Fictime and a picture!

Photoframe

"Edward, stop acting like a common harlot and sit normally." Roy snapped as they sat, having their photograph taken for the 'n'th time. Edward had been iin a strange mood since the shoot began, hanging off and clinging to Roy in every shot. All Roy wanted was a photo for his desk in which they were both sitting there and smiling. A shot in which they could pass for friends, not lovers. Their position was risky at best already.

Edward frowned. “Just one more shot and then I’ll sit normally, bastard.” He said, wrapping his arms around the older man’s neck and sitting in his lap. His smile was completely natural and carefree and with a sigh, Roy placed his arms around Edward’s waist. As soon as the flash of the camera went off, however, Edward’s eyes went half lidded and his grin became an inviting smirk. Roy’s mouth opened in slight surprise in that moment and they were frozen that way forever on a photogenic plate.

Roy sighed exasperatedly, and forced Edward off his lap. “Sit like a normal human for once, Fullmetal.” He said, rubbing at a sore spot between his temples. Edward did so without complaint and the next photo was one where they were smiling (Well, Roy was smirking but the point still stands.) together, sitting as two friends would. The final photograph was perfect and would have been the only one Roy purchased from the photographer, if it had not been for Edward’s insistence to get the second-to-last one as well.

Mustang didn’t understand it at the time, but Edward disappeared three days later and everything made perfect sense.

----

It sat on the mantle in all its monotone glory when Roy came home from work that day. He stared at it, traced the lines of Edward’s face. He took in the way Edward’s eyes were smouldering seductively, the way his arms were wrapped around Roy in a statement of “This is me, this is mine.” The photograph was beautiful, his last connection to the golden haired alchemist.

The pose was an aspect of Ed that only Roy had the privilege to see while the young man was still on this side of the gate and he stared in quiet contemplation, reaching out to touch the gilded photo frame with his gloveless fingertips. He himself looked half shocked, half pleased in the photo and not without the slight touch of agitation that he could still remember clearly feeling on that day. The photographer had only captured from their waists up, so the position had made Edward definitely look like he was the one calling all the shots.

Roy snorted at his own thoughts and ignored the continuing pang in his heart that strengthened the longer he stared.

He moved away from the photograph, to the kitchen where he poured himself a cup of cold coffee. Humming absently to himself, he shed his jacket and dress skirt, and kicked off his polished dress shoes. Through his socks, the tiles of the kitchen were cold, but not uncomfortable and he sighed. He took a sip of his coffee and winced at the stagnant taste it had picked up, being left from breakfast.

Absently he wondered if he could be bothered making dinner, or if he would go out to buy something from one of the local convenience stores. He was just past the point of deciding that both were too much hassle when a knock came at his door, making him start.

Plodding down the hallway to the front door, Roy loosened the top two buttons of his shirt and straightened his eyepatch. He pulled the door open slowly.

To say he was surprised to be struck in the face by an automail fist would be an understatement.

“You didn’t destroy your side of the gate, you bastard!” A familiar voice screamed and Roy instinctively braced himself for another punch. The side of his face stung as he looked up and tried to focus on the person who had just greeted him in such an unfriendly manner.

The first thing that registered was ‘gold.’ The second was the slightly feminine voice still screaming obscenities at him from somewhere in the vicinity of his doorway. “Al and I tried FIVE TIMES to destroy the gate. FIVE times. Each time it rebuilt itself and do you know WHY? Because it still had another side to rebuild itself WITH. And it’s ALL YOUR FAULT YOU BASTARD. You could have stopped everything in an instant if you’d just done what you were SUPPOSED to do in the first place!”

“...Edward?” Was all Roy could say.

The young man instantly stopped his tirade, his face going from angry to weary in an instant. “Do you know how much I missed you?”

Roy stood, staring openly as he dusted himself off. Edward seemed to take this as the cue to fling himself into Roy’s shirt and hang there, breathing in the man’s scent. Roy started, and tentatively wrapped his arms around Edward’s shoulders, not daring to believe, even though Edward felt so very real and his still stinging cheek denied him the choice of claiming this was a dream. Ed’s hair was hacked short to his nape, and full of split ends and Roy fathomed a guess at what the gate took from the young man in this particular crossing. He leaned down, and pressed his face to that hair, breathing in the lingering smell of lavender shampoo and something that was uniquely Ed.

“You came back.” He said with a tear choked voice. “You came back.”

“Yeah.” Ed replied. “Me and Al are back. Al’s almost bald though.” He gave a relieved chuckle and clung tighter to Mustang’s chest. “I thought the gate would take something more important then our hair though.”

“You came back.” Roy said again, the simple statement flooring him in a way he had not expected it to. “Edward...”

Edward blinked and looked up. “Hey,” he said quietly, “Do you still have that photograph?”