Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, or any related characters.

Author's Note:

Do people even write disclaimers anymore? I'm out of touch ^^'

In any case! This fic will have all the spoilers for FMA and FMAB (I will be using mainly Brotherhood as a base, with touches of the 2003 anime for filler-based plot.

Due to the nature of the story I am writing, a lot of chapters will be quite short. I'm going to be way more concerned with format than word count, so I apologize in advance if you're a fan of longer chapters. The bright side is short chapters take less time to write, so I can get more out in a timely fashion. Besides, I think once the fic gets going y'all will see why I chose to go with this.

I hope you enjoy!

Why was it, Edward wondered, that attics had to be so dusty?

Objectively, it made sense. People store things in attics then forget them, no one cleans the space for ages, and dust builds up. Blah, blah, logic. But Ed, sniffling against yet another sneeze, didn't care about the logic of it; he just cared that it was annoying.

He'd been on a mission for a while, now, to clean Roy's house. Check that; their house. The thought still put a smile on his face, even though he'd moved in nearly six months ago, now. Ed just couldn't believe where his life had brought him. From a childhood crush, through all the turmoil, to living with the love of his life. Roy Mustang.

Of course, everyone had faults, and one of Roy's was that he was not a tidy man. Edward had been quite shocked when he'd first moved into the modest home; belongings were strewn everywhere, with no method of organization in sight. As time had gone on, Ed discovered Roy had no motivation to fix that, and so it fell to him. Honestly, Edward hadn't minded; there was a certain satisfaction to be had in giving everything a good cleaning and finding a spot for every knick-knack. He'd been able to maintain a fairly positive attitude during his efforts…

Until the attic. Roy hadn't lived in this house for long, having only bought it after his promotion to General. And yet he'd somehow managed to acquire so much stuff, which Ed was now sorting through.

It seemed hopeless, and that was no doubt why Roy had just let everything accumulate, but Edward was strong-willed. If he said he was going to clean the attic, dammit, that was what he was going to do. Really, the hardest part was figuring out where to start. After a few minutes (and many dusty sneezes), Ed decided the easiest thing to do would be to begin with anything he knew for sure he could throw out. This included anything broken—for example, a cracked hand mirror. Why did Roy even have a hand mirror? Sure, if Ed presented it to his partner, he could fix it with alchemy…but really, it was obviously unneeded if it was in the attic, and it just wasn't worth the effort.

After collecting the broken bits and bobs in a bag, Edward moved on to other garbage. Loose buttons they had no use for, old shoeboxes, miscellaneous screws (Winry would have had a heart attack), and the like. Ed quickly lost himself in his work, next targeting a stack of papers on an old desk. Probably Roy's old grocery lists or something.

So sure was he that they were junk that Edward didn't even read the papers before tossing them—until his name jumped out at him as he shoveled them into the bag.

"'Dear Edward…'" he read aloud, surprised by the words. Ed scanned the document quickly, realizing with some surprise that it was a letter from Roy. Not one that he'd ever read; in fact, it seemed to date back to when they were both in the military…

The letter sparked something familiar in Edward. Looking into his bag, Ed grabbed out the papers he'd already tossed, gathering them in a small pile. And then, rather unlike himself, he abandoned his task. Instead, Edward took the stack in hand and retreated back down the attic hatch, off to find some papers of his own…

It was many hours later that Roy finally arrived home, hours that Edward had spent in agony trying his utmost to not even look at the letters he'd discovered. If they were anything like the ones he'd snagged from his own belongings (they'd all been wrapped in an old coat and placed on a closet shelf), he didn't want to read them without Roy's permission. So when the door to their home opened, Ed was waiting on the couch, two stacks of papers at the ready. Needless to say, Roy was fairly confused.

"Hey, Ed—um…is everything alright?" Roy cocked his head to the side, one eyebrow raised in a question of it's own. As he frequently found himself, Edward was struck by how attractive his partner was. Even being fourteen years his senior, Roy looked good. Great. But Ed was getting distracted.

"I was cleaning the attic today," he began in explanation, as the other man placed his coat on a hook and removed his boots. "And I found some letters addressed to me. But I've never read them…I wanted to ask about them."

Still looking befuddled, Roy walked over and sat on the couch next to Edward, kissing his cheek in greeting before examining a sheet of paper Ed handed him. As he read through his own words, understanding and recognition dawned in Roy's eyes. "Oh, I remember these! This is a little…embarrassing." An awkward chuckle escaped his mouth. "I, ah…I used to write you letters. Obviously, I didn't send them. It started basically from the moment I met you…somehow, writing to you felt sort of therapeutic, even if you never read what I wrote. There were quite a few…"

Normally, this sort of admission would have garnered some ribbing from Edward, but in this case he had no room to talk. "I guessed it was something like that, to be honest."

Roy's gaze snapped upwards from the words of the past to meet Ed's eyes. "You didn't read these, did you? It's…ugh, I don't even want to think what I said…"

"No, I didn't read them," Edward reassured him. "Actually…" Now it was his turn to be embarrassed. A blush crept across Ed's cheeks, but he tried to speak normally despite the heat in his face. "I did the same thing, if you can believe it. And I still have all of mine."

A spark of mischievous curiosity lit Roy's dark eyes, and in a flash he'd dropped his letter in favor of one that he pulled off of Ed's pile. A "Hey!" of protest did nothing to halt his actions.

"'Colonel…Did you really mean to give me hope?'" Roy read, immediately finding cause for complaint. "Not even a 'Dear Mustang,' huh? At least I was nice in mine…"

"I was nice in mine!" Edward protested, snatching the letter back. "Well, at least later…" Again with the infernal blushing! It was a response that Roy alone seemed to be able to trigger, and it irritated Ed to no end. "Listen, I was thinking…it might be interesting to read them. Each other's, I mean. I'm curious about what you wrote to me, and…I think I want you to read mine as well. If you can be civil," he added quickly.

Now Roy's expression had turned from teasing to tender, and it made Ed want to melt. "Are you sure? I mean, I don't really mind if you read mine…"

The faintest smile played across Edward's mouth, anxiety and excitement warring. He was so curious, but he was sure he'd written some truly cringe worthy things. Still, what was a relationship if you couldn't be open and honest with each other? "Come on, then, there's a lot to read through."

And the two settled in, switching stacks of paper, hurtling into their past together…