Chapter Text
Six months have passed since Ed's defeat of Father.
His injuries healed up nicely in the first month. As expected, only the ones on his face, neck and stomach had scarred and all to varying degrees. He wasn't allowed to leave his hospital bed at all for the first few days. For the next week or so after that he was only allowed to leave his bed to go to the bathroom, so Ed had to wait to send the rest of the Souls to Truth.
But two weeks after The Defeat, he managed to do it. Getting Al to bring Hohenheim to the hospital so he could return all the Souls he was forcibly given to Truth. Even managing to get Truth to leave him with a few more years of life so Al could get to know his dad this time around. After Hohenheim's Souls were dealt with that left only the Souls under Amestris. Which he sent to Truth by asking them to converge in to a stone first. Explaining to all those Souls that it would be easier to make sure they all get sent through together if Ed only had one object to focus on and not a whole country.
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Upon returning the last Xerxean Souls to Truth, they held out their hand for Ed. Explaining that their deal is completed. "Take my hand again and I will remove my mark from you."
Ed had looked down at his shoulder, where the mark lays, before shaking his head. "I'd rather keep it. I know our deal is complete, but I will hopefully never have reason to open my Gate again."
Truth seemed to understand what Ed meant and lowered their hand. "Very well. If you wish to be marked by me forever, that is your choice. May you never set foot in my domain again, Golden Sun."
As the Gate had opened behind Ed, he smiled at Truth. "May you never call me to your domain again, Truth."
They had both grinned at each other in goodbye as Ed was pulled through his Gate for the final time.
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Al barely left his brother's side for the whole first month after the Defeat. Which truly, Ed was okay with. After having Al live with other people under a different name, Ed didn't mind how his brother was with him six days a week. Spending each Monday with their dad instead.
A month after The Defeat, Ed confronted his brother.
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They're sat in Ed's apartment having just finished their dinner. "Al, I love you, you know I do. But I don't want you to feel like you need to make up for lost time okay? I know you want to get to know Hohenheim properly, which I'm sure is hard to do if you spend every day except one with me."
Al stares at his brother for a second. "You won't go anywhere? Won't leave me behind?"
Immediately, Ed shakes his head in response. "I'm not going anywhere Al, I promise. And if the urge to go travelling hits me I will tell you."
For a few seconds, Al doesn't respond, but he slowly nods his head in understanding. "I did want to see the ruins you mentioned. The Xerxes ruins. Maybe I could ask dad to go with me?"
Ed smiles at him. "Make sure you take lots of water with you and wear white, but other than that yeah. I'm sure Hohenheim will agree to go with you."
The next day, Al and Hohenheim are setting off on a trip halfway across the desert to see the ruins of Xerxes.
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By the second month, Ed and Roy had finished dancing around their feelings. Ed still felt a little guilty about being in a relationship with Roy some days. But Ed knew that it was just because he was used to grouping his feelings for Roy with betrayal of his partner. But those days came to an end by the end of the second month.
Meaning that by the third month after The Defeat, Ed and Roy are happy in their relationship. They began finding out new things about each other that month. Not big things. Even only a month in to their relationship there weren't many big, important things about the other that they didn't already know, but there were plenty of small things to learn. Like how Ed enjoys coffee and always has one first thing in the morning when possible, while Roy prefers tea over coffee.
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Ed wakes up in Roy's bed at half six on a Wednesday morning. Roy is still asleep beside him, but once Ed is awake it's almost impossible for him to go back to sleep. So after stretching out his sleep stiff limbs, he climbs out of the bed. Ignoring the early morning chill that bites in to his bare foot, Ed makes his way out of the bedroom to the kitchen. Pulling down two mugs he throws some pre-ground coffee in to one of the mugs before filling the kettle and putting it on to boil. While the water boils, Ed opens the cupboard back up and rummages through it until he finds the box of ginger tea near the back of the cupboard.
Dropping a tea bag in to the empty mug, Ed then reaches for the honey. He won't add any lemon because Roy isn't a big fan of the taste of it. Once the water has boiled, Ed empties it in to the two mugs. As Ed waits for the tea to steep he adds a little bit of milk to his own drink and takes a couple of sips.
Once Ed has drank half of his coffee, he sets it down and takes out the tea bag from Roy's mug. After adding a bit of honey to the mug, Ed stirs it three times before heading out of the kitchen to go wake Roy.
Roy is starting to wake up when Ed opens the door to his bedroom, and he looks up at the door as Ed steps through. "You woke up before me for once."
Ed hums in acknowledgement and steps closer to the bed, pulling the covers off of Roy. "I made you tea as well, so you better get up quickly or it'll go cold." Roy smiles softly at Ed before climbing out of his bed.
Back in the kitchen, Ed picks his mug of coffee back up to finish it off. Roy follows after him and takes a few sips of his tea before smiling at Ed. "It's perfect, Ed. Thank you." He leans in to give Ed a quick kiss before he returns to drinking his tea.
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Months four and five passed quickly and quietly without much happening. Al took off on another trip to visit Mei in Xing (Ed was happy to see them getting to know each other again). They weren't quite there yet, but Ed could see that they were getting closer to each other. Closer to what they were to each other last time. But other than that trip, nothing else happened. Grumman was still making the most of being Fuhrer before he handed the position to Roy upon his retirement.
~~~~~~
Which brings us up to date. Six months after The Defeat, Grumman resigned at the start of the month, leaving Roy to take up the position. Six months after The Defeat and Roy has slowly but steadily been repairing relations with Ishval. Drawing up documents to legally give them back their holy land. Allowing them to return home instead of living on the outskirts of Amestris.
Ed is currently sat in Roy's library waiting for the man to get home. They didn't technically live together. But Ed slept in Roy's bed more nights than not and all of his mail got delivered to the mans house. He even has a key to the door, but they've not actually talked about it yet. It just happened and it made more sense to make this Ed's address and give him a key. Tomorrow is a rare full day off for Roy. By which Ed means that Roy has promised he has no work to do tomorrow. Not that Ed is any better. He does Alchemy research in either Roy's library or Central's while Roy drafts up new documents. But both of them promised not to do any work tomorrow and just spend the day together.
Which more than likely just means that they're going to stay in Roy's house all day and read different books in the same room. But Ed's more than happy with that. Roy has only been Fuhrer for two weeks and already his life has gotten so much more hectic. They could both do with a day to actually relax.
Roy doesn't get back home until Ed has called it a night. Which should tell you something about how late Roy got home. So when Ed wakes up in the morning to Roy standing above him with a mug of tea in one hand and offering him his own mug full of coffee, he takes it from him with a smile, still half asleep. He never did get good at waking up quickly without some kind of emergency.
After taking a few sips, Ed pulls the covers back and gets up. He may not be good at waking up but Ed hates just sitting in bed once he is awake. Roy just takes a step back to let him get up. "Morning Shining."
Ed looks up at him with a roll of his eyes. "Morning Fuhrer Bastard."
Unable to help himself, Roy rolls his own eyes at Ed in response. "You don't have to insult me every time you know."
Standing up from the bed, Ed pokes Roy in the hip. "It's a term of endearment I promise. You know I'm not a fan of pet names."
Roy smirks at him. "I know, love." Ed grumbles at Roy as a small blush fights it's way on to his cheeks.
Making his way out of the bedroom Ed brushes past Roy. "Bastard." Roy just smiles at Ed as he follows him down the stairs.
Placing his mug on the counter, Ed opens up the fridge to check on their food situation. Roy is a pretty terrible cook so he never really buys proper ingredients. Ed's ended up taking on the shopping as one of his tasks because he knows Roy would half ass it.
Sitting down at the counter Roy gets comfy as Ed starts padding about the kitchen. The tap-clink, tap-clink of Ed's footsteps calming to listen to. "I just remembered something." Ed tilts his head slightly in his direction even as he reaches for the pan. "You never told me what your original moniker was. You said you'd tell me when everything was over."
Placing the pan on the hob, Ed rests his hand on the gas switch before turning fully to Roy. "It doesn't matter much to me any more." But he pads over to the counter none the less.
Tap-clink. Tap-clink.
He stands opposite Roy at the counter. "But it was Fullmetal. Because of my automail, I had a metal arm and leg last time. But like I said, it doesn't matter to me anymore. I like this one."
Roy stares at him for a second, unusually vulnerable. "Yeah?"
Ed catches on and nods his head. "Yeah. I'm happy here. I'm happy being the Shining Blood Alchemist and I'm happy with you." He leans across the counter to kiss Roy, pulling back after just a second. Roy smiles at him as he starts to lean back before pulling him back in for another kiss. "I love you. I don't love you because of him, I love you because of you."
An unusually soft smile forms on Roy's face. "I love you too, Ed. My Shining Blood."