A/N Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your holidays are going great (if you celebrate Christmas hehe). For the first time in forever I feel relaxed, even though I have loads to stress about, but yeah...forget lol. So I wrote this little cutie, I had it written way before Christmas but I only just finished it off. Hope you enjoy it! :)

Title: Christmas Tree

Rating: T

Warning: cuteness

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Roy's favourite time of the year had arrived. And so had Ed's worst.

Christmas was a time Roy felt there was some change in his boring everyday life. Everyone seemed more cheerful than usual, which meant he, himself, became more cheerful. He got to see Central looking different – less concrete grey and a bit more colourful. He had the chance to eat a delicious meal with the people closest to him. And most of all, he got time off work.

Ed, on the other hand, disliked Christmas. It was understandable to Roy, in a way, as December and January in particular tended to be the worst for her automail port pains as the weather turned icy cold. Dabbled in that very understandable hatred, however, was also a general dislike of overly happy people, which were overly happy for 'no reason'. She also hated the shopping she had to do, which admittedly Roy related to. The stress of finding everyone a gift each year was stressful, so he and Ed had come to a mutual decision to not get presents for each other.

However, ever since he and Ed started seeing each other two years ago, he had made it his goal to get her to at least feel a spark of excitement for Christmas. Therefore, each year Roy insisted on doing various Christmassy things, which were either a success, meaning Ed enjoyed herself, or a complete disaster. The one thing that remained a success he found, was buying and decorating the Christmas tree.

It had been a surprise to him, that Ed would be the most excited about possibly the most Christmassy thing about Christmas, but Ed always had a way of surprising him like that.

So, with music blasting and some off-key singing, Roy was driving them to their usual Christmas Tree shop.

"Do you think we'll find a tall one this year?"

Roy hummed, turning the music down a little. "We always do."

He felt Ed's gaze on him from the passenger seat. "Yeah but we've left it a bit late."

This year, work had gotten the best of Roy and he'd had to do overtime most days of the week, and so on the weekends he would just be exhausted, much to Ed's chagrin. They hadn't managed to get a Christmas tree until now, and with only three days to Christmas day, Roy would admit the best ones would probably be gone.

He rested a hand on Ed's thigh in apology. "I promise we'll find one."

In a few more minutes they had arrived. As expected, there was limited amount of parking space available. By the time Roy had fully parked, Ed was bouncing her leg and ready to bolt out the car. There was only one Christmas tree shop in Central, so every year the place would be heaving with people – just like it was now. While Ed found this process of finding the perfect Christmas tree before her competitors exciting, Roy found it draining. He much enjoyed the decorating part with just him and Ed in their warm, comfy loungewear.

Wrapping his scarf tighter around his neck, he followed Ed as she examined the trees.

"What about this one?" She turned to him, pointing to one lying on the ground. Roy went over to lift it, aware that Ed had already complained about her automail pain this morning. He didn't want the pain to get worse from lifting heavy trees.

"Is this tall enough?"

Ed shook her head dismissively and was already on the hunt for the next one.

The entire process took about twenty minutes, at the end of which Roy was freezing and just wanted to cosy up by the fire. It was a miracle when Ed was finally satisfied with one and they went to get it tied.

The drive back was pleasant – Roy was happy whenever Ed showed enthusiasm about an activity as she had always been quite a pessimistic little shit. Today, however, she even let him put Christmas songs on for the drive back.

For Christmas day, he and Ed were the meal hosts this year. Roy would be lying if he said he wasn't even at least a bit stressed about it. Ed flat out refused to talk about it. Though, in Roy's opinion, he had every right to be stressed as he would be the cook – Ed was not allowed to touch the kitchen oven.

They would be inviting over quite a few people. Gracia and Elicia, Alphonse, Winry, Pinako, Riza, some of Roy's family and whoever else from the office could not go back to family this year. He didn't want any of his subordinates having a lonely Christmas.

When they arrived back home, Roy carried the tree inside while Ed sprinted upstairs to get the decorations. Every year, her enthusiasm about this baffled him. How could a person who constantly proclaimed their dislike for Christmas, be so excited about decorating the tree?

He could hear her thudding footsteps as she ran back down. Meanwhile, he had set the tree down in the living room, snapped the fire on, and was making his way to the kitchen to make tea.

"Roy! Where've you gone?!"

Roy shook his head fondly as he poured them tea. "Just making some tea."

When he entered the living room, two cups of hot tea in his hands, he saw Ed trying to get the tree vertical, but was failing epically. The tree was almost twice her height. Roy didn't dare make a joke – she was in such a good mood.

He rested the teas on the coffee table and came to help her. He noticed she had already changed into one of his shirts – her usual loungewear. He fixed up the tree with the stand, and left Ed to it as he went upstairs to change.

When he came back down, he saw Ed sitting on the couch drinking her tea.

"I thought you were into the decorations." Roy laughed, sitting next to her and grabbing his tea. He fondly stroked her thigh.

She huffed and mumbled something Roy didn't catch. "What was that?"

Ed glared and spoke into her drink. "Too short to reach the top with the lights."

A glance at the tree, and he couldn't hold back a smirk. She had started from the bottom, wrapping the lights around the tree, but when she got to halfway, the lights had awkwardly been thrown higher.

Letting out a soft chuckle, he stood. "Let's lift you up, then."

Roy wasn't the tallest either, so the best combination had been for Roy to lift Ed on his shoulders. He got the impression that she enjoyed that more too, even though she never actually said it.

Ed rested her tea on the coffee table and walked over to him, evidently miffed with herself. The moment she was on Roy's shoulders, though, the childlike smile returned. Together, they wrapped the lights around the tree, to Ed's satisfaction. Right before he let her down, Ed surprised him and rolled her torso down, stealing a kiss. Roy laughed, relishing this playful side of Ed.

"You really like doing the tree up don't you."

He let her down, and she immediately went to the ornament box. As she was ripping the tape off, she said, "Yeah, it reminds me of when I was little."

Roy raised an eyebrow. He was intrigued; he hadn't known that little fact. "Did you mother decorate the tree every year?"

Ed nodded, bringing over some ornaments. "Winry would come over too and we would all decorate the tree and then eat gingerbread cookies. That's possibly the only time I've ever felt 'festive' during Christmas time."

Roy smiled; even after all these years of knowing her, there was still more to get to know and understand. Ed was such a person who, consciously or not, always had a reason for doing things. She couldn't just 'feel festive' without a reason, she didn't get excited or enjoy things without her genius little brain connecting it to something else first. And he loved the process of finding out all her little reasons.

As Ed started on the garland, Roy decided to play some Christmas music. In the back of his mind, he was mulling over what Ed had just revealed to him. And now he was thinking of where to get gingerbread cookies. Incorporating that little tradition Ed so fondly remembered into their Christmas decorating moments seemed right.

Again, he lifted her up to wrap the rest of the garland around, and then the unspoken decision seemed to be that Roy would hang ornaments around the top part and Ed the bottom.

Roy found himself softly humming the Christmas songs as Ed made sure he was putting the baubles in the right place – as in, making sure he was colour coordinating and leaving enough space between each one.

"Yes!" Ed proclaimed, as she hung the last bauble. Roy smiled, hanging the last couple of his. Ed held the star and gestured for Roy to lift her up. Grabbing her waist, he hoisted her up and she carefully balanced the star on top. Then, they stood back and admired their work.

"Look good." Roy smiled, and high fived her. "Good job, us. "

"Wanna put the lights outside?"

Roy groaned and flopped on the couch, grabbing his tea. He pouted. "I'm tired, come cuddle."

Ed glared at him momentarily before rolling her eyes and sinking into his embrace on the couch.

"We need to put them up before Christmas day though." She didn't make too much of a fuss about it, so it was safe to assume she was secretly tired too.

As they sat on the couch cuddled up together, Roy let his mind wander to nothing in particular. He thought about what ingredients he needed to buy for the Christmas meal, how he loved the weight of Ed's body against his, and now what ingredients he would need to make gingerbread cookies.

He looked down at Ed, who noticed and looked up.

"Let's make gingerbread cookies."

The smile she gave him was one of pure happiness, but Roy was more distracted by the love pooling in those golden eyes.

A/N Have you set any new year resolutions!? Tell me in the comments! Some of mine are to write more, to read more, to stress less and to only give my love and attention to people who truly deserve it, as 2019 had somehow been full of toxicity. Hopefully I can reverse that and surround myself with positive people :)