-sneaking in the back- AH! Dammit! I'm sorry, people, about this taking a week longer than usual. And it's shorter, too. T_T I'm so terrible. But it really couldn't be helped. For those who haven't heard, I don't have my own laptop anymore. It died. I won't have my own until my birthday at the end of May, either. -sadness- This means I lost every chapter/story that was on there, including the beginning of new stories I'd come up with and chapter two of Down the Rabbit Hole. -_- Fuck you, laptop gods. FUCK YOU!
Anyways, thanks to all loyal reviewers and to the ones who favorite/alert me/the story. Love you guys!
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. I am getting very tired of saying this.
Warnings: Foul language, naughty talk, Winry-bitch, alcohol usage.
Enjoy~
After tumbling around in the sand for a while longer, clutching each other's shoulders and laughing and fooling around, Edward finally decided that they really needed to eat. This was mainly due to him starving. He was always hungry after sex, and the last time he'd eaten today had been lunch at a little after one. Now he was poking at the remnants; the dinner had been delicious, and he had to wonder where Roy had gotten it. He was sure the man hadn't made it himself, as he hadn't smelled anything cooking.
"Who made this?" he asked, setting his fork down. He twined his own fingers together to make a cradle for his chin.
"Secrets, Ed." Roy replied, smirking. The blond continued to stare at him, eyes urging the question's answer from his mouth. And, finally, he sighed in defeat because he couldn't say no with those golden eyes focusing so intently on him and only on him. "My Aunt Chris; you'd probably know her as Madame Christmas. She owns a hostess bar."
"Oh. Yeah, I know the place. Didn't know she was your aunt, though." For a moment, the young alchemist just watched him, silent. "Saw you there once. Only been there a couple of times when I was in town for the night."
"Yeah?" Roy grumbled, looking away. He didn't want to see the look he was sure he'd get; didn't want to see those eyes- the ones he loved so much- looking at him like that.
"You were drunk out of your fucking mind. And you were still drinking." His hands dropped from under his chin.
"Do we have to talk about this right now?"
"It's either now or in the morning when we can be disturbed, and I'm sure you don't want that. So yes." He paused, reached up and forced Roy to look at him. "There was a girl on your lap. You two were connected at the mouth and I couldn't tell where she ended and you began. Was that..." Edward trailed off, catching one of the older man's hands in both of his own. "Was it because of me? And Winry?"
"And why do you think if would be about you? The general tried for a smile but didn't quite succeed. The blond just stared at him, an expectant look in his eyes, squeezing his hand. "Yeah." he finally mumbled, looking away again. He heard a long breath being let out and the grip on his hand tightened just a bit.
"Look at me." When onyx eyes locked with his own, though reluctant as they were to do so, he brought their fists up and pressed them to his lips. "I am so sorry." Roy blinked at him, shocked. Edward never apologized, not by outright saying he was sorry. And with him focusing so intently on the person he was speaking to... It wasn't something either of them were used to. "If I had known that the Truth would take my memories, I would've found some other way. Fuck, I shouldn't have given you up in the first place; we could have worked something out. And Winry... I don't even know why the hell I agreed to marry her just like that. If we'd just fucking. waited and taken-"
"It's okay, Ed. You can't go back and change it."
"That doesn't change how fucking terrible I feel. You're an alcoholic, and it's partially my fault. And I'm afraid... I mean, what if you... die?" He swallowed hard, moving his flesh hand up to the older man's cheek. "I couldn't live without you, Roy."
"You did. For two years."
"That's not fair. I couldn't remember."
"Exactly." When the blond's eyebrows pulled together in confusion, Roy sighed and shook his head. "To be such a genius, you can be so slow to get things sometimes." Edward frowned, but didn't say anything as he waited for the man to continue. "For two years, you didn't remember us. For a while, you had Winry. But, all that time, I remembered. I had to see and know you were with someone else and, because of that, that you couldn't be mine. Hell, you'd have probably been disgusted by the idea. So I didn't say anything."
"Roy-"
"We should go. It's late; almost one." Roy mumbled, sliding his hand out of Edward's hold and standing up.
"What about all this?" the blond asked, gesturing to the table as he, too, got up. Pursuing the previous conversation would be pointless, he knew.
"I'll handle it tomorrow. Right now, I wanna go home. I'm tired."
"Right." Ed smiled softly and grabbed the older man's hand again, twining their fingers tightly together. "We're not missing any clothes, right?" Roy leaned away a bit, glanced at him, and cocked an eyebrow.
"Well, I'm sure that I'm wearing all my clothes. You must really be tired if you can't even tell if you're wearing all your clothes or not." He grinned and slipped two of his fingers underneath the blond's pants' waistband and pulled them out enough that he could look down. Much to his disappointment, though he wasn't at all surprised, Edward had remembered his boxers. When the dark-haired man looked up, daggers wer being glared at him by a certain golden-eyed man.
"Get your ass in the boat." Ed growled, slapping the man's hand away from his pants.
"Bossy."
"I will kick you in the balls, you bastard. Now go."
"So pushy, too." Ed glared harder, like that should have been possible, and he held his free hand up in surrender. "Alright, alright. I'm going." They strolled back to their small boat and pulled their shoes on again as soon as they were settled in.
"So, what did you think?" Roy asked as soon as they were back on the water.
"It was really fucking sappy." The older man's face fell just a little bit, and Ed smirked. "But I liked it; we should do it again. After all this is over, ya know." The smirk softened into a smile and he began twisting the blindfold- he'd found it on the floor of the boat- between and around his fingers absently.
"Good. Because I was planning on doing it again if you liked it, so I guess... a few months?"
"Maybe even less." The blond leaned forward just a bit. The breeze picked up enough to pull the thin material from his relaxed hold. Without thinking, he reached for it, leaning out of his seat and over the side of the boat quickly. Too quickly.
The younger alchemist flipped forwards out of the boat.
"Ed!" Roy tried to grab one of the other's belt loops, but missed. Silently, he stared over the side of the boat until a sopping blond head appeared a few moments later, spitting out water.
"Not. A. Word." Edward growled, glaring up at him through dripping bangs. The general snorted, then burst out laughing. "Shut up, you bastard! Help me back in!"
**~;~;~;~;~;~;~;**
"Roy." A shifting accompanied the hiss, along with the sound of sand falling onto the hard-wood floor of his kitchen. "I have sand in places that sand should not be." More shifting and sand littering the floor. The general didn't even bother to look up from his paper.
"You're the one who wanted to fuck in the sand. I simply did as you demanded." One corner of the newspaper drifted backwards when he let go of it to pick up his coffee mug. The coffee wasn't spiked this time; he didn't have any whiskey left to do it with. "You can be rather scary when you're all lusty and demanding like that." he mumbled sarcastically around the lip of his mug.
"Because you and your pansy ass wanted to get out of the water because it was too cold for you."
"What can I say, Edward? I deal in fire; I'm not at all good with the cold, and if at all possible, I like to avoid it." Roy turned the page of the newspaper and took another quick sip of his coffee. "Now calm down. Get some coffee or something; anything to relax you."
"How the hell are you so calm?"
"I've been on the front lines. Dealing with you is much like it."
"You really need alcohol, don't you?"
"Oh yes." A warm hand cupped under his chin, tilting his head back just slightly against a hard chest. Something cool was pressed to his bottom lip.
"Open your mouth." Edward's calm voice ordered from directly above him, and he did so without a thought. The small glass that had been put up to his mouth seconds earlier tipped. Warm liquid spilled over his tongue, alcohol burning. He swallowed it, surprised. "Little bit more." The process was repeated. Then the blond set the glass on the table by his half-empty coffee mug and leaned forward, nuzzling his nose into the crook of Roy's neck.
"I thought you got rid of all the whiskey?"
"Nah. I got Alphonse to smuggle some and hide it away."
"Why?"
"You need it."
"I thought you said I needed to quit..." The general's dark eyebrows pulled together questioningly as he'd forgotten that Ed's face was buried in his neck, meaning they couldn't see each other's expressions. Fortunately, for this, they didn't need to.
"You do. But I can't just make you stop all at once. You're addicted, Roy; it has to be gradual."
"Didn't figure you'd know all that."
"I've done a lot of reading." Ed mumbled in his lover's ear. From upstairs, he heard his son start to cry. He sighed and pecked Roy's cheek. "I'll go get him. Alphonse and Mei are still asleep, and I don't want him to wake them."
"Just don't bring him down here and change him on my kitchen table."
"Yes. Because that is so much different than what we did on your kitchen counter just a few days ago." Edward grinned before quickly ducking out of the kitchen. Roy scowled at the door, still swinging closed.
A while later- it must have been a half hour or longer- both Edward, Nicholas in his arms and playing with his loose ponytail, and Alphonse came back in. The younger Elric's hair was ruffled from his sleep, and he yawned into his hand, still tired. Mei wasn't with them. If Roy had to guess, she was in the bathroom; she always woke up when Al left the bed.
"Where's Mei?"
"Either still curled up under the blankets complaining to herself about being woken up or in the bathroom. I'm not sure which." Al answered, pouring a cup of coffee for himself and flopping down in Ed's chair. This left his brother standing right beside him, staring. Then his eyes rolled up to the ceiling, and he made a soft smacking sound.
"Thanks, Al. Nicholas isn't heavy at all. I wouldn't like my chair; you, of course, need it more than I do."
"There are more chairs." the younger said in response to his brother's sarcastic comments.
"The one that your ass is in is mine, though."
"Why the hell is it yours? I don't see your name on it."
"It's closest to Roy's. And do I need to put my name on it?"
"Don't even think about it, Edward." Roy broke in. His attention was on his paper again; once more, he didn't even look up at them when he spoke. "How about this? All these kitchen chairs? They're mine. Everything in this house is mine except for Nicholas, you- Alphonse- and Mei."
The Elric brothers exchanged a glance and, at the same time, matter-of-factly stated, "Withdrawls," both nodding just slightly.
"Morn-ey, Roy!" Nicholas giggled in his not-quite-right language. And, seriously, the boy was too adorable; no one could continue to bicker around him.
"Aw, look at that. He even gets to moody-ass Roy over there." Okay. Maybe Edward could. But he had a lot of experience with continuing to act like a bastardly smart-ass in all situations.
"No be mean, Daddy." the golden-haired child scolded, waving a finger in his father's face. Alphonse burst out laughing and Roy chuckled lightly.
"Alright, Nikki. You're right. That was very rude of Daddy." Edward agreed, smiling softly at his son.
"Good Daddy! Now hung-y!"
"Sounds exactly like you. There's no doubt he's your son."
"No be mean, Roy." Ed snapped, quoting the boy, who was quickly growing impatient, in his arms.
"Food!" Nicholas tugged on the young alchemist's hair- hard. Edward hissed and pried the golden strands from his fingers.
"Alright. Gimme a second. Damn." He sighed and sat Nicholas down on the counter. "Don't move or you'll fall, okay?"
"Oh. Yeah. I almost forgot, Ed. Winry came by late last night. You and Roy had already been out for a while. When I told her that, she got real upset and left." Alphonse said. He saw his brother's shoulders stiffen just a bit before he bent over and dug around in the refrigerator.
"Did she say what she wanted?"
"Nah. She said that she wants you to call her, though. Said that it's about Nicholas."
"Great." Just as Edward was about to start feeding Nicholas, there was a knock on Roy's front door. Both of the men sitting in the kitchen chairs looked up at him expectantly. "Lazy bastards. We'll feed you as soon as we get the door, Nikki." He heaved a heavy sigh as he settled his son on his hip and left the kitchen. Behind the door was the one person he really didn't want to see: Winry. And the morning had been going fairly well. "What?"
"I'm going back to Resembool today. I can't stay here any longer; I just can't. I came by to pick up Nicholas and his things."
Yay! Another chapter published! So, what did you think? Loved it? Hated it? Want me to die? Let me know in a review! Those things keep me writing!
hugs&kisses~ Madarao