A/N: Okay, I'm not dead yet. Just incredibly busy. Real life sorta decided I'd be good even with ketchup and ate me. XD I'm back now though! Updates might be a bit slower, but I have several chapters handwritten and it's really just a matter of typing them and giving them a quick edit. I think it'd be faster if I had a beta though. XD Oh well. I can't wait to really get into the meat of the story, but that's later. ^_^ Sorry for disappearing on ya'll! I kinda did it to everyone for a while there, except work of course. Lol!
Thank you to Amethyst-eyed Koneko, thunder arrow alchemist, Sisyphean Effort, catxmelons, XxNami20xX, GreyMoth, and Trumpet-Geek! I'm sorry I haven't been able to answer your reviews. I sorta disappeared from the net for a little while there. I'm glad you all enjoyed the story so far though!
Amethyst-eyed Koneko: I'm glad you enjoyed those lines. I had a ton of fun writing those parts. I love sap, even if I also love throwing in angst. It just makes the sap all the sweeter I think! Hopefully you'll enjoy what's coming up equally as well. Particularly the scenes from the end of Chapters 7 and 8. *grins evilly*
Sisyphean Effort: *bows to* Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! I hope you enjoy this chapter and future chapters just as much!
GreyMoth: I hope you enjoy future chapters as well! I love constructive criticism, as I said before. It always helps me improve my writing, and it means someone cared enough to say something. ^_^ So don't feel like a bully. Please! ^_^
Trumpet-Geek: I'm glad you enjoyed the story! The letter is actually a major part of the story, you just don't find out how much until almost the end. Let's just say, though, that without the letter at the start of the fic, there'd be no fic. ^_^
As always, I hope everyone enjoys!!
Chapter 5
Unsurprisingly, Roy woke first the next day. He pushed himself up in the bed, glaring blearily at the bright morning light streaming in through the window. Then he looked down at the bed again, his mind pondering the wisdom of trying to sleep a little longer before being caught up in fascination at the sight he found curled into the white sheets.
Ed was half uncovered by the blanket and splayed out on his back beside Roy. His golden hair and skin tones blended with the sunshine to take on a nearly ethereal glow. Even the strip of flesh where his shirt had ridden up over his stomach seemed to emit a soft, bewitching beauty. Ed's face, smoothed clean of all his usual abrasive attitude, was soft and open. Like this, Ed wasn't simply attractive or handsome—he was beautiful. He looked young and far too innocent and pretty to be in the bed of Roy Mustang.
Roy tore his eyes away and, scowling, climbed out of bed. Feeling thoroughly disgusted with himself, he made his way quickly into the bathroom and locked himself in.
He had never been attracted to a younger man before. And he definitely wasn't attracted to his subordinates! He had never allowed himself to be! What was going on here?
Roy began his normal morning rituals on automatic, using the routine to school his whirling thoughts into something more manageable. Possibility after possibility presented itself for consideration, but most of Roy's ideas could be tossed aside immediately. He was not attracted to his subordinates and he had not been attracted to Edward before this mission had started. Granted, he had noticed the boy was growing into a desirable young man, at least in physical terms, and he did have to admire the boy's genius and talent, but that was all a far cry from wanting anything more than a possible discussion about alchemy.
Then a thought struck him. Roy's toothbrush clattered into the sink unnoticed as he stared unseeing into his own dark eyes in the mirror, his mind splintering under the weight of his realization.
They had hardly any information on the surviving spouses of the victims. There was nothing to say that both men had not been dosed with whatever concoction the killer had created, only that he lost interest after killing the younger of the couple.
Had they already been targeted? Had he, Roy, already been dosed, and his leave of senses on seeing Ed this morning a direct result of that?
Leaning into the mirror, Roy examined his unshaven features. Did he look any different? Feel any different besides that thing this morning?
There was nothing he could detect…
He frowned and looked over at the door.
Was Ed's sleeplessness last night only a result of his worry and missing his brother?
Roy was out of the bathroom almost before he'd managed to even think of what he was doing. After that, he was standing next to the bed beside Ed, staring down suspiciously at the oblivious blond.
There didn't seem to be anything obviously wrong with him either, but Roy doubted that truly meant anything. No one had noticed anything wrong before either, and they actually had been lovers.
"Ed," he said, giving the sleeping boy a rough shake. "Ed! Wake up. Wake up, Ed!"
"Mmmnnn…" Ed moaned as he stirred awake, batting at the unwelcome hand on his shoulder. He stretched his lithe, golden form, somehow making his muscles ripple beneath his skin before his eyes blinked sleepily open. Ed blinked for a moment before his sleep-hazed eyes finally moved to settle on Roy.
"Wha' is't? I wazz havin' a goo' dream…"
Roy nearly chuckled at his sleep-drenched tone.
"How do you feel, Ed? Do you feel any different than usual?" Roy made sure to emphasize "any" in his question, not wanting Ed to leave something out just because it was minor.
Ed's eyes narrowed in irritation that was just barely tempered by his lingering lethargy.
"Besides being sleepy, you mean? It's too early for this…"
"It's after nine, Ed," Roy told him after a glance at the clock. "Time to get up. Are you always like this in the morning?"
"Are you?" Ed shot a glare at him that was as dark as he could manage still. "Al usually dumps water on me if I don't get up when he wants me to. You'd better not even think of doing that though!"
Roy chuckled at that image and shook his head. He'd really hate to wind up skewered by his supposed lover. Though he supposed it would solve a problem or two with their mission…
"I won't dump water on you, but I might light a fire under you if you don't get moving."
"You wouldn't!"
Ed's eyes had flown wide at the suggestion and he stared incredulously, and fully awake, at Roy.
Shrugging, Roy gave him a mischievous grin that faded after a moment into his more serious colonel's mask.
"Besides tired, do you feel anything out of the ordinary?"
"No," Ed growled. "Wanting to bash your head in is perfectly normal for me!"
Roy shook his head, a small smile making itself known again. He should have known Ed wouldn't be a morning person.
"I'm going to finish in the bathroom."
He left Ed grumbling on the bed, his smile fading away once more as the door shut behind him.
If Ed was feeling fine, then why was he thinking such strange thoughts? It was always the younger of the couple that was drugged, regardless of their relationship's dynamic. In fact, for one couple, the only time the victim had ever wanted to bottom was during the time he was being drugged.
So why was Roy experiencing this and not Ed? Could Roy have just been being observant?
No… That wasn't it…
Could it be that the older of the two was being drugged by himself before the younger was as well?
They'd need more information before he could say whether or not that was true, but it did seem like the best theory so far.
Roy finished in the bathroom and left, allowing Ed to dart in with barely a nod. He got dressed slowly, his mind going over all the information they had so far and beginning to catalogue the questions they would need to ask the victims' husbands. Finally, he sat down on the bed and pulled out his notebook and pen.
By the time Ed emerged from the bathroom, Roy had written more than a dozen questions and was in the process of double checking the file and their notes to be sure they hadn't already been answered. He was finding that the files combined with his new idea actually brought up more new questions rather than answering any.
"Ready for breakfast?"
Not even glancing up from his work, Roy answered distractedly, "Perhaps in a little bit. Why don't you call down for room service so we can stay together? Be sure to test the food though."
"Why? And why do we have to eat in here?" Ed sounded both slightly concerned and annoyed somehow.
"I'm working, Ed," Roy told him as he flipped a page in his notebook and jotted down another question.
"Can't you do that later? It's not like you ever do your work on time anyway."
"No," Roy snapped, harsher than he'd meant to. He softened his voice. "Just order in this morning. And act like you're a little…sore."
"Sore? Why should I act like I'm hurt?"
Roy stopped reading over his current page in the file and glanced back at Ed in surprise.
Ed blinked at him for a moment before a light blush colored his cheekbones and he averted his eyes.
Snickering, Roy returned to his papers.
"I'll just go by my—"
"No!" Roy startled himself at his exclamation. He lowered his voice slightly. "No. Stay close to me. We went over this last night."
Ed gave a small growl, but nodded anyway, much to Roy's relief. He listened as Ed called down for breakfast before returning again to his papers.
The food arrived a short while later, just in time for Roy to finish writing down the majority of his questions. He had managed to find a few answers in the files, but even then, new questions would arise and the really big ones were never even hinted at. Roy frowned at the file in his hand, not liking what that said about their investigation one iota.
"There's almost nothing here to suggest the investigators even thought about both partners possibly being drugged or experimented on," he said as Ed looked over the food.
He stood and moved to grab a cheese danish from a tray piled high with them. Ed scowled at the offending pastry, but stuck to his apple one.
"Why? You think our suspect might have been drugging them both?" Ed looked up, pinning Roy under a hard stare that Roy thought might be seeing just a little too much. It was as if that gold stare was searching his soul almost, it dug so deep. "Does this have anything to do with this morning? Do you think they might have gotten to you?"
"I think," Roy said slowly and succinctly, trying to push down his own guilty response, "that it makes sense. We know too little to discount the possibility. Drugging both might help ensure the experiment's success. It's a possibility we at least need to look into. I've been writing up my own questions on the case. Next I'm going to write up some for the official investigators," Ed snorted derisively at this, "to ask the victims' husbands. You should try to think of a few as well. They're all we have for witnesses now."
Ed nodded, but his stare didn't leave Roy. "You never answered my question."
Roy met Ed's eyes for a long moment, and then turned to make himself a cup of coffee. He took both it and his danish over to the hotel room's desk where he immediately set to writing. There was a small frustrated sound from Ed behind him before he heard the rustle of the other following suit. They spent the rest of the morning deep in their work.
The man really is a bumbling idiot, Roy thought as he sat in the special wardrobe Ed had transmuted for them to surreptitiously watch the interviews from.
Roy watched as Cranning and the town's sheriff, Sheriff Tisdale, asked the new questions he and Ed had come up with. Unfortunately, as he watched, Roy was also coming to understand just how this killer had managed to elude all attempts at capture.
Mayor Cranning wasn't just a bumbling fool, he was also an incorrigible gossip as well. So far he hadn't given anything too important away, like Ed and Roy's presence, but given the amount of nervous energy he exuded, Roy knew that was probably simply because he had been threatened with crispy friedness if he did along with the fact that Roy was behind him watching and ready to act on said threat.
Roy glanced over at Ed and noticed the ever-present scowl on his shadowed features. He was just as annoyed at the incompetent mayor as Roy was, which only served to make Roy more nervous. He hoped Ed wouldn't explode prematurely. It had been hard enough getting into the office without being seen in the first place, giving it all away now would be wasteful and just plain stupid.
Sheriff Tisdale, on other hand, seemed to be quite competent. In fact, every time he shot Cranning a scowl, Roy found himself liking the man even more. If Hawkeye's investigations into the man turned up clean, then perhaps he would bring the man more fully into the picture and push Cranning out into the outskirts. He would right then, but they'd been given absolutely no information on the man at all so far, and Roy didn't like to take chances like that.
"What about you?" Roy focused back in on the conversation in the room, ignoring the soft rustle of Ed sitting forward to do the same. "Did you experience any kind of strange symptoms?"
The man, who looked just slightly older than Roy himself, seemed shocked at the question as Cranning stammered out, "Sh-Sheriff! Perhaps you could phrase that a little more carefully?"
Tisdale barely spared Cranning an irritated look as he watched the man in front of him obviously begin to consider the question. The poor man himself looked as though he were ready to be sick.
"M-m-maybe… I felt so…overprotective in those last days, like I couldn't stand for Hugh to leave my sight for an instant." The man looked down at his lap with an expression of total misery. "He'd get so mad at me those last couple of weeks, but it just made it worse because he'd start crying. I hated seeing it. He'd never cried before…"
"When did this over-protectiveness start?"
"About a week or so after we got here. But it was right after we arrived that that other boy died, so I could be wrong. Perhaps I was just nervous about his safety? For good reason…"
Roy felt his heart sink like lead laced with acid into his stomach as Cranning nodded and soothed in a pathetic voice that was meant to be sympathetic, "Yes, yes. Quite right. These events are enough to put anyone on edge. Right, Sheriff?"
"One last question," Tisdale said, gruffly ignoring the mayor. "Did your food or drink ever taste any differently?"
The man seemed to think for a moment before shaking his head. "No, but we both loved eating at the inn's pub. The food was delicious there. But nothing tastes right now, so I haven't been back since."
Tisdale nodded, and Roy looked back at Ed again while the mayor and sheriff began winding up the interview.
Ed stared fixedly at the witness, his lips pursed in concentration. The light that shafted into their little hiding place caught in his eyelashes and in his hair, making them both appear to glow in the dark space. What skin Roy could see and Ed's eyes seemed to shine with the same ethereal light that almost seemed to emanate from within the other, despite Roy knowing it was simply a trick of his own senses. The sight and the twisting it gave Roy's stomach strengthened Roy's resolve to find whoever was doing this and put a stop to it.
Preferably before it destroyed his sanity.
Leaning back in his cramped seat, Roy pulled out his notebook and shifted to bring it into the light. He quickly jotted down a few notes and thoughts using the pen he kept clipped to the wire binding and ignored Ed as the other leaned in to read what he was writing. It was harder to ignore him than usual, though. Had Ed always smelled that good, Roy wondered?
Frowning, he kept that thought to himself and looked up in time to watch the sheriff admit another man into the room for questioning.
The next couple of hours didn't exactly crawl by as they listened to the startlingly similar testimony of the surviving partners of the victims, but they didn't exactly fly past either. One after another, their stories were told in voices that were choked with grief and disbelief. Questions and answers were exchanged along with the constant annoying commentary of Mayor Cranning. The Sheriff added in a few more questions to cater to the slight variations of each individual's story—questions which were so pointed and well directed that Roy wondered if the man might not be an alchemist himself, if not simply a rather experienced detective when it came to alchemy. Either way, by the time they were interviewing the final witness, ideas and theories were flying through Roy's mind once more, trying to take root and shape there.
With the questions finally answered and the final man shown the door, Roy sat back in his seat to scribble down a few more of his thoughts. He nearly snorted at Cranning's obvious and pathetic attempts to rush Tisdale out of his office. If the man didn't seem to be normally this moronic, Roy might have actually been worried. As it was, he figured they should be safe. Who would suspect an idiot for being an idiot?
It wasn't until Tisdale growled a question to Cranning that Roy's head snapped up from his notes, bringing his attention firmly and fully back into the room.
"I know you'd prefer to play tonight, but when are those investigators from the military going to arrive? I should know—"
"They were already here," Cranning nearly squeaked.
Tisdale's eyes narrowed in a glare at Cranning. The other man's face drained to white and he swallowed hard.
"I had wondered how you had come up with such good questions. When did they get in? Where are they staying? Since you haven't seen fit to introduce me, I'll just have to take a trip out to meet them myself."
Cranning swallowed visibly as he backed around behind his desk, placing it between himself and his fuming sheriff. He nearly fell into his seat when the back of his legs hit the chair's edge and he gripped the desk hard to keep from tipping over backwards.
"They've already left," he finally replied in a frantic voice after he'd righted himself. He coughed a little, obviously trying to regain control of himself. "They just stopped in to see me, since I am the mayor, and to drop off their questions. They had…something else to take care of, but they said they'll be back soon."
"I'm sure," Tisdale said, sounding anything but convinced. "Don't forget to let me know when they are back. You may be mayor, but I'm the sheriff and I want to meet with these so-called investigators." His final words dripped with the same disdain that practically radiated from every look he shot Cranning.
Tisdale glanced over at the wardrobe and snorted before snapping an about-face that would have made any military officer proud.
"Nice wardrobe," he threw over his shoulder as he prowled over to the door. "Don't forget, Cranning. And don't forget that other either."
Roy's eyebrows flew high as Tisdale disappeared through the door. The click of it closing in its sturdy wooden frame seemed to echo in Roy's ears for a moment, and then Ed was pushing the door open and spilling out onto the floor in a gold and black heap.
Clipping his pen back into place, Roy put his notebook back into his pocket and followed Ed a little more gracefully out. He tossed Ed a smug smirk as he did so that grew in amusement from the scowl Ed returned.
"Was that enough?" Cranning's question broke the silence that still lingered in the room and brought Roy's attention back to him. The man was trying to drag himself together again to put up a tough front for Roy and Ed, but his voice still held a definite whine and he looked harried as he ran a hand through his hair, mussing more than it already was. "Will you meet with Tisdale now?"
"No. I do want his file, however," Roy said, his back straightening as he fixed the mayor with his coolest stare. "As well as all the information relevant to this case. There are pieces missing and I believe you know it, Mayor Cranning."
Cranning shook his head, his face now drained of most of its color. "There is no other information. I sent everything I had to the military!"
"Think again, Mayor," Roy told him, his voice cold and hard as diamonds might be if they could be a sound. "It doesn't look good to me that you won't cooperate with this investigation, and it will look even less so to my superiors."
Cranning swallowed, his adam's apple bobbing frantically in his throat. "I swear there's nothing else! If there is, Sheriff Tisdale has it!"
Roy heard an irritated growl come from behind him and he raised a hand to quiet Ed, at least as much as he was ever able to. Thankfully, Ed didn't say anything more, though the mayor's eyes now flickered nervously between them.
"Then where is his file? I was assured you have files on all your residents, or was I misinformed?"
Cranning quickly shook his head. "We normally do! But Tisdale is one of our original residents! He's been here since he was a kid! He doesn't have one!"
"He doesn't have a file," Ed repeated, disbelief clear in his voice.
Roy found he shared Ed's sentiments. He felt his earlier assessment of the town's sheriff shifting again. This didn't fit his expectations. If Sheriff Tisdale was as good as he seemed, why hadn't he made his own file? More possible discrepancies danced a resolute dance through his memory as Roy's eyes hardened yet further. He was pleased to see Cranning nearly wet himself at the look.
"Create one," Roy ordered, his voice barking out just low enough that no one outside the room would be able to make out the words. "And fast. I want it by morning. Remember, tell no one about this, including Sheriff Tisdale."
Half turning, Roy glanced back at Edward to find him fighting a snicker. He sighed and tossed his head to indicate Ed should precede him out the secret entrance to the room.
Ed looked back at him, ignoring him as his eyes danced with glee at seeing Roy's anger directed towards someone else for once. Then he looked back at Cranning and asked the question Roy had been about to ask next.
"What did he mean when told you 'not to forget that other?'"
Whatever color had still remained in Cranning's face now drained away, leaving him as white as the hotel sheets in Roy and Ed's room. If the man hadn't been sitting already, Roy was sure his knees would have given out. As it was, Cranning's hands took on a violent shaking that even pressing them to the desk couldn't hide.
"I-I-I—" Cranning swallowed hard and licked his lips. "He just meant about when you, the investigators, returned and—and some other official business we've been working on. About the coming—coming harvest festival next month."
Roy just stared at Cranning. It was an obvious lie. So obvious, it was insulting!
Ed moved forward to protest, but Roy moved to place a hand on Ed's shoulder to stop him from protesting. Cranning was feeling cornered. He was more likely to shut down than open up now. Roy could wait. He was patient. And if it took too long or became clear he needed to, he could always burn the answer out of Cranning. Slowly.
He might actually enjoy that.
"Then you will tell him you don't know when they are coming back until we say otherwise," Roy told him calmly. "Understood?"
Cranning nodded hurriedly.
"Good day then," Roy said with a last stern look at the pasty mayor of Tramston. "I will see you tomorrow for that report."
Then he began herding Ed from the room before him. Thankfully, Ed went quietly, even if with a dark glare at Roy.
Cranning called something back in a weak voice that could have been a farewell, and then Roy and Ed were in the hidden passageway leading back out onto the streets.