Afrieal: I'm glad that you both are enjoying it so far.
J Plash: Did you tell her what the commotion was for? Get her reading as well P
Mel: Doesn't matter to me where you're from, I'm just glad you're reading and enjoying.
greyscale: You may be right, who knows. My memory on TV related things is not always reliable.
Mandeln: I won't know that for sure until I write the third to last chapter. But I'll be letting everyone know when I've figured it out.
Ria: And how was vacation?
Ethereal: Well I may bring her back, and I'm glad you like her even if she is an original character.
anmbcuconnfan: I'm not sure if Hawkeye will be getting a date... this is the first fic I've done with her where she isn't hooked up with Havoc in that closet you mentioned.
Luna: I hope it is precious... you'll have to let me know.
GreedxEd: I can't blame him, you're dangerous when you want Roy to get a move on.
hell: Well thanks, that means a lot. And no worries, the confession won't be much longer of a wait.
I have nothing too much to say... except I went to the dentist today.
Have I ever mentioned I dislike the smell of the dentist's office? I don't mind the cleanings or anything, it's the smell. It makes me all light headed.
Chapter Ten
"So I see you finally made your way up here."
"Hey." Edward smiled faintly at Hawkeye, returning the quick embrace she offered him. "It's really good to see you again."
She smiled at him kindly, "it's good to have you back, sir." Riza then glanced towards one prominent closed door in the room. "He's not in there, he had a meeting with some of his generals. But you can go in if you want."
"I'm meeting him for lunch soon." Edward said, and looked at the clock hanging on the wall.
Riza gave a pleased smile. "He'll be going straight to lunch after the meeting." She informed him.
Ed nodded slowly and looked around once, at the desks where everyone was getting back to work, though chattering happily. He then looked back at the door that led to Roy's office.
"Go in." She prodded him gently and motioned to the door. "He kept the couch you like."
Edward laughed softly, and nodded. "I have a lot of fond memories about that couch." He said, and without further prompting, allowed himself to walk to the door, open, and close it behind himself as he let himself in.
It appeared that even years later, Roy's sense of decorating for his office had not changed.
Edward walked behind the back of his favored black leather couch, running an absent gloved hand over the material, supple with age. His steps took him to the neatly organized desk, and saw that Mustang's paperwork was indeed done thus far. It made him smile.
"He was not kidding, he really does do it without prompting. I've never seen Hawkeye look so relaxed." Edward said quietly to the empty office.
Walking around, still trailing gloved fingers on the shiny surface of the desk, Edward slowly eased himself down into the massive and highly comfortable black leather office chair. Easing back into it he let his eyes slip shut with a contented sigh.
For some reason it just felt right that he was here.
He needed some time apart from every other soldier and alchemist anyway. It wasn't that he was unaccustomed to lots of attention, but he was still by nature a person who'd either rather be alone, or with a select few.
What better place to calm his mind than here?
And so he sat there until it was time that he go to lunch.
He left without a word, and Hawkeye merely smiled knowingly. Edward politely greeted those who hailed him, but kept his steps turned towards the smell of food. When he reached the flung open doors, he peered inside to see that Roy wasn't there yet. Even in the lunch rush, he could have spotted the man in the teeming crowd.
It was like some innate ability he did not question. And so Ed stood out in the hall to wait, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed and bangs falling about his face.
When Roy approached, he separated himself from the generals at his side, and turned his steps first towards Ed. The man was impossible, how could he look so poised and powerful even when he was resting against a wall looking as if he was dozing? Somehow it didn't seem fair.
He quelled the thought of what it would be like to peel away that exterior, because if he didn't quell it now, he'd probably have no choice but to confess later and pin Ed to that wall now.
Roy waved his curious generals on ahead before turning to Ed. "Edward?"
Ed turned his head at the voice, smiling as his opened eyes alighted on Roy. "How was the meeting?"
"Bearable." He smirked and jerked his head towards the mess hall. "Shall we?"
Edward nodded mutely, and fell into step.
"What did you do today?" Roy asked as he got trays for them both.
He shrugged, "get reacquainted with a ton of people, and had a few ribs cracked by Armstrong I think."
Roy felt the corner of his mouth twinge in a smirk. "Do you need to go back to the hospital already?"
"Shut up, I'm fine." Ed smiled and accepted his meal from the servers and set it on his tray. "Move down, you're holding up the line."
Roy moved obligingly, ignoring the shocked looks of those in hearing range. He didn't really care what they thought of his sudden, by all appearances friendship, with what had once been a volatile Fullmetal Alchemist. Though he did notice the looks Edward was getting, it'd take a fool not to see that Edward had grown into a desirable man. And oh how he desired him now that he realized what he felt. "Here, you need a drink too." Roy said, plopping a plastic container onto Ed's tray with a devilish grin.
Edward blinked at it, and glared at Roy as he quickly swapped the milk Roy had placed on his tray with the iced tea Roy had chosen for himself. "You'll have to be smoother than that to trick me."
Roy kept grinning and he continued down the line so he could make sure they didn't try and charge Edward for his food. "You know, I don't think I've seen you lose your temper once since you came back."
At that, Edward laughed. When he had gotten himself under control, he stared at his food with a faint smile. "Like I said, I grew up. But don't wish to see my temper reappear. Keeping it dormant won't have done anything to mellow it."
Roy considered him for a moment, then nodded. "Well let's go, I'm hungry, and I know you're still a black hole for food." He said and drug Ed off towards an empty table.
Edward sat down and picked up his fork to poke at a chicken strip with a frown. "Is this even real chicken?"
"Hm? Oh, no, not really. It's pressed chicken, you know, like the random parts of meat. And beaks and eyes and such." Roy grinned and squirted a healthy amount of steak sauce all over his. "If you drown them they're better."
Edward gave him a look that made Roy laugh, startling many nearby people. Evidently Roy Mustang wasn't seen or heard laughing very often. "Look, you're making people stare now." He chided the man gently, and with a smile grabbed the steak sauce and followed suit, completely coating his chicken strips in saucy flavor.
"Let them." He shrugged, and began to eat cheerfully.
"Only you would be able to cook meals that are worthy of any high class establishment, but let the cooks you hire here give us dog food." Edward observed as he began on his chicken, chewing after a slight grimace.
"The dogs eat better than us, actually." Roy informed him in an offhand tone.
"Figures." Edward sighed.
"What did you want to make for dinner tonight? So we can get this terrible meal off your mind." Roy asked now, "and when were you going to make that pie? If I'm paying for your lemons you better make use of them."
"I'll make it when we get home, calm down." Edward smiled at him, "as for dinner… let's barbeque something. I saw your huge ass grill out on the back deck."
"If you want spicy barbeque we'll have to stop at the store on the way home. I'm out of cayenne."
"Yeah. Let's stop on the way." Edward quickly agreed. Though he could honestly care less if the food was spicy or not, he just wanted an excuse to go shopping with Roy again.
"I've been thinking about your problem with the Gate," Roy began now, pushing his fork through the peas. "Are there any clues it gave you? Anything you two have talked about in your dreams regarding it?"
Edward thought back to where the conversations usually went now in his dreams, and the Gate was kind enough to leave him with very stirring dreams when it was over. How he wanted to blast the thing into rubble. He flushed somewhat, but quickly managed to shake the heat away and composed himself. "At the beginning of all this, it told me it had given me a clue. But I can't see what was said between us that would be a clue. Believe me, I've poured over everything I can think of."
Roy felt himself soften at the worried look on Edward's face, and gave him a comforting smile. "Hey," he reached over across the table to touch Ed's hand lightly, the blonde had turned to staring down at the table, and now looked back up to meet his eyes again. "I'll help you try to figure this out. You're not alone, Edward. I'm here, after all."
Edward knew he'd lost himself in those black eyes, in the warmth he saw there. And while he knew Roy didn't fully understand the reason he was worried, it helped. To know that Roy was there, and willing to help him find a way to save his life, it eased some of his burden. Though he'd be damned if he let Roy know right now what lay at stake should they fail. No, not now. If he ever told him at all. Because if they were to fail, he couldn't see putting the man he loved through the bitter truth of what his fate was on the other world. "I know you are, and even if you weren't willing to help me, I'm glad to just be able to sit here like this with you."
"Even if we are scaring officers and alchemists by getting along?"
Ed smiled, "I know how to scare them even more."
Roy silently congratulated himself on making Edward smile again, and found himself intrigued by the blonde's claim. "Oh?"
"Laugh." Edward said simply.
Roy blinked at him. "Excuse me?"
"Laugh." Ed repeated, "do you remember me telling you not to stop laughing? I like it when you laugh happily like that." He paused as he readjusted his self control, and then gave Roy a brilliant smile. "But it scares the shit out of them."
Roy couldn't help it. Ed's reasoning was so different, but so right, he just couldn't help it. He started laughing again.
Edward continued to smile brightly at him, and then turned to his chicken strips with a chuckle.
"Ed, you'll be the death of my reputation." Roy said once he got himself under control again.
At that, Edward looked up and smirked. "Which one?"
Now what reputations did he have? Roy quickly sifted through them. There was his smug and high and mighty air of being, his affinity for fire, and of course his reputation for being quite the flirt with every attractive human that was not Hawkeye. "All but one."
"Which one?" Ed repeated.
Roy blinked at him, and felt the blush rising again, and quickly looked away while clearing his throat. "Not here, Ed. I don't want everyone to suddenly think it's okay to not run around on eggshells around me when I'm mad."
Edward rolled his eyes, "all you have to do is snap a few times and they'll be back in line." He said as he emptied the remainder of his chicken onto Roy's plate, and moved his fork to the biscuit.
"Mine!" Roy growled, immediately distracted as he batted Ed's fork away with his own.
"But I gave you my pressed chicken guts." Edward pointed out, moving in again for the kill.
"Endearing of you, however I, unlike you, actually want to finish my meal." Roy swatted the encroaching fork away again.
"You're the Fuhrer, go ask for another biscuit." Ed proposed, and made another swipe for the bread in question.
Roy fended it away once more. "But I want this one, go ask for your own. And take your chicken back."
"But Ro-oy." Edward couldn't help the appeasing drawl of his voice, though he kept it low enough so it wouldn't be overheard. And he delighted in the blush he saw rising to the black haired man's cheeks.
"You two fight like an old married couple now." Hawkeye declared as she took a seat on an empty side of the table they were occupying, putting her tray of food down sharply.
Both men jumped, and Hawkeye smirked at the blushes she saw.
"We do no such thing." Roy hissed at her, unwilling to meet her taunting eyes.
"Yet." Edward muttered under his breath, and feeling eyes on him, looked up. He felt his blush gain in heat as he realized that Roy was staring at him with a mixture of shock and something else he couldn't quite place. Had he been heard? He doubted it, he'd barely heard himself when he said that.
"What'd you say, Ed? I couldn't hear your vehement denial." Riza grinned.
Edward, feeling decidedly flustered, stared down at his peas with somewhat wide eyes. Could Roy lip-read? Somehow, he wouldn't put it past him. "Like Roy said," Edward substituted, and somehow got the heat in his face under control, as he looked back up to meet Roy's penetrating gaze. "We do no such thing."
"Uh-huh." She said, her tone disbelieving.
"I'm going to go get another biscuit." Edward said suddenly, and got up gracefully, if not quickly, and seemed to glide away.
"He'll notice you staring at him." Riza said calmly from her seat.
Roy whipped his gaze over to her. "I told you to keep it to yourself!" He hissed under his breath.
"I have, I was only making an observation. I gave away nothing." She said, knowing she was right.
Roy spared her a quick glare, before looking down at his tray of food. "Now I want to give him my biscuit."
Riza burst out laughing at that.
"Oh shut up."
"Sorry." She smiled and leveled a reproachful look at him. "But seriously, Mustang, you two do act like an old married couple. It's cute."
"Whatever Edward and I are," Roy sighed, "it may certainly be vague at this point. But we are not cute. Cute is for things like kittens and ponies, and fluffy white lambs. Neither Ed nor I are any of those things."
"But you are little sexually frustrated rabbits who you can't deny, are drawn to one another." Riza grinned despite the glare.
"I am drawn to him, but it's not because we are rabbits." Roy said firmly.
Edward returned to the table with his extra biscuit and sat down, having composed himself again during the short walk. "So, Hawkeye, tell me how Breda and Fuery are doing? I assume you were at the ceremony, was it nice?"
That topic of conversation lasted them well through lunch, and eventually the three got up to go their separate ways. Riza hurried off to an unnamed location, leaving Roy and Ed alone in the hall together.
The two men walked quietly alongside one another, matching stride for stride with unconscious ease. Almost as if their bodies were syncing with one another. Neither of them spoke a word for some time, and it was Edward who finally broke the silence as they made their way down a vacant hallway.
"I promised some of the alchemists I'd coach them on some things. I'm not exactly rusty, thank goodness. They still consider me the best."
"You are the best, aside from myself of course."
Edward gave Roy a light hearted shove.
"But good, I'm glad they were smart enough to ask you to help them."
"They're my fans, how could I resist?"
"Just so long as they keep their boundaries." Roy grumbled without thinking.
Edward glanced his way, and smiled softly. "And, what are those boundaries, Roy?"
Roy stopped where he was, and met Edward's teasing gaze. "Oh hush, you. Don't make me spell out everything."
Edward laughed, "but it's such fun." He said cheerfully. "Anyway, I'll see you later?"
"Come up to my office by five if you aren't there already." Roy smiled. "And do try to not blow up anything expensive."
"Oh well now you've just butted heads with my rebellious side."
Roy smiled after Edward as the man jogged off with that grace and ease that made each movement look so effortless but so strong. "Your boundaries, Ed?" Roy whispered as he made his way to his office. "There's a place your fans end, and I want to begin."
It was nice, how they'd fallen into a relationship of teasing here and there, but no longer were they at one another's throats. Though, now that he thought about it, he wouldn't mind them being so in another fashion aside from the bickering of their initial years together.
As he entered Hawkeye's domain, behind which his own office was located, he raised an eyebrow at her curious look. "What?"
"So, how'd it go?" She asked.
Roy looked around, seeing they were alone. "We walked for a bit and just talked."
"That's all? You two got left alone and you just talked to him?" Riza asked him, clearly baffled.
"I wasn't about to ravage him in the hall." Roy grunted, as if the entire idea made him irritated. "And I certainly wasn't going to confess to him there either. I want this to be somewhat romantic."
"Very well, but you better act soon. I've heard the talk and seen the looks that Edward has been receiving. If you don't reel him in soon, you'll be having competition."
"If we both love one another, there is no competition." Roy said reasonably, "but I'm not about to waste time. I'll make my move, but not at work."
Hawkeye inclined her head in acquiescence. "I can respect that. At any rate, I have some more files that came in, I put them on your desk. And if your chair looks misplaced, it's because Edward was in there earlier."
"He sat in my chair?" Roy blinked. "Instead of that couch?"
"He must smell you on it or something strange like that." She grinned and turned back to her own work.
Roy flushed, he seemed to be doing that a lot. Somehow, he didn't exactly mind the idea of Edward smelling like him. The scent of his shampoo on Ed's hair was already enough to drive him crazy. "If he's the death of me, I'll be dying happy."
The muttering echoed behind him as he entered his office.
Walking over to his chair he looked at it, smiled, and sat down into the foam comfort to begin his work.