AU where Ed and Oswald's relationship starts off with Ed trying to kill him. Not because Oswald wronged him or anything like that, but just because he thought it would be fun and big and attention catching to pick off a prominent crime lord. He fails to kill him, and when Oswald inevitably retaliates, he fails too. And so a rivalry is established where they take turns trying to kill each other. At first they don't really interact face to face that much, they mostly just set up tricks and traps for each other, but at some point Ed makes it a point to talk to him after every murder attempt because he finds it fun to banter and bicker with him and also because he's lowkey obsessed and falling in love with him. Like at some point trying to kill Oswald is less about trying to kill Oswald or even the mental stimulation he gets from it and becomes more about getting to see him. Oswald does NOT feel the same way about him. He actively wants to kill Ed with hammers for being annoying and trying to kill him. Well, maybe he also finds their back and forth a LITTLE fun, but his main feelings toward Ed are annoyance and hatred. But one day Ed actually manages to get really close to killing him to the point where Ed has to actively save him from dying. So when Oswald is like Why The Fuck Did You Do That it sinks in that he's not just having a silly goofy back and forth with this guy and that he isn't actually chill with killing him anymore. Maybe he wants to actively hang out with him in a non-hostile way and bond with him and get to know him properly and maybe even kiss him on the mouth. Oswald still wants to kill him with hammers for trying to murder him multiple times for basically no reason so it still takes them a while for them to get there, but they manage it eventually #lovewins.














