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whiskeycoffee2007-05-14 08:24 pm
mjules.livejournal.com) wrote in whiskeycoffee2007-05-14 08:24 pm
Entry tags:
"Some Other Beginning" (Fullmetal Alchemist, Roy/Al, WIP, 22/45?)
Title: Some Other Beginning
Author: m.jules
Rating: Hard R for the whole thing
Summary: "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." Alphonse Elric helps Roy Mustang face life after more tragedy than one man should endure and finds something for himself in the process.
Pairing: mainly Roy/Al, with hints of and references to others. (Including, but not limited to, Ed/Winry, Al/Paninya, Gracia/Maes/Roy/Riza, and Al/Elicia.)
Disclaimer: Arakawa would KILL me. I bow low in supplication.
Author's Notes: This was meant to be "The Story That Proves In-Character Roy/Al Is Possible." Don't know if it worked. For my![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
7stages claim, prompt "New every morning."
Thank you, thank you, thank you to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cornerofmadness and evil_little_dog who have beta'd every chapter without complaint even though this isn't their pairing. To dr_firedog for enduring me chattering about it, and to all my fellow Roy/Al 'shippers whose excitement about the possibility of this story kept me writing on it.
I am posting one chapter every Sunday/Monday. Previous chapters can be found here.
Al slept for most of the train ride home, as Roy thought well he might. The newlyweds had hosted quite a banquet after their wedding and Al, an epicurean hedonist to the end, had enjoyed himself thoroughly. Roy, a picky eater on his best days, had grazed through the tables upon tables of food provided by friends and neighbors and Pinako and come away with a plate barely able to be called full. He had enjoyed the wine, though.
Roy and Al had chosen to return to Central after the bride and groom left for their honeymoon. Al had tried to help with the clean-up but a veritable army of Resembool housewives had shooed him off, saying he was merely underfoot. They had been efficient, Roy recalled, and quite formidable. There wasn't much Alphonse could have done, really. Ed and Winry had offered them the use of the guest room for one more night but being around so many people was wearing on Roy and he was sure Al had seen it. Roy, thinking Al would like to stay and see his old friends a little longer, had protested that he was fine but Alphonse was possibly even more stubborn than his brother.
When Roy thought of Edward, a little grin he knew looked positively evil flitted across his face. The newlyweds had foregone opening their gifts, choosing to take them along on the journey when the party went on so long that they risked missing their train. Roy wondered if either of them think anything of Al's signature beside his on Ed's gift. Roy had his money on Winry figuring it out first.
Now he smiled as he watched his lover nap, lulled by the rocking of the train and a belly full of warm food and good wine, golden head propped against the train window. Roy looked around the train and noticed they were almost alone; only two other passengers occupied their car, several rows behind Roy's seat, facing the other direction. Roy debated only a few moments before he moved into the seat next to Al and coaxed the young man's head onto his shoulder. Al murmured in his sleep and shifted until he was comfortable, then settled again. Roy breathed deep and rested his head against Al's, thinking how very indulgent this was. He couldn't recall the last time he'd been able to treat himself to public displays of affection with anyone except informants disguised as casual dates. Not that an almost-empty train car was very public, he supposed. He closed his eyes and leaned into Al's weight. He didn't even notice when he drifted off to sleep.
The next morning when Al woke in the bed he shared with Roy, he found his lover already awake, sitting up in bed with a book. Al blinked, sucking in a breath as his body struggled toward full consciousness, and Roy's hand found its way into Al's hair, ruffling it.
"Morning," Roy said warmly, not looking up from his book.
"Mmm. Morning," Al mumbled back, pressing into Roy's hand like a cat asking to be petted. As he woke more, he remembered getting home the night before, both of them stumbling sleepily out of the train and into a cab, then from the cab to the house. They'd fallen in bed and gone to sleep with barely a "good night." The trip had worn both of them out but it seemed that Roy was recovering faster. Al was surprised the older man had managed to wake without waking Al; that was a rare occurrence.
When Al didn't say anything or show any signs of moving, Roy left his book for a moment and looked down at the young man. "Are you going back to sleep?" Roy asked, rubbing his fingertips gently across Al's scalp.
Al hummed thoughtfully then said, "No, I don't think so. But I do feel like being lazy today."
"It's a good day for it," Roy agreed. "It isn't like we have anywhere to go."
"But we do have things to plant in the garden," Al reminded him. Roy chuckled.
"Gardening can wait; it's too late in the day to do it now anyway; it's already gotten warm. We'll wait until the evening when it cools off again." Roy's thumb rubbed back and forth across the top of Al's ear and he went back to his book.
Al shifted until he could see the window, surprised at how bright the sunlight was. Just how long had he slept, anyway? It really was an indulgence to be able to wallow in bed with Roy, nothing pressing ahead of them for the day. He closed his eyes again and breathed deep, trying to identify the mingled scents of their skin amongst all the other smells that filtered in. Resembool felt like home, but this house -- this room -- was beginning to mark out a claim for itself in Al's emotions.
This is almost like we're the ones honeymooning, Al thought to himself. We went to a wedding, and then I left home and came to Roy's house. If I didn't know better, it would be easy to think we were the ones who got married. He smiled a little at the idea. It wasn't an unpleasant thought, not with the way Roy's fingers were threading through his blond hair -- and Al really would go back to sleep if he kept that up.
"What's that smile for?" Roy wanted to know and Al opened his eyes again, looking up into Roy's questioning ones.
"Just thinking," Al said. "About weddings and honeymoons."
Roy smirked. "I do not envy the other patrons in whatever hotel your brother and sister-in-law choose to visit," he said. "If they're lucky, they will have opened our gift to Edward first."
Al nearly choked on a laugh. "If they're lucky," he returned, "Winry will be so distracted by the scarves that she won't get around to opening my gift to her. Otherwise Brother may find himself alone -- or with a huge repair bill when she decides to start experimenting."
Roy laughed and they lapsed into a comfortable silence, Roy with his book and Al with his thoughts. Al couldn't help but notice how wonderfully comfortable this was, just the two of them, and how very much he wanted to kiss Roy at the moment -- the kind of lazy, gentle kiss that could go on for hours, he thought, and would lead to drawn-out caresses and ... He could feel his body and face warming and before he even really thought about it, he was speaking.
"Hey, Roy, would you like to have sex with me sometime?" Roy's hand paused in Al's hair and Al didn't dare open his eyes. "I mean, more than we have been."
There was silence, then the barest hint of a cough. Roy's fingers twitched and Al cracked open one eye, then the other. He couldn't tell if Roy was trying to suppress a smile or a grimace. Al frowned and the corner of Roy's mouth tugged up.
"Stop laughing!" Al protested, chuckling himself. "I'm serious."
"I'm sorry," Roy said, still fighting a grin. "You rather surprised me." The fingers in Al's hair resumed their sifting.
Al laughed and his eyes half-closed with contentment. No wonder cats like to be petted so much, he thought. "Sorry," he said. "I guess it was kind of sudden." He paused. "But still, what do you think?" He opened his eyes again, looking up at Roy. "If you think it's too much for you, that's okay, I was just ... I guess I just wanted to let you know that, um, I wouldn't mind. At all." Alphonse could feel his face turning bright pink. "I think I kind of want to, I mean."
"Hm." Roy's fingertips skimmed Al's forehead, tickling a little, and then again. "I suppose it would be a good idea to talk about it." He removed his hand from Al's hair altogether and the younger man had to try hard not to whine. Still, Al took the hint and pushed himself up into a sitting position, propping his pillow behind his back and leaning against the headboard beside Roy.
"Talk about it?"
Roy nodded. "The details, I mean. So we'll be on the same page and know what to expect. We aren't prepared for it right now, but I think preparation will involve more than simply collecting the necessary materials."
Al could feel the tips of his ears burning and all he could think was how surreal this was -- but how very them, to develop a strategy for lovemaking as if they were going to war. The two are often very similar, after all. "All right."
"Well..." Roy hesitated and Al looked at him. Was he imagining things or was there a slight pink stain on Mustang's cheeks? Al smiled; somehow, that put him more at ease. "Have you ever been involved with a man before, Alphonse?" The question was almost clinical and Al was grateful.
"No," Al said. "Before you, there was just Paninya." He fidgeted slightly, shifting against the pillow to find a softer spot. "I do know the mechanics of how it works between two men, though."
"That certainly makes things easier," Roy grinned. "I've only had one relationship with a man." Al nodded and Roy glanced at him. "You know about Maes, right?" Al nodded again. "We mostly... that is, I was..." Roy paused, seemingly at a loss for polite descriptive words. "I was the one penetrated," he finally said evenly.
Al thought back to what he remembered of the two men before Hughes' death and almost smiled. That made sense, he thought; he remembered the way Roy had always seemed a bit deferential to Hughes, the way Hughes had been the more forceful personality of the pair... which was saying something. "Is that how you want it to be this time?" Al asked quietly. He didn't know if Mustang would want to take the same role again because it was familiar, or if he would rather Maes be the only lover who ever had that right with him. Either way, Al couldn't see himself minding. He blushed a little as he imagined both scenarios. Either way, he thought, it was sex with Roy, and that was what really mattered to him.
"I'm not sure," Roy said candidly. "Do you have a preference?"
Al shook his head. "I've never been in either position, so I don't know which I'd like. Neither of them bother me to think about, though." He tilted his head. "There is one thing that occurs to me, though." Roy's look encouraged him to continue. "It's been long enough for you that it would almost be like a first time again. It will be my first time. Either way, it's going to hurt one of us."
Roy frowned a little. "Yes, that's true."
"I think... since you are more experienced, maybe it would be better if I were the one penetrated?" Al stumbled over the words but managed not to choke. "You know more about what you're doing, after all, so it would probably hurt me less if you did it, where I might accidentally hurt you more." He shrugged and chewed on his lower lip as he waited for Roy to think it over. Besides, he thought to himself, You seem to handle things much better if you're in control.
Roy nodded slowly. "You have a point," he said. "It might be best to do it that way, at least at first." He smiled. "I don't mind trying it the other way to give us a chance to see which way works best, though."
Al smiled, letting out a breath and relaxing. He was thinking over what they'd just discussed -- and trying not to think too hard about it, since he could already feel the blood going south -- when he felt the soft pressure of lips against his cheek and turned his head in surprise just in time to catch Roy's next kiss on his mouth. "Roy...?"
Roy grinned, a light Al recognized as evil in those dark eyes. "Now that we've got that settled," he said, his hand sliding across Al's belly, "What about a little fun before we go plant our garden?"
Al laughed and when Roy kissed him again he was ready for it and yielded instantly. All of a sudden, he felt like he had a lot to look forward to.
Author: m.jules
Rating: Hard R for the whole thing
Summary: "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." Alphonse Elric helps Roy Mustang face life after more tragedy than one man should endure and finds something for himself in the process.
Pairing: mainly Roy/Al, with hints of and references to others. (Including, but not limited to, Ed/Winry, Al/Paninya, Gracia/Maes/Roy/Riza, and Al/Elicia.)
Disclaimer: Arakawa would KILL me. I bow low in supplication.
Author's Notes: This was meant to be "The Story That Proves In-Character Roy/Al Is Possible." Don't know if it worked. For my
7stages claim, prompt "New every morning." Thank you, thank you, thank you to
cornerofmadness and evil_little_dog who have beta'd every chapter without complaint even though this isn't their pairing. To dr_firedog for enduring me chattering about it, and to all my fellow Roy/Al 'shippers whose excitement about the possibility of this story kept me writing on it.I am posting one chapter every Sunday/Monday. Previous chapters can be found here.
Al slept for most of the train ride home, as Roy thought well he might. The newlyweds had hosted quite a banquet after their wedding and Al, an epicurean hedonist to the end, had enjoyed himself thoroughly. Roy, a picky eater on his best days, had grazed through the tables upon tables of food provided by friends and neighbors and Pinako and come away with a plate barely able to be called full. He had enjoyed the wine, though.
Roy and Al had chosen to return to Central after the bride and groom left for their honeymoon. Al had tried to help with the clean-up but a veritable army of Resembool housewives had shooed him off, saying he was merely underfoot. They had been efficient, Roy recalled, and quite formidable. There wasn't much Alphonse could have done, really. Ed and Winry had offered them the use of the guest room for one more night but being around so many people was wearing on Roy and he was sure Al had seen it. Roy, thinking Al would like to stay and see his old friends a little longer, had protested that he was fine but Alphonse was possibly even more stubborn than his brother.
When Roy thought of Edward, a little grin he knew looked positively evil flitted across his face. The newlyweds had foregone opening their gifts, choosing to take them along on the journey when the party went on so long that they risked missing their train. Roy wondered if either of them think anything of Al's signature beside his on Ed's gift. Roy had his money on Winry figuring it out first.
Now he smiled as he watched his lover nap, lulled by the rocking of the train and a belly full of warm food and good wine, golden head propped against the train window. Roy looked around the train and noticed they were almost alone; only two other passengers occupied their car, several rows behind Roy's seat, facing the other direction. Roy debated only a few moments before he moved into the seat next to Al and coaxed the young man's head onto his shoulder. Al murmured in his sleep and shifted until he was comfortable, then settled again. Roy breathed deep and rested his head against Al's, thinking how very indulgent this was. He couldn't recall the last time he'd been able to treat himself to public displays of affection with anyone except informants disguised as casual dates. Not that an almost-empty train car was very public, he supposed. He closed his eyes and leaned into Al's weight. He didn't even notice when he drifted off to sleep.
The next morning when Al woke in the bed he shared with Roy, he found his lover already awake, sitting up in bed with a book. Al blinked, sucking in a breath as his body struggled toward full consciousness, and Roy's hand found its way into Al's hair, ruffling it.
"Morning," Roy said warmly, not looking up from his book.
"Mmm. Morning," Al mumbled back, pressing into Roy's hand like a cat asking to be petted. As he woke more, he remembered getting home the night before, both of them stumbling sleepily out of the train and into a cab, then from the cab to the house. They'd fallen in bed and gone to sleep with barely a "good night." The trip had worn both of them out but it seemed that Roy was recovering faster. Al was surprised the older man had managed to wake without waking Al; that was a rare occurrence.
When Al didn't say anything or show any signs of moving, Roy left his book for a moment and looked down at the young man. "Are you going back to sleep?" Roy asked, rubbing his fingertips gently across Al's scalp.
Al hummed thoughtfully then said, "No, I don't think so. But I do feel like being lazy today."
"It's a good day for it," Roy agreed. "It isn't like we have anywhere to go."
"But we do have things to plant in the garden," Al reminded him. Roy chuckled.
"Gardening can wait; it's too late in the day to do it now anyway; it's already gotten warm. We'll wait until the evening when it cools off again." Roy's thumb rubbed back and forth across the top of Al's ear and he went back to his book.
Al shifted until he could see the window, surprised at how bright the sunlight was. Just how long had he slept, anyway? It really was an indulgence to be able to wallow in bed with Roy, nothing pressing ahead of them for the day. He closed his eyes again and breathed deep, trying to identify the mingled scents of their skin amongst all the other smells that filtered in. Resembool felt like home, but this house -- this room -- was beginning to mark out a claim for itself in Al's emotions.
This is almost like we're the ones honeymooning, Al thought to himself. We went to a wedding, and then I left home and came to Roy's house. If I didn't know better, it would be easy to think we were the ones who got married. He smiled a little at the idea. It wasn't an unpleasant thought, not with the way Roy's fingers were threading through his blond hair -- and Al really would go back to sleep if he kept that up.
"What's that smile for?" Roy wanted to know and Al opened his eyes again, looking up into Roy's questioning ones.
"Just thinking," Al said. "About weddings and honeymoons."
Roy smirked. "I do not envy the other patrons in whatever hotel your brother and sister-in-law choose to visit," he said. "If they're lucky, they will have opened our gift to Edward first."
Al nearly choked on a laugh. "If they're lucky," he returned, "Winry will be so distracted by the scarves that she won't get around to opening my gift to her. Otherwise Brother may find himself alone -- or with a huge repair bill when she decides to start experimenting."
Roy laughed and they lapsed into a comfortable silence, Roy with his book and Al with his thoughts. Al couldn't help but notice how wonderfully comfortable this was, just the two of them, and how very much he wanted to kiss Roy at the moment -- the kind of lazy, gentle kiss that could go on for hours, he thought, and would lead to drawn-out caresses and ... He could feel his body and face warming and before he even really thought about it, he was speaking.
"Hey, Roy, would you like to have sex with me sometime?" Roy's hand paused in Al's hair and Al didn't dare open his eyes. "I mean, more than we have been."
There was silence, then the barest hint of a cough. Roy's fingers twitched and Al cracked open one eye, then the other. He couldn't tell if Roy was trying to suppress a smile or a grimace. Al frowned and the corner of Roy's mouth tugged up.
"Stop laughing!" Al protested, chuckling himself. "I'm serious."
"I'm sorry," Roy said, still fighting a grin. "You rather surprised me." The fingers in Al's hair resumed their sifting.
Al laughed and his eyes half-closed with contentment. No wonder cats like to be petted so much, he thought. "Sorry," he said. "I guess it was kind of sudden." He paused. "But still, what do you think?" He opened his eyes again, looking up at Roy. "If you think it's too much for you, that's okay, I was just ... I guess I just wanted to let you know that, um, I wouldn't mind. At all." Alphonse could feel his face turning bright pink. "I think I kind of want to, I mean."
"Hm." Roy's fingertips skimmed Al's forehead, tickling a little, and then again. "I suppose it would be a good idea to talk about it." He removed his hand from Al's hair altogether and the younger man had to try hard not to whine. Still, Al took the hint and pushed himself up into a sitting position, propping his pillow behind his back and leaning against the headboard beside Roy.
"Talk about it?"
Roy nodded. "The details, I mean. So we'll be on the same page and know what to expect. We aren't prepared for it right now, but I think preparation will involve more than simply collecting the necessary materials."
Al could feel the tips of his ears burning and all he could think was how surreal this was -- but how very them, to develop a strategy for lovemaking as if they were going to war. The two are often very similar, after all. "All right."
"Well..." Roy hesitated and Al looked at him. Was he imagining things or was there a slight pink stain on Mustang's cheeks? Al smiled; somehow, that put him more at ease. "Have you ever been involved with a man before, Alphonse?" The question was almost clinical and Al was grateful.
"No," Al said. "Before you, there was just Paninya." He fidgeted slightly, shifting against the pillow to find a softer spot. "I do know the mechanics of how it works between two men, though."
"That certainly makes things easier," Roy grinned. "I've only had one relationship with a man." Al nodded and Roy glanced at him. "You know about Maes, right?" Al nodded again. "We mostly... that is, I was..." Roy paused, seemingly at a loss for polite descriptive words. "I was the one penetrated," he finally said evenly.
Al thought back to what he remembered of the two men before Hughes' death and almost smiled. That made sense, he thought; he remembered the way Roy had always seemed a bit deferential to Hughes, the way Hughes had been the more forceful personality of the pair... which was saying something. "Is that how you want it to be this time?" Al asked quietly. He didn't know if Mustang would want to take the same role again because it was familiar, or if he would rather Maes be the only lover who ever had that right with him. Either way, Al couldn't see himself minding. He blushed a little as he imagined both scenarios. Either way, he thought, it was sex with Roy, and that was what really mattered to him.
"I'm not sure," Roy said candidly. "Do you have a preference?"
Al shook his head. "I've never been in either position, so I don't know which I'd like. Neither of them bother me to think about, though." He tilted his head. "There is one thing that occurs to me, though." Roy's look encouraged him to continue. "It's been long enough for you that it would almost be like a first time again. It will be my first time. Either way, it's going to hurt one of us."
Roy frowned a little. "Yes, that's true."
"I think... since you are more experienced, maybe it would be better if I were the one penetrated?" Al stumbled over the words but managed not to choke. "You know more about what you're doing, after all, so it would probably hurt me less if you did it, where I might accidentally hurt you more." He shrugged and chewed on his lower lip as he waited for Roy to think it over. Besides, he thought to himself, You seem to handle things much better if you're in control.
Roy nodded slowly. "You have a point," he said. "It might be best to do it that way, at least at first." He smiled. "I don't mind trying it the other way to give us a chance to see which way works best, though."
Al smiled, letting out a breath and relaxing. He was thinking over what they'd just discussed -- and trying not to think too hard about it, since he could already feel the blood going south -- when he felt the soft pressure of lips against his cheek and turned his head in surprise just in time to catch Roy's next kiss on his mouth. "Roy...?"
Roy grinned, a light Al recognized as evil in those dark eyes. "Now that we've got that settled," he said, his hand sliding across Al's belly, "What about a little fun before we go plant our garden?"
Al laughed and when Roy kissed him again he was ready for it and yielded instantly. All of a sudden, he felt like he had a lot to look forward to.