A/N: Ok, I feel there is a need for mea cuplas here. This chapter is fairly fluffy, plus there's this weird sort of pseudo-smut at the end (I call it that because I couldn't write smut if I tried, so I don't try. I go with what I'm good at - which is being a sap). But I feel like, since I'm a little mean to the boys in the next chapter, now might be a good time to stop and feel the fluff. So, for all those that are getting antsy about the slow-dragging plot, I promise you will not be disappointed in Ch 6, but please enjoy Ch 5 in the meantime! Think of it like getting stuck on hold, but having actually cool hold music to listen to (our IT dept had the Jurassic Park theme music. I nearly died laughing).

Also of note, is that the good reviews keep cropping up and honestly I got so happy I feared imminent head explosion. I can't thank you guys enough, sincerely. I was smiling so much my face started hurting, so I watched a couple ASPCA commercials and solved that pesky smiling problem (even my favorite tattoo artist cries over those, ugh - I have to hug my kitties every time i see those things; in fact, I think I'll go hug them now).

Same disclaimer applies, I don't own FMA or any of the characters therein. Would be nice *sigh* but still not mine anymore than they were in the last chapter.

Chapter 5

The Temple of Ed

It was Friday and Roy's focus was completely shot. Ed had been so busy over the last couple days that he'd hardly said two words to Roy – though, Roy comforted himself with the fact that Ed had actually made the effort to speak to him in the first place. It was obvious that Ed wasn't specifically being antisocial. He was just swamped, a state Roy was all too familiar with.

Roy was just reading the same line of data for the third time when he was startled out of his useless attempt to work by the phone on his desk ringing. All of the labs had a landline phone so that they'd have access to the intercom in case of emergencies and also so the cell phone free zones could still be reached by the outside world. But, since Roy's lab wasn't a cell phone free zone, they never used to landline and on the rare occasions that it actually rang, it invariably startled the crap out of them.

"Mustang," Roy answered, forcing his pounding heart to slow down.

"Hey," said Ed, his voice oddly echoing a bit. "Um, I know you guys are probably busy or whatever, but does anybody in there have a free pair of hands? I mean, I hate to ask, and if nobody's available, that's totally fine."

"Don't worry about it. It's fine," said Roy, amused and a little pleased that Ed had actually taken the initiative to call Rod refused to even admit he needed help in the first place. "Fuery's basically just twiddling his thumbs right now. I'll send him up."

"Thanks! You're a saint! You know that? A sai – ow, god damn it!" The phone hung up abruptly and Roy chuckled to himself.

"Hey, Kain, Ed just called. He says he needs a free pair of hands. Interested?" Not only was Fuery interested, his eyes lit up as soon as the question was out of Roy's mouth. Fuery really did think Ed hung the moon. "He's on the second floor, last door on the right. When you get up there, let him know we're ordering pizza in a couple hours. If he wants some we can order him one too."

"Will do!" said Fuery cheerfully as he all but jumped up and dashed off toward the elevator. When the time came to order the pizza, it was Fuery that answered Ed's phone.

"Does Ed want pizza?" asked Roy.

"Yo, Ed, you want pizza?" called Fuery.

"Do whores want condoms? Hells yeah I want pizza!" Roy heard in the background and both he and Fuery laughed. "Where's it coming from?"

"Tell him it's Jimmy's down the road," replied Roy before Fuery had a chance to repeat the question.

"Ask them for an Elric special. They'll know what to do," Ed called out once Fuery had conveyed the information.

After Fuery hung up, Roy called the pizza place. Jimmy's was a favorite of the Central University students, because the pizza was cheap but tasty and it was one of the few places that delivered to the dorms and labs. The only catch was that if pizza was ordered for the labs, somebody had to go out front to wait for it, because only those with clearance and a lab ID were allowed past the security desk – which, of course, did not include pizza delivery drivers.

While Roy was on the phone with Jimmy's, he had to fight hard not to chortle at the pizza girl who was taking his order. When he'd asked for an "Elric Special", she'd immediately begun to sound a little stressed and actually let out a couple baby swear words. He could even hear some cursing in the background, as if other employees had heard her repeating the order and had begun to worry. It was actually kind of cute listening to the poor flustered girl try to continue being polite while shushing her coworkers.

"Hey, miss, out of curiosity, what's on the Elric Special?" asked Roy, and he swore he could hear the girl shudder.

"Sir, I don't know all of it. Only the manager knows. But I can tell you there's at least all of the meats including anchovies plus onions, mushrooms, black olives and green olives, every type pepper – are those pickles? OMG I think I'm gonna barf – and something I think might be ranch dressing mixed with hot sauce, but I can't say for sure," she told him tiredly, and Roy winced in sympathy. He could feel a hole burning straight through his stomach just listening to the description. "Oh, and D.J. said there's some kind of garlic lime sauce, but I didn't even know we had limes."

"I think I've heard enough to traumatize me already," said Roy, offering her the benefit of his sympathy. He finished giving her his order and hung up, shaking his head to himself. Ed was really such an odd character.

As soon as the pizza arrived, Roy carried Ed's ER-visit-in-a-box upstairs to him, along with Fuery's much more modest pizza. When he got to the lab, however, he saw no sign of Ed – he even checked the floor this time. "Where's Ed?" Roy asked Fuery, but his friend just giggled and pointed toward the machine.

No sooner had Fuery pointed, when Ed's voice carried to them from within the machine. "Do I smell pizza?" Suddenly a panel on the top of the machine opened, revealing Ed's tousled head poking out. He had sweat on his brow and grease smudged on one cheek and across his nose, his golden hair a tangled lion's main around his head. He had never been more adorable. "Hey, give me a second. I'll be right out." The panel closed, and Roy half expected to see Ed climb out of the top panel somehow. So, when Ed's feet suddenly poked out of another panel at the bottom front of the machine, Roy was a little startled. Ed slid out as smoothly as an eel then flipped up to his feet. Roy held his box of instant stomach ulcer out to him, and Ed took it with eyes glittering in anticipation. "I'll have to make sure to save some for Al or he'll be so jealous. I wouldn't put it past that evil little shit to withhold breakfast for revenge. And I can't go through a whole fucking day without Al's pancakes. I might actually die."

"How you don't weigh 500lbs is a mystery for the ages," said Roy, deeply disturbed when he finally saw the mysterious pizza. However, Ed's lilting groan of pleasure when he took his first bite made it well worth witnessing the horror hidden in the pizza box. That sound was downright pornographic. "I'm also pretty sure we should put crime scene tape around that pizza – and maybe call in a Hazmat team or the CDC or something."

Ed just made a mocking face at him, wrinkling his nose. "You don't know what you're missing, and I'm not sharing so you'll just have to keep on missing it." He pulled out his wallet with his free hand and handed Roy enough money to cover the horrendous pizza plus a little of the tip. Roy tried to wave him off, but Ed insisted.

"So, when I heard you talking from inside the machine, I started flashing back to the third Terminator movie and possibly Maximum Overdrive. I wondered if that huge monster had eaten you," said Roy, hitching one hip up on Ed's desk and stealing a piece of Fuery's pizza – it's not like he was going to finish it anyway. "What on Earth were you doing in there?"

"I finally got the parts I was waiting for," said Ed around his most recent bite. "I should be able to solve the cooling system issue now, so the stupid fucking beast won't piss condensation all over my floor nonstop."

"I'm glad. That means I won't have to come in and find you lying on the floor anymore," said Roy, genuinely relieved. "I seriously worry that I'll come up here one day and find you with blood pouring out of your cracked skull."

Ed looked at him for a long moment, his head cocked to the side as if analyzing something strange. "You know, nice people worry me, exactly because they're fucking nice," he said offhandedly. "Most people who are nice are either working an angle or are doomed to get hurt."

"Yeah, but you already know I'm working an angle, remember?" pointed out Roy cavalierly. "I'm still trudging the long and weary road toward getting into your pants." Fuery promptly choked on his pizza, and Ed let out a wonderful belly laugh. "Speaking of which, any idea where you might like to go tomorrow evening? I do have a place I'd like to take you, but if there's somewhere else you'd rather go, I'm fine with that too."

"You mentioned a restaurant, so we can do that first, but afterwards, I have some place I wouldn't mind taking you," said Ed with a return of that sly, sultry smile.

"Sounds good," said Roy, unable to keep the grin from his face. "I'll be around for a while tonight, so if you need anything, call."

"Speaking of needing something," said Ed, picking up another piece of pizza. "Fuery tells me you guys are having issues with an equation or something. He said something about a flaw, and now you guys have to backtrack and start from scratch because you can't find the flaw. But, you know, if you want, I mean you don't have to because, you know, it's none of my business, but I could, you know, um, come take a look . . . maybe. I wouldn't mind really. It'll give me a chance to stretch my legs."

"Actually, that would be fantastic!" said Roy with enthusiasm. "I really, really, really don't want to have to start all over again. In fact, I was dreading it. We all were. Like, about-to-pour-lemon-juice-on-a-gaping-chest-wound dreading."

"No kidding," snorted Fuery.

"But I know how busy you are, so if it looks like it'll take too long to get it figured out, don't worry about it," admonished Roy. "I don't want to throw your work off schedule because ours hit a snag."

"Nah, it's not that often I get to put this big fucking brain to use helping out people directly," said Ed, all at once shy. "In high school, people thought me and Al were looking down on them when we tried to help, or they'd get jealous or resentful. The worst was when they tried to cozy up to us just to use us. Very not cool. A lot of the fights I got into in school were because of bullshit like that. Al was too fucking trusting. He wanted to see the good in people. It's fucking admirable as hell, but it makes protecting him from assholes a whole lot fucking harder. He's learned some caution since then, and so have I. But, my gut tells me you guys are all right, so I'll help out if I can. Just promise me one thing."

"Sure, anything," said Roy, deeply touched by the admission of trust.

"Just . . . even if I end up helping out, don't credit me for it," said Ed with a sort of wince. "If you put my name anywhere near it, people will try to give me all the credit. That's not right and I don't like it. So, yeah . . . that's it, just promise me to keep my name out."

"No problem," said Roy, taken aback by the request. In typical Ed fashion, it wasn't at all what he'd expected. "Mums the word. Really, I think we'd sell our first born for a solution at this point. You could have asked for the moon, and we'd throw it a box with a bow on it."

Ed chuckled and got to his feet, brushing off his hands then grabbing what looked like a moist towelette out of his pocket. He used it to clean away as much of the grease as he could, but since he couldn't see what was on his face, Roy made sure to stop him. He took the little wet-nap from Ed and gently removed the smudges from the blonde's nose and cheek then handed it back and just as gently smoothed his hair. "Better," said Roy, satisfied – especially since it made Ed blush so fetchingly.

Ed blew into Roy's lab like a summer storm. He said little, just looking at the white board quizzically for a moment then looking around until he found the printout of the data on Roy's desk. Ed's eyes scanned all that data incredibly fast then returned to the white board. He erased several lines and a few smaller sections and wrote in corrections. Roy and his team could only stare, entirely awestruck. It was astonishing. A problem an entire team couldn't solve after two weeks of toil, Ed figured out in a matter of minutes.

"All right, the problem is with the original algorithm as much as the equations," he announced when he was done. "The changes in the order of the sequences of equations should produce cleaner data, but you'll have to run it to be sure. Also, I would expand on this algorithm a bit, if I were you. See if we add another expression here at the end . . ." He flipped the white board and began writing on the blank side. "Then you can include several variables that weren't being accounted for. Think of it as a safety net." He gave them broad a grin and a cheerful wave. "If you have any questions you know where to find me."

"I have a question," interjected Breda before Ed could quite make it out the door. Ed stopped and turned to look at him. "Where can we build our temple to you, and how big would you like it? I'm thinking Parthenon style, but I'm flexible."

Ed laughed, the musical sound filling the room and swelling their hearts. "No temple necessary, but I do accept offerings of good coffee and sweets when available."

"Good coffee. Sweets. Roger that boss," said Breda and Ed laughed again before vanishing back to his lab. Truly like a summer storm, blustering in, changing the landscape as it pleased then disappearing before anyone even realized they'd been soaked.

"You know, since he just saved us a months of work, I think we should go get the man some good coffee and sweets," declared Roy and there was a cheer all around. Sheska volunteered to run and they all pitched in for it. So, the next time Fuery called Ed out of his machine it was to find a box of fresh pastries, a very large espresso, and a thank you note signed by the whole team.

Saturday night, Roy put on something simple but just a little bit dressy – nice jeans, a white button-up with the top two buttons left strategically open, and a black jacket – and made sure his raven hair was arranged to fall perfectly. When he went to pick up Ed, he discovered that the younger man had also taken special care with his appearance. He wore a predawn blue shirt with dark brown pants and a matching brown waistcoat that hugged the shape of his slim waist in the most tempting way possible. Rather than a braid, Ed had actually left his hair down so that it flowed down his back, a king's ransom in golden strands. Unfortunately, he also looked rather tired, but he was nonetheless delighted to see Roy, so Roy let it go.

The restaurant Roy took Ed to had a very relaxed atmosphere that he knew Ed would appreciate. It also helped that their food was excellent and the service was just as good as the food. The pair ate amid conversation that seemed to flow naturally from topic to topic, a phenomena that Roy didn't often get to experience with his dates. Usually, one mention of science was enough to have his date yawning. Ed, on the other hand, all but glowed as they discussed theories and research and new discoveries. Science was Ed's passion, after all, just as much as it was Roy's.

To Roy's further wonder, he discovered new and interesting details about Ed, some of which he never would have imagined. For instance, Ed and his brother studied the forgotten art of alchemy as a hobby, just for the thrill of shining a new light on science and nature itself. He and his brother had also actually competed in martial arts before the accident. They had several trophies, all of which resided with the Curtises. The most surprising tidbit was that Ed wasn't actually from Central City – which explained the slight country accent Roy heard in his voice from time to time. The brothers were actually from a small town in the east, right on the border. They'd grown up among apple orchards and rolling hills, and had only moved in order to attend college.

In return, Roy told Edward all about his own early years as a science-nerd-turned-football-player-turned-debate-team-captain. He told him about how he'd met his current circle of close friends and about some of the shenanigans they'd pulled together. He even told Ed about his Aunt Chris, who was his foster mother. He told him about Christmas, his Aunt's bar which was a front for a brothel. He explained about learning how to tend bar as a teenager and about narrowly avoiding being dragged off by more than one drunken customer. Ed listened to all of Roy's stories with the same rapt focus he gave to all things science, and Roy got the sense that in this way Ed was displaying exactly how much Roy mattered to him. He was making a conscious effort to absorb all the pieces of Roy's past, good and bad, without judgement or pity.

After they left the restaurant, it was Ed's turn to drag Roy off somewhere. They were on foot, just as Roy had promised they would be, since he didn't want to ruin a perfectly lovely evening by making his date feel nauseous and panicky. Getting to Ed's chosen destination was a bit more of a walk than Roy had been expecting, but he didn't have the heart to complain. It was a gorgeous fall evening and he was in good company and good spirits. Who could possibly complain about that?

Eventually, they arrived at a park that butted against the river, but the park wasn't precisely where Ed intended to take him. They walked through the park until they got to the edge of the river that bisected Central City. A railing separated the walking path from the river to prevent people from accidentally falling into the icy, polluted water below. They walked along the railing until they encountered a clump of tall rocks that stood as the base of some historical monument Roy couldn't identify and didn't particularly care about. It was here that Ed stepped off the path rather than follow it where it edged around the monument.

"Now, I'm going to tell you a little story," said Ed as he showed Roy an easy way to climb up the rocks to stand beside the monument. When he spoke again, he covered Roy's eyes from behind and carefully turned him around. "Where I grew up I used to look up at the stars every night. Since there were so few lights from the town and scattered houses, you could lie on a hill and see whole galaxies spread out across the sky as far as the eye could see. When I was sixteen, I had to move here by myself and stay with a guy named Mason, a friend of Izumi. Al wanted to finish out high school with his friends, so I would have to go solo for a couple years. But the most heartbreaking thing was that when I looked up, I realized I couldn't see the stars anymore. For the first few months I was pretty miserable and really lonely. Then one day I found this place and changed my perspective. I couldn't see the stars by looking up, but . . ." Ed removed his hands and pointed past Roy's shoulder at the river. From the angle they were standing, they could see the city lights reflecting perfectly in the rippling surface of the river like a million glittering stars. It was breathtaking. "I realized that I didn't have to look at the sky to see stars. I just had to be willing to look at what was right in front of me."

"I've lived here all my life, but I've never once seen this," said Roy in a soft reverent tone. He turned to Edward who grinned, a light blush rising in his cheeks. "Thank you for bringing me here. It's almost as amazing as you."

Before Ed could protest the compliment, Roy captured his lips and was surprised and delighted when the kiss was returned with equal fervor and no little desire. Just as he'd been longing to do since the first time he'd caught sight of those captivating golden eyes, Roy wrapped his arms around Edward's slender frame, reveling in the texture of the muscles rippling beneath Ed's clothes. When they separated, they were both breathless, and Roy wanted to etch in his memory forever the image of Ed looking up at him from beneath thick eyelashes veiling half-lidded amber pools, panting through slightly parted lips, and pink lightly dusting his golden cheeks.

"You know, Al's at Winry's tonight. The apartment is empty until tomorrow at 10," said Ed, his tone quiet but suggestive – a whispered promise. "Care to keep me company."

"It would be rude to leave you all alone," said Roy, his heart pounding hard enough to break his ribs – but for this man, he wouldn't mind being broken.

By the time they reached Ed's apartment building they were all but boiling with pent up want, and as they climbed the stairs they were already making progress toward devouring each other. Their hands grasped at each other desperately, their kisses wanton and unworried about who might see them. Getting into the apartment in their current state proved to be a bit of a challenge, but once inside they were already stripping each other all the way to the bedroom, leaving clothes wherever they happened to land. All that mattered was their need for contact, the feel of skin as it was revealed to the contrast of cool air and warm hands. All other concerns could go hang.

Upon reaching the bed, Roy froze a moment, unable to resist savoring the sight of Ed laid out beneath him on the white sheets, the younger man looking like golden sunlight on fresh snow. He could have been a young god, carved of gold and silver, and it almost felt like a sin to lay his hands on such an ineffable work of art. But lay his hands on him he did, because, frankly, not even a saint could resist such a vision. The Edward he saw every day was a joy to look at, but the Edward that was glittering with a faint sheen of sweat and arching up off the bed at every caress was magnificent. Roy delighted in the feel of the soft skin beneath his hands as he explored every inch of the angel writhing on the bed. He used his hands, lips, and tongue to draw out gasps of pleasure and deep moans. And he wasn't the only explorer. Ed returned the favor in kind, dedicating all of his attention to learning every last bit of Roy's body until they were both groaning.

They touched and tempted and teased until they couldn't take it anymore and finally, finally joined together. However, for all that he was drowning in the pleasure, Roy made sure to keep his head above water enough that he was able to treat Ed's body with care. If he wanted to be invited back a second time, he would need to make sure to treasure the younger man and be mindful not to hurt him. The moment they reached their climax was an explosion of almost unbearable bliss, leaving the both of them too spent to do more than simply lay entwined in each other's arms, gulping air as they struggled to catch their breath.

Edward, who had been tired before, was starting to look extremely sleepy now. So, Roy gently cleaned him up then hunted down both of their boxers. Once he was at least a little modestly covered, Roy went out into the apartment and gathered all of their clothes then returned to Ed's room with them, dropping them in a pile beside the bed. "Stay here tonight," mumbled Ed, already mostly asleep.

"Of course, it would be rude of me to leave you all alone," replied Roy, feeling a bit sleepy himself. He lay down beside Ed and wrapped his arm around the smaller man's waist, breathing in the scent of coffee and clean sweat that lingered in his hair. Ed had his back to him, so Roy was able to fold himself around him with ease, and it was only a matter of minutes before both of them fell into the contented slumber of the comfortably sated.