Disclaimer: I don't own FMA the cow does, bow to the cow she is all powerful. FMA is the property of Arakawa-sama and not I. I make no money writing this I am merely borrowing the characters for creative purposes.

Title: Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)
Pairing: Eventual Roy/Ed
Genre: Drama, Action Adventure
Spoilers: Up until (Ch 99) of the manga.
Series: FMA
Rating: MA, NC-17 (overall)
Status: Work In Progress
Summary: Who knew he could have a chance at this, that he could actually achieve happiness? Roy/Ed

Chapter 12 Part 2

Three days, three damn days and he was still at the same fucking conclusion he'd come to those three damn days ago. No, he had not apologized to the bastard for being a brat and yes the tension was still there between them. Hell they were both getting tired of one another and being locked up in the house after the first full two days of being around one another was not lessening the urge to 'play nice'. Hawkeye had returned last night with no news on finding the woman who had caused this mess and with orders for Mustang to return to work.

Therefore, Ed was now sitting at the dining room table with notes, books, and a cold cup of coffee covering much of the surface. Havoc and Breda were in the living room playing chess and keeping silent, a medal worthy task for those two idiots. The only reason for their silence happened to be the several volumes of books that Ed had thrown at them a few hours ago when they broke his concentration with their damn gossip about this woman and that woman and different bars they frequented and wanted to go back to. Ed had bitched them out about that shit too telling them they didn't have to be there, he could damn well take care of himself, and that had shut them up with guilt for a little while before they'd started up again.

He was at a stand still, he didn't have anymore books to go through, Al had brought him every book he could find from the public libraries and Mustang had even gotten some from the National Library after they hit a dead end the first night they started on this research into the history of Rousia. He wanted to set fire to each and every volume for being so damn useless to what he was looking for. Growling at the passage about some damn 'founding father' of Rousia he slammed the book closed violently.

"Yo boss, why don't you come play some chess and take a break," Havoc called out to him. With a grunt he pushed his chair away from the table, stood up, grabbed the cold cup of coffee and took it to the kitchen to rinse it out and made a fresh cup. He had to make more coffee he had just used the last of it. He put his sugar in the drink and then carried it with him to the living room where Havoc and Breda had pulled the couch and chair closer to the coffee table to play chess comfortably.

Sitting down after Havoc got to his feet and moved away so he could stretch his stiff muscles from sitting most of the day Ed sat down in the vacated seat, Breda set up the chess board and Havoc declared as he headed for the door, "Goin' out for a smoke break." Ed watched Breda wave the comment off distractingly and then the man's gaze drifted to him. There was definitely a question brewing in the guys' mind and given his foul mood Ed knew he wasn't going to like it.

"So, I heard you nearly ripped the chief's head off the second night you were here?"

"Heard from who, did the asshole show up at work whining about it or something," Ed commented haughtily.

"No, I've spent a long time in the military and around both you and Mustang to know when you two are fighting," was the calm reply.

Ed took another drink of his coffee before he sighed and motioned to the chess board, "Let's just play some chess."

"Alright, but I want to offer a wager during this game of chess."

"A wager, on what?"

'Well more like a game of questions and answers actually," the man said as he moved one of his pawns forward one space.

Ed looked at the man suspiciously but he didn't budge or give anything away, instead the man met his gaze steadily. He liked Breda, the guy was funny, intelligent, and he was one of the few out of Mustang's command who didn't pry into anyone's personal lives or really seem to want to know about them in the first place. Remembering that much he nodded once and said, "Fine by me, what're the rules?"

"Simple, when I take one of your pieces I get to ask you a question and you give an honest answer. Same goes for me of course, that whole equivalence thing you alchemist go by applies in this game."

"So I can ask you anything and you'll answer truthfully then?"

"As long as the questions are within reason, so save the stupid ones for a night at the bar alright," Breda said with a grin.

Another nod and Ed said, "Sure, whatever," and moved his far right pawn forward one space.

Breda moved his left pawn forward two opening up a hole for his other pieces on that side of the board. Ed studied the board for a minute before he moved one of his center pawns forward once. It was a full ten minutes of making moves against one another before Breda finally managed to take one of Ed's pawns due to the fact that both of them were playing defensively. Ed could picture Breda also taking his time between each move to think of possible questions he wanted to ask or possible questions he might be asked. Both of them looked up as Breda picked up the murdered pawn as Havoc came inside.

They watched the other blond walk into the kitchen and return with one of the dining room table chairs to set it on the other end of the coffee table on the opposite side from the fireplace. After a moment of both of them looking at him the man shrugged, "Like I'm not going to be entertained by two genius playing this game. Hell, I think the chief would be a good opponent against either one of you."

"That arrogant bastard would make sure he was good at this game," Ed replied sourly. He shouldn't still be pissed at the man but he couldn't help it, it was second nature to him. He looked back at his opponent who smirked as he held up the pawn making Ed glare at the older man, "I never agreed to play this game with this joker listening in."

"You already agreed to my terms," the man replied with a smirk. He twirled the piece in his hand then set it on the table, "Question one then. What happened to make you so pissed at the chief?"

Havoc laughed which earned him a glare before Ed sighed, "Same old same old. He jumped to conclusions and ran his damn mouth."

"We did agree on honesty being the policy here."

"You want the details or what?"

"A better idea of what happened would be ideal."

"Okay, we started off with these theories about that psycho bitch that has it in for me and apparently him too since she attacked him and Hawkeye outright and all. Then one thing led to another and we ended up in this bullshit conversation that pissed me off."

"Sounds like the typical Edward and Mustang fight to me," Havoc commented. Ed reached over and punched him in the arm with his left hand which made him wince but was worth it for the hurt look he got and the way the other rubbed his arm. Breda chuckled and said, "Alright then, you two can handle that front. It's your move."

The game went on for about three hours and by then Mustang walked in the door just before Breda took out his king. It wasn't a complete loss though, Ed had one more piece on the board than Breda and Havoc had gotten bored with the question game half an hour ago when they started in on the what's your favorite types of questions. Breda liked home grown beer over the others, he preferred Nectar's out of all the bars he frequented. He happened to have a crush on Mel when he'd first met her but then found out she was married. He had two brothers and a sister but they lived in West City so he hardly got to see them.

He considered Havoc his best friend and was fine with spending his time around him since it made him being away from his own family a bit easier. He would rather travel and try all kinds of food than be in the military but he swore to stay by Mustang's side and wasn't backing down on his word. He also thought Hawkeye and Falman could be the most boring people in the world at times and that Mustang was a git which they had a good laugh over. As far as the questions went he'd asked Ed what he knew about Quendalyn, how his time in Xing was, why he'd stuck in the military even though everyone knew how much he hated it sometimes. Then he went on to ask about what Ed liked to do outside of running around attracting trouble and re-leveling towns. He got a pawn thrown at him for that one.

They also went over their favorite colors, Ed's was black while Breda's was orange. Then their favorite foods, Ed picked Xingnese and Breda chose bar-b-q. The what would you like to do with your life if you had the chance came up as well. Breda wanted to find a woman to marry and open a restaurant after he traveled the world while Ed just said he wanted to still be alive and able to watch Al and Winry find a place they could call home and see his niece grow up to be the great woman he knew she'd grow up to be.

It was this last question that caught him really off guard. Breda even waited while rotating Ed's king in his hand for Mustang to close and lock the door, shed his shoes and jacket, walk to the kitchen and grab a cup of coffee and come strolling back into the living room to take the chair Havoc had vacated. He scanned the board, smirked, then looked at both of them, "What is going on?"

"We had a game going, for every piece taken we asked a question we swore to answer honestly," Breda explained. Mustang nodded once in understanding and then asked, "Seems that while you won the game Ed conquered the question asking criteria."

"Uh yeah, anyway, ask your last question already," Ed said to Breda who was still smirking in victory. When there was still a pause Ed felt a bit apprehensive about the question that was going to be asked. He wasn't wrong to be apprehensive, it was an unexpected question that was asked.

"How did you end up in Rousia?"

He knew both of them were watching him closely and looked to the empty fireplace as he thought back on that. He hadn't ever thought about how he'd ended up there, hell all he had cared about was getting the hell out of that country while he was there and then surviving the trek to Amestrius. Crossing Drachma's boarders was the hardest part and harder still was getting inside Briggs without any means to prove he was who he said he was. Hell he'd slipped up when he got to Briggs and introduced himself by the slave title they gave him. Shaking his head to clear it he thought back on that day he'd woken up in what he later found out was Rousia.

It was after the fight against 'Father' he knew that much because he still remembered that fight like it happened yesterday. It had to have been after getting Al back and the fight between him and Mustang over Hoenheim's actions because he remembered that as well. He remembered the hospital too but he couldn't remember leaving the hospital and going to Resembool so it had to have happened between those two events.

"Edward?"

He looked over at Mustang who, like Breda, looked concerned as well as curious to what was going through his head. He sighed, "When was I reported missing back then?"

"At the hospital, Al woke up one morning and you weren't there," Breda answered without hesitation. He could imagine what was going through everyone's heads when that happened. Al would have been frantic and hysterical. Mustang would no doubt be furious and then Hawkeye would be really suspicious and the entire place would have been torn apart looking for him. It would have been hell for the hospital staff to control everyone trying to find him. Winry would have shown up and yelled, shouted, cussed, and threatened to beat the living hell out of him with a wrench when he was found. Then there was everyone else, like Izumi, geeze his teacher would have literally torn the place apart and ripped Mustang a new asshole. He wanted to smirk at that thought but couldn't really find the humor in it.

He couldn't help feeling guilty about how hard that had to have been on everyone. Two years without word about where he was, worried about whether or not he was alive, why he'd disappeared, who the hell had the gumption to kidnap him and make it impossible for him to send word for so long. If he were in Al's position he would have gone crazy and spent every available resource traveling to every reach of the world to find him. He would never wish what he went through on anyone and if he ever had to go back he'd kill every last one of those fuckers that disciplined and owned slaves and anyone else who stood against him doing it.

"I don't really remember much of it . . . the hospital was the last thing I can remember," he commented quietly still trying to sort out his thoughts. Closing his eyes thoughtfully he backtracked to that time Al was hospitalized to recuperate from getting his malnourished body back. He remembered going to sleep around the same time Al had, both exhausted from the fight against 'Father' and the emotional roller-coaster they'd spent months on during the fight against the Orobos as well as running from the military. He remembered going to sleep really well, he even remembered waking up and using the restroom and walking out of the room to stretch his legs after checking on his brother.

He tried to retrace his steps, tried to remember faces he might have passed or when and where he was undoubtedly attacked. He did remember the way his head had ached and his throat felt rough, scratchy, and dry along with the taste of chloroform and all the great after effects that went along with it. Where the hell had he gone and why the hell had he walked so far anyway? When he swore under his breath and deciding this was as frustrating and figuring out that bitch Quendalyn's angle that was when it came together in his mind.

Thinking about her sent a sharp jolt of pain straight through his skull. The violent effect had him gritting his teeth against it and feeling even more determined to figure out what really happened when he'd disappeared. The more he focused on that moment the more his head hurt and his stomach decided to twist and churn along with it. Clenching his fist until his knuckles were white and grinding his teeth against the internal onslaught he felt a foreign energy blocking his way. That bitch did something to make him forget about what happened. Yeah well he had his own reserve of energy and he used that to shove at the force blocking his way. He felt it snap in two and could feel the tension of the other two in the room who probably didn't even know they were emitting their tension.

Taking a deep breath to try and calm the tension running through his own body as the pain subsided after one more flare he took the dive to those memories again. Those blank spots in his memory filled in, he'd seen her posing as a doctor and had followed her trying to ask her about how long it would be before Al was released from the hospital like the impatient child he was. She'd turned with a pleasant smile and told him he didn't need to concern himself with such trivial matters or some shit. That bitch was just as fast then as she proved to be now, one moment she had this fake smile on her face and the next he was against a wall with a cloth soaked in that damn chemical covering his face. He'd fought back, instincts made sure of that but his startled and angered shout was what did him in.

Blinking his eyes open he got to his feet feeling restless and angry that he hadn't realized she was the whole reason behind all of this shit and Rousia sooner. He should have known, he should have remembered it before. But it was his own fault he hadn't, he spent so much time after that hell trying to forget about the place and shoving every memory that came to him further and further away. He paced in front of the fireplace and growled low in his throat before he turned back to Breda and Mustang who looked on curious, concerned, and a bit defensive and apprehensive.

"It was her," he said angrily to which the two exchanged confused looks before they both seemed to come to the same conclusion simultaneously.

"You mean this Quendalyn chick was the one that attacked and kidnapped you back then," Breda asked cautiously.

"Yeah, it was her. I was trying to remember that night when I disappeared and started getting frustrated about this shit going on now . . . I remember what it felt like when I woke up, my head hurt like it was slammed up against something and felt foggy, my throat felt like someone shoved sand paper down my throat and I damn well know the taste of chloroform pretty fucking well. When I thought about that bitch everything just fell into place."

"How did you run into her?"

"I was walking around the hospital, stretching my legs and had saw her. Thought she was a doctor and could tell me when Al might be released, you know I'm an impatient brat and I hate hospitals so of course I would ask that kind of stupid shit. Anyway, I ended up lost or whatever and she said something like 'I shouldn't worry about such trivial matters' or whatever and then she attacked me. The bitch has always been faster than shit, one moment you're looking her in the face, the next she has a hold of you and there's nothing you can do about it."

"That does sound like her, but she wasn't in Amestrius until-"

"That's not entirely true sir," Breda said cutting off Mustang who looked at him a bit startled. Ed looked to the two of them before settling his gaze on Breda expectantly. The man continued, "I did a bit of digging around and found a few reports that distinctively put her in Amerstrius months before the 'Promised Day' began. She apparently graduated from medical school here in Central, so she was never posing as a doctor, she really does have the degrees to be one and the experience."

"What do you mean? Why didn't you inform me of this?"

Breda cleared his throat, "I was not sure it was relevant until recently sir. According to what I found she attended medical school here and then transferred to the South to become a field medic. When she retired from that she returned to Central to get a degree as a psychiatrist and went on to earn a degree as a psychologist. This all happened before that deal with the humunculi started up. We all thought she arrived here just after Ed disappeared but she was already here and was offered a position as a military psychiatrist and psychologist after the boss disappeared."

"So she's spent a great deal of time developing and carrying out the steps to this plan?"

"That's my opinion, but that still doesn't explain what her true objective is."

"We do know one objective she has," Mustang replied darkly, "she actually told Ed she intended to make him into her slave."

"There is much more to it than that. She's painted Ed a target far longer than we thought. Do you have any idea how long it takes to earn all the degrees she has or that she spent the bare minimum of four years as a field medic?"

"That could mean she decided to target Edward before he even became a State Alchemist."

"Exactly."

Ed's expression darkened at Breda's confirmation of Mustang's words. Instead of finding any answers to the endless amount of questions all they had were even more questions. What was worse was that not only did this bitch have a really shitty hidden agenda she had always had him figured into all those plans before he'd even thought about putting himself in the position he'd ended up in. This just made him feel angrier and more threatened and cornered than he had after realizing the bitch happened to be immune to alchemy and bullets, moved with unrealistic speed, and had every bit of ammunition she needed to use against him.

Moving back to the couch and shoving down the urge to cuss, yell, shout, or put his hand through a wall he instead just sank into the couch, put his elbows on his knees, leaned forward, and fisted his left hand in his bangs. He growled threateningly when Mustang moved to lean over and place a hand over his shoulder which he caught in his peripheral vision. Breda got up and cleared his throat before he said as calmly as the obviously shaken guy could, "I'm going to go give the Colonel an update. Still have to give the intelligence I have over to General Holigan. You going to be alright kid?"

"Yeah," Ed muttered and looked up, the anger showing through and radiating off him enough to make him feel feverish with it, "thanks for the game Breda, it was enlightening."

The man chuckled darkly, "Yeah, sure thing. Sorry about the bad outcome," then he turned with a salute to Mustang and, "See ya' tomorrow chief."

"Goodnight Heymans, watch yourself."

"Yeah, you two do the same and try not to kill each other."

He watched Mustang watching Breda walk out the front door after unlocking it then made his way to the door to lock it back. Mustang turned and regarded him for a moment then said as calmly as he could, "Did you two bother to eat anything during your chess game?"

"No," Ed replied with a deep sigh. Mustang nodded and made his way to the kitchen silently before saying as he opened cabinets, "how about chicken, I laid some out earlier and forgot to mention it."

Grateful for the lighter topic of discussion Ed shoved down the brewing anger and got to his feet to make his way to the kitchen, "I doubt you forgot, maybe you just think I can't cook."

"I do worry about my house being burnt down with you here," the man said with a bit of teasing in his tone.

"Oh, ha ha bastard. That would be ironic though, the Flame Alchemist's house burns down one evening, authorities believe it was due to a cooking accident," he mocked in an attempted reporters' voice. The man laughed at the words which broke the darker mood momentarily. Ed scratched the back of his neck at the sound to try and cover the pleasant way he felt hearing the man actually laughing and turned to head to the living room, "Guess I'll straighten up or something since you don't trust me cooking."

"Can you even cook, last I heard you're capable of eating just about anything."

He let out his own short laugh at the words, he didn't doubt that was what both Winry and Al had told the man, "Yeah well I managed to figure out what I did and didn't like that way. I'll have you know I can cook I just don't like too."

"Oh, I think that's just a cover up, the not liking to cook line is something I've heard before."

"Oh yeah asshole, where," Ed called out as he picked up the chess board and the pieces to put them away in the wooden box that was shoved under the table hours ago when Breda and Havoc had pulled the game out. Closing the box afterward and getting up to put it on the desk he heard Mustang chuckle again and say, "From Hawkeye. She's really not that wonderful a cook, she can make food that is edible if your starving but that's about it."

Ed did laugh outright at that as he went back to the coffee table to grab the three mugs and take them to the kitchen, "Yeah, alright. I can believe that, but I really can cook and don't like to do it."

"When did you have the time to learn how to cook? Didn't Miss Pinako make you boys every meal you ate, and then Mrs. Curtis after her?"

"Yeah, and Al after both of them. What the hell do you think I did while I was in Xing? That lecherous, greedy prince sure as hell wasn't going to cook for himself let alone me. I didn't stay in the palace the whole time I was there you know."

"Hmm, I hear an interesting story brewing," Mustang commented as he set out the skillet and turned the burner on after slipping a glove from his pants pocket on one hand to ignite the burner. He'd already laid the chicken out on a cutting board on the counter next to the stove, tenderized it, according to the fork laying next to it, and tossed some seasoning on it as well.

"Yeah, well, I had to do something other than eat out all the time or eat at the palace and have to put up with that prick constantly."

"From what you said, you two got along relatively well."

"Yeah, alright, we did and we generally do get along, but that doesn't mean I can tolerate him endlessly. He gets on my damn nerves more often than anything."

Another hearty laugh, "Yes, I suppose so. Why don't you clear off the table so that we have somewhere to eat when this is finished?"

"Yeah sure," he replied easily enough and turned to do just that. This was nice, he could swear this was like that night in the coffee shop. They weren't trying to kill one another and it was a change of pace from the tenuous, high strung, argumentative way they'd spent the last few days around one another. This just reminded him that although the guy was arrogant he could be pretty good company at times as well. Feeling better about the evening even with the darker, angrier emotions still brewing below the surface Ed set to gathering up all the books, notes, papers, and pens from the table to stack them up, mark his places in each book and notebook, and then carrying them to the desk.

Dinner was rather nice and by the time they finished they actually ended up on level ground, building that comfortable atmosphere again and feeling a bit less stressed. They talked about the different foods in Xing and Ed's attempts at cooking some of the Xingnese foods he'd come across and only managing to make noodles without tearing up the kitchen. They ended up talking about the different kinds of people Ed had met and the one's Ling had tried to set Ed up with that were no where near Ed's type.

That was when the conversation changed a bit and Mustang decided to ask Ed about how he felt about Al and Winry moving to Central. Dinner was well beyond finished by then and they both ended up drinking two cups of coffee and Mustang fixed himself a glass of brandy after that to which Ed had accepted the offer for when asked.

"I don't know, it's kind of hard to work out how I feel about that with what's going on right now."

"That's reasonable. Miss Winry did seem adamant about moving to Central when I addressed some of my concerns about it."

"Concerns, like what exactly?"

The man took a swig of his drink before he answered, "Central is a very active place, more so with you having returned. I'm not saying that neither of them can handle the hustle and bustle of the city lifestyle so don't look offended," the man explained quickly to the glare Ed was sending his way. Ed took a generous drink of his glass of brandy after the words.

"Then what else did you say?"

"I merely asked if they were prepared to leave behind Resembool, Miss Pinako, and Rush Valley to move here with Anna."

"That must have gotten a heated response out of Winry," Ed commented with a laugh.

"Indeed," the man replied with a smirk, "but it was Alphonse that said they had both discussed that and planned to come to Central upon your return so they would actually get to see you every once in a while. Then of course, it was pointed out that the education opportunities here in Central were much better and that Winry's chosen profession would be a perfect addition to this city."

"Well that's those two for you, mostly Al though. Winry's a bit more spontaneous," Ed replied easily. Leave it to his younger brother to be able to come up with some good and logical arguments to counter Mustangs. Finding out that he was one of the reasons but not the entirety of the reason they wanted to move to Central was a relief. Al could go to college and do whatever he wanted and Winry could make a killing as an automail mechanic here in Central.

"What about you, do you plan on remaining in Central permanently?"

"Military Mustang, who knows? Probably though, that was my intention when I came back here. Still haven't found an apartment yet, not that I've had the time."

"Edward," Mustang began in a serious tone making him look up at the man, "you should know by now that you are more than welcome to stay with Gracia, myself, or anyone within my command or even your colleagues until you find a place of your own. There is also that if you decide to transfer elsewhere and only visit us here."

"Yeah, yeah, I know that, really. I'd just like to get a place of my own for a while once this shit that's going on now is over with."

"I would very much like to be able to get this 'shit' as you say over with soon."

"Cheers to that," Ed said with a chuckle and held up his glass. Mustang held up his own to those words and they clinked glasses before polishing them off. Then the older man got to his feet, "Well then, it's time to call it a night for me, I have work in the morning after all."

"Yeah, you go ahead, I'll clean up."

"That's not necessary," Mustang began to protest as Ed pushed himself away from the table and got to his feet. His arm was still useless and his shoulder still hurt every now and then. But this lounging around the house doing only research gave him plenty of time to heal and he was feeling better now than he had. It would take a while for his collar bone to heal completely and he had a hard time believing he had the luxury of waiting for that to happen. Without missing a beat he countered Mustang's protest even with his thoughts going, "You cooked, I'll clean. Just go on, I sit here in this house all day so it won't kill me to help out now and then."

"You really needn't go through any trouble, you're a guest in my house."

"Shut up and go to bed old man before I feed you your damn dishes," Ed said with a glare making the man sigh, run a hand through his hair, and finally, grudgingly agree. "Alright, but I don't want you to feel obligated to do anything."

"I don't feel obligated to do shit, but I'm still cleaning up and your going to bed so Hawkeye doesn't show up wanting to shoot us both because you end up late to work like she did after that first full day around one another."

"Alright, goodnight Edward and thank you for doing what isn't necessary," the man said with a smirk.

"Go the hell away already," Ed said with a glare as he gathered up all the dishes on the table and carried them to the kitchen. Between the two of them there wasn't much for left overs. He waited until he heard the man walk away to start rummaging through cabinets looking for something to store what little leftovers there were in. Finding a bowl and a lid for the plastic piece he scraped all the left over food into the bowl with the spatula that was used to stir the rice they'd eaten and put the lid on it to stick it in the fridge. After that he set to washing the dishes and when he finished wiped off the counters and stove and then the table, tossed the towel on the counter next to the sink and cut off the lights.

Making his way through the rest of the rooms throughout the house he cut off lights, checked windows, checked the front door once more then headed upstairs. Walking into his temporary room and closing the door to strip down to his boxers he climbed into bed and got comfortable. For one night he drifted into an easy sleep and would actually manage to get a full nights' rest.

To Be Continued . . .

After Thought: Seems that's the ending theme going on, Ed falling asleep seems to be the ending of the chapter. Wow, this story just keeps getting more and more complex huh? Well I can no more control how the story goes than I can the characters involved. There's bound to be a real cliffhanger sometime as the story progresses, and if these two can get over whatever is running through their heads that stops them from acting on their attraction towards each other maybe that Eventual Roy/Ed will show up. Thank for reading, see ya' next time.