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Sleep was impossible when faced with the knowledge that on the other side of the wall, Edward lay mere inches away. Roy ached to hold Ed to his chest, to feel the warmth of his skin. He could lose himself in the depths of Edward's eyes, happily drowning for the privilege.
He might have stayed there longer, but Izumi entered as the sun began to pierce through the windows. "Wash up," she barked. "You still have the road on you."
He rose, and though he knew that there had been an extra bite in the woman's words, he was elsewhere in his thoughts. Movement and furtive glances haunted his body and mind.
The courtyard was surprisingly devoid of windows, and for that he was grateful. No one else need be witness to his pathetic state. He splashed his face from a basin, rinsing himself clean and rubbing over his travel-sore shoulders. He the brushing echoes of Edward's fingers over his neck and ear during their meeting. Was it only just yesterday?
Despite the whisperings of his sisters, he'd not been ignorant of longing. He'd met many an attractive face while under his aunt's roof, but they'd all been snatched away by aspiring brides to be or had simply moved on.
The whole ordeal had left him in a deep rooted frustration that he'd yet to resolve, and the beckons Edward waved under his nose made common decency difficult to maintain. Never in all his life had he encountered such devastating beauty, and it danced at the edge of his reach.
The ramblings of his mind ran juxtaposed to the familiar mullings of a rousing city. The scent of damp soil and spices carried on the wind and reminded him of a more mundane hunger that clenched his belly.
He raked his hands through his hair, smoothing everything back and out of his face. Water dripped down, sprinkling his shirt, but it was cool against his scalp, helping to soothe his thoughts.
That was when he finally took note of his surroundings. The very figure wreaking havoc upon his sanity sauntered to his side with the predatory air of a lion about to pounce.
He was frozen in place. Ed was dressed as he had been the night before, topless and tempting, and the sun shining only made the man more dazzling.
At an agonizing pace, Ed trailed his eyes over Roy's body, and despite being fully clothed himself, Roy felt utterly laid bare. When their gazes met once more, Ed cocked his head.
"You know, I don't think I can ever let you go when you pay me such flattery," Ed inched closer.
"What?" Roy took a step back and chided himself for his cowardice. Hadn't he just been sighing over the very notion of clutching Edward in his arms? "I haven't said a word!"
Ed wasn't to be denied and again tightened the space between them. "Oh, you didn't have to. Even if your face wasn't on fire," and Roy was now morbidly aware of just how warm his cheeks had grown, "I know all you have to tell by the way you look at me."
He swallowed, helpless prey before this clever dancer. His hand bumped the water basin, and he knew he didn't have much room left to go.
"Roy," Ed moaned his name and stoked an urge within him. "You move me with your eyes alone."
Ever closer Edward crept, and Roy's breath became shallow.
"It's like I've woken up from a lifetime of sleep. I've never felt so alive as when you play."
His back nudged the wall, and Ed coaxed his hand into his grasp. Roy licked his lips, and Edward followed the motion with a gleam of satisfaction.
Edward slid a hand up Roy's throat, cupping his jaw, and brushed his thumb over Roy's damp lip before drawing back entirely. He pressed a kiss to the pad of his thumb, winked, and stepped away just as the door opened.
Roy felt his heart leap into his mouth, but Alphonse looked between him and Edward with a raised brow. "Brother, you're not fooling anyone."
"Fooling who about what?" Ed shrugged.
"Uh-huh, stop mauling him. Sig made coffee," Al tugged on a stray lock of Ed's hair, "and we need to finalize the plan."
Ed nodded, a note of seriousness altering the cant of his stance. Roy was still sputtering when Ed looked back to him. "You too," Ed tapped that thumb once more over his mouth and smirked.
Roy was going to boil away into the air. He gulped, parched, and followed with the obedience of a dog.
He drifted into the kitchen and his stomach made its wants known. He pointedly ignored Edward's advances. If he was going to retain any form of dignity, he needed to keep his wits about him rather than losing his composure.
He took his seat from the night before and salivated over a bowl of fruit. Sig gave him a silent nod, and he had the peel halfway off one before he registered that he'd moved.
It did him the favor of bringing him to the moment. He realized in a rush why he was such an easy mark. He'd hardly slept a wink, and the very plague of his pondering sidled up beside him, taking a piece of fruit as well.
A cup of strong, sweet coffee was set before him, and he saw the colossus of a man set out three more before taking one himself as he sat across the table.
"The boys told you what you are getting into." Sig's voice rumbled.
It wasn't exactly a question, more of a prompting. He answered all the same, "A rescue of sorts, but I don't know much of the particulars."
Sig gruffed, shooting a look at the brothers that would have made a lesser man faint. "I expected as much."
Roy sipped at his drink, not knowing how he was supposed to respond. However, he was thrown completely off by a burst of flavor. In an instant, every other coffee he'd consumed in his life was put to shame. It must have shown on his face, because Sig actually cracked a smile.
It did a lot to lighten the mood. "Family recipe, but," Sig shrugged, back to business, "to give you more to go on, there's a lord who moved into this district several months ago from Aerugo."
"He's a thug with a pile of gold and delusions of grandeur," Alphonse hissed, and that was the most heat Roy had seen come from the musician. Ah. That's right. It was Alphonse's fiancée that they were to rescue.
"I'm familiar with the type," he said. There had been many such fools come to watch his sisters dance, after all.
"Then you can understand the situation," Sig continued. "Winry was taken a week ago," so that was the girl's name, "and to our understanding, she's yet to be..."
"But," Izumi entered and sat beside her husband, "there is a local festival here in two days time, so her fortune won't last. We must get her out of there before that night."
Ah. "And how are we to save Miss Winry from such an unsavory fate?"
One glance was all he needed to see how his hosts would like to handle the situation. Roy didn't doubt for an instant that if the chance presented itself, the Aerugean lord would no longer be an issue to anyone, much less to this little family.
"I," Edward answered, "have arranged to be the entertainment that night in Lord Claudio's estate."
Roy was afraid it was something like that, and the acid in Edward's tone when he have the lord's name only made him more wary. "That's to get us in, I assume? How would we get to Miss Winry?"
"It will depend on where she is," Izumi said, sipping at her own steaming cup. "She'll be in one of two places, and both will be near to the lord's side."
It wasn't shaping up to be a very successful plan, and Roy breathed deep to steady himself. He'd hoped to make a place for himself in Xerxes, but now his prospects were not looking nearly so promising.
"The lord is widely hated. His only protection is money," Sig explained. "All we need to do is create a large enough distraction and take Winry during the confusion. Those who dislike him more than us can finish the job."
It was thin, and by Sig's tone, the man knew it, too. "And if the distraction is not enough?"
"A fire should be enough," Izumi smirked. "Your part will be simple enough. You'll play so that Al will be free to help locate Winry. That said," she sized
Roy up and down, "are you any good with a sword?"
"A sword?" He nearly choked. "Why? I mean, yes, but why?"
A frown etched lines around her mouth. "In case you have to protect yourself."
"And what about Edward?"
He was answered with a collective chuckle. "He can hold his own. You are the only variable."
Roy reluctantly set down his drink. "Shall I perform for you again?"
"No," she said matter of factly, "you'll spar."
"So be it," he sighed. "Should I expect a saber or a dadao?"
Izumi's brows rose, and he felt a bit of pride that he'd managed a rise from the woman. "Saber, but that's very good to know. Where is it again that you hail?"
"An outpost village on the border of Xerxes and Xing."
Izumi crossed her arms in thought. She locked eyes with her husband for a time before asking, "And if there were to be a sudden need to escort a number of people to this village of yours, would they be welcome?"
He thought of his aunt's home and the dwindling number of his sisters left residing within its walls. If his hunch were correct, Izumi wasn't merely planning on freeing Alphonse's wife to be, but the entire lot of the Lord's harem. He smiled in appreciation. "Yes. There would be room for them."
"Good," she said with relish, "then a fire to that pig's estate will work perfectly." She nodded to herself in confirmation. "Now," she stood, "you will come with me, and I will see if you are as good with a blade as you imply."
He was once again grateful for the relative privacy of the courtyard. He had enough eyes on him as it was, and one pair that mattered above all the rest leered over his bare chest in open admiration as he removed his shirt. He squirmed in his own skin, self conscious and not looking forward to the likelihood of embarrassing himself.
Izumi tossed him a saber, and he caught it out of the air. If there was one thing he'd learned from his time under his aunt's tutelage, it was that he would never underestimate a woman. He was no slouch, but he could tell from the way Izumi carried herself that she was an absolute monster with a blade in hand.
She came at him with no warning, and he was just able to parry her attack, knocking her saber away. Her grip was firm, and she followed the momentum back, swinging with all the grace her dancer's body possessed to strike at him again.
Being solely on the defensive would never work to prove himself. He dodged her swing, sidestepping to her right and making to slash beneath her extended arm.
His blade was jarred by an elbow across its broad side, pushing off his balance. He moved with it, rolling to the ground some distance away to reassess the situation. At least, that was what he'd intended. Izumi wasted no time, coming at him with a sideways sweep aimed to lop off his head. He angled his blade in time to block, and Izumi's sword slid up along his own.
He didn't have a second to breathe, and pointed the tip of his saber up toward her heart as she stopped hers just along the side of his throat.
She jumped back, a wild grin on her face. "Not bad!" She thrust her blade into the ground and smoothed back her hair. "Not bad at all," she mused.
Roy rested on one knee, a rush flooding his body with energy. His breath came in pants, and he noticed that she was still utterly calm. "You were going easy on me."
"Oh, but of course. If I were serious," she spread her arms in an expansive display of nonchalance, "you wouldn't have made it past the first strike."
"Just who are you people, anyway?" he blurted before he could help himself.
Izumi cocked a brow at him.
He'd dug himself in this deep already, "You're no ordinary folk."
She smiled at this. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just a simple housewife."
And I'm the Emperor of Xing, Roy glowered. So there wouldn't be an easy answer to this. Fine. He'd just have to play his part and then...
And then what? He glanced to Edward, who hadn't taken his eyes off him, he was sure. What would he do after all this? Would he even be welcome to stay, or would this dancer slip through his fingers like all the other men in his life?
He'd only known Edward a day. Less than a day, really. Yet, here he was already trying to plot a life with him in it. Where had his common sense gone?
Ed smiled at him, and he had his answer. He would stay, and he would see this insane scheme through. He'd do whatever necessary to live at Edward's side, whether it meant he would have to fight a thousand men or to grovel on hands and knees for the privilege.