Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Misspoken ❯ Storm ( Chapter 13 )

 

Misspoken

 

XIII

 

Storm

 

Ed glanced out the window and frowned deeply. A storm had blown in the night before and had been raging outside all day. The howling wind had been gusting heavily and driving the rain sideways in its fury. Thunder had shaken the building more than once and there had been an advisory on the radio to stay inside; though there had been no official announcement that citizens were mandated to stay indoors—yet.

 

He had worried all day that he'd get a phone call from Mustang telling him the date was off, but no such call had come and Ed wasn't sure if he was glad of that or not.

 

“If you ask me—which you didn't—I'd say that you should call him and cancel. You can't go out in a storm like this,” Al said from behind him.

 

Ed continued to stare out the window. “I'm still going.” Al hadn't been pleased to learn of his upcoming date with Roy Mustang, and now that the day was here, he'd been trying even harder to come up with reasons that Ed shouldn't go.

 

“I'm just worried. What if you get into an accident? Or what if you get blown away in the wind?” Al pressed.

 

At this, Ed turned and glared at his brother. “That had better not be a remark on my height...”

 

Sensing the danger, Al changed tactics. “What if your automail rusts?”

 

“How many times have I been in water before?” Ed asked irritably. “It's rust proof, you know that.”

 

“Well, what if—” Al began again, but Ed cut him off.

 

“I'm going. I'll be fine. It's just a casual date. It's not as if we're an item.”

 

Al nodded. “Yeah, I know, I know, but... I still worry...”

 

Stepping away from the window, Ed said, “Thanks, but I don't think you need to worry. I'm not disillusioned or anything. Even if Mustang... doesn't want to go out again... I'm glad that I'll get this chance...” It was hard saying it because he wanted Mustang to like him, but he also didn't want to have a false sense of their relationship either. If Mustang didn't like him that way, well... then at least he'd know. Not that such a thing would keep him from dreaming about him and thinking about him, but he'd at least know that it was only that—a dream.

 

Pulling on his bright, red tie, Ed brushed at his black suit and glanced at Al, then spread his arms wide. “How do I look?” he asked self-consciously.

 

“Like a penguin with a red tie,” Al answered dryly.

 

“But a good-looking penguin, right?” Ed pressed.

 

“Yeah... I guess...”

 

Ed folded his arms and frowned. “I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of this... It's just a fucking date... It's not like we're, you know, going steady or anything.”

 

“I just don't want you to get hurt...” Al muttered.

 

“I won't, I won't, but I just want to take this one chance...” his voice trailed off as he studied his brother. There was no expression on Al's face; but, in a way, Ed felt like he was letting his brother down. That maybe Al was disappointed in him for not spending this time researching for the Stone... Guilt flooded him and he wondered if perhaps he should just do as Al suggested and forget this date. After all, wasn't working on finding a way to get the Stone more important than whatever he wanted for himself?

 

“Are there any other reasons you don't want me to go?” Ed asked nervously. He really wanted to go on this date, but he didn't want Al to feel like he'd forgotten about him either...

 

Al shook his head immediately. “If it wasn't... If you weren't going on a date with him, then I wouldn't care; in fact, I'd be happy you were getting out because you really need to, but—”

 

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by a knock on the front door. They turned to look at it before they both sprang to answer. Unfortunately for Ed, Al was closer and when he opened the door, Ed heard, “Good evening, Alphonse.”

 

Al grunted but said nothing more and there was a slight moment of awkward silence before Ed pushed his way between his brother and the open door to see a very wet Mustang standing out in the hall with an abused-looking umbrella folded at his side. His sodden hair was slicked back, though some was sticking out at odd angles as if the wind had blown the well done style askew and Mustang had tried to right it by running his fingers through it. His long black military overcoat partially hid the nice black suit with a white shirt and black tie from view.

 

Ed shifted uncomfortably as Mustang gave Al, then him, a quizzical look. “I'm not interrupting anything, am I?”

 

“Actually—” Al began flatly.

 

“No!” Ed yelled, riding over his brother. “We were just...” He cast his mind around frantically, trying to think of something, then said, “We were just discussing some really important stuff.”

 

The corner of Mustang's lip twitched up and Ed felt his cheeks heat at the lame excuse. “Do you need a few more minutes?” the colonel asked, his voice filled with amusement, then reached up and wiped his face—which was still damp with rain water—before raising an eyebrow.

 

“No...” Ed growled, then turned to Al and said, “See ya later.”

 

“Yeah... have fun...” Al said evenly.

 

Guilt and frustration pricked at him as he gave Al a small smile and closed the door behind him. He wanted to be happy about this, but at the same time, he really felt like he was letting Al down...

 

0-0-0-0

 

Roy watched the exchange between the two brothers feeling both amused and confused. It was obvious Alphonse was not pleased to see him, or to see Ed leave. Ed, for his part, seemed reluctant and gave his brother an apologetic smile.

 

Shutting the door, Ed turned to him and put a forced smile on his face. “Where're we going?”

 

“A nice food establishment; it's a surprise, can't tell you. It's close to my place. I go there all the time,” Roy responded, giving a small wave of his hand for Ed to follow has he started walking. Ed quickly caught up to him and the two of them walked in silence. Well, that was a relatively new thing. Silence and Ed seemed to be an oxymoron.

 

Glancing down at his date for the night, Roy inspected him with more than a little interest. He'd never seen Ed in a suit, and while the red tie might be a little too much on some people, on Ed it seemed right. His hair was pulled back and gathered at the nape of his neck with a small black band, different than his usual braid. In all, Ed really did look rather handsome, even mature, for his sixteen years.

 

He glanced over Ed again, then frowned. “No coat?”

 

Ed's purposeful walk slowed for a moment, then he shook his head. “I don't need a coat.” It was unconvincing. Ed had obviously forgotten it and didn't want to go back.

 

“It's really wet and windy out there. What if...” Roy began, then trailed off when Ed glared at him.

 

“If you're going to say something about me being blown away, then I swear you'll be sorry.”

 

Roy chuckled. That was exactly what he'd been thinking about saying... “I was actually going to ask about your suit,” he lied. “I'd hate for it to get ruined.” Especially since Ed never wore anything nice anyway and the suit actually looked pretty good on him.

 

“Oh...” Ed said sheepishly.

 

When they got to the door of the building, Roy tucked his umbrella under his arm, then said, “It's too windy out there for the umbrella, so if you don't want to get too wet,” or blown away, “then you'd better stay close to me.”

 

Nodding, Ed moved near and wrapped his arms around Roy's waist as he pushed the door open, bowed his head, and started out into the storm. Roy could feel Ed's grip on him tighten as they practically ran to the car. Opening the door was a bit of a challenge in the fierce wind. The last thing he wanted was for the door to blow off. Shutting it was a challenge too; and, in the end, Ed had to pull from inside the car as he pushed to get it to close.

 

When he finally got inside, Roy sighed heavily and sagged in his seat. “Miserable weather for a date,” Roy muttered, then glanced at Ed who was looking at him with a small, amused smile on his face

 

“What...?” Roy asked, then reached up and touched his hair. It was windblown in all directions. With a scowl directed more at the situation than anything else, Roy combed his fingers back through his hair in an effort to make it look presentable again. He glanced back at Ed to see him trying to hold back a laugh.

 

With a smirk, Ed reached out, then hesitated as if he just realized what he was doing. “Can I?” he asked, sounding unsure now.

 

“Does it really look that bad?” He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that, yes, it really did look pretty bad. “Okay...” he consented, turning back to face Ed and moving close.

 

The teen reached up and smoothed back his hair gently. With his face this close to Ed, he could smell the faint odor of the soap Ed used. No cologne; just freshly washed skin and hair with clean clothes. He smiled slightly as he noticed the faint blush on Ed's cheeks; most likely from being this close.

 

There were so many things that made Ed different from all his other prospects, not just the obvious things. A more socially aware date might have put on cologne, or might have worn a tie that wasn't so bright, or...

 

“Okay,” Ed said, pulling back and looking satisfied, then said ruefully, “Though it will probably get messed up again the minute you leave the car.”

 

“Well, I guess you'll have to fix it again,” Roy said automatically, then cleared his throat and turned away to start the car; trying to hide his embarrassment. This was supposed to be a `casual' date, but it was a date nonetheless and Roy had fallen into `date' mode...

 

“Yeah, sure, okay, that's fine, I don't mind...” Ed said, stumbling over words that simply repeated themselves in their meaning.

 

After a moment, silence fell in the car as Roy pulled away from the curb. Hawkeye's words came unbidden to his mind and he held in a sigh. Either be serious with Ed or let him go... Well, of course he was going to let Ed go. Have a serious relationship with Ed? The thought was almost laughable. In fact, he'd meant to have a talk with Ed in the office, but then the teen had gone all mature on him and well...

 

He glanced at Ed after he stopped at a stop sign then cautiously pushed on the gas to continue on. It was hard to see through the beating rain and he had to peer with squinted eyes through the windshield. Maybe he should have chosen something a little closer to the dorms with this storm, but he'd thought it would blow over, not get worse. Besides, all the food places near the dorms were pretty cheap and...

 

That line of thought was cut off when a loud cracking sound filled the air outside the car—the noise muted slightly inside the car. Roy slammed on his breaks as a large tree down the road fell across the street, blocking their path. Luckily, they'd been driving slow. Any faster and they might have slid out of control and hit something—maybe even the tree.

 

Taking a deep breath, Roy forced himself to let go of the steering wheel, then looked over at Ed who was pushed back in his seat with wide eyes. A particularly harsh gust of wind blew against the car and it rocked slightly.

 

“Um...” Ed started looking a little shaken. “Any closer food places?”

 

Roy glanced around outside the car. They were in the residential section Roy lived in. It would be another six or seven blocks until they got to the edge of the commercial district; assuming they could just magically drive over the tree. After the storm, clean up crews equipped with alchemists, would clean it up, but not now. He and Ed could deal with the tree, but he didn't relish the thought of hanging out in the storm...

 

With a grunt, he put the car in gear, backed it up, then parked it next to the sidewalk. “Okay... my place is on the other side of this block and the next, then across the street.” Roy pointed through the window on Ed's side. “Dinner at my place?” he asked, glad that they weren't too far from where he lived. Why did it seem that almost every time they went out, some sort of disaster happened?

 

“Dinner... at your place...?” Ed choked. Roy wasn't sure if the look on the kid's face was one of horror or excitement.

 

Another sharp gust of wind rocked the car slightly and the sight of a shingle being blown off one of the roofs caught Roy's attention for a moment and he wondered why in hell he didn't postpone this until the weather was better.

 

“It won't be as nice as where I was going to take you,” Roy said. That was the understatement of the year. Roy could cook, if you counted frozen food that you heated up in the oven cooking... Not exactly something he liked to advertise, and a good reason to always take his dates to fancy restaurants.

 

He glanced at Ed then out at the storm again. It was just getting worse out there, and while driving did not seem to be the most attractive thing, he didn't really want to leave his car out in this, and there was no way in hell he was going to walk the whole way. Turning the car back on, Roy slowly turned it around and inched down the road. It wasn't that far to his place and it would give him time to decide what he could possibly do to rescue this disaster of a date...