Chapter 10

When Ed woke up, he forgot where he was for a minute. Roy's room was dark because he had heavy black curtains covering all of the windows. Ed turned over and saw Roy asleep next to him and suddenly remembered what had happened the night before. He was hit with a flood of emotions – good and bad. He was happy, that was a sure thing, but he was also uneasy. Last night had been perfect – almost too perfect. Things in Ed's life never went well and he was sure that this was just some calm before a really bad storm.

His anxiety was getting the best of him, and lying in bed wasn't helping. He also really had to pee, so he had a legitimate reason to get up. Luckily for him, Roy's room had a private bathroom so he didn't have to go downstairs to use it. He sat up and rubbed his swollen belly. He knew that he wasn't going to be able to hide it much longer, which meant that he was going to have to officially take his leave from work. He felt a small push under his skin where his hand was touching and smiled to himself – it was almost as if the baby knew that he was dreading having to take time off from work.

He went to the bathroom, washed his hands, and walked over to one of the windows. He pulled back the black curtain and looked outside to discover that it was snowing. Not a lot, but small white flakes were falling from the sky and sticking to the ground. Ed knew that it was still November, but the first snowfall always meant the start of winter to him. He put his face close to the glass and blew hot air on the cold to watch it fog up. He lifted a pale finger and cleared a zigzag line in the fog he had just made.

The start of winter meant that Ed would be having the baby soon. He hadn't realized how much time had passed, and was amazed when he considered how much had happened. He was living with Roy Mustang. He was going to be a father. He had spent last night sleeping beside the man that he had admired since his early adolescence. So much had happened, and yet Ed still felt like it had all only just begun.

He stood at the window and watched the snow fall for a while. Enough time to see the sun (sort of, it was very blurred by the snow clouds) begin to rise.

"Ed?" He heard the tired grunt from behind him and turned to see a very groggy, and very shirtless, Mustang propped up on his elbow on the bed.

Ed felt that unbearable lump make its way into his throat once again and his pulse quickened. The sexual attraction that he felt towards Roy Mustang was ridiculous. "H-hey…" Ed sputtered, closing the curtain. "It's snowing."

"Oh yeah?" Roy said with a heavy yawn. "That must mean that it's winter."

The parallel between them was too much for Ed not to laugh to himself. As different as he and Roy seemed to one another at first, they were both starting to realize that they had a lot more in common than either of them thought. They both loved to read. An evening sitting in front of Roy's fireplace with a good philosophy or alchemy book in hand was the ideal relaxing situation for both of them. They were both men of science, rather than religion, so neither of them ever looked for salvation in things like miracles or god. When they managed to have civil conversations, they were always enlightening; both of their brains were very full and neither of them was used to having someone at their level to talk to. And of course, they both were the kind of people that felt that the first fall of snowflakes meant the start of winter.

Roy pulled the blanket off and stretched. The sight of Roy's enormous…uh, morning friend, peaking curiously through the hole in Roy's boxers made Ed choke on air.

"Uh, Mustang, you might want to cover that up." Ed advised, starting intently at a wrinkled shirt on the floor.

"What?" Roy looked down and shrugged. "You're a man, don't pretend that it doesn't happen to you too."

Ed would have looked up, but the wrinkled shirt was really interesting. "That's not the point!" He could feel his face turning red.

"Why don't you come over and help me take care of it?"

Ed couldn't even handle how ridiculous Roy was being. Who said things like that? He figured that this must be one of the tactics that Roy used to pick up dumb girls at bars.

"Get over yourself." Ed said with an embarrassed smirk, finally managing to decide that Roy Mustang's morning wood was probably much more interesting than the wrinkled shirt.

Roy smirked back and lifted an eyebrow. "Oh come on Ed, I did you a favor last night." He pointed out, getting out of bed. He walked over to where Ed was standing in a few easy strides.

Ed couldn't take the way that Mustang made him feel. His heart was beating so hard that Ed was sure that it was literally going to burst out of his chest. He couldn't look at Roy directly. Instead of a wrinkled shirt, Ed's eyes stared intently on one of the bricks on Roy's fireplace.

Ed felt the other man's strong hand grab his arm and practically force his hand onto Roy's penis. Ed didn't protest, and nervously began to stroke it.

"I don't know how to do this…" He admitted, trying his best to do what he knew felt good.

"You're doing fine." Roy encouraged him. He grabbed Ed's chin and pulled him into a gentle kiss.

One way or another, they found their way back to Roy's bed. Holding back for so long made it impossible for them to resist one another. The desire was unreal, and neither of them planned on holding back ever again.

Ed moved his hand up and down and used his thumb to message the tip of Roy's penis. The moan from the other man let him know that he was doing a good job. This gave him a bit of courage, so he decided to try using his mouth. He slid Mustang's length against his tongue and started making his way up and down. Roy was way too big to fit all the way in, so Ed improvised and used one of his hands the slide along the part that his mouth wouldn't cover. He had never done this before, but from the reaction Mustang was giving, he was sure that he wasn't performing like an amateur at all.

"Ed…" Mustang's rough voice only turned Ed on more. He pushed himself down as far as he could go, but his gag reflex was protesting so he had to pull back. His own hard dick was getting too annoying to ignore much longer so he used his other hand to stroke himself.

Roy realized what he was doing and pulled Ed off of him. Before Ed could react, Mustang had him bent over the bed with his face biting the sheets, and was fucking him from behind. Ed moaned loudly, and jerked himself vigorously. Roy held Ed's head down and slammed into him. All of his sexual frustration was finally being relieved.

Ed finished into his hand and felt Roy finish inside of him and pull out. They both collapsed onto the bed, panting. The term "long overdue" barely even covered what had just happened.

Roy reached over and stroked Ed's face, and Ed couldn't help but feel comfortable under his touch. "I'm going to take a sick day." He said quietly. "I haven't called out sick in nine years, so I don't think I have to worry about getting into any trouble."

"I think that it's officially time for me to take my leave from work." Ed struggled to keep the annoyance out of his voice, "I wish that I didn't have to stay here all alone all day with nothing to do. I get all fidgety when I'm bored."

"Well you won't be alone today." Roy kissed the top of Ed's head lightly. It was almost unreal how quickly things had worked themselves out. It felt like it was only a week ago that Ed hated Roy with his entire being and now they were lying in bed together. For the first time in what felt like forever, Ed's heart was content. He felt like he was where he was supposed to be. But it was that exact feeling of bliss that made another part of Ed feel incredibly uneasy.

"Is this really happening?" Ed asked, taking in the scent of the man beside him.

"Is what really happening?"

"Us?" Ed explained, "this?"

Roy took a moment to think about it, "I've been wondering the same thing."

Ed decided not to push it any further. The whole relationship was more complicated than either of them could understand, and pushing it any further could mess up what they already had together.

Roy made breakfast and the two of them just sort of…hung out for the day. In all of the years that they knew each other, Roy and Ed had never just hung out. They talked about science and religion. Roy talked about his family. It was really easy to talk to one another when no one was watching, and it was especially easy to talk to one another when they weren't trying to pretend that they hated each other. Being together was easy – natural almost. Ed has never been this comfortable talking to someone that wasn't Al. Being together was a lot simpler than they thought it would be. But there was still something really important that they needed to talk about – and that something could easily bring this bliss to a halt.

The sun had set, and Ed and Roy were sitting together on the couch with their mouths stuck together when Ed decided to bring it up:

"What is this?" He said blatantly, looking directly into Mustang's eyes.

Mustang was quiet for a moment. "What do you want it to be?" He answered finally.

"I…" Ed thought about it, "I don't know."

"I want to be with you." Roy said firmly.

"What are you even saying?" Ed felt his blood pressure rising. "What? Do you want to try raising this baby together too? That's a laugh. Edward Elric and Roy Mustang: fathers of the year."

Roy's face hardened, "What else were you going to do?"

Ed realized that they had never spoken about the baby before. They had never once discussed what was going to happen to it after it was born. Ed had already made plans to move back to Resembool with Al and raise it there. He had never even considered the possibility that Roy might want to play a role in the child's life.

"I was going to move to Resembool." Ed explained, "Al and Winry were going to help me raise it."

"It's my kid too, Ed." Ed could see that Roy was getting angry.

"Really? You'd never be able to tell. You pretend that it isn't there, that it isn't happening. From what I could see, you wanted nothing to do with it!"

"I'm not the one that pretends this isn't happening. That's always been you."

Ed couldn't even believe how stupid Roy was being. "Me? I'm the one with this thing inside of me!"

"Thing?" Roy asked, disgusted.

"What? No! I didn't mean— "

"Thing? If it's a thing then why don't you leave it with me and go back to Resembool with Al by yourself?"

"You know I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

Ed stopped for a minute. He took a deep breath and tried with all he had to stay calm.

"Look…" Ed said slowly. It was weird being the rational one. "Let's stop this for now, okay? We clearly both want the same thing."

"Ed," Roy was calming down, but was having a harder time than Ed "I want to try. Why can't we try?"

"Because…" Ed tried to think of a reason why he should say no. He knew that going to stay wit Al was the right choice. He knew that Al would be able to help him better than anyone else. But he wanted to try it with Roy too.

"Ed." Roy leaned in and kissed Ed softly. "Let's stop hiding from each other."

Hiding. That's what they had been doing – the word fit the situation perfectly.

"But what if it doesn't work out?" Ed asked, his voice on edge. "What then?"

"We have to be willing to try."

Ed's head was spinning. He wanted to say yes. He really did, but he was afraid. He needed something to let him know that it was the right choice – he was never the type of person to take a chance. And this was a big chance. And then he felt it. A series of small pushes in his belly.

Ed started to laugh. But not just any laugh, one of those crazy hysterical laughs. He laughed so hard that tears started to form in his eyes.

"What?" Roy asked angrily. "What could possibly be funny about this?"

Ed didn't respond – instead, he grabbed Roy's wrist and put his hand on his belly.

Roy's face changed from anger and confusion to surprise.

"Is that…?"

Ed nodded. "It's like it's telling us: 'stop fighting because I want you both to take care of me'" Ed said with another laugh.

Roy smiled and rubbed Ed's belly. "It's settled then. We're going to try."

"It's going to be hard explaining this one to Al."

….

Over the next few weeks, things were great. Ed had his monthly doctor's appointment and found out that he and his baby were both perfectly healthy. He and Roy had started eating dinner together every night, and Ed was spending a lot of his free time at the house transmuting baby furniture. Things were good. Hell, things were great. Ed still hadn't told Al about his plan to stay with Roy, but he still had time.

Ed had moved out of the guest room and into Roy's room permanently. He and Roy had both agreed that the room that Ed initially stayed in would be the best room for the baby because it was closest to Roy's room, to their room.

Ed was arranging the furniture in the room for the hundredth time when he heard the phone ring. He made his way downstairs (slowly now, over the last few weeks he had suddenly blown up like a balloon) and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Elric?"

Ed recognized the voice of his doctor.

"Doctor?"

"Hello Edward. I was wondering if you and Mr. Mustang would be able to come to my office tomorrow. I have something that I need to talk to you about."

The tone of her voice made Ed nervous.

"What's wrong?" He asked, his voice shaking.

"I'll talk to you about it in person. Do you think that you'll be able to make it tomorrow?"

"Y-yeah…We'll be there…"

"Okay, I'll see you then."

Ed heard the other line click off but stood there with the phone in his hand for several minutes.

This was it, he thought. The calm before the storm was finally over.