This one takes place after chapter's 4 and 5, when Roy asks Ed to officially move in with him, but before Ed comes back to Amestris to stay.
Ed sighed-he didn't huff, Edward Elric didn't huff-from where he lay on Roy's bed, in Roy's room, in Roy's house.
"Isn't this place supposed to be ours now?" he asked, sounding only slightly more petulant than he meant to.
Roy poked his head out of the bathroom in surprise. He still had his toothbrush in hand. Did he have to have perfect hair and no spit on his face even when brushing his teeth? Ed had to fight the urge to pat down his own hair and try to smooth out the wrinkles in his boxers. Like his bed head and bare essentials pajamas would ever measure up to the fancy silks and things Roy wore even to bed.
"It is our place," he said, and he didn't even sound like toothpaste was in his mouth as he said it.
"There isn't anything in this place that's mine besides books and clothes. Can't I at least pick out some drapes, or a chair, or something?"
Roy blinked. "You want to pick out drapes with me?"
That sounded entirely too domestic and sappy. Heat rose in Ed's face, so he hid it under the pillow. "Shut up," came the muffled reply.
A laugh, then, "Give me a second," came from farther away. The pillow could have muffled the sound of Roy's voice, but Ed knew he'd ducked back into the bathroom to rinse out his mouth. "It's cute that your blush spreads all the way down your chest," Roy's voice said, closer that time.
"I said, 'shut up.'"
Another laugh before the bed dipped. "I don't mind you picking out some of the furniture here, Ed. I'd actually rather like it if more things in the house reminded me of you when you're away."
"I said, 'shut up,'" Ed repeated, although he wanted to curse since he knew the blush Roy could see on his chest was probably growing darker.
"I like the changes you made to my upstairs office. It works better as a-what did you decide to call it, library or study-and I really don't need more than one guest room downstairs, so the second one makes a good office. What else in the house do you want to change?"
Ed almost said to shut up again. Instead, he gave the question serious thought. "The bed."
"The bed...? What's wrong with the bed?"
"Nothing is wrong with it," Ed said before pulling the pillow off his face so that he could look at Roy, "But it's what I use most when here and I didn't even help pick it out."
The only thing that stopped Ed from blushing more at Roy's grin when he said it's what he used most was the almost bashful look in Roy's eyes. Something in Ed still warmed when he saw reminders that this was Roy's first serious relationship too.
"Let's go mattress shopping tomorrow," Roy said, and Ed studied his face for any other signs of amusement. Was he serious?
"Okay...I mean, if you wanna."
"Good," Roy said before leaning closer. "But let's make good use of the old one one more time." With that, he leaned in and kissed Ed.
When Ed rolled off the mattress, he could have sworn his sigh was echoed, but it was just Roy. Roy had been patient for most of the day, but he'd sighed for each of the last three mattresses Ed tried out.
"What's wrong with that one?"
"It's too hard," Ed said as he looked around for another mattress to try.
"The one before it was too soft, and the one before that was too long, even though they're all the same size. Ed, you've laid on every mattress in the store; surely one of them was comfortable."
It wasn't so much that none were comfortable, but none were right. He couldn't imagine lying next to Roy night after night on any of them. He hadn't found one that would be perfect for lazy morning or passionate nights. Not a single bed had felt like them, Roy and Ed.
"We haven't tried all of them yet. What about that one?" Before Roy had a chance to answer, Ed was flopping onto yet another mattress. He looked over in surprise as the other side of the mattress dipped. Roy had stopped trying the beds out with him some time after the 7th one.
Roy rolled his shoulders before looking over at Ed with his eyebrow raised. "This one seems nice." He hadn't meant to, he really hadn't meant to, but Ed made a face, which in turn made Roy make a face. "What's wrong with it?"
Ed sighed again and threw his head back so that he was staring at the ceiling rather than Roy. "It's not-It just…ugh I don't know, okay? It doesn't smell like you, or your house. Our house, sorry. And it's soft enough, but there isn't that little dip in the middle from where you used to lay before I showed up and claimed half your bed. And without the dip, it's too easy to stay on my side of the bed. Why would I want to stay all the way over here when a concave mattress could be pulling us both in to meet in the middle? I mean, yeah there's not a lot of space in the middle, but that just means I lay on you, and it'll smell more like you, and…" he trailed off. He was rambling and saying a lot he hadn't really meant to, but at least he'd been smart enough to keep his voice down.
He'd kept it down enough, hadn't he? Was Roy mad that he'd broken his cover of being just a friend helping Roy buy a mattress? Or maybe he was mad that Ed had essentially just said he was never going to be happy with a new bed, and they'd wasted today because Ed didn't actually want a new bed. Either way, Roy was being way too quiet, and the longer the silence dragged on, the more red Ed's face became. He was such an idiot. Why had he bothered saying anything? If he ever stopped staring at the ceiling he was going to apologize, tell Roy he was happy with the house the way it was, and promise that Roy didn't have to change anything about his house.
But then Roy grabbed Ed's hand.
Ed understood then that this wasn't an angry silence; it was the sort of silence that said 'I want to kiss you right now, but I can't and that's killing me.' Ed understood those silences. How often had he wanted to hug Roy at the train station? Instead of looking at Roy, Ed squeezes his hand. Roy let go, and Ed knew that it was the last thing his boyfriend wanted to do. Roy would rather hold Ed's hand as tight as he can, or kiss him, or try out sharing the middle of this bed. More than anything, he wanted to say 'our bed' and acknowledge that they were shopping for them. But Roy didn't slip up on things like that, not the way Ed did.
Roy sat up, and Ed wasn't sure he was ready to yet. When he was lying down it was a little easier to pretend that they didn't have to pretend, and there wasn't an entire world trying to keep them apart and a million reasons that they weren't supposed to be together.
"What if you transmute the headboard?" Roy mused quietly before turning to smile at Ed. "We'll keep my old bed, but you can decorate it however you want. Or rather, you can draw the array and describe it to me, and I'll transmute anything you want."
Things like this were the reasons that Ed knew the world was wrong, and he and Roy were meant to be together.
"Anything?" he asked as he sat up, and looked around. No one was near them. He must have done that smile Roy says can strike fear in the most seasoned warrior because Roy's smile faltered and some of the color drained from his face.
"I reserve the right to veto," he said wearily.
"I don't know, you said anything."
"I'm not sleeping underneath gargoyles."
"Gargoyles are badass," Ed said as he stood up. "Okay, what about a black headboard made of skulls, and we can even give them red eyes-"
"Veto," Roy said, cutting Ed off as he stood as well.
"Oh, come on."
He continued to try to persuade Roy on just how awesome their headboard could be as they walked towards the exit. No one was around to hear them, and they could joke in public and just be themselves. It was great and Ed loved it, but part of him wished someone could have overheard when he got General Roy Mustang to raise his voice and say, "I won't sleep with a skull!"
A/N:
So this chapter shows a bit more about the differences between their relationships in the two fics, and the problems with their relationship. Roy works less hard to look good around Ed in Redo, and I think that's a positive change. Unfortunately they have to deal with society's negative view of their relationship in both fics, but at least in Redo Roy will know he can start doing something about it sooner now that he knows he can make a difference.
I got a new laptop today, and it seemed wrong that the first thing I used it for would be homework, so I finished this chapter instead :D I hope you like, and I'd love to hear your feedback in a review. However, please don't just review saying how you want a chapter of Redo instead. I don't mind you saying you'd like a Redo chapter if you also say something about this chapter, but if you ignore what I've written to point out what I haven't, then it's like you're disappointed that I've posted this and that's really discouraging. Besides, it's finals time for me right now, so I'm only popping on just long enough to post this and really won't have time for fanfic until after Sunday. So, please be patient with me.