Mesonoxian: Roy's confession was so much fun to write too, I am fairly certain I had a goofy little grin on my face making him spout that possessive and sweet stuff.

Batty: Oh lord, remind me again how I committed to writing Roy in a dress? XD and normally I'd say yes, write like a good little authoress... but well, I can't talk and you know it

chibinaru: Thank you! Possessive Roy is so much fun.

Zemyx: Naughty Roy should be punished with caramel sauce -shifty eyes-

Barranca: Now if Roy could only muster the balls to tell Maes.

Kimba: I love you too! And Daphne does have a tendency to make things interesting... she's a devious one.

moonstone: Correct! No more scorpions. Although I traded those for these little brown bug things... I don't know what they are but no matter how many times I wash my floors they keep coming back. I'm about to go nuclear on them.

lmao: Always happy to hear that!

Cheru-chan: Why are you nudging me? What do you want you crazy girl? A happy ending? XD love you

SanitysOverrated: Now if Roy could only work up the nerve to admit that he loves Ed, and then admit it to Ed.

silvers-edge: Thank you! And Ed is entirely worth the rollercoaster Roy gets sent on.

dormantdrake: I bet I know some ways to make you more excited XD

Soaha: Puts a new light on that broadening of horizons stuff they feed kids.

egyptian1995: What on earth did you get distracted by? It better have been regarding purple kangaroos or something.

secret25: I don't blame you for laughing, I was smirking a bit when I wrote that line. It's just so... in the scope of everything that had been happening at dinner so far, it's just such a random comment to come out with. And yeah, I write Al and Scar in... well... so far, various forms of arguing XD but they'll get a clue long before 34 chapters.

Neena: Logically Roy should have known that his mother wouldn't steal the love of his life away from him, but then, he isn't always too logical.

black-klepon: I demand an update on how the teeth surgery went. Everything all okay?

Toki Mirage: In the event of Ed getting a body, I'm not sure Roy would let him be kickass at first... more likely he'd drag Ed to the floor and molest him.

gali-o: Daphne knows all the best ways to trap her son, Grand could take a lesson if she wouldn't kill him on sight.

80x18: I get an entire -box- of cheez-its? I'm going to burst from happiness! ...and calories

cHAOsrulesoverall: Thank you... and trust me, I do that to them myself, and I am the one writing it. I've had numerous times with this story where I just want to smash Roy over the head and threaten to kill him unless he admits undying, ardent love.

inuv5: Maes would have a field day with this knowledge.

softdreamer: Thanks! Daphne is very happy with the inclusion as well.

Alex: Of course they were XD

Koneko: Oh it won't be a rabbit I'll be pulling out of my hat, it'll be a squirrel. And I had sooo much fun writing those lines. I swear, were they able to touch I would have been sorely tempted to make them have impulsive porch sex.

liloi: I hope you passed all your finals, else Daphne might have to have a talk with you XP

blame-my-ADD: That's awesome, another thing that everyone can yell at Brotherhood about. Not having Daphne, and the fact that Scar looks like he's about 60.

GreedxEd: Roy was born crazy, he has his mothers genes after all.

Blessed: I think it would have crushed Roy to have his mother not believe him about Ed. That ghost really means a lot to him.

Ulquiarra: I think they need to be hit with a full on love train before they get it in their heads. But they're so precious I really can't hurt them too much.

McAnything: Oooo Daphne suspicions, I love. Care to share?

cynder81: I'm sure that Ed will feel that Grand has had a sufficient break from being tortured and shall happily strive to make his life hellish once again.

DrowningInChocolate: You wouldn't be the first to mention apprehensions about starting this story, but I'm glad you've also grown to like it. Feel free to join the others in strangling Roy every now and then XD

teito13: How long did your reading marathon take you, out of curiosity. And Fallen... crap I need to update that one.

Let's just say that working three jobs is a bit time consuming.

Oh! And I did take over 24 hours off to go sit in line for Harry Potter. I still don't think my ass has recovered. But it was entirely worth it. I cried no less than three times... and had a moment of horrified amusement when Voldemort did a little dance while laughing. I'm a teensy bit disturbed.

So as I was writing this I had numerous moments where I would go "GAH!" to myself and alarm others. Mostly to do with Roy's father/Daphne's husband. I've never given minor details on the man much past "he died when Roy was three of a brain hemmorhage" and Roy has his eyes. And I know it seems silly to spend almost an hour debating hair color, but I guess I'm a bit crazy, as you all know well.

I decided I need to do the story of Daphne and the still unnamed father - we won't get into how long a name debate will last for me - sooner rather than later. At least then I don't have to worry about reference material as it will already be there.

And I have 11 friends on facebook now! XDD I am such a dork.

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter Thirty-Four

"Thanks." Edward murmured to Roy, clutching the notebook to his chest as he floated down to sit on the floor in front of the coffee table in the sitting room of before.

Roy handed him a pen in answer, and as Edward opened and placed the notebook on the table, he settled down next to the ghost, nursing a mug of hot coffee that he'd improved with chocolate cream liqueur.

Daphne, with the helpful directions of her son, sat down on Edward's other side.

"He doesn't like anyone passing through him." Roy explained, "so don't shift over else I'll have to listen to him be grumpy."

"At you." Edward smiled, doubly so when Roy snorted derisively, and poising the pen over the paper his expression shifted to one of uncertainty. "I should introduce myself, right? I haven't exactly… I don't have much practice with this anymore. You're the only one I've met since I died."

Roy set aside his mug of coffee, reaching a hand over to rest it just above Edward's wrist. "Just start with your name."

Edward obediently began to write as soon as Roy removed his hand, and from beside him, Daphne watched with rapt, amazed attention as he wrote out 'I'm Edward Elric' in an untidy scrawl that made Roy snort again and remark that they needed to work on his eleven-year-old's penmanship.

Daphne had to wonder if she should be glad that Edward didn't pen down his response to that when Roy childishly stuck out his tongue. But it did raise a question, and she pursed her lips contemplatively before looking over in the general direction she believed Edward to be judging by Roy's area of focus. "How old are you, Edward?"

Underneath where he'd written his name, Edward took his time writing out '18' before smirking proudly over at Roy.

Roy grinned, and grabbing his coffee he gave a quick chuckle before taking a hearty sip.

Daphne bit down on a smile at the news, flicking a quick gaze to her son before turning back to the general open space that Edward seemed to be occupying."How did you meet Roy?"

At that question, Edward found himself smiling and quickly writing again. 'His office was my home for seven years. He thought he was hallucinating me at first, but he came around.'

"He was trapped in there." Roy added solemnly when Edward raised the pen, finished. "We don't know how or why, much less how or why I was able to get him out of there… but he stays with me now at my place."

Daphne nodded slowly to herself, unable to keep from letting her smile begin to slip through. "And how long has that been going on?" She asked, only to feel her smile tug a bit wider when the hovering pen didn't move, and Roy was looking at the open air that was Edward with puzzlement.

Edward blinked at Roy thoughtfully, head tilted as if it would help him find the answer. "How long has it been? It feels like so long, but it can't have been that long."

"Two? Three weeks? Somewhere around there?" Roy ventured in guesstimate, and at Edward's puzzled nod of acceptance looked up at his mother. "Something like that."

Edward turned a shy grin down towards the notebook, fiddling with the pen. "It doesn't seem like much… we've grown so close."

Daphne took note of the fond look on Roy's face, a look certainly not directed at her, and considered her next question a moment before asking, "why do you stay with him?"

"Mom!"

Daphne laughed, ignoring her son's enraged outburst before waving Edward on. "Seriously, why. I'm guessing you're not trapped anymore, so why does a free spirit, if I may, stay with my son?"

Edward could only smile softly down at the notebook, and after a moment of enjoying Roy's indignation about the matter, began to write. 'I can't imagine leaving him.'

It was more than Roy having freed him, more than the fact that his world could only expand if he was with Roy, it was so much more than that. He didn't have to stay, he'd known this from the beginning. But he stayed, because he wanted to. Because he knew he belonged beside Roy… and that was exactly where he'd stay.

Daphne nodded slowly as she absorbed that along with the visual cues she was getting from Roy. Honestly, her son was like an open book around Edward now that the secret was out. It was amazing to her to witness it, knowing that it wasn't her that he'd opened up too like this. It wasn't her who was meant to see. "I don't doubt that…" she said with a gentle smile, "no… I don't doubt that at all. For either of you."

Roy glanced over at her before finding himself looking back at the words written in the notebook. Feeling the gravity of them all the more after this afternoon. "We're rarely separated, mom. Since the night he was able to get free of my office we've almost always been together."

'When he's not being a manwhore.' Edward quickly penned with a wicked smirk that didn't fade at Roy's affronted noise.

Daphne didn't even try to fight back the laugh, and grinning still she shook her head at her son in mock disgust before turning her attention presumably back to Edward. "I'd say he was worse as a teenager, but only because him having a career now doesn't allow him to flirt all day."

'He spends every other night with me.' Edward wrote with a flare of pride, smiling at the paper. 'Maybe he's slowly getting better? And this past week he decided to take me out somewhere instead of someone else. So he stayed with me two nights.'

Daphne's eyebrows crept towards her hairline before her face relaxed and she looked at the written words thoughtfully before she looked over at Roy who seemed to be quite fascinated with his coffee, although she was no idiot, and she knew that he wasn't smiling in that tender way because of coffee. "Maybe you're right, Edward."

"I was worried about you." Roy defended gently, as if he wasn't even sure why he was trying to defend his actions that night.

Daphne slowly nodded, something that felt very much of relief beginning to settle over her. But that wasn't to say that she wasn't a bit worried in her own right. "What do you two do when you're together?"

Edward stilled for several moments, eyes gazing at the paper and still barely seeing it. His eyes saw other, far more nostalgic things in this moment. Ones that, perhaps to an outsider, didn't seem all that special or significant, but to him… to him those simple moments were priceless. And with a distant seeming smile, he began to write once more. 'He takes me to the parks a lot. One in particular where it's easy for us to be alone.' And then underneath that he added, 'And he's been teaching me to ride a bike.'

"And I'm taking you to the theatre Tuesday night, don't forget." Roy added softly, intended mostly for Edward's ears alone.

'We do a lot of things together,' Edward was adding, even as he warmed at the reminder. 'Read, go on trips like this one, play chess, and we talk a lot… and I tag along with him to a certain point when he has nights to himself. I made one of the latest victims trip and fall before he got to Roy, that was fun.'

"Not as much fun as it was for me." Roy pitched in smugly, smirking in the face of Edward's reproachful scowl.

Daphne had quickly compiled it all, and her green eyes flicked back and forth between the two of them – at least, as best she could with her only reference of Edward being where Roy was looking. "For only having known each other less than a month, I admit you could probably have tricked me into believing it's been longer."

Roy looked over at her now with a frown. "How do you mean?"

But Daphne ignored him as she asked Edward directly, "are you happy even just doing nothing with him?"

'I'm happy as long as I'm with him.' Edward wrote out, ignoring the faint fluttering of embarrassment inside him.

Daphne smiled to herself before looking to her son in a rather more serious light than she had the rest of this unorthodox conversation. "What is it you were yelling at him about?" And then to Edward, "he doesn't yell at you a lot, does he?"

"Grand." Roy bit out, it wasn't as if he were keeping any of that from her as it was, but his displeasure was more regarding Edward's questioning than his own.. "And I shouldn't ever yell at him, what kind of man do you think you raised me to become that I'd yell at him day in and day out?"

'That's the only time I can remember him raising his voice to me like that.' Edward scribbled as he shot Roy an appeasing look. "I've yelled at you a fair bit."

"I believe I was deserving of it." Roy muttered before responding instinctively to the question he knew would otherwise be coming, "just because Edward is dead doesn't give me the right to use him to help me in my battle with Grand on the principle that he wouldn't get hurt. I wanted to forbid him from helping me if something were to happen… but he was right," he conceded, "I can't stop him from acting."

"We always try to protect the ones we care about." Daphne agreed with a simple gentleness as she turned away a moment to direct a nostalgic smile towards the table. "That you have found someone to care so much about in such a short time, Roy, is… I'm glad of it. It's not many that you'd try and protect like that."

Roy found his eyes locking with Edward's, drawn into them in that way he'd begun to feel less nervous about now that he had no secrets from the ghost. No longer so afraid that Edward might be able to see into his soul.

"Even if I were alive, Roy," Edward spoke quietly as he reached a hand out to hover just over Roy's forearm, "I'd do anything I could to protect you. She's right about you… and I never thought I'd ever have anyone to care about again."

"You've already done so much." Roy replied, his gaze still locked onto Edward's. "But I get it now, I do."

Daphne watched them unseen, smiling unseen with the way Roy seemed unable to look away from Edward. Her son really had changed since she'd last heard from him, it had been clear to her before, and sitting here now it was inescapable. Edward had an undeniable affect on her son, and one in particular that she had once lamented that she might not ever see.

Looking down at the paper that Edward's answers thus far were written across, she gave herself a mental nod of permission before looking to Roy once again. "Roy… there's something I'd like to ask Edward alone, if you don't mind."

The gaze between them broke as they both turned to look at her, and Roy met her unrevealing eyes for several minutes before taking a firmer hold on his coffee mug. "I'll go get some more coffee, and perhaps a bit more liqueur for it." And as he rose said to Edward, "don't let her ask you anything unnecessary."

Daphne scoffed as Edward smiled up at him reassuringly. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Give me at least five minutes." Daphne instructed her impertinent son, but smiled after him as he rolled his eyes and made himself scarce. Only then did she turn to where she still trusted Edward to be. "You said he spends every other night with you?"

'Yes.'

She nodded and settled herself back a bit more comfortably on the floor as she finally looked up from the word and to Edward again. She realized this might be meddling on her part… but she wanted confirmation of what she already suspected. "How does it make you feel when he goes with someone else for the night?"

Taken aback a bit by the question, Edward hesitated as he thought back to those nights. Barely remembering the first ones when he and Roy had just barely begun to live together. Seeing them in far more clarity since that cake incident. Head bowed, his expression tightened as the pen hovered still unmoving over the paper seconds more before he began to write once more after a staggered start. 'It's who he is.'

"Yes," Daphne agreed gently, knowing all too well herself the truth of it. "But what about you?"

'I already impose enough on his life. I want him to have time to himself. It doesn't make me happy though that he settles for so much less than he deserves to have. He thinks I'm old fashioned for it, but he should find someone he loves. He'd be happier that way, and I want him to be happy like that. Not fooling himself.'

Daphne knew then that she'd finally gotten Edward to the point she had wanted, if that sudden paragraph that finally stopped was anything to go by. "So you'd be happy if he found someone to love? Maybe even marry?"

Edward frowned at her, he'd thought that was the gist of what he had been getting at. Yet he found himself unable to write straight away, the pen seeming stuck against the paper as her words echoed in his mind. 'Yes' he finally managed to write, frustrated at himself.

Daphne nodded and looked towards the window. "I think if Roy can ever open himself up to what he'd believe to be the preposterous idea of him being in love… I think he'd be very happy. Being in love is never what you expect it to be, it never is what you think, and it's never easy," she laughed there, shaking her head, "I realized that myself when I met my husband. But you know, I really do love him, even after all these years after his death." And she looked away from the window, back towards Edward again. "Love isn't easy… and it wouldn't mean as much, or be so wonderful if it were."

'What was Roy's father like?' Edward queried after a moment spent contemplating the appropriateness of the inquiry. 'Was he anything like Roy?'

Daphne's mouth quirked into a smile. "If you're asking whether or not he was a manwhore, as you put it –" Edward smiled in kind, "– no." And her green eyes gained a softer look to them as she reminisced. "Roy has a lot of his father in him though. And I imagine any person lucky enough to steal Roy's heart would understand why I never remarried."

Roy had slumped against the frame of the entryway, dark eyes shadowed from his mother's words as he took a last look at Edward before silently turning so that his back was against the wall. He didn't know what Edward had written, only that his mother was speaking more about his father, and he listened with half an ear and closed eyes… unable to truly get those words out of his head. "Any person lucky enough to steal Roy's heart…" but he didn't want that to happen.

No matter what Edward desired for him… he wouldn't yield such a thing. Because of Edward he couldn't. And let that be the last and final secret he'd ever keep from the ghost.

Finally he knew he couldn't linger any longer without announcing he was there, and so he pushed off from the wall and crossed over to Edward again. "She didn't ask you anything embarrassing, did she?"

Edward whipped around in surprise and with a beaming smile. "Of course not, I get the feeling she only asks you those things."

Roy had to admit, the spirit was right on at least that front. "It's only because you died well before you could have a sex life, otherwise trust me, she'd be trying to embarrass you."

"Roy," Edward laughed, "your sex life is worthy of trying to embarrass you of."

"Thanks." Roy rolled his eyes as he settled back down fully next to his companion before looking over at his mother who seemed even more smug than usual about something. But it wasn't a purely gleeful smugness, something held her reserved. "What's wrong with you? What information did you drag out of him?" He asked, looking down at the paper.

Edward let him read it, not having anything to hide. It wasn't anything he'd not told to Roy before. But still, he waited with an edge of nerves.

"Still doesn't explain what's up with that look, mom." Roy studied her in a calculative manner before remarking idly to Edward. "And you're still an archaic romantic."

"One day you may understand… and I hope you do." Daphne answered simply, looking between the two of them.

"One of us has to be, you're hopeless." Edward shot back dryly.

Roy grunted noncommittally.

For several more hours the three of them spoke and answered questions, and Edward went through a significant amount of paper. Paper that Roy eventually pocketed for the ghost when Daphne decided it was time for her to check on a few things and head to bed.

Roy made sure to pass on Edward's wish of a good night to her, and waited until he was assured of her being out of earshot before looking back to the ghost. "That was… I'm glad it ended up well." He admitted with a lengthy sigh.

Edward smiled at him consolingly. "Me too." And as he passed Roy the pen he'd been using, asked, "do you remember your father even a little bit?"

Roy slipped the pen away with a distant expression, and didn't answer right away. Instead he rose from the floor and walked over to one of the bookshelves, taking from atop one of the higher shelves a framed photograph.

Edward had risen to follow him, and as Roy turned, holding it out, he took it in hand.

"I barely remember him." Roy replied as he stared at the cardboard backing securing the photograph. But unlike the time prior that Edward had asked about his memories regarding his father, he didn't stop there. "But I remember that day… more than any other flash of his face in my mind."

A photograph of Daphne in her younger years yet all the same unmistakable, she was lounging on a picnic blanket back against the side of a man who smiled at the camera with Roy's dark eyes and in his arms a child barely free of being a toddler.

A toddler who seemed to be attempting to grab for the camera despite his father's hold.

Edward had to smile at that, before his eyes were attracted to the man in the photograph. He had Roy's eyes, but dark brown hair that gleamed red in the sunlight took the place of the black hair he'd grown so familiar with.

"He's very handsome." Edward said at last, continuing to study the photograph. "I wonder how you'd look in a tie."

Roy snorted and grabbed the photograph back, "that's my dad you're drooling over, if you don't mind."

Edward grinned unrepentant. "I can appreciate a good looking person without wanting to bed them, unlike yourself. But since you're feeling left out, you were adorable as a child." And promptly snatched the photograph back.

Roy scowled at the term, even more so as Edward had the audacity to laugh. "If I recall correctly you left before I was fully finished with the photo album of your childhood pictures. You wouldn't appreciate it if I called you adorable, now would you?"

Edward glanced up from the photograph and his latest musing which he didn't think he'd share with Roy. Somehow he wasn't sure Roy would ever let him get a hold of the photograph a third time if he remarked upon wondering how Roy would look in glasses. The man's father certainly wore them well. Much like Maes… but then that wasn't a comment he was sure would go over well either. "Actually… if you seriously did, I wouldn't mind."

"It's nothing compared to you now." Roy said softly, looking away with a flush of embarrassment.

Edward ducked his head, his eyes focusing on the toddler-sized Roy once more, feeling oddly self-aware in this moment. "In a roundabout way you once called me beautiful, I remember." He whispered back, and absently decided that green onesies were a fantastic clothing choice for Roy.

Roy darted a sidelong look at the spirit, feeling himself soften inexplicably more. And closing his eyes, he couldn't help but think he hadn't been wrong in his assessment that one afternoon. For being only a silvery apparition that glowed in ethereal light… it was all Edward needed. "That picture..." he began abruptly as he forced his thoughts to clear, "it was taken about a week or two before he died. It was just some silly picnic, but it's one of the last and few memories I have of him and I know it's because of that photograph. It helps me remember and not forget."

Edward looked up at him then, offering the photograph into Roy's outstretched hand. "I'm sure he was a good father to you, even if you can't remember hardly any of it."

Roy scanned the photograph briefly, his eyes lingering the longest on the man in question. "I know he was, from what little I remember, and how much mom still loves him."

"I'm glad of that." Edward said honestly, watching as Roy put the photograph back where he'd gotten it. "Can I see more of your pictures?"

Roy chuckled lightly, sending the ghost a teasing look over his shoulder. "Not just yet… there's still one place I want to show you before tomorrow."

It was agreed to, and Edward followed Roy from the house once more.

And so it was that Edward was taken on a tour of the winery itself. One lit only by his own ghostly light and the single lamp Roy had lit. But it was not so much the hundreds of barrels of wine, or the machines that was the true subject of the tour. It was something a bit more familiar…

"When I came back from Ishbal we were all on a military leave to recuperate." Roy said as he ran a hand along a slightly dusty shelf in the out-of-the-way room, "I came here… and apparently the way I was dealing with such a harsh difference of realities was to make these."

Edward had carefully picked up one of the old wine bottles. But it was no ordinary bottle that he'd seen before. With these wine bottles, none of them were the same despite that they were all different from the ordinary. The one he currently held was a deep sapphire blue, the glass textured like gentle ripples on water, and inside those ripples small bubbles had formed making their way up to the rim as they reflected ghostly light.

"My two worlds joined… it was good therapy for me to make these." Roy murmured as he picked up another: clear glass with sooty lines embedded that curled into smoky shapes.

"They're beautiful." Edward breathed, carefully setting the sapphire bottle back upon the shelf as his widened eyes took in the rows and rows of them in this shrine of a room. "If not for your military ambitions… you should have become an artist."

Roy smiled faintly as he examined the bottle in his hand. "These were never sold to the public, these bottles. We had put wine in them, but my mother only opened them for the vineyard tours. I remember she got some fair offers for some of them, but she couldn't part with them. To her they're priceless."

"I wouldn't part with them either." Edward agreed softly as he took down another of orange tinted glass and ash colored shadows of what appeared to be flowers. "How do you manage this stuff…"

"That one was the result of throwing in orange flowers just before it was finished." Roy recalled with a fond smile. "My mother developed a limited amount of wine that had hints of orange because of that bottle. The regular bottles all sold out on that day's wine tour."

"You should make more one day." Edward decided as his fingers trailed over a rose hued bottle that had puffs of white like miniature clouds enwrapping it.

Roy looked back to them all, the suggestion weighing on his mind. It was rare he'd made something like this with his alchemy, created art just to create it. Before it had been to certify as a state alchemist and prove he knew his alchemy frontwards and back, and then later as coping methods. And then Edward had entered his life. "… I'll think about it."

They spent a while longer in the room, looking at all the bottles, before they began the walk back to the dark house together. And once there, Roy, after much insistence and glaring on Edward's part, relinquished the photo album that held childhood pictures of him with his family.

Edward had gleefully perched himself in the center of Roy's bed. It wasn't nearly as large as the one the man had back home, but it was suitable to his purposes as he opened the album across the sheets and bent down over supported by his elbows to flip through enthusiastically.

"Awwah," Edward cooed at one point, "you had chubby cheeks."

Roy came to lounge next to Edward with a sardonic roll of his eyes. "I was six years old, of course I did. So did you, I've seen the evidence." And he stretched out a bit further, supporting himself with one hand placed on the bed behind his back as he looked down at the photographs with Edward.

Edward looked over at him with a teasing smirk, "yeah, but the rest of you looks chubby as well."

"It's the lighting!"

"It is not."

Roy glared and huffed as Edward smugly went back to his snooping. Still following along with said snooping, he reached his free hand up to begin unbuttoning his shirt and when finished slipped it off to set it aside a moment with a thoughtful glimmer in his eyes.

For several pages more Roy was subjected to telling Edward what he could remember about the photographs… although he absolutely refused to explain the one where he was eight years old and sitting in his mother's closet surrounded by all her shoes.

Edward had just moved on with a last little laugh when he felt something settle over his back and shoulders. "Wha– " he trailed off as he looked over at himself to find Roy's shirt draped across him in a perfect imitation of wearing it, and his eyebrows climbed towards his hairline as he looked up at the man. "I am not your laundry hamper."

Roy chuckled quietly, his gaze soft as he observed the effect of the white shirt against the silvery glow. "It's the weekend…" he replied in almost a whisper, as if it were the only explanation necessary.

"And?" Edward's eyebrows climbed higher, but he didn't attempt to rid himself of the shirt.

"And," Roy continued for him, "I haven't tried to fluster you yet… you look good in my shirt."

Edward's eyebrows went back down only to gather in an amused sort of frown as he tried not to smile. "You've already flustered me today, Roy Mustang." He replied in quiet honesty. "More than once. Although the return of your atrocious flirtation attempts is always refreshing." He finished with a smirk.

"Have I?" Roy questioned as he reached for the shirt, startling as his hand only passed through it.

Edward smiled at the shocked surprise on the man's face. "It's touched me for too long. You can't have it back until I give it up. It's far too thin a barrier between you and me." And making no move to dislodge the shirt, turned his attention back to the photo album with a little smile.

Roy found himself smiling, and didn't ask for the shirt back, nor did Edward make any inclination that he was going to get rid of it. It stayed on him until the photo album had been flipped through, and Edward sprawled face-down on the bed to watch through his silver fringe as Roy got up to put the album away, not looking away even as the man stripped out of his black slacks before rejoining him on the bed.

"Roy?" Edward murmured, finally closing his eyes as he felt Roy's weight dip down near to him.

Roy hummed questioningly as he pillowed his head on his arms, facing the apparition just inches from him.

"These weekend trips… they've been hard on the both of us." Edward spoke, barely able to be heard in his growing relaxation. "But thank you for taking me on them."

Roy readjusted so that he could find some form of blankets and pulled them up over him… and Edward, as he smiled faintly. "I'll have to think of where next to take you. Maybe somewhere where it's just the two of us."

Edward smiled, still not opening his eyes even when he felt the extra pressure settle over him. He'd heard Roy rustling around and knew what must have happened – he didn't try and escape it either. Only continued to lay there next to Roy, secured in by the pressure of the covers over him and Roy's shirt. He continued to lay there long after he'd heard the man's breathing even out, but eventually he did open his eyes to look across the sparse inches separating them.

For a long time, all he could do was watch Roy sleep as he lost himself in his thoughts.

He may not have confirmed when Roy questioned him on it, but he hadn't been lying when he'd said the man had flustered him several times throughout the day. And yet… it wasn't the flustered feeling he remembered once having. There had been no exasperation or as had followed later, wants to allow the floor to swallow him up – as he could very well manage.

He couldn't remember, thinking back now, when things had changed. Only that somewhere along the line, they had… and after Roy's impassioned confession of earlier, there was no way he could miss it now.

That excitement that felt so familiar to him, yet so foreign. The warmth that filled him when Roy had all but called him beautiful once again. That strange thrill of pride that he was wearing Roy's shirt – pride which made absolutely no sense at all.

And then here he was, laying on Roy's side of the bed… and far closer to him than he'd ever dared lay before. It didn't matter that Roy had been the one to close the distance, he was the one accepting of it. Even welcoming it.

"I'm not used to feeling anything anymore." The words barely a whisper due to their nearness. "And then I met you… and now I don't understand what I feel. Is that normal, Roy?" Edward asked, moving a hand from underneath the covers to rest it just against, but not through, Roy's face. "Is this why you dare not let many get close to you? Why you keep me closer than anyone else?" And his hand slipped away down past Roy's parted lips until it rested against the bed in the small distance between them. "I didn't lie… I'm possessive over you too… and I don't want anyone else to feel like this with you. Even if I don't understand what this is."

Tonight, he was feeling clearly his eleven-year-olds experience with grown-up emotions.