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[fullmetalgunfire]

So we finally finished the actual, final version of the eighth and final chapter of my gift fic for @blackwolfchimera... Sorry for the delay! But hey, at least there’s finally a good ending... Anyway, I do hope you enjoy it! We’re working on posting it to AO3 soon, too, which might be easier to read than on here...

Chapter 1 (plus explanation) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

The weekend passed in a blur that would have made the Tasmanian Devil dizzy. Even the small handful of school days that preceded the callbacks went by faster than usual as they crammed as much practice as they could into the time they had. They weren’t able to do as much without meeting for hours with their friends, but they still did what they could. Which meant time for anything but rehearsals, homework, and class was rare.

“Are you ready for this?” Roy asked when they finally saw each other the day of callbacks, squeezing Ed’s hand gently as they met up outside the theatre.

“I’m fine, Roy. Good to go. It’s you we need to worry about; you’re the one with the game to get to,” Ed replied with a light frown, “How are you feeling about all this?”

“Fine? I mean, I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” He said, running a hand through his hair nervously, “I have my uniform in my backpack just in case I have to change and just... Run to the gym.”

“I’m surprised you’re not already wearing it,” Ed teased, sliding his hand around the back of his boyfriend’s neck and pulling him into a brief but heated kiss, “Relax, okay? We’ve practiced for days. We’ve got this.”

Roy hummed softly into the kiss, looking more relaxed than before when Ed pulled away from him. “Yeah, I know. Just… Hoping it goes well, I guess. Shall we?”

Ed just nodded as they headed into the theatre together. Looking around, he noticed a distinct lack of people around, though he didn’t remember there being a lot of names on the callback list that had been posted. Maybe that was normal, it wasn’t like he was at all experienced in theatre productions. He noticed Ling and the other guy, their competitions for the leads, and a handful of others whose names he couldn’t remember in the slightest; he hadn’t bothered to pay much attention to anyone in particular on the list.

He and Roy wordlessly walked down the aisle and took seats together near the front, which was when Mr. Garfiel decided to make his appearance.

“Well, I’d like to welcome you all to the callbacks,” he said, looking out over them all as he took center stage, “All of you are in the running for some of the biggest roles in the production, but obviously I need to figure out who works best for what part. With that in mind, I’ll be calling you up in pairs and having you do a scene involving the characters I’m considering you for. When I call your names, please come onstage and I’ll give you the scripts I want you to use.”

Ed smiled a bit, completely relaxed as he squeezed Roy’s hand reassuringly. His hand, however, clenched down onto his boyfriends when Garfiel called up, not himself and Roy, but Roy and Ling.

“What the hell?” he hissed, glancing over at Roy, who suddenly looked panicked instead of calm. Panicked and probably just as confused as he was. He wanted to jump up and demand answers, and even let go of Roy’s hand to do so before he stopped himself. With them already on thin ice with this guy? Probably wouldn’t be the best idea to cause any kind of fuss.

Luckily, Ling decided to pipe up, and if he wasn’t sure that he was instrumental in sabotaging them, he might actually be grateful.

“Sir?  Why aren’t we being paired with our previous partners? I’ve been preparing for-”

“I might cast anyone in any role,” Garfiel interrupted, giving Ling an unimpressed look, “I need to know you’re prepared to work with any partner, not just which person is best for which role.”

“I guess that makes sense…” Roy sighed softly as he suddenly reached over and took Ed’s hand again.

Ed blinked at their hands, wondering why he did that, and why he wasn’t moving, for a moment. Then he realized he was probably seeking some kind of reassurance, so he smiled a bit and squeezed it gently. “You’re gonna do great, Roy. We’ve got this, remember?”

“Thanks.” Roy said with a small smile before he stood up and headed to the stage without another word.

Ed and the other boy were called up a moment later and he sighed softly as he stood and grabbed the script, then stepped over to meet up with his new partner. The guy didn’t exactly look happy to be there, more resigned than anything else, and Ed couldn’t help but wonder why.

“So…” he began, deciding to just cut to the chase rather than stand there awkwardly, “Which part have you been working on?”

“Um…the tutor,” he replied, finally looking up from his script, “You?”

“Shit...” he groaned, his eyes sliding closed, “Me too…”

“Oh, really?” the boy asked with a frown, eyeing the teacher thoughtfully, “Maybe we should go ask to swit-”

“No.” Ed interrupted, cutting off the guy’s thought before he even had time to finish it. He did not want to even be in the group that caused some kind of fuss... He sighed a bit, shaking his head. “No, I’ll just switch roles. I’ve been reading the entire script anyway, shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Oh, okay, thanks,” he said, offering him a small smile, “I’ve only really been thinking about the one role…”

Ed frowned at that, raising an eyebrow, “That’s not the smartest idea. Not if you want to get cast, anyway…”

“Well… I don’t. Not really.”

Ed’s eyebrows shot up at that and he stared at the kid for a moment, “If that’s the case…why the hell are you even here?”

The boy shrugged and sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Ling is a friend, you know?  And he thought he’d get the lead but he wanted someone opposite him that wasn’t horrible and I did theatre awhile back. I wasn’t bad, I guess, but I didn’t enjoy it much. But of course, Ling remembered and, well…”

“He asked you to audition with him to make him look good…” Ed supplied, shaking his head.

“More or less, yeah.”

“Right,” Ed mumbled, rolling his eyes with a sigh, “Well, anyway, want to go over this or whatever?”

They discussed what they were going to do with the scene for a bit, though the conversation died pretty fast. Ed found himself wishing that he was still working with Roy, at least he’d given him ideas as to what to do with things. With his partner not saying much, he let his attention wander a bit. His eyes drifted over to the stage, where Mei was sitting with Mr. Garfiel and pointing out little things here and there, trying to make him get the students to do the scene over again. He half smiled at that, but it was only moments later that the teacher lost his patience with her and called up the next pair before Mei could protest further.

His half smile dropped, and he automatically glanced over at Roy, who seemed to be arguing with Ling over something or other. Well that wasn’t good. Ed forced himself to take a deep breath and stay calm, telling himself that it wasn’t going to turn into a disaster. Just because it wasn’t going perfectly didn’t mean it was all going to go to hell, he couldn’t jump to conclusions.

The teacher called Roy and Ling up to do their scene a moment later, and he watched closely as they stepped up onto the stage and performed. It wasn’t great, both of them struggling to put up a good performance with different partners than they were used to. Clearly they didn’t gel well... But at least they were both pretty rough, which meant Roy wasn’t quite out of the running yet. And neither one of them was terrible.

He and his partner went up right after, and he felt they did pretty good. Probably a little bit better, actually. Which was to say that his partner was so incredibly flat that he could pretty much do whatever he wanted with his part and it still worked.

“That went well…” Roy muttered softly as he met up with Ed when he came down from the stage.

“No kidding. I know he’s trying to throw us off but fuck, how would that crap help him decide anything?” Ed asked, keeping his voice low so he wouldn’t be heard, “How was it, anyway? Working with Ling?”

“He’s actually not bad. Way less of a diva than we’ve been hearing, anyway,” he told him, also keeping his voice hushed, “But he definitely has his own ideas of how to do things.  Trying to get a word in about my own was like…”

“Pulling teeth?  Ripping limbs? Breaking bones?” Ed supplied with a grin before Mr. Garfiel interrupted their conversation.

“Alright all, that… Wasn’t bad,” he announced, clearing his throat and shifting some papers around,  “We’ll be moving on to the next segment – this one will be strictly for the four in the running for the two leads. I’ll be asking each of you to sing a solo sung by the character you’d prefer to play.”

Ed froze and his eyes widened a bit – that was unexpected. Glancing over, he saw that Mei had pretty much much the same reaction as him, so he assumed this one had been a surprise to her as well, probably a last-minute addition by the teacher. He felt incredibly lucky that she’d made them both go over the entire play several times, even if they didn’t practice everything. He had some confidence they’d do alright with this.

Mei managed to recover after a minute and quickly waved down the teacher. “Sir?  If we’re making the leads do that, why not everyone else? It’d only be fair…”

Ed smiled a little, mentally congratulating Mei for coming up with a brilliant solution for stalling the choreography section of the auditions… Right up until he heard the chorus of groans and complaints from the rest of the group.

“Well, unfortunately it doesn’t sound like anyone else is prepared for that. That isn’t much of a shock, as this was a surprise to all of you.” Mr. Garfiel said, eyeing him and Roy, “I do hope that our potential leads are prepared anyway?”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with something,” Roy said smoothly in response.

The four of them got called up one after the other and it actually went alright. Ed and Roy were unpolished with their lack of practice, but with Mei’s excellent coaching and knowledge of the script, they were far from bad. Ling was pretty much in the same boat they were, but the last boy basically just copied Ed and Mr. Garfiel was completely unimpressed. He didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, however. Ed hoped that, however the casting went down, that he got to stay out of it. He very clearly didn’t want to be there.

Unfortunately, even with the song auditions, it didn’t take nearly long enough. He could see the girl who did the choreography ready to come out, and it just seemed too soon. He didn’t see any other way they could delay it, though, besides the little sabotages Al and Mei had planned. Which he had no idea how well they would work. He sighed a bit and reached over to squeeze Roy’s hand, just hoping he had the stamina to keep up with this and still do well in the game.

“Sir, I know we were waiting to do the duets at the end to see how well they do after going through the choreography,” Mei called out quickly, “But maybe we should have them try a little piece of it first?  Just to make sure we have the two best pairs at the end?”

Ed stiffened in his seat, fighting a grin, waiting to see if he took the bait.

“That… Actually sounds like a good idea,” the teacher agreed after a long pause, “I’ll have you sing the chorus in the pairs I assigned you earlier. If you’d come on stage please…”

It wasn’t much, but he’d take anything he could get at that point. The singing went about as well as the scenes had gone, then teacher asked them to switch partners, and that was almost worse than it had been before. Grudgingly, as if he’d been hoping some other pair would be surprisingly good, he asked that they pair up with their original partners, and Ed was floored at how much better it went. He and Roy sounded fantastic, and so did Ling, despite his performance falling a bit flat because of his partner.

“Well, moving on then, I suppose.” Mr. Garfiel sighed, waving the choreographer out onto the stage, “We’ll be doing a dance audition next. You’ll be taught a crowd dance from the show, and then will perform it as a group.”

The smattering of groans from the rest were quickly silenced at a look from the choreographer, who was quite intimidating despite her petite stature. Still, it was more than clear that the majority of the group was completely unprepared for this part of the audition. Some even asked why she had started to lead them through stretches, to which she briskly explained that she didn’t want or need any of them hurting themselves. Of course, since none of them seemed to be dancers, at least half of them did the stretches wrong.

The confusion sparked an idea in Ed’s mind, and he quickly began to do the stretches slightly wrong himself. Not enough to raise the girl’s suspicions, just enough to add to the list of others that she already had to correct. He glanced at Roy and was amused to see his boyfriend frustrated, obviously trying to prove himself. But the less time was left to wear him out, the better off they’d be, no matter what he wanted to prove. His eyes then found Mei, who he saw was fiddling with her phone behind her back, probably signaling Al to start their other sabotage plans.

Soon after that, they finally began to learn the different combinations, and almost immediately Ed asked a question about some term she’d used to describe a move. To be fair, it was a genuine question, he wasn’t a dancer and had no idea what she was referring to, though he supposed he could have figured it out if he’d really wanted to. It worked out in his favor though, and he couldn’t help but grin as all the others began to voice their own questions and unknowingly contribute to the sabotage efforts.

A few minutes later, as they’re working on a particularly difficult combination, the lights flickered on and off a few times, then turned off completely.

“Stop, stop!” Mr. Garfiel called out, looking annoyed at the interruption, “It’s not safe to keep going with no lights. Can someone please figure out what’s going on so we can continue?”

There’s a bit of a careful scramble, some using the flashlights on their phones to light the way, but no concrete answers came of it. After a minute or so, the lights came back on and they were able to resume the lesson for a minute before the lights started to flicker, then go out again.

On. Off. On. Off. On. Off.

“Can you teach them something simpler?  We’re running out of time.” Mr. Garfiel called, his frustration with the situation almost tangible.

“There is a simpler number from early in the show that I’ve worked out,” the girl said with a nod, quickly showing them the steps. It was all still stop and go, but with the simpler combinations it went faster than before and Ed finally managed to relax. He couldn’t imagine the teacher throwing anything else at them with how little time they had to finish up, and Roy wasn’t nearly as tired as he’d feared he’d be. It looked like they were finally out of the woods, and they’d actually managed to handle it just-

“Thank you for that, all but the four in the running for the leads can leave the stage,” Mr. Garfiel called out, “I’ll be having you pair up and do a different bit of choreography, just the two of you. I need to make sure our leads have the right chemistry.”

Ed went rigid with surprise and anger, glaring at the back of the man’s head as he turned to talk to Mei again while the rest filed off the stage. They’d been there for ages already! And if it kept on like this Roy was going to be late to his damn game, didn’t he realize that? Not just barely on time, but actually late. “Hey-”

“Ed, don’t,” Roy said gently, rubbing his shoulder a bit, “We’ll handle this, okay?  If it really starts to go too long, we still have our last resort.”

“This is just getting fucking stupid!” he hissed irritably, his eyes popping wide as Roy placed a soft kiss to his lips, stifling any further protests.

“I know. But we’re almost through it,” he said with a smile.

Ed went slightly pink and cleared his throat. He was still massively irritated, but the kiss had distracted him long enough that he wasn’t as eager to jump up and voice his displeasure at the situation. And then they started to dance and he was thoroughly distracted from any irritation but the the unexpectedly intimate new choreography.

Just as Ed was starting to really get the hang of things, the fire alarm went off and they were forced to evacuate, the whole group left standing in the parking lot. That must have been what Al and Mei planned as their last resort...

“Shit…we didn’t finish,” Ed said quietly to Roy as they stood there in the open, “We didn’t even get to the duet.”

“I know…” Roy murmured back, sighing and rubbing his face in frustration, “I hope he doesn’t make us wait…”

The teacher, however, seemed far too frustrated to even consider that as an option. “Alright, let’s just… Do the duets out here and be done with it,” he groaned, eyeing them, “Can you four handle that?”

“Absolutely!” Ling said, grinning cheerfully, though his partner looked less than enthusiastic about the prospect.

“Fine.  You two go first.”

They sounded worse than before. Apparently being forced to sing with no music behind him in a parking lot zapped what little ability and confidence Ling’s partner had left. Ling sounded alright, but with his partner’s lack of enthusiasm, his audition completely fell apart.

Mr. Garfiel sighed softly and shook his head, then turned to Roy and Ed.  “Alright…are you two ready for this?”

Roy turned to look at him, smiling confidently, and Ed immediately grinned back at him.  “Yeah. Totally ready.”

They performed the duet just as they’d practiced, and while it wasn’t as good as usual without background music, it was fantastic all the same and Ed could tell from the slight upturn to the teacher’s mouth that it was exactly what he was looking for.

“Well, I think that will be enough for today. Thank you all for your time, and I’ll have the cast list posted sometime in the next few days. Though… Ling? May I speak to you for a moment in private?”

Ed allowed himself to wonder for a moment what that was about, but quickly snapped out of it and grabbed Roy’s hand. “Come on, you’re going to be late if we don’t hurry!” He and Roy arrived outside the boy’s locker room just in time for him to get inside and not be late, and Ed decided he might as well linger and watch the game. Roy wasn’t the star player he usually was that day, or at least not the one Ed had been told he usually was, but the team easily picked up the slack and netted them a solid win over the opposing team.

Ed pushed his way through the crowd, grinning like an idiot when he finally broke through enough of the people to set eyes on Roy.

“Hey! Congrats on the win!”

Roy blinked, then turned to look at him, a wide grin immediately breaking over his face.  “You came!” he exclaimed as he jerked Ed into his arms and kissed him deeply. “Of course I did, you dork, I was already here,” he laughed when he finally pulled away for air, his face colored red with a blush.

“I hope you never stop blushing like that, it’s adorable…” Roy chuckled, brushing his thumb over Ed’s reddened cheek. “I can’t believe we actually pulled this off…”

“I know. With everything that happened...” Ed hummed in response, “I was way more on edge than I expected to be. Though, honestly, we won’t know if we actually succeeded until the cast list goes up.”

“Yeah, guess not…” Roy murmured thoughtfully, before looking sheepishly at him, “Is it bad that I really want to know now?”

“No,” Ed laughed, shaking his head, “I kinda wish we-”

“Congratulations!”

Ed turned quickly, blinking and frowning simultaneously as he saw Ling striding toward them cheerfully. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Oh, well, I just thought I’d congratulate you on getting the parts!”

“Wait, what?!” Ed asked, gaping at him, “Did you just say-”

“How do you already know that we got them?” Roy interrupted.

“Mr. Garfiel told me he was going to cast you when he pulled me aside. He wanted me to do a quick audition for a different part. The rival love interest from act 2? So he had to explain things to me.”

“And you’re not upset? That we got it over you?”

Ling just looked confused, raising a questioning eyebrow.  “No?  I mean, why would I be? It’s about time we got some fresh talent around here! I’m actually a little sad that you’re  graduating this year, Roy, you two are really great together. But I hope I’ll see you next year too?”

“Uh… Yeah.  Maybe.” Ed said, nodding numbly when he realized Ling was talking to him, “I’ll think about it.”

“Fantastic!” he grinned brightly, “Oh, and congrats on winning the game, too! I’m really impressed that you managed to balance all this and callbacks. I actually had to reschedule an appointment with the dentist to manage it myself. No idea why he decided to change the date like that...”

Ed and Roy exchanged glances, neither of them at all sure what to say to that. Ling, however, seemed completely oblivious to their unspoken confusion and carried on with a smile.

“Well, I’ve got to get going. I guess I’ll see you two at rehearsals!” he called as he walked off, waving and disappearing into the crowd once more.

Roy stared after him, then burst out laughing, Ed following not long after.

“Well, I guess we had the wrong idea about him.”

“I guess we did.” Roy said as his laughter died down again. He stared at Ed wordlessly, then kissed him again, sweeter this time. “I’m so glad I met you, Ed.”

“Yeah, yeah. Me too…” Ed admitted, grinning a bit himself, “I’m honestly glad that Al convinced me to go to that stupid party…”

“Glad you changed your tune,” Al teased as he came up behind them with Mei.

“Of course I did after – why are you guys holding hands?”

Al blushed and Mei beamed, pressing a little closer to Al’s side. “He asked me out after callbacks were over!”

“Well... Faster than I expected, but good for you,” he said, snorting and shaking his head.  “You guys wanna go out for dinner or something?”

“Oooh! Double date! I’m totally okay with this!” Mei grinned as she tugged Al toward the door.

“Shall we then?” Ed asked, laughing as he reached over to take Roy’s hand.

“Yeah. I just gotta get changed,” Roy told him, kissing his forehead, “Meet you outside?”

“Sure,” Ed said, nodding before he walked after his brother and Mei, grinning happily. Everything was going to be great from now on, he just knew it.

[fullmetalgunfire]

A fast sketch of Riza Hawkeye… when the inspiration arrives… 😉

[fullmetalgunfire]

[fullmetalgunfire]

Badass Roy for @emptyolivejar, who won my art raffle on Patreon!

Win a lineart every month with just $2! Support me on Patreon :)

[fullmetalgunfire]

Resembool, after everything

[fullmetalgunfire]

undefined

listen…i’ll probably never get over how good brotherhood’s first opening was

[fullmetalgunfire]

The eighth and final-ish chapter of my gift fic for @blackwolfchimera. Final-ish because this shouldn’t be the final version... At all... Basically I got a bit sick and it’s turned my brain into utter mush, which has made this not only the worst chapter I’ve written but left me with basically no brainpower to fix it. I mean it doesn’t even really end properly it just sort of stops...

Anyway, Eurydice offered to do a rewrite so this actually has a proper ending, but unfortunately that’s not finished tonight and I’m not 100% positive when it will be (hopefully tomorrow, but she’s got other stuff to do so I’m not positive... And I don’t want to pressure her because boy does this need a lot of work...). It just feels wrong to leave the story where it’s at in the meantime, though, so I’m posting this... Basically unedited bad version just so there’s something. Promise to post the final version as soon as I can, though!

...And hey, handy links to the other chapters, I guess?

Chapter 1 (plus explanation) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

The weekend passed in a blur, and so did the handful of school days until the callbacks. It was harder for them to meet with their friends once the weekend was over, but they still did their best to cram as much prep and practice into those few days as they could.

“Ready for this?” Roy asked as he and Ed met outside the theatre.

“More worried about you, you’re the one with a game to get to,” Ed answered, “How about you? You ready for this?”

“As I’ll ever be, I think...” he sighed, looking nervous, “I’ve got my uniform in my bag, all ready to go, just in case I have to run to the game.”

“Surprised you’re not already wearing it,” Ed replied with a slight laugh, grabbing him by the back of the neck and pulling him down into a brief kiss, “Relax. We can do this.”

“I know...” he murmured in reply, looking more relaxed when he pulled back, “Shall we?”

Ed just nodded in response, and they headed into the theatre. There wasn’t many people there... Ling and one other guy who were their competition for the leads, and a handful of others being tried for other parts. Ed doesn’t remember who’s who, except for their direct competition... He’d been too busy to pay much attention to the other people on the list.

He and Roy wandered in quietly, taking seats next to each other near the front just as Mr. Garfiel came out.

“Well, I’d like to welcome you all the the call backs...” he said, “All of you are in the running for some of the biggest roles in this production, but I need to decide which of you will be best for which role... I’m planning to start by pairing you up and having you each do a scene involving characters I think you’d do well with. When I call your names, please come up here and I will give both of you scripts to use...”

Ed waited, completely relaxed, for Garfiel to call him and Roy up... Then froze when, instead, he calls up Roy and Ling.

“What?” he said under his breath, looking to Roy, who looks just as surprised and panicked as he does. He wanted to ask why, he really did, but... They’re on thin ice as it is. If it seemed like they might be protesting in any way...

Luckily, Ling decided to ask for them. Ed’s almost grateful if he wasn’t sure Ling was behind their sabotage.

“Sir? Why aren’t we being paired with our previous partners? I was prepared for-”

“I might cast any combination of you in either role,” the teacher interrupted, giving Ling an unimpressed look, and Ed has to stifle a snicker at how the tables have turned, “I need to know you’re prepared for that, and to see which of you would work best in which role...”

“Guess that’s a valid reason...” Roy mumbled with a sigh, suddenly taking Ed’s hand. He blinked at him, confused by the sudden gesture, before realizing Roy’s seeking out some level of reassurance and squeezing his hand briefly before Roy stands and breaks away to get his script and meet Ling without another word. Ed and the guy who’d been practicing with Ling get called up a moment later, and he goes up to grab their scripts and meet up with the guy. He... Doesn’t look at that happy to be there, to be honest. More resigned than anything... Ed wonders why.

“So, uh... Who’ve you been practicing for?” Ed asked, deciding to just cut to the chase.

“Oh, uh... The tutor...”

Ed cringed. “Oh. Shit. So have I...”

“Oh,” the other boy said, looking toward the teacher with a thoughtful frown, “Maybe we should ask if we should switch partners with-”

“Nah,” Ed cuts off before that thought can get fully formed... He doesn’t want to risk his partner even thinking like that. “I’ll just switch roles. Shouldn’t be too hard, I’ve been reading the whole script, I can come up with something...”

“Oh. Thanks...” the guy says, offering him a small smile, “I’ve only been thinking about the one role...”

Ed eyes him for a moment. “Seems like that’d be a bad idea. I mean, if you want to get cast.”

“Well... I... Kind of don’t. Not really.”

Ed’s eyebrows shoot up. “Then why are you here?”

The boy shrugged. “Ling’s a friend, and... I guess he assumed he’d get lead, but he needed someone to be opposite him that wouldn’t be too terrible, and... Well, I tried theatre years ago and I was alright, I guess, though I don’t really like it much. Ling remembered, though, and... Well...”

“Asked you to audition as his partner,” Ed supplied, “To make him look good.”

“More or less.”

“Right...” Ed said slowly, “So... You want to go over the scene?”

They discussed what they were going to do for a bit, and went over the dialogue a couple times, but then it kind of dies out. It’s a simple scene, after all, and this guy isn’t exactly the type to offer a lot of ideas of what to do with it...

Ed let his attention wander, drifting around the room. They seemed to be taking their time getting through all the scenes... He can see Mei talking to Mr. Garfiel, pointing out little things and trying to get him to make the people on stage do the scene over. That was one of her little delays she’d planned, he figured... He winced, though, when a moment later the teacher clearly ran out of patience before she could draw things out any longer and called up the next pair.

It made him nervous, and he automatically looked over to Roy, who seemed to be arguing with Ling, looking frustrated. Oh that wasn’t good... Ed took a deep breath, trying not to think this was starting to turn into a disaster. There really wasn’t any evidence of that yet... Or not much, anyway.

They get called up to do their scenes a moment later, Roy and Ling going up first. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either, each of them clearly struggling to make their interpretation work with a new partner. But at least both of them were rough, so Ed doubts Roy will be knocked out of the running for it... He and his partner go up after them, and Ed thinks it goes slightly better, though really that’s only because his partner is so flat that Ed can pretty much do what he likes and it’ll work about the same.

“That went well...” Roy drawled sarcastically as they rejoined each other after Ed’s scene.

“Yeah... I mean, I know he’s trying to throw us off, but fuck, how would that help him decide anything?” Ed replied, keeping his voice low, “How was working with Ling, anyway?”

“He’s... Not as much of a diva as I was expecting, given what we’ve been hearing,” Roy said slowly, “But he’s got his own ideas about how to do everything, and trying to get my ideas in...”

“Yeah, you didn’t seem to be getting along that great,” Ed hummed before Mr. Garfiel cut off any more conversation.

“Alright, well, that was good... I’m going to move on to the next segment. This will only be four of you in the running for the leads, I want you each to sing a solo from the character you’d prefer to play...”

Ed freezes. That wasn’t something they’d expected... Judging from Mei’s reaction, she’s just as surprised, so this had to be a last minute addition. They were lucky she’d made them be familiar with. The whole script and all the songs, but...

She recovers though, and waves to get the teacher’s attention. “Sir, if we’re making the leads do that, why not everyone? It’d only be fair...”

Ed smiles a little at that, thinking it’s a perfect opportunity to delay the choreography a little more, but then there’s a chorus of protests across the theatre.

“Well, it doesn’t sound like anyone else is prepared for that, and it is admittedly a surprise...” Mr. Garfiel hums, then gives him and Roy a pointed look, “I hope our potential leads are prepared anyway?”

“I’m sure we can manage something,” Roy says smoothly a moment later.

They each get called up in turn, and it goes... Alright. He and Roy are unpolished, not having practiced the songs at or or decided how they’d interpret them, but thanks to Mei and her prep they’re far from bad. Ling does about the same as them, too, but the fourth guy... Well, it’s clear he just copies what Ed does, and not quite as well, which leaves the teacher grimacing and clearly displeased. The guy doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest, though... Ed hopes that, however the casting goes down, this kid gets to get out of it. He clearly doesn’t actually want to be there.

Unfortunately, even with making all four of them sing, it doesn’t take nearly as long as he’d have liked. He can see the girl who’s doing the choreography preparing to come out, and it just... Seems too soon. There’s still way too much time left where the teacher can wear Roy out...

“I know we’re waiting to do the duets until the end,” Mei pipes up suddenly, “See how they can handle it after the choreography, but maybe we should have them try a little piece of it first? With each possible combination. To make sure we have the best two pairs try at the end...”

Mr. Garfiel looks thoughtful, and Ed stiffens, waiting to see if he takes it. They need any kind of delay, any at all, right now...

“I think that would work,” he finally says, “If you could sing in the pairs that I assigned for the scenes, just the chorus will do...”

It’s not much, but he’ll take it. Each pair sings the chorus together and it’s... Well, it’s about as good as the scenes they did. And when the teacher makes Roy and Ed switch partners, it doesn’t go any better. Finally, he reluctantly tells them to go into the pairs they’d been practicing with, and it goes much, much better. Ed thinks that he and Roy sound fantastic, and way better than Ling and his partner, who still falls flat.

The teacher sighs, looking resigned, like he kind of hoped that a different set would be surprisingly good. “Well... Moving on then,” he said, gesturing the the choreographer, “We’re going to be doing a dance audition next, you’ll be taught a crowd dance from the show, and we’ll have you all perform at once...”

There were some scattered protests, but they were quickly silenced by one look from the intimidating looking girl doing the choreography. Still, it’s clear that a lot of people are unprepared, expressing confusion over why she’s leading them through stretches (she briskly explains that it’s to prevent them from hurting themselves) and some of them not quite doing them right.

The confusion gives Ed an idea. He starts doing some of the stretches slightly wrong himself... Not enough to make it obvious he’s doing it on purpose, but enough to add one more person to her pile of people she needs to correct.

Roy looks slightly annoyed with it... He seems anxious to prove himself. But the less time there is to wear him out, the better.

As they’re finishing up their stretches, he glances over to the table where Mei is sitting with the teacher, seeing her fiddling with her phone behind his back. Probably signaling Al to start with their other sabotages...

They move on to learning the choreography, and almost immediately Ed asks a question about some term she used. to be fair, it’s a genuine question, he doesn’t know what she’s referring to, though he could probably figure it out if he had to. It does exactly as he expected, though... All the other inexperienced students take the cue to start asking about anything they don’t understand, and Ed has to force himself not to grin at his own contribution to the sabotage.

A couple minutes later, as they’re working on learning the difficult dance moves, the lights start flickering, and then go off.

“Stop, stop,” Mr. Garfiel calls out, looking annoyed at the interruption, “It’s not safe to keep going with no lights... Can someone figure out what’s going on so we can keep going?”

There’s a bit of a careful scramble, but no answers, then the lights mysteriously come back on again. The teacher just tells them to resume the lesson, and they do for a minute... Until the lights flicker and go out again.

They come back on. Then go back off. Then come back on...

“Can you just teach them something simpler?” Mr Garfiel calls out in frustration after a few times.

“There’s a simpler dance from earlier in the show I have worked out...” the choreographer says, then starts leading them through that.

It’s still stop and go, but it goes faster now, everyone catching on to the steps easier. They get through the simpler choreography, and Ed relaxes... He can’t imagine there’s anything else the teacher will throw at them, there’s not really enough time for more anyway, and Roy is not nearly as tired as he’d feared. It looked like they were out of the woods, and had managed to handle-

“Alright, if I could have everyone but those in the running for the leads leave the stage,” Mr Garfiel called out, “I’m going to have you pair up and do a different choreography, just the two of you. It’s important our leads have the right chemistry...”

Ed stiffens in surprise, then starts to bristle angrily. They had been there for too long already! If the teacher insisted on them continuing with all the dancing, they were going to run into time that Roy needed to get to his game! Didn’t he understand that? “Hey-”

Roy put a hand on his shoulder before he could actually be heard, stopping him. “Ed, calm down, it’s alright, we’ll handle it... There’s always the last resort plan if it really starts running too long.”

Ed sighed, slumping. “This is just getting fucking stupid...”

“I know. But we’re almost through it...”

Ed manages to swallow down his anger, just barely, and refrains from vocally making his displeasure known. It’s a little easier now that he and Roy are working together again, being led through the beginning of a... Distractingly intimate dance.

They don’t get far into learning the steps, though, when the fire alarm suddenly goes out, and they’re forced to evacuate, the whole group standing outside in the parking lot.

“Shit, we weren’t finished,” Ed says to Roy, keeping his voice low, “What about the duet? We didn’t get to it...”

“I don’t know...” Roy replies softly, frowning, “I hope he doesn’t insist on waiting...”

Mr Garfiel, though, was apparently too frustrated to consider that option. “Alright, let’s just... Do the duet out here and be done with it. Can you four handle that?”

“Sure!” Ling said cheerfully, though his partner looked... Less than thrilled.

“Fine. Then you two go first.”

The two of them sound worse than usual. Apparently being forced to sing with no music behind him and out in the middle of the parking lot of zapping what little ability or confidence or whatever Ling’s partner had... Ling himself sounded alright, but without a decent partner it all fell apart.

“Alright,” the teacher said, turning to them with a resigned look, “And what about you two? Are you ready?”

Roy turns to look at him with a small smile, and Ed grins back. “Yeah. Totally.”

They perform the duet, just like they’d been practicing... It doesn’t sound quite as good without the music backing them up, but it’s still fantastic, and Ed can tell from the teacher’s increasingly satisfied expression it’s exactly what he was looking for.

“Well, I think that’s enough...” he said when they finished, nodding to everyone, “You’re all dismissed, I’ll post the cast list in the next couple days. Though... Ling? Could I speak to you privately for a moment?”

Ed wonders, for a moment, what that was about, but shakes it off and grabs Roy’s hand, dragging him off. “Come on, you’re going to be late!”

They get Roy where he needs to be just in time, so he’s not late at all, though only barely. Ed sticks around to watch the game... Roy isn’t quite the star of the show he’s been told he usually is, but he does alright, and the rest of the team easily picks up the slack, netting them a firm win.

Ed was grinning like an idiot after the game, when he finally manages to break through the crowd and get close enough to Roy to talk to him.

“Hey! Congrats!”

Roy blinks, turning to look at him, then immediately breaks into a huge grin and sweeps Ed up into a tight embrace and deep kiss.

Ed blushes at the exuberance, still not used to it, but still laughs when he pulls away for air. “Dork.”

“Can you blame me?” Roy laughs softly in response, still holding on to him, “I can’t believe we pulled this off...”

“Yeah, it was more on edge than I expected...” he hummed back, “Though I guess we won’t really know if we succeeded or not until the cast list gets posted...”

“I suppose not...” Roy replies, sighing a bit before giving him a sheepish smile, “Is it bad I wish we could know now?”

“Nah, I wish-”

“Congratulations!”

Ed whipped around, blinking as he spotted Ling approaching them with a cheerful expression.

“Uh... Hi?” He said, scowling confusedly, “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, well, I wanted to congratulate you on getting the parts!”

“Wait, what?” Ed gaped.

“How... Exactly do you know we got them?” Roy asked slowly, frowning at him.

“Oh, well, Mr. Garfiel told me he was going to cast you when he pulled me aside,” Ling explained, “He wanted me to do a sort of impromptu audition for one of the other parts, the romantic rival from act two? So he had to explain why...”

“And you’re not... Upset? That we got it instead of you?

Ling just frowned at them, confused. “No, why would I be? We could use some new talent... I’m a little upset that you’re going to be graduating before you can audition more, to be honest. Though I hope you’ll consider auditioning more next year, Ed.”

Ed just nods, a little numbly. “I... Guess I’ll consider it...”

“Great!” Ling exclaims cheerfully, “Oh, and congratulations on winning the game, too! It’s impressive you managed to balance it as the callbacks, I had to postpone a dentists appointment to manage myself... I don’t know why he decided to change the date like that...”

Ed and Roy exchanged glances, and Ed was fairly sure neither one of them knew what to say about that.

Ling seemed oblivious to the silent exchange, though, waving to them happily as he started walking off. “Well, I’ve got to go! I’ll see you two at auditions!”

They just stared after him for a moments, then Ed burst into laughter, Roy quickly following his lead.

“Well, guess we got the wrong idea about him,” Ed said, shaking his head a bit.

“Apparently...”

[fullmetalgunfire]

Chapter 7 of my gift fic for @blackwolfchimera. Which is... Way later than I meant to post it, sorry. I completely spaced and thought I had already posted it. ^^;;

Chapter 1 (plus explanation) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

The next school day was so wildly different from the previous on that it was actually pretty funny.

Ed wasn’t moping anymore, and was back to his usual self, even a bit happier than usual. He couldn’t help laughing every time he spotted Roy, either, who was so cheerful he was practically bouncing down the halls and grinning like an idiot every time their eyes met.

They sat together at lunch with Al and Winry, and Hughes hesitantly joins them after a few minutes. Ed leaned against Roy’s side and stole his food, which Roy just allowed, beaming at him the whole time.

“You know, I’m... Really sorry about that whole mess with the camera,” Al offers eventually, “Actually seeing you together... I was definitely worrying over nothing.”

“Yeah, me too,” Hughes added, “I can’t believe he’s just... Letting you steal his food, he’s never done that...”

“Guess I get privileges,” Ed shrugged, blinking as Mei came barreling toward them, “Uh, hi?”

“Where were you two yesterday?” she demanded angrily the second she was close enough to the table, glaring and Roy and Ed, “You never showed up to practice for callbacks!”

“Oh, right, sorry... Sort of a personal crisis...”

“Well I needed to talk to you!” she exclaimed with a huff, “Something’s going wrong!”

Roy frowned immediately. “What? What do you mean?”

“Mr. Garfiel’s changing the date of callbacks! It’s going to be the same day as Roy’s game!”

“Oh, well that’s not a big deal, then,” Roy said, shrugging it off, “The auditions were right after school before, so I’d guess callbacks would be the same, and our games are usually later... Thanks for the head’s up, though.”

“It’s kind of weird to change it all of the sudden though, isn’t it?” Al said slowly, frowning thoughtfully, “Do you know why he’s doing it?”

Mei blinked, turning to stare at Al like she’d only just seen him. “Oh, uh... No, I don’t... But there’s got to be some nefarious reason behind it!”

“I think I might know,” Winry piped up suddenly.

They all turned to look at her, surprised.

“Wait, seriously?” Ed said, making a face, “If you knew there was going to be a problem, why didn’t you say anything?”

“Well I wasn’t sure it meant anything, or what it could mean, so it slipped my mind,” she said with a shrug, “But the other day in class, I overheard this one girl talking to Mr. Garfiel about letting you two into callbacks, and she was saying stuff about how he should really test your commitment since your audition was so bad... Put you through something hard, I guess...”

“What? Who would do that?” Roy said, frowning, “That sounds like attempting to sabotage us...”

“Bet Ling put her up to it,” Hughes said with a scowl, “He’s always gotten the lead, I bet he wants it again...”

“Well, I don’t know him, so I don’t know for sure, but with what I’ve heard I wouldn’t put it past him...” Ed hummed in agreement.

“I don’t know about him putting her up to it...” Winry said slowly, “But I’m pretty sure she’s got a crush on him, which I don’t think he’s ever noticed...”

“Well, I don’t think the intention is the important part,” Al cut in, shaking his head, “I think whatever he’s planning to put them through is... Do you know at all?”

Winry shook her head. “He seemed interested in the idea, but then they stopped talking, so I have no idea. I’d guess he wants to make it hard on you to do the audition and prior commitments, though, if he changed the date...”

“Shit,” Roy said, blanching, “This isn’t good... If he tries to make it run late... I can’t actually miss the game!”

“Let’s not panic, we don’t know what he’s planning yet,” Al said, though he was frowning at Ed at the same time, “Though there was an Academic Decathlon thing that night, too. If you wanted to join...”

Ed made a face, shaking his head. “Nah, I’m not actually interested, I mostly said that to get to Roy... Guess I’m glad I haven’t actually committed to anything yet.”

Roy turned to look at him with a small, confused frown. “Why aren’t you interested, anyway? Seems like that would be your thing...”

“You saying I’m a nerd?”

“I thought that was well established. And that I like it...” he chuckled, kissing his cheek, “No, but seriously, why aren’t you interested?”

Ed shrugged. “I don’t know, I just... Got kinda sick of it, I guess. Did that kind of thing in my other schools, and I’d always spend all my time either studying something for a class or studying for that, and... I don’t know, just kinda wanted some free time this semester. So I could read a book I wanted to read if I wanted to, you know?”

Roy blinked, then burst out laughing.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he replied, kissing his cheek again, “That’s just... A very you answer. I should have known it’d be something like that...”

“Shut up,” he grumbled, shoving him lightly in the shoulder, before sighing and shaking his head at the lighthearted moment passed, “We should figure out what we’re going to do. Your game’s still going to be a problem...”

“Well, why don’t we all try to figure out what he’s planning first?” Al offered, “We can meet after school somewhere, discuss what we find and come up with a plan... If we know what’s coming, we can prepare so you guys can handle it just fine.”

“Yeah, maybe we can meet at Riza’s place,” Hughes added, grinning, “She’s got plenty of space in her backyard for all of us, and there’s usually no one around...”

Roy blinked, then smiled at him. “You’re a good friend... A meddling annoyance, but a good friend,” he said, fishing out his phone, “I’ll text her and see if that’s alright with her.”

When Roy got confirmation that it was alright, he told everyone the address, and they agreed to all meet there as soon as they could after school to talk it all over. Mei even told Ed not to bother with meeting her after school to practice for callbacks, since she was going to focus on using her involvement with the production to get as much information as she could.

It was unsurprising, then, that Ed and Al were two of the first people there, with no connections to try to work and no appointments to keep. It was a little awkward at first... They’d only just met Riza, after all. But then she started volunteering embarrassing childhood stories of Roy, much to Ed’s glee, and it went more smoothly from there.

It was also unsurprising that Roy and Hughes were the last ones to arrive, coming straight from basketball practice. But it was a little surprising that both Mei and Winry only showed up a little bit before them.

“So, did you find anything out?” Roy asked as they all sat around in Riza’s backyard, looking to Mei and Winry. There was no question that they had the best shot of finding out what was going on.

“Well, I didn’t get much, mostly little things...” Winry said slowly, looking to Mei, “How much did you find? I don’t think what I found out will make much sense without some kind of... Overall idea.”

“Well, I got a bit out of Mr. Garfiel...” Mei said, frowning deeply, “It doesn’t sound good. He’s going to try to make the callbacks run long... Not long enough that you can’t get to the game at all, but long enough to make it hard on you.”

“Right,” Roy said, looking unhappy, “Well, I’m supposed to be there early, but I’m sure we can figure something out... How’s he going to make it run that long, though? Even our first audition didn’t run that long, and if there’s not as many people...”

“I’m not sure,” Mei sighed, shaking her head and looking apologetic, “He knows I’ve been working with you, I think he doesn’t want to tell me too much so I don’t give you a heads up. It sounds like he’s going to add things that weren’t in the first audition, though...”

“Hey, it’s alright,” Al said, giving her a smile, “That’s still great information, we needed an overall idea...”

Mei stared at him for a moment, then ducked her head with a pleased smile, making Ed frown in confusion. He had interacted with Mei a lot more now, because of their practices, and she didn’t seem all that shy about compliments and shit, so what was that about?

Before he could question it, though, Winry spoke up. “I think I know one of them. I was talking to the girl doing the choreography, and she mentioned being asked to come to the callbacks. I’m guessing he’s going to put you through a dance audition... Maybe to tire you out, see if you complain?”

Roy winced. “It’s going to be hard to not complain about that, I can’t be too tired for the game... Is it easy choreography, at least?”

Winry winced, looking sympathetic. “Uh, not really, no. Kind of the opposite.”

“Shit...”

“Hey, we’ll handle it,” Hughes said, giving him a smile and patting his shoulder, “That’s what the team is for, right? To pick up the slack if we need to? You might not be the big star in this game, but we’ll do fine.”

Roy gives him a half smile. “Thanks... So, what’s the plan?”

They huddled around for awhile, working out their options. Ultimately they decided to call emergency practices for Roy’s team, held in Riza’s backyard... They’d work on playing without Roy, so that no matter how tired he ended up, they could pick up the slack. And at the same time, he and Ed would go through dance lessons so they had some idea of what they were doing. Winry had some idea of what the choreography would be like... She’d seen enough of the shows and knew enough about the girl doing it to make a guess, though she didn’t know specifics. She’d work them through her best guesses, though, and over the weekend they’d try doing that and then having Roy go straight into practicing with his team, to see how he’d handle doing one right after the other.

Mei also insisted he and Ed go over the whole script as much as possible, and listen to all the songs, certain the teacher would throw some other surprises their way. Neither one complained much... It wasn’t like spending more time together was a burden.

While everybody else was working together to get Roy and Ed as prepared as possible, Mei and Al teamed up to try to find ways to make the callbacks as easy on them as possible. The intent was to come up with little things they could do, hacks or suggestions or whatever, that would waste time on easy stuff or frustrate Mr. Garfiel enough that he might give up on going through with all his plans. There was also something about a backup plan so Roy could get to the game at the time he was supposed to, rather than whatever time Mr. Garfiel decided was good, though Ed had no idea what that was. They were both pretty secretive about it all.

“We want you to react naturally,” Al explained once, before going back to hunching over his computer and arguing with Mei over the best way to accomplish whatever it was they were trying to do.

“I can’t tell if they’re getting along or not,” Ed commented later, watching them as they worked together excitedly, instead of arguing. Mei was giving Al that weird smile now, the one she gave Ed when they first met...

“Really? Seems pretty obvious they’re getting along to me...” Roy hummed back, “It looks like that crush she had on you transferred to your brother...”

Ed jerked around to look at him. “What the hell? What do you mean crush on me?”

“Well, I think it lasted all of a day before she realized you’re not exactly Prince Charming...” Roy said, before blinking at him with surprise, “Wait, you seriously didn’t notice? The way she was after the audition?”

“No...” he said, looking back over to his brother. They... Both looked pretty happy, actually, even though they’d started arguing about something again. “Huh. Well... Good for them, I guess. Should probably talk to them about that after all this...”

“Maybe...” Roy agreed, sighing, “You think we’ll be ready for this?”

Ed promptly grinned. “With all this help? Yeah. Yeah we will.”

[fullmetalgunfire]

Chapter 6 of my gift fic for @blackwolfchimera. Eurydice says this one’s her favorite... ^^

Chapter 1 (plus explanation) | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

Ed knew that he was moping.

Alright, maybe not when Roy repeatedly tried to catch his attention. It was easy not to mope then, when he felt spikes of fury in his stomach and could just brush him off with a scowl. But when he didn’t have that to distract him?

Yeah, he might not have wanted to admit it, but he was moping and he knew it.

Al definitely noticed, and by lunch, was frowning at him with concern and guilt as he picked listlessly at his food.

“I don’t think I can take this anymore,” his little brother said suddenly, putting aside his own food, “I didn’t think you’d react this badly...”

“I’m fine,” Ed muttered, not looking up, “Just some stupid crush and some stupid musical, it’s not a big deal.”

“You’re not fine though,” he replied quietly, “Look, I... I’m really sorry. That whole thing was a setup, Roy didn’t know we were filming him. And Hughes was trying to make him react so we could show you...”

“Yeah, kinda figured that out, Al,” he said, finally looking up, “Pretty obviously a setup. So what?”

“Well maybe he wasn’t being honest or something,” Al pointed out, “You should talk to him, make sure you have the full story...”

“Why bother?” he shrugged, going back to picking at his food, “Why would he say stuff like that if he didn’t mean it on some level? I mean, you got pretty annoying, but I didn’t snap at you and say nothing mattered...”

“I... Guess that’s a good point...” he admitted slowly, “But you don’t know-”

“And there’s all the other stuff you brought up,” he interrupted, giving him a halfhearted glare, “The girlfriends and the not introducing me to his friends and all that shit. You were right, it’s not adding up to anything good. What’s he going to tell me that I don’t already know? If he doesn’t lie to my face again...”

Al winced, but couldn’t seem to come up with a counter to that. “Maybe you should talk to him anyway, just... Clear the air...”

“I’m not talking to him, Al,” he said stubbornly, turning back to his food.

Thankfully, Al didn’t decide to try to push the issue, and instead spent the rest of lunch just trying to cheer him up. It didn’t really work, but he appreciated the effort. And it did end up making him feel a little better, at the time anyway.

The last bell of the day rang and he went straight home.  He didn’t go to practice with Mei.  He didn’t see the point anymore.  Why should he even bother?

Hughes was starting to have second thoughts about the plan.

Which, honestly, was probably not a good thing to be having them so late, after it was all over. In his defense, though, he hadn’t expected Roy to react so poorly. But he watched Roy all day, or as much as he could with the differences in their schedules, and it wasn’t good. Roy seemed more distracted than ever, clearly not paying attention to anything around him except trying to catch Ed’s attention, looking lost and confused when he was brushed off.

By the time they got to practice at the end of the day, Roy was clearly moping. It was so obvious the whole team could see it, and Hughes cringed guiltily. He had to do something about this.

“Hey Roy!” he called out as they wrapped up, “Why don’t you and me go hang out? Take a break?”

“I don’t know, I’ve got stuff to do...” Roy replied slowly, sounding unenthusiastic.

“Come on, you can have one day off,” he said, giving him a gentle little smile, “We can hang over at Riza’s, her place is always fun. It’ll cheer you up...”

“I doubt that,” Roy sighed, but finally nodded, “Fine. If you insist...”

They ended up sitting around Riza’s backyard, not doing much of anything. The conversation was, at best, touch and go, with Roy mostly in silence. Still moping.

“Alright, are you going to explain all this?” Riza finally blurted out.

Roy just looked at her blankly. “Explain what?”

Riza just shot him a look, making him sigh.

“I can never pull that with you...” he halfheartedly complained, shaking his head, “It’s... Nothing. I’m fine.”

“That’s not fine,” she huffed, her look starting to verge into scary, do-as-I-say-before-I-do-something-about-it territory, “Talk, Roy.”

He sighed, hesitating and toying with his empty glass, before he admitted the truth, “Just... Can’t stop thinking about Ed.”

“Oh. That again...” Riza said, pausing for a moment as she frowned thoughtfully, “You’re usually happy about that, though. It’s kind of annoying how you gush...”

“I don’t gush.”

“You gush, Roy. Doesn’t he?”

Hughes jerked as he was addressed, smiling weakly as he tried to hide his growing guilt. He hadn’t thought things would be this bad. “Oh, uh... He didn’t. Not to me.”

“I was trying to avoid interference...” Roy grumbled.

“Right,” Riza hummed, eyeing Hughes thoughtfully for a moment before looking back to Roy, “So what went wrong with Ed?”

“I don’t know.”

“Roy...”

“I really don’t!” he protested, “He’s mad at me about something, I know that much, but I have no idea what...”

Riza softened. “Can you talk to him? Find out?”

“He refuses to talk to me,” he grumbled back, looking miserable.

Hughes winced, eyeing him for a long moment before speaking up weakly. “Well hey, it’s not that big a deal, right? You can’t be that serious about him...”

Both Roy and Riza turned to look at him like he’d grown a second head. Then Roy’s expression shifted to one of annoyance. Hughes almost feels better that he’s not moping for a moment, but this wasn’t exactly better.

“Come on Hughes, seriously?” Roy huffed, glaring at him, “You’re not really going to pull the whole ‘you’re not serious about anyone but Riza’ thing again, are you? Now?”

“Well, you’re not...”

“You’re the only one that thinks that,” Riza said flatly, “I already turned him down ages ago.”

“For completely valid reasons. And I got over it.”

“You didn’t get over her right away...” Hughes protested, though it felt weak. Too weak for him to really be triumphant when Roy turned pink and didn’t deny it.

“Yeah, well... Regardless, I am now,” he huffed, his face slowly softening and looking miserable, “And Ed’s... Great. I really thought we could make something work...”

Roy then launched into a rambling list of all Ed’s virtues that he’d found so far, and Hughes knew he’d really, really fucked up.

“Shit,” Hughes said softly before he could stop himself.

They both turned to frown at him. Though they were two very different frowns.

“What was that for?” Roy asks, confused.

“Oh, uh... Just feel bad for you,” Hughes attempts to cover, offering him a weak smile, “I didn’t know you liked him that much...”

Roy seems to accept it. “Well, I was trying to keep him from you...”

Riza, however, clearly didn’t buy his cover, eyeing him with narrowed, evaluating eyes. Oh, he was in trouble.

“I’m going to go get some more,” Roy said, gesturing with his empty glass before heading back into the kitchen.

“So,” Riza said the second Roy was out of earshot, eyes still narrowed as she frowned at him, “What was that about?”

“Nothing...”

Her frown deepened. “Do not lie to me right now.”

“Alright, alright,” he said, grimacing guiltily, “I kind of... Know why Ed’s pissed at him. It... Might be... Kind of my fault.”

She stared at him for a moment, then groaned. “Oh no. You did something to get him back on your little plan, didn’t you?”

“I thought the kid was just a distraction! I didn’t know he liked him that much!”

“What did you do?”

“Sort of... Teamed up with his brother. Guess he was kind of concerned about Roy too...” he admitted slowly, “We sort of... Used a webcam setup to show Ed while I bugged Roy into talking about the musical... Which I think worked a little too well...”

“You poked at him until he said something awful, didn’t you?” she replied, groaning at his guilty cringe, “How could you, Hughes? Seriously?”

“I thought it would be for the best...”

“You’ve got to learn to stop meddling,” she huffed, then glared at him fiercely, “And you’ve got to tell him. Now.”

“I know I need to tell him, but how can I just... Do that?” he replied, a little desperately, “He’s going to kill me!”

“Who’s going to kill you?” Roy said as he walked back out of the house.

“Uh, no one?” Hughes tries, then wilts at Riza’s glare, “You are...”

“For... What?” Roy said, making a face as he sat, “You haven’t done anything that bad... You’re annoying, but...”

“You don’t know...” he said, almost mumbling, “I, well... I know why Ed’s pissed at you.”

“Wait... What? How?”

“Me and his brother... Well, we were both concerned, and I didn’t know you were serious about him...”

Roy narrowed his eyes, jaw clenching as he started to look angry. “What did you do?”

“Well... Remember that whole conversation yesterday? Where I bugged you and you kind of exploded at me?

“Yes...”

“We were filming that,” he admitted, grimacing, “Hidden webcam setup. And Ed was watching live. That text I was dealing at was signaling his brother that you were there and talking...”

Roy blanched. “What... He heard that?”

“Yeah...”

“But I was just trying to get you to shut up! I even said-”

“He probably stopped watching by then...” he replied, “Haven’t talked to his brother yet, but... I mean, it sounded pretty bad...”

“Because I was trying to get you off my back!” Roy explained, almost growling at him, clearly furious, “How could you do that? I’m your friend!”

“I just thought it would be the best move in the long run!” he scrambled to reply, “I swear, if I’d known you liked him that much, I’d never-”

“Well too late now, isn’t it?” he cut him off coldly, “You meddled, and you completely screwed my chances with the first person I’ve genuinely liked in ages! I should just... Stop talking to you! What kind of friend does that?”

He winced, falling silent... But then the gears started turning in his head. “Well, would you forgive me if I knew how to patch things up?”

Roy froze, staring at him. “What?”

“Well, alright, I don’t know what to say, that’s on you, but... I do know where he lives,” he said, grinning, “Even which apartment his is. And which balcony. And I have a ladder no one will miss. Kinda force him to talk to you at least a little, right?”

Roy frowned at him. “How exactly do you know where he lives?”

“Oh, I figured that out when I was trying to figure out which brother you liked,” he said cheerfully, “I dug up everything I could on them both.”

“You... Get way too into this,” Roy replied slowly, frowning at him for a long moment before reluctantly nodding, “Alright. You help me out with patching things up, and I’ll... Consider forgiving you.”

“Hey, I’ll take whatever I can get,” he shrugged, “Besides... Only right that I help fix what I broke, right?”

Roy stood beneath Ed’s balcony, stomach churning nervously. It had taken the three of them awhile to get there, having to drive over to Hughes’ place to pick up that ladder, and it was now dark, the light from the apartment overhead just barely illuminating the dark ground where they were standing.

“O Romeo, Romeo...” Riza commented after a long moment.

“I’m more Romeo in this scenario...” Roy replied, still trying to get up his nerve to go forward with this, “What’s the line? What light through yonder window breaks?”

“He’s not outside yet,” Hughes hummed, pulling up the ladder, “Ready for this?”

“Not really.”

“Do you... At least know what you’re going to say?”

“I... Know where I’m starting,” he answered after a long moment. It was probably a dumb idea, but it would at least get Ed’s attention and maybe communicate a little why he was there before Ed decided to just get pissed at him.

Hopefully.

“Right, well...” Hughes said, leaning the ladder against the balcony and holding his side steady, Riza quickly taking the other, “Better get up there before someone sees us.”

“Right...” Roy said, wincing, “What about his brother? Or foster family?”

“Al’s out... Academic Decathlon team has a thing tonight,” Hughes answered briskly, “You’re going to have to risk it on the family, I don’t know. Though I don’t see anyone...”

“Right...” Roy said, taking a deep breath before scrambling up the ladder and jumping down onto the balcony.

He hesitated for a moment when he got there, cautious, but... He really didn’t see anyone on the other side of the door. He relaxed fractionally, closing his eyes for a moment before he finally just... Started singing. He was sure his friends would be, at minimum, confused as hell, but... Well, it was the song from their first audition. It was appropriate, wasn’t it?

He barely got to the end of the first verse when Ed popped his head out from a window to one side of him, making him jump with surprise.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Ed all but growled, glaring at him.

Roy felt a spike of panic. “What are you doing over there? Shit, this isn’t the wrong balcony, is it?”

Ed rolled his eyes, though his lips almost twitched upward. Which just seemed to leave him more annoyed. “That leads to the living room, dumbass, this is my room. Now, you gonna tell me why you’re trespassing?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“And that requires trespassing how?”

“Well you didn’t exactly seem like you wanted to talk to me at school...”

“I didn’t!” Ed exclaimed furiously, “I still don’t! So why don’t you go and-”

“Ed, please,” he cut him off pleadingly, “I need to talk. I just found out what happened, and I’m... I’m sorry, really sorry, I had no idea, I didn’t mean any of that...”

“Then why’d you say it?”

“I was trying to get Hughes off my back,” he huffed, scowling himself as he thought about it, “You have no idea how many times he tried to convince me I was too distracted to continue with the musical...”

Ed only hummed in response, eyeing him for a long moment. He was... Calmer, but still looked pissed, and ultimately popped back inside without another word. Roy immediately felt an ice cold stone drop into his stomach. He failed... He hurt Ed so bad, however unintentionally, that he wouldn’t even hear him out. Wouldn’t believe he didn’t mean it, he assumed, and now...

...And now the door in front of him was sliding open as Ed came and stood in the square of light, leaning against the door frame.

“Keep talking.”

“I... What?” Roy said in a bit of a confused daze.

Ed huffed and rolled his eyes, but looked like he was trying very hard not to be a little bit amused, too. “Talk. Give me a reason to believe you’re telling the truth now, and not before.”

He was giving him a chance.

“Oh. Right, I... Uh...” he fumbled as he came out of his daze, desperately trying to think of what he needed to say to not waste this. A moment later he sighed, a little frustrated, and ran a hand through his hair. “This would be easier if you knew Hughes. If you knew how much of a stubborn pest he could be...”

“And why’s that exactly?” Ed demanded, “There a reason you kept not introducing me to your friends?”

Roy winced. “I... Was trying to keep you two apart, to be honest. Hughes... He means well, usually, but he can be a bit... Much. And he has this annoying tendency to try to play matchmaker with anyone I show any interest in whatsoever-”

“Wait, interest?” Ed said, cutting him off and sounding... Hopeful? “You like me? Like...”

“Like I’ve had a growing crush on you since we met?” he supplied quickly, pouncing on that hope... If confessing got Ed to understand he really hadn’t meant any of that stuff he’d said, he’d do it in a heartbeat. He’d already wanted to ask him out, anyway. “Definitely.”

Ed turned pink and looked away from him, and Roy perked up at the sign it was working.

“Look, Hughes... Wasn’t wrong, when he said I was distracted,” he confessed after a moment, “He was wrong to think I couldn’t handle it, but... I am distracted. I like you. A lot. More than... Well, anyone I’ve met in a long time. That’s a little distracting. And so is how much I want to do well at callbacks so we can spend more time together. I don’t... However you feel about me, can you please at least reconsider not doing the musical? This... It’s kind of the most fun I’ve had in ages.”

Ed had slowly looked back to him as he spoke, face softening bit by bit. Still, he just looked at him for a long moment after Roy finished speaking. “You’re serious?”

“Absolutely.”

Ed fell silent again for a moment, and Roy held his breath as he waited for his response.

“Alright,” he finally said, “I’ll keep going with the musical. On one condition.”

“What condition? I’ll do... Maybe not anything, but nearly. Anything that’s not illegal...”

Ed swallowed and started blushing more and more, but looked him straight in the eye as he spoke, voice completely level. “I want you to stop beating around the bush and kiss me already.”

He blinked, then his eyes went wide, and he almost asked if he misheard. But then the surprise of the request wore off and he smirked, leaning in and giving him a sweet, simple peck on the lips.

Ed sputtered, going redder and giving him an ineffective glare. “I meant a real kiss, jackass!”

Roy laughed, grinning like an idiot, before pulling him in and kissing him for real.

They only broke apart when Roy heard whistling from the ground.

He jerked away from Ed, and looked over the edge of the balcony, glaring when he saw Hughes just standing there. Riza must have gone back to the car, probably packed away the ladder too, but apparently the other boy had decided to stick around and watch the show.

“Did you seriously listen to all that?”

“Yep!”

“You’re on thin ice, Hughes,” he shot back warningly.

His friend wilted at that. “I’ll... Go wait in the car with Riza...”

Ed snickered as they watched Hughes walk away. “OK, that was kind of funny... Surprised you’re still talking to him, though. Tricking you into saying shit you didn’t mean...”

“If he wasn’t so instrumental in getting me here to make it up to you, I probably wouldn’t speak to him again. Or for the rest of the school year, at least, which would be the longest argument we’ve ever had...” he paused, reaching down and lacing their fingers together, laughing softly when it pushed Ed’s blush back up to maximum. “So... Does this mean I can call you my boyfriend now?”

“Of course it does, you dork,” he huffed, before pulling Roy in for another kiss.

[fullmetalgunfire]

Chapter 5 of my gift fic for @blackwolfchimera. So sorry for the delay! I got busy yesterday and kind of fell behind... Promise that won’t happen again, though! ^^

Chapter 1 (plus explanation) | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

They worked out how to go about practicing with Mei, Ed meeting up with her immediately after school while Roy would squeeze it in right after his basketball practice. Unfortunately, though, they both had to go home as soon as they’d worked that out... Roy had a paper due he needed to work on, and Ed had a curfew, and they didn’t really get to talk to each other again before rushing off in opposite directions.

Roy managed to catch Ed’s attention at the beginning of school the next day, though, grabbing his arm in the hall as they passed each other.

“Hey,” he said, immediately smiling at him, “Meet me for lunch? We can eat together...”

“Oh... Yeah, sure,” he said, making Roy smile wider before walking off again, apparently in a hurry to get to his next class.

When lunch started, Ed got his food as quick as he could, then looked around until he found Roy.

“So, where are we eating exactly?” Ed asked, “Going to finally introduce me to your friends?”

“Uh... No. Something else...” Roy replied after a moment, looking a little sheepish before nodding down the hall, “Come on, this way...”

Roy strode off, and Ed scrambled to follow him as he lead them down a twisting path through the school and outside, then down a slight incline between two of the buildings. It led to a spot where the buildings met at an odd angle, leaving a space that would be hard to fill with much of anything, so someone had decided to simply stick a couple benches there and be done with it. It looked like some students had added to it, though, some weirdly colored pots sitting along the walls, filled with different flowers and other plants.

It was... Actually a pretty nice spot.

“Kids in the ceramics class like leaving their projects they don’t like here, and... I’m not actually sure who does the plants, but I think they’re some kind of science project,” Roy explained, smiling at him, “I like eating over here whenever Hughes is being particularly annoying. Private, you know? Hardly anyone knows about it, it’s hard to notice... It’s almost a secret spot for me.”

“Yeah... It’s actually pretty nice for just... Some random corner of the school,” Ed said, taking a seat, “So, uh... There a reason you brought me over here?”

“Not really. Just... Kinda wanted a chance to talk without everybody around,” he said, then gave him a sheepish smile, “That and I don’t know when that callback information is going to get posted, and if Hughes sees my name he’s going to be pissed... Probably just going to avoid seeing him at lunch for a few days.”

Ed frowned at him, quirking his head a little. “Why would he be pissed?”

“We’ve... Had this plan for years...” Roy said with a sigh, smile immediately fading away, “You know, to get into a good college? Get the best grades possible, retake tests if we have to to get better scores, extracurriculars to make us look good... That’s... Kinda the only reason I’m on the basketball team at all. I mean, I like playing, and I’m good at it, but I wouldn’t bother if it didn’t make me look good.”

“OK...” Ed said slowly, still frowning at him, “Guess that explains a bit about you, but not sure how that connects...”

“Well... Hughes thinks the musical is a distraction,” he replied, shrugging, “He doesn’t want me participating, thinks it’ll ruin our chances at the game, I guess. And, well... Senior year. Figure this year is the most important one to do well on...”

“Oh... So, wait, is this going to distract you?”

“Considering the final game of the season is in a little less than a week... I sincerely doubt it.”

“Oh. Well... Good,” he said, turning a little pink as he picked at his food, “I’m looking forward to this now, I don’t want it to turn into a problem and you back out.”

“Promise, I won’t,” Roy chuckled back, beaming at him, “So, did you get a chance to read that book I told you about?”

They ended up chatting idly through the rest of the lunch period, and Ed tried really hard to pretend he didn’t start getting butterflies whenever he thought Roy was starting to flirt with him. Al was right, he really was turning ridiculous over this. He wasn’t even completely sure Roy was actually flirting with him or if it was just... The way he was. He was honestly still trying to feel him out. But, despite that, he was still feeling embarrassingly giddy for the rest of the day.

“So, uh... You didn’t each lunch with us,” Al mentioned almost a little too casually on their way home.

“Yeah, Roy wanted to meet up with me and talk,” Ed said with a shrug, giving him a halfhearted glare, “Don’t you tease me about having some sort of stupid crush on him or something...”

“No, no, I’m not teasing,” Al sighed with a grimace, making Ed frown and wonder why he looked so upset.

“Look, Ed...” he continued after a long moment, “I think you should be careful about him. Maybe don’t spend so much time with him...”

“What?” Ed said, frowning more, “Where’s this coming from? You were all for it before!”

“I heard some things at lunch...”

Ed immediately gasped at him incredulously. “You’re listening to gossip?”

“Hey, not uncritically! I asked Winry about as much as I could before I believed anything...” Al protested, “You know that since the beginning of his junior year, he’s had 8 girlfriends? That Winry knows about. And she’s never seen him go after a guy before.”

“So what’s the problem? He’s probably not even interested in me, then,” Ed replied dismissively, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach at the news.

“Just because Winry hasn’t seen it doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened, they’re not exactly friends. And I’m pretty sure he is interested,” Al replied, “I mean, besides the way he looks at you, the girls I overheard... Did he take you to a place he called his secret spot?”

Ed blinked. “Sort of, I guess... He said it was almost like one...”

Al immediately winced. “Yeah, apparently he takes everyone there he wants to... Well... They said when he wants to get in their pants.”

“Yeah, and I’m going to trust some random girls...”

“I’m not saying that, just...” Al started, then sighed, “It just sounds like even if he’s interested, he goes for girls more, and he goes through them at an average of one a month. I just... Don’t want to see him hurt you.”

Ed rolled his eyes with a huff. “I’m not delicate, Al, I could handle a little heartbreak-”

“How would you know, you’ve never-”

“And it’s not even like that,” Ed continued over him loudly, “Drop it, Al. I’m fine.”

“I’m just saying, maybe you’d be happier, long term, if you did the team with me, instead of the musical...”

“Drop it, Al. I want to do the callbacks.”

It took a couple days after the audition for the callbacks to actually be posted. It was pinned up in the middle of the main message board like a homing beacon for drama.

For those couple days, Roy made an excuse to eat outside every day, just trying to avoid being near Hughes when the inevitable happened. He invited Ed with him each time, but after the first he declined every offer, muttering something about his brother being a pain in the ass which he refused to actually elaborate on. Disappointment raged through his mind, and he wondered if maybe he was getting the wrong idea and Ed didn’t like him after all. But they managed to talk briefly between their practices with Mei and Ed always seemed pleased to see him then. He wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it.

Eventually, though, the inevitable happened, and unfortunately Hughes knew him well enough to come storming into his spot after the callbacks list was posted. “What the hell, Roy?!”

“Great to see you too,” he drawls back, “Can’t eat in peace, can I?”

“Don’t give me that,” he huffed, glaring at him, “Seriously? You auditioned for that dumb musical? I mean at least I know for sure which brother you like now, but seriously?”

“It’s not dumb, it’s actually pretty good if you give it a chance, and if this means you’re going to start playing matchmaker I’m not talking to you for a month,” he sighs irritably, setting aside his food, “And yeah, I auditioned. So what? We had a canceled practice, I went, what’s the big deal about that?”

“Well, you got a callback, for a start!”

“I know. Sort of... Knew ahead of time. Long story. But, again... So what?”

“So- Are you kidding me? What about the plan?!”

“Hughes, right now I really don’t care about the plan,” he huffed back, “I want to do this, and our last game of the year is before the callbacks even happen. You’re worrying over nothing.”

“But-”

“No buts, Hughes. I’m doing this,” he said, picking his food back up and walking away.

He managed to avoid Hughes for the rest of the day, and even at practice avoided talking about anything but what they needed to do to be ready for their upcoming game. Hughes tried to keep talking to him about the audition and the plan, but Roy had already explained to him he was handling it, what else was he supposed to say that he hadn’t heard?

Avoiding his best friend, though, began to wear on him, and he felt more tired than usual as he headed out of basketball practice to meet Mei for more practice. As soon as he saw Ed, though, passing him in the hallway, he couldn’t help smiling again.

“How was practice?” he asked as he walked up to him.

“Uh, good, I guess...” Ed said, face scrunching a bit in a confused frown, which Roy found absolutely adorable, “She says I’m not doing anything wrong, but she keeps... I don’t know. Acting like I’ve disappointed her somehow, anyway. I don’t know what the hell it means.”

“Well, maybe it’s you, rather than your performance...”

Ed glared. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, I imagine a lot of people would find some of your behavior really rude...”

“Hey!”

Roy held up his hands defensively. “I’m only saying what other people probably think, not what I think. You do have a tendency to be very... Direct. More direct than some people like.”

Ed deflated a bit, grumbling as he scowled at nothing. “Yeah, I know, Al’s said that too... And Winry... I don’t get it, though! What’s so wrong about not wanting to beat around the bush?”

Roy shrugged. “People just find it rude. If it helps, though, I personally appreciate it...”

Ed immediately turned red, staring at him. “Wait, seriously? You like that?”

“It’s nice to know I can trust that if you say something, you mean it,” he replied, slowly breaking into a teasing smile, “It might not always be the smartest move, but...”

Ed hits him in the arm, but laughs too, so Roy considers it a win. “Shut up.”

“You like it,” he shot back, laughing a bit himself, “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, for ten seconds...” Ed said, sighing a bit and looking away from him, clearly trying to hide the embarrassment on his face, “Wish we could talk more often than this.”

“Me too,” Roy replied softly, earning himself a quick glance from Ed and a small smile, “At least we should have more time after my last game. And hopefully we get cast in this thing...”

“Yeah, hopefully,” Ed said with a brief little laugh, giving him a lazy wave as he walked off, “See ya, Roy.”

“See you tomorrow,” he replied, watching him go for a long moment before striding off to meet Mei, almost bouncing as he walked. He was getting more and more sure that Ed really was interested in him, and there was some other reason for how he behaved during the school day. Maybe his brother didn’t approve or something...

Maybe the next time they talked after school, though, he’d just try asking him out and seeing what happened.

Al loved his brother dearly, but sometimes he could be a complete idiot.

“Come on, Ed,” he said as they were eating lunch, “Why do you want to do the musical so bad? It’s never been your thing before...”

“It just looks like fun, OK?” Ed replied irritably.

“You’re doing it for him and we both know it,” Al shot back without hesitation, sighing and frowning at him, “Really, Ed, I don’t think he’s good news. He’s never introduced himself to any of his friends, or let you introduce us to him...”

“His best friend’s a pain in the ass, apparently,” Ed replied, though he sounded uncertain. Al perked up, thinking he finally had something Ed couldn’t just dismiss, but then his brother turned on him with a glare. “Which is what you’re being right now, too.”

He sighed, frustrated. “I just don’t want to see him hurt you. The more I hear about him, the more I think this is going to end badly, and if you’d just listen-”

“You still don’t have any proof he’s even into me like that!” Ed huffed, “And we haven’t even been here that long! You’re jumping to conclusions, Al, and I want to do this, so if you don’t drop it, I’ll... Go find somewhere else to eat!”

Al sighed, giving him a look. “Ed...”

But his brother just huffed, grabbing his food in a rush and stalking off, glaring murderously at anyone who crossed his path.

Al just sighed again. His brother was an idiot, and making a mistake, but he was also being incredibly stubborn and refusing to listen to reason. Hopefully it didn’t end too poorly. Maybe he was wrong about Roy, or at least not completely right...

“Hey, can I talk to you?”

Al startled, frowning at the stranger who dropped into the seat Ed had been in a moment before. “Uh... Alright, I guess? Who exactly are you?”

“Maes Hughes. Roy’s best friend,” he said cheerfully, “Or one of them. The one your brother was mentioning as a pain in the ass.”

Al winced at that. “You... Overheard all of that?”

“Sorry. Rude and all, but I was waiting for an opening...”

“Sorry about what I said about your friend, I’m sure-”

“Relax,” he cut him off with a laugh, “If I took the time to be offended over everybody who decided they didn’t like Roy, I wouldn’t have time for anything else!”

“Still...” Al said, eyeing him silently for a moment, clearly confused, “Why exactly do you want to talk to me?”

“Well, I want to talk about this whole thing between your brother and Roy, and the musical, and all that,” he replied, leaning forward a bit, “Look, your brother seems like a great guy and all, but he’s got Roy all distracted, and I can’t have that. I need him focused so we finish the season strong, it’s all part of this plan we have...”

“He’s distracted?” Al asked, “So he is interested in Ed?”

“Oh yeah. Completely interested,” he hummed, nodding, “Normal circumstances, I’d be all over trying to get them together, but... Well, it’s just bad timing, I guess.”

“Right...” he said slowly, frowning thoughtfully, “Is he... Do you think he’s serious about him? I mean... I’ve been having my doubts, but I’ve got to admit I don’t exactly know him. And you’re his best friend...”

The older boy just looked at him critically for a long moment. “I hate to get in the way of Roy and anybody he gets interested in, but... I’ll only get you to help me break them up if I’m straight with you, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Right...” he sighed, shaking his head, “To tell you the absolute truth, I really doubt it. He’s not serious about anyone... No one but Riza.”

“Riza?”

“His other best friend. She doesn’t go here,” he explained briskly, “They grew up together, and Roy’s been crushing on her for years... He asked her out awhile back and she turned him down, so it’s not going anywhere, but he’s still hung up on her, even if he doesn’t want to admit it. Sabotages every relationship he tries. He might be interested now, but I doubt it’d last, as much as I’d like to see that happen.”

Al eyed him for a long moment, evaluating, before slumping in his seat. “You’re telling the truth, aren’t you?”

“Unfortunately,” he sighed, “Last thing I want to do is sabotage a potential relationship, I’ve been trying to get him to seriously date someone for ages...”

He hummed, frowning deeply, but nodded. “Alright. What are you thinking?”

They talked through lunch, huddled close together over the table and speaking in hushed voices as they come up with their plan. And it seems like a good idea, but Al was still nervously second guessing himself when he came back to the school later that day to meet Hughes and set up what they needed to to get this done.

“Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?” he asked as he handed over the webcam he set up at home to the older boy, who looked like he had snuck out of practice early.

“Positive,” he replied as he took it, giving him a soft and sympathetic smile, “It’s going to be for the best, long term. Trust me. Text you for the signal?”

“You’re probably right...” he sighed, nodding a bit before heading out to find his brother.

“Hughes?” Roy called as he entered the locker room, frowning as he spotted his best friend fiddling with his phone, “What the hell? Did you sneak away from practice?”

“What? No,” he denied with no explanation, and Roy thought about calling him on it but Hughes just talked over him, “Hey, I want to talk to you about that musical thing...”

“Seriously?” Roy huffed, glaring at him before turning to change for his callback practice, “Are you ever going to drop it?”

“You’re distracted-”

“I am not!” he exclaimed, glaring harder when he turned back and saw his best friend on the phone again, “Seriously, you’re pestering me and you’re not even paying attention to it?”

“Sorry, text message, thought it was important,” he said dismissively, “Look, Roy, if you can just admit this is distracting you-”

“It’s not!”

“How is is not?” he shot back, “It’s important to you-”

“It’s not fucking important to me!” he exclaimed in frustration, “It’s just for fun, alright? I know the game is my priority, and I’m handling it! I’ve got my head in the game or whatever. I’m not distracted!”

“And what about Ed? Isn’t impressing him important to you?”

“I’m not trying to impress him!” he exclaimed again, ramping up more and more with each passing second. It wasn’t really a lie, he wasn’t trying to impress Ed exactly, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. But he was finding that he really didn’t care anymore. All he wanted was for Hughes to stop pestering him about it so he could focus on balancing his game practice and callbacks.

“He’s just some boy, alright?” he spouted off wildly, not even fully paying attention to what he was saying, “It’s not serious, he’s not a distraction, so fucking drop it and let me have my fun, OK?”

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, but still glaring at his best friend. “Are you happy now? Is that what you wanted to hear?”

Hughes winced, and he slumped a little and thought maybe he should apologize. That was probably a little overly harsh... But before he could respond, Hughes answered.

“Yeah. That’s probably enough...” he said, before walking away, leaving Roy confused and wondering what the hell had just happened.

“Hey Ed...”

Ed whipped around, startled as he heard his brother’s voice while he walked down the hall. “Al? What are you doing here? I thought you went home.”

“I did, I just... Come here, I want to talk,” he said, pulling Ed into an empty classroom and pushing him into a seat.

“What the hell is this all about?”

“I just... Wanted to talk about this whole musical thing...”

“Oh not this again,” Ed huffed, “Seriously Al, I’m not interested in joining the team, I’m having fun with this, can’t you leave it alone? This isn’t like you, you don’t usually try to stop me having fun and... Being social and shit.”

Al just looked at him for a long moment. “And it has nothing to do with Roy?”

“No!”

“Come on, Ed, I can tell when you’re lying...”

“Alright, fine, it does!” he admits with a frustrated huff, “I like him, alright? I admit it! And I’m pretty sure he likes me too, no matter what you think. But he’s not the only reason I’m doing this, alright? I want to hang out with him, yeah, but I’m seriously having fun. I like this.”

“Tell me he’s not the primary reason you’re doing this.”

Ed opened his mouth, but... Well, he couldn’t really deny it. He wasn’t that interested in theatre, no matter how much fun he was having at the moment, he wasn’t sure he’d be bothering if Roy wasn’t involved... “So what if he is?”

“I just don’t want to see you get hurt,” Al sighs, “I don’t think he’s as into you as you’re into him.”

“And where’s your proof of that, Al? Got any evidence besides gossip?”

“Well, I-” his brother started, but his phone chimed loudly and cut him off. He ignored it, though, just sighing and putting the laptop he’d been carrying on the desk in front of Ed and opening it wordlessly, pressing a button to unmute the audio.

“-It’s important to you-”

“It’s not fucking important to me! It’s just for fun, alright? I know the game is my priority, and I’m handling it! I’ve got my head in the game or whatever. I’m not distracted!”

“And what about Ed? Isn’t impressing him important to you?”

“I’m not trying to impress him! He’s just some boy, alright? It’s not serious, he’s not a distraction, so fucking drop it and let me have my fun, OK?”

Ed jammed his finger into the mute button as fast as he could and slammed the laptop closed, unable to bear hearing any more. His stomach churned with conflicting emotions. He was furious, he wanted to cry and he didn’t even cry hardly ever, he simultaneously wanted to beat Mustang to a pulp and absolutely never see his stupid face ever again. He couldn’t believe he had been so stupid. Buying into all that charm... He could bet all the goofy bits were just an act, to make him seem nicer while he just used Ed for amusement, apparently.

“Ed?” his brother asked slowly, eyeing him with concern, “Are you alright?”

“‘M fine,” he muttered, pushing away from the desk and stalking from the room.

Roy was in the hall when he got there, the absolute last thing Ed wanted to see. He smiled brightly, like nothing was wrong. Well, the asshole probably wouldn’t know there was anything wrong anyway; not yet at least.

“Hey Ed! How was practice?”

“Fine,” he answered coldly, feeling just a little pleased at how Roy’s smile faltered, “But I’ve been thinking about it, and I think I’d be happier dropping this whole stupid musical thing. Join the Academic Decathlon team, like I should have done in the first place.”

“What? Why?” Roy said, smile dropping into a deep frown.

“Just not that big a deal,” he replied dismissively, “Wasn’t supposed to take it seriously in the first place. Don’t know why I got all caught up in it...”

“But-”

Ed huffed and ignored him, pushing roughly past him and heading down the hall, not listening for a moment to Roy’s confused calls of his name as he went.

[fullmetalgunfire]

Chapter 4 of my gift fic for @blackwolfchimera. Honestly this might be my favorite chapter so far, I had fun referencing audition songs... Also think it might be the longest one...

Chapter 1 (plus explanation) | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

The next few days were spent in a haze of bland routine. Go to class, be bored, rinse and repeat until he went home. The one thing that stood out was walking by that sign up sheet several times a day. He kept eyeing it, debating if he should write down his name. It wasn’t like he was that into theatre, but it’d please Winry if he at least tried. Get her off his back about it...

Yeah, that’s why he was interested in trying. It had nothing to do with vague hopes Roy was interested in doing it too. Or not much, anyway.

At lunchtime the day the auditions would be held, he was standing in front of the sheet of paper with a pencil in his hand, willing himself to actually write his name down.  

“Ed? Why are you standing in the middle of the hall?”

Ed jumped about a foot in the air, dropping his pencil in the process and then, somehow, managing to put his foot in exactly the wrong position to have the pencil roll underneath it and make his foot fly out from underneath him, crashing to the floor.

“Fuck! Ow!” He exclaimed with a grimace, pushing himself up, “I’m not doing anything. Why do you have to be such a... Sneaky bastard?”

Roy laughed and reached down to help him up with a shake of his head, “Not my fault you’re a klutz.”

“I’m not a klutz, you’re an asshole! A... Too quiet asshole!”

Roy just laughed again at that. “So, going to tell me what you were doing? Or are you gonna lie to me again?”

“Well… I was… I’m gonna give auditioning a shot,” he admitted, his cheeks coloring pink as he tried to shrug it off and act like it wasn’t a big deal, “I thought it could be fun. At least it’d get Winry off my back about it.”

“Mm, not a bad reason, I guess...” Roy hummed, glancing at the sheet himself. His face was oddly unreadable again, but Ed thought he could see wheels turning. Maybe... Considering?

“Were you gonna do it?” he asked slowly, trying not to get his hopes up. It was hard not to, though, when it was starting to look more and more like Roy wanted to do it, too. Between the way he sounded talking about karaoke, and that look on his face...

Roy shook himself out of his thoughts and glanced over at Ed, opening his mouth to speak just as the warning bell rang.  

“Shit, gotta go! See you later!” Ed called quickly as he took off down the hallway, a hopeful flutter starting in his stomach as he imagined himself at the auditions with Roy.

Later that day, after school was over, he walked slowly into the theatre and was a little surprised to hear Winry calling his name from where she’d crouched down in one of the aisles.

“Oh, hey,” he said, wandering over and blinking at her, “Why are you on the floor?”

“Oh, well, we’re not allowed to be working on stage during auditions,” she answered, gesturing to the piece of plywood she’s painting, which he guessed was part of the set, “But the sets are a lot more complicated than usual for this show, so we can’t just take the day off...”

“So you’re Ed,” the girl next to her said, smiling at him, “Winry told me about you, I didn’t think you’d show...”

“Wasn’t sure I was going to, but might as well audition...” he said, voice trailing off as the door opening again caught his attention, unable to help smiling as he saw Roy striding in, “Hey! Roy! Didn’t think you’d make it!”

“I got lucky, practice got canceled...” Roy said, coming over with a laugh, blinking in confusion when he came around and spotted the girls in the aisle, “What-”

“Working on something for the sets,” Winry answered quickly, “I’m Winry. Ed’s friend.”

“Oh! Right, he’s mentioned you...” Roy said, giving her a charming smile before turning to the other girl, “Are you a friend of Ed’s too?”

“Nah, we only just met...” she said, grinning at Roy in a way Ed really didn’t understand. It looked... Knowing.

“Oh, right, I forgot to introduce you!” Winry said quickly, “Ed, this is my friend Paninya, she’s in the same tech class as me...”

“Nice to meet you,” she said cheerfully, “Seriously... I hope you two are good, because we could really use some new talent around here. Maybe we can finally do our sets justice!”

“It can’t be that bad, can it?” Roy asked, frowning at them, “I thought the theatre department was good...”

“The tech department is. The actors... Not so much,” Winry explained, frowning back at him, “How do you not know that? Haven’t you been going here the whole time?”

“Well, yeah, but I... Never managed to make it to one of the shows...”

“People talk about it. All the time,” she said, giving him a skeptical look.

“I... Haven’t paid much attention to anything but basketball and class,” he admitted sheepishly after a long moment, mumbling as if he hoped they wouldn’t actually be able to hear him.

Both of the girls stared at him for a long moment before Paninya burst out laughing and Winry just turned to give Ed an incredulous look.

“Really Ed? This is what you’ve been flirting with?”

Ed immediately sputtered, turning red. “I haven’t been flirting with him!”

“Alright, everyone!” the teacher called out, cutting off their conversation before it could go any further, “We’d better get started... I hope you all put your name on the sign up form? I’ll be using that to keep track of your names...”

“Uh, excuse me?” Roy called out, “I didn’t put my name on... I wasn’t sure I’d be able to come...”

Mr. Garfiel gave him a displeased look that made Ed wince in sympathy. He was pretty sure the only reason Roy was spared any further wrath was the handful of other students making noises of agreement across the theatre.

“You’re all lucky I printed extras of everything,” he sighed, waving a hand toward the table set up at the front, “I put the sheet down there, hurry and add your names before we get started...”

Roy grimaced as he headed to the front with the handful of other students, and the teacher continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted.

“Now, the show we’re putting on this time is very special,” he said, beaming, “I’ve been trying to put on something like this for years...”

“Wait, why would he have to wait to put on a certain show?” Ed asked with a confused scowl, “Isn’t he in charge?”

“Ed, keep your voice down,” Winry shot back, keeping her voice low, “He is, but the administration still has to approve his choices. I don’t know if it was because he wanted to do a gay show or an original one, but they wouldn’t let him. Not until now, anyway...”

“He was gushing about it in class for a month before break,” Paninya commented, “Pretty much from the second he got approval...”

“Sounds kind of annoying...”

“Yeah, a bit. But mostly because we were supposed to be working...”

“Did I miss something?” Roy asked as he drifted back over to them.

“Just explaining something to Ed, don’t worry about it,” Winry said, waving a hand at him dismissively. He shrugged it off after a moment, leaning on the wall very close to Ed, who suddenly found it a bit hard to focus on what the teacher was saying. Not that he’d been paying much attention in the first place...

“I’d like to introduce our writer for this show, Mei Chang...” he said, gesturing to a girl who was absolutely tiny in every sense of the world and was glaring daggers at a boy in the front row, “She’s done an excellent job...”

“Yeah, if you don’t mind it sounding like a cheesy romance novel,” Winry snorted, not looking away from her work.

“I say fan fiction, personally,” Paninya commented mildly, poking up to look toward the stage, “And it’s not that bad, if it’s played right... Oh, the drama’s started up already. Great...”

“So that’s her cousin? Or whatever?” Ed asked, eyeing the boy she’d been glaring at.

“Yeah, that’s Ling,” Paninya hummed with a nod, “I really hope he doesn’t get the lead this time, for once. Sometimes I think it’s gone to his head a bit...”

“Wait, you two have already read the script?” Roy asked, leaning over to look past Ed at the girls.

Winry looked up with a frown. “Well yeah, it’s on the school website... Didn’t you? To prep for the audition?”

“We’re supposed to prepare?”

“Now if you could all take one of the forms on the table and fill it out,” Mr. Garfiel call out before anyone answered him, “It’s to provide more in depth information to help with my casting choices later. Previous experience, scheduling conflicts, that sort of thing...”

“Go on,” Winry said, giving them a sympathetic smile (which just left Ed dreading whatever it was she was doing that over), “Mr. Garfiel’s going to like you even less if you dawdle...”

“Right...” Ed sighed, following Roy over to the table, grumbling in frustration as people cut him off when he tried to grab a form.

“Hey Ed,” Roy called over from where he was standing, over to the side using the stage as a table to write on, “Over here, I grabbed a second one for you...”

“Oh. Thanks...” he said, wandering over and standing beside him, “You got a pen?”

“Yeah, just a second,” he said, frowning at the sheet in front of him, “You think I should put basketball practice on here? I mean, it’ll only be a problem until the game, then I’m free...”

“Uh... Yeah, just put it down to be safe,” Ed replied after a moment, glancing at the teacher, “I get the feeling we’re not going to be well liked around here, not for awhile... Better to not make it any worse, right?”

“Right,” Roy said with a sigh, scribbling it down before handing over the pen, “I think we’re getting in over our heads with this. Did you know we were supposed to prepare at all?”

“Not a clue,” Ed answered, shaking his head a bit and frowning down at his own page, “What do I even put if I have... Nothing?”

“No what?”

“No... Anything,” Ed said, gesturing vaguely at the page, “No experience, no conflicts...”

“I don’t know... That n-slash-a thing?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he sighed back, scribbling it down quickly and giving Roy back his pen, frowning at the almost blank paper in his hands, “This looks like shit.”

“No kidding,” Roy said, holding up his own sheet, which wasn’t much better, “At least you don’t have scheduling conflicts... So what now?”

“When you’re done, just put it in a stack on that table for me...” Mr. Garfiel called out a moment later, “Then take a seat somewhere near the stage, so you’re ready when I call on you...”

“Well, guess that answers that,” Ed said with a bit of a laugh, going over and starting the stack, Roy and a couple others following a moment later.

The pair of them managed to find seats at the front, falling silent as they waited. Not that it took long... It seemed like just about everyone was either heading up or heading back to their seats by the time they sat down. Apparently no one was taking that long with the form... Even Ling, who was the last one finished, was only a moment behind everyone else.

“Well, now that everyone is done with that,” Mr. Garfiel called out from his own seat, now holding the sign up sheet, “We’ll be starting with your audition songs. I’ll be calling on you in the order you signed up, please have sheet music ready if you want accompaniment...”

The teacher gestured to the piano on stage, and Ed looked over, feeling dread drop into his stomach. He hadn’t realized they’d want them to bring their own songs to sing. What the hell was he supposed to do?

“We’re supposed to bring music?” Roy said softly, echoing his thoughts and looking even more panicked than Ed felt, as they watched Ling go up and sing a song Ed didn’t recognize, “I had no idea we were supposed to bring music...”

“Me neither. Shit, what the fuck are we supposed to do?”

“I have no idea,” Roy replied as Ling was cut off by praise from Mr. Garfiel, and the next girl was called up, “At least it looks like we only have to sing a little bit of it...”

“Yeah, I guess that’s good...” Ed said slowly, making a face as the new girl started to sing, “Is she seriously doing that song from Frozen?”

“I guess...” Roy said, snorting as he glanced over at Mr. Garfiel’s much less pleased expression, “It looks like he’s not that happy with her choice...”

“Yeah. Probably heard it one too many times...” Ed said with a bit of a laugh, then shook his head, “Fuck, what are we supposed to pick that he will like?”

“I... Have no idea,” Roy replied slowly, watching the teacher sigh in exasperation as another girl came up and started singing that one song from Les Miserables everyone knew, “Guess not anything too popular...”

“The only theatre shit I know is the popular stuff!” Ed protested.

“I know...” Roy sighed, “I guess... Just try to sound good? He can’t hate it just on song choice, right?”

“Yeah, guess not...” Ed agreed slowly, “I mean... Everybody so far has kinda been only OK...”

“Right,” Roy said with a nod, “So try to sound good, and try to make a better impression with the rest of the audition.”

“Yeah... There’s got to be more than just this part, right?”

“Well, he did say we were starting with this...”

“Right,” Ed said, groaning a bit, “I still have no idea what I’m going to sing, though.”

“Neither do I...” Roy sighed, falling silent as they watched the other auditions, and the teacher’s reaction to them. There was one boy, a couple people after that, that seemed to be doing another of those stereotypical songs, but Mr. Garfiel’s face relaxed after his initial cringe, looking... Not really pleased, but at least satisfied. Ed immediately relaxed.

“I’m just going to sing whatever the person before me sang,” Ed said after a moment.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Roy asked, turning to frown at him.

Ed shrugged. “What else am I supposed to do? I don’t have sheet music on me. And everybody’s had the piano so far...”

“Good point. Probably look even more unprepared without it...” Roy sighed, “Still. What if it’s a girl? I mean, the song would be too high for us then, wouldn’t it?”

“Well... Just have to deal, I guess.”

Ed was called up a moment later.

“Well, guess it’s your lucky day,” Roy hummed after a moment, “Guess you’ll be singing Stars...”

“Right. Fuck...” he sighed, but stood anyway, giving him a halfhearted smile that verged on a cringe, “Wish me luck...”

He quickly headed up onto the stage, waving at the piano player, “Can you play that last one again?”

The girl blinked at him, surprised, but shrugged it off and kept playing.

Ed managed to make it through about as much of the song as the last guy had before the teacher cut him off, immediately wincing at his... Less than pleased tone. He hadn’t thought he’d sounded that bad, though admittedly he’d been more focused on trying to remember the words.

“What, was I awful?” he said as he sat back down beside Roy.

“I didn’t think so,” Roy shrugged, “I thought you sounded good. You were making a weird face though...”

“Was trying to remember the damn words...” he muttered, sinking down in his seat as he watched another girl, one of those that had added their names last minute, did a pretty damn good version of Part of Your World without accompaniment.

And when he glanced over, the teacher looked pleased.

“Well, I guess accompaniment isn’t as big a deal as we thought...” Roy said slowly as he watched the teacher’s reaction.

“Yeah. Damn it...” Ed muttered, looking irritated, “Guess at least you know that now...”

“Yeah...” Roy said, wincing as he was called up, “Guess I’m just going to have to do the first thing that comes to mind...”

“Good luck,” Ed replied, giving him a half smile as he walked up to the stage.

When Roy got up there, he just stood there for a long moment, looking almost panicked. Ed cringed in sympathy... Clearly he was having a hard time coming up with something to sing.

“Any time now,” the teacher said, sounding impatient.

Roy visibly shook himself out of it, hesitating a moment before singing a song Ed didn’t recognize at all. It... Wasn’t great. His voice sounded fine, of course, better than several of the others even, but the song choice was... Odd. And the look on Roy’s face, getting worse the longer he stood there, made it clear he was completely aware of this.

Ed was trying not to laugh at him. It wasn’t fair, not at the moment, but he just looked so... Uncharacteristically awkward.

“Well, I think that’s enough of that,” Mr. Garfiel interrupted briskly, noting something down.

Roy cringed and headed off stage, dropping into the seat beside Ed with a sigh. He paused for a minute, then turned to give him a look. “I can tell you want to laugh...”

“Sorry,” he said, the laughter slipping out as soon as he opened his mouth, “I swear I’m not laughing at you...”

“Yes you are.”

“No! I wanted to laugh at how awkward you looked!”

“That counts!”

“Well, maybe, but it was funny. Especially because you’re not usually like that...” he said, shrugging a bit, “What song was that, anyway? It was such a weird thing to sing...”

“First thing that popped into my head,” he mumbled, sighing a bit before he admitted, “It’s this... Opening to an anime. One of my aunt’s girls likes it, she was showing it to me yesterday, just sort of... Got stuck in my head.”

“Seriously?” Ed said, trying to fight off laughter again.

Roy turned to him with a halfhearted glare. “If you laugh again...”

“Oh come on, that one’s funny!”

It only takes a few more minutes to get through the rest of the songs, and then Mr. Garfiel cleared his throat.

“Well, that went... Well,” he said, “Now we’ll be moving on to dialogue... I’m going to pair everyone up based on their performance so far, and give you one of three short excerpts to do... One for two boys, one for two girls, one for a boy and a girl, that sort of thing. Just come up here to collect the scenes when I call your name, then take a few minutes to go over the scene with your partner and decide what you want to do.”

Then he started rattling off names, calling Roy and Ed up together toward the end of the list.

“I get the feeling we’re not doing well so far,” Ed commented as they sat back down to look over the scene, “He didn’t look pleased when he saw us...”

“No, he didn’t...” Roy sighed, flipping through the pages, “Wow, the girls... Really weren’t wrong about the way it sounds. Why is it so... Dramatic?”

“Well, it is drama...”

“Yeah, but... Look at it,” Roy huffed as Ed started reading and almost immediately winced, “Do people ever really talk like that?”

“Uh, not really...” Ed said slowly, “Though, I mean... Looks like it’s a fight? Those can get pretty dramatic...”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Roy sighed... frowning at the pages, “I don’t know what to do with this.”

“Me neither. I mean... What are they even fighting about?”

“Well they... Seem to be lovers? Fighting over... Something the one did. Or didn’t do...”

“Yeah, not a lot to go on... Guess we’ll just have to pick something to go with it. Who do you want to play?”

“I don’t know. Flip a coin?”

They didn’t actually flip a coin, mostly because neither one had one on them, but instead just picked at random. They read through the scene for a moment, both trying to decide what to do with it, until they were interrupted by the first pair being called up.

It was Ling and some other boy who hadn’t made an impression on Ed, and the scene was... Interesting. Ling spent the whole time laughing off the argument in a pretty over the top way, while the other guy... Well, he wasn’t bad, but he still didn’t leave an impression on Ed.

Other pairs went up, one by one, and they all started doing the same thing... Playing their scenes just as dramatically as Ling had, with mixed results.

After a couple pairs it started getting repetitive, and Ed tuned out. “We’ve got to figure out how to make this scene sound less stupid...”

“No kidding,” Roy sighed, shaking his head a little, “I don’t want to make it as dramatic as everyone else, but... I have no idea how. It’s a pretty dramatic scene...”

“Guess just... Try to make it sound like a real argument?” Ed offered.

They head up on stage a minute later, and as he’s walking up Ed still has no idea what they’re going to do. He ends up going for barely contained anger for his part... Because, well, every argument he’s ever gotten into has either involved him yelling or barely not yelling, so it seems like it would work. Roy sounds more pleading, like someone who knows he’s done wrong but is trying to make it seem like not that big a deal. Ed thinks it works... At least, it sounds more like a real, everyday argument then the rest of the scenes.

When he looks over at the table, though, his stomach drops. Mr. Garfiel looked, at best, unimpressed... The writer, Mei, looked a little bit happier with the performance, but she mostly just looked hopeful rather than actually pleased. It didn’t go well again.

“Well, at least we tried...” Roy sighed as they sat back down.

“Yeah. Winry can’t yell at me for not trying...” Ed said with a halfhearted little smile... He’d actually started to look forward to this. Or, well, he had started to look forward to the prospect of doing it with Roy.

“Well, that’s basically it...” Mr Garfiel called out a little later, after the last pair finished their scene, “The girls can leave if they want, but if I could ask the boys to stay just a little longer? I want to make sure our leads have chemistry, so I want you to pair up with the person you think you’d do best with and sing a bit of one of their duets... The song is attached to the scenes I gave you.”

Roy perked up a bit. “Last chance to prove ourselves?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Ed said, smiling a bit again, “You and me? I mean, we did well with the karaoke, right?”

“Definitely.”

They reviewed the song for a minute, and Ed felt himself getting hopeful. They could really pull this one off... Especially with how overdramatic Ling and his partner made it, and how everyone followed their direction. He and Roy could do this, not make it stupid, and stand out. He waited, anticipating one of their names being called, as each pair went up to sing the duet.

“Well, that went... Well. I’d like to thank you all for auditioning...” Mr. Garfiel called out, gathering up his papers, when everyone except them had sung, “I’ll be either posting a cast list or a call back list in the next couple days, depending on how the decisions go...”

“Wait, what?” Ed blurted out in protest as the other students started filing out of the theatre, “What about us? We didn’t get a chance to do the duet...”

“Mei, could you clean up these scripts and forms for me, take them to my office?” the teacher said pleasantly before rounding on them, looking at them coldly, “You two are out of the running. For anything.”

“What?” Ed said, gaping, “I mean, I know we didn’t do great, but can’t we have a turn too? We should get another chance...”

“It would be fair, everyone else went,” Roy added, though his voice was lower, almost like he was commenting more to himself or Ed than to the teacher.

“No one else was as big a disaster as you two,” Mr. Garfiel replied harshly, “I’ve never seen a worse audition. I already gave you another chance! Your solos went bad enough, but I thought, maybe you could turn it around with the scene, but no. You didn’t even bother reading the summary of the script, did you?”

“We didn’t know-”

“The sign up sheet said it was available on the website. Right at the bottom.”

“What, seriously?” Ed said, jerking around to look at the sheet, which was still laying on the table nearby. He could see text now, but... “Oh come on, that’s so small! I can barely see it!”

“Regardless,” the teacher said dismissively, “You were massively unprepared, and I have no room in this production for people who can’t work hard and take this seriously.”

“But we can-” Ed started, but Mr. Garfiel just huffed and turned away.

“I have no reason to give you two any more chances.”

The teacher left without another word, leaving both of them sitting in stunned silence.

“That... May have been the worst scolding I’ve ever gotten,” Roy said after a long moment, “At least from a teacher...”

“Definitely up there...” Ed commented himself, cringing as he shook his head, “Damn it. We should have been prepared, this wouldn’t have turned into such a disaster...”

“Neither of us knew what we were getting into...” Roy tried to reassure him, sighing and running a hand through his hair with a sheepish look on his face, “I’ve got to admit... I was really hoping we’d both get cast. Maybe... Get to know each other...”

He smiled back, just a little. “Yeah, me-” he started, whipping around when he heard a noise from the stage, the writer girl having tripped on something and sent papers flying everywhere, “Too... Hey, are you alright?”

The girl’s head snapped up as he came rushing up on stage, immediately giving him a weird smile he... Really didn’t understand in the slightest.

“I’m fine,” she said, “Some id- Somebody just left their bag up here, I didn’t see it with all these papers...”

“What kind of moron just leaves their things laying around in people’s way?” Ed huffed, starting to pick up the papers, “Here, let me help you with that...”

“Oh thank you so much!” she gushed at him, which seemed pretty over the top for something so simple, then proceeded to completely ignore Roy as he came up to them and started to help.

“To be honest... Might not be fair to call whoever it was a moron...” she admitted after a long moment, “I kind of wasn’t paying attention...”

“Why not?” Ed blinked at her, “I mean, kind of seems like you should on a stage, especially when they’re working on the sets already...”

“I know...” she said, ducking her head and looking embarrassed, “I guess I’m just... Upset at the audition...”

Ed winced. “Yeah, sorry about that...”

“Oh, no no no, not you!” she rushed to exclaim, dropping some papers again as she waved her hands, “Well, I mean... You two were kind of a disaster, but I’m not upset about that! It’s... Stupid, stupid Ling...”

“Yeah, my friend mentioned you two didn’t get along...”

“That’s not just it!” she complained, looking miserable, “I’d put up with him if I had to, but did you see what he did with the script? The song? He’s going to ruin my show! Even if we don’t give him a lead, and no one else was that good, he’d still ruin it just... Just by existing! You saw what happened, how they all copied him... He’s always gotten the lead, so everyone thinks that’s what you’re supposed to do, and- Oh, I worked so hard on this!”

“It was pretty overdramatic...” Roy hummed in agreement, eyeing her thoughtfully for a moment before continuing, “Just out of curiosity, what’s it supposed to be like? We couldn’t figure out what the scene was about...”

“Oh, right, you two weren’t prepared...” she said before getting this dreamy look on her face as she continued, “Well, it starts with this rich boy who doesn’t care about anything or anyone except himself... All he wants is to party and have fun, and his mother is desperate to get him to change, even just a little, so she hires him a new tutor. He’s irritated at first, because he thinks he’s too old for tutors and it cuts into his time for himself, but the man she hires is surprisingly attractive so he decides to have some fun and seduce him, then use that to get what he wants. The tutor resists his advances at first, but then succumbs, only by then they’ve started to genuinely bond and instead of it being purely physical like the rich boy wanted, they enter into a real relationship. A secret, forbidden relationship... And as they get closer and closer, the rich boy starts seeing commitment on the horizon and, panicking, tries to keep his tutor at arms length. It all comes to a head at the end of the first act, when they argue about it and the rich boy tries to dismiss his concerns, unaware that his tutor has gotten an offer to study at a prestigious institution far away he’s always dreamed about, and is torn between staying and continuing their relationship or taking the offer, and is just desperately looking for some reason to believe his lover really feels the same for him...”

“Oh. Wow...” Ed said, blinking at her... Enthusiastic description of the plot. “Yeah, I can see why you’d be upset, playing that scene like that would be all kinds of wrong... Though we played it pretty wrong too...”

“Guess that explains why Mr. Garfiel wasn’t pleased with what we did...” Roy hummed, “So, that duet... I’m guessing it comes after?”

She hummed and nodded. “Beginning of act two. The tutor moved away to take the offer and is trying to move on with his life, but regrets how it ended and wishes it could have been different, while the distance makes the rich boy realize his mistake, and his feelings, so he travels to see him and try to set things right...”

“Doesn’t seem like there’d be a whole lot of plot after that...” Ed commented, frowning a bit, “Definitely not half the story...”

“Well, the tutor started dating somebody else in the meantime, and is really hurt over what happened,” Mei said with a shrug, “The second act mostly deals with the rich boy trying to separate the two of them, and slowly realizing he wants to do it because the relationship is making his former lover unhappy, not just so they’ll get back together, and that he wants him happy even if it’s not with him... Though, I mean, they do get back together. I wanted a happy ending...”

“That’s... Pretty good, actually,” Ed said, giving her a bit of a smile (and wondering why she ducked her head at that... Was she shy about people complimenting her work or something?), “Wish I could see it done right...”

“Why don’t we give it a try?” Roy offered, “The duet, at least. We’re here anyway, it’d be nice even if it is just us...”

“Well, you two were my favorite pair who did that scene...” she said slowly, “I mean, it was all wrong, but at least you didn’t turn it into some stupid, awful-”

“Yeah, what the hell, let’s do it,” Ed interrupted before she could ramp up any further, “Think you could play the song for us, Mei?”

“Oh, well... I’m not as good with piano, but...” she said, getting up and going over to the instrument, starting to play the intro to the song. It wasn’t as smooth as the girl who’d been playing for the auditions, but it was good enough for their little impromptu performance.

Roy found the lyrics on one of the little scripts Mei had been carrying when she’d tripped, and they started singing it as they leaned on the piano, standing close together to both see the paper. And it seemed to go well... Now that they had some context, they seemed to fall into the roles naturally, the performance coming easily.

“Oh, you were so good!” Mei cried out as soon as she got to the end, “Why can’t we cast you two, you’d actually do it right!”

“I’m starting to think the same thing.”

Ed jerked around to see Mr. Garfiel standing behind them. “Oh, shit, we... Uh...”

“Were giving the best audition of the day?” he offered with a bit of a smile, then sighed and shook his head, “I’ll admit you two have potential. If you weren’t so unreliable...”

“We didn’t really know what we were getting into, sir,” Roy pointed out slowly, “Neither of us has ever done this before... We should have done a better job, but we had no idea...”

The teacher hummed noncommittally, eyeing them critically for a long moment. “Alright. I’ll give you another chance.”

“Wait, seriously?” Ed exclaimed, eyes going wide.

“Well, that was the best duet by far. I’ll let you come back for callbacks...” he said before pointing at them accusingly, “But you have to prove to me you can commit to this show. Be prepared, be reliable, willing to work hard and be dedicated... If you don’t convince me you are, I don’t care how good you are, I won’t cast you in anything. Understand?”

“Absolutely.”

“Yeah, of course!”

“Alright... I’ll see you at callbacks, then,” he said, picking up the bag from the corner and heading back out of the theatre.

Mei almost squealed in delight. “Oh, this is going to be great! I’m practicing with you both so you have the best call backs ever... Don’t you dare back out, either! I’m counting on you two to save my show!”

“Yeah, alright,” Roy said with a bit of a chuckle, “Just tell us what you want us to do...”

[fullmetalgunfire]

Chapter 3 of my gift fic for @blackwolfchimera. Sorry it’s a lot latter in the day than I intended, I’ve been having a bit of a day... Also should probably post this somewhere like ao3 where it’d be easier to read but I don’t have a title for this damn thing...

Chapter 1 (plus explanation) | Chapter 2

“Hey, Ed!”

“Oh, hey Al,” he said, turning around as his brother rushed up to him after their final class, “Good day?”

“Pretty good,” he replied with a smile, “My last class I got to talking with this girl, and she told me the Academic Decathlon team’s really struggling. A couple members dropped out over break, I guess? I was thinking maybe we ought to join!”

Ed made a face. “I don’t know, Al, not sure I’m into that idea...”

“What?” Al said, freezing in the middle of the crowded hallway to stare at him, “Why not? You love this sort of thing, I remember...”

“Just because I liked it in the past doesn’t mean I always will...”

“Come on, Ed...” he huffed, distractedly apologizing to a girl who bumped into him and moving to the side of the hall, “You study just as much as me, even when you don’t need to. That hasn’t changed... Why aren’t you interested?”

“I don’t know,” he huffed irritably, “Maybe I just want to be the cool kid for a change, instead of the nerd!”

“OK, one, not actually mutually exclusive, and two... What? Since when do you care?” Al shot back, watching Ed as his eyes tracked Roy, who was walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the hall. The other boy caught his eye and smiled, giving him a little wave, which promptly made Ed smile back.

“Oh...” Al said after a moment, breaking into a slow grin.

“What?”

“Oh, you have such a crush on him!” Al exclaimed with a laugh.

“Shut up, Al!” he exclaimed back, face heating with a blush, “I do not!”

“Oh come on, admit it! First you actually take the time to text with a stranger, then you ditch me and Winry for half of lunch to let him show you around, now you’re staring at him across the hall and don’t want to join the team...” Al shot back, face falling after a moment, “You know, if you’re just trying to not look too smart for him or something, you shouldn’t... He should like how smart you are, or he’s not good enough for you.”

“Fucking- Al, I’m not trying to get him to be my boyfriend or something, relax!” he groaned back, “Besides, even if I was, which I’m not, we’ve been texting about a fucking chemistry book. Really don’t think that’d be a problem.”

“Well then why don’t you want to join the team?”

“I don’t know, Al, just... Kinda would like to do something different this semester. For once...” he sighed with a shrug, finishing with a mumble, “And maybe make it something we could do together...”

Al paused, then immediately laughed.

“Cut it out! It’s not funny!”

“It is, a little...” Al replied with a smile, “You really ought to admit you have a crush... Guess I’ll just join the team. Let you pursue your crush...”

“Shut up!”

“Earth to Roy! You paying any attention?”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Roy said, shaking himself out of his thoughts, passing his best friend the ball.

“Man, you’re distracted...” he replied with a shake of his head, easily continuing their practice even while talking, “Something up today?”

“No,” he lied quickly, “Just one of those days...”

Hughes hummed, eyeing him skeptically. “Mm, you sure about that? Doesn’t have anything to do with how you missed half of lunch? You’ve been awfully cagey about explaining that...”

Roy sighed. “You’re not going to drop this, are you?”

“Nope!”

“Fine,” he grumbled, hesitating for a moment before admitting, “That guy I met at the party, I ran into him in one of my classes. Turns out he’s going here now.”

“Really?” Hughes said, lighting up with a grin, “He’s one of those new kids? Which one? Why didn’t you introduce me?”

“I’m not telling you who he is,” Roy said, giving him a bit of a glare, “You’re just going to try to play matchmaker and ruin it.”

“Aw, come on, Roy, you deserve to actually date someone!” he complained, “I can help! You never take anyone seriously enough...”

“Because none of them have been... Right,” he shrugged, “Can’t you drop it? I really don’t want you interfering this time...”

“Mm, I’ll just figure it out on my own,” he said cheerfully, making Roy groan, “It won’t be hard, there’s only two of them!”

“Hughes, come on, I’m not even sure he’s interested,” Roy pleaded, “I mean... I think he might be, but I can’t quite tell for sure...”

Roy’s voice trailed off as he got lost in thought again, staring into space until the ball hit him in the face.

“Shit, you are really distracted,” Hughes said, frowning, as Roy cursed and rubbed his cheek, “You’re really getting this bad just thinking about this guy?”

“That’s not... That’s not just it,” Roy sighed, shaking his head, “I’ve just... Been thinking about how to... Get to know him better.”

“Ask him out to dinner?”

“Yeah, maybe... Kind of want to get to know him before I ask him out, though,” he sighed, hesitating for several moments before adding, “I think he might be auditioning for the musical...”

“Really?” Hughes said, staring at him in confusion, “Didn’t think theatre kid was your type... Why’s that important?”

“He’s not really a theatre kid, I think he’s just thinking of giving it a shot,” Roy shrugged, “And, I don’t know... Been thinking it might be... Fun. You know, as a way to get to know each other.”

Hughes just continued staring at him in confusion for a moment before his eyes went wide. “You want to audition for the musical?!”

“Yeah, maybe,” he shrugged, “Why not?”

“You can’t do that! We’ve got the championship game coming up!”

“Yeah, in a couple weeks,” Roy pointed out, “They’re only auditioning now, show itself wouldn’t be until spring, right? Way past our game. And that’s if I even get a part...”

“Auditions are only in a couple days, and wouldn’t they start rehearsals right away? Come on, there’s going to be a scheduling conflict...”

“I have no idea when they’d start,” he shrugged, “But it wouldn’t be a conflict for more than a week, week and a half, right? I’m sure I could work something out if I got a part.”

“But you’re going to be distracted!” Hughes protested.

“I’m not that distracted...” he replied, though it was weaker than he’d have liked.

“Roy, you just got hit in the face with a ball. During practice. What could happen during a game if you’re like this?” Hughes pointed out, sighing as his voice went a little more pleading, “Come on, Roy, we’ve got a plan. We can’t deviate from the plan. Not now...”

Roy opened his mouth, wanting to protest, but couldn’t think of anything to say. So he just sighed and slumped reluctantly instead. “I guess you’re right...”

“Of course I am,” he replied confidently, perking up again, “Come on, cheer up, we’ll find a way to woo your guy after our last game!”

Roy fell silent for the rest of their practice, trying to focus on what he was supposed to be doing as much as possible. He wasn’t completely successful, and he could see Hughes frowning at him whenever he wasn’t at his best, but he at least managed to make it through without getting hit in the face with the ball again.

After practice, he headed over to Riza’s place on the other side of town, prompted by a text that she was looking to hang out and let off a little steam after a stressful first day back at school. Which for her inevitably meant playing some sort of game in her fairly nice backyard while she vented at him.

Of course, when he seemed to be barely paying attention to the ball, let alone her, she just got frustrated.

“Have you been listening to a word I’ve been saying?”

“Sorry,” he sighed immediately, giving her a weak smile, “I’ve been kind of distracted all day...”

He irritation melted away, eyeing him with a small frown instead. “Did something happen?”

“Sort of,” he shrugged, “Nothing bad, if that’s what you’re thinking. Go ahead and keep talking, I swear I’ll pay more attention...”

“No, it’s alright... Honestly I should probably just let it go, anyway,” she sighed, shaking her head before eyeing him curiously, “What happened?”

He hesitated, then sighed. “You remember that guy from the party? Ed?” he asked, giving her a halfhearted glare, “Thanks for telling Hughes about him, by the way. He’s going to be such a pain in the ass about it.”

“He asked if he missed anything interesting,” she shrugged, completely unrepentant, “What about him?”

“I ran into him today in one of my classes.”

“He’s in the same class as you? Isn’t he younger than you?”

“Alright, a, he’s a junior, he’s not that much younger than me, it’s not that weird for him to be in a class with seniors, and b, he’s... Really smart,” he huffed, frowning at her, “You don’t seem surprised at him being at the same school as me...”

“Well, no. He was at that party, and you said it didn’t seem like he was dragged there by a parent, so I figured he probably lived in the same area...”

Roy grumbled, wanting to protest but not really having anything he could say to that. She had a point, it wasn’t that surprising, he just... Hadn’t thought about it. It had felt like he was pushing his luck to think he would.

“I’ve just... Been thinking about him a lot,” he continued, pushing forward before she had a chance to tease him about it.

She just smiled at him. “You really like him, don’t you?”

“What’s not to like?” he said, smiling back, “He’s cute, and smart... I don’t exactly know what else, but I’d like to find out.”

“So why don’t you ask him out?”

“I don’t know, I might...” he replied slowly, face falling, “I just... Kinda want to get to know him first. You know how my dates tend to go.”

She hummed, nodding. She knew better than anyone, even Hughes... He usually turned to her after a date gone bad, because she didn’t insist on believing Roy self sabotaged all of them like his other best friend did. She knew how he’d get hopeful, only to find out after a couple dates the person just... Wasn’t right. She’d helped him figure out how to end things as gently as he could more than once.

“So find something more casual first,” she shrugged, “Get involved with him and his friends or something. Introduce him to Hughes.”

“Not going to happen. Ever. At least not until we’re either dating or he turns me down,” Roy groaned, “I do not need to deal with Hughes being a matchmaker...”

“Understandable.”

“You encouraged him,” he grumbled resentfully, shaking his head a moment later, “I’ll figure something out. I just... Need to think of the best way to do it. I thought I had something, but... Hughes is probably right, it’s a bad idea.”

“What is?”

“Well, there’s this... Musical...” he said slowly, “I think Ed might audition. Friend of his wants him to... I... Was thinking about auditioning too. Earlier.”

She just frowned at him, confused. “Why wouldn’t you? Sounds like fun.”

“It does, but I can’t,” he sighed, shaking his head, “I’ve got to focus on my grades and the game. It’s all part of the plan...”

“Roy, since when do you have to actually focus that much on your grades?”

“Rarely. Mostly in Lit classes...” he admitted, shaking his head, “Still, the game. I can’t be distracted thinking about the musical when I’ve got the championships coming up.”

“I suppose,” she said, eyeing him critically for a long moment, “Although, it looks to me like you’re more distracted thinking about it than you would be if you just made the decision.”

He opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again, staring at her for a moment. “That’s... A good point.”

She hummed and nodded a bit. “I know you, you can handle doing both just fine, but agonizing over what you should do is going to keep you distracted. And... Honestly? You could use something fun. You’re graduating soon, and you’ve only ever focused on your plan this whole time. And you definitely looked like you were having fun at the party.”

“Yeah, I was,” he said, slowly smiling, “Thanks, Riza. I think I will.”

[fullmetalgunfire]

Chapter 2 of my gift fic for @blackwolfchimera. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1 (plus explanation)

Everything was bustling around Roy, the students heading in for the first day of class after break, but for once Roy wasn’t paying any attention. He was frowning down at his phone, completely oblivious... He and Ed had texted a few times since New Years Eve, talking about his book, and Roy was itching to ask him if he wanted to meet up somewhere. Maybe after school, if Ed hadn’t transferred to one too far away... He’d forgotten to ask. Forgotten to ask what part of town he’d moved to, so he couldn’t even guess...

He was sure they could figure something out if he did ask, though. He just... Couldn’t decide if it was too soon to or not. Then again, he still had to give him the prize they’d won, so that would probably make a good excuse...

“Roy!”

He had about half a second to jerk his head up at the sound of his other best friend’s voice before he was pulled, sputtering, into a too tight hug. “Hughes, cut it out! I can’t breathe!”

The other boy just pulled back with a laugh, grinning. “Ready for a new semester?”

“Yeah, of course,” he huffed, “When am I not?”

“Mm, well, when do you stand outside of school staring at your phone without moving for five minutes?”

“It hasn’t been that long...” he protested a little weakly, not completely sure of that, as he frowned at his best friend’s grin, “What?”

“Oh, nothing,” Hughes said in a way that indicated it was far from nothing, “How was your break?”

“Fine...”

“Mm, how about that party?”

Roy narrowed his eyes at him. “Same as always...”

“That’s not what I heard!” Hughes said cheerfully, grinning and making Roy groan.

“What did Riza tell you?”

“That you met a cute little blond and had the cutest duet...”

Roy groaned again. “Fuck, you’re going to play matchmaker, aren’t you?”

“Aw, Roy, I’m hurt,” he said, too cheerful to even pass for genuine, “When do I ever?”

“You always do!” Roy exclaimed with a huff, running a hand down his face, “I swear, Hughes, if you try to play matchmaker-”

“Relax, Roy, I’ve got no plans to even try,” he said, patting Roy on the shoulder, “Not yet anyway. Gotta keep you from getting distracted!”

He rolled his eyes. The two of them had had a plan for years, ever since Roy had told him about his dreams of the future, including getting into a really good college. Hughes had immediately pledged his support despite not needing to in the slightest, and was almost more dedicated to it than he was. He definitely talked about keeping Roy focused enough...

“I’m not about to get distracted, Hughes...”

“Good,” he replied, looking at Roy seriously, “It’s the final stretch, Roy. One more semester. Nail the last big game and get the grades...”

“And I’m sure to get in,” he finished with a sigh, repeating what Hughes had told him more times than he could count, “I know. I’m not going to screw it up now.”

“Good,” he repeated, grinning again, “Now tell me more about the cute blond!”

Ed scowled up at the school building, hands shoved deep in his pockets. He hated the first day at a new school... He was itching to take out his phone, check to see if Roy had sent him anything new. They hadn’t talked a ton since New Years Eve, but the conversation had been pretty promising, and it was bound to be more interesting than anything else that would happen to him today. But if he took it out, Al would see, and he’d know, and he’d start teasing Ed about it again. He was already calling Roy his boyfriend, which he wasn’t...

“You’re dying to text him right now, aren’t you?” Al said, walking up beside him.

Ed scowled more. His brother knew him way too well.

“I am not!”

Al giggled, clearly not believing his protest for a moment, following as Ed stormed into the school. “Come on, Ed, don’t get so angry. I’m happy for you. It’s good for you to have a friend... Or, you know, a-”

“If you call him my boyfriend one more time, I’m going to do... Something!  Something you’re not gonna like!” Ed exclaimed, the threat melting at his little brother’s faux innocent face.

“That’s specific,” Al hummed, giving him a smile, “Come on, you know I’m only teasing. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with-”

“Ed! Al!”

Ed whipped around, the two of them almost immediately being all but tackled by a familiar blonde. He stumbled back a little at the impact, laughing. “Hey Winry.”

“Oh, I haven’t seen you in ages!” she exclaimed, pulling back and giving them a slightly sheepish smile, “Sorry I couldn’t make it to the party. I really meant to go...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ed shrugged, “You didn’t miss much.”

“Except Ed getting a boyfriend...”

“Shut up, Al!” Ed said, glaring at his brother, sighing when he noticed the look on Winry’s face, which made it clear she was about to dig for details. “He’s exaggerating.”

“They’ve been texting.”

Winry’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s not like you. You’re not exactly a social butterfly, Ed.”

“I have friends!”

“Yeah, but you don’t just text people,” she huffed, “Or talk to them much at all. When was the last time you called me just to talk, and not because Al made you?”

“We haven’t texted much. He just wanted to know about the book I was reading, tell me about this prize thing...” he said dismissively, trying to pretend he wasn’t blushing at all, “Can you two at least put off the interrogation until later? Class is going to start soon, isn’t it?”

“Not for a little longer,” Winry replied, “But I was going to show you around a bit before class...”

“Great,” Ed said, immediately striding off, latching onto anything that would get the two of them off his back, “Let’s go do that!”

“Hey, if I’m the one showing you around, you can’t just go off without me!” Winry called after him, though she quickly caught up, “At least you’re not hard to catch up to...”

Ed bristled. “Was that some kind of crack about-”

“So,” Al interrupted loudly, obviously trying to prevent them from getting into an argument, “How have things been? Last time I called, you were worrying about a play?”

“Musical,” Winry corrected, “And yeah, still am... I can’t really see a way for it to go well.”

Ed frowned at her. “Wait, what? You’re doing a musical? I didn’t know you were into acting and shit...”

“I’m not,” she huffed, shaking her head, “I’m in the technical theatre class. Sets, sound, lights, that sort of thing... I know I’ve told you that.”

“Oh, right, yeah,” he said, shaking his head, “So what’s the big problem with this musical? Big sets or something?”

“Nothing we cant handle,” she said proudly, “The people in my class are great. And so is Mr. Garfiel, he spends more time with us then with the acting classes.”

“So what’s the problem then?”

“Well... That is, kind of,” she said slowly, “We don’t have that many good actors. I mean, one guy has gotten every lead role the entire time I’ve been here, whether he’s right for it or not, just because he’s the best actor we have. And, well... The girl who wrote the musical we’re doing? She’s his cousin, I guess. Or something. They’re family of some kind, anyway, and they do not get along. At all. It’s going to be a mess...”

“Well, maybe you’ll get lucky,” Al said, giving her an encouraging smile, “Maybe someone new will audition...”

“I doubt it. It wasn’t like the freshmen who auditioned in fall were any better, and the only other new kids are...” her voice slowly trailed off as she eyed the two of them, slowly starting to grin in a way that made Ed groan. She obviously had gotten some idea in her head...

“You guys could audition!” she exclaimed after a moment, “I know it’s not really something you do, but it’d at least give us a chance...”

“I don’t know...” Ed said slowly, making a face, “We’ve really never done anything like that...”

“Well, I don’t know, you kinda have...” Al mused, “The karaoke at the party? That sort of counted...”

“Oh come on, no it doesn’t! I wasn’t acting or anything!”

“You did a bit by the end,” Al shrugged, “And you sounded really good... I mean, you said Roy told you you guys won, right?”

“You did?” Winry said, lighting up and grabbing Ed by the arm, “Oh come on, you have to do it! Please? Just to give us a chance! I really don’t want to deal with the drama if I can avoid it...”

Ed opened his mouth, struggling for an answer, but was saved by the bell.

“Oh, damn it, I have to get to class,” Winry said, dropping his arm and heading off quickly, waving at them, “Sorry, I’ll show you around for real later!”

“Well that was... Something,” Ed said, shaking his head a bit, “Come on, let’s go find our classes...”

It was lucky they’d scoped out where their classes were when they’d been signed up for them, because Ed only just managed to slip into his first class on time. After that, everything became a blur... He’d slip in barely on time, pay enough attention to figure out what was going on, then inevitably tune out when the class ended up too boring or too easy to keep his attention. Rinse and repeat.

The pattern only broke in his last class before lunch, a bland Literature class he had no real interest in. He was just staring at the clock, trying to will it to go faster so he could get some food, when his pocket started vibrating.

Ed’s attention jerked down, eyes wide. Why the hell was his phone going off? He was lucky he’d set it to vibrate... His eyes darted over to the front of the classroom, checking that the teacher was preoccupied, before he slipped the phone out of his pocket under the cover of his desk. He wasn’t going to read it or anything, just check to see who it was, make sure it wasn’t likely to be an emergency...

He stared when he glanced down and say Roy’s name flash on the screen.

What the hell? Wasn’t he in school too by now? Ed distractedly slipped it back in his pocket, frowning at nothing. What could Roy possibly be texting him in the middle of school for?

A movement on the other side of the room caught his attention, one of the other students quickly whipping around in his seat when the teacher’s back was turned. One with familiar dark hair and...

Ed’s jaw almost dropped as Roy managed to catch his eye, promptly grinning like an idiot at him before turning back around, apparently satisfied for the moment. Ed stared at the back of his head for several minutes as he processed the coincidence before finally shaking it off. He... Really wished they sat closer together, so he could whisper or pass a note or something. As it was, he was determined to talk to Roy the second class was over.

Lunch couldn’t come soon enough, but when it did, Roy beat him to the punch.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” he said the second they caught up to each other outside the classroom door, still grinning like a totally-not-adorable dork.

“I can’t believe you’re in the same class as me,” Ed replied, making a face, “Aren’t you a senior?”

“Pretty sure most of the class are seniors, but that’s beside the point,” Roy said dismissively, “Why didn’t you say you’d be going to the same school as me?”

“Probably because I didn’t know what school you’d be going to...” he said, giving him a look.

“Oh, right,” Roy said with a sheepish little laugh, “I can’t believe it, though. I mean... Is it weird to say I’m really happy to see you?”

“Nah,” Ed replied, starting to smile at him, “I am too. You’re the most interesting person I’ve run into for awhile...”

“Well... Thanks, I guess. I try,” he said, “So, uh... Has anyone shown you around yet? It’s lunch, I could a bit...”

“Well, Winry was going to...”

“Winry?”

“Girl we grew up with,” Ed explained, “She’s stayed here the whole time, so... But I guess she probably wouldn’t mind if you showed me around a little. Less work for her, right?”

“I guess,” Roy replied, grinning and pausing for a moment before jokingly offering his arm, “Shall we?”

Ed snorted and rolled his eyes, shoving his shoulder before setting off down the hall.

They walked around for a bit, Roy pointing out a few places... It was mostly basics, the kind of stuff Ed had already put together as he’d been looking for his classes. He didn’t mention that, though, and he figured Roy already knew anyway... Really, showing him around was more an excuse for them to just talk a bit.

Still, it wasn’t like there wasn’t any useful information...

“This is sort of the school’s main bulletin board,” Roy explained as they passed a wall covered in home printed posters and other notes, “Its mostly the same stuff as any other board around the school, but it’ll definitely always have everything, so it’s good to check. They also usually put sign up sheets here instead of all over... And people will slip in stuff that hasn’t been approved by the school. It’s so chaotic around here that it’s got the best chance of not getting noticed right away...”

“All good to know, I guess,” Ed said with a bit of a laugh as he skimmed the papers, pausing as his eyes fell on a particular sign up sheet. “Oh hey. The musical...”

“Musical?” Roy said, giving him a surprised glance, “You... Were looking to join in on the theatre program?”

“Not really...” Ed said, shaking his head, “It’s more just... Winry’s involved, like with the sets and shit, and she tried to get me to promise to audition. Some sort of drama she wants to avoid...”

“Oh,” Roy said, face going... Oddly unreadable, “And are you planning on giving in to her request?”

“More a demand than a request,” he snorted, going quiet for a long moment, “I don’t know, maybe. It’d be different than the kinds of things I normally do... Could be fun.”

“Yeah, it could be...” Roy said with a bit of a sigh, eyeing the sign up sheet thoughtfully, “Like the karaoke...”

“Yeah,” Ed said, giving him a bit of a smile, then cursing, “Shit, we’ve probably wasted most of lunch by now...”

“We’ve still got time, but yeah, we ought to go,” Roy said, hesitating before adding, “Do you want to come sit with me? I’m sure there’s room...”

“Nah, I should probably go find Al and Winry...” he replied, shaking his head with genuine regret. He didn’t exactly want to cut the conversation short... “They’re probably wondering where I am... I mean, unless you want to come sit with us?”

“No, it’s alright, I don’t want to intrude,” Roy replied, shaking his head, “My best friend is probably going to want to talk my ear off about basketball or something, anyway. I’ll... see you later?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Ed said with a grin, “Hey, bring those gift cards tomorrow! I want the bookstore one!”

“I want the bookstore one...”

“Well, I’ll fight you for it,” Ed laughed, giving Roy a half wave as he headed off to find his brother and old friend.

[fullmetalgunfire]

Happy New Year, @blackwolfchimera!

So one of the times I was poking around your blog, I stumbled on a High School Musical related post, and I was... A little surprised how well that works as an AU. So I wrote a fic, which isn’t my usual thing, but seemed like the best way to do it so I went for it. And Eurydice helped me a little with the editing, so hopefully it’s not too rough...

And yeah, one of the reasons I waited to start posting this was because I could not resist posting this chapter on New Years Eve. XD

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! I’ll be posting a chapter a day from here on out (right now it’ll probably be eight chapters, because I’m apparently incapable of doing anything short). And uh, warning for cursing, I guess? I mean, it’s mostly Ed, so I figure that’s expected, but...

(Ship information for everybody else: Mainly Roy/Ed, and in the later chapters some mention of Roy/Riza (in an old crush that didn’t go anywhere sense) as part of a plot point, and some very background Al/Mei)

- Erin

“Seriously?”

Ed blinked, glancing up from his book to his brother, standing with his arms crossed and a disapproving frown on his face, backlit by the party lights behind him.

“What?”

“You’re seriously reading right now? At a party?”

“Since when is that new?” he snorted, rolling his eyes a bit, “Come on, this one’s actually interesting. I don’t even know why you dragged me to this stupid party...”

“It’s New Years, we should be social, and this place is popular,” Al shrugged.

“The bar is popular,” Ed pointed out, gesturing toward the stairs, where downstairs one of the most popular New Years parties for adults was going on, “This is just to keep the kids who’s parents cant think of something more family friendly occupied. And why do we need to be social, anyway? I don’t know anyone here!”

“Well, Winry was supposed to meet us here, but she got busy...” Al sighed, “But that’s kind of the point. We just moved into town, we should get to know other kids our age around here, right?”

Ed gave him a look. “Moved back into town, you mean. I don’t think we need to meet the neighbors when we used to live here.”

“In a completely different part of town. When we were kids,” Al huffed, raising his eyebrows at him, “Who do you even remember?”

Ed opened his mouth to answer.

“Besides Winry.”

Ed promptly shut his mouth again and scowled at his brother, who just looked triumphant.

“See?” he said, grinning, “Come on, make some friends. There’s all these activities, even this sort of karaoke contest thing... It’ll be fun! You can read more when we get home...”

“Not interested, Al,” he huffed, going back to his book, “You go make friends or whatever, I don’t care about that shit.”

Al huffed and went silent for a moment, eyeing him. “If you stop reading for a few minutes we can go home early?”

Ed didn’t take the bait, not looking up from his book. “I’m good where I am.”

Al just huffed again, and Ed completely ignored him. Which meant he didn’t notice how Al’s eyes fell on the sign up table for the karaoke contest, his eyes lighting up with an idea.

“I’ll be back, I’m not letting you read all night,” he warned before heading off, Ed too absorbed in his book again to notice.

“I never want to come to this party ever again.”

“Oh come on, Roy, it’s not that bad,” Riza said mildly, barely even looking away from her phone to take in how Roy had flopped in the chair beside her, rolling her eyes a bit at his dramatics.

“I have been to this party... Every single year... Since I was ten,” Roy said, giving her a look but not moving from his sprawl. His aunt was the one who owned the bar, and ever since he had started living with her... “It’s exactly the same. Every. Single. Year. Tell me that I don’t have a reason for being sick of it.”

“Karaoke’s new,” she replied, finishing whatever it was she’d been doing and putting her phone away.

“What are you talking about, we always have Karaoke,” Roy said, frowning at her, then at the table. Vanessa, one of his aunt’s girls and therefore his honorary sister, caught him looking and waved to him with a smile.

“She’s running it differently this year,” Riza hummed, “I didn’t catch the details, but there’s some sort of contest. With a prize.”

“Huh,” he said, eyeing the table curiously for a moment before standing and heading over. “Good evening Vanessa...”

“Hey Roy,” she laughed, amused by his flirtatious tone... He’d been doing it ever since he figured out what flirting was, and they were both well aware what a joke it was by then. “Are you going to sign up this year?”

“Depends,” he hummed, watching as a short haired blond boy he didn’t recognize came up and scribbled down a name, “Riza said you made it a contest?”

“Yeah... Going to pair people up and chose a duet for them to perform, then everybody can vote on who was their favorite,” she said, grinning and holding up a pair of gift cards, “Winners each get to pick one of these two gift cards. 25 each.”

Roy eyed them, definitely starting to get interested. One was for a craft store, which he couldn’t care less about, but the other was for a bookstore and... Well, there were several he’d been eyeing for ages but hadn’t really had the money to spare.

But then he thought about it, and frowned. “Wait, you seriously spent 50 dollars just to make this a contest?”

“Well, someone did,” she shrugged, laughing at his confusion, “I’m regifting. I’m not going to use them, so...”

“Right...” he chuckled, eyeing them still.

“Going to join in, then?” she said, looking at him knowingly. He wouldn’t be surprised if she’d included the one gift card purely to tempt him into signing up. And he was tempted. But he never really sang in front of strangers, or anyone really, and it wasn’t like he’d never have the money...

“You should do it,” Riza said from right behind him.

Roy promptly jumped, then glared at her, which she just looked amused by. She always did that when he was distracted... “You’re a damn ninja, Hawkeye,” he huffed, rolling his eyes and shaking off the mild annoyance at his friend, “I don’t know, I hardly sing...”

“So? Think anyone else here does?” she shrugged, then smirked, “I dare you to.”

Roy sighed. She knew him entirely too well... He hated backing down from a dare.

“Alright, fine,” he said, reaching over to the sign up sheet, glancing at the instruction to try to keep the two columns even, then scribbled his name in the shorter of the two without looking any further, “But if I embarrass myself, I’m blaming you.”

Vanessa got the contest started just a few minutes later, starting to call people up, apparently one person from each column at a time. Which led to some... Interesting matchups. Roy didn’t pay much attention to the duets, though, just wandering around the room (Riza was busy again... A friend of hers was apparently having a minor crisis of some kind) and trying to occupy himself before his turn came up.

He ended up in the corner by the drinks table, where another blond he didn’t recognize was holed up with a thick book. He was... A little bit jealous, honestly. Reading seemed much more appealing then this party... He was about to ask the other boy about it, when that same blond he’d spotted earlier at the sign up table came up to the other boy.

“Still reading?” he said with a sigh.

“Yeah,” the other one replied, looking up, “Told you I don’t care about this stupid party, Al... We going home soon?”

“Yeah, we have to soon, though-”

Roy didn’t hear the rest of the statement, Vanessa’s voice calling over the speaker. “Alright, let’s get our next duo up here. We’ve got...” Roy, who was watching her now, saw her grin almost deviously. “Roy Mustang and... Edward Elric.”

Roy groaned a little, wondering what she was planning to do to him, but the thought was quickly pushed out of his head by the exclamation beside him.

“What the fuck?!”

The boy who’d been reading dropped his book and practically jumping to his feet, clearly surprised by the announcement. Roy wondered for half a second how he could be, since he would have had to sign up, before the other one, Al apparently, tried and failed to suppress a laugh. Well. That would explain it...

Edward, apparently, put it together just as fast, because he rounded on Al, looking furious. “You signed me up behind my back? What the fuck, Al?!”

Roy cringed, and headed for the makeshift stage, not sticking around for the response. Al seemed to be trying to placate him somehow, but Roy had a feeling this duet wasn’t going to go well. Still, he was going to show up, because he wasn’t going to give Riza any reason to tease him for backing out of a dare.

He was a little surprised when Ed trudged up there a couple moments after him, arms crossed and fuming. He glanced over at Vanessa, hoping she might show mercy on him, but judging from the look on her face he wasn’t going to have any such luck.

This wasn’t just not going to go well, it was going to be a disaster.

“Roy, you’ll be singer one,” Vanessa explained to them, still grinning deviously, “And... Edward? You’ll be singer two. And the song you’ll be singing is...”

Vanessa hit a few buttons, calling up whatever song she had picked, and Roy looked over to the screen, almost immediately groaning when he saw the text on display and the song started to play.

You’re The One That I Want - Grease

He was going to kill Vanessa later. Yeah sure, he secretly liked the movie (one of the girls had shown it to him because she loved it, he’d grown fond of it) and the song was fun, and he’d normally love a chance to do something a bit flirty with someone cute (and this Edward was indeed cute, and exactly his type, and Vanessa would know it too, damn her), but now was not the time. Especially with how Edward had just started scowling more even before she’d announced the song...

Still, he was going to do his bit, even if it fell apart after. So when the words came up on screen, he sang, and while he didn’t try to have fun with it or anything he didn’t think he sounded half bad.

He half expected Edward to just refuse to sing, and made a small move to step away from the mic, but to his surprise the other boy started singing his part without any hesitation. A great deal of reluctance, sure, and he still seemed pissed, but no hesitance. And he sounded good, too.

Roy almost missed his next lines with his surprise, but he managed to hit them just fine.

Then they started to sing together, and... It actually sounded pretty damn good. Better than that, even. Maybe even great... Edward started to relax a little, and even smiled a bit when he glanced over and noticed the way Roy was grinning. Or maybe it was just because the song was so fun. Whatever it was, he seemed to be slowly getting into it.

When he hit his next verse, he even got a little playful with it, getting just a bit suggestive with the way he moved. Roy immediately gave him an over the top reaction to that, making the other boy burst out laughing. He almost expected him to miss his next line completely, he was laughing so much, but he just barely raised the mic in time to sing along, laughter still in his voice.

By the time they were done with the song, they weren’t even looking at the screens anymore, just grinning at each other and even dancing a bit on the makeshift stage, not paying any attention to the rest of the room.

“Well, I think we’ve definitely got a contender for the best duet of the night,” Vanessa said over the speaker, and the outside world came crashing in.

Roy couldn’t stop smiling, though, as he stepped away from the makeshift stage. Edward couldn’t seem to either, following him with a laugh.

“That was way more fun than I thought it’d be,” he admitted, grinning at Roy, “You sounded way better than most of the people tonight. I’ve been trying to tune them out, seriously, it sucked. You sing at all? Like in a band or something?”

“Not unless you count in the shower,” he snorted, “But I try. What about you... Edward, right?”

He promptly made a face. Well, maybe that was part of the reason he’d been scowling so much... “Ed. Call me Ed. Seriously, no one calls me Edward. Unless they’re mad at me.”

“Ed then,” he chuckled, “But seriously, what about you? You sounded better than me.”

“Al and I used to do these sing alongs with our mom when we were little,” he replied with a shrug, “Guess it stuck.”

“Your brother, I’m guessing? The one that snuck you into the contest?”

“Guess I was a bit loud about that, wasn’t I?” he said with a bit of a laugh, “Yeah, he was trying to get me to be social. I was going to kill him for that, but...”

“You had too much fun?”

“Don’t ever tell him I admitted that.”

“Promise,” Roy replied with a laugh of his own, “Is there a reason he wanted you to be social? Or is he one of those it’s rude to read at a party types?”

“You saw the book, too?”

Roy hummed and nodded. “I was a bit jealous. Looked interesting.”

Ed perked up. “You like chemistry?”

“Always liked science, those classes are usually some of my better subjects,” he replied, grinning, “You didn’t answer my question, though.”

“Wait, what question again?”

“If there was a reason he wanted you to be social, or if he just thought it was rude.”

“Oh, right,” Ed said, suddenly looking hesitant, “The first one. I mean, knowing Al it’s probably a bit of both, but definitely the first one. He thinks I need to make friends since we moved back here.”

“Well, that explains why I’ve never seen you at this party before...” Roy hummed, eyeing him with a small frown, “Moved back here?”

“Yeah. Used to live here when we were little, before our mom...” he started, looking a little uncomfortable before he cleared his throat, “Yeah. But we just got a new foster family so we’re back. Different part of town, though.”

“Oh,” he said, feeling a little uncomfortable himself. He’d clearly stumbled across a sensitive subject... He tried to think of what to say to make it better, but before he could Al came up to them, looking sheepish.

“Hey, Ed? We really ought to go back home...”

“Oh, right...” Ed said, giving Roy a weaker smile than before, “Nice talking to you?”

“Yeah, it was,” Roy replied as Ed started to walk away, “Hey, wait, can I give you my number? Maybe we could text about that book you were reading...”

Ed perked up at that, eagerly grabbing Roy’s phone out of his hand and handing over his own as they quickly added each other to their contacts.

Moments later, as he watched the brothers walk away (trying to ignore the way that the muted lighting made the elder Elric’s hair almost glitter), he felt a tap on his shoulder. Speaking of blonds…

“Hey, Riza.”

“You looked like you were having fun up there,” she said, trying not to smirk at him,  “Glad I made you sign up after all?”

“Actually... Yeah,” he said with a small smile of his own, “I really only did it because you dared me, but it really was fun. I’m pretty sure Vanessa was seriously messing with me though.”

“With that song? Oh yeah,” she snorted, shaking her head. “You wanna go?”

“Yeah, lets-”

“-the winners of our New Year’s Karaoke Contest are…Edward Elric and Roy Mustang!”

Roy gaped, his eyes widening at the announcement.  He stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do, when he felt Riza elbow him lightly in the ribs.  “What…?”

“Go get your prizes, dumbass.” She laughed softly, shaking her head. “And don’t pick between them yourself, talk to that guy first. Gives you something to text him about...”

“Honestly I think we’re just going to end up fighting over the one for the bookstore,” he said with a bit of a laugh, heading up to the front to grab the gift cards. Regardless of the outcome, though, he was glad for another excuse to talk to him. They’d probably have to meet up for him to give Ed his prize... He grinned as he pocketed the two cards. This was going to be great.

[fullmetalgunfire]

Ah, I’m sorry, I only just got a chance to actually say something! But I read this before I went to bed last night, and I absolutely love it! AUs are my jam, seriously, any and all of them. And I’m glad you got an excuse to write something you’ve wanted to, I love when that happens... Anyway, thank you! ^^ -Erin

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang Characters: Edward Elric, Roy Mustang, Jean Havoc Additional Tags: Loveless!AU, Jean/Riza in the background Summary:

When Ed walked into the office, he still had that tiny hope that maybe his co-workers could be adults and just… ignore the fact that he no longer had those stupid cat ears on. And good riddance to that tail, too.

Time for me to post my gift for my FMA Secret Santa ~ @fullmetalgunfire​ this is for you <3 Hope you had a great chrsitams, and wishing you an even better new year!! 

You said you liked AUs and actually I had this thing going on it my head I’ve been wanting to write in FOREVER so… hehe… there you go!

I hope you will enjoy it <3

Keep reading

[fullmetalgunfire]

So, uh... Finally finished my gift for @xyriath for the RoyEd Gift Exchange! I gotta say I was absolutely flailing with excitement over which AU to pick for this before I ended up settling on this Vaguely Historical* Sort Of Fantasy Royalty AU. Featuring Roy being ridiculous courtly and romantic.

Sorry it took me so long, I wanted it done days ago but I had some issues getting the shading even close to right... I’ve been second guessing a lot of my decisions on this, honestly, and I’m not really satisfied with how it came out, but I hope you like it anyway? ^^;; I’ll probably doodle some kind of bonus in the next couple days if I don’t get busy with something again...

* Only vaguely historical because Erin does not have the background knowledge to make accurate decisions here and was very confused by her research. In hindsight making this some sort of early 1800s AU probably would have worked out better...

[fullmetalgunfire]

Supernatural AU - Angel!Roy and Riza

FMA Secret Santa Bonus Gift for @blackwolfchimera. Ed and Al.