever since. This is actually my first night away from that shit shack in five years."
"And you were about to spend it alone on a freezing balcony." Ed snarked, crossing his arms.
Roy laughed, "Trust me, the outside here is like a fresh spring morning compared to my post right now."
"...That's my fault, isn't it? I made you go kill Bradley." Ed asked tentatively.
"Ed, I wouldn't have gone if I didn't think it was the right thing to do. I chose the outpost over one in Central, you know, because if I stayed here it could only remind me that I was bleeding out when I could have been down there helping you. Maybe you wouldn't have had to sacrifice yourself then." Roy explained, doing his best to keep eye contact with the young blonde, even if he wanted to look away out of embarrassment. He hadn't had to face people and emotions for five years, and the fast refresher was like lemon juice in a wound.
Roy stood, raising a confused and slightly disappointed look form Ed, "You know, I didn't travel hours from my post for the first time in half a decade to attend a masquerade ball and not dance."
Ed realized what Roy was hinting at and shook his head violently, "Not a damn chance, Mustang. I can't dance for shit."
"And I don't have depth perception. We'll be the perfect annoyance to the higher-ups out there."
"You danced pretty well with Lieutenant Hawkeye," Ed retorted.
"She's one of the best dancers I know; it'd be extremely hard to look bad dancing with her," Roy replied, "Were you watching me dance?"
Ed blushed, "N-Not like- I just saw- don't make this fucking weird! You know what? Yeah, lets go dance," Ed stood hastily and grabbed Roy's arm whilst the older man laughed at him.
They moved into the throng of dancers in between songs so they were able to somewhat gain their bearings when the next tune began. Ed wasn't a bad dancer. In fact, he was surprisingly good, if not a bit uncomfortable, but that all really came down to experience.
The dances grew longer, and they all began to blur into one, with he and Ed following the steps of the crowd the whole while and laughing at each other when they messed up.
Roy didn't really know how it happened, but he and Ed were dancing in the ballroom at one point, and then somehow found their way back onto the deserted balcony, and then he was kissing Ed against a wall. The music's orderly and elegant tempo hardly matched the pace of their kiss- on Ed's part it was almost desperate, whilst on Roy's it was astounding relief.
Later, they would have to talk, and Roy would probably have to ask Ed exactly how close he and this 'other Roy' were to each other. They may just hook up for a night, or allow their feeling to flourish into something more.
But that could come later.
{END}
