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“So where exactly are you going?” Hohenheim asked, watching as his son rummaged through the room, picking up stuff and throwing it in the general direction of his tourist bag.
“Not your fucking business, you sorry excuse for a father,” Ed responded in his usual marginally pissed-off manner, glaring at him over his shoulder.
Hohenheim was used to that tone by now. Honestly, he should even count it a win since Edward has at least started to acknowledge his paternity while he was insulting him.
“Will I need to pick you up from that cop’s place after a week-long absence again?” he asked in a slightly bemused tone. Though, the story behind Ed’s disappearance last winter was anything but.
It was New Year’s Eve. Hohenheim was convinced that the young man was spending the break in Resembool like he always did, drinking and watching movies or whatever young people do these days when suddenly he got a call from Trisha. He hasn’t as much as uttered a word to her in years, purely out of shame, so that itself was unexpected. It wasn’t a social call, of course.
“How dare you leave Edward alone with some stranger in the time like this!” she puffed instead of a greeting and Hohenheim almost dropped his phone, startled.
“Trisha, slow down. I have literally no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, out of habit raising his free hand in defeat, even though she couldn’t see it. “Edward went to Resembool over a week ago.”
“He went back to Central the day after Christmas Eve. He wanted to spend some time with that Nina girl at Tucker’s.”
Hohenheim froze on the spot. He heard what happened to the girl, the news was all over Central. To be honest, before the whole incident, he hadn’t even known what Shou Tucker’s daughter’s name was. The biologist was his colleague back when he was still giving lectures at Central University, but Hohenheim hasn’t heard a word about the man since he left to focus on his independent research. Until Ed stated that he was moving to the man’s place, that is. He almost choked on his morning coffee, when he saw that horrifying article about him in the newspaper a few days prior.
What that man did to his family was straight-out awful, and Hohenheim spent the better part of the week wrecking his brain over what to say to Edward once he was back from Christman break. If he came back early then...
Trisha continued, unaware of his mental struggle. “He was supposed to come back for New Year’s Eve, but he called today to say that he won’t make it. He didn’t want to tell us what happened ‘till Al forced it out of him! He’s been staying with the detective leading the case for the past week, because he couldn’t stand the thought of going back home, Van!” she snapped. Hohenheim honestly couldn’t remember the last time she had been so mad at him. He couldn’t blame her.
Edward’s been in Central for days, and apparently, he’s been staying with the officer directly leading the case. Hohenheim had no idea how he ended up in that situation, but that wasn’t important at the moment. Edward was literally on his way to Tucker’s hours before the tragedy. The best-case scenario Hohenheim could hope for was that everything was already over by the time he got to the house, and that the police officers didn’t let him see the scene, but... It was his son they were talking about. If he was there to witness the girl he cared for getting murdered by her own father, it was no surprise that he didn’t want to come home – come to him – afterward. It hurt, but it made perfect sense.
Nonetheless, Hohenheim dug out the right newspaper, just after hanging up. Finding the name of the detective leading Tucker’s case wasn’t hard, but there was no phone number or address, so instead, he called the police department and asked to speak to the man as soon as he was available. He didn’t have to wait long. Detective Inspector Roy Mustang called him back half an hour later from his private number. He confirmed that Edward had shown up at the scene just after the murder happened, and yes, he was currently staying in his house and did not seem inclined to leave out of his own volition anytime soon. Mustang at least had the decency to seem a little embarrassed about that one, but he ensured Hohenheim that it was no problem since he lived alone and Ed was a crucial part of the case, anyway.
Apparently, Edward was not only the key witness who put Tucker in the hospital – serves him right, by the way – but also has been helping a lot with collecting and analyzing the evidence. Unofficially, of course. There were many suspicious circumstances concerning the disappearance of Tucker’s wife that happened over two years ago. Ed claimed that Tucker admitted to killing her and then making up a story about the affair, but they needed hard evidence to use it against him in court since no body was never found. Ed was determined to put the fucker behind the bars indefinitely and as soon as possible.
Hohenheim couldn’t help but smile. That sounded like his son, alright. Still throwing a fit any way he could, despite barely holding it together himself.
He took Edward home that day, though not without a fight, but the young man still stayed in touch with Mustang. The two kept meeting and exchanging messages even months after the case has been closed and Tucker went to jail for double homicide. Ed never directly admitted that the person he was constantly texting under the table was Roy Mustang, but Hohenheim wasn’t an idiot, no matter what his son said. Ed had never been that socially active with anyone before, save for his family and those few friends he had outside of Central. Besides, the nickname ‘Detective Bastard’ popping up on his phone screen every other second really wasn’t that hard to decipher.
Hohenheim had no idea in what direction Ed wanted to go with that relationship, but he was kind of glad that he finally had some interests apart from science. Even if the main object of these interests dealt with murder cases on a daily basis. Ed has never been a normal child. It would be pointless to expect him to be a normal adult.
“Fuck you, asshole,” Edward barked. “We won’t be there anyway.”
He was pulling out his hiking backpack now. So it was serious.
“Your mother will have my head if I let you disappear on me again,” he pleaded finally, praying for his son to have mercy.
He couldn’t ground him after all. His son was twenty-one now and Hohenheim lost the privilege of ordering him around years ago.
Ed sighed and rolled his eyes. “We’re going North.”
*
“Oh, come on, old man!” Ed cried out and toppled down the steel staircase, taking two steps at once.
Roy Mustang was starting to question all life decisions that led him to this moment.
“I am thirty-five years old, Edward!” he yelled after the blonde and followed, much less enthusiastically. The stairs looked fairly new compared to the rest of the hiking trail, but maybe they were just well-preserved? The way down would have been almost impossible without them and Roy wondered how much time has passed since Totenkopf was added to the main trail up the mountain.
“Yes, I am aware,” Ed countered, looking awfully pleased with himself. He wore this expression quite often. “Now, move it! We’re almost there.”
It wasn’t that Roy didn’t share his companion’s enthusiasm. He had to admit – he was having fun. Despite the guarded reluctance he felt when Ed first invited him for this little hiking trip, he was truly glad that he agreed to go. Roy, contrary to popular belief, enjoyed spending his free time actively. They weren’t far enough to reach Brigs, so the weather was mostly good but still cooler than in Central. The views were amazing, the air was way cleaner than in the city, and Ed was just as delightful as a companion as Roy expected him to be. He was also the main reason why he eventually accepted the invitation in the first place.
The young scientist slithered his way into Roy’s life before he even realized what was happening. One minute he was offering an important witness a place to stay – because it was Christmas, for God's sake, and the kid didn't look stable enough to be left alone – and the next thing he knows, he's inviting him for a drink after work and sharing confidential information. Everyone in his department – and he meant literally everyone, even Hawkeye – have already placed bets about their relationship and Roy should be furious, but he was more concerned that over ninety percent of them voted for ‘budding crush’. The name was awful, for one thing.
And yes, Roy could pretend he didn’t hear them and insist that Ed was just a friend all he wanted, but after all this time he just couldn’t deny it any longer. There was something more between them.
When they first met, he couldn’t help but feel a bit responsible for the younger man – someone close to him just died and he didn’t have anyone else to turn to, at least in the capital. He thought he might as well offer him some support since they would be meeting each other again anyway. But days turned to weeks and then to months, and Edward has proven himself to be a mature (if often childish), caring (but stubborn as hell), and highly intelligent individual who wasn’t easily shaken or scared off by the brutality of Roy’s job. On the contrary, he seemed fascinated by it. He despised immorality and injustice, but talking about cases with Roy and giving his input wherever he could seemed to bring him satisfaction. Ed never said so out loud, but Roy guessed that he simply enjoyed being able to do something to help people.
It was a feature that Roy admired in him the most. That and his absolutely brilliant mind. Ed was a fricking genius. His cleverness made Roy feel stupid, but without actually feeling bad about it. If that even made sense.
If anything about their relationship made sense, considering how it began in the first place.
“Where are we even going? This is not the main trail!” he said, catching up to him.
“Yeah, we'll have to turn back later, but trust me, it will be worth it,” Ed grinned widely and Roy just... gave up. The power this smile had over him was starting to be alarming.
The path was relatively short and led slightly down, which was a nice change after almost an hour-long climb. Two or free minutes later Roy looked ahead and stopped.
In front of them, partially hidden from view by the trees, was an angular stone formation about ten meters high and bathed in fog lingering in the forest. It looked like a human skull. Below the broad forehead were two deep, perfectly rounded holes that looked like empty eye sockets. Then there was another one in the middle, just above the ground and slightly more square, shaped like a mouth open in a silent scream.
“What the fuck is this thing?” Roy exclaimed and moved forward to get a better look at the stone skull in front of them. He wouldn’t call it scary per se, he’d seen much worse, but something about this scenery was... unsettling, to say at least. Eerie even.
Ed was practically bouncing with excitement next to him. “I told you it was gonna be aww~some! It’s a completely natural rock formation, not carved by a man.”
“It certainly looks like it,” Roy murmured. Ed ran his bare hand over the smooth stone inside the skull’s eye socket. The sight gave him creeps despite a wide smile plastered to Ed’s face.
“You see that empty black hole in the back?” he asked. Roy moved a little closer. “This part of Amestris and the bigger part of Drachma used to be underwater about eighty million years ago. When the matter on the bottom started to turn into the stone, some parts of the organic matter got trapped inside and transformed into gas bubbles. Then tectonic uplift happened, the gas evaporated, and ta-da! We have a creepy-looking titan skull that emerged totally by accident.”
“Holy shit,” Roy crouched to have a look inside from a better angle. It seemed to be empty, but he couldn’t say how much space was there exactly. “Did you research it before we got here?”
“Nope, I learned about it at school. Just... remembered that this place existed recently,” he said with a strange sheepish note in his voice.
Roy looked at him in disbelief. “On a regular geography class?” he asked because he might be a little old, but it was simply impossible that Ed’s generation was required to learn about every weird rock formation in Amestrian mountain ranges.
“Nah, I took extended ones.” Ed shrugged. “Regular were boring.”
Roy blinked. During the last few months, Edward has said the exact same thing about chemistry, biology, physics, and math. He had no idea how many extended classes this man took as a teenager, but that at least partially explained how he was able to graduate with a double major in time normal people struggled to finish one. Over the course of a single semester, he managed to prepare and defend his second Master's degree, still keeping in touch and helping Roy with cases on more than one occasion. To say that Mustang was impressed would be a huge understatement.
Roy’s amazement must have shown on his face because Ed suddenly became very frustrated. “Stop looking at me like that, bastard!” he shrieked and poked at Roy’s ankle with his boot. “ I was ahead of the class anyway! It was no big deal!”
Roy gave a delighted chuckle and rose to his feet. Of course he would see it that way.
“What do you plan to do now that your studies are over?” he asked conversationally before Ed could hit him harder as payment for laughing at him. “Are you going after a Doctoral degree?”
“Naah,” he grumbled. “Hohenheim is a Doctor of Science and look where that got him. His life is straight-up miserable.”
Roy sent him a mocking smile at that statement. Ed punched him in the chest.
“Besides,” he continued, his gaze daring Mustang to say anything about his daddy issues again. “I’ve been bored out of mind this past semester. I still like science – chemistry is a fucking poetry, no matter what you uncultured barbarians say – but I don’t think going back to college will give me the rush I need.”
“You’re the only person I know who gets off on working in the lab,” Roy said amused.
“Fuck you,” Edward replied kindly.
“Are you sure you don’t want to put all that scientific knowledge to practical use? Central Department still has vacant posts on the forensics team. You'd be great at this job.”
Roy asked him this question countless times before, but it was the first time Ed actually seemed to consider it.
“Is that what you really think?” he responded finally.
“Yes. It’s not a pleasant or easy job, but you know that already. And I’ve seen how you work, both in the lab and out in the field. You would do amazing, trust me,” he assured. He hadn’t pointed it out before but he noticed how professional Ed looked when he was helping him with cases. He was literally in his element and Mustang would love to have him on the team. For more than one reason, obviously, but his personal feelings weren’t important right now.
Ed was silent for a little while, lips pursed and eyebrows furrowed in a frown, clearly lost in thought. Then, he said, “Hey, do you think I could fit inside through that hole at the bottom? It looks wide enough.”
Roy sighed and ran a hand over his face in a very cartoonish way. This guy was impossible.
“No. You’re going to get stuck and I won’t be helping you out,” he said. “Besides, it’s definitely an animal den.”
“It’s summer! It’s probably empty, anyway!” Ed protested and crouched to be on the opening’s level.
Roy was having none of that. He grabbed him by the shirt at the nape of his neck and started to drag him back towards the stairs to the main trail.
“There are other people here, for heaven’s sake!” he hissed. It wasn’t the most commonly visited hiking route, but he knew for a fact there were people not far ahead of them as the wind carried their voices from time to time.
Ed smirked. “So what? You’re worried they might see you pulling me out from a hole and get the wrong idea?”
Roy tripped, almost falling down the stairs. Edward Elric was going to be death of him one day.
“You’re ridiculous,” Roy huffed but hasn’t exactly denied anything. “Let’s get going. We have, what... three more hours before the nearest bus stop?”
“Almost four,” Ed corrected. “We haven’t even reached the top.”
“Wonderful.”
“And I’m not sure when we’ll be able to catch the bus back to the city. They don’t run very often from what I heard.”
“Even better,” Roy sighed and reached for his water bottle. “Why did you even choose this route, in the first place? It’s not a very popular one from what I see,” he asked, genuinely curious.
“Well, there’s this rumor going on that the whole area is cursed,” he said, hesitating a little as if he was uncomfortable with the topic. “It’s not really based on any actual story or evidence, but people see the funny looking rock and make up the rest to fit the narrative, I suppose,” he rambled, looking even more flustered than before.
Roy had no idea what brought up this weird behavior so suddenly. It was almost as if he was trying really hard to hide something.
“And you wanted to check if the course was true by any chance?” Roy smirked.
“Oh, please, you know I don’t believe in any of that stuff,” Edward scowled. “But it’s pretty nice here, especially this time of the year and...”
Okay, he was definitely hiding something. But he didn’t look embarrassed, not in a way he usually was when he thought Roy was going to make fun of him. Instead, he looked... worried. Distressed even. That wouldn’t do.
“Ed, tell me what’s wrong with you, or I swear to God -”
“Nothing’s wrong with me!” he yelled, defensive.
Mustang gave him his best unimpressed look. Ed sighed.
“Okay, but let me finish because this is going to sound ridiculous,” he warned. Roy was just about to tell him something like “What’s new?”, but decided not to. It was implied anyway. “I remembered about the Totenkopf because I saw it in Tucker’s photo album.” Roy frowned and was about to interrupt, but Ed’s warm hand covered his mouth before he managed to say anything. “No cutting me off ‘till I’m finished, bastard. Now, I know what it sounds like, but it wasn’t like that. Nina was just showing me her family photos, okay? She said that her mom loved hiking and that they used to visit this specific place a lot when she was still alive. She literally had a photo with Nina in front of that creepy rock. Tucker heard us talking and said that he was the one who took it. He said that it was Anne’s favorite place in the whole Amestrian mountain range because it was so unique or some shit.” Ed stopped for a second as if he didn’t know how to put his thoughts into words. Then he said, “I know it probably doesn’t mean anything, but he had that freaky smile on his face when he was saying that and I didn’t think anything about it then, but now...”
Roy blinked and everything suddenly fell into place.
He didn’t believe for a second that Anne Tucker was alive. After seeing all the evidence that Tucker had falsified to make people believe she had run away – job resignation signed off in his handwriting; text message to the only close friend Anne had that didn’t even mention the name of the man she had supposedly run away with; credit card statements that traced back to his own second account – Mustang was certain that she had shared the fate of her daughter. There was just one thing that didn’t fit.
There was no body.
After spending countless hours on fruitless searching, they finally decided to take a different approach. Testimonies of Anne’s friends and family as well as circumstantial evidence wouldn’t have been enough to prove that he was a murderer. But it was just enough to force the confession out of him, right in the middle of a courtroom. It was a dangerous move that could cost them a lot, but Tucker was impulsive and aggressive. Edward was certain that the bastard would snap under the right amount of pressure and Roy decided to take that gamble.
Maes Hughes, Roy’s childhood friend and the best prosecutor in this damned country, shamelessly took all the credit, but he was right to do so. Without his brilliant performance it would have all gone to shit during the trial, and that way Roy could relax and truly hope for the best. Tucker’s deranged scream of “She was a lousy bitch and she deserved what was coming for her!” was the best thing he’s heard that day. Sometimes he wondered what was wrong with his life priorities.
But that wasn’t important right now.
“So you took as here because you thought we might find Anne Tucker’s body?” Roy asked, just for clarification.
“That’s a very simplified version, but yes, basically.”
Roy wanted to laugh. Was it wrong that he wanted to laugh? It was sort of inappropriate, right? He decided on yelling instead.
“It’s been years, Ed! And we’re hundreds of kilometers from Central! Even Tucker isn’t insane enough to bring a dead body all the way here and drag it up the hiking trail just to dispose of it!” he snapped.
“Come on, it’s not impossible!” Ed reciprocated and now they were suddenly having a screaming match in the middle of the forest. Just wonderful.
“No, it’s just totally mental! How would he even do it unnoticed?! And it’s a public space, hundreds of people pass through it every year, where was he supposed to hide it?!”
“It’s a fucking forest, Roy! In the middle of the mountains! I’m pretty sure there are many cracks where you could just drop the bag and be done with it!”
“Even so, we wouldn’t have found it even if we looked for years!”
“I’m not telling you to, goddammit! I just thought that might be it! That we couldn’t find it because it was not even anywhere close to Central, and -”
“And what, you decided to ask me out on a nice trip to the place where Tucker might have or might have not hidden the body of his wife after he murdered her?” Roy asked, feeling slightly overwhelmed. Because that was his life apparently. That was all there was to it.
“Why did you even agree to come with me in the first place?” Ed growled. Roy noticed the change of subject, but was too tired to call him out on it.
“You were very persistent,” he muttered, aware of how weak was that as an excuse.
“You could have said no, bastard,” Ed pouted, no real fire behind the insult.
“Would you have still come here if I said no?” Mustang countered, looking him straight in the eyes. “Just to check if you could manage to stumble upon a dead body by accident?”
“Yes!” Ed snapped but lost all the certainty as soon as the word was out of his mouth. “Maybe. I don’t know.” His cheeks were getting warmer with every word and Roy felt his anger fade away. “I know how unlikely it would be to find the body of Nina’s mom here of all places, alright? I know. But it was the last possible idea that came to my mind and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to visit. So I could... I don’t know, honor her memory or something,” he finished, flustered.
“Edward...” Roy sighed. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to say.
It didn’t matter anyway, because Ed wasn’t done.
“I haven’t dragged you out here to chase a wild goose or dead bodies, or however the saying goes. I asked you to go because I wanted to spend some time with you. Just you, without my father, or Hawkeye, or your colleagues breathing down our necks, because I...” Ed stopped abruptly as if he just realized what he was about to say.
Roy was so fucking done with his shit.
He leaned in and suddenly his lips were on Edward’s. The young man squealed in response, too startled to return the kiss, but not stepping away. Roy pulled back slightly to have a better look at his crimson face.
“I gotta admit, Elric,” he started, a huge smile spreading across his face. “You certainly know how to destroy the mood.”
Ed scowled and murmured, “Shut up, bastard. I’ve set it back, haven’t I?” before grabbing Roy by the collar of his jacket and leaning back into the kiss.
It wasn’t a one-sided peck this time. Roy’s hands landed on Ed’s back and waist, bringing them together even closer. Ed’s tongue leaped forward as if asking the other for permission to enter. Roy let him in and then began the slow tenacious dance of lips and tongues and teeth that neither of them wanted to break. Ed was a surprisingly good kisser for someone who’d rather spend his time with books than people, but he still lacked experience. It was perfect anyway. He would really love to stay that way – with Edward locked safely in his arms and their mouths drawn together – but they also needed to breathe now and then.
Edward broke the kiss first, breathing heavily, but didn’t pull away. He looked dazed and his face was even redder than before but his eyes shone like liquid gold. He was as beautiful as ever.
“Roy, I...” he started, still slightly out of breath.
A female scream echoed down the mountainside, followed by numerous raised voices. Ed and Roy jumped away from each other, both looking up in the direction from which the noise was coming.
“That was the biggest cockblock in my entire life,” Ed said finally. He sounded more shocked than mad.
“Tell me something about it,” Roy muttered in the response. “Let’s go.”
The voices weren’t going down. On the contrary, they started to get more and more panicked as the moments passed. Ed practically ran the last couple of meters up the trail, Roy close behind him, and all of a sudden they found themselves in a middle of a small group of hikers – six people total – that were running around frantically, shouting one over the other.
Roy immediately got to work, calming everyone down and asking questions. Before he managed to get any real answers, Ed screamed, “Roy, there’s a fucking dead body down here!”
He startled. “Anne Tucker?” he asked stupidly, because after their previous argument that was the first thing that came to his mind.
“Of course not!” Ed snapped. “This one’s a day old at most!”
“I-I... I just wanted to take a piss and she-she was... th-there,” wailed one of the girls. She was tall, with long red hair and tearful eyes. She looked completely shaken, not that Roy blamed her. That must have been a traumatic experience.
“She was shot through the head!” Ed yelled again and Mustang gave up on the group of teenagers and went over to where he was crouching next to the body.
It was a woman, probably not much older than Edward himself in the late twenties at most. He was right about the time of the murder – the body hasn’t started to rot yet, but her skin was ashen gray and eyes muddy. There was a bullet wound in the middle of her forehead and a huge puddle of blood underneath, partially soaked into the ground. Her legs were bent so she probably died on her knees... from a very close-ranged shot, looking at the sheer amount of blood. The wound on the other side of her head must have looked awful.
“There are some things scattered further down the forest,” Ed noticed. “Looks like her personal belongings. A robbery?” he asked, looking at Roy.
The detective shook his head in response. “Could be. We need to call the police from town, possibly get in touch with North City.”
Ed checked his phone and cursed, “My signal is shit.”
“Yeah, I figured that may be the case,” Mustang sighed. Going down the trail to get to the city would take them an hour and a half at best and then another two to get back. It would be getting dark before they managed to get anyone here. Looking for anything would take ages. It was a waste of time but it was their only option and maybe the signal would return once they found themselves closer to the foot of the mountain.
“There’s a hostel not far from there,” one of the hikers spoke up and Roy and Ed turned to him in unison. “I was there before. They should have a landline.”
“How far away?” Roy asked.
“Twenty minutes up the trail, I think. Maybe fifteen if we hurry,” he said.
“Take me there,” Roy said, taking off his backpack and turning towards Edward. “Can I trust you to stay here and not touch anything before the police arrive? I don’t want them to find your fingerprints all over the crime scene.”
Ed chuckled. “I can’t promise not to touch, but I promise to be sneaky about it.”
Roy sighed exasperatedly. He had created a monster and he only had himself to blame.
*
It’s been hours before they finally got back to the hotel. The killer was still unknown, but the body was taken for a closer examination and the local authorities have already started interrogating the locals, with an emphasis on the mountain hostel employees because they were most likely to see someone suspicious or at least hear the gunshot. There was no conclusive evidence apart from the type and model of the weapon because the footprints have been mostly destroyed by the elements, but there was also no sign of the victim’s wallet or a mobile phone on the scene. They were probably stolen from the woman’s backpack, so it could be possible to trace them if the killer still had them.
It was a huge mess, but all things considered, it was none of their business. They left as soon as they were done with their statements and cleared to go. Ed looked a little disheartened, but it was Roy’s vacation, for fuck’s sake, and he refused to spend it working. Not on his own territory, on top of that.
“We’re going further North tomorrow,” he decided, throwing himself back first on the bed. “I’ve got a friend in Briggs, we might as well pay her a visit since we’re in the area.”
Ed frowned.
“It’s cold in Briggs. How about going East? Al says Xing is very pretty this time of year,” he proposed, laying down next to him, head propped up on Roy’s arm as if that was the most natural thing in the world.
Roy considered it for a second and agreed. There was only so much they could do in five days before he had to go back to Central and getting punched in the face by Olivier Armstrong wasn’t one of the things he wanted to spend that time on. Maybe next time.
A few minutes passed and Roy started to think Edward has fallen asleep when suddenly he spoke up.
“Hey, Roy.”
“Hm?”
“We did manage to stumble upon a dead body by accident, after all.”
“Shut up, Edward.”