Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Family ❯ First Meeting ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: BlackMercifulFaerie
If silence was audible and not merely the lack of sound, there would have been quite a row going on over at the other end of the line. The blonde smirked at his victory over the stunned woman and said, “That’s right, his boyfriend. So don’t call back here again you hussy!”

Anime/Manga: Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Comedy | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.05.2006 | Updated On: 02.05.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.4K | Visits: 713 | Status: Work In Progress

Second chapter here. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Yes, I own them. Unfortunately, Hiromu Arakawa is taking all the credit and my money.
Chapter II: First Meeting
Roy's sister was the first to reach him.
She tackled him from a good three feet away and Ed was shocked that Roy actually managed to maintain his balance. Hoisting herself up with the help of her brother's neck and wrapping her legs around his hips—Ed knew that it was his sister, but that part still somehow managed to create a small tic above his right eye—she clung to him in a parasitic hug.
“How are you Roy!” she squealed against his shirtfront.
“If I tell you that I'm fine, will you let go of me?” came the annoyed response, ground out from between the gritted teeth of the elder of the two siblings.
Still grinning, his sister shook her head in a negative, then looked up at him. “It's been so long! I can't give my best older brother in the world a hug?”
Roy rolled his eyes dramatically. “Tamalynn, not only am I your only older brother, but I'm your only sibling in general.” He let out a weary sigh, then opened his eyes and smiled down at her. “But, yes . . . I did miss you.”
This earned a grin from the human leech. “I missed you too, Ray-Ray,” she chirped happily.
Ed snorted.
“Ray-Ray?” he choked out past a laugh. His lover threw him a sideways glare that clearly stated `Zip it!' and the Fullmetal promptly bit down on his lower lip to stifle the palpable mirth that was now rumbling in the back of his throat.
Tamalynn turned her head to get a better look at Edward, a mix of confusion and intrigue in her wide eyes. “Who are you?” she asked quietly, sliding off of her older brother and moving over to stand before the blonde. Now that she wasn't clinging to Roy, and Edward could get a good look at her, he began to notice the undeniably strong family resemblance.
The girl was only a few years older than Ed—twenty or twenty-one, at the most—but she possessed that damnable Mustang height and . . . and whatever else it was that made the two siblings appear much older than they actually were. Roy himself was only twenty-nine, but he had the air of someone years older.
This also, apparently, held true for Tamalynn.
She tilted her head to one side, her long, inky black locks cascading over her right shoulder, studying the blonde boy with critical onyx eyes. Ed blinked, the chuckle that had been desperate to escape his mouth now lying down and dying in his throat. He grinned nervously. “My name's Edward. We . . . spoke on the phone.”
At this, Tamalynn's eyes widened. “E-edward? But . . . but you . . .” She trailed off and glanced over at Roy. “But he's . . .”
Roy let his eyes flutter shut and he nodded slowly; Ed's golden eyes narrowed into angry slits, glaring between the two of them. “What? I'm what?”
Tamalynn looked back at him, her mouth twitching upwards in a nervous grin. “I just expected you to be older is all,” she stated with a one-shouldered shrug.
Ed twitched.
And Roy smirked. “Edward is seventeen, Tamalynn.” The ebony-haired man opened his eyes again to chance a glance at his parents; they were now ascending the stairs after their daughter, but were still far enough off to deem this a safe conversation.
The young woman's eyes snapped back to her brother. “Seventeen?” She seemed to contemplate this for a few seconds, then sighed wearily and stated with obvious censure, “That's still a bit young, Roy . . . but . . . I guess not quite as bad as what I was thinking.” She then turned back to Edward with a sheepish grin. “Sorry. I thought you were much younger than that. It's just that you're so cute and sh—”
There was a clap, a flash of blue light and the familiar fizzle of alchemic energy as Ed's automail was transformed into a blade. He held out it threateningly, a dull gleam of enmity glazing over his eyes. “Just give me a reason, sweetheart,” he said through gritted teeth in a faux-sweet voice.
“Easy Ed,” Roy said in an attempt to soothe his now hostile lover. He reached over and placed an admonitional hand on his right arm and lowered it back to the blonde's side. “She didn't know.”
Edward grumbled, but allowed Roy to push his arm down. The colonel sighed and turned back to Tamalynn, still not releasing his lover's automail limb. Her black eyebrow quirked in time with the corner of her mouth and she asked, “I take it he doesn't like to be called S-H-O-R-T?”
The young woman actually spelled out the last word and Ed's nerves stood on end. “I'm not a little kid or a goddamn animal! I know how to spell! AND DON'T CALL ME SHORT!” he screeched, causing Tamalynn to take a small, cautionary step backwards.
Roy smirked in good humour. “He detests it.”
“I can tell,” stated the dark-haired girl.
Edward huffed and, transforming his automail back to normal, crossed his arms across his narrow chest. He wasn't exactly thrilled that Roy and co. were talking about him as though he were a child and, in an effort to show his displease, he—not entirely oblivious to the irony in his action—pouted. His lover chuckled quietly at this and the Fullmetal shot him a castrating glare, clearly meaning: “Oh, you'll pay for this later, my dear.”
Ed then spared a moment to glower at Tamalynn, who was now looking back and forth between the two lovers, a Mona Lisa-esque smile playing on her lips. Though he hated to admit it, the blonde alchemist felt a tiny bubble of something less than odium growing in his chest—give it enough time and it might actually grow into fondness. There was just something about her.
Maybe it was just because she was a Mustang.
The blonde just sighed and rolled his eyes, the memory of when the two of them had first spoken, only days earlier, drifting into his mind like a phantom.
- + -
The phone was ringing.
Normally, Ed would just let Roy answer it—owing to the fact that it was his house and, though they had been dating for several months, their relationship was meant to be a secret to anyone and everyone outside of Mustang's regiment; it would look highly suspicious to those not in the know if Edward were to periodically answer the phone at Roy's estate—but, at the moment, the man was in the shower. The blonde tried to ignore it, but the damn thing was sitting right next to the library couch that he had chosen as his reading perch, screeching like a newborn infant, and it soon became too annoying to bear.
“Hello?” he greeted into the mouthpiece, disgruntled but tentative.
There was a short silence, before: “Hi, this is Tamalynn. Is Roy there?”
A woman.
A woman that obviously wasn't in Roy's contingent and one that Edward was sure he didn't know. A streak of worried jealousy shot up his spine and he was sure that his growl was audible. Was this why Roy didn't let him answer the phones? Because he was stepping out on him and he didn't want the blonde to know?
The bastard!
Ed scowled at the mouthpiece and answered in a huff, “Sorry. Roy's in the shower. Can I take a message?”
There was a pause, and Edward was sure he could feel the indignation seeping through the earpiece. “I . . . actually just wanted to speak to him. Are you one of the servants?”
Though he was a bit put off by the haughty sound of money jingling in the woman's voice, the blonde alchemist couldn't help but laugh out loud at the question. “Well, he's never called me that before . . . I'm Edward. One of his subordinates.”
“Oh . . .” Another short pause. Then: “Don't you think that you're being a bit disrespectful?”
The Fullmetal blinked a few times. “Huh?”
“You just called your commanding officer `Roy'.”
Ed was incredulous. “So did you!” he nearly shouted.
There was a huff from the woman on the other end of the line. “Iam allowed.”
At that moment, Ed forgot all about secrecy. He forgot that Roy's mission to become Fuhrer and make the country a better place hinged on him being able to stay in the military, which, in turn, hinged on there being a need-to-know basis when it came to their relationship. The fact that, if someone highly important—such as Hakuro or Bradley or even Archer—were to find out about them, then the two alchemists would most likely be dishonourably discharged from the military and Roy would probably be thrown in prison for having sex with a minor, completely slipped his mind.
The only thing tangible at that point was the little voice that was whispering short, staccato morphemes in his ear (`Kill. Maim. Good. Kill. Bitch.') and he was vaguely wondering if it was possible to transmute someone into something over the phone.
All of this combined together made a very effective luge between logical and illogical and, before he could stop himself, Ed found himself screeching into the phone, “So am I; I'm his boyfriend!”
If silence was audible and not merely the lackof sound, there would have been quite a row going on over at the other end of the line. The blonde smirked at his victory over the stunned woman and said, “That's right, his boyfriend. So don't call back here again you hussy!”
And with that he slammed the phone down.
Roy emerged from the shower not long after that, black hair still dripping, the collar of his white shirt now sufficiently damp. “Ed, did Madalay pick up the phone?” he asked.
“What? No `Hi, babe, you look sexy sitting there reading that book.'?” Edward stated without looking up at the man, no mirth in his voice.
There was a short quiet. Then Roy sighed and, Ed assumed, rolled his eyes, before: “Hi sexy book.”
The blonde turned and spun his eyes up to Mustang's face, his brows furrowing in uncertainty. The Flame was smirking down at him, his wet bangs pushed back and molded with the rest of his hair, giving him and older, almost dignified look.
Ed's annoyance with him flitted away for a quick second and desire snuck in to take its place. “What?” he managed to get out without his voice cracking.
“I just figured if I left out a few of the other words, I'd get through it faster, but still get the point across.”
Said desire vanished.
The Fullmetal turned back to his text in irritation. “Well, it didn't. And no, Madalay did not answer the phone. I did.”
Surprisingly enough, Mustang did not (as Ed had expected) fidget or squirm with guilt. Instead, he just hmed and asked, “Well, who was it and what did you say?”
The golden-haired teen huffed and stated, “You know, you don't have to monitor me. I dobehave myself when you're not around.”
The colonel made a sound of dry skepticism. “And I have stacks of your reports that prove otherwise, Fullmetal. Now, who was it on the phone?”
Ed, still not looking up from his book, but no longer actually reading it, grinned and replied, “Just one of your old . . . er, `acquaintances'. I put her in her place.”
“What did you say to her?”
Edward glanced up at the man, smirking. “Just that wewere seeing each other now, so there was no need for anyone like her.”
Roy's mouth dropped open. “Ed . . .” he muttered, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “You doremember that we—” He paused to languidly point back and forth between the two of them, “—are supposed to be a secret, right?”
“Mm-hm. I just got carried away I guess. I wanted to put that bitch in her place.”
The colonel sighed, then said, “That's my Ed. So, did she leave her name?”
“Why do you wanna know?” Edward asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. “You aredating me, remember?”
Roy smiled. “Yes, Edward, I know. Just indulge my curiosity, will you?”
The corners of Ed's mouth turned downwards slightly, either in displease or concentration or maybe both, and he said slowly, “I . . . think it was . . . Tammie or Tamara . . . no, Tamalynn! That was it! Tamalynn. So, who was . . . she . . .? Roy?”
Ed stopped.
His lover had turned a worrisome shade of white, becoming even paler now that he normally was, and his black eyes had glossed over. Ed, feeling panic start to grip him, dropped his book and stood up to face the colonel. “Roy, honey, what's wrong?”
“T-tama . . . Tamalynn? You said Tamalynn?”
Ed nodded mutely.
There was silence . . . and then . . .
“Aagh! That was my sister! Now, she's probably going to go tell my parents and they're gonna find out that I'm gay and . . . and . . . ah, SHIT!”
All Edward could do was stare; then, a nervous laugh and, “Um . . . oops?”
- + -
Roy had, needless to say, quickly called Tamalynn back and tried to smooth things over; however, things hadn't turned out quite as he's planned. Though she had agreed not to tell their mother and father that he was now living with (and, more importantly, sleeping with) another man, she had also made it clear that the family was going to come over for a visit . . .
So that Roy himself could inform his parents of his alternative lifestyle.
The colonel had hung up the phone and then informed Edward that he would soon die a slow, horrible, deathy death of fire and alchemic brimstone—the dark-haired man had then also vocally contemplated killing his sister and parents . . . and then maybe himself, for good measure.
Though Ed had hesitantly agreed that he probably should be killed for the big, stupid mistake that he had made with his big, stupid mouth (though, in the same breath, he had also reminded Roy that his big mouth did make the older man very happy at certain times), he hadtalked the colonel out of committing Mustang genocide.
Now however, as he watched Roy's father approach the younger trio, Ed suddenly wished that he hadn't.