The Un-fic

Reviewer Thank-yous: Thank you to all of my reviewers, Lilith, chelzi, hikaru9, Amethyst-eyed Koneko, cm34, SadlerGirl, Batman Yaoi, Affie and Rysha, Lucian, Nusku, ravensfrost, vexed wench, and KareNeko.

Unconditional

Ed woke up early that morning, well, early for him. He could smell bacon cooking downstairs, and thought that there was no point in sleeping when he could be eating. He stretched languidly, taking over more than half of the double bed he shared with his lover. He climbed out from beneath the covers, trying to find the discarded underwear that had been hastily removed the night before. As much as Ed knew that the other man liked seeing him in the nude, he didn’t relish the idea of hot bacon grease on his bare crotch. So regardless of his lover’s wishes, he would not be going down to breakfast wearing nothing but a smile.

Finally finding his clothes, the twenty-one-year-old got dressed and opened the bedroom door with a yawn.

He could hear singing, or rather humming, coming from the kitchen, and Ed smiled to himself at how off-key the melody was. He knew Al was coming for a visit today and wondered what he would think if he was coming in on that, because Maes was most likely standing, humming while in only his underwear and an apron. Al was over fairly often and had, unfortunately, witnessed things far worse; all of which, Ed and Al regretted he’d seen.

Ed went down the stairs and into the kitchen to find Maes dressed exactly as he’d expected, in an apron, undershirt and pair of briefs.

He quietly made his way stand behind his taller lover. “You’ll burn yourself, cooking like that.”

Maes grinned and turned around. “At least I put some clothes on, considering how we went to sleep last night.”

“Yeah, well enjoy it now, because with Elysia coming tomorrow, I’m not planning on doing that for a while.” He wrapped his arms around Maes. “Your daughter has the worst possible timing when she decides she needs something.”

Ed grimaced at memories of the nine-year-old walking in on what had very nearly been sex between him and her father. Maes, however, was chuckling above him.

“She nearly walked in on us,” Ed said, the faintest hint of a whine in his voice. “We could have scarred her for life.”

Maes just laughed again. “No more than Gracia and Roy. She walked in on them doing more than you and me.”

Ed shook his head. “Poor, poor girl.”

“I know,” Maes said. “But she just thought they were doing a lot of hugging under the blankets.” He pulled away from Ed to turn the bacon.

“You know, when Roy joked he was going to steal your wife, I could hardly have imagined he meant it. Ed walked over to his lover’s side and pulled a piece of the already-cooked bacon from a table there.

“That’s supposed to go in our omelets, you know,” Maes said.

Ed took a bite and grinned up at him. “You can make more.”

Maes rolled his eyes and shook his head. “You want to get the table ready?”

The younger man went to the cupboards and opened them to find the plates, then opened the drawer for silverware. Maes finished with the bacon and started making the omelets while Ed grabbed some drinks for them both. Ed never would have considered himself being part of such a domestic house, but yet, with Maes, he really couldn’t imagine anything else. Maes was the epitome of domestic, and Ed wouldn’t have his lover any other way.

Ed glanced at the newspaper laying on the table, seeing an ad for Rockbell Automail on the front. There was the slightest pang of regret, knowing he'd hardly spoken to Auntie in ages and hadn't said word one to Winry in years. Things just weren't the same, would probably never be. Much to his disappointment, understanding as Auntie Pinako had been, she still obviously waited for him to get over this "phase" of homosexuality.

The older man had finished with the eggs, and then turned to the table to put the two omelets on their plates. He put a hand on Ed's shoulder and squeezed gently; even if it was the world against them, Ed knew he had Maes, who currently was smiling at Ed as they sat down together.

“Well, I have to say I’m grateful that your appetite has slowed itself down over the years. I could never have afforded to keep you the way you used to eat.”

“Keep me?” Ed said with a smile. “What the hell are you talking about? I’m a lieutenant colonel now. I make more than enough to keep myself.”

Maes just chuckled and started eating.

Things were good between them, though it had taken some time for both to open up to the other entirely. Ed nearly shuddered at how close he’d come to losing Maes. And it would have all been because they didn’t tell one another what they were doing. If he hadn’t seen some of his lover’s research on the homunculi, he might never have realized who Sloth was or that she had it out for the investigative officer.

“So, how is Gracia doing?” Ed asked Maes. “You talked to her last night, didn’t you?”

“She’s doing okay, though apparently Roy’s a nervous wreck,” Maes said. “I think he’s just worried because of the miscarriage.”

“But that’s been years,” Ed said. "And she had Elysia."

“I know,” Maes said. “Speaking of which, we’re going to have to get dressed. Between your brother coming over and Elysia later, we shouldn’t be standing around in our underwear.”

Ed chuckled. “I really doubt anyone’s going to want to see us like this.”

“Particularly Marta.” Maes had finished his food. “Al is still bringing her, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” Ed said. “You know, for how weird he sometimes is about our age difference, he doesn’t seem to have any issue about dating someone about the same age as you."

“And he’s a year younger,” Maes added, standing from the table. “Let’s get changed, then we can go ahead and do the dishes.”

Ed nodded and took his lover’s hand as he went upstairs. They had only just reached the landing when Maes came up behind him. The older man wrapped his arms around Ed and swung him around, making Ed let out an embarrassing sound of surprise.

“Damn it! Don’t do that,” Ed said, wheeling around as Maes set him back to his feet.

“But I like doing it,” his lover said, smirking down at him. “Can I help it if it’s nice that I can actually lift you now?”

“You’re a goof, you know that?” Ed said, walking ahead of him into the bedroom.

“I am more than aware. You inform me of that nearly every day.” Maes followed him in, and they both went about the normal routine of finding something to wear.

Ed was in the middle of dressing as he looked over at the dark-haired man with a smile, but spotted the bullet wound in his shoulder and winced.

“You still can’t look at it?” Maes said, looking over at the thing. “I have a few dozen scars on my body, and that’s the one you still can’t look at?”

“I’m getting better,” Ed said, looking away as he pulled on new underwear and pants.

Maes was fastening his own pants as he made his way to the bed, patting a spot beside him. It was a clear indication he wanted Ed at his side.

“You still are having dreams?”

“Nightmares,” Ed corrected. “My mind just keeps thinking what might have happened if we hadn’t trusted one another enough to talk. We nearly didn’t, you know. If you hadn’t let me and Roy know what was going on so that we could help you with Envy... I don't want to think about that."

"But you were there, and I just got shot in my arm, Ed." Maes turned on the bed to face him.

"I know. Those aren't the only ones I have," Ed said, with a flat chuckle. "I mean, I've got a lifetime of things to relive and have nightmares about. It's just those ones, where you and I didn't tell one another everything that make me sick. I mean, I see you shot in the heart in them. Sometimes, I'm not even there to try to stop it."

Maes took Ed's hands in his and rubbed his own over them. "I know."

And really, he did. More than once, the older man had helped him after a terrible nightmare, holding him closely until the worst of it had passed.

"If I might have told you sooner about the homunculi, you might never have been in that situation.” Ed said that, hitting on what was probably the truth of the situation and the cause for his dreams.

Ed folded his hands in his lap and sighed.

“Ed,” Maes said, grabbing both of Ed’s shoulders, his hand over the fox scar on the blond’s right arm. “You can’t play the guilt game anymore. Are you just so used to feeling guilty about something that you can’t just accept that things turned out okay? I’m here. You’re here, finally in one piece. Al got his body back and I swear he’s going to be marrying Marta any day now, judging by how head-over-heels he is for her. Hell, Marta’s here despite Bradley’s best efforts. Roy and Gracia are together and expecting a little niece for you and me. Where is this guilt coming from?”

Ed sighed. “I don’t know. I think I breathe it like air. If it’s not there I start to suffocate.” He chuckled defeatedly as Maes pulled him closer and held him for a moment.

Finally, the wave of regret that had come over Ed ebbed and he looked up at the older man. “I have to ask, is Maes Hughes as obnoxious as an uncle as he was as a father? Am I going to have to hide his camera?” He smirked.

“You’d never find them all,” Maes responded with a quick kiss to Ed’s lips.

“That wasn’t an answer, you know,” Ed said, pushing his lover down onto the bed.

“It’s as good as you’re going to get. I’ve never been an uncle before.”

Ed began trailing a finger over Maes’s chest. “So are you going to tell me where I can find those obnoxious little cameras of yours?”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” he said, running a hand over the blond’s back.

“I’m very good at persuasion,” the younger man responded, kissing Maes fully on the lips.

Dressing, even if just up to their waists had been a futile effort, because, with Ed in the position he was in, straddling Maes, it wasn’t long before both were grinding against one another. It was certain neither would make it to actually manage the long process of getting clothes off, deciding which of them would top—though it would probably be Maes, as he preferred the roll of the one pampering the other—and getting the bottom prepared.

Their kisses were heated, and for every moment that one mouth left the other, it found a place on the body opposite to mark. There was no doubt they’d both be sporting turtlenecks when Al came to visit. Their hands rubbed and caressed tough, scarred skin, the skin of a military man, of a man with experience. All the while their hips sought friction against the other’s, their bodies begging for release.

Ed was close, and he could feel it as every muscle in his body prepared itself for that wonderful moment when he would cry out his lover’s name at the top of his lungs. He lost all consideration of how thin the walls were and the fact that his brother sometimes walked into the house unannounced, instead reveling in the sensations rocking through his body at this moment.

Maes, too, cried out, though he had far more restraint than the blond, biting his lower lip to keep from screaming too loudly and somehow failing miserably.

Bonelessly, Ed rolled over onto their bed and off the man. “Nice to know I can still make you scream like that.”

“You just like to have your ego stroked,” Maes said. “You’re as bad as Roy.

“First of all, I like other things stroked too. Second of all, that’s an insult, and take it back.”

Maes just chucked, kissing Ed on the cheek as he stood. “Well, I’m going to go get cleaned up before Al gets here.”

The blond stretched, feeling a little lethargic at the moment. “You go do that.”

“Lazy.” And with that, Maes was gone from the room.

“Yep,” Ed replied, starting to drift off to sleep, a smile still on his face.