"Goddamn you, you stupid bastard! Getting me in trouble again!" Edward grumbled as he shoved at the pillow, trying to fit it into a washing machine. "You and your stupid smirk got me into trouble, and you just won't stop smirking!" Edward, with one final punch to the large, long pillow got it all to fit.

"You know, Fullmetal, there are bigger machines for bigger loads."

The young blonde jumped and spun around, spreading his arms out and blocking any view of what the machine contained. After a few moments of panting and calming his racing heartbeat, he snarled,

"What the hell are you doing here, Bastard?" Roy shrugged, holding a large basket covered with a sheet.

"I thought it was rather obvious, Fullmetal. This is a laundromat after all." He walked over to one of the larger machines, deposited his money, and set the basket on the ground. Ed noted he had flashed a quick glance over his shoulder at him before scooping up his basket's contents, being sure that the sheet was covering everything, and throwing it into the machine.

"Your laundry won't be clean if it doesn't have room to move," Roy continued from what he had been saying earlier. He snuck another glance at his blonde subordinate as he closed the door and walked over to the vending machine and selected the appropriate detergent and softener. When he turned around, he saw the alchemist throwing his laundry into the closest large machine there was and slamming the door shut.

Roy thought it was a little odd that he was acting so suspiciously but then again, he supposed he looked awfully suspicious as well.

Edward put his money into the washer and poured in his detergent and softener. He now looked casually over his shoulder and saw Mustang measuring out his own soaps. Directly behind him. Snapping his head back around, he smashed the start button and watched as water began to fill in.

'Why the hell did I have to grab the one across from the bastard? Why?' The blonde alchemist glowered at the timer which read thirty minutes left...Thirty minutes he had to spend with him.

(Al would murder him if he ever found out he left the laundromat..."No, you just can't leave, Brother! Someone could steal your things if you leave your machine unattended!" And somehow Al would know...Somehow...)

Roy sighed unhappily at his timer. How could he possibly spend the next thirty minutes of his life? He'd have to stay here, he knew from experience that if he left the establishment while his machine was running, he'd more than likely forget to come back and pick it up. And by the time he would remember, his machine was empty and his clothes gone.

His head, almost unconsciously, tilted to the side so he could view the blonde behind him. Roy noted he was tapping his right foot agitatedly against the linoleum flooring. His shoulders sagged and the blonde began to shrug out of his red coat. He threw the coat onto the washer, turned around, and blatantly glared at Roy. Roy flinched inwardly but kept a cool smirk on his face as he turned around as well.

"So, Colonel Bastard, what are you doing here? Don't you have a washing machine at home?"

"It's broken." 'More like Hawkeye sabotaged it,' He thought grumpily to himself as he outwardly frowned a little. "I could ask the same of you, Shrimp. Don't the dorms and the hotel you're staying at have a laundry service?" He watched, amused, as Edward's face went through a few shades of red.

"I-er, well," the blonde stumbled with his words. "These are...Uh, personal," he finished glancing furtively behind himself at his timer.

"Really? What could it possibly be?" Roy chuckled into his hand. Edward's head whipped around, his eyes wide and...Horrified maybe?

"None of your damn business!" He folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against his machine.

Both seemed to settle then on glaring at each other for the remaining half hour. Or at least both would call it 'glaring' when in fact they were studying each other intently. Edward blushed when Roy suddenly smirked. He told himself that it was an angry flush not a blush, and narrowed his eyes further. Roy was suspicious of Ed's reaction to his smirk which made his smirk grow. However, it disappeared when he heard his washing machine's timer go off.

'Shit,' He looked at Edward's timer and found he still had a minute left. 'Should I get it out now? Or should I wait? Would it be odd if I were to wait?'

Roy slowly turned around and opened his washer. He cursed quietly: the red of the pillow had bled onto his sheet. He glanced over his shoulder and found Ed was fumbling with his own machine. He then turned his head to the far wall where the dyers were.

He wrapped his wet, and now red, sheet around the long pillow and scooped it up. He nearly ran into Edward, who also had a bundle in his arms and noted that the blonde practically pushed him out of the way to get to the dryers.

Edward nearly tore open the door and stuffed his blue bundle into it and slammed the door shut. He leaned against it, breathing heavily with his eyes closed. Edward jumped when he heard the dryer door beside him slam shut. Turning, he watched Roy slowly put in his change, then look at him.

"What was with the rush, Fullmetal? You nearly shoved me over."

"I...Just don't like the feel of, uh, wet cloth. It feels...Weird." Edward's blush was light as he looked away. Roy shrugged; merely happy that the blonde had been so concerned with his own things he had not noticed Roy's. He then moved to lean against an unused dryer. He was about to say something to Edward, to bait the young man again, when the blonde jumped and let out a gasp.

"W-ooaa-h," Edward's voice was drawn out and sounded odd, his eyes opening wide. "Th-is is awe-some."

"Fullmetal," Roy chuckled as he set his basket down a few feet away. "You did know that these machines vibrate, didn't you?" This caused Edward to frown a little.

"Of course I knew that!" Edward moved away from the machine, his voice going back to normal. He placed his coat and laundry bag near Roy's basket. "I just don't get to use these much. Me and Al usually let the clothes hang dry." Edward paused for a moment before continuing. "And it feels good if you press your back against it." Edward slowly leaned back against the machine and sighed softly.

At the image of this, Roy couldn't help but picture another image: Ed sitting on his dryer at home, softly moaning his name as he- Roy shook his head hard, a faint blush on his cheeks. He glanced at the corner of his eye at his subordinate, relieved to find he had his eyes closed and was completely relaxed against the dryer. Roy could feel the corner of his lips begin to turn up into a smile and he closed his eyes.

This time, the half hour passed quickly, both mildly dozing off against the rumbling machines. They jumped simultaneously as their machines stopped and beeped loudly. Their eyes snapped open as they remembered where they were.

Edward moved first, darting to get his things off the floor and pull on his coat, Roy went straight to his basket. They both arrived back at the dryers at the same time, looking at each other from the corner of their eyes before they tore open the dryer doors and began to stuff the contents into their holders.

Edward paused, after shoving the pillow into his bag, and pulled out a red tinted sheet from the dryer.

Roy reached into his dryer in an attempt to get his sheet, but only felt the warm metal of the inner dryer.

Roy then looked at the pillow he had hurriedly put into his basket, as Ed did the same with his laundry bag.

Roy found himself looking at...Himself. He was on the pillow. He was smirking, his eyes looking as though they had this twinkle in them. His military jacket and dress shirt were unbuttoned and the shirt was untucked and looked a bit wrinkled. One hand was tangled in his hair, pulling it back from his forehead, as the other was down his undone pants.

Edward stared into his own golden eyes that were printed onto the pillow he held in his hands. He only wore his red coat, which was open, and his leather pants, which looked tighter than usual and were unbuttoned and showed some of the skin on his lower stomach. His flesh hand looked as though it was pulling the pants down and his automail forearm was pressed against his forehead. His head was tilted back and his eyes were half closed with a light blush dusting his cheeks.

Edward could feel his actual cheeks growing red and his jaw dropped a little as he looked over to Roy.

"Uh, Bastard, I think we got out dryers mixed up..." Edward trailed off as he realized that his superior officer held his pillow.

Roy wracked his brain, trying to come up with a witty joke, but found he could not. Instead, his mind was racing with the fact that Edward had a pillow of him. 'Does he sleep with it? Does he use it the way I use mine?' His pale skin flushed and he and Ed continued to stare at each other. Based on the other's flushed face, both knew.

Edward startled Roy by turning back to the machine, grabbing the red sheet and putting it and the pillow into Roy's basket. Roy was frozen as Edward snatched the pillow from his hands and stuffed it into his laundry bag. He pulled the drawstrings together roughly and stormed out of the laundromat without another word to Roy.

Roy stood there staring dazedly after the blonde. A part of his mind was screaming at his body to move to go after the blonde, but another part of his mind questioned, 'why?' What could he possibly do at this point?

Slowly, he picked up his basket, and headed toward the door. He could still see Ed a good distance down the street, walking now. His feet began to move faster and before he knew it, he was right behind Ed. He balanced the basket on one hip and reached out and grabbed the young alchemist's arm, which had the bag slung over it.

"What the hell do you want?" Edward swung his other hand, his metal one, at Roy's face. Roy closed his eyes and flinched, waiting for the blow. He cracked open his eyes when he felt the cool metal knuckles just touched his cheek gently, somehow losing momentum. He looked into Edward's confused golden eyes and moved his hand up to where Ed's automail was, still on his cheek.

"What the fuck do you want, Colonel Bastard? If you tell anyone, I swear I'll-"

"Then you can tell them about mine." Gripping the metal hand, he lowered it. "But you don't have to worry, I won't tell. But I was wondering something."

"What?" Edward's face flushed, his flesh hand gripping the drawstrings tighter. Roy watched him for a moment, as his golden eyes stared intently at the sidewalk.

"Do you want to go out to dinner sometime this week?"

"What?" Edward's voice was thick with disbelief. Roy shrugged a little.

"I figure since we both seem to be attracted to each other, we may as well try and find out if a relationship would even work between us." Edward was silent as Roy continued. "If the date goes poorly, then we can just say I was treating you to dinner for some reason." The silence stretched on for a few moments, making Roy nervous. Then Ed started walking away and Roy's head lowered a bit in rejection.

"Alright, let's do it." Edward had stopped and was looking back at Roy. "Well, come on, Bastard. We've got to get to headquarters. Supposedly, I'm late for a meeting with you."

Roy smiled, despite the insult and walked with Edward to HQ. 'It's a start.'