"I still don't see why we have to sit out here, in the cold, bastard."

Ah, the beautiful sound of a whining Edward Elric. Music to Roy's ears, and he planned to make the most of hearing it before it all got too loud.

"I told you why. I think you'll like it," Roy replied in a remarkably smug and calm tone. He secretly thought that it was way too cold and would much rather be at home in the warm, but he had told Ed he would take him to see fireworks after hearing that there was going to be a display down at the beach and finding out that Ed had never seen them before. He was a man of his word, so he planned to follow through with that promise. Ed had been enthusiastic when Roy had first suggested it, but now he didn't seem to appreciate it much. At all, in fact. He was constantly complaining.

"I'm freezing my ass off here, Roy!" Ed grated out. "The pebbles are poking me and they're all uneven and uncomfy as hell. Why can't they hurry the hell up?"

Roy rolled his eyes and gave Ed a playful shove to the shoulder. "Oh, shut up, Mr Ungrateful. You've been through worse than sitting in the cold on pebbles."

"You shut up. Colonel Bastard."

"Aww, I love you too."

Ed glared at him. That was Roy's usual way to respond to Ed calling him bastard, and it annoyed Ed to no end. (Of course, that was the whole reason Roy did it.)

"You know what?" Ed started. "I-" Just at that moment, the first firework was set off, and Edward cut himself off to have a heart attack. "HOLYFUCKINGSHIT!" he shrieked and leapt off of the blanket, flinging his arms around Roy's neck. The scowls of a few parents there with young children went unnoticed by Ed, who was now sitting in Roy's lap, covering his eyes against Roy's chest. "What the hell was that?!"

Roy raised an eyebrow and wondered if Ed had managed to see any of it.

"Firework. Turn and look," he said with an affectionate smile that Ed didn't see because he currently had his face buried in Roy's shirt.

"Makin' them so damn loud..." Edward grumbled, but allowed Roy to turn him around so he could enjoy the sight and not just freak out at the following bangs and cracks.

Considering how long Roy and Ed had waited for the display to start, it only really lasted about five minutes. For those few minutes, Ed sat transfixed while trying to make it seem like he was unimpressed, despite the fact that he was staring fixedly with his mouth hanging open. He would shift around and sigh heavily, hoping that that would make it less obvious how much he was actually enjoying it. Even so, he knew Roy wouldn't be fooled. He had the uncanny and extremely annoying ability of being able to see Ed's actual feelings without even trying.

After it was over, Roy smiled and looked over to Ed to see what his reaction was.

"Wow..." Ed murmured, then glanced up to see Roy smirking at him. "You know I could have made just as much noise and colours and stuff with my alchemy!" he said, trying to appear flippant. "We just sat in the cold for an hour with annoying kids to see a few pretty colours and... bangs... and stuff."

"Sure, sure." Roy smirked some more and Ed gritted his teeth in annoyance. How could the bastard always be so damn cool and collected?

Ed made a point to complain most of the way home, but Roy couldn't help but notice the wide grin he wore as they were driven back to Roy's apartment and the way he was in an exceptionally good mood for the rest of the night.

Roy also discovered that using the cliché "let's create our own fireworks now" actually worked.

You learn something new every day.

Wtf.

...

Review.