Watch the 'Shake It Out' video by Florence and the Machine and you will understand this piece so much better.
Brotherhood-verse.
Ashling Ivy: :D Yay! I seem to have roped in a fair number of non-Edvy fans XD I enjoy the canon pairings too, I just find it hard to write anything new or unpredictable for them :/ Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you like my little collection of craziness ^^
what-is-the-color-of-love: You couuuuld, but you woooon't…right?
Pen-Name-Kitsune-Chan: Hehe ^^ Those were my exact thoughts. Heck, I want Trisha as a mum! And from what we've seen of Hohenheim, he's a really, really nice guy who tries to be this distant figure and do the right thing even if it kills him. So I figured he'd have this awesome relationship with his first son. I'm glad you liked this one, I wanted to put some cuteness at the end but the IC fairy forced me not to T_T
47. Masks
The room was alive with colour, viridian and vermilion weaving together with sapphire and indigo to make a dizzying, shifting display. The women were in low-necked, full-skirted gowns – some as gold as the sun, some as silver as the moon, some as pearly as the starlight – and the men were in tight-fitting suits in just as many hues. Everybody wore sparkling, vibrantly-coloured masks – some festooned with ribbons, some adorned with bullion. There were some blown of multicoloured glass, and others woven of silk. There were masks with long beaks, and masks with grinning faces, and masks with words in ancient languages etched into them like prayers.
In the middle of the dreamlike dance, Edward Elric stood, unwilling to admit he was afraid, but equally unwilling to turn and run. He didn't like being unable to see anybody's face. Anybody could be here.
He adjusted the simple red masquerade mask he wore, tying the black ribbons more tightly. It only covered half of his face, but Mustang had insisted that he at least let his hair loose – "it's no fair if it's obvious who you are!"
Stupid Bastard.
The music was too loud as well. It was fast-paced, echoing through the banquet hall filled with dancers. All in all, the entire business was giving him a headache.
"Well, hello, there." The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it. Swivelling around, he came face-to-face with a masked man, slim in a black drainpipe suit and with a cascade of long, black hair rippling over his shoulders. His mask was just as dark, with purple piping around the edges and eyeholes that brought the shocking violet colour of his irises. "Care for a dance?"
Ed snorted. "I don't dance."
"Oh? Why are you here, then?" There was a hint of mockery in the stranger's voice, and Ed made a fist in his pocket. "Come on. Standing here all alone can't be any fun."
The asshole was right, admitted Ed, although only to himself. "Fine. But I have no idea what I'm doing."
"That's perfectly alright." The voice was painfully familiar – that slightly mocking tone, the feminine pitch – but Ed couldn't quite place it. "Nobody will know," he added, laughing at his own little joke.
The stranger took Ed's hand in his own, and Ed stiffened, wondering if he would notice the automail. However, he didn't seem to notice, or care, merely guiding Ed's other hand to his waist. It was thin and bony, but with a curve to it. His hand fit like…well, a glove.
"Gently goes…there. Let me lead you." The stranger's voice was kind of like a snake, decided Edward, although not necessarily a poisonous one. It had the same slithering sound, smooth and slippery.
He stumbled, and stammered an apology, much to the stranger's delight.
"Here, like this." After a moment, it clicked in Ed's mind – the pattern of interlacing feet, matching with the music. It made perfect sense.
Once he saw it that way, he had no problem with it.
"There we go. Got the basics now, love?" The way the stranger whispered the epithet sounded like he was used to saying something quite different.
"Yeah, figured it out."
"Then let's speed it up a bit." Suddenly they were going faster and faster, circling around at the same dizzying pace as the rest of the dancers.
"I'm gonna trip if we keep doing this –"
"No, you won't," murmured the stranger, thin lips curving upwards. "Unless your leg malfunctions, but I doubt that'll happen."
Ed didn't miss a beat in the dance, but he frowned under his mask. "How'd you know about my leg?"
The stranger's face told Ed that he'd revealed a little too much.
"Who are you?"
"If I told you, that'd ruin all the fun!" The indignance was definitely familiar, but Ed couldn't quite figure out who it was behind that mask.
The music came to an end in a great flourish of strings, and the two of them slowed and came to a stop. Ed lunged for the mask, but the stranger ducked away in a fluid, boneless motion.
"Ah, ah. Don't ruin my night."
"Dammit, I deserve to know who I just danced with!"
The stranger shrugged with a chuckle. "You really haven't been to a masquerade before, have you?" He turned and walked away, whistling something merrily with his hands in his pockets.
"Bastard," hissed Ed, glad the mask was hiding his flush. Then he noticed something odd – when the light caught the stranger's hair a certain way, it seemed less black and more of a dark-green hue.
And suddenly it all made sense – although now, he rather wished it didn't.