Skeleton
Cephied Variable

Adalia answered the door. If, perhaps, she had been more interested in military business during the twilight years of Fuhrer Bradley's rule, she might have recognized the man standing on her doorstep, a curled cylinder of paper under one arm and a suitcase dangling off the other. He blinked at her for a few moments before his expression solidified itself into something sly and almost passive agressive.

"A beautiful woman. Figures. Well, at least I know I have the right house." he set his suitcase on the ground and met her eyes seriously. Condescendingly, "Listen, I need to talk to Roy Mustang. Do you want to get him for me?"

He looked like a child until she noticed the sharp cut of his face, the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. She was about to open her mouth and ask him who he was when Roy called, "Adalia, who is at-" and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw their visitor, a complicated array of emotions Adalia couldn't identify flickering across his face.

He whispered: "Edward." as if the name were ripped out of him.

The man (boy?) at the door tipped his head, long hair swaying against his shoulders, and smirked, "Well, looks like you missed me."

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"Roy Mustang, devoted husband and father. Never thought I'd see the day!" they'd had to pull an extra chair up to the table for Edward Elric, who ate like a horse and talked as much as any teenager despite that fact that he was twenty-eight years old. Annabelle Mustang watched him with wide, blue eyes from the opposite side of the table, her gaze following his every gesture, every movement with a concentration that was almost academic.

Adalia was both fascinated and unnerved by the boy (man?)'s odd intimacy with her husband. It was obvious that they'd know each other from Roy's military days, however their banter lacked the formality and cold distance of military friendships. Ed's age was also puzzling, as was the way her husband kept settling a heavy gaze on him, half guarded, half disbeliving with a slight edge of absolute relief and contentment.

"How old's the little one, anyways?" Ed wondered, showing his teeth as he smiled at the girl.

Annabelle gasped and straightened in her seat as if she'd been called to attention, "I'm ten years old!" she stated proudly, voice overloud. Her eyes sparkled and Adalia tried to hide a smile- she remembered being ten years old, developing misguided and innocent crushes on every handsome man who paid her some mind.

Ed nodded sagely and shot Roy a sly look from the corner of his eyes, "She's nearly as old as I was when we met." and there was something off about the comment. Something that caused her husband's smile to fade and his eyes to darken. A uncomfortable silence loomed between the two of them- unresolved issues that Adalia couldn't concieve or imagine- so she cleared her throat and asked, anxiously:

"So, Edward. Were you a member of the military?"

Ed's vision snapped back towards her and he nodded, "Mmm. Mustang here was my commanding officer. He recruited me as a state alchemist."

Adalia nodded and pushed the food around on her plate, "So you served as an alchemist in battle?"

"No, I was too young to be part of the formal military." Ed answered, a mouth full of potatoes. He gestured aimlessly with his fork, "I was just a civilian consultant, which meant that I did more work for less pay. Thanks to your darling husband, of course, who deemed it necessary to assign me the most irrelevant and dangerous missions to grace his desk."

"Now, now, Edward," Roy interrupted. He leaned back in his seat and threaded his fingers together, smiling again, "I only sent you where I felt your... particular expertise was required. Remember, I catered to that quest of yours quite a bit. I hardly think any mission I sent you on was irrelevant."

Edward snorted, "What about that port town- Heidenbard... Heidenburg... hell, something like that. The villagers were complaining that sharks were chewing the fishing nets to pieces and thus ruining the economy of the town. You want to tell me that was somehow relevant to my 'Quest'."

Roy's smile deepened into something Adalia had rarely ever seen on him before. A smirk, slightly sinister, insultingly mocking and she realized that this conversation was not a first. This was a conversation that had been had a thousand times before- so well rehearsed that it was almost a dance, "Mmm, of course once in a while I needed to reign in the lesh a bit and remind you of exactly who you were working for. You could be such a disobidient child, Fullmetal."

"Oh, that's bullshit, Colonel." Adalia's eyes flickered back and forth, overwhelmed and completely lost in the dangerous, snide tones their voices had dipped into.

"And it seems you haven't changed much over the years. I would ask you please to watch your laguage in front of my daughter."

"Oh, it's okay daddy!" Annabelle piped up brightly, "I don't mind at all!"

And Annabelle's voice broke the spell. Roy's smirk receded, the vicious glint faded from Edward's eyes and the air in the room became thinner. With a heavy, tired sigh Edward pushed his chair back and stood up, stretching like a cat- muscels slowly unfolding beneath his too-large clothing.

"Well, it's been a long train ride from Rizenbul. I think I should get some sleep. Someone want to direct me to the guest room?"

"I will!" Annabelle squeaked immediately, then shooting her father a pleading look, "Please, daddy?"

Roy considered a moment, then reached out and ruffled her hair, "Of course, Annabelle. But then it's time for bed."

She giggled and leapt from her seat, practically dancing across the room and grabbing Edward's arm greedily.

When they left, the emotion drained out of Roy's face. His shoulders slumped, his lips turned downwards and the mischevious joy he had displayed moments ago melted into something unreadable. Something dark. Something... aching.

"What's wrong?" Adalia asked quietly, leaning over to touch his face.

"He..." and Roy inhaled deeply, his eyes not leaving the empty door frame, "He's supposed to be dead."

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"You're going to keep seeing women, aren't you?"

Edward was sprawled out naked beneath the covers with his eyes closed and his arm slung across his forehead. Roy stiffened at the question for a moment, and then continued fastening the cuffs of his uniform, "You say that as if it bothers you."

A ruffle of movement, sheets sliding off tanned skin and Roy could feel those intense eyes on his back without having to turn around and see them, "As if it bothers me. Why the hell wouldn't it bother me?"

Roy sighed, straightened his back and turned to give his young lover an incredelous look, "Seeing women, as I've always done... if I suddenly ceased this activity, those watching me may grow suspicious." and Ed was still giving him that loaded, disatisfied look. Roy crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to rest his palm on the top of the boy's head, "You know, Fullmetal, that I only do these things to protect you."

Ed snorted and looked away, "Yeah, yeah. Keeping up appearences. I've heard this song and dance a million and one fucking times. But-" Roy cut him off with a kiss and a hand tangled in his long hair.

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"What are you doing." and suddenly Edward was there, standing beside him and leaning over his shoulder to curiously study the array he was sketching.

"Designing an array."

"Military work?" Ed wondered, resting his chin on Roy's shoulder.

"I'm a teacher now," Roy informed calmly, trying desperately to ignore the warmth of Edward's body against his back.

Ed snickered, "A teacher? Whatever possessed you to become a teacher?"

"One too many bullets delivered directly to the head, I suppose." Roy had meant it as a joke, but the way Edward fell silent was all too serious. Roy wasn't certain how to salvage the remark.

"... what do you teach?" Edward asked after a moment.

"Applied alchemical chemistry, at the Central City University." he tapped the paper with his work pencil and explained: "Right now my students are working on purification arrays. Lately there's been problems with pollution in the city's drinking water and-" Roy cut himself off when he felt two thin arms snake their way around his shoulders, "Edward," he asked slowly, "What are you doing?"

"You've gotten so old," Edward hid a grin in Roy's hair, all graying at the temples and roots, "I just never could imagine you old."

"You've gotten old too, Edward."

Edward didn't reply. He breathed against Roy's neck for a few moments while Roy attempted to gather his thoughts. He was about to speak when Edward twirled the chair about on it's base and framed Roy's vision, hands braced on the arm rests, "I bet... it would be different now." he murmered, eyes half-lidded, as he began to lean in for a kiss.

Roy took a deep breath and placed his palm flat on Ed's chest, lightly pushing him away, "Maybe. But we don't have the time to find out anymore."

Edward twisted his mouth and didn't budge, "I still can't believe you're married."

"It happens, Edward. In fact, it happens to most men eventually."

Adalia always searched his face- her eyes flickering worriedly from feature to feature, collecting to clues to the puzzle piece by piece. Edward simply stared- eyes fierce, demanding and sun colored. He wasn't one for interpertation; their relationship had never been a matter of give and take, afterall. They boy had always expected Roy to spell things out for him, so he wasn't surprised when Edward practically growled: "Why?"

"Why what?" Roy replied evenly, even though he knew exactly what he was being asked.

"Why did you marry her?"

"Because I love her."

Edward raised an eyebrow, "No you don't."

Roy sat up in his chair and grabbed Edward's wrists, removing them from the arm rests. One of them was still metal, "Don't be ridiculous, Edward. Of course I love her."

Edward's glare melted into an impetutous pout. He jerked his wrists away and placed his hands on his hips, "Are you sure? Or was she just convinient? I mean, you saw a lot of women back when-"

Roy stood up abruptly and clamped his hands on Ed's narrow shoulders, "I am not going to have this conversation with you, Edward."

"You can't love her. She's just like all the others. What the hell makes her so special in particular?"

There were many ways Roy could have answered that question. He could have sung Adalia's praises to the sky and still have a hundred things left to say about her. It took a special woman to pick a man like Roy Mustang- an eternal soldier, blinded and broken and aimless- up and put him back on his feet. She had succeeded where even the infaliable Riza Hawkeye had failed. However, he somehow knew that this would all be lost on Edward, who was inexplicably scorned, "Perhaps she was convinient, but that doesn't change the fact that I love her."

"Don't lie. You just love the life." and Ed wrenched away from his grip as if his hands were hot iron, "You're in love with this entire fucking life- the devoted wife, the adoring daughter- you just want a piece of what he had because you don't think that you'll ever be half the man he was." Edward doesn't even have to say the name and Roy still winces, "You may be getting old, but you haven't changed one fucking bit."

"And Neither have you, Fullmetal," Roy retorted coldly, "You're still nothing but a spoiled child who doesn't know what he wants." and this is how Roy Mustang and Edward Elric loved each other. It takes delicacy and practice to make your lover happy, but the barbs and cuts come almost naturally.

Ed tossed him one more bitter glance over his shoulder, "I always thought you'd marry Hawkeye." and then was gone.

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"It's strange. If he's the famous Fullmetal Alchemist... why have none of you ever mentioned him? Not you, not Riza or Jean or even Armstrong. If his brother-"

"Edward disappeared without a trace twelve years ago, Adalia. We all assumed that he was dead. After everything that had happened... everything we went through, it seemed too much to admit that he hadn't lived through it. After a while, it simply became instinct to ignore the subject altogether."

Adalia studied him from where set sat cross legged on the bed, head slightly tipped and eyes narrowed critically. He looked at her expectantly and she looked back, "Something's not right."

Roy tried his best congenial smile, "What's not right?"

"Between you and... Mr. Elric." Roy's smile thinned, "He... was a peculiar child, wasn't he?"

"His father had left when he was an infant, and his mother died when he was very young. He and his brother were involved in a... messy alchemy accident. His brother was injured horribly and he lost two of his limbs. It was a lot for a child to bear."

Adalia nodded thoughtfully, "And you were there for him?" Roy didn't answer verbally and Adalia took his silence as an affirmation. She crawled under the sheets and stretched across the pillows languidly. "When I was pregnant with Annabelle, didn't you always suggest Edward as a name for a boy?"

"No," Roy shook his head solemly as he slid into their bed, "I always said we should name him Alphonse."

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"You're such a presumpteous bastard."

"Mmm, am I now?"

"Stop assuming you know every little thing about me. You're not my father, dammnit! You're just my commanding officer!"

"And your lover." Roy added playfully, fingers ghosting across Edward's narrow hips.

"Yes-" the boy agreed, any further words swallowed by a gasp, "But not my father."

And lost in the depth of another devouring kiss, Roy forgot to mention that sometimes he rather would be.

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"You're wife's out," Ed informed, casting a dark silhouette in the doorway, "So's Annabelle."

Roy turned his chair around to stare at the shadow of a boy- man- of Edward slowly stalking towards him, arms folded across his chest and a strangely sobered expression on his too young face.

"This isn't exactly the welcome home I was imagining." he loomed over Roy, mouth twisted up in an ironic smile, "Did you even miss me?"

"Edward, I-" and he just couldn't find it in him to say 'More than you could ever imagine'.

"I'm sick of you treating me like a skeleton in your closet." Ed announced, smile quickly turning into a frown.

And Roy finally found his words, "I hate to point this out, Edward, but in some ways you are. I can't very well tell my wife that I-"

"Skeletons are dead." Ed interrupted, voice suddenly ringing of passion and anger, "I'm alive, Godammnit! I never died and I am so, so sick of people treating me like Jesus fucking Christ risen from the grave!"

Roy resisted the urge to laugh at Edward's lingering immaturity, and he resisted to urge to ask who Jesus Christ was. Instead, he reached out for Edward's wrist and drew the blonde closer, "I know that, Edward. I just don't know what you want from me."

"I want you to remember me. I just want someone to remember me." Ed answered lowly.

"Your brother remembers you." Roy soothed, "He never gave up faith- believed that you were still alive until the day you showed up on his doorstep, I bet."

Ed shook his head, a rueful chuckle escaping his lips, "No. No he doesn't." there was something clouded and unfamiliar in Edward's eyes when their gazes met, "He remembers me as a kid. He remembers the older brother who used to bandage his cuts and read him books and make fun of him for wetting his bed. He doesn't- he can't- remember the boy who's stupid pride nearly got him killed. He doesn't remember what happened to Mom, what happened to Nina, what happened to him." this time, when Edward pressed their bodies together, Roy didn't push him away, "I want you to remember who I really was. I want you to remember all those fucking stupid things I did and said, all those terrible things I did. I want... fuck, everything. I just want to know that you remember me."

With Edward's breath warm against his neck, it was all Roy could do to whisper, "Of course I remember."

Edward arched back, eyes practically burning and said: "But I want you to remember me like this."

His kisses were no longer sloppy, boy-kisses- all eagerness and passion and lacking in finesse. His fingers no longer moved like child's fingers, clumsy and uncertain of their course. He dove into the kiss with an ardent ease that spoke of years of practice. Roy supposed that he should feel jealous, however he only felt... over protective.

"You've been practicing." he observed breathlessly when Edward stopped for air. Their fingers entwined, and Edward kissed him again.

"Don't sound like that." the blonde muttered, "Sure, I fucked a few guys. But you went and got married."

"You're over-analyzing everything, Edward. You're the jealous one."

"I'll say. You only waited two fucking years."

Roy broke the next kiss before it could go somewhere, "I only 'waited'... Edward, I'm missing something here. Are you trying to accuse me of infedility during a time when you were presumed dead?"

Ed's gaze was like steel, "Two years."

"And our relationship was hardly anything more than a casual affair-"

"It wasn't so casual for me!" Edward interjected sharply, years of longing and hurt beginning to wear thin on his face. Roy was almost surprised at the volume of emotion shown there. He never would have imagined that Edward cared that much.

Roy sighed and brushed Edward's hair out of his face tenderly, "And you never would have been caught admitting that at the time. I only made of it what you wanted me to make of it."

Edward pulled away from the touch and curled his hands into fists on Roy's chest, "What the hell do you want me to say? Do you want me to embarass myself? Sit here and confess that you're the only person I've ever wanted. Because I won't do it."

Roy decided against replying with: 'You just did.' and asked: "What is is that you want me to say, Edward? Just tell me and I'll say it. I'm... tired."

Edward's tone was flat, even. As dead serious as it had ever been. "I want you to tell me that you loved me."

Roy was stunned. His palm came to rest on Edward's cheek again as he stared. The blonde stared back, waiting patiently. Finally, he made his mouth work. It moved dryly, "I... Edward, just because I'm married doesn't mean that I never cared about you."

"Of course not." Ed snorted, "It just means that you love them more."

So, so typically Edward. So harsh, so black and white, so finalistic, "No. There is no 'more'. Just different. I love them... differently."

"You're not answering my question," Edward growled, suddenly desperate and livid, "Did you love me?"

Roy pressed his eyes shut and shook his head slowly, "I-"

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All tangled up in bedsheets and limbs, Edward began laughing so hard that he could have been crying.

"And what's so funny, Fullmetal?"

Edward raised his head to peer at Roy across the sheets, "You said 'I love you'. Are you always prone to saying ridiculous things at the heights of passion, or am I just special?"

Roy smirked and reached out to run his hand through Ed's thick, golden hair. It was knotted and greasy as usual, "Oh no, Fullmetal. It's a very common slip of the tongue."

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"I never would have guessed that a relationship like that would have developed with the military of all places, but you and Edward really were just like father and son."

Roy really hated having to lie to his wife, "Yes. I suppose we were."

fin.