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It’s late afternoon, sun-bronzed backlight and rumpled sheets when Ed resolves to broach the topic with Roy the next day. Of course he considers doing it immediately -– improvisation, inspiration, something like that -– but in the end he figures that relationship things and crazy ideas are best given ahead-time for the plotting of rational arguments.
(It’ll be just like Roy’s stupid speeches, political pandering neatly wrapped up in pretty words and charisma. It’ll sound good even if Ed’s basically bullshitting the entire thing.)
‘Course, it’s too bad that Ed’s luck’s not nearly as good as he needs it to be. Nobody told him it was going to rain, but they should’ve. (He doesn’t exactly know who ‘they’ would have been, though, because save for a few old acquaintances, there really aren’t too many people still in Central who’d go out of their way to look out for him like that.
Roy’s probably the only one.)
He gives it a shot, anyway –- not that it couldn’t hurt, but he’s promised himself and that’s not something he ever wants to go back on. He’s managed to keep (almost) every promise to himself and to Roy and Winry and Al over the years, and it’s mostly honesty that’s carried him and Roy this far in the first place.
It’s too bad that none of that comes out sounding decent – and Roy, of course, wastes no time interrupting.
“I suppose I could be mistaken, Fullmetal, but doesn’t marriage generally involve a man and a woman?”
“Legally,” Ed hurries, dutifully-memorized words falling apart in his head, “but people also use the word to describe mixing two elements together. Like-–”
“If you try to turn this into another alchemic metaphor, I will flame your short ass right here and now.”
“Not short,” Edward can’t help correcting him. “That was fucking years ago, and you know it.”
“Your point?”
“I’m being serious here!”
Roy rises to his feet with a long sigh. Ed may have grown plenty in a few years, but at his full height Roy’s still just a little taller. The moment he no longer finds it necessary to look up to meet his guest’s eyes, it stops mattering that there’s still a desk standing between them.
“This is hardly the right kind of place to bring stuff like that up,” he points out. His eyes are practically boring a hole in Ed, and the blonde thinks that, yeah, the bastard’s definitely in a bad mood, what with the rain and all that.
He’s always a huge pain in the ass when it rains.
“No one’s listening,” Ed grumbles, verging on irritable himself now. “Don’t even get why it’s such a big deal, anyway. ‘S not like it’s anyone else’s business what we do if we’re just-–”
Roy chuckles. Ed tenses as soon as he registers the accompanying look on Roy’s face –- coolly, even arrogantly amused, the smirking grin he wears when he’s actively looking to piss the younger man off. The only thing that keeps Edward from really flying off the handle is the sound of Roy’s laughter; it’s not the mocking kind even if it is amused. He’s more than grown accustomed to the sounds his goddamned lover makes –-
And this is the kind of laughter that comes off as nothing if not affectionate. It’s the deeper, lighter laugh, the one Ed likes to feel vibrating in Roy’s chest –- and, vicariously, leaning close with the bare skin of his shoulder pressed close to Roy’s, in his own.
“You’re clumsier than usual today, you know.”
Instead of getting mad, Ed feels himself winding down. “It’s been almost seven years,” he says softly.
“All the more reason to try harder next time. I could do without the speech, if you don’t mind.”
Ed twitches, plants his hands on the desk in front of Roy and leans close with his eyes narrowed, scrutinizing. “That’s not fair! How’m I supposed to –-?”
Roy meets him halfway to steal a kiss. Ed can feel the corners of his lips still curved slightly upward; he’s smiling wide even as he finally breaks away, and of course Ed has to show himself still-almost-kind-of a kid because he can’t quite bring himself to lean back yet. He’s completely red in the face, reduced to inarticulate stutters and unsteady breathing and it was just a kiss.
“Calm down,” Roy laughs. “Did you really think I’d say no?”
It’s late afternoon, cloud-gray backlight and a tidy military office and Ed’s pretty damn sure that that counts as a yes.