When Roy awoke, it was to the distant sounds of stifled coughs and crinkling paper.
It took him an embarrassing amount of time to gather his bearings and realize just where he was and what was happening, but after a few moments, the memories of stale cigarette smoke and a small bundle of blond hair and military jackets came flooding back.
Right, he had brought Edward home- or rather, Havoc had brought Edward home and Roy had blindly followed, proceeding to dump himself haphazardly onto his greatly missed recliner, seemingly falling asleep before his head even hit the back of the chair. Still, he could feel the weight of his nap, and it was certainly the best one he'd had in years.
With great effort, he managed to crack his eyes open, welcoming the subdued golden light filtering in through the window. He scanned his body lazily, but was greatly surprised with the sight he was met with.
He was of course expecting his wrinkled and missed uniform, he was not, however, expecting it to be littered with dozens of paper cranes of varying sizes, each one patterned with skewed lines of text. His gaze travelled along his torso, stopping at the sight of Edward, sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table with his legs crossed, somehow in the process of folding another origami crane with only one hand, the other wrapped loosely around his torso, which would be undeniably sore by now without any medicine in his system.
He wore a slightly pinched expression as he folded the last few finishing touches of the bird, looking at it for a moment in silent approval before reaching up to place it on Roy with the others, stopping abruptly when he saw the man's eyes on him. His eyes went wide for a moment in surprise, before narrowing again in what appeared to be annoyance.
"About time," He muttered, placing the crane on Roy's knee. "I would've thought you were dead if it wasn't for your snoring. Tell me, isn't it tiring sawing all those logs?"
Roy just gave a gentle roll of his eyes before pushing down on the extended footrest of the recliner, bringing himself into a sitting position. The second he moved, a shower of paper cranes came crashing down from everywhere around him, several even falling from their place perched atop his head. Roy just blinked owlishly, trying desperately to process what had just happened with his head still so muddled with sleep. Edward must have noticed his conflict, as a smug smirk began to grow on his face as he watched the man with amusement.
"It gets pretty boring watching someone sleep." He explained with a shrug, as if that was enough to explain why Roy suddenly found himself swimming in a pile of paper birds.
Too tired to protest, he simply sighed, giving a weary shake of his head as he sat up straighter in his chair, stretching so deeply he began to see little white flecks sparking before his vision.
Brushing off the rest of the origami that hadn't fallen to the ground, he took a moment to admire how well made they were- he had heard that paper cranes were quite difficult to make, and the only other person he knew who could make them was Falman. Who knew Fullmetal was into paper crafts? He was about to say as much, before something interesting caught his eye. Squinting a little and bringing the crane a little closer, he began to make out the familiar print of a military document.
Military documents? What was Edward doing with a bunch of military paperwork-
Wait...
Taking a look at the coffee table where Ed was working, he noticed the opened folder and the scattered remains of his assigned paperwork that he had planned on finishing later on, now having all suffered the terrible demise of being contorted into paper animals.
A flash of piercing brown eyes and the sound of a cocking gun echoed in his mind.
He wouldn't to live to see tomorrow.
"Edward!" He exclaimed breathily, quickly unfolding one of the cranes to find that it was entirely unsalvagable. "T-this is my paperwork!"
Ed just smirked, having the audacity to feign ignorance as he gave an unconvincing surprised look at the leaf of paper.
"Is it really? Gee, I'm so sorry, Mustang! How silly of me to not notice."
Scratch that, it was Edward who wouldn't live to see tomorrow.
If he was going to go down, he'd sure as hell be taking the brat down with him.
"You are so lucky you're hurt or you'd have my hands around your neck right now." He grumbled, scooping up the mess of folded paper into his arms to place on the coffee table, deciding it wasn't even worth it to unfurl the rest of them if they would be crumpled and wrinkled anyway.
He had no choice, he would be forced to retrieve the copies from Hawkeye. That is, if she didn't blow his head off first.
With a sigh, he dumped the ruined paperwork into a nearby box for later.
"What time is it?" He murmured, rubbing the heel of his palm against his face in attempts to bring himself down from the heights of drowsiness.
Ed shrugged, wrapping his arm further around himself and letting his eyes droop shut.
"I don't know, I think your clock's a little slow but I'm pretty sure it's around 6:30." He sighed, painstakingly getting himself off of the floor and onto the couch. He shifted in discomfort and began hugging himself tighter, his eyes still closed.
Roy frowned in sympathy. Ed had gone several hours with no pain medication at all, and the morphine was surely completely out of his system by then, so he was feeling the full brunt of the surgery as well as the infection.
"Shit, Ed, I'm sorry. You should have woken me earlier so I could give you your medicine." He said, hurriedly digging in his pocket to retrieve the bottle of pills the doctor had prescribed.
Ed just rolled his eyes.
"You needed to sleep, moron. You looked dead on your feet." He scoffed, but without the usual venom behind it- watching with vague interest as Roy deposited a couple white pills into the palm of his hand. "Besides, I feel fine." He protested, though his pallid skin and hollow eyes begged to differ.
Roy practically threw the meds into the boy's hand before darting towards the kitchen, returning moments later with a tall glass of water.
"Next time, just wake me up, kid." He told him, handing him the glass. "I won't mind, and if I really need to, I can go back to sleep after."
Ed took a few large sips in order to swallow the pills, pausing momentarily before downing the rest- all the while side-eyeing Roy almost apprehensively.
Wiping the excess moisture from his face, he opened his mouth to speak.
"Why do you keep doing that?"
Roy just blinked at the boy.
"Doing what?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow while pushing Ed gently against the shoulder to lie down before tossing his blanket back over him.
"That!" He exclaimed, eyes widening. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
Roy stopped in the middle of tucking the blanket around the boy to look at him with a twinge of alarm sparking in the pit of his stomach.
"Is that really so unusual?" He asked, a little worried for the answer.
Ed's eyebrows shot to his forehead, giving a quick jerk of his head in shock.
"Um, yes?" He asserted. "You literally hate me, or at least you used to. I don't know what's happened since then."
Roy felt a wave of disappointment come over him, not disappointed in Ed, but in himself. Had he really been so awful to the boy so as to make him think he hated him?
"Ed, I'm sorry if I ever made you think that. I don't hate you and I never have. I really care about you and your brother, and I'm sorry I made you think otherwise." He said honestly, watching as a slurry of confusion plagued relief washed over Ed's expression. He could see the conflict in his eyes, only strengthening his regret. "Listen, I have to get back to the office before Hawkeye goes home for the night so I can get the copies of my paperwork," He said, shooting Ed a look. "But I'll send Maes over to watch you while I'm gone. I won't be long, okay? We'll talk about this more when I get back."
Ed contorted his face in such a way that Roy could almost hear him yelling his protests about not needing a baby sitter. Roy sighed, allowing the edges of his mouth to quirk up just the slightest bit.
"I know, I know. But I don't want to leave you alone when you've just had major surgery and are sick on top of that." He reasoned, picking up the box filled with his paperwork- if he could even call it paperwork anymore. "I promise, I'll be back soon."
The Lieutenant was in fact- as suspected, not impressed with Roy's sudden need for the extra paperwork copies.
"What have you done with them this time, Colonel?" She asked with a sigh, digging through a nearby filing cabinet for the documents.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." He said, an exasperated edge to his voice. "I had to bring evidence." He added, gesturing to the box in his arms.
At that, Riza stopped her rifling, looking at Roy with a raised brow.
He just sighed, upturning the box and dumping it's contents onto her desk.
It was silent for a few moments after that, everyone in the office stopping to stare at the assorted paper cranes that suddenly littered Hawkeye's desk.
"Ed turned all of my paperwork into paper cranes while I was asleep." He announced, letting the now empty box fall back down to his side.
Barely stifled chuckles sounding suspiciously like Havoc and Breda began to ebb through the room, while Riza continued to stare at Ed's creations, a dumbfounded look on her face.
Then, a slowly growing smile began to grow on her face, then she began to giggle, and eventually, the whole office erupted into peals of laughter, everyone joining in on the entirely welcomed mirth.
Even Roy, tired as he was, found himself smiling larger than he had in a good long time. It was refreshing, and he only wished Ed was there as well to share the joy he had created.
He found himself not even minding the ruined paperwork anymore- in fact, he was convinced it hadn't been ruined at all in the first place.
Riza, still doubled over slightly with laughter, wiped at her leaking eyes, taking a few settling breaths.
"Okay, sir. I think I can let you off the hook, just this once."
He smiled, taking the paperwork from her outstretched hands with a grateful nod. He turned to leave, but paused- taking one of the paper cranes and making sure no one was looking before tucking it into his pocket.
No one had to know just how much that little brat meant to him.