Waltz (a Legend!verse fic)

[meredavey]

Title: Waltz
Author meredavey
Series: Brotherhood (although it can stand on its own)
Pairing: Roy/Ed
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 839
Summary: Even now, their love is strong.
Notes: Takes place sometime in the future of Legend!Verse. I heard the song “Waltz With Me” by TONIC and this was born out of that.

Waltz with me
My love
Tell me what
You're dreaming of
Hold me now
We can share our love
Waltz with me
My love

-Waltz With Me by TONIC

Edward’s gracefulness in martial arts should carry over to even this – dancing. Ed had put off dancing with him for years claiming that he couldn’t. And when that excuse stopped working he’d told Roy that it was “too girly” and he “wasn’t a girl” which Roy was well aware of.

However Roy never could figure out why Ed was so embarrassed about dancing. One of the few times he’d ask Ed had gotten a strange look and run away. Ed always turned charmingly red when confronted with aspects of both their emotional and physical relationship. He still had the tendency to turn red when he or Roy spoke the words, “I love you”.

Edward’s comfort level with him had reached a high, he didn’t fear being seen on Roy’s arms and he hadn’t once flinched when they’d moved into a new house together.

Ed’s strength had always made Roy love him more. Roy had always known that Edward had been strong physically and mentally, but these days Ed was Roy’s world and Roy knew he was very much Ed’s by the looks the younger man always threw him.

For the most heart content and happiness permeated their relationship, but there were the times that they argued so fiercely that the neighbors had inquired if they were alright. At other times Ed got an itch even Roy couldn’t scratch. He’d spent his childhood wandering and for years Ed had believed that he’d wanted to settle down, had forced himself to settle down. Roy had seen this and in the first year they were truly together Roy hadn’t said anything. But by the second year Roy was worried that Ed was causing himself problems so he’d told the young man to go and leave.

Ed had asked if they were breaking up.

Roy had refuted this claim quickly and honestly telling Edward that his pacing was becoming bothersome and that if Ed missed travelling that much he should go and do something about it. Go to the west or go to the east – just do something before he wore holes in the floor.

Edward had lit up all over in excitement, but when he and Roy were standing on the train platform as they waited for Ed’s train, Ed had suddenly become nervous.

As the train approached Ed had turned to Roy and asked, “Will you get here when I get back?”

“Always, my love,” Roy had responded and Ed had thrown his arms around Roy’s neck and kissed him.

When they parted it felt so bittersweet, and the three months Ed had been gone had been lonely. By the time Ed returned the young man simply wanted to be home and with Roy. They’d fallen back into their old rhythm easily and naturally.

At that moment Roy felt utterly blessed to have been gifted with Edward’s love.

So as Roy sat on the couch watching Edward twirl the phone cord while bending his body in strange ways as he talked to his brother he wondered why Edward disliked dancing so much.

Ed must have sensed Roy watching him because he turned and smiled and ducked his head as red heated his cheeks.

Roy heard the click of the phone and Ed was standing in front of him, watching him silently. Roy stood from the couch and pulled Ed into his arms.

“In all seriousness, Edward,” Roy began and he felt Ed twitch in his arms; the younger man knew when Roy began as such he had something important on his mind. Ed’s hands latched onto Roy’s forearms and he blinked up at the older man. “why won’t you dance with me?”

Ed’s face took on the hue of a tomato and he didn’t respond. His mouth opened and closed a few times and he even cleared his throat, but apparently Roy had rendered him speechless. The only way to truly get anything out of Ed sometimes was to simply surprise him.

He’d felt Ed’s hands tighten on his arms and his body begin to pull back so he tightened his own arms around Ed to hold him there. “If you don’t want to we don’t have to, but, I’d like to know why.”

He watched Edward’s golden lashes flutter closed before they opened again revealing amber eyes. “It’s not because I don’t want to – it’s because,” his voice caught, “I don’t know how to categorize it.”

“Categorize it?”

Ed nodded. “Yes, yes! Whether it’s an emotional intimacy or a physical intimacy, and well, I’m not sure how it fits into our relationship.”

Roy felt the urge to bang Ed’s head against the wall, but he refrained and instead moved them to the phonograph.

“Edward,” he murmured as the music started and he pulled Edward into a slow waltz, “it is both, it is neither, it is everything. It just is. It’s a way to show love.”

Ed’s eyes had closed again and as he opened them he asked with a slight flush, “Do you love me?”

“Always my love, always.”