His stomach was what woke him that morning. Roy Mustang had hardly the will to be awoken, but it was persistent. It swirled and twisted, pushing food up from the last time he ate, whenever that was. For a moment he tried to remember, but everything from the night before was non existent to him as of now. He'd gone out to the bar right? He supposed that's why he felt so horrible. He had a little too much to drink.

His stomach jolted, reminding him why he was awake. With blurry eyes and a killer headache, he fell out of his bedsheets and stumbled to his bathroom, tripping over himself on the way just to the door. He knew that he was in own home, but fuck he was so out of it, he couldn't find his own bathroom for a couple of minutes. When he finally did, his hand fumbled to get the door open.

He kneeled down in front of the toilet and waited for the inevitable. One hand gripped his bare stomach and the other pressed to the floor, holding him up. It felt like the room was spinning and his stomach was turning the opposite way.

Once he got it all out, he took a couple minutes to breathe before standing up. He fought achy bones and a debilitating stab in his head to do so. He then turned on the faucet in the sink to clean himself up a little and realized just how amazing the cold water felt. He felt like a disgusting mess and he smelled of booze and sweat. After brushing his teeth and wiping his face with a washcloth, he decided to finally look in the mirror. The, apparently naked, man staring back at him looked as shitty as he felt.

Hangovers are a bitch.

He looked himself over, seeing if he got hurt or anything(you'd be surprised by how many bruises and nicks he'd end up with after nights out), but the only thing he found was... hickies? There was a line of really dark marks along the side of his neck, almost as if he'd had some rough sex. As he looked them over, he brushed his fingers along the skin, finding it a little sore. Suddenly a flash of memories from last night came back to him.

Moaning, heated kisses, beautiful blonde hair, and falling into his own bed with someone who didn't normally belong there. He'd had a one night stand with someone? That didn't sound too abnormal for him, but something about this felt off. He felt like he knew the girl he'd brought home last night? No, no way he'd be that stupid.

He shook his head clear of the thoughts and made his way back to his room. As soon as he stepped through the door, a soft snore caught his attention. His eyes snapped to the bed and he saw that there was someone there. Of course there was, what was he expecting? The person was turned away from him, but from here he could see pretty golden hair and a bit of a boyish physique on the girl. Not his usual, but still nice.

He slipped on some pants before leaving the room again. He'd done this a lot, and he was a gentleman about it, too. Normally, the girl would wake in a fashion close to his own and he'd care for her until she was okay enough to leave. He did this normally by making a pot of coffee and having some medicine at the ready.

The coffee was made and he was at the table trying to eat some toast while downing a cup when he finally heard some shuffling in the hallway. A smug smile crossed his lips and he pretended to not notice as the girl came into the room. She was quiet for a minute before she spoke.

"Colonel, is this actually your place? Kinda bland for a show off like you."

Roy's eyes shot over to the figure and his smile dropped from his face. He saw that he hadn't brought home a girl at all. Instead, who he was looking at was the one person that he'd never have expected to go home with him. The boy had his messy blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and seemed to have only put on some boxers before coming out. "Fullmetal?"

Edward was obviously confused about why Roy was questioning him. His head tilted a little and his brow furrowed. "What? Did you forget I was here?"

"No, uh," Roy continued to stare him down, more memories from the night before coming to the surface. A cute smile from Ed from across the bar, taking him home, admiring the metal limbs that reflected the moonlight just before bringing the boy in for a rough kiss. That shit actually happened. "I mean yeah, but uh, we had sex?"

The blonde's confusion shined for a second longer, then shifted to realization."Oh." His eyes darkened a little, from disappointment. "You forgot." From his lips came a sigh, almost as if he was saying, I knew this was going to happen. Then he settled down in the seat across from Roy, making a bit of a pained face. "Well if my ass has anything to say about it, yeah, I'm pretty sure we had sex."

Roy had actually done it with a man. Not exactly too startling, though he had been convinced he was straight. What was a little more surprising was who he had picked and that this person had agreed. Ed wasn't underage anymore, but Roy had known him before he was eighteen, and they'd never really gotten along. Yeah, their little spats seemed more like flirting than otherwise, but this?

"So you actually don't remember?" Ed asked, interrupting the man's thoughts. He was obviously upset about this fact, but was trying to be a good sport. "Anything?"

Roy watched Ed for a moment before responding, noticing the marks along the boy's neck and chest, similar to his own. A fight for dominance, huh? That seemed about right. "I've got some blurry images here and there, I just-"

"-didn't know it was me?" Ed finished for him.

"I didn't even know it was a guy."

Ed made a face at him, silently wondering how dumb the colonel was. "Didn't you see me when you got out of bed?"

Roy shrugged, "I couldn't see your face. I thought you were a girl."

Of course, this was met with an annoyed expression. "Are you kidding me? I didn't think you'd had that much to drink," Ed said in return.

Apparently, he did. He was still recovering from finding out that he'd had sex with his subordinate, so he only just realized he was still holding an unfinished piece of toast in his hand. He set it down and then let out a small sigh. "I'm really sorry about this, Ed."

Back in the day, Ed was a open book. His emotions were always written on his face for the world to see and it made it really easy for Roy to play with him. Since then, Ed had mellowed out a little. After they recovered Al's body and essentially found a way to save the world, the little hotheaded alchemist he knew so well had gone plenty soft. He wasn't as determined, really, and when you caught him in a moment of thought, he seemed more so content than any sort of upset.

Those sort of easy reads seemed to disappear and Roy had to look further for clues on how the kid was feeling. Sometimes he actually wondered what the boy was thinking about, since he couldn't really tell anymore. A long time ago, it would've been the philosopher's stone, Al, or the whole situation with the homunculi, but none of those things mattered anymore. Ed had completed his mission.

Right now, though, Roy could see every emotion. It was like Ed had formed back into the boy he used to be. He was obviously upset and almost looked betrayed. There was definitely some annoyance in that mix as well, and it made Roy's heart hurt. It wasn't his fault he couldn't remember, but fuck he felt bad for it.

"Don't apologize," the boy said in response. There was a hint of regret in his eyes and tinge of hurt, too. "It wasn't like it mattered or anything. It was only sex."

Roy could easily see past the lie. Ed was too disappointed and sad for it to have only been sex for him. He'd been with dozens of girls and never had any of them looked so heartbroken to find out that he didn't remember much.

He paused for a moment.

Going from being straight to realizing how much you really liked your male subordinate in less than ten minutes was something Roy would just have to get over. Ed was cute. He knew that. He'd always known that. The kid's blonde hair and golden eyes were perfect and when he got all mad from teasing, Roy knew it would always end in flirting for a reason.

As he looked over this, well actually, man that he'd watched mature over the years, Roy realized that maybe this wasn't something he could let go of. The first time he'd seen the kid, he didn't even have that signature automail yet. Now he was eighteen, grown, and had the scars to prove he'd seen hell and back since the first time they'd met. Thinking back to that twelve year old he got to mess with all those years ago made him a tad nostalgic.

Then opened his mouth, "It doesn't have to be."

This was enough to catch Ed off guard. "What?"

Roy shrugged. "I don't know what drunk me might've said to you last night," he was normally pretty direct about the one night stand thing to make sure there no confusion when morning came. "But I don't think either one of us is going to just walk away from this easily. Especially not you, kid."

"Okay, yeah, but what are you getting at?"

"I'm saying," a sigh passed Roy's lips. What was he even doing right now? Was this the right thing? "Why not let me take you out for dinner or something? I know it'll be a little backwards, but maybe we could try this again. Sober."

Ed's expression shifted in an instant. Distrust and betrayal turned to a happy surprise. A small smile grace his lips and some pink complimented his cheeks. "Are you asking me on a date, Colonel?"

"General," Roy corrected before saying, "and yeah, I am." He was a little nervous, though he doubted Ed would reject him. "How about it?"

The smile grew and Ed nodded. "Yeah, alright." Suddenly he had that normal cheekiness again. Like he was okay now, since this wasn't going to be the end. "Better warn you, though, I'm not a cheap date."

"I wasn't expecting otherwise," Roy said with a bit of a laugh. He felt a little bubbly because Ed had agreed. This was a lot different than anything he'd ever done before. He was a gentleman when he took women on dates and never had he taken a one night stand out before. "How about some coffee? You've got a hangover right?"

"No, I didn't drink that much," Ed said back. "But I'll take some coffee anyway. Medicine would be nice, too, if you've got any."

Roy was about to question why Ed would need any painkillers, then remembered what Ed had said about his ass and had an oh moment. He got up from his own seat and fetched the pills and some coffee for Ed to wash it down with. He decided that he needed to get dressed for the day then, too. As he put down the things in front of Ed, he leaned down and left a kiss on the blonde's forehead. "I'm going to get dressed, alright? Then I'll take you home. Alphonse is probably worried about you."

Ed froze for a second and his blushed deepened in the cutest way. He obviously hadn't expected any physical affection. "Um, okay," he said a bit bashfully. His automail hand reached for the handle of the coffee mug. "I'll get my clothes in a minute."

"Take as long as you want, Fullmetal. Don't hurt yourself."

"Well it's not my fault you have a big dick, Colonel."

"I can't deny that," Roy said, petting the top of Ed's head just before leaving the room. "But it's General, you know that," he added from the hallway.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

There was this big doofy grin on Roy's face as he walked back to his room. He couldn't help it and when he noticed it, he realized that maybe he'd always wanted this. All of those years of being with woman, appreciating the ladies and dating, they weren't wasted, but he should've been spending a bit more time looking into how he felt for the blonde boy.

He didn't want to admit it just yet, but, he was probably in love.