The Un-fic

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Unconditional Love

It was the most sickening thing he’d had to do in a very long time, Ed was sure. Not sickening in the way of the chimera of Nina Tucker had been, but sickening in that gut-wrenching nervousness sort of way. This was inevitable, telling the family—Elysia excluded—yet its inevitability didn’t mean Ed had to like it.

Earlier that week, when things had been proceeding nicely, though somewhat fast, Maes with a hand inside of Ed’s black shirt and skimming over his tank beneath, the guilt had hit the teen so hard, he was certain he’d fall through every floor of the Central headquarters under its weight. He was enjoying himself without al knowing and still unsure if Mrs. Hughes even knew. He was doing things that Al still couldn’t because his little brother was still in the suit of armor Ed felt he’d essentially forced him into.

And now, when he should have been using his extra time to find ways to get Al out, he was busy making out with his boyfriend behind Al’s back.

All that guilt had ruined the moment and Ed had insisted that he and Maes stop all actions until they’d spoken to their families.

Standing in front of Maes’s house, knowing what waited him, Ed found himself unable to move. With every bit of will that he had, Ed took the necessary steps toward the door, raised his hand and began knocking. He knew Elysia was at a friend’s house, but found himself horribly uncomfortable with the idea of either adult in the house answering the door. How should he react if it were Maes? Despite the fact that they were together, there had been no discussions on how they should behave. Then there was the idea that it would be Gracia, and he found himself fidgeting in his spot.

The door opened to the warm and gentle face of Gracia Hughes. She was smiling down at him.

“Come in, Ed. Maes is inside.”

She couldn’t know, Ed thought as he nodded and walked inside. She would never treat him so kindly if she knew. Once the door was shut behind him, her smile faded slightly, concern evident in her eyes.

“Before I go in to talk to him, I need to tell something to you, Mrs. Hughes.”

“Really, Ed,” she said, “if you’re dating my husband, I think you can call me Gracia.”

“Oh,” he said, feeling the blood rushing to his face.

“Maes has never hid anything from me,” she said, putting her hand on Ed’s shoulder, “and I doubt he could have hidden you if he wanted to. I’ve seen how contemplative and pleased he gets. I suppose that was your doing.”

Again, Ed found he was blushing at the compliment—well, he supposed that’s what it was.

“Where’s Al?” she asked, bringing back that all-too-familiar feeling of guilt.

“Ro-Colonel Mustang is bringing him along later. I wanted to talk to you first.”

Gracia nodded. “Ed, I can see that you care for Maes, and I’m glad for it, but I can’t exactly give my stamp of approval on this.”

Ed opened his mouth to argue, feeling surprisingly indignant at the woman he respected so much.

“Ed, in a few years, I might be a very big supporter of this relationship between yourself and Maes, but in relationships, you are immature, and I simply worry that you or Maes will be hurt. Maybe both.”

“Mrs. Hughes,” Ed said, purposely ignoring her request to call her by her first name, “I am inexperienced, but it doesn’t mean I’m being immature. I am here tonight to talk to you and Al, to be open and honest about all of this.”

Ed folded his arms across his chest, defiantly. “I care for Maes and thanks to that goofy bastard, I’m right along with him, pushing Roy to the top, just in hopes that the man will make the changes that Maes and I will be together without hiding. And, I’m telling my brother because, even though Al will always come first, but Maes is second to him. That isn’t a decision I made on the spur of the moment.”

“You still will not get my approval, but I will not stand in your way—and I wouldn’t have before your speech. But at least you’ve shown me you’ve thought this out.”

********

Sitting at the near-silent dinner table, Ed looked over at Al for what must have been the tenth time that evening.

“Brother, what is it? I feel like I’ve been brought here for a reason that I’m still in the dark about.”

Ed sighed, feeling an encouraging hand at his knee, which entwined with his glove covered automail hand. Across the table from Ed and his boyfriend, a pair of sympathetic onyx eyes encouraged him on as well.

“Al, I know that I should be doing more to find ways to bring your body back, and I know I have no right to even be questioning or exploring things about myself—”

“Brother? You know I want you to research about your body too—”

“This isn’t exploration like that, Al.” Damn it, he was turning red again.

“What do you… oh, OH!” Al said with the sounds of dawning realization. “You found a girl, Ed? Is it Winry?”

“No, it’s not Winry,” Ed said, quickly. He followed with, “I’ts not even a girl.”

“A-a boy, Brother? Are you, do you think you might be… gay?”

“I am, Al. No thinking, no maybe. I like other guys, Al, and some of the time that I,” Ed faltered a moment. “that I should have been researching, I’ve been seeing someone, a man, Al.”

“Is that why you’ve been visiting the colonel so often and you don’t fight as much?” Al seemed to recovered quickly and glossed totally over his brother’s coming out, much to Ed’s surprise.

“What?!” Roy said, face completely overtaken in shock. “Alphonse Elric, I will have you know that while stories of my promiscuity are exaggerated, my partners are entirely female.”

“But, Brother, you’ve only spent your time with the colonel and Lieutenant Colonel Hughes.”

“Al,” Maes said, lifting his hand, and Ed’s with it, setting them both on the table, still clasped together.

********

The explanations had taken forever, Al lecturing Maes for almost an hour on various things, starting with treating Ed properly, moving on to using marriage and family as a cover, and finally asking how Elysia would take this. This last part had led to another story at Roy’s expense, much to Ed’s delight, as it was explained that the young girl knew her parents almost never shared a bedroom, and already suspected both had “boyfriends.” Apparently, she had once asked Roy whose boyfriend he was, her mommy’s or daddy’s.

Now, as they walked home, Ed was in the midst of receiving another lecture for hiding this from his little brother. Unfortunately for Ed, all he could manage to do was smile at the feeling of all that weight off his shoulders.

“Brother, are you listening?”

“Not really,” Ed confessed, then looked up at the suit of armor with a frown just before throwing his arms around the solid metal. “Honestly I thought that I wanted to do this, even though I wish you could feel it.”

Al had accepted him, as he was, no questions asked. That was worth even more than anything he could possibly think of, to know that no matter what, his brother would stand by him. It didn’t matter that where they came from, that in Risembool, Ed would be a freak, that even their adoptive family would probably never accept him. Al would.

“Brother, I don’t remember you being this, well, touchy-feely.”

“You have Maes to thank or blame for it.”

“You’re really happy, aren’t you?”

“Now that I don’t have to feel like I’m sneaking around behind your back? Yeah, I am.”