Archive of Our Own ^beta

Ed sneaks up behind Roy who is currently starting up the coffee machine, sliding his arms around Roy's waist and rubbing his face sleepily against his bare back. "You were s'posed to stay in bed and let me make you breakfast today, love. You shouldn't have to do anything for yourself on your big day."

Roy rests his hands over Ed's on his waist. "You just looked so peaceful, I didn't have the heart to wake you. But if you would like, I can go back to bed now and you can pretend you saw nothing."

"I would like, yes. Let me spoil you for once." Ed chuckles and places a kiss between Roy's shoulder blades before peeling himself away and playfully tapping Roy on the ass. "Now go on, get."

Roy takes hold of Ed's hand again long enough to pull him forward for a chaste kiss, smiling all the while. "Thank you, my sun."

"Yeah, yeah. Back to bed with you already, Mr. Almost-President." Ed turns to the icebox to pull out eggs and bacon, leveling Roy with a pointed look over the top of the door. "And I better not catch you doing any work when I get up there."

Roy holds his hands up in surrender, an exaggerated pout on his lips as he backs out of the kitchen. Ed listens to make sure he goes straight up to their bedroom and doesn't make a detour to the study before pulling out a couple of pans to get to work cooking their breakfast.

Ed takes his time and lets the bacon crisp up just the way Roy likes it, grabbing two mugs to fill with the now finished pot of coffee. He grabs the standing tray from the living room and places it on the counter, loading it up with the mugs, cream, and sugar. Once the bacon and eggs have finished cooking, Ed plates everything and double checks to make sure it's all perfect and that he's turned off the burners before making the trek back up to their bedroom.

When he lays eyes on Roy's dozing form—back against the headboard and head lolled to the side with what Ed knows to be the stack of papers containing Roy's speech on his lap—Ed can't help but to smile softly and hesitate to wake him for just the smallest moment. He carefully sits down on his side of the bed, tray steady on his legs and leans over to work his fingers through soft fringe. Roy stirs and slowly blinks his eye open, a warm smile gracing his lips the moment their eyes meet.

"Sorry, I didn't want the food to get cold." Ed scoots in closer to press against Roy's side, moving the tray to rest atop his right leg and Roy's left as Roy moves his papers back to his bedside table.

Roy shakes his head, nuzzling his nose against Ed's temple and breathing in deeply. "It smells almost as divine as you, sweetheart."

Ed can feel his cheeks warming as he scoops some sugar into his coffee and stirs. "Sappy bastard. Hurry up and dig in or I'm gonna eat yours, too."

"Your threats feel emptier and emptier by the day, you know." But Roy picks up a piece of bacon and begins eating anyway. He makes a happy sound as he chews. "How do you always manage to make such perfect bacon? I swear every time I try, I always burn it."

"My talents are endless, what can I say." Ed's words are muffled around a rather impressive bite of fluffy eggs and Roy is fighting to hold in his laughter and not choke on his coffee. There's a joke about Roy's flames and cooking not getting along that Ed could make, but he refrains... if only for today.

Ed's buttoning up his vest when he pops his head into their bathroom. "What time are Riza and Jean picking us up?"

"Within the hour, I believe." Roy is fidgeting with his fringe, trying to get his eyepatch to sit right and not make the hairs stick up oddly.

Ed bats his hands away and fixes it easily, taking a step back to give Roy an approving once-over with a soft smile on his lips. "You look perfect, handsome. No one's gonna be able to take their eyes off of you."

Roy breathes out slowly and Ed sees his shoulders relax just a little. Better than nothing. Roy finally turns away from the mirror to smile down at Ed and Ed can see the moment Roy recognizes the color of his vest. It had been a surprise, after all, and the way his eye widens and a faint pink dusts his cheeks makes Ed even more glad he'd decided to go through the trouble of getting it custom made. Carefully, pale fingers reach out to run over the blue fabric and Ed's smile widens.

"Do you like it?" He's pretty sure he knows the answer, but he asks anyway.

"Like it?" Roy slips his hand down from where he'd been tracing the gold accented buttons of the vest to wrap his arm around Ed's waist and then the other arm joins in and then Roy is hugging Ed so tightly it knocks the air out of Ed's lungs a little.

Ed stands on his toes, arms looping around Roy's neck to return every ounce of feeling into the hug. He nuzzles his face into Roy's neck, heart fluttering happily in his chest. Fuck, he loves this man so much he doesn't even know what to do with it all. Falling for Roy and being with Roy for these last few years... Ed understands now why Hughes was the way he was about Gracia.

When Roy pulls back enough to look at Ed again, his gorgeous dark eye is glossy with unshed tears and Ed reaches up to cup his face immediately, thumb tracing underneath his bottom lashline oh-so-gently. "Sap. It wasn't supposed to make you cry."

"I just—I wasn't expecting something like this. This is so much more than you ever have to do, Ed. It couldn't have been cheap to have that made. I feel yet again that I must remind you that it has always and will always be more than I could have ever dreamed of simply having you by my side. I don't want you to feel you have to—"

"I told you that I want to put in the extra time and effort, Roy. You say that supporting me is important to you, right? Well, supporting you is important to me, too. You know that. We've talked about this." Ed runs his fingers from the underside of Roy's good eye to lightly trace over the eyepatch. "I read that in a lot of places, it's customary of the romantic partner of a country's leader—well, y'know, they always used the words wife or First Lady in all the texts I read—to show support of their... husbands—by incoporating his uniform colors into their dresses." Ed can feel his ears heating up and he knows his cheeks will be next, but he pushes through the embarrassment. "I know it doesn't really help with the whole... not being a woman thing that the old farts love to try and use against you—for all the good it ended up doing them. And I know we aren't, y'know, married or anything, but I just thought maybe it'd be... y'know, really... cute and romantic and stuff—to match together as a couple."

Roy's hands move to cup Ed's face and he captures Ed's lips in an almost bruising kiss. Ed's arms tighten around Roy's neck to keep himself from stumbling due to the sudden intensity of the kiss, but he wastes no time in returning it with a happy hum. Not for the first time, Ed finds himself wishing he could simply melt into Roy like this and stay here forever.

"Thank you, dear heart. It's perfect—you are perfect." Roy's smile is brighter than all of the stars in the sky combined as they part and his thumbs run along the apples of Ed's cheeks. Ed wants nothing more than to continue to be the one who gets to bask in Roy's beauty and in his affections. "In fact, you look so perfect that I think we should invest in more matching outfits immediately. I will pass it into law myself if I have to."

Ed bursts into laughter. "Already thinking of ways to abuse your power and you haven't even been sworn in yet. That's my man." Ed teases, cheeks growing hotter as Roy refuses to break eye contact and just grins more deviously.

"And how wholeheartedly proud I am to be yours. There is nothing I would rather be." Roy's gentle gaze smolders in the next moment, a smirk that Ed intimately knows means trouble tugging at his lips as he smooths his hands down the front of Ed's vest reverently. "I must say, as stunning as you look in this, I find myself longing to see how it looks on the floor of our bedroom instead."

Ed scoffs and playfully shoves at Roy's chest before turning on his heel to exit their bedroom. "If you aren't too exhausted by the end of the night, you might just get to find out."

Roy follows Ed down the stairs. "I could never be too exhausted to pass up an opportunity to ravish you."

Ed hums as Jean's usual knock pattern sounds on the front door. "I'm gonna hold you to that. I'll tell Jean we'll be out just as soon as you're ready. So you just take your time, okay?"

When Ed returns from ensuring Jean that they won't be too long, he finds Roy staring down at his now gloved hands. Slowly and carefully, Ed reaches to cover Roy's hands with his own.

"Hey. What's wrong?"

Roy takes a shaky breath and Ed can feel his hands shaking. His voice is so quiet when he speaks that Ed has to lean in just to hear the words. "...What if I fail? What if these hands really are only capable of destroying?"

Ed steps in closer when Roy doesn't pull or shy away and he tugs those gloved hands towards his face, pressing a kiss to each finger and then the arrays on the backs. "You won't fail. It's going to take time and hard work and we've always known it's not going to be easy, but you are going to change things for the better. You're going to do so much good for the whole of Amestris. And I'll be right here by your side every step of the way—helping you, supporting you, reminding you that you can do this. Because you can do this."

Ed squeezes both of Roy's hands in his own, holding them tightly against his chest over his steady heartbeat. "You're more than the worst things you've ever done. You're more than your biggest regrets. I'll keep reminding you until you get it through that thick skull of yours. You're a good man, Roy. You've dedicated your life to achieving this goal so that you could atone for your sins and make this country better. To make it a place we're proud to call home. Don't let the doubts win now. Not when the moment's finally here."

Roy squeezes Ed's hands in turn and when he finally looks up, he's smiling again and the fire's back in that gorgeous eye. "You do know that I would be lost without you, don't you?"

"Ditto." Ed smiles easily, relief flooding through him as he releases Roy's hands. "Now, come on. We better get going before Riza decides to come in and drag us out."

Somehow hours have passed by like minutes and a dozen people are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, quadruple checking that Roy is primped and prepped and everything is in exactly the same spot as the last time they'd checked five seconds ago. Ed carefully stays out of the way of the chaos, but never strays too far from Roy's side. He and Riza and the rest of the team have already checked that everything is secure probably more than was strictly necessary, but with Roy's safety there was no such thing as being too cautious.

This was about to be the most important day of Roy's life—the most important day in Amestris' life if you asked Ed. As soon as Roy was sworn in, he would officially be the very first President of Amestris. And the very first leader of this country to be voted in by the people. Ed didn't think he could be more proud of the man he called his own—the man that somehow chose to have Ed stand by his side as his partner in every sense of the word; day after day, year after year.

Ed feels a warm, gloved hand on his cheek, bringing him out of his own thoughts. He leans into the touch, a small smile pulling at the corners of his lips at the simplest of touches from his boyfriend. Roy really has turned him into a lovesick sap. What a bastard. Roy smiles in return as he tilts down to press their lips together and Ed can feel his reluctance to pull away in the way Roy's hand tightens where it rests on Ed's waist—the nerves for what he's about to go do seeming to cling to him in much the same way he clings to Ed now. Ed lets them both indulge in the kiss for a few more seconds before he carefully pulls back and flattens his hands down the front of Roy's fancy ceremonial uniform jacket.

"Break a leg. I'll be right here, cheering the loudest when you finish that fancy, inspiring speech of yours." With one last chaste kiss to those soft lips, Ed gently pushes Roy away towards the edge of the curtain where they can see the podium, Grumman, Riza, and the rest of his team standing around Roy's rightful spot center stage.

Roy glances the same way and nods, straightening himself up in that self-assured, refined, confident, almost a little too arrogant way that Ed has always associated with Roy Mustang. It was the way someone who demanded respect and attention would present themselves and Roy definitely pulled it off better than probably anyone. But the difference was that when it came to Roy... Roy wanted to earn respect. He didn't want it given to him without first working for it. He didn't want to abuse his position for his own benefit and power trip. He didn't want anyone holding him up on some pedastal. Especially not for wanting this world to be a better place and doing his best to make that happen—something that every single person should be striving for. It's one of the things Ed loves most about him.

When he was younger, he could never see past the carefully crafted masks and overexaggerated theatrics that Roy had put on for all to see. But since coming back and getting to really know and really see Roy—not the Colonel, not Mustang, just Roy—Ed respected this imperfect man more than he'd ever thought possible. He remembers being granted glimpses before—cracks and slips in the masks that would be quickly put back together before Ed could fully grasp what he was seeing.

Not that any of that matters now. Now, all that matters is that Roy's done it. He has really and truly achieved his goal. And Ed knows that he and all of Amestris can trust Roy to always do his best to do what is right and what is necessary, no matter how hard it may be and no matter the amount of pushback it might receive from those who wished to stay in the comfort of corruption. His lover will do everything within his power to make this world just that bit better than they'd found it.

Roy keeps hold of Ed's hand in his as he makes his way on stage, only letting go at the very last possible second with one more of those warm smiles that Ed knows are reserved only for him. Ed clasps his hands together tightly in front of him as he watches Roy calmly make his way to the podium, the crowd falling into a respectful silence that almost eerie.

"Good afternoon, my dear Amestris. Thank you for joining me here today on this truly momentous occasion." Roy pauses, looking around the crowd slowly. Ed almost wants to laugh at how dramatic the pregnant pause seems. It's perfect. "Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Amestris. She has been through many trials and tribulations over the years. She has beheld war, destruction, corruption, genocide... Things no country and no person should ever have to bear witness to. The Amestris of today is fractured. She is in dire need of repairs; of reconstruction; of rebirth. And I stand here before you today—ready to swear my loyalty, my dedication, my fealty not only to Amestris as a whole, but to each and every one of her peoples. I intend to let my actions speak louder than my words and show my utmost commitment to the betterment of our beloved, broken country. I hope that you will hold me accountable of this. I hope that we will hold each other accountable in this long and arduous journey to a better Amestris—a better home for us all. A home we can all be proud to call ours. A home that is fair and just and equivalent for all; not only those in positions of privilege and power. We will not let the horrors of the past continue to harm our present and rob us of a future. Together, I am confident that we can and will leave this world better than we found it. Together, we will create a world in which our children and our children's children and so on will never again have to live through the tragedies that have fallen upon this country since its formation. Thank you for trusting me to help lead us into this new chapter. I will do everything I can to ensure that I have earned that trust. Thank you."

The crowd erupts into cheers and applause and Ed truly tries his best to be the loudest amongst them, cupping his hands around his mouth to whoop until his throat feels sore. Roy is facing Riza and the others now as Riza pins the new additions to Roy's uniform with a rare unconcealed and genuine smile on her face. She looks as proud as Ed feels and he knows this means just as much to her as it does to Roy. The whole team has been working so hard towards this goal for so long now that it must feel practically euphoric to finally see it coming to fruition.

As soon as Roy turns around, new stars and bars pinned into place, his eye finds Ed's and his grin rivals the sun—almost overwhelmingly bright and brilliant and breathtaking. He takes quick, determined steps towards where Ed waits and there's something about that fire in that eye that has Ed's heart picking up speed. His feet begin to carry him forward, entranced—as if despite the hundreds of thousands in the crowd and listening from the street and in their homes, Ed is the only one Roy sees. As if they are the only two left in all of Amestris—on the entire planet in this moment.

When they are mere inches apart, Roy stops and digs into his inner jacket pocket to pull out a small, dark, velvet box and Ed thinks his heart might actually beat out of his chest as golden eyes widen and fixate on the box. His voice is strained and quiet, thick with emotion when he manages to speak.

"Roy... What are you doing?"

Roy slowly lowers himself down onto one knee and fiddles with the box to get it open so that Ed can see the beautiful glittering silver band within. Once open, Roy reaches up to take Ed's left hand in his. The world has stopped in this moment. Everyone else has disappeared. It is unnaturally quiet as they hold eye contact through misty eyes.

"Today would not have been possible without you. My every day would not be possible without you. When you were gone—when I thought that I had lost you before I even knew the full scope of what you mean to me—it was all I could do to simply continue moving forward. I'll spare you the somber retelling as we've been through it all before. My fire had died the day you disappeared and returned the moment you were within reach once more. I didn't know that I could love someone this much. I wasn't sure I was deserving of it. I'm still unsure at times that I am deserving of having you by my side; of the love you give me in return. I promise you that I will never take a single moment for granted for the rest of my life. That's what I want to give you—the rest of my life. And even beyond that, if it's possible. I will give you all of my lifetimes. As long as I exist in some form or another... my heart, my being, my soul, my very essence will belong to you." Roy takes a shaky breath, tears sliding down his cheek as he gently squeezes Ed's hand. "I know that we don't need rings or official papers or a ceremony. I know that just us being together as we are is already so much more than enough. But I was hoping that maybe you'd allow me the greatest honor of marrying you and doing all of that sappy, romantic crap anyway. So, what do you say? Edward Elric—my sun, my dear heart, love of my life—will you marry me?"

The last words don't even have time to fully fall past Roy's lips before Ed is joining him on the wooden stage floor to throw his arms around his wonderful, sweet, ridiculous man. He buries his face in Roy's neck and nods over and over again, voice muffled against warm skin. "Yes. Of course I'll marry you, you overdramatic bastard." Ed pulls away just enough to gently butt their foreheads together, rolling his eyes even as tears stream down his face. "Did you have to do this in front of the entire country?"

"You've just agreed to being tied to me for better or for worse, 'til death do us part. I suppose you'll just have to deal with my theatrics for the rest of our lives, now won't you?" Roy's eye is practically sparkling with equal parts mischief, love, and happiness.

Ed doesn't bother responding, he simply angles his head so that he can slot their lips together in a happy, wet, sweet kiss. Their smiles make it difficult, but Ed wouldn't have it any other way. He wouldn't have Roy any other way, no matter how much he might playfully complain about the dramatics and theatrics.

When they part again, Roy makes a grabbing motion with his fingers and Ed offers up his flesh hand. Roy's grin is unwavering as he plucks the ring from its casing and slowly slides it into place upon Ed's ring finger, leaning down to press a soft kiss to the dazzling gemstone on the center of the band once he's finished. Ed knows his face is bright red and his cheeks hurt from smiling so widely and he can hear all of the cheers and aww-ing coming from all around them (he definitely hears Al's wooping from the front row and he's already preparing himself to be bombarded as soon as they leave this stage), but he really can't find it in himself to care about the publicness of it all. No, Ed can't find it in himself to care about much of anything right now.

Nothing matters in this moment—only the two of them.

Roy and Ed.

Roy and Ed, fiancés.

Roy and Ed, husbands to be.

Roy and Ed, as long as they both shall live.

Over and over again, in every lifetime to come.