Cost of Living
Read on AO3
Length: 5,347 words
Rated: Explicit
Status: Incomplete (1/3)
Written for @fullmetalsecretsanta
A/N: Surprise! Guess who's your secret Santa, @vino-and-doggos . IT'S ME! Like Dickens's familiar trio of Christmas spirits, this will be coming to you in three parts, representing different stages of this college/omg they were roommates/coffee shop AU. Do you think I added enough troupes? Expect the next part when the clock strikes... tomorrow-ish. I'll post sometime tomorrow. Probably.
Summary:
Change is in the air at Central University. Due to a jealous girlfriend and rising rent, Roy and Riza find themselves on a collision course plagued by misunderstandings, white lies and the joys of social media. The cost of living can be steep. Is a Christmas kiss worth the risk?
Special thanks to @ruikosakuragi for beta-ing!
Part One
Maes Hughes was like a Rubik’s cube, a tempting puzzle that begged to be twisted and turned between Roy Mustang's palms until the colors properly aligned. In Roy’s experience, answers came when he focused on the bigger picture, as opposed to a single facet of Maes’s carefully constructed façade. But the problem presented in the answer. Seeing past Maes’s persona was only the beginning. Accepting the contradictions, taking the genuine alongside the contrived, was a skill beyond Roy’s expertise, though he enjoyed looking all the same.
And who would blame him? Maes was undeniably attractive. He had a broad grin as enigmatic as the full moon on a cloudy night, and delicate freckles dusted the apples of his cheeks like an inverted array of stars. The man’s disposition was sunny from the tip of trademark hairstyle to the toes of his polished boots, disrupted only by a pair of thin spectacles that gracefully aged him by at least five years.
Nevertheless, Roy knew that his friend’s oppressive cheerfulness was only skin deep. Granted, there was a time when Maes hung the moon and the stars in Roy’s lovestruck eyes; however, that moment had all but passed. More recently, the two men had settled for friendship complicated by a living situation that teetered deliciously on the brink between financially beneficial and conveniently satisfying.
Their apartment was at the center of it all. To the untrained eye, it was just a two-bedroom, one bath condo with an open living concept. There was nothing special about beige sheetrock and Formica countertops. But to Roy and Maes, it was residential nirvana.
In the words of the seasoned realtor Maes’s parents had hired, it was all about the location. Close enough to Central University to keep their cars parked in the condo lot, but far enough that traffic wasn’t unbearable after football games. It was a seven-minute walk to Roy’s coffee shop of choice, and from there, a three-minute jog to the grand threshold of Central University’s Law Center.
And, for whatever it was worth, their corner unit’s light was unrivaled. Tall windows lined the perimeter of the living room, extending into the larger bedroom, Maes’s room. Though Maes’s prim and proper mother had stressed the need for curtains, neither roommate had bothered considering the unobstructed view from their third story locale. But the best thing about the light was the memory of lazy Sunday mornings spent tangled in the sheets of Maes’s queen bed, a place where sexual orientation and parental expectation had given way to a shared, somewhat primal truth.
Roy liked Maes, and Maes liked Roy. Until they didn’t anymore. Until Maes’s secrets caught up with him, and Roy’s obsession with success warped into something more selfish than focused during his first semester of law school.
As far as their inner circle knew, they split on good terms, agreeing to swap friendship for the love they cultivated over the course of three years. The truth was more complicated. It was a mess of leases, a great location and lingering attraction on both sides. Until one day it wasn’t.
Enter Gracia Martinez with her perfect posture, comely looks and ideal parentage, and if that wasn’t bad enough, Maes was honestly smitten by her. Roy knew that look even though he tried not to see it. And finally, on a late November afternoon, Roy came home to a sullen Maes, sitting in their living room looking like he finally had something to say about the elephant in their condo.
“You had to know this was coming,” Maes stated solemnly after the initial awkwardness of his overdue declaration. His words pried open a wound left by their breakup that had never properly healed. “It’s not that Gracia doesn’t trust you and I living together as friends, it’s just-”
“Gracia doesn’t trust you living with anyone you used to fuck,” Roy bitterly interjected. The space between the two roommates on the sectional uncomfortably widened. As usual, Maes stood his ground while Roy lashed out.
Keep Reading