【Steel Refining Flame Steel】How to make the person I like also like me

Edward Elric was not a sleepy man, despite the honeyed impression it might give.On the contrary, he has been living a relatively regular life, getting up at 7 o'clock and going to sleep at 12 o'clock, and may stay in bed again on weekends - so that he has slept unconsciously for 17 years of his life so far. There is very little experience in personnel affairs.The most recent one was a year ago. The specific reason was nothing more than a hard reason such as the laboratory staying overnight for several days.Ed thinks angrily, that idiot will never remember who's turn to clean the toilet today, but he still remembers this kind of old millet and rotten sesame seeds, and from time to time he digs it out and thinks about it with Ed for a long time.

"24 hours, my bean!" Lin said while eating melon seeds, "It fell on the floor as if it had taken root, and it couldn't be dragged. It just slept in front of the entrance for a whole day. The person who checked the water meter opened the door , I thought there was a secret room murder here: a Western University intellectual had a grudge with his roommate, and was poisoned to death at the door of the apartment.”

"Roommate poisoned?" Ed said, staring in horror at the grapefruit juice that Lin had just squeezed and handed to him.

Call him Crow's Mouth, this time he was really poisoned.Ed suspects that this is some kind of mysterious sorcery from the East - he has personally seen Linna Carter stabbing a villain, and rubbing the green solution called Fengyoujing that he brought from his hometown on the villain's body. Enter Ding Ding.

But it is very rare for such an evil experience to happen to him. Edward did not believe it was true at first, because when he regained consciousness, the sky was clear, and the morning sun filled the room unscrupulously through the uncurtained floor-to-ceiling windows. , it seemed to be a demonstration against Ed who was having a splitting headache and wilting like sauerkraut at the moment.He frowned, supported his head and struggled to sit up, only to feel that his whole body was extremely sore, his brain seemed to be spinning and jumping in his skull, and his tendons were throbbing behind his temples.

No, [-]% is sick, get up and take some antibiotics first.He thought to himself at the time, and groped into the drawer of the bedside table. After digging out for a long time, the paper box he took out was not the size of a familiar medicine box.He took a closer look at his hand, and there was actually a bag TT in his hand, and there were two big words printed on the package: ultra-thin.

Ed's face flushed red, and his chaotic cotton-like mind woke up with fright for a moment.It was about this time that Ed finally realized that he didn't seem to be in the room he knew.

He looked around in horror with wide, sore eyes, and the empty room under the morning light gradually appeared in his double vision.The room was almost empty except for luggage bags, clothes and books piled everywhere on the floor, and I didn't know when I was lying on the big bed in the middle, almost naked except for a pair of underwear.

As soon as he realized his state at this time, Ed hurriedly jumped off the bed, but before he could get out, the boy's eyes went dark, and he could only hear the sound of himself hitting the ground uncontrollably.

"Oh shit it hurts..."

In fact, it doesn't hurt that much. The strange room is covered with thick and soft carpets, which are suitable for cats to inhabit.But Edward couldn't recover from the pain that was raging all over his body. He curled up on the ground and felt his head weighed like a kilogram, and his limbs were weak and weak.For a while, the young man almost lost the fighting spirit to get up, so he wanted to simply sleep on the carpet for a night before talking about it.

Unexpectedly, his own movement just now attracted the sound of Xisuo's footsteps outside the room.The young man in pain was so dull in his five senses that he was still buried in the soft fabric of the carpet for a while, and did not hear the sound of approaching footsteps. He didn't raise his head excitedly until the other party walked up to him.

The man in front of him has black hair and black eyes, wears loose home clothes, has a good-looking face, exudes a lingering, palpitating pine fragrance all over his body.Ed relaxed almost instantly, and his heart beat faster in another instant.

People are really strange creatures, so contradictory physiological reactions can go on at the same time.

The other party sighed, put down the thing he was holding in his hand, then bent down and picked up the boy from the ground.

"There is no girl who has been hugged so many times by me." The other party let out a soft chuckle when he left, which made people feel angry and want to laugh.

Ed blinked, and wanted to get up reluctantly, but the discomfort in his body made him unable to bear the nostalgia for his warm bed.So he decided to compromise with the unfair fate for the time being, and lay down on the bed after being wronged, and wait until he regained his energy and figured out the situation.

Where the hell is this?How did I bring myself upside down to this place?Who is the shit-shoveling officer who installed the curtains?The boy tried his best to fight against the sunken eyelids, and concentrated his mind like squeezing toothpaste, trying to sort out the situation in front of him.

He raised his head, and saw the man in front of him picked up the long cloth again, climbed up the ladder in front of the French windows and began to install the curtains on his own.His black hair, which looked very soft, cut a slit around his neck, revealing a section of innocent nape.Ed immediately remembered who this unpleasant-looking guy was.

"Mastancourt?"

The voice was much hoarse and weaker than expected, but the other party obviously heard it.Standing on the ladder, with his arms outstretched and still hooked to the rings of the curtains, he turned his face slightly, leaving Ed with a half helpless smile.

"I've made progress." He turned around and closed the curtains again with full concentration, "Lie down and don't move, eat first and then take medicine."

Mustangu quickly arrived with what he called "rice."Ed already had a dry throat and no appetite, and he was even less interested in the apple cereal mixture in front of him.

"surface……"

"It's up to you." Mustangu said, and put a spoon into Ed's unwilling mouth, "I've slept for so long, if I don't get better soon, how can I live?"

Ed almost spit the contents of his mouth on the other person's face when he heard the words, but when he looked up and saw the side face of the man with his head down, blowing a spoon for himself, he somehow lost the strength to fight to the end, and could only be angry He chewed what was in his mouth bulgingly, and then opened his mouth obediently when the other party reached out for the spoon again.

"This is..." Ed struggled to sort out the clues in his mind, while swallowing his food, "Is it your home?"

"Yeah." Mustangu said, stirring the oatmeal in the bowl, "Don't wipe your mouth with the quilt!"

"Am I sick?" Ed asked, tilting his head like a very young child or a very young cat.

The other party glanced at him helplessly, while silently writing down "little kitten" after "hare-chipmunk-cat" in the entry in his mind, and scooped up another spoonful from the bowl, " right."

"how come……"

"You did it yourself!" Mustangu curled his lips, "I have a cold and still go out to drink in the cold weather, so it's okay to drink alcohol and take random drugs. You should be lucky that it's just a fever, otherwise you will be infected. Addictive and then dragged out to be a receptionist, I see what you do."

"Drinking..." Ed frowned and swallowed the last mouthful of the mixture, trying to keep up with the other person's train of thought, "Isn't that in a bar?"

"Yes, in the bar, my sister did a good job, so she was called to save someone." Roy picked up the towel and put it on Ed's face. It’s all taken in, and when you get better, think about how to repay me.”

Just as Ed was about to refute, his face was blurred by Mustangu's simple and rude gesture of wiping his mouth.

"I didn't..."

"Take the medicine." Before he could speak, Mustangu stuffed another handful of medicine into the boy's mouth.

"Oh! My firewood and kerosene..."

"Swallow." Mustang poured a glass of water into Ed's mouth.Damn, is this guy's usual gentle and airy attitude just a faux pas? ?

Edward wiped his mouth, raised his head and wanted to give the other person a hard look, but the sudden sleepiness made the gaze that should have contained hatred twists and turns, and Roy's eyes were almost aggrieved.

"I didn't ask you to save me!" Ed hoarsely raised his hand to protest.Unexpectedly, the protest was unsuccessful, the other party rolled his eyes, and instead showed a look of irony.

"Why are you holding a box of TT in your hand?"

"what?"

It was only then that Ed realized that he had been clutching something in his hand from the beginning of this chapter to the present, and his shame and indignation exploded. He blushed and did not hesitate to use the last bit of experience to throw the cardboard box at Mustangu. .

But the acting skills that have been worked so hard to squeeze out are meaningless at all, and they can't deceive themselves, and they can't shirk the other party.At that time, Mustangu was stuffing TT into his trouser pocket with one hand, and stood up with the tray in the other. His face was tired and helpless, but what fell into Ed's eyes was an almost gentle smile, really like a smile on his face. To a rambunctious kitten.

"Wake up and argue with me again."

At that time, Edward was furiously provoked by Mustangu's arrogant and provocative behavior. Hearing the other party's words, he immediately swore silently that he had slept in the man's house after the incident for so long, and if he slept again, Edward Eric would be a puppy.Unexpectedly, in less than 5 minutes after taking the poisonous oath, the boy's will was uncontrollably defeated by the tiredness that came over like a flood. When he woke up again, the dim twilight had already been revealed in the gaps in the curtains.He struggled to get up from the bed, and felt so relaxed for the first time in 40 hours, and his mind, which was still a little confused, seemed to be unloaded. potion.The only one who was angry was himself, when he thought of the first time he spent the night at the house of another man—an afterthought who didn’t want Bilian—and even slept for almost two days, Ed wanted to slap himself to death.Fortunately, the oath of being a puppy was made silently, otherwise, if Mustangu heard it, he would really be laughed out of his teeth.

Whether it was luck or misfortune, Mustango was not at home when Ed woke up.The room was empty and dimly lit.Ed jumped out of bed, and couldn't find his clothes back and forth, so he had no choice but to pull off the quilt from the bed to wrap himself temporarily, and then walked out of the house barefoot while recalling the events that happened every two days.

Mustangu's house is painted blue-gray, with simple furniture.Most of the household items have not been touched, only a few coats are hanging in the open wardrobe, the blanket on the sofa reveals that the host often falls asleep, books and sleeping pills are piled on the coffee table, and used tables are scattered in the kitchen glass cup.These unpopular pictures are particularly unfamiliar in the dim light, but still faintly evade the breath of someone's existence.The smell follows the boy's invisible and colorless senses, arousing his touchable entities like a magic lamp.The physical image contains the depression left by Mustang on his pillow, the white shirt that fell under his bed, and the bed sheet that took over his sick body a few minutes ago, and it fits with the smell of cedar and cologne Together, they stir up indescribable turmoil in Ed's chest.Memories were woven into a web in Ed's mind little by little, but he felt that a certain part of himself was engulfed by it, which was indescribable.

The picture appeared in his mind like a jellyfish in the deep sea. Ed vaguely remembered the picture of himself being pushed to the toilet by Hubble to vomit and then dragged away by a stranger. A face that makes people feel heartbroken and chilled.So Ed recalled in horror a series of shameful scenes of himself rubbing against the opponent, blowing his nose on the opponent's clothes, climbing on the opponent's car hood, and kicking the opponent's car seat—Ma Dan, Is there anything more embarrassing than doing something in front of someone you like!The emotion reached its peak when Ed stumbled to the kitchen door of the room and saw the wine bottle on the cooking table, and recalled the scene of himself and Mustangu sitting on the ground drinking and talking and embracing (!?) that night.Ed squatted in the living room and rolled himself into a ball. Half of his heart was full of unspeakable joy and half of honey shame, and he almost wanted to kill himself with a knife.

Just when Edward felt that his shame value could no longer be higher, something even more lethal happened—the sound of opening the door came from the entrance.

Ed's first reaction was to run away into the room, but his brain was still sluggish and his information processing timed out, and before he lifted his legs, the door creaked open.So he plucked up the courage, suppressed his beating heart, and decided to use his manliness to confront the other party face-to-face and settle the battle quickly.

Mustangu, who had just entered the door, obviously did not expect that he would face a confrontation with a short man wrapped in a quilt and wearing a fat skirt as soon as he opened the door.Although in the past ten minutes, Ed's brain had already demonized him to the point of inhumanity, but in fact he was dressed in a very ordinary way.Roy held a bunch of keys in one hand, a basket of clothes in the other, and a bulging Sai X-like paper bag in his arm, looking at Ed with a look of surprise.

He was startled when he saw Ed's face pretending to be calm, then he glanced up and down at the boy, heaved a sigh of relief, and finally walked into the room with a helpless smile.

"Hey you……"

"It's already very energetic." The other party shrugged and put down the key with a smile, "The same goes for the bottom."

The boy blinked his eyes inexplicably, then followed Mustangu's straight line of sight to look under him, and immediately let out a scream in good response, and grabbed the sheet tightly around his waist and crotch.When he raised his head, Mustangu had already walked into the kitchen as if no one else was there, and put the paper bag on the dining table. Ed saw his teeth itching with anger.

No matter how charming she is, it can't change the fact that this guy doesn't want Bilian.Ed gritted his teeth, "Where are my clothes...!"

"I just brought it to you from the laundry room downstairs, and I don't thank you." Roy waved the clothes basket on his hand without even looking at him, "But the dryer in the self-service laundry room is not very dry. Let it dry for a while before wearing it."

"How can you pick other people's clothes casually!" The young man glared.

"You think I want to? You like to vomit and play, and it's fine to let my clothes be with you. Could it be possible to let your vomit play with my sheets?"

"Who really likes to vomit..." Ed almost bit his tongue, "I... I vomited?"

Roy twitched his lips, "Did you have Hawaiian pizza for dinner at the party?"

Ed stared blankly at each other, "...the day of the party? I... I had pizza for morning tea."

Roy's face became even uglier.

"Don't you remember anything?" he said, turning and opening the refrigerator door, "all day yesterday."

"How can there be a whole day? You don't put gold on your face." Ed frowned, "I only had something wrong at night..."

"Huh? It seems that you really don't remember. Do you know what day it is today?"

"The party is Friday night...so isn't it Saturday?"

"It's Sunday." Mustangu took out an apple, closed the refrigerator door, and smiled at Edward.

Ed suddenly became dizzy.

What? ?

The images of yesterday flooded into my brain like mountains and seas.In my memory, I woke up Mustangu from the bed in the middle of the night and complained of a stomachache and headache, how I grabbed the other party's neckline and scolded and cried, how I vomited the other party's and my clothes all over, and how did Mustangu put Carrying myself from the ground to the bed, how to take my body temperature, how to force myself to get up to drink water and take medicine - at that moment, the intermittent memories of the illness were all connected together, turning in Ed's mind like a storm, and Fengyan is the man standing in front of the cooking counter, wearing a shirt and slippers, cutting a green apple into two with a shiny knife.

In the pain brewed by the three-pronged combination of medicine, alcohol and colds, all the pictures were shrouded in blurred mist. No wonder Ed almost completely erased the memory of that day from his mind at that time.No matter how hard Edward tried to recall the scene of that day, the details of the plot that he could remember were still incomplete.

Roy's fingers pinching the wet towel brushed the boy's hot face intentionally or unintentionally. At that time, he had just forced Ed to wake up and swallowed hot milk and cold medicine while he was unconscious.He glanced at the thermometer in his hand and sat helplessly on the edge of the bed, raised his neck and looked out of the window for a while, then lowered his head to look at the boy who was tossing and turning in his dream because of his discomfort, sighed and twisted the wet towel in the basin again .His movements were so clumsy that he dropped the towel on the floor several times to wipe the patient's sweat. He looked like a guy who had never taken care of others much—exactly the same as Ed.

But even so, he still took care of Edward and saved him from the existing pain and possible torment—even though he may have had a lot of regret and reluctance in the process, even though he may still not remember that he is called Love Dee or Aia.

"Sit down and talk over dinner," Mustangu said softly.

The so-called dinner consisted of apples (again apples!), sandwiches (Sai ​​X flavor next door to the laundry room), instant coffee in mineral water (“Want sugar?” “Yes.” “Would you like milk?” “Watch! (艹盘哉)") and slightly burnt poached eggs (completed by Edroy and Roy together), its technical content is comparable to that of Al Helin, like a Maokeng vs. the Louvre, and Edroy is grateful from the bottom of his heart past life.Although he himself is not qualified to make irresponsible remarks in the field of culinary arts—after all, he is also a man of science and engineering who makes a living by taking out food, but he still can't help worrying that if he and the other party hit it off and tie the knot, who will be in the family in the future? Come to cook?

I have no choice but to take advantage of other people's mouths, not to mention that the other party has contracted my own two nights and mastered my own clothes.Ed wrapped himself in the sheet tightly, determined not to complain for the time being, and climbed onto the chair opposite Mustangu and raised his knife and fork.

He raised his knife and fork, but he seemed to have something on his mind.Ed stared at the apple in front of him with distaste for a long time, knowing that at this moment, he was almost obliged to say "thank you" to the other party.But it's easy to say, but it's hard to think about it, and you can't figure out a word of thanks that doesn't sound pretentious or pretentious.Thank you for saving me from Mike or York, thank you for taking care of me yesterday, thank you for doing my laundry.But after thinking about it, what I got in exchange for what I said might be another rebuttal from the other party in order to repay my love for sleeping by the toilet all night—and at that time, Ed would rather listen to the other party say, "I was just forced to take care of you." That's all", and I don't want to hear him say "I'm here to pay back".

Unexpectedly, before Ed could open his mouth, Mustangu came to ask for a fight first.

"You've been looking at it with dissatisfaction for a long time." The other party pointed at the apple slice with a fork, "It's aggrieved that the ground is yellow and thin."

Ed pouted, "I don't have any dissatisfaction with it, I just don't understand why you like apples so much?"

With such a sudden sentence, Mustangu was stunned.But he quickly replied, "Apple is very healthy, didn't your brother who is a medical student tell you?"

"It's really not... Hey, how do you know about Al!"

Ed stood up suddenly, and Roy quickly raised his hand to signal him to calm down.

"You said it when you were high."

"Fuck me..." Ed clenched his lower lip in embarrassment, and slapped himself hard again in his mind.How can I be so outspoken, idiot!

Mustangu watched the boy sit down slowly with a stiff face, lowered his head and couldn't help but smile.

"Anxin, you are silly, noisy, and extremely troublesome when you are high, but in terms of 'honesty' alone, it is rare to be considered cute."

"Fuck, you're the one who talks a lot," Edton blushed, gritted his teeth and looked away, "It's just like you, you have the guts to despise others!"

"It's really heartbreaking. Although the humble house is broken, it entertained you for a day and two nights, and you still have so much dissatisfaction."

"I'm simply dissatisfied with you personally." Ed's words were correct.

"How can anyone be dissatisfied with me, it must be against the house."

"what?"

"Because my house is not spherical and transparent milky white."

"...Are you out of your mind?"

"How dare you say it, do you know how you kicked Hawk's beloved car yesterday? Fortunately, she said that I can wash the car and refuel it first, and return it to her when I go to work tomorrow morning, otherwise if she sees her His car was kicked like that, it will definitely put you and me on the target for shooting practice."

"shooting??"

"Last time when everyone was playing darts, Hawke hit all 10 marks." Mustangu held his coffee cup and made a trembling look, "What a terrible woman."

"Then you still dare to pick her up on Friday."

"How dare I just concentrate on hooking up Rust. It's a pity that you ruined the good thing."

"Cut. Is it just the female anchor with long black curly boobs?" Habok seems to be chasing after her?

"Yeah, it's a pity it's too cold."

Ed recalled the gossip heard at the exhibition, "She seems to have an Electra complex."

Mustangu curled his lips when he heard the words, "Why is there no normal person around me?"

"So what are you going to do tonight?"

After all, Ed pretended to be indifferent, chewed his sandwich and deliberately looked away, then glanced furtively in the direction of Mustangu.I saw the other party shrugged and took the apple to his mouth.

"I'll take you home first."

The night is like washing.Perhaps it was because the route chosen by Mustang was inaccessible, and the way home was quiet and deserted.This kind of silence belonging to two people should be so embarrassing that it can only be diluted with music, but Mustang never turned on the player on the car, and Edward never mentioned it, maybe because they both hate music. In fact, it was not so embarrassing because of the unexpected silence at this moment.

Ed was sitting in the co-pilot, leaning against the glass window with his hair down, crossing his arms and looking out the window.The orange light inside the car was so soft and bright that Ed could barely see the dark scenery outside the window, only the silhouette cast on the glass.Roy looked forward without saying a word, and the reflected profile was indescribably calm.

When driving to the entrance of the convenience store, the car stopped, Mustangu jumped out of the car, and after a while, he came back with a plastic bag.

"What?" Ed rolled his eyes.

"Breakfast tomorrow." Roy said as he threw the plastic bag into the back seat and regained his grip on the steering wheel.

Ed couldn't help sighing, "I don't want to become a man like you in the future."

"Isn't that what you are now?"

"It won't happen in the future!"

"Keko, that's what I thought when I was 17."

"Damn, don't curse me." Ed made a face.

Mustangu looked over his head and couldn't help smiling, "Am I that bad?"

Ed was speechless for a moment.

Have it?Ed thought desperately, is there something wrong with this guy?Yes?Have it?

Thinking of Edward softly blew his nose.Roy glanced sideways at him again.

The car drove to the door of Aide's apartment, and the rental notice posted on the door was extremely dazzling under the street lights.As soon as Ed jumped out of the car, the man couldn't help but seize the opportunity to laugh.

"Is this room number yours?"

Ed chuckled, "That's right. It's cool in winter and warm in summer. It's only a 30-minute walk from the nearest subway line. It's on the left to the Etria Cemetery and on the right to the Martha Chemical Plant. Would you consider it, sir?"

Roy couldn't help laughing when he heard this.

"God, this is really a treasured place of geomantic omen."

"The low rent is an advantage." Thinking of this, Ed couldn't help but sigh.

This was an excellent opportunity to laugh at Ed, but for some reason, this time Roy, who always liked to talk and show off his eloquence, didn't say anything.In fact, at that time, Roy just smiled and narrowed his eyes. His thick eyelashes cast distinct shadows under the streetlights, and his black eyes shone brightly in the night.He said softly, "If I had known earlier, I might have considered moving in with you."

That sentence may be just a polite remark, or more likely just a casual remark.Mustangu has always been casual and invisible words, as if throwing a cheap button into the air nonchalantly, but this button is somehow embedded in a small but deadly part of Ed's body. In the gear, his whole body and mind were almost stuck in this moment, still and unable to breathe.

However, Mustangu still didn't know what he was doing.He seemed unaware of the boy's sudden standstill, turned around and picked up the plastic bag from the convenience store not long ago from the back seat.He leaned back in the chair and looked up, showing Ed a malicious smile, then fumbled out a drink can from his bag and stuffed it into Ed's palm.

Grapefruit juice, warm.

"The service on the midnight flight is perfect." Roy looked at Ed's dumbfounded expression, and rolled the doors and windows contentedly, "Good night, Ed."

The car sped away, but Ed was standing in place at this moment, unable to move.

The winter nights are bitterly cold and silent.After the sound of wheels and engines subsided, there was nothing in the night, as huge as an endless ocean, and as narrow as a cramped chest.At that moment, the world was so quiet, only the sound of the heartbeat was deafening, and the echo echoed in every corner of the sight.

At that moment, the 17-year-old Ed experienced for the first time in his life the taste of "out of mind", and also the first time he touched what the world calls "love".Before that, it had always been such a strange, sophisticated, and somewhat ridiculous thing. Until today, he realized that the feeling of being teased and longed for by himself for a long time was indeed incomparable to all kinds of thoughts in the past.It was as if the tower of rationality and logic he had built based on Newton's theorem over the years had been migrated to an unknown dimension, where there were completely different parameters of gravity and speed, so that all the buildings that he thought were invulnerable were instantly crumbled and tossed. The flood rolls to the unknown shore.

It was at that moment that Edward decided to go after him.

TBC