This fic is a masterpiece—I have it printed out so I can read it whenever I want, and the pages are very, very worn. I'll just leave you a quotation:
And that how Roy does the trick. That is the magician's spell. The alchemist's illusion.
He bursts out some kind of intimate and somewhat revealing personal information and makes it seem a slip, an accident; this makes you feel very special because you have seen a glimpse of the man behind the mask and you suddenly crave for more, you become addicted to these moments of enlightment. You find him very romantic and tortured and that's how he makes you his dog and it is no more about loyalty than it is about love.
So the chess match assured my loyalty; but it was the aftermath what assured my love.
The real trick about it all is that years later I'm still not sure if those slips of the tongue are really planned; my hesitation to admit there is nothing behind the mask is the space he uses to pulls at my strings.
FanficRecs Comment by Skadi
This fic is a masterpiece—I have it printed out so I can read it whenever I want, and the pages are very, very worn. I'll just leave you a quotation:
And that how Roy does the trick. That is the magician's spell. The alchemist's illusion.
He bursts out some kind of intimate and somewhat revealing personal information and makes it seem a slip, an accident; this makes you feel very special because you have seen a glimpse of the man behind the mask and you suddenly crave for more, you become addicted to these moments of enlightment. You find him very romantic and tortured and that's how he makes you his dog and it is no more about loyalty than it is about love.
So the chess match assured my loyalty; but it was the aftermath what assured my love.
The real trick about it all is that years later I'm still not sure if those slips of the tongue are really planned; my hesitation to admit there is nothing behind the mask is the space he uses to pulls at my strings.
The myth requires that Roy has to suffer.