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batsutousaiTitle: Sun Over the Yardarm
Series: Come Hell or High Water
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood/manga
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Mature
Pairings: Darius/Heinkel, pre-Darius/Edward Elric/Heinkel
Warnings: Pirate AU, all the fucking pottymouths, Ed is an insubordinate shit, canon-typical violence, mentioned discrimination against LGBTQIA+, implied racial discrimination, untagged background ships, established relationship, preship
Summary: Darius and Heinkel had only picked up pirating because their job choices on land were slim, but it ended up being the best choice for their personal lives, too.
Disclaim Her: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Arakawa Hiromu and various publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: For FMA Polyship Week on tumblr. Today's prompts included the theme of Differences and the dialogue prompt of "That's way too much for one person." Both of which are sort of only sideways in there, but close enough. XP
There I was one night, innocently trying to sleep, when it occurred to me that it would be AWESOME to have these three boys serving on a pirate ship. I haven't decided, yet, if I regret that life choice or not. XP
Related, these ship weeks need to stop spawning AUs with epic backstory, because this shit is the worst kind of fodder for my muse, holy fuck. Someone save me. (And please don't be surprised if this AU pops up again this week.)
I did try to research nautical terminology for this, for the most part, but if I've completely bollocked something up, I'm sorry.
The ending feels a bit bleh to me, but I mostly just wanted it done, by that point, and I didn't have a chance for an edit reread of any sort. So.
You can also read this at Archive of Our Own, Fanfiction.Net, or tumblr.
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Darius hadn't, honestly, expected much to come out of signing up with a pirate crew, but being a gay man – or a man who was flexible about the gender of his partner, as Heinkel always insisted about saying of himself – tended to limit the job market, and he and Heinkel had resorted to begging for money to cover their rent one too many times. So, when he'd seen the notice in the dockside pub, tacked up in the darkest, grimiest corner, where any military raids weren't likely to spot it before someone could pull it down, it hadn't seemed like a terrible choice. After all, that was room and board paid for, and all you had to do was raid a few military ships and look angry and imposing, which Darius'd had down since he hit puberty, near abouts, and he figured Heinkel's flatly serious stare was close enough.
Heinkel had sort of shrugged when Darius had waved the notice at him, then said it was worth looking into, so they'd stuck around and met up with the imposing first officer – a woman known simply as 'The Hawk' – and she'd hired them after a brief question and answer session, during which it became pretty clear this crew wasn't looking for blind idiots, but people who could actually think for themselves.
"Still in?" Heinkel had asked, because that hadn't been at all what either of them had expected.
"Yeah, I'm game. You?"
Heinkel had nodded, so they'd packed up the things they'd cared about, told their landlord he could sell whatever was left to settle what they still owed on that month's rent, then made their way down to the dock The Hawk had given them directions to.
The captain's name was Flame, and it became quickly obvious that most everyone in the crew had some sort of code name. Protecting any family left behind on land, Darius assumed, and he could respect that, even if he'd happily paint a target on his old man's back.
Life on the ship actually seemed pretty boring, for the most part. He and Heinkel did their shifts manning the lines and maintaining various objects, and they spent their rest periods together – someone had kindly put them on the same shift, and Heinkel insisted it was The Hawk, but Darius wasn't certain she was the sort to care about the comforts of the men and women on board, so long as they worked efficiently. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't much like the stories of high sea piracy, either, which made it rather, well, boring.
Boring jumped overboard the afternoon Darius met the elder of the two crow's nest brothers, Fullmetal. He'd seen the younger brother, Armour, a couple of times during meals, laughing with other members of the crew, though he'd never really spoken to him, mostly because he was always already surrounded by crew when Darius and Heinkel made it down to get food.
Fullmetal, though, he'd only heard of via those members of the crew who had told them who Armour was, then had happily gone on to explain he was one of two, and the elder had long hair he kept in a braid, and always wore a red jacket, which had seemed like an odd choice of clothing for a lookout, but what did Darius know, really?
Anyway, the first time he saw Fullmetal was getting in line behind him for food. He hadn't really thought about talking to the kid – he'd already settled into a niche in the crew, and Heinkel had beat him down and was already eating with their mates, besides – but then he'd realised the kid was getting a lot of food. Like, his plate looked close to overflowing, and he was still staring at the cook, refusing to take it back until there was more food on it. (Which the cook did with a knowing grin, like this was normal behaviour.)
Darius couldn't help himself, he had to say, "You sure that's not too much for one person?"
Fullmetal spun and cast a glare at Darius' chest for a moment, before raising his head to glare up into his face. "The fuck're you calling so fuckin' tiny a starved seagull wouldn't be interested?!"
Darius blinked once, twice, became aware of someone behind him trying very hard to muffle their snickers, then pointed out, "I didn't say any of that."
"You called me small," Fullmetal snarled.
Someone choked on a laugh, and Fullmetal turned his glare in that direction for a second, then snatched his plate from the cook and stormed toward the stairs back up to the deck.
As much as Darius wanted to shrug the incident off, Heinkel was giving him the familiar, 'You screwed that up; go fix it, idiot' glare, so he sighed a bit, let the cook plop a serving of mush on his plate, then followed Fullmetal's path to the deck.
He found the kid perched on top of one of the canons, scowling at anyone who came within five feet of him, and shovelling food into his mouth without looking down at it.
"I didn't call you small," Darius announced as soon as the brilliantly gold eyes – were those natural?! – turned on him.
"You implied it," Fullmetal snarled, before flinging out one gloved hand and waving it at Darius. "Fuck, your mere existence–"
"There's nothing I can do for your inferiority complex, kid," Darius interrupted, rolling his eyes and turning away; if the kid stalking off wasn't really his fault, Heinkel couldn't chew his head off for heading right back inside. "Give it a few more years!" he added over his shoulder.
Behind him, the kid sputtered, and Darius finally joined Heinkel, feeling right cheerful.
"I'm twenty-four, you ignoramus," Fullmetal informed him, while Darius – and probably Heinkel, who was walking next to him – was still trying to recover from the shock of having the kid land in front of him, apparently having jumped from the yard above them. Which was way too high for any sane person.
"I'm the idiot?" Darius had to ask, because his brain was having trouble focussing on what the kid had said, after that stunt. "I'm not the one–"
"Darius," Heinkel warned quietly.
Fullmetal's eyes twitched toward Heinkel, then widened slightly.
"Fullmetal!" the captain's voice rang out across the deck. "What have I said about jumping from the yards?!"
Fullmetal wiggled a gloved finger between Darius and Heinkel and muttered something that sounded like "Hired, right," before he turned and shouted back at the captain, "You better not be hiring fucking giants just to piss me off, Captain Bastard, or I'll dent a hole right through the ceiling of your fancy cabin!"
Darius half expected the captain to have him thrown overboard or something, because no way any captain liked being talked to that way by a member of their crew, even one as friendly as Flame always seemed to be. But the man just rubbed at his eyes, instead, and turned to look toward where The Hawk was coming down from the quarterdeck.
"Do you have a problem with my hiring options, Fullmetal?" The Hawk asked in a mild tone that still had shivers racing down Darius' spine.
"Yeah, act–" Fullmetal started, before Darius reached forward and covered his mouth.
It was the sort of thing Heinkel would sometimes do to him, when he could see the train wreck Darius was racing toward, and he really couldn't say why he'd done it to the kid. Maybe because he didn't really want to see his blood all over the deck?
Fullmetal yanked his hand away in a surprisingly strong grip and spun to glare up at Darius, snarling, "What. The. Fuck?"
"Learn to pick your battles, kid," Darius warned him.
Fullmetal's eyes narrowed and he shoved a finger against Darius' chest hard enough he winced. "I'm not a kid, fuck's sake. Just because you're a fucking giant–"
"I'm not a giant, you're just a mid–"
Heinkel grabbed his earlobe and yanked hard, shutting Darius up. "I apologise for him, Fullmetal," he offered in that too-serious tone that he always used when Darius rushed right over some rule of social interactions. "Darius didn't mean any insult."
Well, actually, he had, that last time, but he knew better than to argue with Heinkel; getting the cold shoulder from your lover was no fun, especially when you shared an almost-too-small bunk on a pirate ship.
Fullmetal's expression sort of went blank, and he stared up at Heinkel for a beat in silence, before pointing a threatening finger at Darius and snapping, "I'm a perfectly normal size," before turning and sort of...scurrying up the main mast to the crow's nest. Not unlike a cockroach.
"He has a complex," Darius offered to the unimpressed stare Heinkel turned on him.
"Shut up before you have to sleep on the deck," Heinkel suggested.
Darius made a show of buttoning his upper lip to his lower lip, then motioned for Heinkel to lead the way down to their sleeping space, which Heinkel did with that helpless sigh that Darius had long determined meant he was laughing inside.
Darius was minding his own business the next afternoon, arguing with the ropes tying down one of the cannons, when a shadow fell over his work. He looked up, prepared to start glaring if it was someone he could tell off for interrupting him, only to stop and blink a bit dumbly at finding Armour standing there.
Armour sort of shifted a bit, looking a little uncertain for a beat, before putting on a helpless sort of smile and saying, "Sorry to interrupt you, but I wanted to thank you for yesterday."
"Thank me," Darius repeated, confused.
Armour nodded. "Yes. For stopping Brother before he could talk back to Hawke– To the Hawk. I mean, he does it often enough, she's used to it, by now, I think, but I still try to stop him, when I can, because you really shouldn't talk to a superior officer that way, no matter how long you've known each other, but I wasn't in range yesterday to yell and he cleared out all my projectiles at some point, because he's a jerk, so, yeah. Thank you."
Darius blinked a few times, before it occurred to him that he should probably respond to that in some sort of way other than a dumb stare, so he shrugged and turned back to the cannon's ropes, muttering, "Don't worry about it. Been on Fullmetal's end often enough; pay it forward, right?"
Armour let out a quiet, slightly relieved laugh. "Right," he agreed, and moved away.
Darius returned to his work, frowning a bit as he turned the kid's words over in his head. Fullmetal and Armour had clearly been members of the crew for a while, which he'd sort of assumed already, given they had such a specific job, as opposed to the general 'do whatever needs doing' that him and Heinkel and most of the rest of the crew were assigned. It made him curious about the history there, why two kids – or, well, twenty-somethings – had signed up with a band of pirates.
He finally huffed at himself in annoyance when he realised he was just making the slightly fraying of the rope worse, and muttered, "Not my business," before making himself focus on his work.
"That other guy your boyfriend or something?" Fullmetal asked as he swung lightly down to the deck next to where Darius had been braiding rope and enjoying the breeze. At least he'd decided to use a rope to touch down, that time, thought Darius suspected that had very little to do with Captain Flame's admonishment.
Darius shot him his best flat stare, learnt from watching Heinkel deliver them far too many times over the year. "You got a problem with that?" he asked, meant the words to come out as flat as his stare, but he knew they had too much of an edge to them.
(He'd lost far too much because of his preferences to pretend otherwise; that had always been more Heinkel's department.)
Fullmetal scoffed and picked up some rope to braid. "How about 'not a fucking bit'?" he returned, his tone derisive. "Please. Knight, our helmsman, and Frequency, or chief communications man, have been sleeping together since before I've known them, and the betting pool's long been in favour of Captain Bastard having a thing with his best mate, if only because the moron's always referring to him as 'the Mrs'." Fullmetal made a show of rolling his eyes, while Darius sort of blinked at him, a bit thrown by the careless offering of personal information. "Trust me, if I cared who you're sharing beds with, I'd have jumped ship ages ago."
Darius snorted. "Right. Because being okay with one or two queers actually means you're okay with all of us."
Fullmetal frowned and was quiet for a long moment, leaving them both to continue their work in slightly oppressive silence.
At last, when Darius was just thinking he might be better taking his work elsewhere, Fullmetal said, "You're right, I guess. I've met plenty of people who had traits I couldn't stand in them, but managed just fine in other people. But that, who you're attracted to, that's never really been something that's bothered me. I mean, okay, my brother has this completely stupid crush on the girl we grew up with, which I'll never get, but that's...whatever. I mean, she's my friend, practically my sister, so it's a little weird to think–"
He coughed and shook his head. "The point is, some things you can't really control, and who you're attracted to – or who you're attracted to is attracted to – isn't really... It's not worth squabbling over, I don't think. Really. Hatred, like that, making minorities lesser, that's the military's thing, and it's gross, okay? It's just– It's completely sickening, and I don't – none of us, not Flame or Hawk or any of them – want this ship to ever be that. This is...it's safe. We're safe, here, all of us."
'We'? Darius couldn't help but wonder. Was Fullmetal still talking about queers, or did he mean all of the minorities of Amestris; he certainly looked like he'd fit into the latter, with his impossibly golden eyes.
Without another word, Fullmetal lurched to his feet and walked away, leaving behind the rope he'd finished braiding.
Darius turned and stared after him as he scurried up the main mast – still creepily reminiscent of a cockroach – wondering why he felt like he'd missed a part of the conversation entirely.
Still, what he'd said had left Darius with plenty to think about, his insistence that the history of the original crew not being his business clearly not standing up against being offered so much information about them so easily.
Related, he'd learnt one thing for certain about Fullmetal: He might not have been a kid in age, but he was clearly far too trusting for a pirate. He was damn lucky Darius was only interested to sate his own curiosity, not sent to spy on them for the military.
Darius and Heinkel, both, had seen plenty of merchant ships pass within range of their ship unmolested, which had always seemed a little odd for a pirate ship, but they'd both just shrugged and kept on with their work; they'd signed up for the amenities, not because they'd been looking to hassle other people just because they might have a string of pearls to run off with.
Their first attack occurred around the first month mark of Darius and Heinkel's service. They'd both been on deck when one of the brothers – Darius couldn't quite tell over the wind – had shouted a warning down from the crow's nest, and the violent smile that had taken over Captain Flame's face when he'd spotted the ship with his spyglass, was every millimetre a pirate's smile.
It was a military ship, their colours flying high and proud. Darius had thought Flame was more than a little insane, as they came within cannon range, because the military ship very clearly had them outgunned, but then the man held out one hand and snapped his fingers.
Explosions rocked the military ship, very obviously focussed on where their cannons and ammunition was stored. Almost as though some vengeful god had stepped in and decided the soldiers shouldn't be allowed to fight back.
"Fire!" The Hawk shouted, and Darius turned his attention to manning their unscathed cannons.
If not for the shout of "Brother!" from above, Darius probably would have missed Fullmetal jumping across from their main yard to the military ship's. He managed to balance there for one impressive moment, and then a cannonball from their ship clipped the mast and he slipped.
Fullmetal managed to grab something – one of the footropes, Darius suspected – and kept from plummeting to the ocean, but he was nearly certain the kid was wearing his usual gloves, which meant one more good hit to the mast would shake him loose.
"Don't hit the main!" he shouted at those around him, and a couple of the cannons were shoved until they pointed away from the main mast, aiming for the mizzen or fore masts, instead.
He chanced a glance back up at Fullmetal after his cannon's next shot, and found him back on top of the yard, stepping far too quickly along it, heading toward the mast.
A shot rang out – rifle, Darius recognised a bit absently – and a military man climbing the mast with far less speed that Darius had observed in Fullmetal fell back to the deck of his ship before he could reach the yard the kid was on.
"Stay!" The Hawk shouted, and Darius realised there was a group of men and women geared up to jump across, who she was stopping. (Also, she was efficiently reloading a rifle; she was very likely the one who'd shot the man climbing toward Fullmetal.)
Darius looked back toward Fullmetal in time to watch him drop easily down to the military ship's deck, right in front of someone who was just standing there, while the rest of the crew was rushing about in a panic.
There was one, long moment, where it felt like the whole world was holding its breath, and then the deck of the military ship lit with electricity, and people started screaming on both ships, right before everything exploded.
The explosion sent their ship backward, very likely saving them from a great deal of structural damage, especially as the military ship's main mast fell in their direction, just short of their current position.
Out of the wrecked remains of the military ship came Fullmetal, running along the broken mast, toward their ship. There was something about his expression that made Darius think he was running for his life – or perhaps it was just because the ship had exploded right after he made the deck – and he was just reaching for the coil of extra rope next to him – the end of the mast was close enough, he should be able to toss it out so Fullmetal could grab it and they could pull him up, assuming someone closer didn't throw a line first – when a barrage of shrapnel flew out of the remains of the ship, straight for him.
Cries of warning filled the air around Darius, both 'Fullmetal' and what sounded like 'Edward'; the kid's real name?
Fullmetal dropped without looking back, clinging to the mast like it was his only hope of salvation.
Most of the shrapnel hit the water around him, but a few pieces hit the mast above and below Fullmetal – and The Hawk managed to shoot one that would have impaled the kid off target, which was amazing and terrifying all at once – and the mast sort of fell apart, leaving Fullmetal floating on a piece of mast that wasn't quite as long as he was tall, surrounded by floating chunks of wood that looked too small to support so much as a rat.
Fullmetal cast one long stare at their ship – looking, first, at the quarterdeck, then up at the crow's nest – then gave a firm nod and got carefully to his feet, turning back toward the military ship, where a figure – the same one he'd landed in front of, Darius suspected – was standing in the middle of the wreckage, appearing completely untouched.
"Why doesn't he just swim it?" someone behind Darius whispered, while Flame, The Hawk, and a couple of other senior officers, including the helmsman, hissed to each other up on the quarterdeck.
"Word is he can't swim," someone else said.
"Well, why don't we shoot that other guy?" the first person asked. "Send a rowboat out to Fullmetal."
Someone let out a rough laugh. "You don't know who that is, do you? That's Zolf Kimblee."
Kimblee. Darius was familiar with the name – most everyone was, after the war that won them Aerugo – but he didn't really know much more than the man was an alchemist capable of terrifying amounts of destruction.
He recalled the shrapnel aimed at Fullmetal, replaced it with cannonballs they'd shot his way first, and shuddered; probably best they not give him any additional ammunition.
"Man the sails!" The Hawk shouted.
Darius stared at the lone figure balanced carefully on the remains of the mast, facing off against Kimblee and not looking back at the ship, even though he had to have heard The Hawk. He probably could have made it back to the ship, with The Hawk providing cover fire against any more close shots with shrapnel, but he wasn't even bothering.
He couldn't swim.
"Fuck it," Darius hissed, dropping the coil of rope he hadn't even realised was in his hand, and standing. "Heinkel!" he shouted, looking over the deck and almost immediately catching his partner's eyes.
Heinkel's expression was tense, clearly as pleased as Darius about leaving someone behind, and he gave one sharp nod, then turned toward the quarterdeck.
Darius nodded to himself, then took a deep breath and dove over the edge.
The water was a shock of cold, but Darius refused to let himself dwell on it, instead surfacing and quickly getting his bearings, then starting out for Fullmetal, dodging floating pieces of wood from the military ship.
"Are you an idiot?!" Fullmetal shouted as he got within a couple more strokes of his section of the mast.
"Come on, kid," Darius threw back as he reached the mast. "We're going back."
A shot rang out, and they both flinched as a piece of wood just barely missed Fullmetal's head.
"You're going to get killed!" Fullmetal hissed once he'd carefully crouched down on the mast. "It's me he wants!"
Darius put any questions about that out of his mind for the moment, shooting a scowl up at the kid. "I am not going back there and telling your brother I failed," he said as flatly as he could manage while treading water.
Another shot rang out, and another piece of wood barely missed Fullmetal.
"Fuck," Fullmetal breathed, looking a little horrified at Darius' comment, and he mentally gave himself a pat on the back for hitting the kid's weak point on his first try. "I have automail," he warned.
That explained the not being able to swim, at least. "I'll manage," Darius promised, right before two shots rang out, and a much larger piece of wood just barely missed both of them. "Let's go. Now."
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Fullmetal started chanting under his breath, not letting up as he slipped into the water and grabbed on to Darius tight enough to hurt, despite the cold of the water. He was clearly terrified, but he let Darius situate him so he'd be mostly out of the way, then held on tight as Darius turned them back toward their ship and the rope hanging down from the edge of the ship for them.
Darius kept on at a steady pace, doing his best to ignore Fullmetal's chanted cursing and the occasional crack of a gunshot knocking a projectile away from them.
At the rope, he made Fullmetal go first then followed after him, and was grateful when he realised it was being pulled up by people on deck, while the the ship was turning away from the wreckage of the military ship, shielding him and Fullmetal from and further projectiles.
By the time Darius climbed over the railing onto the deck, Fullmetal already had a blanket wrapped around him and was being hissed at by Armour, who looked very much like he'd been crying recently. Up on the quarterdeck, Flame was watching Fullmetal with a relieved sort of air, but he didn't come down to save him from his brother.
Heinkel was next to him before Darius could quite finish collecting his bearings, and he caught the edges of the blanket his partner had brought, pulling it tight as he leant gratefully against Heinkel.
"You realise," Heinkel murmured, "that you're insane."
"You'd have done the same," Darius insisted.
"Probably," Heinkel admitted, before turning a flat stare on Darius. "But I don't have a history of rescuing people with crushes on me."
Darius blinked at him, then looked at where Armour was ushering Fullmetal into the captain's cabin, with no noise of complaint from Flame or The Hawk. "Twice," Darius said after what was probably a bit too long. "That's not a 'history'. And Fullmetal doesn't–"
"Yes, he does," Heinkel intoned, before sighing and tugging Darius in the direction of the door leading below deck. "Come on, let's get you changed before you get sick."
Darius spent the trip thinking back over his handful of interactions with Fullmetal, but he couldn't think of any time when it seemed like the kid had a crush on him, or whatever. No nervous stuttering, or fawning eyes, or being constantly right there.
"He doesn't," he insisted once they'd stopped next to their shared chest of belongings.
Heinkel let out that sigh that meant he was desperately grasping for his failing patience. "Darius, how long did it take you to realise I liked you?"
Darius opened his mouth, then stopped and slumped a bit, because he'd never actually figured it out on his own, had needed Heinkel coming out and admitting his feelings to him to realise that he wasn't the only one who'd been harbouring a secret crush; he'd just been turned down too many times, lost too many friends, to chance telling him first.
"That was you," he finally decided. "I still can't read your expression half the time." Which wasn't quite true, but gods knew he sometimes found himself at a loss to figure out what Heinkel was thinking.
Heinkel shook his head and returned to finding dry clothing for Darius. "Trust me," he suggested.
Darius eyed him for a moment, observing the familiar, careful way he went through their things, setting things aside in neatly folded piles as he determined them unacceptable for some reason or another. His determined neatness had driven Darius a little bit insane when they'd first moved in together, because it reminded him far too much of the military life he'd been forced to leave behind. But he'd got used to it, come to depend, a bit, on Heinkel's careful organisation of everything he could affect, not to mention the way he'd observe new situations and somehow manage to steer Darius away from potential explosions just before they went off.
It occurred to him, then, "You've been watching him."
"You have a habit of getting attracted to shiny things," Heinkel returned without looking up from the clothing, appearing, for all the world, like the statement meant nothing.
Darius still winced, though, because it had never been a secret between them that he had a history of sleeping around. And, while he hadn't done so since they'd moved in together following their discharge from the military, he had kept on before that. After everything, staying with Heinkel had ended up being more important than chasing after other guys, but it didn't stop him from looking. And wondering. (And, occasionally, having to prostrate himself before Heinkel's unimpressed stare, because he'd been caught looking or wondering a little too hard.)
Still, Heinkel didn't tend to show any interest in whoever might have caught Darius' eye, other than to glare at the guy if he started looking interested in turn, or catching Darius' attention right before he actually started flirting with intention. Which, well, they weren't usually stuck in close quarters with the guy, either, which could have something to do with it. But Darius knew Heinkel had a type when it came to women, and Fullmetal might not be a woman, but he was short, slim, and blond. And he also had some of the same bad habits that Darius had, when it came to being allowed out in public unsupervised, which one of Heinkel's mates had once joked was the whole reason Heinkel had developed a crush on him.
Heinkel glanced up, a change of clothing in his hands, and his face twisted, turning a little helpless. "Yes," he agreed quietly, a world of meaning in the words, "I've been watching him."
Darius shook himself and started to reach for the change of clothing, only to pause when the blanket dropped heavily from his shoulders, reminding him he hadn't, actually, started changing out of his wet things. As he set about peeling them off, ha asked, "Now what?" Because they'd never before been even a little bit interested in the same person.
"Nothing," Heinkel replied drily. When Darius blinked at him, a bit thrown, he sighed. "Just because you've made some questionable sexual choices–"
"There's nothing questionable about orgy parties!" Darius interrupted, mostly for the reaction.
Heinkel didn't disappoint, his expression twisting with a sort of horrified interest, like a part of himself was attracted to the idea, but his sense of propriety – or whatever – was throwing up so many warning signs. "Darius," he said in a slightly strangled voice, "please envision, for one second, the fallout if things go south."
Darius stopped to think about that, then grimaced as he realised they were stuck on a ship gods knew how far from land, and the core crew had a history with Fullmetal.
"Finally," Heinkel muttered, "he sees sense."
"Shut the fuck up," Darius snarled, grabbing for the change of clothing Heinkel was still holding. "I wasn't even thinking about the possibilities until you had to start on about how you think he's pretty, too."
"I did not–"
Darius hit him with his shirt, then proceeded to step into the pants and trousers while Heinkel was rather tellingly silent.
Once his trousers were fastened, Darius dropped the shirt to their crappy excuse for a bunk and grabbed Heinkel's nearer shoulder, using it to yank him forward into a hug, which Heinkel didn't pause in returning; they'd been through too much shit together to let something this small stop them.
Something made a knocking sound from the direction of the door leading to the narrow hallway connecting the crew cabins, and Darius was honestly surprised to find Fullmetal and Armour standing there. Fullmetal had clearly been quicker about changing into dry clothing, and his arms were folded tightly across his chest, while his brother was wearing a tired smile.
"Fullmetal, Armour," Heinkel offered smoothly, stepping between them a Darius and giving him a chance to finish getting dressed. Which he did. "Did you need one of us for something?"
"Yeah," Fullmetal bit out. "The fuck'd you save me for? Really?"
Darius shrugged and admitted, "You don't leave comrades behind."
A light sparked in Fullmetal's eyes, like he'd just fit part of a puzzle together, but it was Armour who murmured, "You're former military."
"Yes," Heinkel agreed blandly. "Some of their teachings, invariably, stick with you."
"Bet I know which ones didn't," Fullmetal commented, an almost taunting edge to his voice.
"Brother," Armour hissed, shooting him a frown.
Darius flashed him a smile as he dropped an arm around Heinkel's shoulders, and said, "Great thing about dropping them is not having to worry about those pesky little rules about sleeping with your squadmates."
Fullmetal's left eye twitched at the word 'little', and Darius was just starting to consider other ways to work the kid's complex into a follow-up line, when Fullmetal turned away and said, "Whatever. Thanks, I guess, for the save."
Heinkel elbowed him, and Darius managed a slightly sarcastic, "Sure thing. Maybe next time save us all the heart attack and keep the stunts to pissing off the captain?"
Armour snorted while Heinkel sighed, both of them shaking their heads.
Fullmetal glanced back over his shoulder at him, an unholy gleam in his eyes. "Yeah, fine. So long as you don't fucking call me 'pretty' again."
A part of Darius joined Heinkel in letting out a quiet, embarrassed moan, but the part of him that actually controlled his mouth and made a show of looking Fullmetal over, then asked, "Would you prefer gorgeous?"
Fullmetal spun and pointed one gloved finger at him, the shoddy lighting of the cabin making it look like he might actually be blushing. "Fuck you! I look cool!"
"Brother," Armour interrupted, reaching across Fullmetal and grabbing his left arm, while Heinkel shot Darius a flat look before he could open his mouth enough to suggest he'd be happy to take part in a little fucking. "You've reached new levels of embarrassing."
"I do look cool!" Fullmetal insisted, but he didn't fight as Armour led him out into the hallway and toward the stairs up to the deck.
In the silence of their cabin, Heinkel muttered, "If this ends badly, I reserve the right to say 'I told you so'."
"You are way too pessimistic about not getting turned down by your crush," Darius informed him.
Heinkel shot him an unimpressed stare. "At least get his first name out of him before you sleep with him."
Darius remembered the maybe-Fullmetal's-first-name he'd heard when Kimblee had destroyed the mast, but didn't point that out. Instead, he brushed a brief kiss against Heinkel's lips and promised, "We will."
Heinkel raised his eyebrows, but didn't argue about the wording, which was telling.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Darius wondered if there was any way to get a bigger bunk.
Burning All the Bridges
.
