This latest chapter is actually so fluffy compared to the previous few chapters it actually hurts me. I'll need to kill off another character soon. But it's been a chapter long in coming, and I think I set a new record for myself for how long it took a character to have this epiphany.

Chapter Fifty-Six

"Bowl of pudding."

Edward startled from his thoughts at the sudden words, looking over at Roy from where he'd taken up reading while hovering at the nearest window. "What?" He closed the book and dropped to the floor so he could walk over to the couch with a confused frown.

Roy huffed as if an explanation was unneeded, and he tilted his head to find Edward. "Your favorite dessert."

Edward stopped there in front of him, staring at him blankly a moment before snorting and falling to his knees in order to pin him with a surprised look. "You're thinking of that again when you're like this?"

"It's circular!" Roy defended quite promptly, ignoring the look of growing amusement on Edward's face, and the laugh tugging at his lips but not ever quite escaping.

"So it is." Edward granted even as he shook his head in resignation that Roy was the weirdest patient ever. "Is this what painkiller withdrawals do to you? Make you ponder silly things like my favorite dessert?"

"Nothing you claim as a favorite could ever be silly." Roy defended firmly, and immediately followed that noble statement with, "that's why I'm still planning on getting rid of all the boxers and restocking with briefs."

Edward instantly walloped him on the head with the book he still held, smirking as Roy yelped and ducked away from further such treatment.

"I'm injured!" Roy protested in dismay, even though secretly he knew he'd rather had that coming to him.

"You'd best hope I don't injure you further, Roy Mustang." Edward told him firmly despite the smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

Roy grumbled under his breath and earned himself a raised eyebrow, before he relented and fixed the silvery apparition with a determined look. "Am I right?"

A laugh escaped Edward before he could try and maintain his general attitude of disapproval, and he ended up smiling as he shook his head. "Not even close. You've been closer before, you know."

"Wait, what?" Roy exclaimed, sending Edward into another fit of laughter. "Why didn't you tell me then?"

"So I could have the enjoyment of telling you now." Edward pointed out, it was only logical, after all. Someone needed to torture Roy a bit, and as a ghost, he felt his existence in definition meant he was allowed a little torture in the search of amusement.

"And what, exactly, was I closer on?" Roy knew he was scowling, yet all it was doing was making Edward all the happier.

Appearing to think about it for a moment, Edward tapped a finger to his chin. "Strange, I'm having trouble recalling." He grinned as his response earned him a growl. "Now, now, Roy, you've made around what, ten guesses so far? It shouldn't be too hard for you to go back and guess on some variations, right?"

"You, Edward Elric, are a wicked and evil spirit." Roy determined, only to earn himself a pleased laugh.

"Oddly, Roy Mustang," Edward began with a smug expression, "I've only become this wicked and evil since meeting you. Now stay here, I'm going to go see about some food for you. You were asleep almost six hours, you'll be hungry soon if you aren't now."

"I'll have whatever your favorite dessert is!" Roy called after Edward as the silvery apparition vanished from his view, and couldn't help but smile at the laughter that answered him before delving into deep thought about the matter.

Within minutes Edward had delivered Roy another bowl of the soup he'd previously made, and if the way the man immediately began shoveling it into his mouth like a greedy child with no table manners was any indication, Roy didn't mind the leftovers. There was no dessert.

Afterwards Edward left Roy alone again briefly so that he could tidy up the kitchen. He was just finishing the last of the dishes when he heard the sound of the man moving about, and quickly finishing emptying the sink of dirtied water, went to investigate.

"Oh, good." Roy breathed as he spotted a flash of silvery light in the corner of his eye, but didn't take his focus from the stairs he was carefully mounting while holding firmly to the banister. "A witness for my tragically lame death falling up a staircase."

Edward snorted and came around his other side to hover slightly in front of the man as he continued to make progress. "You're doing fine."

"I'm going too slow." Roy attempted to state with annoyance, but feared it just came out petulant.

"Well forgive me for saying this, but you're not exactly as young as you used to be." Edward told him frankly, but with a slight smile that only grew as Roy shot him a dirty look. "Oh come on now, it's true! When's the last time you got hurt like this?"

"Shut up." Roy decided on.

"That's what I thought." Edward's smile turned rather smug, but compassionate all the same. "I believe you when you say that you'll be mostly recovered by tomorrow, and you wouldn't have dared make me a promise like that if you believed anything otherwise. I need you better. So take it slow tonight."

Roy couldn't help but grin, and although it was mostly directed at the stairs he was focusing on, he knew Edward still caught it. "I will, love."

"And you're calling for a taxi in the morning." Edward determined as he shadowed Roy up the stairs, trying to keep from showing how flattered the sentiment actually made him feel, and casting Roy a glare for it.

Not even bothering to try for a token protest, Roy nodded obediently. It was probably for the best anyway, all the jostling from the engine likely wouldn't feel good on his stitches. "Maybe I'll just requisition a car until Monday."

"That too." Edward approved with a bit of a grin.

When they reached the bedroom, Roy immediately collapsed into a sitting heap on the bed while Edward hovered in closer with a stern expression as he held out a hand insistently.

"What?" Roy asked in confusion as he fought the urge to flop backwards right here and now, and only the knowledge that doing so in this position would put unneeded and painful strain on several of his wounds kept him from it.

Inwardly, Edward braced himself for the teasing and the looks he'd get for what he was about to say, but there was nothing for it. "Your clothes, now. Take them off."

Roy cracked a grin at the firm request, and delightedly watched a flash of flustered annoyance cross Edward's features. "We really need to work on your bedroom talk." He stated and slowly eased himself back to his feet with a groan.

Edward eyed the man dubiously a moment before stating in an utterly deadpan tone, "I desperately need you naked, Roy."

Roy gave a hum of consideration, before shaking his head. "No, you'd never admit desperation."

Edward couldn't help but slip a smile and a slight chuckle, giving a shake of his head as he motioned with his fingers once more for the clothes. "And this is the sort of argument you think would ever help win me to your bed?"

"You're already in my bed, Edward." Roy smirked at him fondly as he slowly stripped off his sweater – equal parts in care of his stitches and in wanting to give Edward a show.

Edward's fingers wrapped into the woolen sweater as it was laid across his hand, his gaze casting down onto it. "But not in the way you truly want. And even if I… your bed is still empty when all is said and done, Roy."

For all Roy could have told himself that he'd thought they were through with this argument already, that he'd already made it clear to Edward how he felt about such matters, deep down he knew that Edward would likely always have some lingering doubt. Some lingering regret. "Then let it be empty," and he didn't look away as Edward's gaze jerked back to his, "I'd rather it be empty with you, than full with anyone else."

Edward wasn't quite sure if that was the sweetest thing he'd ever heard, or the most ridiculous, but a sheltering warmth filled him all the same. "Roy, you…" and he cut himself off with a quick laugh and a shake of his head before holding out his other hand, "just hand over your trousers, you love-struck idiot."

That request was slightly more difficult to attain, given his current state of exhaustion, but it could never be said that he would not deliver when the one person he loved most in this world demanded he strip. By the time he managed it, the effort he'd expended doing so might have made him tremble, if not for the fact that he was genuinely too exhausted to do so. Yet he still managed to ask, "you want my briefs off, too?" with a suggestive smile, instead of a yawn.

"Sit down before you collapse, Roy." Edward told him sternly, but not unkindly, as he floated over to dump the dirtied clothes in the hamper. "I'll be collecting the rest of your clothes in the morning."

Roy felt that he'd rather lie down, to be quite honest, and did so as Edward made to return to his side. "Then I have time to rest and plan a perfect strip tease."

"Out of your underwear and socks?" Edward arched an amused eyebrow as he shook out Roy's side of the blanket and drew it up over the man. "I don't think my virgin sensibilities could take such a wildly sensual display as sock removal."

"You've never seen a man strip out of his socks until you've seen me strip out of mine, Edward Elric." Roy laughed despite the discomfort it caused, and raised his head when motioned so that Edward could fluff his pillow.

Edward snorted, "I'm fairly sure I've been privy to that before, and yet strangely enough I don't recall it being anything even close to erotic."

"After tomorrow, you'll never be able to look at me remove my socks without getting flustered." Roy promised him through a smirk before burrowing happily into the bed.

"Be still my heart. I'd always dreamed I'd have a man of impeccable sock strip tease skills trying to seduce me." Edward muttered dryly as he floated over to his side of the bed, intending to pick up his book again.

The laughter consumed Roy again for a brief while in which Edward settled onto the bed with his latest book, and after he'd managed to stave off the chuckling he tried to crane his head to see which one the ghost was reading this time. "Advanced metallurgy? Don't you already know everything in there?"

Edward chuckled quietly a moment, "I'm flattered that just because of who I am, and my whole Gate experience, you believe that I know everything." And he paused for a moment before smirking, "but yes, I do know everything in here already. Doesn't mean I don't still enjoy reading the books."

"How old were you when you started skiving off with your father's books and research?" Roy wondered as he carefully worked on adjusting himself so that he could lay on his side to better see the ghost.

"Much too young." Edward admitted frankly, casting him a lopsided smile. "Always felt it pulling to me though, alchemy. I guess now I understand why, what with my father not being exactly human. Not quite sure how Alphonse manages to resist the pull of it."

"Trauma can do that and more to a person." After all, Roy well remembered what had almost made him commit suicide.

"Yeah." Edward pursed his lips in thought before slowly shutting the book and looking over at Roy. "Do you keep an eye on him?"

Roy smiled faintly and curled his arm carefully underneath his head. "Of course. Don't worry, I'll tell you if he's ever anything but fine."

Edward nodded and eased himself down to lay as well, trying to keep Roy from straining his neck. "Thank you, for everything you've done for me. And him. Especially the stuff I still don't know about."

Roy quirked an eyebrow at that, and barely managed to keep from chuckling. "You believe I'm still hiding stuff from you regarding your brother?"

"Yes." Edward agreed without even needing to consider it. "Not on purpose, or because you don't want to tell me. But yes."

"I promise to always tell you if something major ever happens to him. But keeping an eye on people… that is who I am. It's how I've gotten as far as I have." Roy told him as he reached out with his other hand to lay it just through one of Edward's.

"You know," Edward began with a relaxed sigh of contentment, "time was I would have been angry about you keeping even the little things about his life from me, but now? I'm not sure what it is… but it's more than how much I trust you."

"I'm glad, I hate it when you're angry with me." Roy admitted with subdued honesty.

Edward chuckled quietly and scooted himself a bit closer across the bed, close enough that his folded knees nearly touched Roy's. "I don't like being angry with you, so it's a good thing you've only brought it out in me a few times."

"I've no doubt that I'll manage to do so again." Roy realized wryly, his face pulling into something of a grimace.

Edward couldn't help but laugh, silently agreeing.

They lay there together, conversation and laughter ebbing and flowing between them until well after darkness fell outside their bedroom window. At some point Hazel joined them, snuggling into the hollow formed between the respective pillows of Roy and Edward before falling asleep looking far too satisfied with himself.

Edward was smiling as he tilted his head to watch the sleeping rodent. "He rarely sleeps with us. Is he worried about you?"

"Probably." Roy admitted with a wry expression, "in his own strange, selfish way."

"He needs to go on a diet." Edward reached a hand up to poke through the slight swell of the squirrel's stomach. "He's been on an uncontrolled binge for a few days now."

Tilting his head back enough to glance at Hazel, Roy chuckled quietly and readjusted himself back to watching Edward. "He has to stock up, because once you run off with him he won't have a constant food source any longer."

"I could steal food." Edward argued, briefly entertaining the idea of just how he'd go about stealing the squirrel.

"I'd have denied that back before I saw you try and fracture Grand's skull with my coat rack. In that moment I truly began to realize that the ghost I'd adopted into my life wasn't wholly kind and gentle." But Roy did love that memory.

"You never gave me a reason to be unkind to you." Edward pointed out as he stopped watching Hazel, tilting his head back down to meet Roy's amused gaze. "You could have. But from the moment you realized I wasn't a hallucination, you..." he trailed off a moment, watching Roy closely as he reminisced, a certain sadness entering his eyes as his gaze drifted onto the bedspread between them, "you've treated me like I'm still alive. And I'm not sure you'll ever be able to understand how grateful I am to you for that."

Roy was silent for a long moment, choosing his words carefully before he even said them, and reaching his hand further up to brush at silvery intangible hair as he spoke. "It's because to me, you are alive. And clearly none of us, even the Gate, could have ever predicted your existence… and maybe 'ghost' is the closest we'll ever come to naming it, but I've seen death. I've caused it. But when I look at you? It's not death I see."

Edward had lifted his gaze back to Roy's midway through a speech that had made him feel if only for a fleeting moment, that he still had a beating heart. That it could stall, that the lungs he did not have could suddenly cease working… and how? How could Roy make him feel if even for an instant, that he was alive? "Roy…"

Roy smiled when all Edward could manage to do was stare at him, speechless, and with an expression that only warmed him inside. "Your free pass expired, you know. I'll believe you if you tell me you're in love with me."

"Will you." Edward whispered with a faint return smile, contentment stealing over him at the reminder. "I'll keep that in mind."

Roy huffed a quiet laugh but didn't press further, "what were we talking about?"

"Alphonse." Edward couldn't help but crack a grin at the fact that it had taken him far longer than it should have to come up with that answer. "Trauma and secrets and the strangeness of my fate."

"Well, you've a right to know who I've got keeping an eye on him." Roy refocused himself as he fought back a yawn. "My father had a lot of contacts, a lot of friends, in his line of work. Quite a few of them owed him favors. One such person happens to live only minutes outside the town Alphonse is in."

Initially, Edward was pleased to hear that his brother was under such close watch, until he reflected more on Roy's words with building confusion and a hint of suspicion. "Just what did your father do for a living? The way you put it makes him sound like an assassin."

"No, a schoolteacher." Roy revealed with a snort of laughter, and only smirked at Edward's confused expression. "The blame on how I made it sound lies entirely with me. I'm not sure my dad could have even shot a gun, much less killed someone."

"How exactly did your mother end up marrying a schoolteacher?" Edward couldn't help but pry in fascinated confusion. The woman he knew to be Roy's mother just seemed like she'd have found a schoolteacher far too tame to be of any romantic interest.

"She's never told me the details, only that they were both young and he had just moved to take a job at the local school." Roy admitted as an ember of regret lit inside him at the thought of his dad. "Sometimes I wonder how I'd have turned out, what I'd have become, if he hadn't died."

"Well I may have certainly had a more peaceful afterlife in a vineyard." Edward remarked dryly, and as he saw the hint of a yawn underneath the chuckle that made it out of Roy, he gave the man a firm look. "Time to sleep. You've another big day ahead of you."

"You are definitely worse than my mother." Roy grumbled good naturedly but closed his eyes, breathing in deeply for several long moments before saying wearily. "My mother won't be around forever… maybe when I'm old and have retired, and she's passed on, we can go there. To the vineyard. We'll both have peace there."

"I can see it," Edward told him in a soft, fondly amused voice. "You toddling along through the grapevines with your cane, me having to turn you back around because you keep getting lost."

Roy breathed out something akin to a laugh, his eyes flicking open with sleepy amusement to gaze at Edward. "I'll have a cane, will I?"

Edward hummed in agreement, before adding, "and glasses." He raised a hand towards Roy's face as if to trace them there, a thoughtful look on his face. "Definitely glasses."

"You just liked my father in glasses." Roy recalled suspiciously, before a devilish brightness sparked to life in his eyes and he offered teasingly, "I can always get them now if you'd like. Just some frames… I can ask Maes where he gets his… wait," and Roy's expression turned appalled, "do you think Maes is attractive?"

Edward burst into laughter.

"You do!"

"Roy, for the love of – oh stop," he insisted with more laughter as the man turned the most overdramatic look of emotional wounding on him that he'd ever witnessed, "both your father and Maes look good in glasses, they do. But I'm not attracted to Maes, and I'm certainly not attracted to your dead father either."

"Are you attracted to me?" Roy asked without hesitation, his expression having cleared to merely a simple smile.

Edward lost himself in Roy's gaze for a moment, before he turned away to lay on his back, blindly grasping for his abandoned book and upon finding it, flipping it back open. "Get some sleep, Roy." He insisted as steadily as he could against the conflict inside him.

Roy's smile flickered wider for all of a brief second before he closed his eyes again. As tempting as it was to pursue this, he knew when to stop. When to let Edward have time to his thoughts. "Good night."

After a time, Edward heard Roy's breaths even out into sleep.

Slowly he set his book down. He wasn't reading it anyway, couldn't focus on it. Instead he hovered up off the bed to set his book on his bedside table and get the lights. Once their bedroom was bathed in darkness he settled himself into sitting back on the bed.

Reaching out he grabbed his pillow, hugging it to him before leaning down to bury his face in it. He had come too close to the reality that Roy was mortal, that there were people out there who could hurt him. Yes, he'd always known that there were, he'd always known Roy was mortal, but knowing was wholly different from the fear that had gripped him that afternoon as reality slammed in harshly.

It didn't matter that he believed that they'd not be parted, even with Roy's eventual death. That they'd been brought together to stay together. Strangely, in the scope of all the fear, it didn't matter. Because right now, Roy was alive… and he valued that life.

He valued the life of this brave and ridiculous man who had charmed him from the start, who had fallen in love with him unconditionally. A man who meant the world to him, who he had never wanted to be without.

How long had he spent questioning how he felt for Roy? How what he felt meant?

When really he should have known all along.

Fear of losing Roy hadn't made him choose anything, but it had made him realize something instead that he'd been blind to for a long time.

"Get better, you idiot." Edward whispered at last with something of a bittersweet smile.

After a time, Edward laid back down on the bed, curling himself around his pillow to help prop up the book he had been reading. Yet as the hours passed by, no pages turned, and Edward continued to stare hypnotized out the window, lost in his own thoughts and in the dance of memories.

The night passed by in welcome quietness, only to be broken come morning when the first dawn light began to encroach onto the bedspread.

Edward watched with a faint smile, hugging his pillow to him as he hovered slightly off the bed, as Hazel stirred awake and focused in on the still-slumbering Roy with a keen gleam in his rodent eyes. Making himself comfortable, he settled in to watch the squirrel begin the process of waking Roy.

Hazel began by scurrying underneath Roy's chin, twitching his tail just behind the man's ear.

Roy squirmed with a low noise of discontent, his nose wrinkling at the ticklish feeling.

Hazel chittered devilishly and darted forward across his human's neck to stick his cold nose straight into Roy's ear.

Roy flailed awake under the covers with a hearty curse, swearing more under his breath and hissing in pain as his stitches pulled from his actions. "Hazel, so help me I will skin you for mittens!" He snarled blearily, blinking against the spots of pain in his eyes.

"He's far too small for a pair," Edward felt he should mention as he cast a concerned look on the man, "did you hurt yourself?"

Roy carefully extracted his unwounded arm from underneath the blanket and plucked Hazel up, only for the squirrel to twist out of his grip and wind his body around his forearm and begin nuzzling inquisitively at the inside of his wrist. "I don't think anything ripped." He reassured, and grimaced as he began to push himself up in bed, inspecting the series of stitches with a careful , but still sleepy eye. "I'm fine."

Edward smiled softly and gave a barely perceptible nod, his own eyes tracking over the lines of black stitches against the pale white of Roy's skin and was pleased to see no blood or redness of infection. "I'm glad they look so good."

"I might actually be able to remove them sooner than I thought." Roy assessed, ignoring for the moment Hazel now licking at his wrist in order to trace careful touches along a relatively shallow wound on the side of his chest with his other hand.

Edward would be relieved for the day where they could bandage the gashes as normal, because he knew that a full recovery on that front would then be only days away. Yet there was something far more concerning to him, and he lifted his gaze back to Roy's face. "How are you feeling otherwise?"

"Better." Roy admitted with honesty as he sank into assessing his own body internally, and while he felt some lingering weariness, he actually was sure that it had more to do with being on bed rest for so long instead of up and moving about as he was accustomed to. There was such a thing as too much rest to make oneself still feel tired. Otherwise? He felt like himself again, he felt strong, and rather annoyed that he'd been on bed rest in the first place. "They're both going to suffer for this."

Edward didn't have to ask who, and he silently agreed. "We'll make sure of it."

Roy shared a look with Edward, and was unable to help still feeling worried about putting Edward in danger, but there was also relief that the ghost would stay beside him in this. Edward had probably saved his life in this latest confrontation – either by his direct help, or his medical aid afterwards.

"What?" Edward asked with a slight frown as Roy continued to look at him with an unreadable expression that nevertheless was making him feel absurdly self-conscious.

"Just… feeling grateful that my pride hasn't cost me you." Roy told him with a small smile, one almost apologetic.

Edward snorted at the idiocy of the idea, a smile quirking his lips as he shook his head briefly. "You'd have better luck trying to find an exorcist to attempt getting rid of me, than anything you could possibly manage on your own." And his gaze on Roy gentled, a content warmth settling inside him where his heart would have once been. "Come on, you should get ready for work."

"I think I'd sooner kill someone who was attempting to exorcise you." Roy stated quite firmly before turning to the task of extracting his arm from Hazel's grip. It wasn't something easily managed, but soon enough the squirrel was scampering off into the bathroom to destroy who only knew what.

Edward watched, as Roy carefully slipped out of the bed, before floating over to the recently vacated area of the bed to immediately track his gaze down Roy's leg to the stitches on his calf. "Good," he all but breathed out the word when he saw no sign of infection or tearing of the skin, "that one was bad."

"Hurt like a bitch, too." Roy added dryly, eyeing it as well before shifting his glance over to Edward deviously. "It's nice, having my strength and balance back."

The words were said in such a way that Edward became immediately suspicious, and he darted his gaze up to look at Roy narrowly.

"Oh no!" Roy declared with exuberance as he stared down at himself. "I forgot to remove my socks!"

Edward burst into uncontrollable laughter as he realized where this was going. "No!" He hadn't thought Roy would actually do this, he'd thought the man was just teasing him as usual!

"But I did." Roy informed him as nonchalantly as if he were describing the weather.

"You're going to fall on your ass." Edward tried to warn him around a grin he couldn't seem to get rid of, especially not when more laughter soon followed his words.

Roy snorted at the ludicrous statement and promptly kicked one socked foot back up on the bed, not too far from where Edward was sat, and leaning his forearms on his knee he fixed his attention on the amused ghost. "If you want me sprawled on the floor for you, all you have to do is ask."

Edward gaped at him wide-eyed, his laughter suddenly gone. Yet before he could find his voice, Roy had disentangled from his position in order to back up a few steps with far more swaying of the hips than Edward felt was entirely necessary but also wasn't about to complain about.

Roy didn't give Edward any time to recover himself, instead he sashayed back towards the bed with deliberately prowling steps as his hands trailed down his hips and to the outside of his thighs, coming within one pace of the bed before kicking his right leg up to land his foot right next to Edward.

Edward couldn't help but be overcome with sheer giggles as he watched Roy flex forward to slip his hands down to where his sock began, only to shoot them back up to his knee as he raised momentarily from his prone position. "I can't believe you are seriously doing this."

"I promised a sock strip tease, and that is precisely what you are getting." Roy informed him through a grin, barely keeping hold of his own laughter as he bent back over his leg again to finally hook his fingers in the cuff of the sock and swiftly hook the cuff down underneath the heel of his foot. Then sliding one hand down further he pinched the material at the toe of the sock between his fingers and promptly whipped it off with a successful, smug twirl of the sock which soon flew behind him to land on the floor.

Edward clapped his hands, smirking through his continued quiet laughter. "Very nice." And then jumped as Roy suddenly spun to sit right next to him, falling backwards until the man's shoulders were almost touching the bedspread, and kicking his left leg and its still socked foot up into the air jauntily while all the while looking at him with devilish enjoyment as he ran his hands up his other calf.

Roy was careful to avoid the stitches on his calf, careful not to strain any of his other stitches as he bent his leg back towards him just enough that he was able to catch the cuff of the sock in his fingers. Bending his knee he was able to hook the cuff of the sock down around his heel all the while watching Edward with wicked amusement. He twitched the material up and down his foot a moment before whipping it off with both hands only to immediately fling it back behind him with a flippant twirl.

Then he was kicking his leg back upwards then down, as much for the effect as to get him leverage and speed in getting back to his feet.

Edward's laughter had subsided into a fond smile, and he shook his head in amusement as Roy turned back towards him.

"I can't shower with these on either." Roy grinned coyly as he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his briefs.

"Oh no!" Edward protested through another quick burst of laughter, that only doubled as Roy twisted the fabric this way and that with teasing movements that only enhanced what those briefs were failing to leave to the imagination.

"You're right, I can't." Roy chuckled and dipped the waistband a slight amount, just enough to watch Edward bury his face in his hands in renewed laughter.

"Oh, are you going to pretend not to peek?" Roy teased.

"I've already seen what you have to offer." Edward reminded him, lowering his hands to give the man as best a reproachful look as he could when he was smiling.

Roy chuckled and drew his hands away only to walk back up to Edward, and leaned down, placing his hands on either side of the ghost's knees to bring them face to face. "And?"

Edward's smile softened, "and you hardly need me to feed your ego, Roy Mustang."

Roy drew back and shooting Edward a knowing look and brief smile, turned to begin walking towards the bathroom. "You can join me if you like."

Edward watched him disappear with a faint smile still on his face, and he waited until he heard the water turn on before he drifted up off the bed and floated slowly towards the bathroom doorway. He didn't go in though, hesitating there beside it until he heard the deluge of the shower break against the entry of a body. Only then did he dare float forward to come to rest against the doorframe, his smile gone as instead his thoughts took a wistful turn as he watched the vague form of Roy from behind the shower curtain.

His hand against the doorframe curled into a fist as he bowed his head with a silent curse and pushed away.

From behind the curtain, Roy watched out of the corner of his eye as Edward left, and cast his gaze down as he tried to squash the disappointment in his chest.

Edward had made it two steps out their bedroom door before he stopped, whipping around to gaze back into the bedroom with a torn expression. He stood there motionless for several long moments in which his mind raced and an emotion almost like panic settled inside him, and glancing once towards the stairs behind him, he shook his head with another curse.

He walked back into the bedroom before he'd even registered moving in the first place.

He let his gaze drift once towards the open bathroom door, and Roy beyond it a vague shape behind the shower curtain. A small smile slipped onto his face, and mind made up, he went to sit back on the bed.

After a while the shower turned off, and soon enough Roy reentered their bedroom, giving him a surprised look he couldn't quite discern before turning to go to the closet. He waited until Roy had at least put on his uniform trousers before speaking.

"How long have you known?"

Roy stopped dead in his reach for a shirt, his fingers curling in on air as his heart quickened at the question. A question they both knew he couldn't wouldn't play dumb to… this was too important to them, and the only thing between them such a question could reference. "For certain? Not long."

"I'm sorry." Edward whispered, and when Roy abruptly turned to him he held up a hasty hand as he floated up off the bed to hurry to the floor. "No, it's not – I just – I'm sorry I've put you through this."

"You've not put me through anything," Roy denied as he slowly walked up to where Edward had landed on the floor halfway between he and the bed, "loving you is not a trial. Trying not to love you? That was a trial. That was the hardest thing I've ever done."

Edward bowed his head a moment before stepping forward to close the last of the remaining distance that Roy had left between them, and lifted his gaze to Roy's once more. "I didn't realize until last night." He admitted quietly into the small space still between them, "and I spent most of the night debating when to tell you. Whether or not I should wait for some perfect moment to come along... but they don't exist, do they."

Roy gave him a lopsided smile, "no. No, they don't. We make them perfect."

Edward laughed quietly and glanced aside towards the floor. "Yes, I suppose we do." And a grin split his face as he shook his head at his own ridiculousness. "I know this doesn't make sense, but this is actually absurdly difficult when you're not wearing a shirt."

Roy burst into laughter, "I'll take that as a compliment!" And holding up a finger to Edward he began to move backwards. "Okay, stay there."

Edward couldn't help but echo Roy's laughter and shaking his head he looked back to watch the man rifle through his closet. "That white one," he offered out as he saw Roy's hand about to graze that hanger next.

Roy cast a devilishly coy look over his shoulder at the suggestion, and slipped the thin white sweater free of the hanger. "And this shirt will make it easier, will it?" He asked as he began to shrug it on.

"Shut up, Roy." Edward chuckled through his wide grin.

Roy sent him a teasing look, and if he adjusted the sleeves so that his muscles filled them out rather nicer than before, he couldn't really be blamed. That done, he walked back over to where Edward was waiting where he'd been told to wait, an amused smile now on the ghost's face and laughter glittering in those silver eyes.

Edward swept an appraising, appreciative eye over him before deciding that Roy was right, the shirt really didn't help all that much. Roy was still unfairly distracting. Yet despite that, he still stepped forward to rest his hands just slightly through the man's chest as he bowed his head. "For a long time I've kept telling you that you have me." And after a moment's hesitation lifted his gaze back to Roy's eyes as he continued softly, "that I'm yours. You're everything to me, everything that makes me feel as if my heart might beat again just one last time. I've never wanted to be without you. And I'm just sorry it took me so long to truly understand why."

"It wasn't a simple process for me either." Roy couldn't help but remind Edward gently and with a fond smile as he reached his hands up to rest them just over where Edward's hands against him would be, just enough to mute their silvery glow.

Edward huffed out a short laugh and shook his head at the memory of all the uncertain torment he'd undergone while Roy had been, unknown to him, figuring out his own feelings. Still when he caught Roy's gaze again, it was with a hopelessly affectionate look. "You're the most ridiculous, wonderful man I've ever known... and I love you."

Roy's grin was blinding, and he couldn't help but chuckle at Edward's answering but somewhat shyer smile. "Say it again."

"What?" Edward fairly squawked at the question indignantly, "granted I've never done this before but I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to hear something a bit more romantic than 'say it again' after confessing that I love you."

"You said it again." Roy couldn't help but state smugly, and as Edward shot him a dirty look he laughed but caved instantly as he suddenly wrapped his arms around Edward as best as he was able to approximate, and resting his hand in the air where Edward's head was, he continued softly. "I love you, Edward."

Edward couldn't help but close his eyes in amused resignation at the sheer way Roy made him want to clobber the man sometimes, but he was smiling as he let himself believe he could feel Roy's arms around him. "I love you too."