Ed had been wandering around the south side of town trying to find a good location for the repair shop she wanted to open. The previous week had been filled with extensive library research for things like, 'central access', 'trade routes', 'real estate value', and 'police reports'. All of which had landed her here, in a slightly more questionable end of town. Questionable only to the rich, as far as Ed was concerned, this was heaven. Sure she might have to put two locks on the door, but the community was alive, neighbourly. She could feel it. It was perfect!

Her stomach growled as she passed a pub, reminding her that she'd just missed lunch. Was that shepherd's pie? She loved shepherd's pie! And shut up Mustang with his stupid opinion on her beautiful rural farmland hometown.

Ed found she hadn't even had to put conscious thought into it, her feet had turned her toward the smell and in she went. Admiring the decor as she wandered through the entryway and took a seat at the bar. The pub was covered with green streamers and little leaves and there was lively fiddle music from the small stage and dancefloor at the back. A small crowed of people were dancing and laughing. Ed felt herself smiling with the atmosphere.

She ordered lunch when the bartender arrived, then asked about all the green decor. He grinned ear to ear then enthusiastically educated her on the imported Druidic history. A religious historical day that had been introduced to Amestris almost a hundred years ago and eventually devolved into a tradition of wearing green and drinking starting at 06:00.

Well that sounded fuckin' fantastic. Ed asked if she was allowed to celebrate as well or if it was only for certain people. The barkeep laughed, introduced himself as Ian, then invited her to come back for the late afternoon and evening, when things really got exciting. He leaned forward, the earlier the better though because a larger crowd was expected around 15:00 when the commercial shipping sector was done for the day.

Ed decided she didn't want to miss out, so she inhaled her lunch and hurried home to change into something green. Did she even have anything green? She shoved her head into her closet, a closet that had never heard of foreign Druidic culture and offered up only red and black. Wait. What was that? Her gaze landed on something at the very back, hidden behind the navy coloured military-assigned heavy coat. Ed's eyes lit up. The dress! The emerald green dress that she'd bought with Hawkeye because the woman had said it matched her eyes, then promptly forgot about because 'when the hell was she going to wear a dress?'

She placed it on her bed to look it over, it was a simple knee length a-line with one-inch shoulder straps, the only accent was a thin trim of gold cloth on all the edges that kept the whole thing just on the outside of 'boring'. But it looked good enough to dance in, and depending on the bar crowd later, fight in. So why not? She hadn't told anyone except Hawkeye who she really was and maybe it was time to go public. She'd completed everything she needed to do, Alphonse was back in his own body and life had moved forward. Her brother had even married Winry and they had a baby on the way, there was nothing to hide from anymore.

Well, maybe someone. But it's not like he would be there.

Ed arrived back at the pub a couple hours later and expected it to be a bit awkward at first, as she got her bearings and wandered awkwardly alone, but there was no such awkwardness. The place had filled up and a new and much louder fiddle band had taken over. Half the crowd was dancing and very quickly she was swept up by strangers and spun around the floor. She felt like her heart was going to explode with happiness, there hadn't been any opportunities to dance while running around the country. And definitely not with anyone. Even now, with the automail, she knew any partner she had wouldn't be able to last long, so she was determined to go all in. Enjoy every second.

But maybe, maybe this crowd could handle it. Shipping and receiving required muscle, it was hard labour. Maybe there'd be a few that wouldn't mind more than one dance.

Ian, now apparently in charge of tables, caught her at the edge of the dance floor and introduced her to the large crowd of mostly men. Immediately, and to Ed's utter amazement, a line up formed and any doubts she had were washed away. The atmosphere was electric with life and before long it felt like she'd danced with everyone, though the lineup didn't appear to have gone down. She eyed the room critically, women were definitely in short supply. Maybe she could call Riza and see if she and any of her girlfriends wanted to come.

So she did, making her way outside to the payphone across the street. Bar patrons had spilled out onto the sidewalk and Ed had to shout to be heard, giving Riza instructions, the address, and what to wear.

It took a few hours for her friend to finish work and show up, but by then Ed had had more food and a couple of drinks and was ready for round four, or five? She'd lost count. She dragged Riza into the crowd as soon as she saw her, not noticing or remembering that Riza had brought friends.

!-

Mustang had been able to hear Ed on the phone shouting instructions to Hawkeye from his own office. It was a bit garbled from the background noise but FullMetal had clearly said there was a party at some bar and to wear green and bring friends. And well, it was Friday, and the background noise definitely sounded like a good time, plus he'd never been able to go out for this "drinking holiday" before. So after no deliberation, and definitely no further thoughts about his paperwork, he decided to gather the team and join Riza and Ed at the bar.

He declared his idea to the team and in an excited flurry of papers and pens and coats and boots, dismissed them. Riza seemed alarmed but he brushed it off, This was a great idea.

Hawkeye pulled him back as everyone else left the room, "Sir, if you insist on coming with me then I think you should know that Ed is 23, not 19."

He looked over at her, frowning, "What?"

"Just letting you know sir. In case it comes up later."

"Lieutenant-"

"That's all Sir. See you there." She cut him off and joined Havoc who was waiting at the door.

Mustang stared after her for a moment feeling like he'd been mentally slapped. What the hell kind of random piece of incorrect information was that? Out of nowhere. And it was 'going to come up later'?

He glared at the closed door, if he'd even had any reservations about encroaching on Riza's plans they were long gone. He HAD to go now. He needed to find out what the hell she was talking about.

!-

The crowd outside was enormous when they arrived and it took a while for the team to make their way into the building and over to the bar to order. Suddenly Ed was in front of him. Gold eyes shining and cheeks flushed with drink... wearing a dress. She grabbed Hawkeye without recognising the rest of them and was gone as quickly as she had appeared. There were cheers from the back of the room and he figured that's where they'd gone, but he absolutely needed a moment to process what he'd just seen.

Ed was a woman.

He fell back onto a conveniently available barstool.

Ed was a woman and, when you added that to Hawkeye's previous statement about Ed being 23 it appeared that this fact was known by others and hidden from him. Hidden from him for years! He felt his anger bubbling up and noticed that Havoc was also avoiding him. Did everyone else know? He surveyed his team carefully but thankfully the rest of his men seemed equally confused.

He'd never felt so stupid and betrayed in his entire life. Fuck this. Fuck this and fuck that and fuck everything. He motioned to his confused team to join him wedged in at the bar and bought a round of beer, and then a round of shots. And maybe another for himself.

Then he glared at Havoc, gave him the finger, and ordered one more shot before he got up with his beer.

Mustang surveyed the room, dismissing the team to go find a table while he wandered. It would take some time for the shots to kick in and he needed a moment to himself as he wound his way through the crowd. Thinking. Even in his anger he had to give Ed credit, she'd found the right place for a single woman in her early twenties. There definitely weren't many women here, it looked like one for every five men. He huffed at himself, good thing he wasn't looking for a date. Riza, and Ed, were going to be very popular. Probably already were. Wait. Was he jealous?

Roy shook his head. Maybe. Was it possible to appreciate the woman and still be mad at her? He made a face at himself. The atmosphere wasn't helping him maintain his pouty attitude, add to that the shots and general merriment and he could practically feel the tension draining out of him.

He took a steadying breath and forced his thoughts to sort themselves out. The whisky was adequately impeding his impulse to freak out, as he'd hoped, so he found himself accepting Ed's new identity faster than he thought he would. What was bothering him now was the 'why' of it. Had she done it to make him angry on purpose? That didn't quite seem like something she'd do, at least not with big news like this. A thought pinged itself off his brain, the memory of having to write to Riza in code so the homunculus Pride couldn't decipher it. How when Ed had learned there was corruption she'd gone off with Alphonse to deal with it herself.

She'd kept her secret to protect him. To stop him from sticking his neck out further than it was. Plus there were a thousand reasons why being a boy in a male dominated field would return faster results while she was trying to get her brother into his human body. It made sense.

Mustang sighed. He probably shouldn't feel too bad, they hadn't known each other at the beginning, it wasn't personal.

It did still hurt his ego though.

Roy was half way through his circuit of the pub when he found the edge of the dance floor. There they were, Ed and Riza, laughing and dancing with strangers. It looked like fun, and the shots told him it would be fun, he hesitated. He wasn't ready.

So he watched, seeing Ed with new eyes. The green and gold on her dress matched perfectly with the gold in her eyes and he felt shoddy in comparison. He was wearing black casual pants with a white dress shirt and green tie, the only green item he owned, so even though he was more dressed up than the crowd of green sweaters and plain t-shirts he felt that they matched Ed more than he did. He felt out of place.

His increasing gloominess seemed to attract the attention of an older man beside him.

"She's a cute one isn't she? Been here all afternoon having a great time. You going to try next?"

Roy was startled out of his thoughts, "Try what?"

"To last longer than one dance in a row." He motioned toward Ed.

Mustang was confused, automail was heavy but not so heavy that people who lifted on the docks for a living couldn't handle it. In fact, they could probably keep up better than he could.

The man seemed to read his thoughts, or maybe he'd heard the same question multiple times that night, "It's not her automail, she just only wants one dance. Probably to keep us from getting attached."

Since when did Ed care about distance? She was always in his face about everything.

The man saw his confusion and smacked him on the back. "You'll be fine, she'll cheer you up even as she turns you down." Then he laughed. Motioning for Mustang to step forward.

He declined. He was definitely NOT ready for this. Maybe a few more drinks would help, if he could burn his brain out then he wouldn't have to think about it and maybe he'd come back and try then.

The team was easy to find, they'd somehow commandeered a table near the window and were slowly accumulating chairs. With a new plan in mind he asked for their next order and went to the bar to pick up a round of drinks and order snacks. He arrived back at the table with plates of food and mugs of beer and was greeted with a level of cheering that usually went with winning a war. Except for Havoc, who seemed a bit wary. Roy sat, surprising Jean by slamming down a stack of cash.

He fixed the spikey blonde with an intense glare, "Lieutenant, you knew about Ed and didn't tell me, so as punishment you're in charge of my drinks. If this glass empties, you're fired."

The moment of tension didn't last long, probably because his glare was a bit unfocussed, but Havoc saluted him anyway. Roy turned to the team and grabbed his mug. "Good, Let's get fucked up then."

!-

It took several hours before Riza was finally able to drag Ed off the dance floor. She'd had to take several breaks and had been checking on the guys in regular intervals while Ed just continued to dance. "How do you have so much energy?" she yelled over the music as they left the crowd of dancers.

Ed laughed, then explained that spending years traveling the county with two automail limbs built up a lot of muscle and stamina. "And now that I have my arm back and I'm not fighting every other asshole that crosses my path, I have some energy to-"

Riza nodded, she'd asked as a distraction and it had worked, Ed finally noticed that she'd been tricked into a confrontation with a table of drunkards. Drunkards she knew.

Though maybe 'confrontation' was a bit too strong of a word. The men cheered when they saw her arrive at the table. Then boo'd when Riza hinted it was time to leave. Ed protested with them, it was still early. Sort of. But Riza looked at her pleading, "Please? I'll buy you dinner out next week and i can't bring them all home myself. Could you take just one?"

Ed put a lot of effort into stopping her eyes from flicking over to Mustang, she failed.

Hawkeye noticed and confirmed with a grin, "That's the one. Thanks Ed."

"Riza no!"

It was too late though, Riza had wrangled the mostly sober Havoc into helping her with Breda, Feury, and Falman.

Ed turned to look at Mustang and tried to steel herself against whatever was about to happen. Roy wouldn't even lift his head off the table to glare at her and it made her uneasy. Fantastic, in charge of a drunk ex-commanding officer that hated her. She took a breath and steeled herself. She could do this.

Ten minutes later, when she was finally able to get the obnoxious General outside she noticed the rest of the team had already vanished. She glared, grumbling to herself as lights disappeared around the corner, into the only fuckin cab she'd ever seen in this area the entire time she'd been wandering around looking at shop locations. Damn Riza Hawkeye straight to hell.

She looked at Mustang half thrown over her shoulder and huffed, it was an hour walk back to her place, and probably about forty-five to his in the neighbourhood down from hers. Carrying him the entire way was not going to happen, so after a quick look around she dragged him into an alley, transmuted a cart for herself, and threw him onto it.

Which worked out better than she'd hoped because halfway back her stomach growled and she stopped for a midnight snack. Leaving the cart, and Mustang, in the street to wait. She didn't even feel bad about it, mostly. Ok, maybe a bit; she grabbed him some food-to-go on her way out.

It was a fight getting him off the cart and into his house and after a lot of juggling and swearing she was finally able to throw him onto the couch and put his food in the fridge. Then found a blanket for him before standing to run through her hangover checklist, should she do something else? He was going to have an awful morning, and it was probably at least partially her fault.

Maybe a glass of water.

She turned to go get a glass but it turned out even an extremely drunk Roy Mustang was aware of 'women leaving' and when she started to turn away he grabbed her leg and pulled her off balance until she fell into a sitting position on the couch. Then readjusted himself to use her leg as a pillow.

Ed tried to get up, calmly at first and then more forcefully when he wouldn't let go. She didn't want to hurt him which meant she was limited in her options. How strong was he anyway? Strong enough it turned out, because every time she tried to pry his hands off her, his grip would get stronger and embarrassingly higher up on her thigh. Under her dress!

Fuckin pervert.

She forced herself to relax, maybe he'd fall into deep sleep and she could escape during that. Ed grumbled and pulled the blanket over him. Drunken kidnapping jerk. At least he was kinda cute when he wasn't talking or glaring at her. She absentmindedly ran her fingers through his hair and decided to tell him that, as a test to see if he was secretly listening, "Pro-tip Mustang, you're better looking when you're not talking."

She was half expecting a reply, so when his only response was to pull his head farther up onto her leg she figured she could continue and that maybe now was the best time to apologize. Practise for when he was sober and she had to do it all over again.

"I'm sorry by the way. For lying to you. I had planned to tell everyone when i got Al's body back. To tell you that i-. Who i was."

Both of her hands were now in his hair and she took a moment to comb through its softness before continuing. The little bit of alcohol she had was still buzzing through her system, making everything seem comfortable and warm.

"Al made me promise, before we fixed everything, he said i had to tell you i had a crush on you when we were done getting our bodies sorted out. When we didn't know what i would pay at the gate..."

Ed laughed softly. She felt hollow, "Know any men that don't want kids?"

Her fingers must have found a good spot, Mustang leaned into it.

She conceded to the silence, "Probably not. Men are surprisingly family focused when you start asking around."

Ed felt her eyes starting to prickle and she leaned back on the couch, tilting her head up to stop what was coming.

"Maybe I'll find someone with an automail fetish who doesn't care about the leg." The idea of being a thing, a weird fetish for some asshole, felt gross and she couldn't stop the small shiver of disgust that ran through her shoulders. Mustang's hand shifted slightly in response to her movement, but he held tight.

"You going to let me go?"

No further response, not even a mumble or a flinch.

"Guess I'm staying here then." Ed pulled a small part of the blanket over one shoulder, "You can murder me tomorrow if you even remember who i am."

!-

It didn't take long for Ed's breathing to even out, and less time after that until her head finally fell back on to the top of the couch. Her fingers stopped moving but remained twisted in his hair.

He was stuck, and he'd started it.

He'd done it on purpose of course, forming the plan while wandering around the bar.

Mustang was a drinker. After his time in Ishval he'd been ready to end his own life, and even though alcohol is a depressant, he knew it would numb the pain enough that he wouldn't pull the trigger. So he'd spent every day almost dead drunk until Hughes had come and saved him. The side effect was that along the way he'd figured out that his new tolerance for alcohol could help with his information gathering skills. And Roy Mustang loved information.

He quickly learned that after a certain amount of drinks, people thought he was too drunk to listen, too drunk to remember, and it was easy to trick people into letting their guard down. It worked almost one hundred percent of the time.

And it had worked this time.

He shifted on the couch to get a bit more comfortable. If he tried to leave now she'd know he had been faking it, and he wasn't sure he knew how to process Ed's story yet. He wasn't even sure if he was still mad.

He did know that Ed had managed to upend his entire argument against her for lying.

At least he was fairly comfortable, maybe he'd think of how to handle this when he woke up.

!-

Mustang jolted out of sleep. Was that the door closing? What time was it? Holy shit his head hurt. He sat up on the couch, leaning forward trying to avoid the light coming in the window. Even with his tolerance levels where they were, hangovers still suuuucked.

He finally noticed the glass of water and bottle of painkillers on the coffee table in front of him. The evening events came back to him and he winced at the amount he'd had to drink. His wallet was going to be angry with him.

Wait, where the hell was Ed?

He listened, but could only hear his own pulse in his ears. She'd escaped. Which was amazing to think of, if he could think. He'd been sleeping on her thigh and had had a really good grip on her leg. Hadn't he?

Yeah, he definitely should have noticed when she'd left. And what the hell time was it? Why was the sun up? Did he actually sleep through the night?

Did he sleep through the night because she was here?

He hadn't been able to accomplish that in years! With any amount of drugs or women or injury.

Shit. This was going to add a new level of complexity to his 'Ed dilemma'. And a new level of pain to his headache. He fell back over onto the couch and pulled the blanket over his head. Sleep now, think later.

By six in the evening Mustang had buried most of his hangover with water and painkillers. And even better, his brain had fully accepted Ed as a woman. What he was stuck on now was the full night of sleep. It'd been a problem for longer than Ed had ever been a problem and if Ed was the solution then this was going to require some testing. Testing he was pretty sure she wouldn't mind, especially now that he'd remembered her confession of attraction.

Still though, he was going to have to be careful, as far as Ed knew, nothing had changed. And if that whole "Maria Ross" thing was any indication, Ed did NOT like being tricked. Hypocrite.

He called her up, best option right now was to be straight forward, so when she answered the phone he jumped right in with both feet, "FullMetal. I need you to come to my house tonight for an experiment."

Silence filled the line and he was sure she was trying to figure out what the hell he was up to. When she finally spoke it was not a flat out rejection, "This sounds like a trap Mustang, what do you want?"

He put as much suspicion into his question as he could, "No trap. Is there any reason i should be trying to trap you?"

More silence. Perfect.

"Great. I'll see you at ten tonight, please eat beforehand and wear something comfortable to sleep in."

"What the f-"

He hung up on her. She'd show up now even if just to fight with him.

Ten thirty rolled around and finally there was a knock on the door. Typically late. He opened it and pulled her inside, if he kept her off balance then he could probably get away with this.

He took her coat and ignored her questions as she took off her boots, she was dressed as 'boy-Ed' in sweat pants and a t-shirt. She noticed him looking and glared, crossing her arms over her now-obviously-wrapped chest, "You said comfortable. What are you doing? What do you need me for?"

Roy grinned at her, "You showed up. That's the first half."

"First half of what? Dammit Roy! What the fuck are you do-"

He cut her off, dragging her over to the couch where he'd piled up most of the pillows he owned, then pushed her down to sit next to them. "Do you need anything? Water? Juice?"

"No, i-"

"Great. Sit here then, I put the pillows there so you could sleep against them if you need to." He rushed around to turn off the last few lights he'd left on.

"Roy i don't need-"

"Sure you will." He grabbed the two blankets he had ready and gave one to Ed before lying down on the couch in the exact same position as the night before, pulling the second blanket over himself and resting his head on her thigh.

There was a moment of silence before Roy remembered the last part, he looked up and grabbed one of her hands and put it on his head.

There. Perfectly set up, just like last night.

Ed remained silent as he snuggled into her lap. This was even more comfortable than before! Maybe she wouldn't even realis-

"You fucking asshole. You were awake the whole damn time!? I dragged your dumb ass across the city and you were AWAKE!"

Mustang pushed forward, "And you lied to me about being a woman, so let's call it even."

"What the fuck am i doing here Roy? What is this stupid setup on the couch with the pillows and blankets and-"

"It's exactly what i said on the phone, wear something comfortable to sleep in."

"You haven't explained anythin-"

"Shh. This is it Ed, this is the whole thing. I wanted to see if you'd come over when i asked. You did, so i'm taking that to mean that you want to be here. Even when i gave you no information on what would happen when you showed up. You haven't hit me once, or tried to fight me. Your hand is still on my head like last night, which was amazingly soothing by the way and the first time i slept through the night in a decade."

He could feel the nervous energy in her hand on his head, hear the lump in her throat, "You remember everything i said last night."

Mustang finally moved his hands to hold onto her leg, he hadn't wanted to keep her here if she didn't want to be, but he needed her to stay while said this next part.

"I do. And i don't have any problems with any of it."

Ed stayed silent for a long time before Roy felt her fingers start moving through his hair. It felt so nice and he had to fight to stay awake.

"Ok." She still sounded a bit apprehensive but he was too tired to argue and still a little hung over. If he didn't sleep tonight he'd drive her home and let her get a good night's sleep on her own bed.

!-

Roy woke up as his alarm went off, startled into a sitting position on his couch. Ed was gone. Which was again disconcerting since he was supposed to be military trained, and having someone you were sleeping on leave without you noticing was a bad sign. Plus he'd wanted to make her breakfast.

On the positive side, he'd slept all the way through the night so it definitely was Ed.

!-

Friday could not end fast enough. It'd been almost a full week without a good night's sleep and Mustang's mood had deteriorated with each night. He hadn't wanted to call Ed on a weekday but now it was the weekend and he'd have a full 48 hours to try and catch up, if Ed was available.

Mustang called Ed while still in the office. "FullMetal. I want you to come over tonight. Bring your pajamas."

…

"Is ten ok?"

…

"Great!" He hung up, smiling.

"You owe me twenty Breda. One week."

Mustang looked up, he'd forgotten to shut his door and now the entire team was crowded in the doorway. They'd noticed his bad attitude and now that he was giddy with excitement they had questions.

Breda looked pretty annoyed as he shoved Havoc out of the way, "Sir, i thought you would have treated her with more respect."

It took Mustang a moment to catch on and he fixed his lieutenant with a glare, "I am not sleeping with Ed, she is sleeping beside me. It helps me get through the night and if you imply anything else negative about Ed's character you're cleaning toilets for a month."

Havoc and Breda stared at him for a moment before pulling out their wallets.

"Riza wins."

"Yup. He's in love with her."

"And under a week."

"I knew he'd fall for her."

"Then you shouldn't have bet against me. Now pay up, Hayate and I are having steak tonight."

Mustang got up from his desk and the team scrambled out of the way before he slammed the door in their faces, he did not have enough sleep to deal with them.

But he would soon. His smile returned.

!-

Ed arrived late as usual but dressed in pajamas and ready to sleep. Without making eye contact she went straight to the couch and sat.

Mustang cleared his throat and she immediately cut him off. "I brought a book because it's a bit early for me to fall asleep. Do you mind if i read?"

"Ed. I don't mind but i was-"

"Good. Thanks." She took the bookmark out of the book she was holding and pointedly ignored anything else he said until he just gave up.

This was so confusing. He'd been pretty sure she'd said she'd had a crush on him. Didn't that mean she should want to talk to him? She was here. She agreed to come over. None of this was working the way he thought it should.

Mustang sighed and fell over onto the couch, resting his head on Ed's leg and pulling a blanket off the back of the couch. Maybe if he went to sleep early he'd wake up before she left and…

And… he'd magically have something to say?

He'd never felt so uneasy with a woman before.

Ed's hand went into his hair and he immediately relaxed despite the temporary anxiety, had she felt his tension?

He shifted onto his back to stare up at her and moved her hand to his chest. He was in his t-shirt and pajama pants, same as her, same as last time. It wasn't a bare skin touch, but still intimate enough to grab her attention. Ed finally looked at him.

"Why are you here?"

"You invited me jackass."

She turned her focus back to her book but seemed to still be listening. There hadn't been any anger in her answer and she hadn't pulled her hand away, so he continued.

"I mean, why did you agree to come here?"

"Because it's obvious to all of us that you don't sleep and if I'm the one that can help you with that then the least i can do is sit here while you drift off. Especially after you helped Al and I so much with the Philosopher's Stone."

She flipped a page.

"So you're here because you think you owe me?" That hurt a little.

Ed didn't answer.

"Ed if you don't want to be here you don't have to be here."

"It's fine Roy, you need sleep. I can help."

Her response annoyed him and he took the book away and placed it on the table. Ignoring her protests.

"I thought you said you had a crush on me."

Her face went dark, "I was treating this as a transaction, i owe you, you need sleep. It's fair. But if you've taken what i said while i thought you were sleeping and are now trying to manipulate my emotions for personal gain, then i will transmute this couch into your coffin."

Manipulate her? Personal gain? He sat up and spun to face her, "Ed, I'm sorry if i wasn't clear on this. I like you. I like when you're here. I wanted you here all week."

Ed's anger disappeared and was quickly replaced by what looked like, apprehension?

"You like all women though. And me being here means you get sleep so i think you're just associating me with your good mood after a full night's sleep. You've only called me twice, both times to help you sleep. You haven't said anything about me staying or leaving. You don't ask what i do all day. You haven't tried to spend any extra time with me. Literally the only time you acknowledge my presence after-work it's still work related."

Crap. Had he really not made it clear?

"Plus why are we-" She cut herself off and her face flushed with colour.

He raised an eyebrow, "Why are we what?"

"Nothing."

But she'd been gesturing at the pillows. A grin slowly spread across his face. "Ed were you just about to ask why we're on the couch?" Mustang felt like he was regaining his conversational footing and started to feel giddy, "Why we're on the couch as in 'why aren't we in a bed'? "

"No! I-"

"Too late Edaline. You're not a good liar." He grabbed some pillows and scooped her up. "We were on the couch so that you didn't feel uncomfortable. But since it's clearly causing doubt then I'll just relocate us right now."

Mustang didn't give her time to change her mind and within the minute they were both under the covers in his bed and he was curled up behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist and shoulder as he pressed his face into the back of her neck.

"Better?"

"Shut up."

He laughed to himself before kissing the back of her neck and pulling her in closer. He didn't care how early it was, he hadn't slept all week and now there was no way she could escape without him noticing.

!-Epilogue–!

It'd taken a few months but Mustang finally convinced Ed to move in with him, it was just after she'd finished up the purchase and renos for the building of her new shop. Just down the street from her new favourite bar.

She had been talking about moving into the apartment above the shop while they were having lunch, then suddenly he launched into this giant argument to persuade her to move in with him instead, with graphs and charts and props until she just gave up to get out of his office. He had a good point though, she could rent the apartment out to someone else and if living with Roy wasn't to her taste then she still had somewhere else to go.

Not that Roy would ever let her come to that conclusion.

So she walked the forty five minutes to work every day, smiling. She'd finally made it to the part of her life where she could relax and not worry about her brother or where she was sleeping, or if she was going to be fighting for food or burning to death in a desert. She had two places to live and a job she made herself. Though she did still worry a little bit about her brother.

As for the shop apartment, she'd found a renter really quickly. A young girl that had been kicked out of an abusive family. Ed offered to go rough them up a bit but the girl declined, she just needed to be out. So Ed employed her to clean the shop whenever she couldn't pay rent.

In fact, most of the neighbourhood seemed to function in the barter system. People paid her in food and services for her alchemy repairs so she always had lunch and deliveries taken care of. And even better, soon she owned a bicycle.

Which got her to work faster than she expected on the first morning she rode it.

Ed pulled her bike up to the shop door and even from outside she could hear yelling from the upstairs apartment. She remembered about her tenant's abusive family and bolted up the stairs on the side of the building, alchemy made quick work of the lock and she didn't hesitate.

Which was good for her tenant, but not so good for Ed who found herself the target of a large man's right hook. It connected with her left eye and she tumbled into the kitchen before recovering and jumping to attack. The fight was over in seconds, her assailant on his stomach on the floor with Ed on his back and his arm twisted up behind him.

She finally looked around to see the girl cowering back against the wall. "Has this happened before?"

She didn't answer but she didn't have to, the bruises on her arms and shoulders told the story. Ed had never seen her in a tank top before. How long had this been going on?

Ed frowned and got up carefully so she didn't lose her grip, then dragged the guy backwards out the door and down the stairs with her. She should call the police, but would they even show up? This wasn't a high-priority-tax-bracket kind of neighbourhood. Maybe she could cement his feet to the sidewalk until she could ask Mustang to get someone over here.

She didn't really want to use her inside connections to beat the system but what were the options?

The question was answered when she finally got the asshole down to ground level and out into the open. There weren't many cars on this street so she pulled him a few feet out into the road where he wouldn't have surprise leverage.

"Ed? Do you need a hand?"

She didn't look up from her task as she once again dropped the jerk and pinned him face first into the cobblestones. "Hey Ian. What do i do here? Do you call the cops or what?"

There was a moment of hesitation before his reply, "Ed, can you look at me for a second?"

She checked to make sure she had a good grip on the guy's arm and put her automail knee in his back before looking up to see what Ian wanted.

He had four people with him, three men and a woman, one of the men got a nod from Ian before running off to the bar down the street. "What? What's going on? Do you know this guy?"

"Are you ok Ed?"

"Yeah I'm fine. I'm used to this kind of stuff. I told you that when i bought the place and you tried to warn me about the neighbourhood. Remember?"

The man under her knee put more effort into getting free and the two remaining men with Ian hurried over and took him from her.

"We'll take care of this guy. Is the girl upstairs?"

Ed stood up and dusted herself off from the scuffle, "She's a little beat up but she seemed alright. Why are you here anyway?" She watched the woman head off and up the side stairs to the apartment.

"I heard the yelling and was gathering some people to come over, then we saw you ride up on the bike and rush up the stairs. Figured you might want some help."

Ed laughed, she'd obviously already handled it but men liked to feel useful, "Help is always appreciated."

Ian didn't laugh and kept staring at her face, "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yes Ian. I'm fine. I'm used to fights. Do you know this guy? What do we do with him?" His redundant questions were starting to irritate her and he wouldn't answer hers so she went over to her shop front to unlock the door.

Ian walked with her. "We've seen him around but this is the first time we've heard yelling. We don't have to do anything with him just yet. My guy made a phone call so we'll just hold him until he arrives."

Ian was being cryptic and Ed raised an eyebrow but continued opening up. His secrecy was pointless because she'd see the results anyway.

At least she didn't have to wait long because not ten minutes later she looked up as tires screeched to a stop in front of the door. She watched in confusion as Mustang, Havoc, and Breda got out of the car, Mustang stopped to talk to Ian, who hadn't left the door to her shop while she set up, and she could see the other two through the window as they took the assailant into custody.

Mustang finally entered the shop and Ed could tell he was having trouble subduing his anger as she came around to the front of the counter, "What? What happened? You look like you're ready to punch someone."

He looked her over carefully, "I am."

"Well not me, I already got one this morning from that asshole out there. And do you even know what protocol I'm supposed to follow? Ian wouldn't say, and I'm not sure the military has jurisdiction here for domestic cases. Do i call the regular police? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Mustang crossed the floor in three strides then picked her up and sat her on the counter. He carefully tilted her head up to face him.

It took her a moment to figure out what he was up to as he turned her head this way and that, tracking her eye movement. "Dammit. There's a bruise isn't there? That's why everyone is looking at me like I'm fragile." She huffed, "I'm fine Roy. I can take care of myself, I'm used to fighting off the bad guys. I know you know this, it's happened a hundred times."

"Edaline, if i got punched in the face would you not do the same thing? You'd call me an idiot for sure, but then you'd make sure i had food and painkillers and water and ice and a bandage. And you'd check on it every ten minutes and see if i needed anything else."

Ed blushed. "Maybe."

He kissed her, a slow heated kiss that melted her heart, every time.

"So this is my thing, this is what i do. I have your neighbours call me when there's trouble and i take away the bad guys and i see if you're ok in person."

He held her chin up so she would meet his eyes, "Ok?"

She couldn't very well deny him after that kiss. "Ok."

"Great." Roy kissed her quickly one more time before pulling away, "I'm late for a meeting but I'm paying Ian to sit out there for the rest of today and every morning this week. Don't make him leave."

"What?-"

"Love you bye!"

Wait- Wait! Did he just say, 'love you'? First time? Just like that and then leave without waiting for a response? What an absolute asshole!

She shook the distracting kiss out of her head and stormed out in time to see Havoc pull the car away from the curb. Mustang blew her a kiss from the passenger side and Breda waved while holding the perp in the back.

She huffed as they drove off, "How many people do you think he has watching me?"

"Well, he's the Flame Alchemist with sights on being leader of the country, and you're the FullMetal Alchemist who he's in love with and will probably be married to in the next couple of years. I'm also betting you attract trouble, so if i carry the 1 and multiply it by infinity-"

She blushed, "Ok ok. I got it, everyone."

Ian laughed. "As far as i know, yeah."

She grumbled and went back inside, still blushing.

Jackass.