Chapter Twenty Five

"Come on Roy, up, or I'm tossing a bucket of cold water on you." Edward called from the bathroom as he combed his wet hair while using the mirror to watch the blanket-covered lump on the bed.

Roy shivered at the threat, knowing Ed would. "We have no idea where she's taking us. Aren't you even the least bit worried?" He asked as he sat up, ruffling his hair sleepily.

The comb clattered to the counter and Edward began to braid his hair. "Not really. I'll be there to protect you, don't worry." He teased with an amused smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

"It's the fact she told us to pack an overnight bag that I'm worried." Roy muttered as he shoved off the blankets and padded into the bathroom.

"You'll be back for work on time, if that's what has you worried." Edward reminded him and obediently abandoned the remainder of the braiding to Roy as his hands were nudged away.

"I could care less about that. You just don't know her as well as I do." Roy explained and finished braiding, and reached around Edward to grab the tie from the counter. "She's not a normal mother. She made you read a girl's romance novel. And when I was younger she made me take dance lessons."

Edward chuckled, and reached back to swat Roy's thigh. "She's hardly as odd as you'd like to think. And how come I've never seen the result of these dance lessons?"

"Because I've forgotten? It was decades ago." Roy protested, and then scowled. "That just makes me sound old."

Smirking, Ed turned around once his hair had been released, and wrapped his arms around Roy's neck. "You're nothing more than jailbait… for a ninety year old man. But I love you anyway." And he kissed Roy quickly before pulling away and spinning them around. "Now take a shower. I'm going to go see what's going on with breakfast."

Roy rolled his eyes, "you're so sweet."

"You love me." Edward reminded him with a smirk as he headed for the door.

"Now why did you have to bring that up? Playing the 'you love me' card is cheating somehow." Roy called after him.

Edward arched an eyebrow as he paused to glance back at him. "Cheating at what?"

Roy smirked, "I'll figure out something you were cheating at."

"Of course you will." Ed grinned, "come down soon." And he left.

"Of course I will." Roy muttered mockingly and rolled his eyes. But he couldn't help smiling. He knew he was hopeless. Hopelessly in love with that terror, and not minding it one bit. Even if said terror was just that at times. A terror.

Meanwhile Edward was trotting down the stairs humming to himself. He had been in a considerably good mood the past few days. Mostly because the Gate had left him alone when he was sleeping. It was strange, and he was almost a bit concerned about what that meant, but he was enjoying the reprieve at any rate.

Letting himself into the kitchen he smiled upon seeing Daphne already hard at work cooking. It was so comfortable now to come downstairs and see her here, and he knew that he'd miss her once she left.

"Don't you ever get tired of doing almost all of the cooking?" Edward asked as he walked over.

Daphne smiled at him over her shoulder. "Morning. And of course not, it's nice to be able to cook for my son again. And you as well of course."

Ed smiled, "your son thinks you have something dangerous planned. He's acting very apathetic."

"But he is coming?"

"I told you I'd get him to come." Edward chuckled merrily. "I have my own ways of convincing Roy to do things. He'll come, and he'll have the best weekend with his mom and myself whether he likes it or not."

Daphne snorted, and gave the blonde an appraising look. "You just might be as cruel as I am."

"Don't let Roy fool you, he's more like you than you might realize." Ed remarked dryly and rolled his eyes.

Breakfast was nearly done by the time Roy had finished trying and failing to drown himself in the shower. He had eventually given up the false hope and deigned to join his mother and his extortionist of a lover for the pre-trip breakfast. A breakfast that seemed to be eaten too fast for his liking, but with Edward at the table and shooting him those amused looks, he knew the blonde had it in for him.

Which wasn't exactly a bad thing.

After everything had been cleaned up, they grabbed their overnight bags and headed out to the car. It took Daphne only a few seconds to snatch the keys away from Roy and order her son to help Ed load the bags.

"It won't be that bad. Have some faith." Edward told him gently and leaned over to kiss Roy's cheek.

"I will try, for you." He smiled tenderly as he took one of Ed's hands in his own. "I guess I will just be glad when we can go on our on trip by ourselves."

Ed smiled at that. "I will be too. We've barely had any time to just have a day to ourselves."

"We haven't had any time for that." Roy reminded him.

"Soon, let's get through this first. After all, you know that the sooner she feels she's spent enough time with you, she'll leave." Edward pointed out. "Maybe this is her way of getting to that point."

Roy brightened just a fraction at that idea, and gave the blonde a small smile. "Maybe you're right."

"It wouldn't be the first time." Ed smiled, and took his hand away. "Let's go."

Edward took over the backseat while Roy sat up front with his mother. And as Daphne began to make her way onto the road, Roy lowered his seat down so he could lay there and talk with Edward. At least, at the times Daphne wasn't hitting the high notes as she sang what she called "road-trip" songs that she'd apparently memorized.

At least her singing was on key more than it was off, which only helped slightly in the confined space of the car.

Edward made a mental note to tell Roy to get himself a bigger company car.

They drove for nearly two hours, and had passed more than one town after leaving Central. Yet Daphne kept driving down the dirt road of rural Amestris, bumping along good naturedly as the car hit the bigger rocks in the road, and never once breaking pace of song. By the time she finally stopped the car, Edward had grown used to her singing, and Roy could hear it echoing in his head on a loop.

Stiffly, and with a groan, Edward stepped out of the car, shutting the door with a harder slam than he'd intended. But he missed Roy's glare as he looked around in interest. According to the sign that was on the post next to the wooden fence that ran around the large wooden and glass structure, they were now at a hot spring.

Roy glanced around at the forest surrounding them, before looking at his mother. "A hot spring?"

Daphne put her hands on her hips, and nodded. "You can thank me later." She grinned over at him, and tossed the keys to the boy who had hurried out and was currently gaping at Roy.

Said Fuhrer raised an eyebrow at the ten year old, and then glanced at Edward. "You want to help me get the bags?"

"I'll do it! Let me! She gave me the keys." The boy pleaded, rushing over as he lost his awe of the man he was now standing in front of looking very much like an excited puppy.

Edward grinned.

"Only if you bring those keys back to me instead of her when you're done." Roy bargained, ignoring Daphne's reproachful look.

"Okay!" The youth agreed energetically and practically tripped over his own feet in his hurry to do as he was told.

Edward sidled up to Roy as they walked towards the building, and linked their arms together with a smirk. "You have a way with little kids."

"Mmm, you were once a little kid. Any other kid is simple compared to how you were when we met." Roy replied, feeling just a bit evil.

"Face it, you're just good with them." Edward chuckled. "Not that I mind of course. If you weren't, I don't know what would have happened with us."

"You wouldn't have fallen for me?" Roy teased under his breath.

Edward nudged him lightly with his elbow. "Behave." He smiled, glancing at Roy in amusement.

"Yes, love." Roy answered in a sing-song whisper, earning himself another affectionate elbowing.

Daphne ignored them with a smile, not even bothering to try and get their attention as she dealt with the room reservations. One for her, and one for the happy couple who she was reluctant to disturb when they were talking quietly to each other and smiling like that. She'd waited years to see her son so intimately happy with another person, and she was enjoying letting him be so.

So she handled the gawking looks and got the keys before escorting the two of them down a hallway where they'd find their rooms. All the while trying to figure out if Roy got this sort of treatment all the time now. Now that he was Fuhrer. But he'd been so for a long enough time that not everyone should be shocked to see him wandering around. So was it Edward then that had been attracting some of the curious looks?

Figuring the two of them would discover the answer soon enough on their own, she dared interrupt them as they reached their rooms. The best that were available of course, and leading out to the short path through the garden that would take them to the hot springs.

"That one is yours." She said, handing Roy the key. "Obviously I won't be able to spend much time with you while we're here, so have fun."

Roy blushed as his mother winked at him, and quickly vanished into her own room. "I'm actually rather glad out of anything, she chose to come here. The women and men's side of the spring is separate. We won't see or hear from her."

Edward grinned, and swiped the key from Roy, quickly locating the correct nearby door. "What are the chances we can get the hot spring alone to ourselves sometime tonight?" He asked wickedly.

"I feel reasonably certain I can coerce one of the cleaning staff into putting up a 'Closed for Maintence' sign for awhile." Roy thought aloud, following Edward into their room.

"I knew I loved you for a reason." Edward grinned as he locked the door behind them and pounced on Roy.

Roy, laughing as their kiss broke, held a finger up to Ed's lips. "Not until that boy delivers our bags. Then I'm all yours."

Edward rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'm going to go have a hot bath then. I'm all sore from being bounced around in the car."

"But we're at a hot spring, we could just-"

"Ah," Ed grinned at him, "but when you join me in the bath, it'd be best if there wasn't anyone else around."

Roy released Edward quickly to make for the door to their room, unlock it, and open it to stick his head out and look both ways down the hall. "Where is that boy?"

Ed laughed, and hummed the melody to one of Daphne's road-trip songs as he slowly sashayed off towards the bathroom, clothes being shed and floating down to pool on the floor as he went.

Roy watched greedily until Edward had vanished from sight with nothing more than a coy flash of a smile. He heard the water begin to splash into the tub, and he swore under his breath. Just where was that boy?

Said boy showed up several minutes later from Daphne's room, laughing and waving to her. Roy tried not to roll his eyes. "Ah, there you are."

"Mister Fuhrer Mustang sir! I have your bags!" The boy said as he bore them over.

Roy tried not to roll his eyes again, this time at the title. "Great, I'll take them." He said, holding his hands out.

The boy passed the over with a beaming smile. "I learn about you in school. The other kids will never believe I saw you."

Roy chuckled, and set the bags inside the door before pulling out his wallet. "They're the more truthful ones, are they?"

"Of course not! I carried your bags and I didn't take anything." The boy said adamantly, and then gasped, digging in his pocket to hold out Roy's car keys. "I forgot! I'm sorry!"

Roy smiled at him. "It's perfectly fine." He assured the boy, taking back his keys as he passed over a few gold coins to the boy. "Don't take those to school, they'll go missing."

"I won't, thank you!" The boy grinned before bowing even as he ran off, nearly tripping again over his own feet in his haste. Down the hall, Roy could hear him yell, "the Fuhrer gave me a tip!"

Roy snickered and ducked back in his own room to lock the door before putting his wallet away and tossing his keys onto their bags. That done, he kicked off his shoes and socks, and started unbuttoning the cuffs of his shirt quite calmly as he made his way to the bathroom.

"What was all that about?" Edward asked from where his head poked up above the thick foam of bubbles.

Roy raised an eyebrow at all the bubbles. "Do you have something you need to tell me?"

"Oh shut up, I didn't do it on purpose! I accidently knocked the bottle into the water." Edward protested.

Roy smirked. "Sure you did." And he pulled off his shirt, letting it fall to the floor. "I was just having a short little chat with that boy. Apparently he learns about me in school."

"Want to make a bet on how many more paragraphs are devoted to me as opposed to you?" Edward asked with a wide grin.

"Not right now." Roy said, making short work of the rest of his clothes. "Bath first, then some food. And then maybe we'll talk if I haven't kidnapped you to the hot spring yet."

"You can't kidnap me, I'd kick your ass." Edward protested.

Roy rolled his eyes. "Your legs aren't long enough for that."

Edward glowered at him as Roy carefully lowered himself into the bath water across from him. "Let's hope you don't drown." He said as he moved closer.

Roy had time enough for a short laugh before Edward quite effectively shut him up. At least as far as laughing went…