It was snowing when they got off the train, and Edward was entranced. His golden eyes were wide, watching the flakes come down. Roy was overjoyed by this turnabout—throughout the train ride, Ed had been jumpy and silent, biting his lip and fidgeting incessantly. Now the boy seemed to have at least forgotten his discontent.
"Haven't you ever seen snow before, Ed?" he asked, laughing as the blonde picked up a handful off the ground for inspection.
"A few times, when I was little…it usually didn't snow in Resembool, though. When it did there was never this much…"
Roy knew what he meant. Aside from the thin strip of road that had been cleared, a solid foot and a half of snow covered the ground, and more was coming down. This rarely happened in the other areas of Amestris.
Edward continued to marvel at the flakes the entire way to the hotel, and even once they were in the room, he gazed out the window.
Roy hated to ruin the boy's relatively good mood, but he had brought Ed here for a reason. "Ed…do you feel better, being away from Central?"
The blonde debated this for a moment. "Yeah," he said slowly, still watching the snow. "I do."
Roy's heartbeat sped up. "It's because the person who sold you isn't here, right?"
Edward turned slowly to look at him, eyes clouding. He didn't respond.
"Ed," Roy pushed, "you're safe here. We're away from Central, and besides, I won't let anyone hurt you. You can tell me who it was."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Edward frowned, shaking his head vehemently and drawing his knees up to his chest. The sight broke Roy's heart—to think that a boy as strong as Ed would be hurt so badly that he was afraid even here…in that instant Roy's priorities shifted. Yes, he still had to find out who it was that had caused this mess, but first he would make Ed happy, really happy.
He crossed the room, pulling Edward into a loose hug. Roy felt the boy freeze up, his now-natural reaction to contact, and waited. Eventually, as he thought would happen, Ed became less tense, still not returning the embrace but allowing it.
Roy let him go, kneeling so that he was eye level with the blonde. "Ed," he said, putting a smile on his face. "I think it's about time you remembered you're just a kid."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's go play in the snow." This simple sentence had the desired effect—Edward's eyes lit up, relief that Roy had dropped the previous topic mingling with intense excitement. He nodded enthusiastically, and they headed out.
"Ed, if you want to build a snowman, you have to touch the snow…" Roy pointed out, both amused and confused. The boy had been staring at the blank expanse of snow before them for a long while.
"I know," he sighed, "but it's just so perfect."
An idea popped into Roy's mind, and he had to work to hide his smirk. "Ed, do you trust me?"
"Yes," Edward replied cautiously, looking up at Roy with suspicion.
"Up we go then." And, despite the boy's protests, Roy picked him up, tossing Ed into a nearby snowdrift. He disappeared from sight for a moment, before popping back up, snow covering his coat and dusting his hair.
"It is so on!" he shouted, bending down and picking up a handful of snow. He threw it at Roy, who was busy laughing, hitting the top of his head.
Despite being hit, Roy grinned. Here was the boy Edward was supposed to be—competitive and excited. He created his own snowball, launching it back at Ed and beginning the battle.
They traded these meager blows for a while, before Roy upped the ante. Drawing a quick circle into the snow, he transmuted a snowy cannon, firing three snowballs in quick succession at the blonde.
"No fair!" Edward pouted once he recovered, sticking his tongue out at Roy like a child. "I can't even use alchemy anymore!"
"Well, then, you'll just have to get creative, Ed!" he shouted before firing another round.
The boy said nothing, beginning to make a snowball. However, he did not stop, rolling it on the ground, making it bigger and bigger. Once it was as about half as tall as him, Edward heaved it up, launching the massive ball at Roy's midsection.
He was knocked over by the blow, falling to the ground with a distinct lack of grace. Roy heard Ed laughing, and smiled despite having been thoroughly beaten—the blonde was obviously happy, and that had been the goal of the exercise. Footsteps crunched in his direction, and Edward plopped down to Roy's right, waving his arms and legs about.
Roy sat up, watching him make a snow angel with amusement. Ed sat up as well, carefully turning back and tracing his fingers in odd patters across one of the "wings." Then he stood, jumping away to admire his work. Roy got up as well, to see an angel with one automail wing.
"You're adorable." The words flew out of his mouth, the first thing that came to mind—after all, how insanely cute was it for a typically hotheaded boy to customize his snow angel? Roy looked sideways, about to apologize for his slip-up, only to see Edward grinning broadly, a smile just as sure and confident as any he had had before his incident.
"So," he said after a heartbeat, "how about that snowman?"
Edward scampered off to start, leaving Roy behind. The blonde began to build the bottom, and when it was as big as the snowball Ed had hurled at him, Roy called out, "That'll work, Ed."
But the boy was stubborn, shaking his head and continuing to push the snow around, this way and that until it was as tall as him and he couldn't seem to make it move any farther. "Now," he said, satisfied, "now it's big enough."
Roy did the middle piece, but handed it off to Edward to put on. Ed tiptoed and stretched to reach, the ball wobbling precariously until Roy aided him, laughing. The boy scowled at him, and again Roy's heart swelled a little—it was so good to see Edward acting normal again.
Even Roy could not reach to put the head on, so he again lifted Ed into the air, ignoring the boy's grumbles (that were, thankfully, about being held so easily like a small child rather than about being touched). The blonde again used his fingers to draw out eyes, a nose, and a mouth, adding a scarf along the body.
The two stood back to admire their work, Ed with a face-splitting smile on his flushed face.
"We should probably go inside, you know," Roy murmured. "You're going to get frost bite on your automail..."
"Just one more thing!" Ed pleaded, eyes wide.
Roy found he couldn't refuse. "What?"
"Sledding!"
Edward sat on the sled at the top of a large hill, ready to go. He seemed more upbeat than ever, having refused to allow Roy to get his own sled.
Roy crawled in behind Ed, placing his arms slowly around the boy's midsection, heart becoming heavy when he squirmed. "Are you sure you're okay with this? I'm going to have to hold on pretty tight."
"I'll be alright." Edward sounded nervous, but was apparently determined to go through with this.
"Alright. Let me know when to kick off."
"Now!"
And then they were gliding down the hill, gaining speed, the wind blowing Ed's hood off. Though Roy was still holding on to the blonde from behind, Edward didn't complain. In fact, half way down he started laughing hysterically.
Upon reaching the bottom, Ed took the time to stop his giggles before getting up, any previous nervousness gone. "That was fantastic!"
Roy congratulated himself. This trip north had been a great idea. "C'mon, Ed," he said, grabbing the sled and, after a moment's thought, taking the boy's hand. "Let's get back inside. We'll have some hot chocolate."
In their room once more, Roy sat with Edward on the small couch, under a blanket. They weren't too close, but when their arms brushed Ed seemed to think nothing of it. Roy was emboldened by this success, the boy's apparent improvement. If there was any time to ask, he was sure, it would be now.
And so Roy turned to Ed, and asked the question.