So of course I found more...

[pandoraculpa]

....and I'm not certain if this is in the Winter Bucky arc, or from earlier in the story when Roy was still convalescing. In fact, I suspect the latter, since they seem to be more focused on making space in the attic and playing dress-up than finding blankets. Either way, it needs to live here. Definitely from when Roy was convalescing. I just found the first half, and am adding it now.

(and credit where it's due, this is Whimsey's work; I'm just coding it. Whimsey, Please let me know if I did it wrong; this is where the paragraph break issue comes in.)




Al had mentioned that morning, about cleaning out their disaster of an attic, to accommodate their new boarders. The weedy one with the big bright eyes, Arai, had already headed out at the asscrack of dawn to work at the bakery. Leaving the really interesting one, Roy, with a raggedy old scarf around his neck and the promise that, "Hey, I'll be back later on, alright pal? You just keep resting up here one more day, and keep Ed company."

Roy had blinked his big dark eyes, and repeated, "Pal, company." Which was his way of saying he got the message. He patted at that faded disintegrating bunch of wool around his neck, like it was some protective talisman. And hell, who knew, it probably was for these two guys. Going by what Ed had seen so far, they must have needed any protection they could scrounge up, for awhile.

But the scarf also gave Ed an idea. And as the morning wore on, and he started getting irritated and fidgety with everything about the downstairs sickroom, and Al was evidently going full steam ahead out in the store, Ed decided to do something about the idea.

"Hey," he nudged Roy, who'd been reassuringly a lot more with it this morning, humming with great interest over the illustrations in an old Veterinary Desk Reference Ed had dug out (for all the cool anatomical drawings, and also because this patient just kept itching at some back corner of Ed's brain, bugging him like a half-trimmed hangnail.)

"Hey, you wanna go see what's upstairs with me?" Ed reasoned that nobody could get too worked up, if they stuck together. It was just a little light exercise around the house, right? Any decent doctor would say they were due for some of that.

Roy left off tutting over engravings of horse skeletons, and creased his eyebrows at Ed. "Go?" he asked uncertainly, patting again at his lumpy old faded scarf.

And Ed had of course noticed how Arai talked to this guy. Going slow, framing out the most basic concepts. Because while Roy was clearly intelligent, there was also something markedly different going on, with his language processing. And Ed had to hand it to the kid, it must have taken some patience, for the two of them to work out their communication, on the road together.

"Nah, we're not leaving. Just a walk. Up the stairs?" He pointed up at the ceiling, to illustrate.

Roy tipped his frown up, thoughtful, to study the ceiling. Then he blinked back down at Ed, interested and alert. "Roof? Climb up?" Seemed like roofs were a positive place, for Roy.

"Nope, sorry," Ed told him. "Weather still sucks today." And even he could admit he wasn't in shape for that kind of climbing. Not to mention that Al would throw a goddamn fit, if he caught them out there.

"Top room," he told Roy, stacking his palm above his head. "Attic. Under the roof. You wanna see it?"

Roy peered at him, taking a bit to sift out a translation. "Climb stairs. And....visit?"

Now it was Ed's turn to make some translations, but then he nodded. Realizing that a "visit" must indicate something temporary, in Roy-speak. Whereas to "go" was clearly some kind of scarf-clutching situation of much greater uncertainty. Ed filed that away, as deliberately as any other critical piece of information he'd ever soaked up. Roy wasn't a fan of "going" anywhere, or of anybody else "going" (and if Ed thought about why that might be, he'd probably get real pissed off, so he set it aside for now). Visiting, however, seemed to be a safe thing. A temporary change, with the plan to return to familiar places and routines after.

"Yeah, Boss," he said, deciding then and there, that he could definitely learn the semantic rules to Roy-speak. "Let's go visit that attic, up the stairs."

Roy shot him a sidelong look of dubious humor then, and chuffed. "Boss."

Ed grinned at him. The personality on this guy, it was something else. "What, you think I wanna be the boss of anybody? C'mon, let's find those stairs."

"Stairs, boss," Roy grinned back, rolling smoothly off the bed, to help Ed lever his deadweight up out of the chair.



Fortunately it didn't take much work in the attic, to at least make a plan for fitting two people in there. Ed found a couple busted old bookcases that could be hauled downstairs, and once repaired, put to use. Get those and few stacks of book boxes out of the way, and they could squeeze in that one cot, plus the spare mattress rolled up by one of the dormer windows. There was an old armoire up here too, with a splintered hole knocked in one side, but the guys could use that to store their stuff.

With Roy's help, Ed was able to drag out an old steamer trunk, with the fastenings all corroded and the outer trim crumbling away. The contents were still in decent enough shape, though, and that's what Ed had been going for.

It was all their dad's old crap, shipped back to them with a bunch of obscure research notes and shit, a few years back. Apparently the asshole had gotten bored wandering around the Bavarian forests at some point and decided to mosey off for the Galapagos Islands or some damn place where you didn't need huge trunk of winter clothes, and amuse himself in the sunshine for awhile. That had been the last they'd heard of him.

And while Ed struggled mightily every year (and argued ferociously with Al) over the urge to just burn all the old man's shit out of spite, for the first time ever, he was actually glad he hadn't.

Hohenheim had been a big guy, on a height with Professor Morinozuka, but with a broad barrel chest, and more mass all around. His clothes would no doubt hang off Arai and Roy like a sheet thrown over a coatrack, but Arai seemed handy enough with mending, he could surely shorten up some hems here and there. And who knew, maybe if the kid started getting regular meals in him, he might even grow some more.

The trick, Ed already knew, would be getting the kid to accept anything. Luckily, he figured Roy didn't have any qualms about pride or charity, and tended to like anything he was given. Plus, anything that made Roy happy, Arai wouldn't likely argue much with.

So first he shook out one of the coats in the trunk. Knee-length, nothing fancy, but sturdy fabric for hiking outdoors. "Hey, what d'you think of this?" he asked Roy. "Wanna try it on?"

Roy blinked at him quizzically, and then craned his neck over to eye the garment spread across Ed's lap. In his own lap, Roy's fingers twitched. "Coat?" he asked.

"Yeah look, it's got all these pockets you could put stuff in. Here, check it out."

He handed it over for Roy to inspect, and pat at the sturdy outer fabric, and the thicker lining, and then sniff at as well. He pulled open the pockets and peeked in.

"Hanky," he murmured. "Goes in a pocket."

"Sure, you could keep a hanky in there," Ed said, and Roy looked pleased. "Why not try it on? See how it fits you?"

With some coaxing and fumbling around with the sleeves, he got Roy into the coat, and then hobbled him over to a dusty, cracked mirror off in the corner.

"Look at you, huh? I'd call that pretty swell," Ed nudged him with an elbow. Granted the coat was too big in the arms and shoulders, and had obviously seen enough history outdoors, with the scuffed and snagged patches here and there.

But Roy was definitely taken with the sight of himself in the mirror. Stroking down the lapels, and plucking at the pockets; not quite preening, but no doubt enjoying himself.

"Warm" he marveled, shrugging his shoulders up and down some.

"Yeah? That's good," Ed said. "You're gonna need a warm coat here, pretty soon. And I bet your friend Arai does, too. You wanna come pick one out for him?"

Roy's curious gaze shifted from his own new coat, to Ed, then off to the open trunk, and his expression went tentative and wondering. " 'rai? Wear a coat?"

"Yep," Ed nodded. "You got a Roy coat, now we'll find an Arai coat."

Roy's rusty chuckling huffs got buried in his sleeve. "Roy coat," he answered, clearly delighted. He padded smooth and silent alongside Ed's stiff shuffle, back to the trunk where Ed dug through some trousers and shirts to set aside, a thing that looked like a fancy opera cape and was no use to anybody, along with some cravats and another frankly useless black silk waistcoat. What had that idiot Hohenheim even gotten up to, halfway across the world?

Toward the bottom the trunk, there were a couple of heavy fisherman's sweaters, which Ed stacked with the pants, and then finally he unearthed another coat. This one was dense navy wool, closer to jacket length, but with a thick quilted lining. Shaking it out properly, he saw it was something like a peacoat.

"What d'you think?" he asked Roy. "Not too shabby?" Granted it too had seen some rigorous wear. But it was also a damn sight better suited to winter than the threadbare old thing he'd seen that kid wearing.

Roy hummed over the coat, rubbing the sleeve between his fingers, as if judging the texture. "Blue," he remarked, seriously. " 'rai likes." And then, "Pockets," was his other judgment, pulling one of the deep square side pockets open, to study the inside.

"Yeah?" said Ed. "Bet he'll look sharp too, then. Blue coat with some pockets, not a bad deal."

Roy nodded in judicious agreement. " 'rai coat. Pretty swell." He looked down and studied the dark chocolatey brown coat he had on, and crinkled his forehead. "Roy coat. Keep?"

It struck Ed then, just another little jagged-edged piece of the puzzle slipping into place about these guys. How many times had they run into folks, who would show them something nice, let them try it on for comfort, and then snatch it back? The fact that Roy was asking, pointed to a consistent and honestly goddamn upsetting amount of experience on those lines. Along with the obvious fact that they hadn't a damn thing on them but the falling-apart clothes on their backs, because clearly between life and a world full of assholes, they'd not been able to keep anything more.

Ed had to grit his teeth a minute, and wrestle with his temper, because he had at least enough self-awareness to know that venting all his outrage here in front of Roy, would be the exact opposite of helpful for that guy. But fuck if it didn't gall him something awful. It was like choking down a dose of nasty bitter medicine, just pulling himself together enough to talk rationally.

"Yeah, boss," he answered. "You're gonna keep that Roy coat as long as you want it." He was aware he might sound too intense, but it didn't seem to trouble Roy any. "And Arai can keep this coat too, if he likes it. I'm gonna give you this stuff, and from now on, it's all yours, okay?"

Roy studied him closely, eyes big and solemn, the rare gold ringing the depthless dark. Then he nodded, three times, very precise. "Thanks. For keep. Boss."

And there was a bunch of flippant shit Ed could've said, to break the sudden seriousness of the moment, and wave away all these aggravating feelings in the room. But he couldn't be flippant at a guy who worked that hard to stack up words to thank him. Not right now, anyway.

So he just nudged his knuckles against Roy's shoulder. "No problem, you're welcome. So you wanna carry this stuff down the stairs? I feel like there's some sandwiches calling my name, right now."

Roy blinked and crinkled his nose, amused. "Ed sandwiches?"

And hell, Ed couldn't help it, he busted out with a laugh. Roy might not have much for language dexterity, but he had a quicker contextual wit than most ordinary people Ed had dealt with. And somehow, despite all the knocks and scars he'd obviously taken from the world, nobody had managed to beat that out of him. Taken as a whole (and discounting Ed's growing desire to find everyone who'd ever hurt Roy and smear them like an insect on a car windshield), the guy was pretty fucking inspiring, actually.

"Oh yeah, you're a hell of a comedian, I get it," he teased. "C'mon, let's head back down and bug Al. Gotta make sure the two of you stay fed, too."