A/N: 'Lo, it's me again! This is a sort of prologue, soon after Ed goes dragon, there's going to be a huge time skip.
Disclaimer: I don't own!
Ed sneezed, he was freezing! Even though it was spring snow still covered the mountains blanketing them in white and he couldn't teleport them to the den because he didn't know where it was!
They had stopped to take a break under one of the rock overhangings. They could see the wind furiously blowing the snow.
He glanced over at Roy; furiously blushing when their eyes met. Roy raised an eyebrow at the sorcerer's behavior.
"Ed, is the cold getting to you?" Roy asked, taking off a glove and placing his hand on the smaller boy's head, "Your forehead's a little cold." Roy mumbled.
Ed glared, "Shut up, compared to you my foreheads always cold," he grumbled, "Stupid naturally warm dragons…"
Roy laughed at the blonde and wrapped his arm around his shoulders, pink tinting his cheeks, "Don't worry, we're almost there. In my nice, large, heated den." He dazed.
Ed snuggled further into Roy's warmth. "Hey, why don't you use magic?" Roy asked.
"I wanna use it as a last resort. I mean, I don't really want to depend on it too badly."
Roy nodded, "The minute your nose turns blue you use it!"
Ed laughed, "Dumbass, it's your toes! Your nose doesn't turn blue."
Roy shrugged, "I never have to deal with hypothermia."
Ed snorted, standing up, "C'mon, we should go before the storm gets worse." He looked up into the dark gray sky, frowning.
"Well, it's probably another five minutes anyway." Roy guessed.
"What!" Ed jumped in the air, "Well, then let's go~"
Roy chuckled, "I like your enthusiasm."
"You sound old."
"… Didn't you want to get going…"
Ed charged headfirst out into the snow, almost disappearing, "Idiot!" Roy yelled chasing after him, "What do you think you're doing?" He grabbed onto Ed's shoulder and pulled. They both fell back into the snow.
"Ow…" Ed groaned, "Bastard, what was that for?"
"Are you stupid? What do you gain from charging headfirst?" Roy yelled, standing and looking down to the blonde boy.
Ed harrumphed, "You may be fine but some of us are pretty cold. I wanna get out of this stupid snow." The blonde stood, brushing off the snow that covered his jacket. When wiping off his butt his hands lingered there, noticing Roy's hungry gaze. The raven looked up to the back of the blonde's head and flushed when Ed turned around and gave him a wink.
"C-mon, let's get going." Roy said stiffly, grabbing the hood of Ed's jacket and pulling him along. They quickly reached the cave; Roy bit his finger and used his blood to unseal it.
Pulling the blonde into the cave he sealed it again. He continued to pull the blonde along and sat him on a couch in what he'd dubbed as the 'living room'. Snow that went up to their ankles covered the ground.
Ed pouted on the couch and Roy sighed, "Ed, what's wrong?"
"…Earlier, you didn't like me?" The blonde looked up at him with puppy dog eyes and Roy froze like a deer in headlights.
'When?' Roy thought trying to remember what the boy was talking about, 'Oh…' He gazed at the ground, avoiding Ed's gaze.
"I-I like you, do you like me?" Ed stuttered. Roy's eyes widened, did he mean like that? The blonde continued, "I mean more than friends."
His words were almost a whisper and a deep blush covered Ed's face.
"Yeah… shorty."
Ed's face turned red in what was either rage or embarrassment, Roy couldn't tell, but he suddenly found himself on the couch with Ed straddling him. One of the blonde's arms was wrapped around Roy's waist while the other was hitting Roy's head. His face was pressed against Roy's chest, "Bastard, I'm not short…"
"Sure… Oh! Ed, as happy as I am laying here with you hitting me on the head I have one concern."
"Hm?"
"Well… I don't want you to get frostbite. Maybe we should wait to snuggle once we go deeper in my den. I would also hate for you to get lost in the snow after all you're pretty shor- Fuck!"
Ed stood above Roy, his foot in the process of pulling back from when he'd kicked Roy in the nuts, "BASTARD! I'M NOT SO SHORT THAT A SNOWFLAKE COULD BURY ME!"
Tears streamed out of the corners of Roy's eyes as he cupped his nether regions, trying to protect them from more harm. He turned to glare at the blonde but was shocked to see Ed just standing still, a blank look on his face.
The air around the blonde shifted and with a crack of magic Ed was holding a thick book. The blond blinked and looked down at the book in his arms with his eyebrows scrunched together.
"Ed?"
The blond blinked again and looked down to Roy and followed the man's gaze to the book he was holding, "Hn? Sorry." The blond apologized, "This is my spell book." He said simply as if that explained everything.
"So what's it doing here?" Roy asked.
"You really know nothing about sorcerer's do you?" Ed sighed, "I left it on my desk, in my room, before we left and just now the spell I placed around it broke. Actually it would be better to say the spell around it was interrupted. If someone that I haven't allowed to touch it touches it, the spell around it is interrupted and I'm immediately notified."
"So the spell you put on it was interrupted? By whom?" Roy asked, sitting up.
"I think it was Al." The blonde said, "Since my essence is partially on him from living with each other if I hadn't summoned the book he would have been able to open it."
"Is that bad?" The black haired man stood, slowly.
"Of course! If he was somehow able to understand the language written in it then he would find out everything!"
"He deserves to know. He is your brother."
Ed bit his lip, "I know but it's too risky. If he found out and suddenly decided he wanted to try a spell, he'd be killed. The magic that it takes to do the spell, even the least taxing, would be more magic than he has and it'd feed on his life force."
"I see… Do you think I'd be able to do some spells? After all I do have magic." Ed raised an eyebrow at the older man who had a gleam in his eye that spelled trouble.
He shrugged, "You're the first other magical being I've met."
"That's because the only other magical beings, besides us, are impure blooded elves and shape shifters." Roy said, "They are now known as vampires and werewolves. Personally I avoid them."
"Yeah, I met one once; I scared the hell out of it when it tried to attack me." Ed mused.
Flashback:
Ed was walking through his backyard (the forest, if you forgot) when he could feel the magic in the air shift. He ducked just in time for a person to go flying over his head.
The person was wearing a cape that was black on the outside but velvet inside and a white button up shirt with a black vest over it and black slacks. He had hair that was badly dyed black and red eyes that weren't from contacts.
"I'm here to drink you're blood!"
Ed blinked, to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, and even pinched himself, "You're kidding right?" He'd only read about vampires but this one seemed to be taking the lifestyle a little too much like the movies.
His answer was a snarl and the vampire charged. The vampire had a hand outstretched and tried to grab the blonde's neck. Ed ducked under the arm and brought his hand to the vampire's midsection in a palm strike. He focused his magic into his palms and supercharged a wind spell, sending the vampire flying without actually touching him.
The vampire was thrown into a tree that almost cracked in half at the force of it. It got up and Ed could easily imagine a tail tucked between its legs by the look it gave him.
"Go unless you want to break something! I never want to see your face again!" Ed yelled. He wasn't sure what it took to kill a vampire and really didn't want to find out.
The vampire quickly left the forest and Ed headed to his hut, drinking an energy potion so he wouldn't pass out in the middle of the barrier spell he was starting.
End Flashback
Roy laughed at the story and Ed glared, hatefully, "Can we just go into a warmer part of this so called den?"
Roy stood and headed farther into the cave with Ed close behind him. Roy opened his mouth and Ed could sense the magic that was gathering in his lungs when the man spit fireballs into the darkness.
Ed blinked at the sight of now lit torches and followed Roy down the hall. It seemed that once they passed the first torch, that a wave of warmth hit him. Ed took off his jacket, not noticing the appreciative look that Roy gave him.
They walked until they reached a door and Roy opened it, a hand gesturing to the interior, "Welcome to my humble abode."
Ed stepped in and looked around, it was a small room; there were two couches facing each other with a table between them. A bed was on the opposite side of the room and there was what seemed like an open bar next to it.
"This is usually where I spend time when I'm human, that's why it's so small." Ed nodded at the explanation and Roy lead him through the next door.
The small tunnel they were in had widened and was high enough to fit a large house. There were tunnels that probably led to different parts.
Roy pointed at the first one, "That's the eating room, the second one is filled with steaming water, the third one goes really deep until you reach magma, the fourth one is a sleeping room, the fifth one is where I would go if I was injured and the others contain random stuff." He shrugged at the last part and Ed snorted at the explanation.
Suddenly it felt as if someone was stabbing him through the heart. He gasped as his legs gave out and he fell forward. He straightened out his arms and caught himself. He coughed and blood spilled out of his mouth.
"Edward!" He heard as his vision darkened and he fell to the side.
...
Ed's golden eyes blinked open enough for him to see a rocky ceiling. His memories quickly returned and he lurched up.
Two hands grabbed his shoulders and gently pushed him back down, "Idiot, don't get up so quickly!"
Ed looked over at Roy and could easily see the concern swimming in his eyes, "...Sorry."
"Are you okay?" The dark haired man asked, sighing in relief at the blonde's nod, "Good."
"Do you think I can last until the last day of school?" Ed asked, concerned.
Roy sighed, "I'm not sure. You have the best chance of making it to the end of school if you're not stressed and that's a maybe, more likely a no. But if you make it close enough, you can convince them you're going on vacation. But if you're suddenly stressed then you have a chance of starting when that happens. You won't immediately turn into a dragon though so we'll have enough time to get you here."
"Oh... How long will I have to stay here?"
"Years, when you're able to leave, you'd be surprised if Alphonse isn't dead."
"That long?" Ed asked, an eyebrow raised.
Roy grinned, "Yep! You'll barely be able to leave the den because humans might find you!"
"Cheeky bastard..."
"How am I supposed to stay unstressed? It's the end of the school year and they drown us in projects." Ed commented with a look of disgust.
Roy snorted, "Just because you're too lazy to do the projects doesn't mean you shouldn't so them. Think of it this way; get good grades because this is your last year."
"I wonder if Al would be happier without me."
Roy shrugged, "Without you I'd be lonely... midget."
"I'M NOT SHORT!" Ed yelled, "And why is every nice thing you say followed by an insult?"
Roy chuckled and Ed stared at him, "When you laugh like that, you seem really old."
"I'M NOT OLD!" Roy yelled, glaring at the younger blonde, "Just go to sleep or something…" Roy pouted at all of the old jokes being sent in his direction.
"When are we going back?" Ed asked. Roy climbed onto the bed and lied down next to him and they both stared at the rocky ceiling, "We have a week off and this is only the first day."
Roy made a noise of approval, "I can't imagine that there's much to do here and you need to talk to your brother."
Ed flinched at the mention of his brother, "What should I tell him then? 'Hey Al, I know this might sound weird but I'm a sorcerer and I'll be turning into a dragon soon and heading to the Briggs mountains for a few years, at most a decade or two. Don't worry though; I'll visit your grave when I come back!'"
Roy mulled it over for a few seconds before speaking, "Unless he has an untimely death, he shouldn't be dead when we return."
Ed glared at Roy, pushing him off of the bed with his feet. The older man easily rolled off the bed and fell on the floor in a heap, "Maybe you should lay off the helpless citizens, you're fat." Ed stated blatantly.
Roy gasped and hopped to his feet, "I'M NOT FAT! And dragon jokes don't work if you're about to become one!"
Ed shrugged, "If you say so." Roy sent the blonde a death glare at the smile that pulled at his lips.
The two were closer than ever and they both hoped that that will never change. No matter what happens in the upcoming future.
A/N: Done, next chapter's the confrontation and I hope to have it out soon now that it's summer. I have tons of free time.