Worlds Collide

A/N: Kuragari, yep, Frank pulled an Archer moment last chapter. But it was out of defense of Ed. Nomme de Plume, I know, he made Roy look foolish, but at some point I realized there was a major risk in Roy's behavior, and someone needed to point it out. The Candy Made Me Do It, Frank's a trained spy, and one who's killed a few times before, so he's good at what he does. And the kids are going to interrupt just like kids do. Amethyst-eyed Koneko, I wish I could say I didn't but I love when you get emotional in your reviews. You were furious. Frank did a bad thing for a good reason, and it knocked Roy's precious pride down a few pegs. And I figure a bit of what made Archer what he was would probably have been in his genes, so it's something he has to keep a handle on. He also sees Ed as Edward and is close to at least Aideen, so he went into defensive mode. If it's any consolation, I included a romantic scene, rather than a sex scene, in this chapter. The next one's going to be Roy's birthday, and I didn't want to run out of ideas too soon.

Chapter 21

Dead man walking

When Kain Fuery heard the pounding on the main door of his apartment, he immediately got out of his bed, putting on his glasses. He ran to his door, opening it as far as the chain lock would allow.

“Frank?” he asked, his voice still raspy from a night without use. He had to admit he was a bit surprised to see Frank was now a brunette.

“Kain, can I come in?”

Kain opened the door, letting a somewhat nervous and familiar looking Frank into his apartment. “I’m a dead man,” Frank said as he entered, taking a seat at Kain’s small table.

“Why are you a dead man?” Kain said, running a hand through his hair, trying to smooth it down as he saw its reflection in the tiny mirror near the door. He moved to the sink to fill his coffee pot.

“Well, first I impersonated Roy and broke into the office.”

“What? Frank, you can be arrested for that.”

“I know. I wanted to know why Roy was so awkward around me.” Frank folded his arms and put his head on them.

“You shot his eye out…” Kain said, turning back to the stove to turn the stovetop on. “Well, the other you.”

“Not that. I knew there was some… tension that had nothing to do with the eye. And I saw the court-martial papers in my… his… oh whatever the hell you want to call the bastard, in Archer’s file.”

Kain turned around, looking at the dark-headed man at his kitchen table. He knew what the court-martial was he was talking about.

“I figured that since that sodding file was more or less mine, I had every right to open it and read its contents, but when I read the statements that the bastard wrote, they didn’t seem right. I needed to know the truth. I needed to know if I really was the bastard in this world or if it was Roy. I just, I didn’t lead so different a life from the Archer of this world. Do you know how hard it is to accept that he was the monster he was? When I read and saw that the Roy described in Archer’s documents sounded like the one from my world, there was a moment of doubt. The Roy I knew, especially toward the end, would have done exactly what I’d read in Archer’s statement.”

“What did you do?” Kain said, looking at Frank, eyes wider than even usual.

“I got into Roy’s file. I read his statement. It certainly meshed up more with the Archer everyone here has described, and honestly as fuhrer, Roy could have taken the entire court martial out, but he hadn’t. It said more for his character than the lies in the other me’s folder. I realized that Archer really was the asshole.”

“That doesn’t mean you are anything like him.”

Frank turned his head, looking at Kain through a slightly swollen eye. “There’s more.”

“You need ice for that?”

Frank nodded.

“What more is there?” Kain pulled out the ice tray from the freezer.

“I kissed Roy.”

With a loud crash, Kain dropped the ice tray on the floor, the frozen cubes popping out and scattering across the floor.

********

Roy felt the bed shift slightly. Looking to see Aideen was still beside him, on her side, back facing her fathers, Nicholas who was stretched out, legs over Roy’s at the bottom of the bed, Roy realized Ed was gone. In the dim light, the older man saw the bathroom door shut, hearing it latch ever so quietly. Gently freeing himself from Nicholas’s legs all the while trying not to disturb Aideen, Roy climbed out of the bed and nearly silently made his way to the bathroom door, hearing the sound of the shower starting. He lightly rapped on the door.

“Are you decent?”

“Yeah, Roy, come on in.”

Entering their bathroom, Roy saw Ed standing in only his blue and white boxers and the silver chain and flamel Roy had made for him on their first date. The fire alchemist couldn’t help but stare at the body of the man before him. At twenty-six, it was little surprise that by now all signs of the teenager Ed had once been were gone, despite the fact that his frame had remained small in comparison to Roy’s. Shoulders, chest, abs, all were perfectly sculpted, perfectly adult, holding the threat of a strength that was tightly wound into the small body. The scars on that body had become Roy’s close friends as had each nut and bolt of the automail, and he was quite certain he could close his eyes and perfectly draw each and every one of them. For him, those painful reminders of what the younger man had been though were part of him, part of what had made him who he was today.

Ed had just removed his hairband and was brushing out the blond hair that, left loose, came down below his shoulder blades. A set of citrine eyes looked up, the automail hand stopping its movements in the golden locks. “What?”

Roy smiled, moving his hand to the necklace around Ed’s neck. “You still wear this thing?”

“Yeah. Honestly, I’m surprised I still have it. I’ve never managed to own anything this long without breaking it.” Ed lowered his hands from his hair. “In two weeks, I’ll have had that thing ten years.”

Roy looked at the scratched and dull flamel on the end. “I could fix it for you if you want.”

“So could I, dummy. But that kind of ruins the point of having it all this time, dontcha think.”

“I suppose it does.” Turns out Ed was a romantic. Ten years and he was still learning about the blond.
“I still remember when you handed it to me. I wanted to make a smartass remark about it, or you, but I couldn’t. It was one of the few times you weren’t a bastard colonel.”

“Excuse me?” Roy said, trying to sound offended.

“You’re not anymore,” Ed said, slipping off his boxers. He stepped in the shower, right foot first, hand on the rail they’d installed after his metal leg made him slip on the slick porcelain for the fourth time. Looking over his shoulder under a curtain of damp hair, he smirked. “You’re a bastard fuhrer.”

Roy began slipping out of his wrinkled dress shirt, tight white undershirt and grey boxers, hardly able to hide how turned on he was by the naked, and wet, form of his husband standing beneath the pounding water of the shower.

“At least this is one place we know the kids won’t interrupt us,” Roy said, removing the patch before stepping in behind Ed and closing the curtain around them.

“You know, I came in here for a real shower,” Ed said.

“Well, then let me help you.” Roy took Ed by his shoulders, slowly guiding him back under the falling water. He slid his hands up the younger man’s arms, moving up the neck and eventually into the long blond hair. He bent down, pressing his lips to Ed’s, gently nibbling on the thin bottom lip offered him as his hands worked to saturate Ed’s hair. His fingers scratched at Ed’s scalp, one of the more sensitive places on the blond’s body, one almost guaranteed to earn a purr for his efforts.

Pulling away, Roy moved to grab the shampoo bottle, pouring out just enough to rub into Ed’s scalp and down the wet hair. Satisfied he’d gotten up enough of a lather, the brunette guided his husband back under the water, cupping his hands and guiding the sudsy rinse away from the gold eyes that were closed in a relaxed state of bliss.

He once again leaned in, kissing the blond, mouths open, tongues mingling, water running between them, around them, wet arms wrapped around equally wet and slippery bodies.

Roy found himself being turned, and he watched as Ed broke the kiss, returning the favor as he lathered up the shorter black hair, moving his hands in almost circular motions over Roy’s head. The older man knew it was Ed’s way of keeping it balanced between the soft, more sensual feeling of the flesh hand and the harder, yet gentle scratching of the metal.

Roy leaned back into the water, moving back out again to feel of Ed’s left hand brushing his dark hair from his eyes and forehead.

Roy had hardly noticed as Ed grabbed the bar of soap and began moving it over his shoulders, over his chest, turning him to get his back. He felt the slippery touch following the curve of his behind, lingering just a bit longer, rubbing over each cheek, then proceeding down to the thighs and calves. Ed turned him back around, purposely avoiding the area Roy wanted touched most as he lathered the soap over the mostly firm stomach, sensitive inner thighs.

Then, with a few miserably short movement, Ed cleaned Roy’s much too hard member.

Having had enough of Ed’s teasing, Roy rinsed himself off and grabbed the soap, swapping positions with his husband, first kissing before washing over the man’s neck, shoulders and chest that still bore the silver necklace, moving down to Ed’s right nipple, licking it, feeling it grow to a hardened nub and hearing the raspy moans that Ed was trying desperately to hold inside. He moved to the other side, doing the same. He provided the same care to the rest of Ed’s body, lingering even longer than Ed had when he reached the blond’s firm backside, unable to resist the urge to tease the top of the crease between the cheeks, even dipping his tongue inside, just enough to hear Ed release yet another groan of pleasure he was trying to stifle for the sake of the sleeping children in the next room.

But, Roy had promised to help Ed get clean, he reminded himself, so he turned Ed’s body, lathering over Ed’s legs and over the blond curls and stiff organ below the steel-like abs.

Roy began rinsing off the last of the soap, prepared to make Ed need yet another shower in just another moment.
At that, there was a faint sound of a toilet flushing somewhere, and the two men quickly recovered from their lust as they huddled in the space under the showerhead, Roy getting hit with the first sprays of the scalding hot water and crying out as he did.

“I thought you liked fire and heat,” Ed said.

“Not when it means getting cooked like a lobster,” Roy said, as he and Ed clung to one another trying unsuccessfully to get around legs and arms to get the water turned off without letting it dribble down onto their prone bodies beneath.

Then, as the heat from the water faded enough that they felt it was safe, Ed started to laugh, still clinging to Roy, and put out as the older man was, even he couldn’t be upset as he felt Ed’s laughter shaking both their bodies, infectiously spreading.

“So much for… them not interrupting,” Ed said as he continued to laugh. “You should have seen yourself.”

“Me? What about you?”

At that moment, all thought of previous activities and what they might lead to faded as the two leaned against the tile walls, Ed head against Roy’s chest, Roy’s pressed against the porcelain and grout, laughing at themselves, echoing through the master bathroom, arms around one another.

********

“You… what?” Fuery said, kneeling to the floor to pick up the ice.

Frank let his head thump down on the table. “Ow.” Then he groaned to himself. “I kissed him.”

Fuery held out his pajama shirt, about to put a loose ice cube in the makeshift pouch he’d created. “W-why would you do that?”

“To prove a point.” Frank let his head thump against the table again.

“And what point was there in that, especially after having read files you had no business in?”

“He’ll kill me.” He felt something cold at the back of his neck, realizing Fuery was handing him some ice in a towel.

“Please promise me that you’re not going to slam your head against my table again. I’d hate to see it broken.” Frank took the ice and pressed it to his left eye. “Now what point?”

“When someone close to me is hurt or in trouble, I don’t always think before I do things. And I know I hardly know Ed, but he reminds me so much of Edward, and Edward wasn’t one to deal with conflict head-on…” Fuery sat in the chair opposite Frank. “I saw how upset he got when that story came out about the fuhrer. Then, when I was at the office, I saw some lieutenant flirting with him, and he didn’t stop it…” Once again he groaned. “Instincts kicked in, even if my brain didn’t, and my temper, just… well snapped.”

“What did you do to the fuhrer?” Fuery said, standing as though preparing to strike the man.

“I kissed him, removed his gloves, restrained him, and held the back of a knife to his neck to show how easy it would be for someone who really wanted to hurt him. Then I released him.”

“How did you get away?” The younger man obviously thought Frank had escaped from certain arrest.

“He told me to go. I think he realized what I tried to do.”

“So then why do you think you’re a dead man?”

“I kissed Ed’s husband before holding a knife, admittedly the back of it, to said husband’s throat, defending Ed’s honor like he was defenseless.” Frank looked up at the closest thing to a friend he’d found in this world. “It’s him I’m afraid of.”

“You need to be,” Fuery said, turning back to the percolating coffee pot on the stovetop.

********

Wrath braced himself between the two bars Ed had created in the library, the taller Elric brother behind him, the shorter in front, all the while Raine Mustang watching every move he made. Raine said she was shocked with the improvements he’d made in his recovery once he’d made the decision that he actually wanted to get better. It seemed that maybe some part of being a homunculus had remained, as he should have been just barely regaining the feeling in his legs, not trying to walk between a set of rails, with only minimal help from the two Elrics.
“It amazes me how quickly you are improving,” Raine said.

“Please, stubborn guy managed to go through the Gate and come out human,” Ed said, not without some semblance of pride in the younger man, “but still hold onto my limbs that let him do alchemy. I think he’ll heal himself just fine.”

Wrath’s steps were uncertain, a bit of numbness mixed with pain with each one he took. As he stumbled, Ed braced him in the front with those mismatched arms of his, Al grabbing him in the back.

“Okay, that’s enough for today,” Raine said.

With the help of the two brothers, Wrath made his way back to his bed. The last two days he’d done this, Stephen, or Frank as the rest called him, had helped him back along with Al. And nothing short of putting his massive hand on Ed’s head managed to give him a height where he could comfortably brace his own weight, not that Ed would ever let him use the blond head as a support. Even more awkwardly than usual, Wrath sat back in his bed, his entire body exhausted from the short attempt to walk.

It wasn’t long after that the phone rang. Ed picked up the receiver kept by Wrath’s bed. “Hello?”

“Ed,” Wrath heard on the other line.

“Yeah, Cain, what is it?”

“I wanted you to know that I have Frank here.”

“I figured. I didn’t think he’d be stupid enough to come here right away.”

“He thinks you’re going to try to kill him.”

“He kissed my husband and threatened him with a knife. Why the hell wouldn’t I?”

Though Ed’s voice sounded stern, Wrath couldn’t help but notice he was grinning. He was enjoying tormenting Steph—Frank. Wrath couldn’t blame him, after what Ed had told him Frank had done earlier that morning. For some of the ones who didn’t know Frank like he did, and Ed and Roy were coming to know him, it rang true to the Archer bastard who’d belonged to this world. But as Wrath had pulled the memories of the two men apart, he knew better. This man wasn’t that Archer.

“Ed, he didn’t think. He was trying to protect you.”

“And who the hell said I needed protecting?” Ed rolled his eyes. “Put him on. I’m going to go out to another phone so Wrath doesn’t need to hear me rant for the next hour.”

Ed left, Wrath holding the receiver to his ear to hear that Ed had gotten another line.

“Hello?” Frank’s nervous voice said on the other line.

“Where the hell do you get off?”

With that, Wrath hung up the phone, looking over at Al with a smile.

“That Frank,” Raine said, “I swear if I see him, I’ll kill him.”

He’s like that Wrath wrote on the notebook, then pointed to it. He used to be like that with Edward and I. I remember one time, he threatened this guy, Officer Hughes who…

“Hughes?” Al asked before Wrath got to write any more. “Maes Hughes?”

Yeah, he was a police officer, more or less. Didn’t like that Edward and I were together. Bigoted bastard.

“Careful saying that in front of Roy,” Raine said. “The Maes Hughes of this world was a good man, and Roy’s best friend.”

Dead too, I’m guessing. Wrath looked at the written words, realizing they seemed insensitive without the tone and delivery of speech.

“He died a few months before we first met you,” Al said, somberly. “Anyway, what did he do?”

Hughes threatened to report us to the authorities, or to people who would almost certainly kill Edward and I for being gay. Wrath was surprised that it was getting slightly easier to write Edward’s name than it had been a few days before. In turn, Ste, Frank grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall. He threatened him and everything he had. Like I said, he’s like this. At least when he cares about someone. Says something for what he thinks of Ed.

“Still, I can’t believe after all that, my idiot brother wants to enlist Frank in the military. Why the hell would he do that?”

For the better part of an hour, Ed had yelled over the phone at Frank for treating him “like a defenseless girl” and thinking he couldn’t handle his own husband. He had threatened him to never pull another knife on Roy or dare even think of kissing him again or he’d shove the metal spike he created from his automail down his throat and cut off parts he was certainly attached to.

Returning into the library, Ed grinned at Wrath and his brother, Raine standing in the corner, gathering some of the medical items she’d brought with her.

“That was fun,” Ed said with a smirk.

“Don’t you think it was a bit harsh, Brother?”

“Not at all. I seriously doubt he’ll try it again.” Ed clapped his hands and made the bars for Wrath’s therapy disappear again into the floor. “I think he has a healthy respect for Roy and I, but now, there’s a bit of fear and that’s always a healthy thing.”

Wrath shook his head, wondering if, after all of that, Frank would even consider joining up with the Amestris army, realizing almost immediately that, knowing the older man, he probably would because of it.