#royedweek2023

Despite the darkness, Roy saw the boy in foreign vividness that he had never witnessed; colours exploded in front of his eyes like fireworks, rendering him speechless. The boy’s shade was accentuated by a distinct warmth— Roy would later learn the name of the colour that was gold, a pigment that he would come to associate with justice, passion, and everything that was pure and magnificent.

Before arriving at Resembool, Roy had rehearsed his recruitment speech for five different situations, but none of which took the current one into account. For the first time in a long while, he had no idea what to say.

At that moment, assaulted by colours he had yet to know, he only knew one thing— that destiny had cursed this little boy to be attached to him, Roy Mustang. A man who had far more enemies than allies, more nightmares than sleep— more dead than alive.

The boy did not give any visible reaction to Roy’s loud entry into the house, and his aimless eyes had already betrayed his state to Roy.

He could not afford to have a soulmate. Not when his soulmate sat defencelessly like this, deaf to the entire world. Being his soulmate meant putting a target on their back, meant always sleeping with an eye open, meant never finding peace till the day of his death.

He could not, in good conscience— with what little he had remained of it— put his soulmate through what his life entailed. Anyone sane enough would be able to see him from a distance and turn around immediately. Nobody deserved to be Roy’s soulmate to experience what he would inevitably put them through. No one would be tough and yet foolish enough to stay.

Ignoring the nausea this revelation has caused him, Roy bit his tongue and demanded an explanation for the situation instead. He listened, in slowly freezing horror, to the younger brother of the Elrics– Alphonse Elric– explaining how they ended up in their current bodies.

Roy looked at Edward Elric who was missing two limbs, and reminded himself that this young boy in front of him had committed the greatest taboo in alchemy and survived. Then, as if it was not enough, did it again to bargain his brother’s soul back. An improbable, stupid, and lethal decision—yet it was undeniable that he had done the unthinkable and survived the consequences. At such a young age nonetheless, when most alchemists' apprentices were still struggling with the most basic of elements.

Perhaps given time, this boy could grow into someone beyond Roy’s imagination. Perhaps given time, Roy could grow into someone strong enough to shield his soulmate from harm.

And so Roy told him, in an earnestness that surprised even himself, that when he was ready, he could find Roy in East City and Roy would provide him with resources that could put him back on his feet. That it would be a road filled with thorns and danger, but the rewards were worth the risk.

Against his better judgement, Roy had provided his soulmate a choice. Edward could choose to run after him into the shower of bullets and webs of lies, or he could choose to stay in the quiet countryside and never let their paths cross again.

Secretly, Roy wished that his soulmate would choose the latter, wiser option. But he also knew acutely that the world had a morbid sense of humour, and whoever that was tied with him could never have any good sense in them. If fate had decided that they were meant to be, then his soulmate must have been as much of a stubborn fool as him, if not more.

Roy bid the family goodbye, and walked out of the dark shadows of the cottage. He was greeted with an entirely new world, now coloured in radiant hues he could not put words to.

He examined his palm under the flickering street light. He could see his veins faintly under his skin, pumping blood into every corner of his body. It was purple and flesh and red and human. It was warm and colourful and alive.

Remember it, remember what I’ve said, and catch up to me. Roy thought. Those who cannot keep up with me cannot be my soulmate.

I’m putting my faith in you that, no matter which way you end up choosing, our paths will converge, and we shall meet again at a time when you and I are wiser and stronger and unmovable in the face of danger. I’m putting my faith in you that, regardless of the dangers on my journey, you will find me and stay beside me and not be frightened.

I’m choosing to believe, if fate has decided that I’m still worthy of a soulmate despite my sins, then there must still be something redeemable in me, and you must be someone with enough love to love me for the monster I am.

Please find me soon.

==============================

And then Ed surprised him after a year when Roy expected to wait at least 5 more years lmfao

I wanted to play on the idea of “you only begin to see colour once you’ve met your soulmate” and thought VERY hard about how to visualise it without turning it into a long comic. My very stupid, no good brain came up with the idea of putting a colour wheel in the background :> in hindsight it’s very cringe but at that point it was already too late to give up or change it lmaooooo

I also put paint and paint brushes around as decoration which i think is kind of cute ^^ and special thanks to my sister who helped me fix the colouring because my usual way of doing it just… lacks the vibrancy this prompt asks for. She’s a goddess and 192729% better at this drawing business than me.

Throughout his life, Roy gets a lot of attention due to his unusual eye color. Seeing as how no one else has possessed a golden eye since the fall of Xerxes (or so he believes), Roy concludes that this is the universe’s way of telling him that he doesn’t have a soulmate. He eventually meets Edward of course, but while their eye colors do match up, the idea of them being soulmates… it just can’t be true. 

While Edward is under Roy’s command, Roy has him wear an eyepatch over his gold eye whenever he is in public. That way, rumors won’t spread about who Edward’s soulmate might be. (I think the covering of one eye would be somewhat popular in this society, particularly among those who reject the idea of predestined soulmates and instead wish to seek out their own romantic and platonic connections. When you look at your soulmate with both eyes however, you are able to gain an innate understanding of their emotions. The eyes are the windows to the soul, as they say.) 

Edward spends the following years in denial about Roy being his soulmate, and as he searches for the Philosopher’s Stone, he also secretly searches for someone else who could possibly be his other half. He comes up empty handed however, and over time, he finds himself developing feelings for Roy. 

Sometime before Roy loses his eyesight, Edward reports to him in Central. For the first time, Edward refrains from wearing his eyepatch because he lost it somewhere along his travels. However, when Edward goes to meet with Roy, Roy refuses to speak with him without his eyepatch on. Roy also avoids looking Edward directly in the eyes, and Edward notices this. Because Edward is looking at Roy with both eyes for the first time since they first met, Edward can finally see into Roy’s soul, and he realizes that Roy is actually afraid to look at him. 

Edward gets angry because he realizes that they could have had this profound emotional connection this entire time, and Roy denied him of that. Also, Edward has come to almost resent Roy for forcing him to hide a part of who he is. 

Roy did this both to protect Edward, and to prevent something from happening that could maybe make it more difficult for himself to reach his ultimate goal. But also, Roy did it because he simply can’t bear the sight of Edward. It makes him sick to his stomach to think that Edward is destined to be with a monster like him. Whether Roy realizes it or not, he wants Edward to hate him. He wants Edward to love him. He wants to punish himself for his past mistakes by denying himself of this bond that he was destined to have. 

Edward realizes this, and he tells Roy that punishing himself accomplishes nothing. Roy is just hurting himself. He is hurting Edward too on an emotional level, and maybe if he looked Edward in the eyes sooner, he would have realized that. 

When Roy and Edward part ways, they still aren’t on good terms. But later on, when Roy chooses to use the Philosopher's Stone to regain his sight, Edward understands that Roy is breaking away from his previously held mentality. Roy is not forgetting about his mistakes, but he’s leaving the past in the past, and he’s looking forward and seeing what he can do to make a better future. And maybe in that better future, Roy will finally be willing to share his soul with Edward. The end.