Author's Note: Thank you for all the encouraging reviews. This story will live on because of you. On a different note, please excuse any minor errors you find as I have not gotten a beta yet.

Ed kicked the door to his apartment despite having a free hand to open it with. The door opened, slammed against the wall and came back to shut itself again. If Ed's glare had been aimed at a person they would have been fleeing for their life. However, instead of transmuting the door into dust as he wanted to, Ed simply muttered curse words under his breath as he used his free hand to open the door again.

He stomped into his living room, not bothering to shut the door behind him.

The room itself was just like every other living room in an old, cheap, and rundown apartment; small, painted a white-that-had-turned-to-icky-yellow and stained with things best left unsaid. The only signs that anyone lived in the room were the small cot in the corner of it (but not actually touching the wall) and the battered brown suitcase that rested beside it.

The cot was quickly flopped upon by Ed, and its springs gave a protesting groan. The only reason it didn't break was because Ed had transmuted it purposely to hold his weight.

Ed stared at the ceiling, thinking, letting his grocery basket fall to the floor.

He was happy.

Al was safe.

He was happy.

His mother's sickness had been cured by a 'passing doctor'.

He was happy.

Al, his little brother, had both of his parents, and was happy.

He was happy.

He was happy.

He was bored.

Ed sighed and turned over, burying his face in the pillow. He was bored, that was the problem. Half of his life all he'd wanted was for his mother and Al to be alive, safe and happy. And when he had made sure that happened, just a few months after he'd gotten into the past, he'd been happy. But now……

His job was pure manual labour, helping out on the docks. It paid decently enough, and he managed to stay in shape mostly because of it, but there was nothing for his mind to do. Ever since he had been a child he had an alchemy problem working somewhere in his head, and it left an empty hole now that it wasn't there.

It wasn't that he had lost his skill at alchemy. Ed could still figure out an array in an instant, create one in only a second longer, and copy down every array he'd seen with perfect accuracy. It was just that there was nothing to do with it. He couldn't tell it to Al, he couldn't use it to help anyone, and he couldn't even put it into research papers because he didn't dare get close enough to another alchemist that they'd vouch for his ideas.

Alchemy had no real point for him anymore, therefore it left his mind except for when he called it back up. There was nothing else to think about though, only his life, himself. Maybe Ed could have been satisfied with the feeling of a good day's work if he hadn't saved villages and fought serial killers, but he doubted it.

Ed didn't want his old life back, no matter how bored he was. If being bored was the price for safety and his family's happiness, it was a relatively small one to pay and Ed felt no resentment about it.

Ed pushed himself up off of the bed slightly and looked to the basket of food on the floor. He groaned slightly at the thought of cooking and found himself wishing for something that would break this monotony.

Ed looked down at the young man he had knocked over and cursed his thoughts of less monotony earlier in the week. He could deal with monotony. He liked monotony. It was far better than the unsettling image of the Colonel as a teenager.

Ed frowned faintly. Mustang could be counted on to screw with his life, even when he wasn't actively trying to.

"I'm really very sorry." Mustang said, cutting into his thoughts.

Ed opened his mouth to snap 'Watch where you're going, you bastard' before his mind caught up with the words that were spoken.

Ed blinked and stared at Mustang, who was looking vaguely uncomfortable, and found a second shock in the fact of seeing the Colonel look uncomfortable. As if he couldn't hide it.

"You're……sorry." Ed said, his voice quiet and rough with shock.

"Yes. I wasn't looking where I was going." Mustang said as he stood up, sounding genuinely apologetic about it.

"You…" Ed started, then shock his head. The Colonel would never admit to doing something wrong. Ed would almost have believed that they were two different people except for the fact that they could have been identical twins.

"Is there something wrong?" Mustang, cutting into his thoughts again.

Ed realized that he still hadn't said anything coherent, and felt irritated at himself for it. He had seen stranger things than a nice, polite Colonel. He couldn't remember any, but that didn't matter.

"No. I'm fine." Ed said. There wasn't much else he could say. 'You're going to be such a bastard in the future' wasn't something he should say, though it was about all he could think.

"That's good." Mustang said, rubbing an elbow he had landed on. Ed abruptly realized that he had probably gotten hurt from falling down and felt slightly guilty. After all, he wasn't a bastard yet.

"Hey, sorry. Wasn't watching where I was going either." Ed offered as a sacrifice to his guilt, which seemed vaguely satisfied and drew back.

Mustang smiled.

Ed wanted to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Mustang smirked, he didn't smile. It was one of those Things Which Just Didn't Happen, like Al not liking a cat or Hawkeye being lazy. Though, Ed had to admit, he actually looked nice when he was smiling.

"It's fine. I haven't made you late for anything, have I?" Mustang asked, and Ed felt vaguely pleased to see that at least he could talk sort of like the older Mustang because otherwise it was just too weird.

"Yeah. Just work though, doesn't matter." Ed said honestly.

Mustang shifted his weight as though he was nervous, then looked Ed in the eyes and said, "Let me make it up to you. Dinner?"

Staring into eyes that were such a dark blue they were almost black, Ed felt the familiar flare of curiosity. There was something about those eyes that made him want to know the person behind them. It was probably, Ed knew, because they looked like they held so many secrets. Ed had always wanted to know everything.

It took him a few seconds to recognize and think through Mustang's words.

"You mean, at your house?" Ed asked, wondering just what was going on. Was Mustang trying to poison him? It seemed ridiculous, but then he wouldn't put anything past him and it would explain the 'being nice' thing……

"No. At Marcy's." Mustang said, sliding a hand into his pocket and looking away from him.

Ed assumed that Marcy's was some sort of restaurant. There were a thousand questions rolling around in his mind, but what came out was, "When?"

"Whenever you're free." Mustang said, now looking at him again.

Black and navy, secrets and the Colonel as a teenager, Ed wasn't sure when the world had gone crazy but he must have not have been looking.

"Get off work at six." Ed found himself saying, hoping that if he said something those eyes would just look away. This was creepy and weird and he didn't want any part of it but it would be humiliating if he was staring. He better not have been staring.

"Then I'll meet you here at seven." Mustang said, and Ed wanted to hit him for sounding so casual when he was freaking out. He waited for Mustang to leave, but he didn't and Ed finally understood he was waiting for confirmation of his plan. It was just like the Colonel waiting for him to confirm that Ed had heard his orders, and the times seemed to blur together.

"Yeah." Ed said.

"Good." The Colonel said, and nodded to him and walked away.

Ed stood on the pathway, frozen for a few seconds before remembering he was late to work, cursing and beginning to run.

Ed stood at the corner he had knocked Mustang down at. It was six fifty-five, and the sky had turned to the musky blue colour that always made Ed think of military uniforms. The corner's lamp shone enough light onto Ed to make his slouched profile and brown jacket clearly visible.

Maybe it's a joke, Ed thought as he looked at the sky, invite me to dinner and leave me waiting here for a while.

Ed sighed and pulled his coat tighter around him. While autumn was just beginning, having automail meant he got cold easier than most people would. Now that he had adjusted to the shock of seeing the Colonel again, he could recognize that he had been manipulated into making his decision about dinner. Mustang had probably bumped into him on purpose; it was the sort of thing he'd do. He just couldn't figure out why Mustang would want to have dinner with him.

"Am I late?" asked a slightly amused voice from beside him.

Ed spun around before he thought, his body moving into a position to counter the threat. The threat which was very definitely smirking at him.

"You…don't do that." Ed grumbled, feeling annoyed to be caught off guard while thinking for about the third time by the same person.

"Sorry." Mustang offered, his smirk widening to become a grin. "I couldn't resist."

"Resist." Ed said darkly. "Or next time I won't bother not hitting you."

Mustang laughed, clear and loud.

Ed stared, trying to connect the young happy teenager to the older smug man that he knew. The Colonel didn't laugh, not without a heavy edge of bitterness to it.

"We should get going." Mustang said after a few moments. His cheeks were slightly pink, but Ed couldn't figure out why. Was he embarrassed to be laughing with an almost complete stranger? If so, why had he wanted to have dinner with said almost complete stranger?

"Yeah." Ed said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Which way?"

"Follow me." Mustang said, beginning to walk forward just enough to show what direction he was going in.

Ed shrugged and began to walk, easily keeping up with the dark haired young man to his left and slightly in front of him. He didn't really have anything to say, and Mustang didn't seem to have anything to say either, though he glanced over at Ed about once every five seconds as though afraid he'd disappear. Ed looked back, still not used to the younger version of the man he had known.

The dim light lent shadows to Mustang's face. It made his skin look a light gray and his hair and eyes even darker. There weren't many differences between him and his older self that Ed could find. His hair was a little longer, he was wearing different clothes (a white buttoned shirt over a pair of blue pants), and Ed would say he had less wrinkles but Ed didn't remember him having any wrinkles. Also, Ed noted with a wide internal smirk, he was only about an inch taller than Ed himself.

"You're staring at me." Mustang said, and his voice was so bland that Ed knew he was hiding some emotion.

"Equivalent exchange. You were looking at me." Ed said casually, in case Mustang decided he was angry about it.

Mustang didn't respond, but turned his head to look away from Ed. The half of his face that Ed could see looked almost red, and Ed wondered if it was because he was really angry or if it was just a trick of the light.

"I haven't introduced myself, have I?" Mustang said after a few moments in which Ed debated just knocking him out and leaving him in a hotel because it would be easier than this. "My name's Roy Mustang. Roy."

"Right, Roy." Ed said, trying the name out. It didn't sound as strange in his voice as he thought it would. "I'm Ed."

"Pleasure to meet you." Musta- Roy said, sounding for all the world like it was a pleasure to meet him.

Ed found his lips quirking up in a smile as he replied.

"Yeah. Nice to meet you too."

He was surprised to find that he meant it.