Alchemist/Exorcist 2 (FMA: Brotherhood x Blue Exorcist) (Ed x Rin)

Chapter 3

           TW: homphobia/(censored) slur

           "This is not what I need for the old man's spaghetti,"
           "What?"
           Rin whirled around holding a bottle. Nagatomo, Maruta, and the three boys all sat at the kitchen table, "This is Virgin Olive Oil..."
          "O...kay?"
          "I need Extra Virgin Olive Oil,"
          "There's no difference,"
          "There's a huge difference!" Rin cried, while Ed and Al nodded emphatically (even though they had no idea what the difference was).
          Rin sighed, setting the bottle down on the counter with a thunk, "I'm just gonna run to the store."
          Ed stood up, "I'll come too."

          "I can't get over how crowded it is here," Ed mused, "It's like they tried to jam as many people and as many shops as they possibly could into one tiny space."
           "That about describes Tokyo. We're pretty packed in, but you get used to it,"
           They walked down the sidewalk, each holding a paper bag with one arm and holding hands between themselves with their free hands. Rin's feet felt like they weren't even hitting the sidewalk in his giddiness.
                "I can't get over you being here," he added, "You...wanna tell me why you really came...?"
                Ed answered a little too quickly, "We decided maybe there's something to be learned at True Cross after all."
                "Is that aaaall?"
             Before Ed could answer, a voice crowed from across the street, "Okumura! I didn't know you were back in the area!"
            "Oh, boy,"
            "What? Who is that?" Ed asked as the taller boy stalked across the street, two other boys followed close behind.
           "Hello, Higuchi," Rin said deadpan, "I haven't seen you in a while."
            "Yeah, yeah, you traipsed off to some pretty boy school—"  his gaze drifted to Ed and Rin's still-conjoined hands, "—and found yourself a pretty boy! Always knew you were a f*g."
            One bag of groceries dropped and Ed's metal hand flattened Higuchi's nose. The other boy reeled back, cursing as blood gushed out of his nostrils. His friends just laughed, one of them jeering, "Awe, come on, Higuchi! Grow a pair! It can't hurt that bad, he's just a little thing!"
            The other bag of groceries dropped and Rin lunged.

            "What did you do?!" Yukio gaped.
            Ed and Rin stood in the kitchen, scuffed up, bloodied, and with tattered clothes, but both grinning. "You two can't even go get groceries without finding trouble," Yukio continued.
            "We didn't start it. It was that dick Higuchi," Rin said, pulling out the groceries, "And most of the groceries are fine. Only you can forget about omelets tomorrow."
            "How did that asshole know you anyway?" Ed asked.
            "Oh, he was some big shot at our middle school," Rin's shrugged, "We didn't get along from the start. But one day I caught him roughing up some girl from our class. I told him to leave her alone and he didn't so..."
            "Bet that girl liked you after that?" Al chimed in from the kitchen table.
            "Nah, she called me a thug and told on me to the principal. I did break his ribs after all,"
            "That sounds like my Rin," Ed smirked and Rin had to catch the island to keep from passing out.
            Rin got to cooking, while Ed sat on the counter, watching. Eventually Yukio drifted off to do some other evening chore and dragged Al with him, obviously with the goal of leaving the other two alone. "What's with the staring?" Rin asked, finally.
            "I just...didn't know you could cook,"
            "Don't tell me you've never seen a guy cook before,"
            Ed's eyes turned upwards as he thought for a moment, "To be fair, no, I haven't. But that's not it. You just look like you know what you're doing. It's...hot."
            Smirking and trying not to let the butterflies in his stomach register on his face, Rin set a lid on the pot of noodles. "Now we just wait for those to soften," he punched in some numbers on the microwave, "And I know just how to kill the time."
            He came to stand between Ed's knees, gripping his thighs and kissing him roughly. Ed looped both arms around Rin's shoulders, one hand grabbing a fistful of his hair and the other a fistful of the back of his shirt. The water on the stove next to them slowly began to boil, the sound growing in tandem with the pounding of Rin's heart. His moved his hands to cup Ed's head, fingers ruining his braid and thumbs digging a little too roughly into the soft flesh under the angle of his jaw.
             Rin begged the timer to never go off, but Ed had his ankles hooked at the small of Rin's back and he was about to lift him straight off the counter when the loud beeping seemed to physically collide with them. Rin pried himself free hurriedly, not trusting himself to stay a second longer. His heart nearly stopped at the flash of disappointment that crossed Ed's face and the millisecond of "grabby hands" that reached for him before Ed regained his composure. He jumped off the counter, "I'll go find Yukio, Al, and those other guys."
              Rin turned away awkwardly to strain the noodles, "Right."
              But before he left Ed mused, "Because the sooner we eat dinner..." he came up behind Rin to whisper in his ear, "...the sooner we get desert."
             The empty pot clanged to the floor.