FMA Gift Exchange: "This Mess is a Place"
Apr. 18th, 2011 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sonjajadeTitle: This Mess is a Place
Artist/Author/Gift Granter: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sonjajade
Request: seatbeltdrivein - ‘Roy/Ed - domestic stuff, it's the little things that really cause the most trouble (no angst, please !)’
Rating: PG-13 (Ed’s mouth)
Disclaimer: Arakawa-sensei owns all, I just play Barbies with her characters.
Notes: Inspired by my own love/hate relationship with my husband. Title taken from a tattoo on a fictional character name William Murderface from Adult Swim’s “Metalocalypse”.
Roy stood looking at the sink… How was it that one young man could make such a disgusting mess? Clumps of shaving cream with sprinkles of a budding beard in them fought for dominance against mint green blobs of foamy toothpaste on the white porcelain. Long strands of stray hair pooled in random curly-cue patterns on the floor… shorter hairs graced the lip of the toilet.
“Gross…” he muttered as he jerked the knobs on full blast and tried to clean out the evidence that Ed ever cleaned that filthy little mouth of his. He then proceeded to shave his own face in the way the military had taught him: lather up, rinse your hand and blade, stop the drain, and shave, rinse blade, repeat. When he was finished he wiped the basin down with his hand before going on to brush his teeth: twenty seconds on the sides of the left molars, twenty seconds on the tops of the left bottom molars, twenty seconds… twenty seconds… He rinsed with lukewarm water, then patted his face and mouth dry before turning to walk into their shared bedroom, where the mess only got worse.
Clothing was everywhere. Clean, dirty, and in-between was scattered haphazardly on Ed’s side of the room. And as Roy’s nose detected, there was even a change in odor from the bathroom to the bedroom. It smelled worse in here. “Dammit!” the General grumbled as he rounded up the disaster known as Ed’s wardrobe and stuffed it angrily into the clothes hamper, which was now overflowing. With a frustrated sigh, Roy dressed and hauled the hamper down a short hallway to the washer, wondering for the first time today where his lover was. It wasn’t like him to be missing for the whole morning after all.
“Ed!?” Roy called. An answer came floating up the stairs.
“What!!”
“Where are you?”
“Well, the coffee you’re smelling didn’t make itself, did it? Where do you think I am!?” he shouted from across the townhouse.
Roy hadn’t even stopped to think about that. There was that delicious fresh coffee scent in the air, and now that he was paying attention, he could also smell the beginnings of toast and sausage, the only things Ed could cook without fucking it up. The General blinked. Why was Ed cooking? He tossed a bundle of clothes into the washer without sorting it, started it and then came quickly down the stairs.
When he got to the kitchen, he was awed. While the master bath and bedroom had been an utter disaster zone, the kitchen was sparkling, despite the greasy patties frying happily away in the skillet. There was a clean glass filled with orange juice at Roy’s spot, his favorite mug sitting waiting to be filled with fresh coffee, a plate with freshly buttered not-burned toast on it and a side of jam in a rather dainty little dish. The silverware, while mismatched in pattern, was neatly set in the proper places (when did Ed have time to learn how to set a table? Had he always known??) and Ed sat the percolator on the table between the two plates before turning back to the stove.
“What…”
“Sit.”
“But what’s goi-”
“Sit, dammit! Sausage is done and I don’t want you in the way!” Ed grabbed the newspaper from countertop and laid it by Roy’s plate as the General slid obediently into his chair..
“Edward, what’s all this for?”
At first he didn’t say anything. He fiddled with the stove for a moment and then served Mustang some patties directly from the pan, then slid a few onto his own plate. “Well, I know I haven’t been around much lately. And I know when I come home at night I’ve been tired and in a pissy mood. That doesn’t make me easy to live with, and I guess I’m trying to say I’m sorry for being an asswipe the past couple of weeks.” Edward had been working late on compiling his notes on alchemy and his brother’s notes on alkahestry and trying to find the link between the two. He was convinced he almost had it, but that had been nearly three weeks ago.
He sat down and reached for his fork, but then Roy reached over and covered his hand with his. “It’s alright. I know you’re busy right now.” Ed’s eyes seemed to be clouded with guilt still. “If it will make you feel better, I accept your apology, though I don’t really think there’s anything to forgive.”
“Thank you,” Ed mumbled into his plate. When Roy started chuckling, he raised his eyes from the sausage he’d been staring a hole into. “What!?”
“You’ve never been easy to live with, yet this is the first time you’ve ever tried to apologize for it!”
A look of horror came across Ed’s face. “Whadya mean!? You tryin’ to say I’m a terrible roommate?” Roy couldn’t answer for laughing and Ed pressed the issue a little further, standing up and walking over to slug the General in the arm to make him stop that ridiculous cackling. “Answer me, asshole!”
Wiping tears from his eyes, Roy composed himself enough to answer. “You leave a mess wherever you go, you’re always pissed off about something, you eat everything in sight and you never help with the chores! Always too busy with your nose in some dusty old alchemy tome or typing away on that beat up typewriter of yours! The past few weeks have actually been better in some ways because at least there’s a reason for that kind of behavior!”
Ed turned away from him, probably so he could go sulk in the study, but Roy grabbed his hand and jerked him backwards and into his lap. Ed tried to get up, but Roy didn’t let him. “Hey. Listen. Your hair trigger temper and your filthiness and your dedication to your research is part of what endears you to me. Yes, it sometimes irritates me that you can’t rinse the bathroom sink out in the morning or put a book down to put your clothes in the hamper, but I love you just the same.” He felt Ed’s tense body relax a little. “Maybe we both could take the day off, spend some time doing nothing together. Or maybe…” his hand slid slowly down Ed’s chest. “Maybe we could spend some time definitely doing something we haven’t done in a while.”
Ed crossed his arms over Roy’s, trying desperately not to shiver under his tender touches. “You just raked me over the coals and now you wanna fuck me?”
“You rake everything over the coals and you still want to fuck me,” said Roy as his palm passed over the front of Ed’s tented trousers. He lightly squeezed and listened to his lover gasp at the sensation. “Maybe if we go upstairs, it’ll free the roadblock that's keeping you from figuring out that link you’re searching for,” Roy mumbled as he kissed the soft skin behind Ed’s ear.
“But… I’m so close… The answer is just-”
“You can top…”
Ed stood up in a flash, dragging Roy behind him, breakfast forgotten.
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Date: April 19th, 2011 01:45 am (UTC)This is EXACTLY what I wanted. Thank you so much!! (And you should totally crosspost this to the RoyEd comm
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Date: April 19th, 2011 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: April 19th, 2011 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: April 19th, 2011 01:50 am (UTC)You found a continuity error? Where? *peers*
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Date: April 19th, 2011 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: April 19th, 2011 01:55 am (UTC)