Title: Scenes From A (Few) Misspent Youth(s)
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Summary: Roy and Hughes, growing up
Notes: I wrote this a really long time ago, and it still very much amuses me, so I'm posting it.
Maes isn't at his house one day when Roy goes to look for him.
Where were you? Roy asks him when he comes back.
In the woods, Maes says with a shrug, his hair messy with grass and leaves, his face smudged with dirt.
Roy looks hurt, feels hurt. Why didn't you tell me?
You're too young.
Am not.
Are to.
---
You're dumb, Maes tells Roy one day after school, out of nowhere.
Roy shoves him into the mud and almost falls in himself as well. I hate you, he says and resolves to never talk to Maes again.
Maes spits mud onto the ground and says, I hate you too.
It lasts three days.
---
Roy throws a ball at Maes' head. It bounces off with a thwack and rolls into a corner. What was that for? he asks, his voice loud and angry.
Roy shrugs. I don't know, he says.
Maes picks it up and throws it back.
---
We had nothing to do with it, Maes insists when they get caught painting rude things onto the school's wall. Roy agrees, his head nodding furiously.
It must have been a rival school, he says as earnestly as he can manage. We were only trying to wash it off.
The principal runs his fingers through his hair and sighs. They think they can hear the muttered, What am I going to do with you two?
---
Beer tastes horrible, like bark and bitterness, but they swallow it down anyway. It was hard enough to get it in the first place; why would they waste it?
Fuck, Maes says. This tastes like shit.
Roy shakes his head and takes another sip.
---
Roy learns how to do alchemy. Maes doesn't.
It's just a waste of your time, Maes tells Roy one of the days Roy can't go out, because his alchemy tutor's coming over and he needs to study.
No, it's not, Roy replies and shuts the door in his face.
They avoid each other for the next three days.
---
It's Maes who sees it first, the sign for the military academy. I'm going, he says, and Roy just nods. It makes sense that it would be Maes, who is three years older, two inches taller and will never be an alchemist. It makes sense that he would go first.
First, but not alone.
I'll follow, Roy says.
FIN.