Insomnia

A/N: this was written for a prompt challenge fic contest, and won best overall fic. prompt was insomnia. i was playing with the idea of making it into a full-fledged story, but i'll just see how things go, since i'm about to be busier than i thought i'd be.

enjoy!

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Insomnia
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Roy watched Ed move about the yard in graceful twists and leaps, the moonlight shining off his metal arm and leg. His long blonde hair was held in a tail near the crown of his head, a more mature look than his old braid, in Roy’s opinion.

It was just Ed and wide-open space beneath the night sky, something that could never be seen in Central, something Roy thought he’d never see again.

An incessantly ringing phone and a frantic Al had led Roy to Risembool two weeks ago, where a disheveled and wounded Edward had finally returned. He wouldn’t speak of where he’d been or what he’d done, and no one pressed him. They were all just glad he had come home.

But late at night, when Ed thought everyone was asleep, he would come outside and work himself to the breaking point, trying to obtain something that apparently wouldn’t come. And Roy watched from the window of his borrowed room, asked to stay because, besides Al, Roy Mustang was the closest person to Edward anymore.

Roy watched as Ed paused in his late-night exercises, the blonde staring off into the star-filled sky. And when Roy expected the young man to continue, Ed surprised him by shaking his head wistfully and returning to the house.

Roy looked to the glass in his hand and listened to the sounds of Ed moving around downstairs, waiting for the unmistakable sound of the blonde climbing the stairs. He felt an irresistible urge to talk to the young man tonight, to see if he could pry some answers out of him. But most of all, he just wanted to spend time with him.

When he could hear the uneven thump of Ed’s automail on the stairs, Roy moved himself away from the window and walked softly to the door, turning the knob and pulling the door toward him. He caught Ed’s eye, surprise flickering through the golden orbs before they blanked once again.

Roy moved back, using his hand with the glass in it to motion the young man in. Ed seemed as if he would just continue down the hallway, but he looked at his closed door and then walked past Roy into the older man’s room.

Roy closed the door quietly and turned to see Ed standing in the middle of the room, slowly looking around the sparsely decorated space, eyes pausing slightly on the open bottle of alcohol on the table beneath the window.

“Sit down, Fullmetal.”

Amber eyes looked over a metal shoulder before Ed moved to take a tentative seat on Roy’s untouched bed. He fiddled with is shirttail nervously, and Roy wondered where he’d gotten it. The brunette shrugged the thought aside and moved to grab the alcohol bottle and pour more into his glass. He looked back to the blonde on the bed, Ed’s eyes downcast. Roy moved to the bed and put the drink in front of Ed, waiting patiently for him to look up and take it.

“What’s this?” he asked even as he reached for the glass.

Roy rolled his eyes, at least the one left, and sighed. “What do you think, Fullmetal? You’re certainly not going to pour it over your cuts and scrapes.” Watching Ed’s golden eyes narrow in indignation, Roy smirked before murmuring more seriously, “It’s to ease the mind. Drink.”

Ed looked at him in distrust, but brought the glass to his lips nonetheless. Roy wanted to warn him against taking a gulp like Ed was prone to do with all liquids, but felt the warning wouldn’t be heeded.

He grimaced when Ed choked on the potent alcohol, waiting for the young man to turn his death glare on him. But Ed just continued to clear his throat without looking at him. Roy moved back to the table by the window and sat down in the lone chair, facing Ed who now sat motionless on the bed.

“Fullmetal-”

“You know, you’re the only one that still insists on calling me that. Now that Al’s body is back, I have no further reason to be part of the military.”

“The fact remains that you have yet to be declared dead or discharged from service. Nor have you turned in your resignation, so you still are the Fullmetal Alchemist.” They were both silent for a moment, and then Roy continued a bit softer, “That said, I will admit there is a time and place for it.”

Ed just glanced at him quickly before snorting softly. Roy smiled down at the floor. “So what’s wrong, Edward? You go out there every night and stay until near dawn, and then we all see you shortly after that, as if you’d been asleep all night.”

Ed just shrugged. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

Roy watched him from across the room. He’d yet to take another drink from the glass, and he fidgeted with his shirt again. It was almost as if the kid was trying not to look at Roy, when several years earlier he would have been staring him down.

“Why won’t you look at me, Edward?”

“What are you talking about, old man?” Ed lifted his head, but again his eyes missed Roy and stared at some point on the ceiling.

“Edward…” Why wouldn’t he look at him? Did Roy do something to scare him? He sighed and looked to the ground, flexing his hand to watch his shadow’s movement in the moonlight from the window. He still marveled that he could no longer see from his left eye, but he was getting used to it. Then he remembered that he didn’t have his patch on, and his right eye widened in shock. Edward hadn’t seen him without the patch for the two weeks he’d been back.

“You look different,” Edward said softly from the bed, his head once again hanging. “Why did you leave it off?”

Roy smiled bitterly to himself. “I hide behind a patch during the day, Edward, but if I don’t let my sins face the world at least at night, they’ll turn on me and attack my mind.”

He saw Ed flinch, a bit of alcohol sloshing out over his left hand. “Is that what you’re doing, Edward? Are you hiding your sins?”

“I think everyone that matters knows my sins by now,” Ed said humorlessly, switching the glass to his right hand so he could wipe his left on his shirt. Then he lifted the glass and took another drink, this time a small sip to avoid choking. “God, this shit’s gross. Why do you drink it?”

“It eases the mind,” Roy repeated. They sat in silence yet again until Ed gave an impatient huff.

“I can’t sleep. I haven’t been able to sleep for a long time. I can’t fall asleep. When I do, it’s from utter exhaustion, and even then it’s only for a small amount of time because, yeah, my ‘sins’ would start to eat away at me, sending me crashing through nightmare after nightmare. Alfons called it ‘insomnia,’ but I call it fucking frustrating.”

“Why don’t you take pills?” Roy asked, deliberately ignoring Ed’s slip, yet still wondering whom ‘Alfons’ was, somehow knowing it wasn’t in reference to his brother.

Ed laughed. “I guess I could now, but you saw those things I had been using before Winry took them off. When I took pills back in… back there, I couldn’t function well when I woke up, because those appendages weren’t connected to me or my will.”

“Edward, you can’t keep functioning without sleep.”

“Believe me, colonel-bastard, I know that.”

“I believe that’s general-bastard now, Edward.” Ed laughed a bit, and Roy smiled at the hint of good humor beneath the exhausted sound. “Are there any other ways to fall asleep?”

“I’ve tried them all. The only thing that seems to work is the ‘pushing myself to exhaustion’ route, and only when my body is on its last leg.”

Ed brought the glass to his lips once again, and Roy watched as his throat worked to swallow the alcohol. A bit slipped from the glass and trailed down Ed’s chin, and Roy wanted nothing more than to walk over to him and lick it up.

“I think I could help you, Edward.” Roy didn’t think what he was about to initiate was a good thing, but he couldn’t help but want.

A golden eye flicked over to him, and Ed’s metal arm reached over to set the empty glass on the nightstand by the bed, his shirt moving and exposing a stretch of golden skin over defined muscles.

“And what would you propose, Mustang?”

Brandishing his courage, Roy stood from the chair and stepped over to the bed, Ed watching him warily with a hint of curiosity. He bent over the other man, noticing more intimately how much shorter Ed still was than him, and brought his face close to Ed’s.

“I could fuck you unconscious.”

Ed stared at him for a moment before laughing in his face. “How much of that shit have you drunk, Mustang? Damn.”

Roy surged forward, claiming those laughing lips with his, thrusting his tongue forcefully into Ed’s mouth. His hand came up and pulled the tie from the blonde’s hair, letting the silky strands fall down, and he buried his fingers in the thick of them, tightening his grip to change the angle of Ed’s head, wanting to thrust his tongue deeper into that heat.

He pulled away, and Ed panted into his still close mouth, his eyes a bit glazed. “I guess you weren’t kidding.”

“And you’re not against the idea,” Roy said. Ed focused on Roy, and then it was his turn to move forward and kiss Roy with a finesse that Roy would have never thought Ed to possess. Ed leaned back into the mattress, pulling Roy down with him without breaking the searing kiss.

Roy eagerly moved to straddle the younger man, not knowing what was coming over him and not really caring. In between small kisses against reddened lips, Roy maneuvered them into a more comfortable position on the bed, his hands once again running through silky, blonde strands before moving down to skim Ed’s body. He pushed the open shirt to either side of Ed, moving his mouth from his lips to kiss and lick his collarbone.

Ed’s breath was hitching at every new sensation, and it was all Roy could do not to moan at the little sounds. If Ed did that much longer, Roy would lose it. But, he reminded himself, this was for Ed, so he’d have to make it good.

“It’s… it’s almost dawn, Mustang,” Ed panted, trying to sound like he had control, but failing miserably.

“Then I’ll not only have to make this good, but fast as well.” Roy went back to kissing and licking his way down Ed’s body, tasting the salt from the sweat Ed had worked up in his exercises. He paused at Ed’s navel, watching Ed’s hips buck a bit, begging for some kind of friction. Instead of complying, Roy speared Ed’s navel with is tongue, loving the choked gasp ripped from the blonde’s throat.

“Mus… Mustang…”

Roy settled back on his knees and began to pull Ed’s cotton pants off, letting them fall to the floor, along with the blonde’s boxers. He took in the sight of a half naked and panting Ed, his cock hardening even more when his gaze swept over the blonde’s straining length.

His eye roved back up Ed’s body, suddenly catching on Ed’s half-lidded eyes, noticing for the first time the dark circles that indicated just how exhausted the man really was. He was suddenly unsure if he should do this, but Ed’s whole body was begging for it, even his exhausted eyes, so Roy just let out a shaky breath and bent over the blonde again.

“Just let yourself feel, Edward,” he whispered before lowering his mouth to blow a small current of cool air on Ed’s heated erection. Ed gasped, and his back lifted slightly off the bed. Roy smiled before swiping his tongue up the length of Ed’s cock, pausing at the tip to lick the bead of pre-cum from the slit. He looked from beneath his lashes to see Ed biting his lip to keep from making any loud noises.

Roy smirked, content to let Ed do as he pleased since he knew Ed wouldn’t want his family to hear his screams of pleasure. But still, Ed needed to know how good Roy could be.

Before he could go back to languidly teasing Ed, a bump from down the hall was heard, and both he and Ed stilled. Ed looked as if he was about to get up, but Roy wouldn’t have it. He opened his mouth and engulfed Ed’s cock in a tight embrace, sucking immediately along the length to distract Ed from his desire to leave. Ed’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he had the sense to cover his mouth with his hand, the metal one, biting down on one of his automail fingers to stifle his scream.

Roy continued to work Ed over, sucking and licking, making Ed squirm beneath him. He even allowed Ed to buck slightly into his mouth, his hands moving with Ed’s hips and periodically squeezing the firm globes of the blonde’s ass. When Ed’s hands moved to his black hair, allowing his moans to be audible to Roy, the brunette smiled around his mouthful and moved his right hand further underneath Ed. His middle finger slid between Ed’s cheeks, skimming over his puckered entrance.

Ed bucked wildly, almost choking Roy, and shot his cum down Roy’s throat, his fingers tight in Roy’s hair. Roy swallowed and licked Ed’s softened length clean as he rose up on his knees to look down at Ed.

He blinked to see Ed passed out on top of the blankets, a small, blissful smile on his lips. Roy fought not to laugh at the situation when a door opened down the hall. It must be time to get up, he thought, and indeed the sun was shining its dawn light into Roy’s window.

Roy looked at the sleeping Ed once again and moaned piteously at his own state of arousal. He sighed, realizing it was useless to cry at the outcome, and moved off the bed quietly. He grabbed the day’s clothes and moved to relieve himself in the bathroom conveniently connected to his room.

If Edward didn’t wake in the next few hours, Roy mused to himself, he’d have to share the news that sex was indeed a cure for insomnia.

~owari~ (or not... *shrugs*)


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my other two entries can also be found on here. 'ice-cubes' in naruto and 'adopted by cats' in tsubasa.

thank you for reading!