Wild! Chapter 30

[meredavey]

Title: Wild
Author: meredavey
Series: Brotherhood (although it can stand on its own)
Pairing: Roy/Ed
Rating: NC-17
Word Count for this chapter: 1,093  (39,448 overall)
Summary: Ed decides he wants to find love, something wild, something vibrant and above all something passionate.

They showered for the second time that day, and Edward had been quite willing to be cuddled for a bit before they managed to untangle themselves and get down to business.

Ed was stuffing more books than clothing into his suitcase and Roy wondered how that was going to work.

“Ed, don’t you need clothes?”

Edward glanced up at him as he stuck a second pair of pants and a shirt into his suitcase. “Uhm,” he said under his breath, before adding the third set of clothes and trying to sit on the suitcase and close it.

Roy leaned forward and buckled it for him. Ed grinned and leaned back, drawing his feet up onto his suitcase and wrapping his arms about them.

“Well,” he said, “we still need to, uh,” Ed grimaced. “What do we do?”

Roy shook his head. “You still try and go in half-cocked. That’s why you were always getting into so much trouble as a kid. Preparation takes time.”

Ed snorted, leaned back and fell off his suitcase.

Roy had the joy of laughing at him. Ed sat up rubbing his head and grumbling.

“If you’re going to be like that, then why don’t you go and ‘get those supplies’ that we need.”

Roy leaned forward, kissed Ed and said, “I already ordered them, they’re waiting in the general store for us.”

Ed let his lips brush against Roy’s as they talked, “How are we carrying them all there?”

“By horse, a car is not maneuverable enough for where we’re going, so we’re taking horses.”

Ed grimaced, and sighed standing up. “In that case, let’s get a move on so it’s not completely dark when we get there.”

Roy hitched the packs to the extra horses back and watched as Edward prodded his horse with a suspicious finger. He knew Ed knew how to ride, but he also knew Ed wasn’t terribly fond of it, so he knew he would have to distract Ed some.

He heard Edward grunt as he swung up into the horse’s saddle. Roy could see out of the corner of his eye that Ed had left his feet dangling free of the stirrups. Something only a person comfortable with riding would do.

Roy hopped to and managed to mount in a quite dignified way if he did say so. Ed seemed to agree because his eyes had dilated pretty quickly once they were eye level.

The older man grinned. The afternoon sun was unwavering in its intensity. Even though they were in colder climate the sun was still exceedingly warm and it shone down on them. Ed could feel his hair becoming hot and heavy. Even his automail felt ridiculously hot. But at the time began to pass on, his body began to adjust to the fact that it was so warm in a colder climate.

And his mind spun with the implications of it. What was going on here? What was with this change in weather, Edward sincerely wanted to know. If Mustang was curious it didn’t show on his face.

Ed thanked the god he didn’t believe in when late afternoon began to set in and the heat and the sun finally began to die away.

He shifted his weight forward in the saddle as he grabbed at his water canteen and took a big gulp of it, wiping away the extra with the back of his gloved hand. He noticed Mustang had ditched his gloves and had left them in his trousers pocket.

Roy seemed at ease in this changing weather, but he supposed that was simply the man’s façade He was amazingly hard to read at times, even when Ed knew him so well, so intimately. He could feel the man glance over at him after a moment and Ed pretended not to know that he was being looked at. He could feel the first heat of a blush stealing up his face and he cursed Roy for making him feel so young and helpless at times.

He shot a glare at the man for good measure before letting his horse’s stride fall back so they weren’t riding side by side anymore.

Roy did not seem bothered. Ed wondered what exactly bothered the man. He knew so little about him, aside from his military career, and Abigail at this point. He hesitated then called out from a little ways behind,

“You know all about me, partly because you’ve known me so much of my life, there’s very little you don’t know. What about you? Where did you come from?”

He saw Roy turn his head slightly, and he realized Roy had acknowledged his point. “If you come and ride besides me I’ll tell you all about it.”

Ed let his lips twist down for a moment but compromised in the end. “So tell me.”

Roy sighed and pursed his lips. “My father was the son of a Xingese immigrant. My mother was an Amestrian citizen. They both died when I was still young. Thankfully my father’s sister, Chris Mustang was around. She took me in and adopted me as her son.” Roy seemed to smile a little ruefully. “I played around with alchemy just a bit as a kid but not much. I was much more interested in other things at that time. I had an enjoyable childhood and schooling. There was one little catch though. My aunt ran a brothel.”

“Your aunt owns a whorehouse?” Ed’s voice took on a tinge of embarrassed fear.

Roy gave him a small grin, “And I was exposed to a variety of things at a young age. My aunt always said that was why I turned out the way I did. Anyways, it was later that I studied with Berthold Hawkeye.” Ed’s eyebrows shot up, “But I don’t need to tell you about that as I’m very well aware Hawkeye filled you in on things that she probably shouldn’t have. I’ll leave that alone for now. I met Maes as you know in academy and Abigail as well, and then Officer’s School, the Ishval War and that’s about where you come in.”

“But that’s not really about you, you could be telling me so much more!”

“I still don’t know that much about you, that’s half the fun of having a partner, there’s always something you don’t know.”

Ed scowled but stared up at the large mountain that was framed by the setting sun.

“We’re almost there aren’t we?” he asked softly.

“Yes,” Roy replied, “Into the belly of the beast.”