Work Text:
#31 - Sacred
Roy awoke to the sounds of fighting.
It wasn't the most familiar sound of combat, it wasn't the whistle of mortar shells or the rapid retort of gunfire. It was the heavy clanging of metal against armor. Roy stumbled out of bed, fumbling for his gloves before realizing that they weren't by the bed. In his half-awake haze Roy cast about for a weapon, they didn't have much that was immediately suitable. He settled on a poker that lay by the fireplace and made for the door.
The door to the cabin itself was old and heavy, and as Roy pushed on it he realized that it had been blocked shut. Roy shoved his weight against it, putting his shoulder really in to it. The door complained at him, straining against Roy before finally popping open, sending Roy sprawling against the person who had opened the door in the first place.
Edward caught Roy against him in surprise. "Roy!"
Roy hesitated, still sleepy. Had he imagined the fighting? Edward was half-naked, when he had caught Roy against him he dropped several logs onto the threshold of the cabin. His skin shone with sweat, he had been chopping wood. "What's wrong?"
He levered himself out of Edward's embrace, one hand on the door frame as he looked over Edward's head and out to the surrounding woods. Nothing seemed out of order, it looked like any other warm spring morning. He glanced down, Edward was picking up the split logs he had dropped. "Sleepwalking again?" Edward grumbled, piling his armful of logs all on his automail arm, his hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail like usual when he did early morning chores.
"Since when have you been such an early riser?" Roy asked sleepily.
Edward gave Roy a weird look and edged past him into the cabin, putting the firewood beside the large fireplace, which had extinguished overnight. "Unless you want a cold breakfast, I need you to light the fire again," Edward said, straightening.
Roy felt his mouth go dry. Edward frowned at Roy, hands on his hips. He looked at the hearth, then back to Roy. "What?"
He moved across the small cabin, and wiped his thumb across Edward's hairline. Edward looked at him was a frown of concern, until Roy showed Edward his hand. "You're bleeding."
"I'm-" Edward put his hand to his hairline. "Aw, shit."
"I DID hear fighting," Roy said, his hand on Edward's shoulder. Edward shrugged out from under it to find a towel, and pressed that to his hairline. The majority of the bleeding had stopped already, and the laceration was likely already healed. "Ed-"
"Yeah, yeah," Edward said with a sigh. "It was a couple of angels looking to make a name for themselves."
"I thought you said they couldn't find us here!"
"I had the Triumvirate declare this area off-limits," Edward said. "It's hard as hell for someone like us to stay off of an angelic radar."
"So rogue angels could find us?"
"Yeah, and when they catch wind of it the Triumvirate will be down their throats." Edward his flesh hand through his bangs, satisfied that the blood was gone. "I hate relying on them to police their own idiotic angels but there it is. I already told them anybody sets food on our land without my approval they're dead."
"Are you all right?" Roy took the towel from Edward, frowning at the bloodstains. "You weren't in your armor."
Edward waved it off. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I just got clocked in the head by an idiot waving his weapon around like he thought it was supposed to be used, not how it's actually supposed to be used." Roy had not loosened his grip on the poker and Edward sighed, taking it out of Roy's hand gently. "It's okay, I promised I'd protect you."
"No," Roy said, feeling his chest get tight. "It's not okay. I should be the one protecting you-"
"This again?" Edward returned the poker to the holding can beside the fireplace. "They'd eat you alive, Roy." He smiled sadly. "They almost did me, and Sariel wasn't even a demon."
To Edward's surprise, Roy's arms encircled him from behind. "You had to go through all that alone."
Edward tilted his head back, knocking the side of Roy's jaw. "I wasn't alone," he said. "Not really." He looked up at Roy. "You were supporting me, an' Al too."
"I had no idea."
"That's because you had other things to worry about." Edward smiled, and this time it was genuine. "Don't worry about it." He patted the side of Roy's head with his hand, then slid out from under his arms. "Now, how about getting that fire started? I'm fucking starving, fighting off angels in the morning really gets my appetite going."