Ah, a non-Gravitation story! I do hope some people who have read some of my other stories will read this one as well. But if not, I forgive you!
Hughes: Throughout this story, Hughes is very mysterious and sometimes seems to be acting a little out of character. Please reserve your judgements until the end!
Warnings: episode 25 spoilers in the last chapter, male/male, descriptive violence, prostitution (um...no, it's not one of "those" stories), angst
Before It Rained
Chapter One
"Yes, yes, yes!" Maes waved his free left hand in a careless motion, an ecstatic grin gracing his features. He had been on the phone for a good hour or two, and was now rocking back and forth in his ancient chair. "Yes! This is fantastic! We've got to do it! …Mad? Why should he get mad?" The chair clomped to the floor. "It's just a harmless joke. I'm sure he'll be thrilled by our genius! No, no, nobody will get hurt! We'll be extra careful. What? No, no, not like the last time. Hello? …Hello? Silly? …Are you serious? Haha! I can't believe he walked right by! That's classic…"
I had amassed all the stones into a neat pile around where I was sprawled in the dirt, and had now moved on to arranging them into all my memorized alchemy circles. I glanced up at Hughes, allowing myself to briefly scan his long nose and arched eyebrows, the glasses that cut a perfect rectangle around his eyes. Turning my attention back to my self-employed task, I made a few more circles before kicking the stones so that they scattered forward across the limited area of the communications tent.
"Hey, Silly? I think they might cut us off soon. …Yeah. Yeah, I kinda used up all my time… I know… I'll come down to your camp soon… Maybe next Sunday…yeah…when we're not running around like idiots… Uh huh. …Uh huh. Yep. See you soon!" The phone was slammed onto its hook with a triumphant crash. "This is great, Roy!" Maes informed me needlessly. "We're brilliant! But I can't tell. Knowing you you'll go rat out our top secret plans." He cocked his finger at his head took a shot with an ironic grin. His carefully extracted black lock flopped to the side.
Ignoring his on-target assumption, I feigned boredom with a sigh. "You were on the phone a long time. Weren't we going to go to the mess hall together today?" I turned my gaze back towards his face, watching as his eyes widened, almost gently.
The gentleness passed. "…Ahh, I have a date! With a girl from town!" Grinning hopefully, Maes gave me an enormous wink. He shot to his feet and exclaimed, "Let me tell you about her! She has big brown eyes, very cute, by the way. Always smiling. Adorable smile! Likes my jokes! Can you believe it? A girl who likes my jokes!"
"Oh. That's cool." Wind ruffled the blue tent, sending it billowing against my back. I stood up, shoved my hands into my pockets and stared at a far corner of the tent, not willing to expose my eyes to him anymore. I knew that he had no contract with me; I knew that nothing had even happened between us besides friendly, thoughtless hugs. He would wrap his strong arm around me and grin, sometimes grabbing my nose and laughing. At first I had thought that meant something special: I had thought those moments were reserved just for me. Coming from a conservative, solemn family, I had always believed bodily contact was something that only occurred when people were very close. But Maes viewed everything differently—the world revolved at a slightly different angle. He always told me not to take everything so seriously, and I watched him with a mixture of envy and bemusement. "That's fine. I'll go alone then." Keeping my eyes focused on the ground, I hunched my back and stomped out of the tent in a nonverbal expression of moodiness and depression.
I heard Maes start to follow me. "We'll…go together tomorrow, okay?" His voice had lost its fervor and showed genuine concern, but it was almost familial, like when I used to have silent wars with my mother until she gave in and became gentle and desperate.
"I'm not mad, Maes," I told him, only half-lying, voice detached.
As I slouched away, I heard him mutter softly, "Eh, of course you're not."
Turning into the mess tent, I gazed on the raucous crowd, scanning them, disinterested. Havoc waved at me from the back, his hand flying from side to side over his multiple companions' heads like a signal. Acknowledging him with a brief jerk of my hand, I wandered in the direction of the food. My eyes turned towards an empty end of one of the tables, tempted. Havoc's signal went up again into the air, this time more agitated. Giving him a smile that didn't match my clenched jaws, I sat down next to one of his well-toned companions, who held some vague familiarity about him. I'd probably sat next to him before, or had duty with him. Slamming his hand into my back, the man roared to the entire assembly: "The Flame Alchemist has arrived!"
"Hey." I murmured, feeling annoyance pace swiftly in my chest like an agitated marching band.
"Roy!" Havoc gave me a sly grin, kicking a booted foot against my leg. "You aren't going to believe this!" He leaned in closer to me, shoulders spiking upwards as he leaned his arms on the table. "I snuck to the girls camp today…and I got some lovin'! She was hot too, man! Jealous?" His wild smirk widened, eyes shining with some sort of lasting pleasure.
I stared into my food, thinking of Maes meeting his girl, taking her hand, smiling a special smile just for her. Realizing I was scowling, I muttered, "You know that's against regulations."
Havoc sighed and slid his arms off the table, giving one of the men a knowing look. "You can be so boring, you know? I bet you're just jealous."
I shrugged, forcing the bland mixture into my unresponsive mouth.
"He is jealous." Havoc concluded confidentially, poking his elbow into the man seated beside him. "So Roy, which girl do you want from the camp? Hope I didn't take yours!"
I tried to remember a single face in the long lines of female recruits. Stabbing my meal fiercely with my fork, I examined the wood table's contents as if they would give me some miraculous revelation. "There is this one girl with blonde hair…" I suggested hazily. "She has big boobs."
"Big boobs, huh? Always thought you went for the flat-chested goody-girls. You know, the ones that take desk jobs and wear glasses." Sticking a cigarette in his quirking mouth, he lit it with a match from his ragged pocket.
"She has glasses…" I edited my imaginary woman, wishing desperately for the empty seat in the corner which I had passed over. I shoveled the beans into my mouth, ready to make an escape.
The conversation turned to how obnoxious Havoc's sergeant was, and how they all had to get up at five the next day. Someone stuck in a snide comment about how alchemists didn't have to do anything but learn symbols; I felt no anger, and didn't comment. He was right.
"I'm going to study." Grasping my plate, I stomped off without acknowledging their teasing farewells.
I studied for about an hour two, sometimes taking walks past Maes' unoccupied tent. For a good while I resisted the urge to sit myself outside of it, then gave in and amused myself by sketching new alchemy circles in the dirt. The moon climbed above the tents. Little beacons of human existence, jutting up from the barren plane. My eyelids drooped.
When I woke up Maes was standing over me, his face a mixture of distress and tolerance. A city man who had just found his dog with a rabbit in its mouth. "You were waiting for me." His voice was tinged with some unknown feeling, something that didn't seem to fit. Something sad.
"I just…" I eyed my latest circle, and then timidly looked up again.
His lips curved upwards. "Come in."
"Okay."
Lighting his oil lamp with a careful diligence, he fished around in his pocket for awhile before extracting a cigarette and feeding it on the growing flame. "Ishbal is ugly. It's getting uglier." I watched the shadows and the fire fight each other across Maes' strangely somber features. He stuck the cigarette in his mouth. "They won't pull out. I know they won't pull out." Face mournful, he turned towards my seated figure, eyes scanning me like I might suddenly fade on him. "I should have gone with you today."
I shrugged, a disorderly worry gnawing my heart. "We can just…go tomorrow. I said I wasn't mad." Maes had become wrong, serious, frightening.
He tried to smile, mouth working fiercely. The cigarette was snuffed on the table. "…They're all going to die. They're sending them there and they're all going die. All those boys are going to die and they're going to come back in bags, if they come back at all." For a moment he just stood there, silhouetted in the wavering light. A grimace cut a jagged line in his mouth. Then, he flipped the light off, and darkness consumed him.
Maes' chapped lips pressed against my neck, and I tensed with shock. I felt his tongue brush against me, then his lips again, moist. His hands fumbled clumsily through my hair and around my head, like he needed to feel all of me and there just wasn't enough time. Overlong nails pressed into my back then quickly receded as they clutched my arms. I tried to think as I accepted his oddly inexperienced touch, but then the adrenaline raced too fast through my jump-started chest. Exploding fire engulfed me. I stretched quivering fingers around the back of his head; he kissed my forehead, my nose, and finally my lips. His hair was greasy. Maes smelled of both sweat and woman's perfume, of shaving cream and some sort of steak. The girl was irrelevant. Letting out a shaky breath, I drew my arms around his neck. He pulled my body tightly against his own, half like we were brothers, half like we were lovers.
"You're a good man, Roy." Hesitation and guilt in his fingers, he released me gently. "I want you to get some sleep."
I told him I'd see him tomorrow, a school-girl stutter in my voice. I left. The next morning the State Alchemists were transferred to the Ishbalian front.
Thank you for reading. Hope you come back for the next chapter!