...*headDESK*
Nov. 8th, 2005 05:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lykomancerTitle: Each Wins All
Pairing: Ed/Roy
Words: 2,300
Genre: ...omgwtFLUFF?!
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Lyko's attempt to write Roy.
Dedication: For![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
devils_devotion-- the opening segment of what could no doubt be a WIP of an arc in exchange for the opening segment of another WIP. Shorter, though, which isn't fair. I'll work on rectifying that shorty.
Other notes: T____T I don't know if this is even tolerable, much less IC. I tried really hard though!kytyngurl2 threw a lot of interesting ideas about Roy and his relationship with Ed out at me, and I was highly influenced by them. Or something. Maybe that explains the fluffiness...
The first week he started noticing it, Roy was unfazed. It wasn't that big of a deal, and besides, he wasn't going to question Ed if the boy'd finally decided to be at least a little friendly and easier to deal with. Perhaps he was finally getting over his social dysfunctions and learning how to cooperate with other people...but Roy wasn't holding his breath.
The second week proved his initial skepticism correct. Ed might be friendly-- in a way...in a rather strange and increasingly alarming way-- but he was certainly still a pain in the ass, stomping around in his ridiculous platform boots, getting into things he shouldn't (and usually dragging his apologetic brother into it, no less, who wasn't even in the military!), and being disdainful of all persons of authority over him-- most notably, of course, of his Colonel.
And there was really nothing quite like a snide and condescending Edward Elric perched on the end of one's desk, smirking confidently over his shoulder with smoky half-lidded eyes to make one start questioning what one had done to earn the tormenting wrath of some petty deity.
By the third week, Roy was beginning to wonder when an assignment would show up on his desk that would conveniently take Ed out of Eastern City for a few days...or weeks...or months... Or however long it would take for the young alchemist-- quirky, temperamental, stubborn, young alchemist-- to get this...this...
It's not flirtaceousness! It's not; don't even think about it being like that!
...weirdness out of his system.
Maybe it's some kind of passive-aggressive dominance power-play...all the little touches and nudges, they way he gets too close and stays there even when he knows I'm uncomfortable...
Roy reread the same paragraph for the eighth time, fiddling with his pen for a moment before looking out the window. He was getting irritated at himself more and more the longer this continued; he was a grown man, and he had no time or inclination to get sucked into these childish games with his unruly subordinate, who no doubt just wanted attention...the way he always did.
Sometimes, it was difficult having to deal with someone so similar-- saving for tact and diplomacy, of course-- so much of the time. And when the blond was intentionally pressing buttons and trying to see how much he could get away with...
Maybe he doesn't even know what he's really doing, giving me those coy little smiles and bedroom eyes...
Roy snorted, turning back to the release form in his hand. No, he didn't believe that. He knew that Ed was doing something deliberately doing something, even if he wasn't sure what he was up to.
Trust Edward to take something that's already as strange and difficult to deal with as puberty and make it even more of a trainwreck disaster.
Ah, well. I suppose he can only do what he's good at, after all.
And Fullmetal was certainly skilled with the ability to making things go from salvageable to bad, bad to worse, and worse to disastrous; once he threw himself wholehearted into a situation, he didn't stop until everything fell down in shambles. Roy wasn't sure if this was a prime example of a very distorted work ethic-- it was true that most of the worst of Ed's mistakes were made in the efforts to rectify previous errors-- or if the boy just had bad luck...
...but that's not fair. He grimaced, fingers smoothing over the crease as he folded the form in half and absently began to make a paper airplane out of it. Edward, for all his disobedience against any form of authority and the fact that trouble dogged his steps with almost as much devotion as Alphonse, was a success far more often than not-- even if he did sometimes use questionable tactics-- and Roy banked on him coming out on top; he bet against the odds in the fight of one fourteen year old boy against the world, and he won more often than he lost, cleaning out the house time after time...much to the apparent irritation of some others in the military.
He had to be careful; people who beat the odds too often were accused of cheating, kicked out of the game, and denied their winnings, and the stakes were too high in this game for Roy to arouse suspicion now. It was good that Ed sometimes failed catastrophically; it made him look a little more 'normal.'
Roy snorted softly, then leaned on his elbow and sent his plane gliding out of the office; no good-- it didn't fly far enough and Hawkeye was more likely to step on it than find it there. He got up with a sigh, glancing at the clock; it was late enough in the morning that he could excuse himself for an early (and extended) lunch anyway. The longer he stayed out of the office, the lesser the chances of running into Fullmetal and having to deal with his increasingly erratic...
...erotic, you mean...
...behavior.
He stooped to pick up the form and unfolded it, not bothering to try and hide the obvious creases in the paper as he dropped it in the Out bin. That had been the only pressing piece of work to get done before noon, and it was finished; the rest could wait.
"Skipping out early, Colonel? Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
Ed's voice suddenly so close made Roy startle violently, almost knocking the neat stack of paper over. And if I had, I'd have made him organize it all over again, damn him. "Fullmetal, what are you doing? Waiting in ambush? You could have come in if you wanted something, you know."
"Oh? I could have, huh?" Ed was giving him that look, his new, sly little through-the-lashes glance, his lips starting to curve up wickedly at the corners, and Roy was already starting to feel a little warm and disconcerted. Dammit, if a woman looked at him like that, he'd know exactly what to do and how to do it, but this wasn't a woman, this was Edward Elric, the Fullmetal alchemist, his subordinate, and a fourteen year old boy to boot; he couldn't possibly be flirting with him. It wasn't even conceivable. Hell, the cocky younger alchemist insulted him almost constantly...
Isn't that how childish crushes were usually expressed? Ed had devoted his life to alchemy at a very early age; maybe some part of his social development didn't fully mature yet even though his body has, and he's torn between showing the normal signs of a teenager's attraction and those of someone much younger...
...but that still doesn't explain why he's hitting on me and not Hawkeye!
"I'm flattered that you feel a need to hang around my office all the time, Fullmetal-- you must miss me all night long when I'm not here for your viewing pleasure-- but do you actually have a reason for wasting both of our time, or may I continue on my way unmolested?"
Two can play this game.
Ed's smirk sprawled out, seemingly taking up permanent residence on his face and kicking its heels up, and Roy hoped like hell that he didn't look as disconcerted at this development as he felt. Fullmetal was not allowed to have any indication that this was even affecting him, much less how much it was affecting him; he'd never be able to handle the obnoxious behavior he knew would hound him for weeks if Ed knew.
"I don't care if you feel flattered, you arrogant bastard, and no, I don't miss you..."
Ahhhh...there we go. Better. Roy relaxed a little at the prompt, disdainful response; that was what he wanted to hear from the blond, even if he was giving him that arrogant grin. That was expected; it was comfortable safe ground.
"...I have my imagination to keep me company..."
Wait... What! No... no, he couldn't have meant it like that! No, no, no! You're reading into it, that's all. He doesn't even know what he's implying!
There was a dangerously thoughtful pause, Edward looking at him expectantly...and when Roy did nothing more than stand staring at him-- wondering what he was so obviously waiting for-- then the boy blew out a harsh breath in exasperated irritation, shifting from foot to foot, his cheeks infused with color.
"Geez... You gotta make this so goddamned hard, doncha?"
"Anything for you, Fullmetal." He couldn't help it-- the slightly sarcastic and obviously provoking retort just seemed to roll so naturally off of his tongue that it was spoken before he really thought about what he was saying. This type of thing had been, on many occasions, a wonderfully salvific automatic response, stemming from inborn charisma and instinctive skill of rhetoric... (skill of sophistry, some had said jealously)... and so usually when his mouth ran away without informing him where it was headed off to he was grateful for its quickness.
He wasn't sure that now was one of those times.
Ed's eyes narrowed as he focused on Roy with a particular expression he'd only ever seen on the boy's face when he studied strange documents containing information he had yet to assimilate and fully makes sense out of, and he frowned a little, not enjoying the feeling of being so obviously analyzed...but then the younger alchemist broke out into a sunny grin and clapped Roy on the arm, taking him by the elbow.
"Well, since you offered..." And that was the moment, eyeing the blond's smarmy delight, that Mustang realized that maybe he should have cut his own tongue out before saying he'd do 'anything' for Edward Elric. "...I was thinking that you ought to let me treat you for lunch."
"What?"
Ed stopped trying to push his Colonel down the hall, coming to a halt with a loud thunk of his heavy boots on the tile. "Like you have a real problem with it. Right. I bet."
Sarcasm always sounded better-- more mature, at least-- when one was on the delivering side instead of the receiving side.
Roy gave an exasperated, clipped sigh; at least there isn't anyone else around-- I can just imagine the juicy gossip this little incident would start... A rumor with some truth in it for once, he thought sardonically, instead of just someone's assumptions that I let blow up into a full-fledged epic piece of office fiction.
But this was without a doubt past the point of excusable odd behavior, and it was definitely time he knocked Fullmetal down a peg or two and reminded him of his place. He'd been putting up with this for far too long now, and in doing so he hadn't been doing either of them a favor.
"I don't understand what you are playing at, but I hope you know that fraternization could get us both court-martialed." He paused, then added for good measure, "And though I know you're desperate for a new lead, this isn't a good way to get information out of me even when I might have it; it'd be too easy to take advantage of you."
Ed set his jaw stubbornly. "Maybe I want you to..."
"And furthermore, in addition to being my direct subordinate, you are fourteen and ma--"
"Dammit, Roy, would just shut up!"
Surprisingly, Roy did, watching the blond warily as he shifted from foot to foot, blushing furiously but not losing any of his bullheaded aggressively confrontational manner, and suddenly it occurred to him that not only was this all information that Fullmetal was fully aware of, but that the he'd probably already thought everything through by now, chasing the possible conclusions to any kind of relationship down to their inevitable conclusions with his eerily astute logic and understanding.
"I'm not asking to fucking 'fraternize' with you, you shit-Colonel, and I'm not-- surprise, surprise-- just trying to pump you for information, and maybe if you'd been listening to me instead of jumping the gun and presuming I was acting out whatever kind of fantasies you have of me, you'd know that already!"
"Lunch?" Roy cut in while Ed paused to breathe, raising a dark brow.
"Wh--? Yeah. Lunch. Just lunch." The younger alchemist stared up at him, his bright eyes flicking back and forth as though combing his face for some trace of deception or reluctance...or something other than the small smile he was suddenly wearing.
"Your treat, you said?"
"Yeah... This time. Next week, it's your turn. Next week, I get to pick where we go, though. This week, it's your turn.”
It somehow didn't surprise Roy in the least that Edward had already worked out a systemized schedule that balanced itself using the principle of equivalent trade. If he accepted this now, that meant that it was only fair and right to accept again for next week so that he could return the favor that Ed had pressed so resolutely upon him.
"I was thinking about the cafe on the corner of South Bank and Oak."
"Fine." Ed made this sound like more of a challenge than an acceptance, but he was smiling again as he tugged on Roy's arm to start the man walking once more, and it was like the sun was shining after a storm.
Maybe for a little while he'd try things Ed’s way, at least while there was no harm in humoring the boy.
Bemused, Roy let him lead the way.
Pairing: Ed/Roy
Words: 2,300
Genre: ...omgwtFLUFF?!
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Lyko's attempt to write Roy.
Dedication: For
devils_devotion-- the opening segment of what could no doubt be a WIP of an arc in exchange for the opening segment of another WIP. Shorter, though, which isn't fair. I'll work on rectifying that shorty. Other notes: T____T I don't know if this is even tolerable, much less IC. I tried really hard though!
kytyngurl2 threw a lot of interesting ideas about Roy and his relationship with Ed out at me, and I was highly influenced by them. Or something. Maybe that explains the fluffiness...The first week he started noticing it, Roy was unfazed. It wasn't that big of a deal, and besides, he wasn't going to question Ed if the boy'd finally decided to be at least a little friendly and easier to deal with. Perhaps he was finally getting over his social dysfunctions and learning how to cooperate with other people...but Roy wasn't holding his breath.
The second week proved his initial skepticism correct. Ed might be friendly-- in a way...in a rather strange and increasingly alarming way-- but he was certainly still a pain in the ass, stomping around in his ridiculous platform boots, getting into things he shouldn't (and usually dragging his apologetic brother into it, no less, who wasn't even in the military!), and being disdainful of all persons of authority over him-- most notably, of course, of his Colonel.
And there was really nothing quite like a snide and condescending Edward Elric perched on the end of one's desk, smirking confidently over his shoulder with smoky half-lidded eyes to make one start questioning what one had done to earn the tormenting wrath of some petty deity.
By the third week, Roy was beginning to wonder when an assignment would show up on his desk that would conveniently take Ed out of Eastern City for a few days...or weeks...or months... Or however long it would take for the young alchemist-- quirky, temperamental, stubborn, young alchemist-- to get this...this...
It's not flirtaceousness! It's not; don't even think about it being like that!
...weirdness out of his system.
Maybe it's some kind of passive-aggressive dominance power-play...all the little touches and nudges, they way he gets too close and stays there even when he knows I'm uncomfortable...
Roy reread the same paragraph for the eighth time, fiddling with his pen for a moment before looking out the window. He was getting irritated at himself more and more the longer this continued; he was a grown man, and he had no time or inclination to get sucked into these childish games with his unruly subordinate, who no doubt just wanted attention...the way he always did.
Sometimes, it was difficult having to deal with someone so similar-- saving for tact and diplomacy, of course-- so much of the time. And when the blond was intentionally pressing buttons and trying to see how much he could get away with...
Maybe he doesn't even know what he's really doing, giving me those coy little smiles and bedroom eyes...
Roy snorted, turning back to the release form in his hand. No, he didn't believe that. He knew that Ed was doing something deliberately doing something, even if he wasn't sure what he was up to.
Trust Edward to take something that's already as strange and difficult to deal with as puberty and make it even more of a trainwreck disaster.
Ah, well. I suppose he can only do what he's good at, after all.
And Fullmetal was certainly skilled with the ability to making things go from salvageable to bad, bad to worse, and worse to disastrous; once he threw himself wholehearted into a situation, he didn't stop until everything fell down in shambles. Roy wasn't sure if this was a prime example of a very distorted work ethic-- it was true that most of the worst of Ed's mistakes were made in the efforts to rectify previous errors-- or if the boy just had bad luck...
...but that's not fair. He grimaced, fingers smoothing over the crease as he folded the form in half and absently began to make a paper airplane out of it. Edward, for all his disobedience against any form of authority and the fact that trouble dogged his steps with almost as much devotion as Alphonse, was a success far more often than not-- even if he did sometimes use questionable tactics-- and Roy banked on him coming out on top; he bet against the odds in the fight of one fourteen year old boy against the world, and he won more often than he lost, cleaning out the house time after time...much to the apparent irritation of some others in the military.
He had to be careful; people who beat the odds too often were accused of cheating, kicked out of the game, and denied their winnings, and the stakes were too high in this game for Roy to arouse suspicion now. It was good that Ed sometimes failed catastrophically; it made him look a little more 'normal.'
Roy snorted softly, then leaned on his elbow and sent his plane gliding out of the office; no good-- it didn't fly far enough and Hawkeye was more likely to step on it than find it there. He got up with a sigh, glancing at the clock; it was late enough in the morning that he could excuse himself for an early (and extended) lunch anyway. The longer he stayed out of the office, the lesser the chances of running into Fullmetal and having to deal with his increasingly erratic...
...erotic, you mean...
...behavior.
He stooped to pick up the form and unfolded it, not bothering to try and hide the obvious creases in the paper as he dropped it in the Out bin. That had been the only pressing piece of work to get done before noon, and it was finished; the rest could wait.
"Skipping out early, Colonel? Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
Ed's voice suddenly so close made Roy startle violently, almost knocking the neat stack of paper over. And if I had, I'd have made him organize it all over again, damn him. "Fullmetal, what are you doing? Waiting in ambush? You could have come in if you wanted something, you know."
"Oh? I could have, huh?" Ed was giving him that look, his new, sly little through-the-lashes glance, his lips starting to curve up wickedly at the corners, and Roy was already starting to feel a little warm and disconcerted. Dammit, if a woman looked at him like that, he'd know exactly what to do and how to do it, but this wasn't a woman, this was Edward Elric, the Fullmetal alchemist, his subordinate, and a fourteen year old boy to boot; he couldn't possibly be flirting with him. It wasn't even conceivable. Hell, the cocky younger alchemist insulted him almost constantly...
Isn't that how childish crushes were usually expressed? Ed had devoted his life to alchemy at a very early age; maybe some part of his social development didn't fully mature yet even though his body has, and he's torn between showing the normal signs of a teenager's attraction and those of someone much younger...
...but that still doesn't explain why he's hitting on me and not Hawkeye!
"I'm flattered that you feel a need to hang around my office all the time, Fullmetal-- you must miss me all night long when I'm not here for your viewing pleasure-- but do you actually have a reason for wasting both of our time, or may I continue on my way unmolested?"
Two can play this game.
Ed's smirk sprawled out, seemingly taking up permanent residence on his face and kicking its heels up, and Roy hoped like hell that he didn't look as disconcerted at this development as he felt. Fullmetal was not allowed to have any indication that this was even affecting him, much less how much it was affecting him; he'd never be able to handle the obnoxious behavior he knew would hound him for weeks if Ed knew.
"I don't care if you feel flattered, you arrogant bastard, and no, I don't miss you..."
Ahhhh...there we go. Better. Roy relaxed a little at the prompt, disdainful response; that was what he wanted to hear from the blond, even if he was giving him that arrogant grin. That was expected; it was comfortable safe ground.
"...I have my imagination to keep me company..."
Wait... What! No... no, he couldn't have meant it like that! No, no, no! You're reading into it, that's all. He doesn't even know what he's implying!
There was a dangerously thoughtful pause, Edward looking at him expectantly...and when Roy did nothing more than stand staring at him-- wondering what he was so obviously waiting for-- then the boy blew out a harsh breath in exasperated irritation, shifting from foot to foot, his cheeks infused with color.
"Geez... You gotta make this so goddamned hard, doncha?"
"Anything for you, Fullmetal." He couldn't help it-- the slightly sarcastic and obviously provoking retort just seemed to roll so naturally off of his tongue that it was spoken before he really thought about what he was saying. This type of thing had been, on many occasions, a wonderfully salvific automatic response, stemming from inborn charisma and instinctive skill of rhetoric... (skill of sophistry, some had said jealously)... and so usually when his mouth ran away without informing him where it was headed off to he was grateful for its quickness.
He wasn't sure that now was one of those times.
Ed's eyes narrowed as he focused on Roy with a particular expression he'd only ever seen on the boy's face when he studied strange documents containing information he had yet to assimilate and fully makes sense out of, and he frowned a little, not enjoying the feeling of being so obviously analyzed...but then the younger alchemist broke out into a sunny grin and clapped Roy on the arm, taking him by the elbow.
"Well, since you offered..." And that was the moment, eyeing the blond's smarmy delight, that Mustang realized that maybe he should have cut his own tongue out before saying he'd do 'anything' for Edward Elric. "...I was thinking that you ought to let me treat you for lunch."
"What?"
Ed stopped trying to push his Colonel down the hall, coming to a halt with a loud thunk of his heavy boots on the tile. "Like you have a real problem with it. Right. I bet."
Sarcasm always sounded better-- more mature, at least-- when one was on the delivering side instead of the receiving side.
Roy gave an exasperated, clipped sigh; at least there isn't anyone else around-- I can just imagine the juicy gossip this little incident would start... A rumor with some truth in it for once, he thought sardonically, instead of just someone's assumptions that I let blow up into a full-fledged epic piece of office fiction.
But this was without a doubt past the point of excusable odd behavior, and it was definitely time he knocked Fullmetal down a peg or two and reminded him of his place. He'd been putting up with this for far too long now, and in doing so he hadn't been doing either of them a favor.
"I don't understand what you are playing at, but I hope you know that fraternization could get us both court-martialed." He paused, then added for good measure, "And though I know you're desperate for a new lead, this isn't a good way to get information out of me even when I might have it; it'd be too easy to take advantage of you."
Ed set his jaw stubbornly. "Maybe I want you to..."
"And furthermore, in addition to being my direct subordinate, you are fourteen and ma--"
"Dammit, Roy, would just shut up!"
Surprisingly, Roy did, watching the blond warily as he shifted from foot to foot, blushing furiously but not losing any of his bullheaded aggressively confrontational manner, and suddenly it occurred to him that not only was this all information that Fullmetal was fully aware of, but that the he'd probably already thought everything through by now, chasing the possible conclusions to any kind of relationship down to their inevitable conclusions with his eerily astute logic and understanding.
"I'm not asking to fucking 'fraternize' with you, you shit-Colonel, and I'm not-- surprise, surprise-- just trying to pump you for information, and maybe if you'd been listening to me instead of jumping the gun and presuming I was acting out whatever kind of fantasies you have of me, you'd know that already!"
"Lunch?" Roy cut in while Ed paused to breathe, raising a dark brow.
"Wh--? Yeah. Lunch. Just lunch." The younger alchemist stared up at him, his bright eyes flicking back and forth as though combing his face for some trace of deception or reluctance...or something other than the small smile he was suddenly wearing.
"Your treat, you said?"
"Yeah... This time. Next week, it's your turn. Next week, I get to pick where we go, though. This week, it's your turn.”
It somehow didn't surprise Roy in the least that Edward had already worked out a systemized schedule that balanced itself using the principle of equivalent trade. If he accepted this now, that meant that it was only fair and right to accept again for next week so that he could return the favor that Ed had pressed so resolutely upon him.
"I was thinking about the cafe on the corner of South Bank and Oak."
"Fine." Ed made this sound like more of a challenge than an acceptance, but he was smiling again as he tugged on Roy's arm to start the man walking once more, and it was like the sun was shining after a storm.
Maybe for a little while he'd try things Ed’s way, at least while there was no harm in humoring the boy.
Bemused, Roy let him lead the way.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 08:23 am (UTC)exasperated and confused roy is love!
no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 09:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 10:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 03:12 pm (UTC)Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 03:15 pm (UTC)I might write more. We'll see.no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 03:48 pm (UTC)I love
youyour Roy. :)no subject
Date: 2005-11-12 03:09 am (UTC)