Title: Table Manners
Fandom: Full Metal Alchemist
Characters: Mustang/Hughes
Rating: PG
A/N: Er, this is taken from a conversation about how the anime boys rarely have good table manners. Seriously, think about it. Look ma, I CAN do something under a thousand words! For nightfallrising!

It had taken time, but Roy had gotten over Maes. He understood. He had gone to war and become a new person. Maes had stayed behind. And though it seemed on the surface that little had changed about Maes, Roy could tell that he was a new person as well. He had worked through it to where it didn't hurt anymore to sit with him in the mess hall or walk between offices with him on tedious errands. When there hands accidentally brushed there was no spark left. In fact sometimes, like that very moment, Roy wondered why he had ever had feelings for Maes at all.

"And then, she spit up cookie all over the table. It was the most adorable spit up ever!" Maes waved his arms, as if quantifying the amount of adorable spit up could be. In the process he managed to fling spaghetti noodles onto the Sergeant behind him and some sauce droplets landed on the cheek of the Private to his left. Both of them turned to glare, but when they saw who the offending party was, neither did anything but calmly wipe the mess away and turn back to their meals. Roy grinned. People would rather wear mess hall food than confront a proud father in full steam. It would be cute, if it wasn't so disgusting.

"Mmmhmm," Roy said. He broke off a small piece of bread and dipped it in the sauce from his noodles. Then he placed it in his mouth, chewed it five times before swallowing, and wiped his lips with a napkin.

"No, I mean really! I wanted to take a picture of it, but Gracia hit me over the head with the camera, and then cleaned it up before I could recover." He paused, momentarily morose over the loss of pictures of his new child's bodily fluids. Roy thought that he probably would have done the same thing, and made a mental note to shake Gracia's hand next time he saw her. Maes dipped his fork down to his tray and absentmindedly picked up a scoop of red sauce, five peas, and a bit of pineapple. Roy cringed.

Maes brought the fork to his mouth and shoveled it in. He got sauce on his face, but didn't stop to wipe it clean. He started talking again before he had swallowed. "But it will be ok, because I got some lovely green cookies at the store on the way here. They have wasabi in them, which I'm sure will be better for her, since she didn't seem to like the cinnamon so much."

A piece of pea hit Roy in the face. He blinked and flexed his right thumb over the fork he was holding. He put the fork down and reached for his napkin.

"Roy, you've got some food there," Maes said. He didn't break stride in his conversational speed, but he did reach across the table and wipe the renegade vegetable away with his thumb. "There we go!" He beamed.

Roy smirked and placed his napkin back into his lap. Maes still had sauce on the side of his face, and the forkful of food headed toward his mouth looked too much like the last one for Roy to be comfortable. This. Had. To stop.

"Thank you," Roy said. He raised his right hand over his tray. Then, he snapped.

"Gyah!" Maes yelped and dropped the fork as the food two inches from his face ignited. "That was hot," he whimpered, rubbing his fingers with his other hand. The sauce on his face had turned a dark shade of brown from the heat and his bangs hung limply in his face.

"Terribly sorry," Roy said, as he scooped up a small, entirely manageable forkful of food. "Slipped."

"Slipped?" Maes asked.

Roy finished chewing, swallowed, and then smiled. "Most adorable slip ever." Maes stared at him across the table, silent. When he wasn't talking it was much, much easier to appreciate the way his lips bowed upwards naturally, and how his glasses magnified the green flecks in his eyes. Roy looked down and conscientiously went about procuring another properly sized forkful of food. He thought that maybe, just maybe, there was a bit of a spark left after all.