-.-.-.-.-. notes -.-.-.-.-.-.-

I do not own FMA, nor do I wish to.

Sequel to office fight

The other chapters i have aren't really along the same track, so if you didn't like the last one, skip this one. next ones are different.

Reviewing is nice. It's not like you're doing anything else in quarantine anyway.

italics are inside thoughts.

-.-.-.-.-. story -.-.-.-.-.-.-

Go out and fix the roof? Yeah i'll go out and fix the roof! Gargoyles all over the place you useless wet match. General bastard giving me this shitty assignment in the rain just to save money on having one professionally installed. What a lazy asshole good for nothing piece of crap.

Ed looked at the paperwork that had been shoved at her, it was clearly a request for quotes on the dorm's currently leaking ceilings. Not an actual assignment.

Cheap useless hot-head.

At least this would distract her from how the office fight had ended. She remembered being about to call for help from the team, then nothing except the feel of his fingers on her neck…

She shook her head to clear it. Too much time in the rain when you were distracted led to injuries and illness. Keep moving, stay warm, stay focussed.

She got to the first building and made a ladder for herself out of the wall, climbing up and over to the top. Each panel would have to be done separately so they could expand and contract properly in the heat and cold. Ed did the math, there were 8 panels per side, 6 buildings. Damn, this was going to take at least all day.

It was repetitive work, climbing up and down the side of the building for each panel, because she sure as hell wasn't walking on a leaky broken roof in the rain, and each climb required she create (and subsequently put back) a stepping stone ladder. So by the time lunch break arrived, she'd done 96 transmutations, and finished the first two buildings. She was exhausted and soaked through.

Supid sexy Mustang and his stupid sexy … hands. Fuck! What the hell had he done to her? Despite working all morning, her mind had wandered. Why had she just given up like that? Why did her brain shut down as soon as his … hand… Gate! Could she not even replay it in her mind without her knees going weak? Did she like being restrain- she shivered and then immediately blushed head to toe. There it was, that was the issue. She wanted to be tied up by Mustang. Her legs gave out and she sat on the squishy grass.

Maybe going back to the office for lunch was a bad idea. Maybe she should just take a time out in the rain like it was a cold shower. Maybe she should just go back to her dorm and never face anyone again. Maybe Mustang would come around the corner and mistake her current position as an injury, instead of her surrendering to her thoughts.

Fan-fucking-tastic. Option 4. She saw him and just fell back in the water. Fuck everything.

The sun came out as she was lying there. Her eyes were closed but she could hear the General's footsteps splash on the ground as he made his way over.

"I'm fine jackass, just having a nap on my new waterbed."

"Get up FullMetal. You'll get sick."

"No. I'm tired and sunbathing. Away with you." She could practically hear him roll his eyes.

"Ed if you wreck that automail leg Winry's going to kill you. Get up and let's go have lunch."

Let's ?!

Ed moved her arm into the air to block out the sun. She needed to see if he was messing with her.

She didn't get a chance. Mustang grabbed her arm and hauled her up. Then up some more, and over his shoulder.

"What the fuck. Mustang what are you doing?!" she squirmed but he held tight and walked back toward the dorms. Despite her attitude, he could tell she was tired. He knew how much energy it took to repeatedly snap alchemy into existence.

"What? This is how I carry all my women." Ed fell silent, completely missing the 'my' part of the sentence and focussing on the 'women' part. He'd figured her out. It must have been this morning. At least he wasn't trying to kill her. She tried for a bit of damage control.

"I'm sorry."

He didn't reply and she noticed that they'd arrived at her dorm room.

"Did your ceiling first eh?"

"No shit."

Al answered the knock on the door and could not contain his astonishment at seeing Ed slung over the General's shoulder. He had to jump back as Mustang invited himself in.

"She'll be fine. Get out."

Al's surprised response, "She?" was drowned out by Ed's indignant "Hey!" but Mustang ignored her, replying to the younger Elric. "Yes. Now, get out!"

Al scrambled to gather his things, mumbling a quick, "sorry sister" as he bolted out the door.

"Listen jackass, you don't get to talk to my brother like that. I don't care how angry you are at me, he's not-"

She cut herself off with a shriek as Mustang slid her sideways off his shoulder and almost dropped her to the ground. Catching her at the last minute and placing her in a standing position.

"Go change." He shoved her toward her room.

Well, she was drenched. Couldn't hurt.

She was just getting her pants done up when Mustang asked from the doorway if she was done. "Yeah, just getting my sock."

The door swung open and she narrowly avoided getting hit by it.

"Good." Mustang moved fast and Ed felt like she was reacting in slow motion. She was able to do exactly nothing as he pressed her backward three steps and she found herself falling into a sitting position on the single sized bed.

"What-"

"No Ed. I get to ask questions."

Her eyes went wide as she felt handcuffs tighten around her wrist. Her brain was malfunctioning again and she let herself be pushed farther onto the bed, the other end of the cuff clicked around the bedpost. She couldn't tear her eyes from Mustang's face and he was easily able to cuff her other wrist and attach it to the far side bed post.

At his retreat to the foot of the bed she was finally able to close her eyes and focus on breathing. Which almost worked in getting control of her body back before Mustang grabbed her automail leg and pulled. She yelped, her eyes opening as she slid down the bed as far as her arms would allow, then a third cuff was attached to her ankle and one of the bed's bottom posts.

"I'll give you a moment to get your thoughts in order, then you're telling me everything I need to know about this whole," he gestured to her body, "situation." He sat beside her at her waist and let his fingers wander over her skin.

Ed closed her eyes and focussed on breathing again. A second attempt to calm her heart. It was insanely hard because despite his promise to 'give her some time', he was running his fingers lightly over her arm, across her stomach, then back up again.

"Roy..." Ed knew it sounded like begging, but she'd lost control a while ago, she heard him suck in a breath.

"Don't think about it Ed, just start talking."

As a last token of resistance she pulled against the cuffs, vaguely testing their strength.

"They're military grade Ed, you're not going anywhere."

She let out a soft whine through closed lips, but the movement of her vocal cords seemed to be the trick.

She started talking. Her mother's death, her responsibility for her brother's life, Mustang arriving to summon them to Central. Her training. The entrance exam. Her need to hide her name, age, and gender. Telling him the truth of each. And from there she covered her interpretation of their interactions.

Mustang listened without interrupting. He knew the story from his point of view but it was interesting to hear what she thought of their conversations. She seemed to be completely removing any hint of attraction she'd must have had for him. Burying it to focus on getting her brother's body back.

He smirked as he thought about it, all her teenage sexual tension must have built up and up over the years and she'd been ignoring it until just a few weeks ago. She had no idea how to process it and the skin on skin contact from that morning must have caused it to boil over, turning her into a malleable pile of mush.

Mustang waited until she'd finished. She did a piss poor job of describing the office fight from earlier, which confirmed his suspicions that she had no idea what had happened. But he had an idea of how to help. Well, he had several ideas, but first she needed to get the first bit out of the way. And he couldn't help her with that, she didn't have a personality that would accept weakness in front of others.

"I'll be back in an hour. Stay."

She nodded, but he gave it about 5 minutes before she came back to herself and started to fight her restraints.

An hour later, he was back. She'd only managed to get her leg and left arm free, her new arm was still too weak to get out. And she was furious.

"You fucking jackass! That's the second time today you brainwash me and leave me. I'll fucking have your head on a stick!"

"I do have a 'head on a stick' you can have, just not the way you're yelling about."

Ed had no response, instead turning a dark shade of red.

Mustang sat on the bed beside her and dropped a gift bag on the bedside table, then let her see the handcuff key fall into it.

"You need to figure out what you like before I can torture you more." He winked at her, "The key to the cuffs, which you can keep, is in that bag. You saw me drop it in. There's also some women's magazines, the kind that don't appear at the doctor's office, and a 'head on a stick' that you're so excited about."

Ed's mouth hung open. Words completely failing her.

"You can have the afternoon off to take a look, but tomorrow morning I expect you to be back at work doing the rest of the roof and if you fall off I'm going to sue you for reckless endangerment of your automail limb, which I paid for if you remember."

Mustang stood up, "Have fun freeing yourself." And then he left.

This was too much. She'd been tied up, then he'd left her handcuffed to go to places unknown, returning with porn. And then lecturing her about work and leaving her to 'free herself'. Jackass.

Good thing he'd given her the afternoon off. Her brain was a mess and there was no way she was getting any more work done today.