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batsutousaiTitle: Dragon's Gold
Series: Chimera-Dragons 'Verse
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood/manga
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Mature
Pairings: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Warnings: Alternate Universe, worldbuilding, dragon!Roy, chimera!Roy, prince!Ed (Ed is the worst prince), demi!Ed, whipping as punishment, Ed's potty mouth, mention of inhuman experimentations, mention of torture, dragon!Maes, dragon!Riza, dragon!Kimblee, background character death, graphic depictions of violence, fluff, angst
Summary: Prince Edward is a pain in his parents' behinds, and they eventually resort to locking him up in a tower with a dragon in hopes that some enforced solitude will help him sort out his priorities. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't quite work out the way they'd hoped.
The stew turned out perfect, according to Roy, and Edward had ducked his head to attempt to hide a flush at the praise.
When he was ready to turn in that night, Edward found himself faced with the uncertain choice of sleeping next to Roy – who was already passed out – again, and chance his body's odd reactions to the chimera, or find somewhere else to sleep.
It turned out the softened floor of the training room wasn't a terrible place to sleep, and it was a much shorter path between that room and the outside, in the morning, when he needed to empty his bladder.
Roy didn't say anything about the change in Edward's sleeping space, assuming he even noticed it. He supplied Edward with at least one new recipe each morning, some of which turned out better than others, and Edward would attempt those, or clean up the bloodied sand, or relieve his frustrations on one of his fighting dummies while Roy slept most of the day away.
Edward had started keeping track of the days after being surprised by the merchant's visit, so, a couple days before they were due again, he said to Roy, "The merchant and guards are due soon, and they will notice if there is no dragon."
Roy threw his thin arms out to either side, showing off his ribs, which were still far too easy to count, even after over a week of filling meals. "Oh, yes, a most fearsome dragon I'll make, half-starved," he snarled, before crossing his arms over his chest. "Just tell them I'm hunting desert lizards for dinner, or something."
Edward really didn't want to know how accurate that was, in regards to Roy's diet before he'd taken human form, and he shook his curiosity away. "I do not think it will be so bad," he offered, because he'd had a lot of time to think about Roy's change of forms, all the rules it had broken, and what had been written about that empty place.
"Really," Roy replied flatly.
Edward offered him what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I have a theory. If I am wrong, I will tell them you are out hunting."
Roy frowned at him, but didn't fight as Edward pulled back the light sheets. "Are you going to tell me this theory of yours?"
"If I'm right," Edward decided, because he could justify sharing his family's secret if it had bearing on Roy's own life, but he couldn't bring himself to share it just because of a suspicion; the information was far too dangerous to share on a whim.
Roy let out an irritated huff, but he let Edward pick him up without any further comment, wrapping shaking arms around Edward's neck, as though to ensure he wouldn't go tumbling down the stairs if he let him go. Not that Edward would, but Roy didn't, necessarily, know that.
Outside, Edward carried Roy over to the far side of the pool of water, then set him down there. "I am going to move out of the way," he offered, unable to keep from brushing some hair away from Roy's eyes, the one thing that he kept in both forms.
Roy shot him a surprised look, but nodded, and Edward quickly stepped back.
Roy took a deep breath – so obvious on his weakened form – and closed his eyes. Almost immediately, purple energy kicked up around him, growing and brightening so quickly, it hurt to look at. But Edward did his best to squint through it anyway, trying to keep sight of Roy.
For one, blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, there was no form – human or dragon – hidden behind the light of the energy, and then Roy-the-dragon was suddenly there, and the energy died away.
Roy's dragon form looked the same as it had done, gleaming in afternoon sun, save for those two spots on either side, where he'd pulled out his own scales. He twisted his head, looking himself over, and letting out a gravelly sort of noise that could have been confusion.
"Roy," Edward called, stepping closer to the dragon.
Roy's head whipped around to stare at him for a moment, so many questions in his familiar black eyes. "Explain," he ordered, sounding almost like a threat when delivered in that gravelly tone.
Edward sighed and nodded. "Come over by the tower; it is not so comfortable for me to be out in the sun."
Roy huffed out a cloud of smoke, but nodded, and they made their way across the oasis.
Edward sat cross-legged inside the ground floor of the tower, far enough back that the sun shouldn't threaten him as it crept across the sky, while Roy stretched out on his belly between palm trees, the tip of his snout rested just outside the tower, and Edward assumed the cooling arrays carved into the doorway weren't particularly comfortable for a dragon who breathed fire.
Edward rubbed his fingers together, uncertain how to explain. He sighed after a moment, figuring the beginning was his best option, like people always seemed to say, so he explained, "Four hundred years ago, the king of Xerxes feared dying so much, he looked to alchemy to make him immortal. All of his best alchemists put their heads together, and came up with an array. We...have no record of that array, so I cannot tell you if it was flawed, but it did not work. What it did was take the souls of the king, most of his ministers, and all of the alchemists involved."
Roy let out a startled snort, and a large cloud of black smoke came out of his nostrils, while what looked suspiciously like fire lit behind his lips.
Edward managed a tight smile. "Yes. The king's only son had warned his father against such actions, and he was one of the few in the room who survived. His wife was also there, by the king's order, that they might see his victory. Instead, they saw his doom, and the unborn child..." Edward frowned, looking down at his hands. "It is uncertain, some, what truly happened, but that child, Rahman, was born with perfect knowledge of alchemy, though there had been no alchemical talent in the royal family before him. He was the strongest alchemist Xerxes had ever seen, and it is a talent that has not lessened as it's passed through my family, even when a non-alchemist marries into the line.
"The knowledge for how to perform arrays internally is one of the things King Rahman was born knowing how to do. It is a secret he passed some friends in their youth, and it killed each of them, so it had been since kept a secret of my family, for it is a dangerous ability, both to the alchemist, and for any they might fight against."
"Then you would be in danger, too," Roy rumbled, something dark in his tone.
Edward immediately shook his head. "No. King Rahman believed it was simply that his friends tried to perform alchemy above their level, unaware – or uncaring – that an internal array means any accidents that would simply destroy a normal array, would kill them."
"That doesn't mean–!" Roy snarled, fire sparking between his teeth.
"Shut up!" Edward shouted, glaring, and Roy subsided with a huff of dark smoke. Edward glared at him for another moment, until he was certain Roy would listen, then explained, "I know the dangers. I was not taught the secret until my sixteenth birthday, after I had spent a week proving I had a complete mastery of all of the basic and intermediate arrays, and could easily manage most of the most advanced arrays my people use. If I ever have need to use an array I have never done before, I will draw it out; I have no wish to die through my own stupidity." He shook his head. "This secret has been passed through my family for hundreds of years, Roy. We know how to teach it with care."
Roy let out a grumbling noise and huffed out some pale smoke. "Fine. What does any of that have to do with me being healthy in this form?"
Edward took a deep breath and carefully laced his fingers together in his lap. "King Rahman wrote of an empty world, where only a stone door stood. It opened and taught him everything: the wonderful, and the terrible. He called it the Gate Between Equivalence and Truth, and proposed that every person with the ability to perform alchemy has one. The only way to reach it, is by performing the forbidden – human transmutation – and sacrificing something of yourself to learn the secrets it holds."
He took another deep breath and looked up at the dark eyes watching him. "When you change shape, it looks very much like you are activating an array, but the colour of the discharge is purple, the colour of human transmutation."
Roy's eyes went wide and he snorted out more dark smoke. "You're certain?"
"Yes," Edward agreed, barely remembering to keep his voice loud enough that Roy could hear him. "I theorise that you have now two bodies shared between your soul. One is here, in this world, while the other resides in the empty world, and they switch place when you change forms."
Roy tilted his head slightly, his eyes gone distance. "So, it's simply that my human body hasn't been receiving any nutrition for the past two years, that has it so weak."
Edward flinched at having a firm timeline; while he'd been learning how to translate arrays internally and what various illegal arrays looked like, Roy had been being turned into a chimerae and tortured at the whims of his jailers.
"But, if that's true, wasn't hasn't my human body died off?" Roy asked, focussing on Edward again. "Ed? Are you okay?"
Edward swallowed down the taste of bile and forced a smile. "It is possible there is something about that empty world that keeps your unused body alive. Or your soul's connection is keeping it alive, despite the lack of proper nutrients." He frowned a moment in thought, then added, "It is also possible that just enough nutrients are passed on to keep the unused body alive." He shook his head. "I do not have King Rahman's absolute knowledge; all I can do is theorise."
Roy's snout bumped into him, and Edward couldn't quite bite back a startled noise. "That's more than I could do," he offered. "What's wrong?"
Edward opened his mouth to tell him it was nothing, but he looked up into Roy's eyes – so concerned – and couldn't make himself lie. So he swallowed and reached out to rest one gentle hand between Roy's nostrils. "I just...had not realised how long you were there. Being–" He shook his head, couldn't vocalise it.
Roy didn't respond for a long moment, his nostrils barely drawing in air as Edward absently stroked the fine scales between them.
Eventually, though, he withdrew, saying, "Come out here."
Edward frowned. "Why?"
Roy huffed out pale smoke. "Because I'm asking? Come on. I want to show you something."
Still frowning a bit, Edward got up and walked out to him. Almost as soon as he cleared the doorway, Roy reached out with one claw and picked him up. "Put me down!" he ordered, grabbing for one of Roy's fingers to hold on tight.
Roy rumbled a laugh and held Edward up to his shoulders, loosening his fingers so Edward could easily get free. "Climb on," he directed.
Edward muttered some uncomplimentary things under his breath, but vaulted out of Roy's hold and onto his back.
"Hold on tight," Roy warned, and Edward grabbed for the frill that ran down his spine. Almost as soon as he had a reasonable grip, Roy crouched down, then jumped up into the air, his wings giving one hard beat, then another, and then they were above the wall, desert stretching out in all directions around them.
"Fucking wow," Edward breathed, staring around in awe as Roy turned in the air with an easy sweep of his wings, flying over the wall and out into the open desert.
They rose quickly, over the hot sand, spiralling lazily upward, and Edward couldn't help but let out a delighted laugh at this taste of freedom.
"Holding on?" Roy called back when Edward's prison was so far below them, he could hide it with his foot, could see what looked like the outer wall of Persepolis far to the north, and other signs of small towns scattered well away from Edward's little prison.
Edward tightened his grip in Roy's frill and shouted back, "Yes!"
"Good," Roy said, and that was the only warning Edward had before he folded his wings back, and they were suddenly freefalling.
Edward maybe screamed a little bit as the ground approached way too fast, but then Roy's wings snapped open, and they were going horizontal, rather than vertical, racing over sand dunes, going way faster than Edward ever had in his life.
It was amazing, seeing the world pass by so easily, no grip on him, save the wind buffeting his face and sending his long hair streaming out behind him. Every bit the freedom Edward had always dreamed of, and he laughed as he let go of Roy's frill to hug him around the neck as much as he could.
Roy slowed eventually, letting the thermals from the hot sand lift them high up into the air again.
Ahead of them, the familiar yellow of the desert turned into shades of brown and green, sparkling blue rivers and lakes dotting the landscape, while pockets of black and shades of brown and green marked human settlements. Child of the desert that he was, Edward had to blink a few times, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Amestris, he realised, staring wide-eyed at the veritable paradise of life stretching out ahead of him.
It was a beautiful country, and Edward couldn't, for the life of him, understand how Führer Bradley was so blind to what he already had; didn't he know that his country was already great? They had so much, all without having to abuse alchemy to pull up water from deep in the sand. They didn't have to struggle to grow crops, or feed animals. Feed their own people, even. They had trees aplenty for that precious paper that Edward's people had to pay so dearly for.
He squeezed his eyes shut and hid his face against Roy's neck, hating Amestris' leader so much it hurt. The man had everything, but instead of being happy with his bounty and finding pleasure in trading with his neighbours, he murdered and tortured his own people, and made war with anyone willing to pick up arms against him.
Roy turned, and Edward opened his eyes to take in the wide-open Great Xerxes Desert stretching into the distance all around them. This was his home. The landscape was barren and cruel, took far more than they had to give, but her people were kind, sharing what they had with their neighbours, because they knew what it meant to trudge along with empty bellies. (Even Edward, though it had been many years since the last time the clan wars in Xing had made the trade routes impassable, and Van had been forced to ration their precious stores of emergency food for everyone, so the greatest number of their people could survive the food shortage.)
For the first time Edward could remember, the weight of his title felt bearable. He still didn't want it – he wasn't suited to a life of sitting on a throne and deciding the fate of an entire country based on what his ministers wanted him to know – but it didn't feel quite so much like he would be crushed under it any more.
As a tiny speck that eventually resolved itself into Edward's prison approached, Roy started to loss altitude, until they were just high enough to skim over the top of the wall.
They'd lost the rest of the afternoon and a portion of the evening, Edward realised as the sun vanished behind the walls when Roy landed. It hadn't been a terrible way to waste the day, certainly far more fun than he usually had, and, as Roy's wings in, he called, "Thank you."
Roy twisted to look back at him, even as he raised a foreclaw for Edward to step into. "It's not so terrible, being like this," he offered as Edward switched over to the waiting claw, wincing at the way his body complained about the unfamiliar position he'd held for hours.
No, Edward didn't suppose it was; if he had wings, he'd take to the sky and never come down again, probably. Fly until he saw something interesting, at least, and then settle down just long enough to explore it, before he was in the sky again, flying forever, no one depending on him.
Once he was back on the ground, Edward grimaced as he went through some of the stretches he'd been taught as a child, to help with the aches from a long day's travel by camel.
Purple light flashed, and Edward squinted at it, watching as Roy-the-dragon vanished. When the light died, Roy-the-human was left lying in the middle of the sand, his eyes closed.
"Roy?" Edward called as he approached the man.
"Figured this body needed food more than that one," Roy said tiredly.
"Likely," Edward admitted as he knelt next to Roy and carefully picked him up. "But you should see about getting food for that body tomorrow, probably; I assume my father set something up?"
Roy snorted against Edward's collarbone. "No, but it doesn't take me long to reach forested land. Xing?"
"If it is not Amestris, Xing would be our next closest neighbour," Edward agreed, smiling a bit in amusement.
Roy huffed. "Excuse me for not being familiar with your eastern border," he muttered.
Edward laughed outright at that. Then, as he approached the stairs, asked, "Do you want to eat in the kitchen? There is an actual table in there."
Roy laughed, that time, then agreed, "Certainly. Maybe I'll even see the rest of this tower, eventually."
"There is not much," Edward offered as he stepped off onto the kitchen's level and made for the chair at the table to set Roy down. "One floor up is the library, with the most tedious books–"
"Really?" Roy asked, interest gleaming in his eyes. "What sort of books does Xerxes' heir find tedious?"
Edward shot him a flat look, but answered, "The absolutely most basic alchemy books, lots of law books, some on the duties of the nobility, some few on the duties of the royal family, a couple treatises former Xerxesian kings have written, on what it's like being the ruler–"
"Spare me the rest," Roy pleaded, while his forehead hit the table with a dull 'thunk'. "King Van really is aiming to bore you to death."
"I did say," Edward pointed out as he set about cooking them one of Roy's recipes. "Nothing about this was designed with my comfort in mind; his only intention was to have me return home as the son he wishes me to be." He sighed, then shook his head. "Above the library is the bedroom, which are very much familiar with, now."
"Quite," Roy agreed, something a little odd about his voice.
Edward frowned, but when he glanced at Roy, he found him frowning at the table top, like he was maybe worrying over something. Rather than asking after it, Edward turned back to the food and said, "The ground floor you have also seen. Below that is a room with weapons and training dummies and such–"
"Wait," Roy interrupted, sounding surprised, "you father gave you a training room? How is that supposed to help with boring you to death?"
Edward snorted. "It is not," he admitted. He knew his father well enough to explain, "If I am to return as crown prince, I cannot look as though I have been laying around in a dungeon, unable to exercise, for however many months my stubbornness holds out. So he has left me a way to have sun and be clean, food to eat, and a place to keep my skills up. There is also a chemistry lab, on the lowest level, but there is very little in the way of useful chemicals to work with, and I do not think the merchant will carry any, so it is a limited supply."
"Hm."
Edward frowned and focussed on the food for a bit longer, before finally sighing into the heavy silence and asking, "What is it?"
"Are you going back?"
"Going back?" Edward repeated, uncertain what that meant. He turned to frown at Roy.
Roy's dark eyes were intent in a way Edward didn't quite understand. "With King Van. Are you going back to being Crown Prince Edward?"
Something in Edward's chest ached, and he rubbed it a bit absently as he turned back toward the food with a frown. Should he tell Roy the truth? What would he say if Edward admitted he didn't have any intention in returning to Persepolis? That, as soon as they finished rescuing Roy's friends, he was going to run and lose himself in Amestris as quickly as he could.
"Ed?"
"Does it matter?" Edward asked, doing his best to sound like he didn't care. "It will not affect you; once your friends are free, there will be no cause for you to stick around."
Roy was silent for a moment, as Edward stirred the food, before asking, "Do you always use that tone when you're pushing people away?"
Edward fumbled the spoon, and the clatter as it hit the floor was loud in the silence following Roy's words. He swallowed, dare not turn around as he carefully replied, "I do not know what you mean."
Roy was silent as Edward crouched down to retrieve the spoon, dusted it off, and finished the food. When he turned to move everything over to the table, he found Roy watching him, his dark eyes far too intelligent, and Edward almost dropped the pot before he made it to the table.
"Stop staring and eat," Edward ordered, motioning toward where he left the dishes and utensils at the end of the table after cleaning them outside. Then he turned to find the extra chair that he'd made out of the old tower door, just in case they ever needed a second one for a meal.
Roy ate his food quietly for about three mouthfuls, before swallowing and saying, "You're afraid I'm going to drag you back to your father."
Edward frowned at him over his own food. "I did not say that," he insisted, because he couldn't think of anything better when Roy was watching him so closely.
"You didn't have to," Roy returned, shrugging. "What are you intending? Help me free Maes and Riza, then hide in Amestris until someone recognises you?"
His flinch was very likely sufficient answer to that.
Roy sighed and set his spoon down. "Ed, I told you; you're my treasure–"
"Stop calling me that!" Edward shouted, banging his fists on the table and making both their bowls jump. "I am not a fucking pile of gold or jewels! I am just a fucking disappointment! All I have ever done is upset the whole fucking court and run the fuck away! I am a useless pile of shit!"
Roy's hands were suddenly wrapped tight around his wrists, his arms shaking with the effort, but his grip as impossible to break as Xerxesian shackles. "Bullshit," Roy said, his voice firm and quiet, while Edward was still trying to get his breathing under control from all his yelling. "So what if you're not the son your father wanted? That doesn't make you useless, or a disappointment. Not to me. You were willing to give up everything for me, a chimera, everything you've been taught to hate. But you don't hate me, you've been nothing but kind to me since finding out, and that, Ed, makes you beautiful. Golden and shining; a different sort of treasure for a different sort of dragon."
Edward couldn't stop staring at him, face on fire and something in his chest doing the latter half of a fucking yalli. There was something he should be doing. With his mouth. Yelling, probably. Some insults. Lots of insults.
'I want to kiss him.'
That thought shocked Edward out of his stillness, and he yanked his wrists from Roy's grip, stammered out a, "Y-you ar-e an i-idiot!"
And then he ran from the kitchen, because he had a lot of practise with running away.
He made it to the training room, then collapsed onto the softened floor, face hidden in his hands and hating how hot it was. Hating his brain and the weird shit Roy kept making it do. How?!
Oh, hells, if Jean could only see him, he'd have a fucking field day teasing Edward. Heymans would be right there with him, adding to Edward's embarrassment, while Alphonse stood nearby and tried to pretend he wasn't there, in fear of being dragged into it.
(He had the worst friends. If you could really call the two guards who had been following him and Alphonse around since they were old enough to find ways to sneak out of the palace 'friends'. Not that he could really be picky; being crown prince meant there weren't many people who he might call 'friend' who weren't sticking around in hopes of getting something out of it. At least he'd always known Jean and Heymans had been around because they'd been ordered to follow them.)
After he was done teasing Edward, though, he'd probably nudge Heymans with a pointed look, and Heymans would stop grinning for a minute and actually give Edward some useful advice. What had he said to Alphonse when he'd had his crush on that one courtier's daughter?
'You're only young once, your Highness, and everyone, no matter how royal their blood, should be allowed to have at least one kiss before they tie themselves down in a political marriage.' Or something like that. (Followed by a smart remark from Jean about how everyone but Edward should have a kiss, since he'd taken to joking about Edward's lack of interest in sex and the such for whatever reason made sense in his badly bruised brain; Heymans always said he'd just been hit over the head too many times.)
Edward sighed into his hands. One kiss? And what then? What if Roy pushed him away?
What if he was no longer Roy's 'treasure'?
He couldn't quite choke back a helpless laugh. Because, as much as he'd been trying to get Roy to stop calling him that, of course he'd become attached to it.
"Ed, you moron," he muttered to himself, his native language sounding odd, as much Amestrisan as he'd been speaking with Roy.
He had two choices, really: He could continue freaking out about this every time Roy got too close, or he could just follow Heymans' advice and kiss Roy, then deal with whatever fallout came after. And if Roy responded by leaving, well. Edward could just leave. He had a general idea of the closest settlement, now, so he could stock up with as much as he could carry, then make his way there, trade for whatever he might need, and leave for Xing. Travel east for a while, until he was far beyond Van and Xerxes' longest reaching fingers.
He rubbed roughly at his face, then shoved himself up to stand. He took a deep breath, told himself it was better to know than keep wondering like this, and returned to the kitchen.
Roy was staring morosely into his bowl when Edward stopped on the landing, and he stared at him for a moment, his chest aching at the obvious upset. He didn't want Roy upset, much preferred his pleasure at finding his dragon form healthy, or his laughter as he joked about eventually seeing the rest of the tower.
What had Roy done to him?
Edward swallowed, then cleared his throat.
Roy's head came up and around so fast, Edward honestly feared he'd given himself whiplash. "Ed!" he exclaimed, a complicated rush of emotions crossing his face, before it settled on regret. "I'm sorry. I know it bothers you, my dragon half. I'll try to keep it to myself, from now on."
Edward blinked, his chest aching, and shook his head. "Look, can–?" How was he supposed to do this? Where was Heymans when he needed advice? "May I...do something? Please."
Roy looked a little wary, but nodded all the same. "Yes?"
Edward managed a smile, hoped it was more reassuring than it felt, and walked over to Roy's side. And, fuck, he felt so awkward – was this how this shit always felt? He was so glad he'd been missing out, if so – but he still leant down and pressed his mouth against Roy's.
Roy was so utterly still, it felt way too awkward, too stiff – like that marble statue one of his ancestors had spent a fortune on and installed in the middle of the main courtyard – and Edward pulled back after only a breath, couldn't make himself look to see Roy's expression. "That is all," he said, his court-smile coming easily to his face, even as something in his chest felt like it was falling to pieces. "Thank you for allowing–"
Roy's too-tight grip was suddenly on his shoulder, tugging on him with Roy's whole weight, and Edward's hip banged sharply into the corner of the table, but he ignored it, one hand grabbing for the edge, the other reaching for Roy's waist because why did he keep trying to stand when he was way too weak?!
And then there was a mouth against his, warm and soft and alive. The exact opposite from Edward's awkward try, and he couldn't quite hold back a whimper at how utterly perfect it felt.
Roy pulled back, breathing hotly against Edward's lips as he whispered, "I don't understand. The way I look–"
"Shut up," Edward ordered, because he couldn't begin to explain it himself.
Roy seemed to take that as an order to press their mouths together again, the hand that wasn't bruising Edward's shoulder coming up to gently cup his cheek. It was a study in contradictions, and it made Edward's knees feel weirdly weak.
He shifted his grip on the table, braced against it a bit, even as he pulled Roy closer with his other arm, warming all over at the sensation of bare torsos touching.
He couldn't say who moaned – maybe they both did it at the same time? – but the sound vibrated its way straight down to Edward's misbehaving penis, and he seriously hated its timing.
Roy laughed against his mouth, and Edward opened his eyes to looked hazily at him. "Misbehaving fucker," he heard himself say.
Roy laughed outright at that, black eyes shining, and Edward decided it wasn't worth getting embarrassed over what he'd said, far more interested in memorising what Roy looked like when he was so utterly happy.
And, fuck, had Edward been the one to make him so happy? That was...mind-boggling.
"Yes," Roy murmured, smiling and looking at Edward like he was the only thing that mattered in the whole world, "they tend to do that."
"Not mine," Edward insisted, facing warming. "Not before you."
Roy looked surprised for a moment, then his eyes darkened with something that made Edward's least favourite part of his anatomy utterly delighted. "That," Roy murmured, his voice low and distractingly smooth, "is fascinating. I'm almost tempted to suggest some experiments, but I don't think I could bear to share you with anyone else."
That should not have made Edward feel so warm – he wasn't property! – but apparently his body ran on a different sort of logic than his mind, because he liked Roy being possessive. "Shut up," he muttered, partially in fear of Roy saying something that made his body combust.
Roy's smile had a particular edge to it that was disturbingly attractive for reasons Edward couldn't begin to understand. "I bet I have enough energy to help you with that, if you want."
Edward's face was on fire, and his body was extremely interested in letting Roy 'help' him. "You're supposed to be eating!" he realised, and his voice only cracked a little bit.
Roy almost seemed to back off a bit. Or, at least, the heat of his...everything eased a bit, even if he was still standing flush against Edward. The hand on Edward's cheek sort of petted him a bit, and Roy murmured, "Too much?"
Edward gulped in a breath that felt a little bit more steadying than any of the air he'd been getting previously. "Wh-what were you doing?" he managed somehow.
Roy's smile had a self-deprecating edge to it as he said, "Coming on too strong. You are entirely too alluring, I'm afraid."
"I do not–"
"Don't argue with me," Roy interrupted, petting Edward's cheek again. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and you are every bit gorgeous to me, my treasure."
Edward hadn't realised it was possible to feel relieved and irritated for the same reason, but apparently he could when it came to that stupid...label. "Stop calling me that," he complained, only half meant it, which was irritating.
How did Roy keep doing this shit to him?!
"Can't help it," Roy said, before brushing his lips against Edward's nose, which was weird and a little nice, which made it even more weird. "Let me sit?"
...he was still holding Roy, wasn't he?
He helped Roy sit back down, then returned to his own dinner, feeling way too hot to sit still, but forcing him to at least finish his bowl, because he'd burnt way too many cooking attempts to take his victories for granted, any more.
He cleaned up the kitchen while Roy finished a second serving – and it was weirdly reassuring to watch Roy eating so much, even if Ed didn't think it would really help him get his health back any faster – then carried him upstairs.
As he sat Roy on the bed, one of those too-tight grips wrapped around his wrist, and Edward found himself caught by the simmering heat in Roy's dark eyes. "Sleep here, tonight," Roy ordered, that edge of authority in his voice again.
Edward swallowed. He'd started sleeping in the training room because he was freaked out about his body's inexplicable reactions – which hadn't really changed, honestly – and he didn't want Roy to catch on – which was clearly a lost cause, now. As much as he wanted to hide back down there again, he also wanted to crawl into bed with Roy, so he nodded.
Roy smiled and his grip loosened, twisted slightly, and then he was lifting Edward's hand to his mouth and kissing the back of it.
He was seriously going to combust before the end of this, wasn't he?
"Come to bed with me?" Roy murmured, heat in his eyes as he looked up at Edward through his hair.
Edward was pretty sure all versions of a refusal had just fled his vocabulary. All of them, in every language he spoke.
"Yeah," he managed, and freed his hand so he could kick off his trousers, then climb into the other side, brushing his fingers against the array on the nearest alchemical light as he did, which darkened all the ones in the room.
He didn't even get settled, before Roy was joining him on his side, wrapping his arms around him. And then Roy's mouth was on his, and Edward forgot to be annoyed. Instead, he kissed Roy back as best he could, until Roy pulled away with a quiet laugh and whispered, "Sleeping, my treasure."
"Hate you," Edward complained, even as he wrapped his arms back around Roy, curling into his warmth and closing his eyes to sleep.
He woke up over-warm again, with an arm weighing on his waist, and he was, thankfully, not confused. A bit irritated, maybe, because his penis was apparently very excitable, but he was starting to resign himself to that unfortunate side-effect of Roy.
He opened his eyes to stare at his bedmate, mostly just because he could. He thought, maybe, that Roy's face had filled out a little bit more than it had been last time he'd woke up like this, but he couldn't really be certain.
And then black eyes blinked open, so very clearly not quite awake yet, but Roy's mouth curled with a smile all the same, and he murmured, "Ed." His eyes closed again and he shifted closer, hands tight against Edward's lower back, which was...distracting. Nice, but distracting. Or maybe distracting, but in a really nice way?
Edward decided it was too much trouble to be awake, so he closed his own eyes, told his troublesome penis to just fucking shut up for a while, and dozed off.
The next time he woke, it was to an insistent bladder, and it didn't take too much shoving to free himself from Roy's hold so he could use the little chamber pot he'd alchemised for Roy – since he was sort of stuck in the room unless Edward carried him out – then kicked off his pants and turned to find a clean pair, only to find black eyes watching him.
Roy very obviously looked him over – Edward's face was hot again, dammit – before giving Edward a slow smile that warmed him in the same way as whatever he'd been doing with all the kissing the night before, and rumbling, "Good morning, Ed."
"Good morning," Edward managed, was kind of impressed with how steady his voice came out. "I am going to change. And then make us breakfast."
"If you must," Roy agreed with a regretful sigh, his gaze pointedly low.
Edward's penis seemed to think that was an invitation to something, because it twitched, and Edward realised he needed to get dressed and run like fuck down to the kitchen, before Roy somehow managed to get him back into bed.
Of course, once breakfast was done, he had to bring that back up. And then eat it in the bed, next to Roy. Who, thankfully, seemed more interested in the food than in Edward.
Which lasted about as long as the food did, and then Roy's lips were on his, one hand ghosting over his chest.
Edward had about enough sense to move the remains of their breakfast things off the bed, but then he got completely lost in Roy. His kisses and his touch and the warmth of him against every inch of Edward's skin.
For the first time in his life, Edward wasted the whole day in bed, and didn't regret it at all.
The merchant's visit went smoothly, despite a number of uncertain looks cast up at where Roy-the-dragon was sunning on the roof of the tower, his tail hanging lazily down on one side, and only one black eye opened to watch for any suggestion of a threat to Edward. (There weren't any; they'd worked all that out last time.)
That said, Roy made a show of waking up and yawning, deadly teeth very obviously on display, as the guards were sealing up the doorway they'd made. Edward shook his head and hid a smile against his first load of supplies to take inside the tower, while Roy jumped off the tower and sailed after the merchant caravan.
When he got back, he changed back into his human form, and Edward carried him upstairs to the kitchen, where he could give directions in person for his newest recipe, which was actually a bit of a distracting endeavour, because Roy was distracting.
So attempt number one ended up ruined, Edward swore he wasn't going to let Roy in the kitchen while he was cooking any more, and Roy managed to convince him he was extremely useful, via a lot of kissing and a few hands in places where hands really should not be when they were so close to food. (Roy disagreed. Of course.)
As it turned out, admitting there was something between them, completely ruined both of them for productivity.
Two days before Van was due, Edward and Roy finally managed to focus on something other than each other.
After an hour, the kitchen table was covered in parchment with notes and partial maps, all pulled from Roy's memories of the Amestrisan lab. Roy was clearly still nervous about letting Edward go in alone, but he was too weak to be any use as a human, and too noticeable as a dragon, so that was their only choice. Unless they wanted to wait another month or three in hopes that Roy might be more capable, but both of them were itching to get out of their tower prison; Roy desperately wanted to free his friends before they had to suffer too much longer, and Edward wanted the chimera-dragon project burnt to the ground before they got sent to attack Xerxes.
Too, Edward had no interest in playing the stubborn son with his father; far more important for him to move on and start training Alphonse to the position, in case Edward and Roy completely fucked up and Amestris took it as an opening gambit for war.
So, the morning they were expecting Van, Edward dyed his hair black, packed up all the necessities, left a note tacked where his father would be certain to see it, and climbed up onto Roy's back.
As they turned toward Amestris, Edward was nearly certain he saw a group of people on camels approaching his former prison, and smiled as he turned his head to face forward.
'Father,
'Flame and I are going to break out a bunch of dragons from prison, maybe destroy a few really ugly buildings, then he's going to take me to see mountains and snow, and maybe the ocean, eventually.
'I'll consider coming home after you publicly disinherit me, so no one can argue about the line of ascension any more.
'My best to Mother and Al,
'Edward'
The problem with Roy's dragon form being so obvious, of course, was that they couldn't just fly straight to Central City. They ended up landing just inside the city, near what looked like a bunch of wild horses. Most of them had spooked at the sight of the dragon, but Edward managed to catch two and bring them over to where Roy-the-human was sitting tiredly in the middle of their things. Edward alchemised a saddle for Roy and helped him up onto the horse, then loaded the second one up with their belongings, and started leading them in the direction Roy had pointed out while they were in the sky.
"You're not riding?" Roy asked tiredly, already drooping in his saddle.
"I'll ride in a bit," Edward lied, because he wanted to be able to walk next to Roy, in case he fell off the horse in his sleep. Also, someone needed to guide Roy's horse, and Edward wasn't comfortable enough with horses to ride one while guiding another.
Roy did in fact fall asleep on the horse, and almost fell off twice before they reached the train station.
Edward had to trade some of the food they'd brought for tickets, but he'd sort of expected that, if he was being honest, and being able to take the train into the city was a lot more important than having the extra food, especially with Roy still as weak as he was.
"I feel like I'm failing," Roy complained once they were on the train, his head on Edward's shoulder.
Edward let off looking around in awe – there was a railroad through the desert, connecting Amestris, Xerxes, and Xing, but he'd never been able to ride it anywhere – to shoot Roy a frown. "Why?"
"My treasure is protecting me."
"You're an idiot," Edward informed him, only flushing a little bit.
Roy muffled an amused noise against Edward's shoulder, and fell asleep there shortly after.
Edward sighed and kissed the top of his idiot chimera's head, then turned to watch out the window at the passing green.
Dragon's Flight
Dragon's Tongue
Dragon's Quake
.