The bastard! Edward seethed to himself. How un-fucking-believable! The gall of the man! Ed made a concerted effort to unclench his teeth and smile politely at a passing dignitary.

Fullmetal, the Brigadier-General's words echoed in his mind, it would benefit the state, no, myself, greatly if you would attend this function. After all, you are a very well-known person and I'm sure the…visitors…would love to get a chance to talk with you. It would reflect well upon us all if you came to the event.

Edward attempted not to grind his teeth again. From his position he could see the asshole general flirting with – Ed's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets – the Cretan prince's wife? The hell? Was he an idiot? Edward was tempted to storm over and give Mustang a good punch in the face but,

Behave yourself, Fullmetal, or you'll find you won't like me so much. An indirect threat to be sure, but would the bastard really hurt him? Probably not. Well…not much at any rate. Not too far away he could see Hawkeye looking unamused and a little off to her right…well. There was someone he could talk to. He sauntered across the floor towards the Xingian prince who seemed to be delighting in taste testing all the food on the buffet table.

"Ling," he greeted his friend.

"Ed!" Ling gave him a huge smile. "I was just tasting some of these…delicacies."

Ed eyed the thing Ling was holding in his hand warily. "I'm not sure I'm that brave. They always serve the weirdest shit."

Ling laughed outright startling some of the other "VIPS" as the Brigadier-General had called them and shrugged trying to sneakily place the-whatever-the-hell-he'd-picked-up back on the plate. A moment later Ling shrugged and tossed it back, grimacing as it went down.

"Ah, I see you found the liver," the cultured voice remarked and Ed felt his whole spine tense.

"Brigadier-General," Ling greeted him, "Good to see you again."

"Prince Yao," Mustang inclined his head, "I'm glad to see you in such high spirits. How is your father?"

"As hail as ever, he doesn't seem to be dying anytime soon…" Ling trailed off and Ed had the impression the word not added on was "unfortunately".

Apparently Mustang had come to the same conclusion because the side of his mouth tipped up into what could almost be considered a grin.

"Well, I'd better get back to making my rounds, have a good evening, Prince Yao." Then he turned his eyes onto Edward, "And I'm glad to see you behaving yourself."

Ed felt his body heating up as the fury built inside of him. Before he could blow his lid, Ling grabbed his arm and dragged him away.

Roy could see Ed across the room. He was grinding his teeth and the Prince – Ling – seemed to be trying to ply him with alcohol. He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. The young – hotheaded – alchemist was complying with Ling. He was letting Ling pour him glass after glass of something. He was rather put out with the Prince – Fullmetal was a terror when he was in his right mind; but drunk? Roy didn't know how the young man would react. The two young men sat next to each other at a small table sampling a few of the different delicacies that some lovely young waiter's had brought them. Enjoyment seemed to cross Edward's face as the eighteen year old laughed at something that Ling had said. Roy felt the tiniest stirring of jealousy. After all the years spent working with one another – well, manipulating Edward – he would have thought that he would have known more about the young man, but in truth Edward remained closed off to him. Closed off to almost everybody. Somehow Ling had managed to break through that barrier and gain his trust. Perhaps this was a good thing for Edward, having a friend that was his age and almost as intelligent as he.

Edward must have sensed him looking because the young man raised his head and stared at him, those yellow eyes narrowing. Roy smirked and turned to the side but not before he caught a glimpse of Ed's irritated face.

A few hours later Ed realized he had ingested far too much alcohol than was good for him. Ling had left an hour or so before with Ran Fan at his heels. Ling had managed to coerce Ed into admitting that his feelings for Roy Mustang were not just all hate. It had embarrassed him and had made him feel ill, weak, and vulnerable. But Ling hadn't said anything, only smiled and told Ed that he was going to leave. He'd also said tonight would be a turning point. Ed felt a tad bit sick and so he leaned against a wall hoping that it would help support his weight.

But why wouldn't it? It was a wall. Clearly he had drank too much. A moment later a shadow fell above him. He looked up through bleary eyes to find the Brigadier-General looming over him.

"Bastard," he said with some resignation.

"Fullmetal, you look delightfully drunk."

Ed's eyes narrowed and he swayed as he pushed off the wall. Mustang caught his arm and stopped Ed from toppling to the ground.

"Would you like some help getting back to your apartment?"

Ed glared. But he let Mustang help him outside supporting his weight. Roy wrapped his arm around Edward's waist and pulled him along.

"You are a bastard, you know that. I wouldn't be like this if you hadn't – " Ed paused, "if you hadn't aggravated me."

Roy's mouth curved up into a smirk. "Fullmetal, really, placing all the blame on me? What did I ever do to you?"

Ed tried to pull away but Mustang had a firm grip on him and refused to let him slip away. Mustang managed to get Edward into the apartment and into his room.

Edward promptly flopped onto his bed and lay there unmoving.

"Come on Fullmetal," Roy muttered. Mustang gently took Edward's clothes off of him, leaving him in only boxers and a t-shirt.

The last thing Ed remembered Roy doing was pulling out his hair tie. After that it was mostly muddled.

Mustang knocked on Edward's door for a good ten minutes the next morning before he gave up and tried the knob. Which was unlocked. Roy nudged it open and carefully eased himself around the corner. He gave a sigh of relief as he reached the bedroom and saw that Edward was simply in a deep, almost comatose state.

In other words he was extremely hung over.

Roy shook Fullmetal extremely hard and Ed opened his eyes to slits.

"What?" he grunted.

"You're three hours late for work."

Edward turned his head to the man and rolled his eyes. "You know, I almost thought you were being nice since I was hung over. Apparently not."

"That's rather the point, right?"

Ed gave a low laugh and said, "I suppose. You've got to admit I was very well behaved last evening."

"For the most part. I got some interesting comments on your…drinking."

"I didn't drink that much."

Roy's eyebrows twitched upward and he shrugged. Then he smiled. "I learned some very interesting things last night."

This time it was Ed who raised his eyebrows.

"You know you're very talkative in your sleep."

Ed's eyes went wide and he shot up. "What did I say?" he grabbed at Roy's collar. "What did I say?"

Roy gave a low laugh. "Well, I guess you'll just have to wait to find out."

"No, no, no, no, no! You can't do this to me!" he wailed.

Roy grinned and waved with a hand as he left the apartment but not before saying, "I think you'll find your next assignment interesting."

Ed let his head thud against the floor. He only knew that whatever he had said Mustang now had a weapon against him. Whether or not he'd actually use it was another story altogether.

Edward stared forlornly at the wall. I'm never drinking again. EVER.

And damn Ling for saying the things he said!