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Ed sat close to Roy, curled into his side as he held the book perched on Roy’s lap open. With gentle hands (flesh hands) he guided Roy’s hand to the first line, watched him freeze, watched Roy move his fingers over the page before turning to stare at … Ed’s chin, which was fine. It was an improvement really.
He didn’t even really mind that Roy’s brain told Roy that Ed was any smaller than he was.
“Edward … what is this?”
Roy’s voice was uncertain, wavering and his eyes, dull, unfocused were brimming over with tears.
Ed smiled softly and moved to rest his right hand atop Roy, inching closer. “It’s Braille. It’s a written language that lets you read without having to see the page. I thought we’d learn it together.”
The first tears fell then, onto the sheets covering their legs. Ed turns Roy’s head toward him. “Roy,” he whispered before his voice gained strength. “Your career isn’t over, your life isn’t over just because the Gate fucked with you. You’re exactly the same. People still respect you, and nothing will hold you back.”
Roy smiled then, sad and eyes red-rimmed, but he nodded. “Thank you, my sun. For keeping me on my toes, for being an infuriating brat, for never giving up on me.”
Ed turned to the book again. It was a children’s book, written about two children living in the forest and talking to the squirrels residing there. He guided Roy’s fingers back to the top line, made sure that Roy would be able to feel the small raised dots that covered the page. “The first letter is a T. Memorise it. All the letters in the Braille alphabet is a different combination of dots in a two by three grid. Tell me if you get lost.”
He started slowly, started telling the tale of the brother and sister. Occasionally, he interjected comments of his own, like which fucking parents would let their eight-year-old twins live alone in the middle of a forest, and Roy laughed before they continued.
A few times they backtrack, and around half-way through they take a break so that Ed can gulp down some coffee and so that Roy can rest his fingers. Ed held out Roy’s coffee mug for him and gently helped Roy hold onto it, making sure it was gripped securely before letting go. He rested his head on Roy’s chest, listening to Roy’s steady heartbeat and to the faint sound of his boyfriend swallowing the disgusting hospital-excuse for coffee.
When the cup was empty (and Ed had mock applauded Roy for being able to drain it in the first place) they go back to the book, reading slowly, and, for the last page, Ed tried to make Roy read aloud from what he managed to pick up of Braille so far.
It’s not much, and the story gets a rather … interesting ending with the misreading Roy did, but that was okay, it was really okay.
Roy looked at him, and this time, managed to focus on something Ed was pretty sure was his nose (he couldn’t exactly drag his soul and eyes out from his body to check, now could he?). “Do you mind telling me why you picked a children’s book of all things?”
Ed grinned. “Okay, so first of all, it was one of the few available books the library had in Braille when I went to check, second of all, it’s easy language and therefore good to learn from. Third of all, I felt like it. You must get so tired from only reading reports day in and day out so I decided to switch it up.”
“So you did,” Roy said while attempting to close the book, but instead, sent it flying off the side of the hospital bed.
Ed’s laugh could probably be heard from Drachma.