Orphaned

I know I've abandoned this fic, but I'm now putting up the rest of the chapters. After that, it'll be completed, so if there's any chance anyone is still reading it, here's the rest! It goes up to 29 chapters, so enjoy!
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As soon as Ed and Al entered the door to their home, the older brother immediately felt that something was wrong. Al looked up to him, "What is it, brother?" he wondered.

"I don't know." Ed whispered, "It's too quiet in here."

"Quiet?" Al echoed, mimicking Ed's action of whispering, "Should it be loud?"

"It should if Roy's home." the taller blond pointed out (yes, Ed is actually taller than someone!).

"Do you think something happened?" came the next question, a hint of worry in his voice.

Ed shrugged, though he was just as worried, "You did say there were a lot of guys there." His voice showed none of the concern that his wandering eyes did. He scanned over everything in their home, and, seeing nothing out of place, continued on into the kitchen.

"Maybe he just came home and went straight to sleep because he was worn out from fighting." Al suggested, hope masking the doubt he had.

Ed, however, wasn't as optimistic, "If he came home and neither of us were here, do you think he would just go to sleep?" he asked. He then realized that the answer to that question was a resounding 'no', and that it meant that Roy cared a great deal for both of them. He smiled softly and would have to remind himself not to bite his head off when he got home.

The two snuck into Roy's room, quietly, and the younger one frowned when he saw that there was no one passed out in the bed, "He's not here." he said.

'Thank you, Captain Obvious.' Ed thought, but shook the snicker off, "Maybe he got held up. I'm sure he'll be home soon." Now that his concern for Roy was put on hold, he turned to his brother, "You're sure you're okay?" he asked, once again.

"I told you, I'm fine." Al repeated, the same answer he had given the other 20 billion times Ed had asked if he was okay.

Sighing, blond hair flopped up and down as the young alchemist nodded, "Alright." he finally conceded, "You should get some sleep, though, I'll wait up for Roy."

The tempting pull of sleep was growing on Al, and with those words, he smiled, "Okay." he agreed, whole-heartedly, "Tell him I said thank you, okay?"

"No problem." came the response as a hand went up to wave, "Night, Al."

"Goodnight!" said boy called as he ran up the stairs. Sighing once again, Ed went to the coffee machine to brew a pot of coffee. If Roy did come home, he'd want some of the heaven-sent liquid, that much Ed was sure of. He shook his head, "When he comes home, not if." he corrected himself. He wouldn't believe that Roy could possibly be dead, not until he saw his lifeless body as proof.

He stared at the slow drip of the coffee quicken its pace and fill the pot. The loud ringing of the phone startled him so much that he jumped slightly before walking over to answer it, "Hello?" he asked, wondering who it could possibly be to call this late at night.

"Ed?" the hopeful voice on the other line asked, "Is Al there, too?"

"Roy?" the young boy asked, letting out a sigh of relief, "Where the hell are you?"

"I'm on my way." the familiar voice promised, "You're both safe?"

"Yeah." came his reply, "What happened?"

"I'll explain when I get home. Everything." he said, then hung up.

Ed blinked a few times at the now-dead phone line before hanging it only to have it ring a moment later. Confused, he picked it back up, "Roy?"

"Yeah, can you start some coffee for me?" he asked. When informed that it was already taken care of, he smirked, "That's why I love you." he commented before hanging up a second time.

'Love me?' Ed thought, hanging the phone up on his end as well, 'Al said Roy told him to tell me that he loved me, too.' He took a seat, and proceeded to bang his head into the table, 'I want to believe him.' he told himself, 'But...' He shook his head; thoughts like this weren't meant for 1 in the morning. Yawning, he noticed that the coffee was done, and quickly poured a cup, downing the contents. Given his extreme dislike of milk, Ed had always drank his coffee black, not trusting the so called 'cream' and 'flavored milk'. Sometimes sugar would be acceptable, but right now he was too tired to care. Pouring another cup, he waited until he retook his seat to begin emptying it.

'Who was that man?' Roy wondered as he drove through the streets of the small city, heading home. Roy felt like he had almost seen him before, but couldn't put his finger on it. He was obviously an alchemist from the Underground, but who would be crazy enough to defy their orders there? Especially someone Roy couldn't even remember meeting. He suddenly wondered if he should have left the man there all alone, but figured he had the situation under control. If he could disable that many alchemists at once, then he shouldn't have a problem getting out. At least, he hoped he wouldn't. He felt slightly guilty and very embarrassed for simply running away from his fight. If there was one thing Roy believed in, it was finishing what you started, and that meant never backing down from a fight. Still, if he hadn't run, he might very well be dead right now, and he couldn't have that. If not for his sake, then for Ed and Al's.

Sighing, he turned into his massive driveway and pulled up along his house of equally large proportion. He stared at the monumental building for a moment, frowning. He had an expensive house and nice things, but at what price? He had put his, Ed's, and Al's lives in danger and become no better than a traitor and an outlaw. Even if it was to protect the ones most important to him, he had defied his orders of a company he had been with longer than those two boys had been alive. He smirked to himself as he stepped outside into the cold, 'Love does funny things.' he supposed.

"You're still up?" Roy asked, walking into his kitchen to see Ed about to fall asleep face-first into a cup of coffee.

The blond jumped at the voice and raised his head to stare at Roy with weary eyes, "Yeah." he said in a sleepy voice, stifling a yawn, "You okay?" Now that he was awake, he saw blood dripping from Roy's shoulder. It wasn't a completely uncommon sight to see the older man banged up every now and then, but this time seemed worse than the others.

Roy tried to smile convincingly, but failed horribly, "I'll be fine." he assured Ed, "Nothing I haven't gone through before."

"What happened to you?" he asked again, now seeing the extent of Roy's wounds as he shed himself of his shredded shirt.

"I got in a bit of a nasty fight." he explained, "It also seems that I've been fired from my job and am now labeled a Renegade."

"Renegade?" Ed repeated, cocking his head to the side, "What's that?"

Roy then realized he had yet to explain everything to Ed, and sat down, taking the boy's coffee and downing the contents. He ignored the glare and mumbling from Ed and got prepared to explain, "A Renegade is an alchemist that isn't employed by the Underground."

"The Underground...is that the place you work?" Ed wondered.

Roy nodded, glad he had at least some common sense, "Yeah, any alchemist who isn't a member is considered an outlaw and dangerous, and must be dealt with accordingly." he recited the motto that the employees there had come to know. Most of them said it in a mocking way, but when it came down to it, they always stuck to it.

"So...I'm a Renegade?" the young alchemist asked. He was inexperienced and far from dangerous, but he was an alchemist nonetheless.

Roy sighed an eventually nodded, "That's what this whole thing started over. It's policy to exterminate all the Renegades. That's what we do, why the Underground exists. Naturally, it's against company policy to hide a Renegade or offer one food, shelter, or anything that could aid them in any way."

"And they found out that I was here, and that started trouble for you." Ed concluded.

Roy smirked and took a seat next to his boyfriend, if that was even the appropriate term for what they were, "You're worth the trouble." he assured Ed, pulling him into a gentle hug.

The smaller one leaned into the hug for a moment before pulling away and frowning, "I don't get it, though, why did they take Al if they were after me?"

"They thought Al was you." Roy explained, simply, "That's what I couldn't explain before when you ran off."

A small 'oh' escaped Ed's lips as he grinned, sheepishly, "Sorry 'bout that."

"You should be." came the unexpected answer. Ed had expected Roy to say 'it's okay, don't do it again' or something along those lines, but certainly not 'you should be'.

"Wh-what?" Ed asked, mouth hanging slightly open.

"You scared the shit out of me, Edward." Roy told him, now scaring the shit out of him. For as long as Ed and Al had been living with Roy, he had never once called him by his full first name. Ed knew that Roy was seriously and looked up to him, hesitantly, "I didn't know what to do." he continued, "I spent a half an hour driving around town looking for you, and I came up completely empty handed. Don't you dare do something like that again, understood?"

Ed blinked, wondering if it was his turn to talk. Deciding it was, he swallowed hard and nodded, "Yeah." he said. He wasn't about to apologize, he did have every right to be pissed, but he wasn't going to try and defend himself, either as Roy did make a good point. So, he stuck with averting his gaze until Roy decided he wasn't pissed anymore.

"Good." Roy said softly, "Now that that's settled, I think I'm going to bed. You should, too." He stood, tilting the small face up towards his, "Just don't scare me like that again, okay?"

"Okay." Ed whispered, then gasped as Roy leaned his face down and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. He whimpered slightly, trying to pull away at first, but gave in as he saw the older one was going no further. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensation of warm lips upon his until they pulled away and turned up in a slight smile.

"Goodnight." Roy whispered, kissing Ed's forehead and turning to head into his room.

"Night." Ed said, absent-mindedly, still a little blown from the kiss. It wasn't his first, of course, and not even his first with Roy, but it was different from any other he'd ever experienced. It was soft, kind, full of the man's love for him. It was everything a first kiss should have been, and even though Ed had been robbed of that, it was better late then never. A slight blush covered his cheeks as Ed realized he was starting to really fall for Roy. At first whenever the two were together in any way, Ed had never really felt anything, but just went along with it. He wasn't sure why, but he felt as though he owed Roy something, and knew, deep down, that he would never go any further than Ed wanted. So, he never saw the problem with making him happy.

After this whole incident, though, Ed took a deeper look into his feelings for his guardian. He knew it wasn't the usual father-son love that he felt, and wasn't sure it was love at all. In fact, he was almost certain he didn't love Roy. How could he when he didn't even know what the emotion was? The only love he had ever given or received was from his brother and mother, so how was he supposed to know if he was really in love? He'd always heard of love being this great, wonderful thing that everyone wanted to experience, but he had never been into it that much.

Perhaps, though, it was because he had to grow up so fast and never got to live all those small moments that made up a childhood. Like a first kiss, holding hands, a first date at the movie theater; Ed had had none of those things. It was true, he had had a first kiss, but it wasn't a real kiss with someone he legitimately cared for, and by the time he found someone he did feel that way about, even if it was only the tiniest bit, he had already been robbed of too much to take pleasure in something so insignificant as a first kiss.

Ed decided that he definitely didn't love Roy in any way, but that he felt more comfortable around him than anyone else, even Al. With Al, he had to pick and choose what he said. It wasn't that he couldn't tell Al things, but he couldn't tell him everything, most likely due to the fact that he wanted to keep his brother as innocent as possible, and that meant keeping things from him. He didn't consider it lying so much as protecting him. He smiled faintly as he realized that was probably exactly what Roy had done with him concerning his job. And why did he keep Ed oblivious to things he thought he shouldn't know? The exact reason that Ed did the same when it came to Al; he cared for him. Though Roy kept insisting that it was love, any maybe it was on his part, Ed knew that he as far from love. He may have missed his childhood, but he was still only 15 years old.

Despite not having the same experiences and knowing much more than any 15-year-old should about certain things, Ed's body still had a lot to go through before he was ready for love. Hell, he hadn't even gotten through puberty yet, he was in no position to be in love. Knowing all this, he finally stood from his seat and headed upstairs. He might not be in love, but he still had a whole life ahead of him to get there.