Work Text:
Dream Guy
Even though he and Al were so close people used to mistake them for brothers, Ed's never told Al his dreams about the beautiful man practically dancing through the fire he seemed to create with a snap of his fingers. He regretted it almost the second he walked into his (fucking pointless) lit class, because the guy sitting alone on the far side of the room looked exactly like him. Ed wanted to take a picture and send it to Al and be all, 'that's him, that's the guy in my dreams!' except Al wouldn't know what he was talking about so he can't. That and he's pretty sure it would be creepy to take a picture of a stranger like that.
"Are you going to go in or what, Ed?" an annoyed voice asked from behind him, and Ed jumped and skittered into the room before he realized who it was. Then he glared and clenched his jaw because fuck he hated smug fucking Russell and his smug fucking dad, head of the chemistry department and the reason Ed was majoring in fucking biology.
Russell took a seat right by the door so Ed, still scowling and furious at the very fact that he existed, stormed across the room and took the open seat right next to Dream Guy.
...Probably best not to call him that. It sounded like Ed thought he was a candidate to be The One.
Not that Ed would say no to a date, mind. On closer inspection, the guy was really hot. He seemed pretty fit and his messy black hair looked ridiculously fucking soft and—shit, did he only have one eye? That was...it didn't make him unattractive or anything, Ed wasn't that big of a hypocrite, it was just a hell of a surprise.
"Yes, I only have one eye," the guy said, interrupting Ed's thoughts in a pleasantly conversational tone. "I lost it in Iraq. It hurt like hell, and I was honorably discharged. No, I'm not going to remove the patch so you can see it."
Ed flushed at having been caught looking, and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Sorry," he said. "I wasn't—I mean, I was looking, obviously, because it surprised me, but I wasn't gonna ask about it. 'S none of my business."
Dream Guy (okay, so that name was sticking, great) looked up at him now, and even his eye was stunning. Dark blue and intense, and he held Ed's gaze like Ed was the only person in the entire room. Then he smiled, and Ed's heart felt like it stopped. Hell and damnation. The bastard should just go back to his magic tricks; they were easier for him to handle.
"You'd be surprised how many people believe otherwise," Dream Guy said.
"Not—really," Ed said reluctantly, rubbing nervously at his left knee. The prosthetic his dad had gotten for him from who-knew-where meant it was almost impossible for people to know he only had one leg. At least until he couldn't avoid showing them, and then the questions never fucking ended.
Dream Guy raised his only eyebrow at Ed, clearly curious, but the professor entered the room before he could ask any questions. Ed silently thanked her for existing, and quickly dug out his laptop as she introduced herself and started going over the syllabus. She was younger than most of his other teachers, and extremely bubbly, but seemed pretty bearable for a lit teacher. At least she wasn't going on about the horrors of genre fiction.
Then she mentioned the project they'd be working on near the end of the semester. With a partner. No exceptions allowed. Ed glanced quickly around the room, recognized nobody but that-asshole-Russell, and stared at her in horror.
When the class finally ended, almost everyone started talking to each other as they gathered up their things and left. The most common topic seemed to be who would be partners for the project, which was ridiculous since they had like months before they even needed to worry about it. Which was obviously why Ed was going to spend said months fretting about it to Al, like an adult.
He put his head in his hands and sighed. His life was such a fucking mess. Maybe he should go back to the psych again; if the past hour was any indication, he was going to need something to help with his stupid anxiety this semester.
A soft touch at his shoulder made him jump, and he turned a glare on Dream Guy. Who just held up his hands and graced him with an innocent smile, as if Ed's glare didn't phase him in the least. Ed hadn't yet met anybody but Al who didn't at least hesitate after being glared at by him.
"I wondered if you might like to be my partner for the project?" he said. "You don't seem to know many people in the class, and I certainly don't, so it would make this easier on both of us."
"Uh, yeah, I guess," Ed said. "Gotta warn you, though, I suck at lit. You can ask anyone who knows me; all this symbolism and metaphor shit just goes right over my head."
"Well, that won't be a problem, because I excel at it," Dream Guy said smoothly, like Ed should be reassured just because he said so. The most annoying part was that Ed kind of was. "My name's Roy."
"Ed," Ed said, offering a hand to shake. Roy took it with a weird little smirk, and held on a little longer than was strictly polite, until Ed felt himself starting to blush again. Fucker. This was ridiculous.
"Do you have time to get some coffee before your next class?" Roy asked softly, leaning towards him. They'd stopped shaking hands, but he hadn't let go yet. "We should get to know each other before we have to work together."
Ed's face was so hot he was sure nobody had ever turned quite the shade of red he must be at the moment, but he gamely cleared his throat and said, "Yeah. Coffee. I can definitely do coffee."
After all, who was he to deny the literal man of his dreams?