Paon: Hah, I actually was going to, and then I lost my internet connection for another six hours. I swear I was cursed or something for two days. I'm glad to hear you like their conversations, I'm slowly going to keep making them more personal.

Bar-Ohki: Psychic freaks... Ed doesn't get dreams so far. But whether the dreams I mention will become real or not, you'll have to wait and find out.

Seiten: Well yay! I'm glad you are enjoying it so far. I hope I keep everyone off balance and guessing about things.

GreedxEd: Yes, you may hit him for being dense.

Shini: I think GreedxEd will beat him into a semblance of intelligence, maybe you can join in though. And yes, I agree about Hancock. I was less than impressed.

Tee: Yes he does read fast, tehe! And I agree with you about Ironman, I adored that movie. Probably because I'm a robotics freak.

roarargh: At least you left one -pat-

Rachel: Yes, there are. They need each other, even if they don't realize it yet that the need is mutual.

Ria: He learned from Elmer Fudd.

anmbcuconnfan: hehe thanks, and yes, Riza with her new gun shall be a deadly force to be reckoned with.

So I don't have that much to say just yet... I am putting this up after waking up from a dead sleep so that I could take my brother to his orthodontics appointment. Did anyone bother telling me about it, and that I had to take him? Bother... so now I must go change out of my pajamas. Though I wouldn't mind just rolling back into bed once I get home... I didn't sleep well last night again.

Chapter Thirteen

There's a plane of being, somewhere in between consciousness and sleep. The place where your body is resting, yet you retain an awareness of what is happening around you. Edward had perfected this fashion of resting when he was only a child. He'd rest this way while under Izumi's tutelage. It had become a form of self preservation to him, and he brought it back into use again now.

His eyes were closed, and his breathing was slow and rhythmic, but he was registering all the sounds around him. He'd grown so adept at this from years of practice that when he did rest like this, the sounds he took in registered like a picture to his inner eye. Alphonse had once made a joke about him being a bat using echolocation. Ed had to admit his brother might have had a point.

The only difference between what he saw on this plane of awareness, and when he was actually awake, was that when he was awake he saw things in color. Right now everything was moving in black and white.

He would have liked to allow himself to drift fully into the realm of dreams and nightmares, hopeful of perhaps having one of those delicious dreams of Mustang he enjoyed so very thoroughly. They were his life's joy and bane rolled into one lovely package. While it was nice to dream of what could be, it wasn't what was when he woke up. And he lived in reality.

It was the semi-coherent though regarding those dreams that made Edward realize he was waking himself up. Unfortunately that only served to rouse him further, instead of letting him drift back off.

Groaning, and with a twist of his body in an attempt to get more comfortable on the lumpy surface of the ground and his jackets, Edward allowed his eyes to open. Black sky and stars shimmering on the watering hole met his gaze. Dunes beyond that marked the beginning of the habitable desert the Ishbal people resided in. The Great Desert beyond that was more treacherous, but he tried not to think about that for right now.

Trying to get an idea for the time, Edward directed his full attention to the sky to seek out the constellations he would recognize that would help him figure out how much longer until dawn he had left. By his predictions, it couldn't be much later than two in the morning.

How splendid.

Ed gave a disgruntled sigh and closed his eyes again. He found it was fruitless, and after a good fifteen minutes spent trying to lull himself back to a semblance of rest, he gave it up.

"Might as well." Ed gave in and rolled off his jackets. Standing, he stripped out of his clothes and washed them in the watering hole. The water was relatively clean and clear, and he could see the bottom. He used his alchemy to speed up the drying process and make sure his leather pants didn't shrink. That would be a most uncomfortable situation.

When his clothes were done, he folded them neatly and stacked them on top of his boots before wading in to wash himself.

The water was cool, and Ed relaxed into it with a relaxed sigh. He soaked for a time, and then scrubbed himself as best he could. His hair proved more of a challenge to rinse through. The water had made the knots near impossible to get out. Somehow he managed it. Once he was clean and his hair once more shone sleek and undusted, Ed sloshed out of the watering hole.

Edward dried off and after making sure his wounded shoulder was fine, dressed. The cool water had helped relax the aching muscles. Once he'd tugged on and laced his boots he began walking again.

If he was unable to sleep, or something similar, he shouldn't waste time lying about. It was still dark out, and he should cover as much ground as he could before the heat of the day came upon him.

Central

The scratching of charcoal pencil on paper was the only noise that broke the calm peace in the house of Roy Mustang. All pauses involved either lapses into deep thinking, or the gentle rubbing of a rubber eraser to the paper.

He'd hidden himself away in the secret room he'd built underneath his stairwell. Almost like a panic room. But it had been transformed into an art studio.

It was a hobby of his.

The walls were filled with framed and displayed sketches and often full color oil paintings. There were some transmutation circles, most of them larger duplicates of something Edward had produced for him when he'd asked if the alchemist had a more powerful array idea. After all, Ed knew more about arrays than Roy ever would thanks to his innate alchemic knowledge. Other pictures were of people dear to him, his team, his family, and about twice as many of Edward in various settings.

An easel with an unfinished landscape was set in the middle of the room. Roy was currently lounging against one wall, sitting on a throw pillow and balancing his sketchbook in one hand whilst drawing with the other.

He realized he should really try and get some sleep, but he didn't care. He wanted to finish the sketch he was working on. Only then he felt he'd be able to fall back asleep again.

Yes, again.

He had woken out of a very wonderful dream, and had instantly felt the urge and the sudden need to draw it. As if it were something very meaningful that he needed to remember. He would want to remember it anyway if he had to tell the truth.

He'd been an observer in his dream, looking on a scene of he and Edward. He couldn't tell where they were, and he couldn't see his own face. In his dream, he was sitting down in a chair next to the left side of a bed where Edward lay. He couldn't see his own face, but he could see Edward's. The blond had looked weary and pale. Yet he glowed thanks to his hair, making him seem radiant, like an angelic ghost. A white sheet had been pulled up to Ed's chest, and his automail had shone in stark contrast to everything else, while his tanned skin with white scars about the left shoulder was the only thing that made him seem human at all. Had Roy not known this man in his dream before he'd dreamt, he might have said the blond man was an angel, or a deity.

Edward's eyes had remained closed for some time, and dream Roy's hand had lifted to tenderly card the soft blonde bangs away from his face before letting his fingers trail down Ed's jaw line slowly. At that, Edward had opened his brilliant eyes, and turned their intoxicating depths on the Roy beside him in the chair. With a soft smile, and murmured words that Roy hadn't been able to hear as he looked on, Edward had pulled his near hand out from under the sheet, his flesh hand, and taken dream Roy's hand in his own and squeezed it gently while never taking his gaze away from the owner of the hand he was holding.

It was then Roy had awoken, and been taken over by the need to draw the dream. He had chosen to capture that endearing moment where Ed was holding his hand, gazing up at him with that soft smile playing on his lips and that sparkle in his eyes.

He was almost finished, and was working on the shading. He felt the warmth hum happily inside him as he reflected on the dream again and again so that he could get it displayed properly on paper. He never wanted to forget that scene. It left him with a sense of contentment.

This wasn't the first dream he'd had involving Edward. He'd had many, if his drawings and paintings were anything to judge by. He'd had dreams ranging from them arguing, to them making love, and everything in between on that spectrum. However few dreams left him as contented and filled with peace as the one from tonight.

Another hour passed, and at last Roy felt satisfied with the drawing. It captured him all over again. Stifling a yawn he got up and stiffly eased the kinks from his joints. He put his pencil and eraser away before gently easing the latest drawing from his sketchbook.

He framed it carefully, and then hung it on his wall next to an oil painting of he and Edward lying curled up with each other in a rather spectacular tangle of limbs as they slept with peaceful smiles. Stepping back to admire the newest addition to his wall, for he only hung his best, he gave it a miniscule nod before turning to head out of his hidden studio.

It was a silly dream of his, but a dream he courted nonetheless, that one day he might be able to share his artwork with Edward who was his subject so many times over.

Roy Mustang fell back into bed as his clock shifted hands so that the device now read that it was five in the morning. With a rather wide yawn, Roy tugged the coverlet over his head and let himself drift back off to sleep. He didn't need to get up and go to work for another two hours. He intended on regaining some well lost sleep.

By eight in the morning, Roy was striding into Headquarters balancing a cup of coffee and snapping to a tune only he could hear. The little puffballs of scorching fire danced at his fingertips as he merrily walked through the front doors.

For some reason, talking to Ed last night, and that sense of peace his dream had left him were carrying over still. And he wasn't complaining. He was actually feeling quite happy this morning, the only thing that would be able to complete his day was currently hundreds of miles away. But at least Ed was safe.

Roy made it to his office and past a surprised Hawkeye.

"You're in a good mood, what happened?" She asked in confusion as she followed after him while carrying the stack of documents for the day.

"Do I need a reason to be in a good mood?" He countered with a mysterious smile as he nudged his way past his heavy office door and into his office. Setting the cup of coffee down he turned to accept the paperwork.

"Well, no, of course not." Hawkeye replied still giving him an odd look. She hadn't seen him this happy since… "oh no, Ed isn't coming back is he?" She nearly shrieked. The last time she'd seen Roy looking this pleased, Edward had shown up from that other world again.

"What? No, of course not! He can't come back, it's too dangerous for him." Mustang gave her a strange look and sat down to grab a pen. "Are you feeling okay, Riza?"

"Yes." She frowned at him, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle her commanding officer was presenting her with. "Did you…" dare she think it, "get a date?" The very thought made her ache for Ed, despite the resiliency the man had shown in regard to Mustang. She knew Edward cared deeply for Roy, and would be heartbroken if Mustang started dating someone while he was forced to stay away.

Roy looked up at her sharply, his pen pausing in mid-signature. "No… I did not." Sure, a valid question on her part. She didn't know of his feelings for Edward, he'd made sure to keep them concealed. But the thought of dating someone… it made him feel like he was cheating on Ed, and he didn't even have claim over the blond. No, he could not, and would not date anyone else. He'd signed his heart away to a young man named Edward Elric a long time ago.

"Well, maybe you should switch to decaf or something… not that I don't like seeing you happy. But, it's weird." She admitted, gave him one last fleeting look and strode out the door intent on seeing her own work schedule through now that she had her boss set to work.

As the door shut behind her, Roy allowed himself a bit of a chuckle as he took another sip of his coffee. He'd never understand that woman. Sure, it might be nicer to her sanity to let her in on the secret he'd been keeping. But he wanted Edward to be the first one to learn of his feelings, he deserved it.

He turned back to his paperwork, and finished his signature on one document, and pulled another. One by one he methodically went through them, finding a sort of dance to this sort of task. He could almost keep a beat to it. Read, sign, pass, over and over again.

Around the lunch hour, Riza reappeared and stared in appropriate shock at the amount Roy had done already. "You're sure that's all done?" She asked, coming to rifle through the papers with interest.

"Dotted my I's and crossed my T's." Roy assured her sarcastically and read through another file.

"Impressive."

"After all the years you've spent harping on my work ethic and pointing a gun at me for it, you're suddenly shocked that I am doing what you've wanted? You give us too little credit." Mustang drawled as he pondered the documents in front of him. "I've a country to run, and with the happenings going on lately, I think I need to finally be more active of a participant in my own life. Before my life is affected by my previous shortcomings."

"Just make sure you get something to eat, sir."

Then she was gone.

Roy smiled faintly and shook his head. Between Riza here, and Edward telling him to look out for himself, he was risking becoming pampered. "I hope he's okay still." Mustang sighed out and closed his eyes for a time.

It was his daily admission, hoping that Edward was still all right.

Roy finished looking over the file of documents in question and deeming them fine, signed and set them onto the ever growing stack of finished work. He reached for the next paper and pulled it to him. He read it through, his frown only increasing with each sentence, as did the uneasy feeling in his stomach.

He got up from his seat, leaving the paper on his desk and unsigned as he walked to his office door and wrenched it open. His eyes scanned the people in there before landing on Falman. "When does Hawkeye sort through all the papers I need to sign for the next day?"

Falman brought a weathered hand up to scratch at his ever graying hair, "I'm fairly sure she does it after she gets back from lunch. That's when all the mail and such arrives."

"Does she ever leave her desk afterwards?" Mustang further enquired.

"Sometimes."

"Yesterday, did she?"

"She might have, I'm not entirely sure. The rest of the boys and I had to take a late lunch. She might have left afterwards." Falman supposed and gave his Fuhrer a curious look. "Why? Is something wrong, sir?"

"No, not exactly. Would you have her come in and see me when she gets back from lunch?" Roy asked. He couldn't exactly mention too much outside of the soundproofed security of his office.

"Yes, sir."

Mustang nodded and walked back to his desk, and sat down after he'd looked out through the windows behind him. As he sat he set the paper that had made him uneasy into a drawer in his desk and began again. He hoped Hawkeye would not be gone too much longer, though he realized she might decide to make a trip to the library this afternoon before she returned. He hoped that were not the case. It was strange how Riza and Edward had traded spots being inconvenient at times when they decided to go hole themselves up in the library.

He'd finished his paperwork entirely with no more distractions, and had made several important phone calls. It was around that time that Hawkeye reentered his office with a light rap to the door.

"You wanted to see me?" She asked, still not stepping inside fully.

"Yes, come in." He waved her over as he pushed the phone back out of his way, and fished out the paper from his desk drawer. "Did you leave at all yesterday afternoon? Once the paperwork for today had been gone through?"

"Yeah, for a bit. I went to the library." She frowned as she walked over.

"Was the office empty at the time?"

"Yeah, the boys had needed to take a late lunch, but they were due back any minute." She smiled at him, "don't worry, not like you need it, but we wouldn't leave you unguarded for too long."

Well, that was a comforting thought, but suddenly he felt like he needed big huge Rottweiler chained to Riza's desk who would only refrain from attacking if you knew the secret word. "Look at this." He said, and handed over the paper in question.

He had thought at first there was something off about it. It wasn't the correct weight in his hand. All official documents were on a certain heavy paper, this was most certainly not. As she read it over, he watched her expression carefully, and when she got near the end he said, "so I think we need to see just when you left, and when the boys got back."

"Edward should know about this." Hawkeye said, passing it back with a frown. "I do not like this, I'm going to start locking everything up before I leave, even if it's only for a minute."

"Good plan." Mustang said and slipped the offending paper back into a desk drawer for safe keeping. "It's a good thing I actually read what I sign now, wouldn't you say?"

"I'll bet that wasn't an element they figured into the calculations." Riza agreed and her hand rested on the gun at her hip. "I'm thinking Ed is right, be careful. This is getting weirder every day."

"They're forgetting who they're dealing with. Alchemists make weird seem tame." Roy muttered darkly.