Gah! It's late!! Sorry everyone!! I had a LONG, tiring week last week and net problems this weekend. Combine that with a root canal, pain, and just being tired beyond all belief, and you find one defeated Zash. XD But the chapter is finally clear at least a short edit and ready to go up. Now to get typing faster. ^_^

I'll answer reviews as soon as I can, but I might just start answering them before each chapter again. It tends to be easier for me. XD

Enjoy! And remember, I love any and all constructive criticism. ^_^

Chapter 4

Roy had never been overly attracted to younger men. If he was attracted to a man, it was normally to someone about his own age. In fact, the only person he had ever truly loved had been a man his age. As usual, the fates were against him in his love, but it showed his typical inclination for the male gender. It also helped explain why he had turned to dating nearly exclusively women; there could never be another Maes Hughes.

Edward Elric, however, was the exception to the rule. Just as he nearly always was. The boy had grown into a beautiful, strong man. He was definitely male, but he naturally held a lithe grace and a sun-bright beauty that escaped most people no matter how hard they tried to achieve it. Roy would have to have been dead not to have noticed it.

Of course, Edward ate like a starving horse on a regular basis, but that did little to disguise such features. Watching him never failed to amaze Roy. He had to admit, it also fascinated him. All that energy and attention Edward normally focused on his brother and alchemy was now focused on eating and food. He'd answer questions and hold a conversation, but it was always obvious by the looks of pleasure and the distracted tone of his voice that it was his food that held the majority of his attention. After he'd finished, he'd turn that attention to the person he'd been talking to as he ate and the look of contentment would be absolutely captivating even as his attention switched over.

Roy had been treated to the sight a few times, and up close that last couple of days, so he'd come to realize something. Whomever Edward ended up finally dating would be very lucky to have all that exclusive attention focused solely on them. If he loved the person especially. Roy had a feeling that Edward never did anything halfway, so that person would find themselves in a position similar to Al's: above both food and alchemy at all times.

Roy looked away from the other, thoughts of his own late love rising to once more invade his mind and clench his heart in painfully tight talons. The view didn't help since they'd been seated just next to a couple about Roy's age that seemed overly interested in the immediate attempt of the first male conception.

"What's wrong?"

Ed's voice, muffled slightly by the food that was doubtlessly still half-eaten in his mouth, broke into Roy's thoughts. Roy looked back at Edward. As expected, Ed was just finishing chewing a mouthful of food, a curious scowl on his face as he did so.

"Just wondering where you put all that food," Roy replied, a bit of his amusement creeping into his voice. Edward was so predictable. "There doesn't seem like there's that much room for everything you've eaten."

Ed's eyes narrowed dangerously at being called small before he began his usual tirade. Perhaps there was one more thing Ed placed higher than food…

Roy just smirked in amused satisfaction as the kissing couple stopped to stare at them in astonishment. After a moment, however, they went back to it with a soft tolerant chuckle for the younger of their town's newest couple.

"Well, I think I will head up first. Don't be too long, sweet?"

Ed scowled and took another determined bite of his roll.

Roy grinned at the expected response and turned away. He walked with long sure strides that also managed to make him appear far more relaxed than he honestly felt at that moment. He sauntered out of the room and into the small lobby area that doubled as the entrance to both the town's pub and the hotel. He stepped just out of view of the table he'd left Ed at and stopped to wait by the door, taking the chance to admire the setting sun.

Sunset had just begun a short while before, and brilliant pinks, golds, and purples painted the sky in an array of shimmering beauty. Shadows had grown long and dark, making the fading light seem somehow brighter, more energetic. In a strange way, it reminded him of Ed. A bright flaring of gold color painted on the background of a dark, grey world.

Why did that seem like such a hopeful thought to him?

Of course, this was Edward. Ed was nothing if not hope and rash stubbornness personified.

The sun had finally disappeared, leaving a bruised purple as the only evidence of its recent departure when Ed finally appeared. The younger man moved to stand next to him, staring silently out into the street as though searching for whatever had held Roy's attention for so long.

Roy barely glanced down at Ed's arrival. He didn't have to see him to know he was there. He knew it the same way he always knew it—by the sheer, mad energy that radiated off of Ed like heat from the sun. He only had to look to see what his subordinate was actually doing.

Keeping his gaze still firmly on the darkening purple outside, Roy slipped an arm around the slim waist next to him and began to silently turn them around to lead the way upstairs. Ed stiffened at first and Roy could feel him begin to pull away. He tightened his arm in a quick squeeze.

"Hush, love," he said in a voice just loud enough for others to hear. "We have nothing to fear here."

Ed relaxed somewhat and frowned over at Roy as he let himself be led away. Roy breathed a small sigh of relief despite the look of annoyance in Ed's eyes.

Roy had known this would be a tough assignment, but between Ed's reactions and his already deepening suspicions of…complications in the assignment, he had a feeling he was going to be hard put to keep this from blowing up like most of the buildings Ed was sent to investigate tended to be. At least the boy was attempting to do this right. He was strong, intelligent, and capable, but he also had a temper that he just didn't seem capable of containing.

Could it be that that was part of why—

No. Roy wouldn't let himself think like that. Not yet anyway. Not until this was all over and they were back at Headquarters with back up available almost immediately if need be.

The room was dark when they arrived. Shadows, ominous now in the enclosed area, covered everything in the room and seemed to reach for them as they stood in the doorway. Ed moved fearlessly ahead into them even as Roy reached up to flip on the switch. The light blinked on just in time for him to watch as Ed flopped down onto the sofa.

Locking the door behind him, Roy followed the other over, sitting in the chair by his head again. He leaned in and opened his mouth to speak, but Ed beat him to it.

"Why were we the ones chosen for this mission? Was it specifically us? Two alchemists? Or did you get the assignment and assign me to this yourself?"

By the tone of Ed's voice, Roy could tell he had come to the same conclusion Roy had.

"No, I didn't, and no one outside our office should about you either. So I have a theory on why we were chosen," Roy told him softly, matching his voice level to the low tone Ed had used. "I think someone knows more than we wanted them to know. Someone in the military…"

"And close to the Fuehrer." Ed cursed forcefully under his breath. When he'd finished, he turned to stare angrily into the empty fireplace. "How? They must know a lot. At least about Al and me anyway…"

Golden eyes went wide with sudden realization, and Ed shot up. He twisted around and stared into Roy's own eyes.

"Al! They wouldn't—"

"Keep your voice down," Roy hissed at him. He glanced over at the door and then back again. "He's safe enough. He's staying with Havoc, remember? And Hawkeye and the rest of my team will see to it that no one touches him. It's us I'm worried about right now. Someone knows enough about you to know you are practically the expert on chimeras and human alchemy! If they know that, then they also know I've been helping you. And this someone must know the details of this case and deliberately sent us without giving us all the information available.

"Besides," Roy added, not truly believing it himself, "they might not know about the others. After all, my team is just my subordinates who follow their orders, and Alphonse is not in the military."

"How could they not know?"

Roy ignored Ed's hissed question. "For now, we need to concentrate on solving this case so we can get back. We have a job to do, and it might help us solve our own mystery as well."

A long moment passed as Ed glared at Roy, his frantic thoughts clear in his molten gold eyes just then. Finally, he flopped back down onto the sofa. "I'm the bait."

Annoyed anger twisted inside Roy at that thought, but he nodded anyway.

"As much as I hate to admit it, you are."

He gave Ed a stern look he reserved for when he couldn't afford the other not to listen to him. And this was definitely a time he could not afford that. Not if he wanted them both to leave this town alive.

"You will not take any chances. And you will stick close to me at all times. This is an order, Fullmetal. I won't have you getting yourself killed now over something like this."

Ed gave an actual growl and glared fiery daggers at Roy. "I won't. I still have to save Al."

"Just so long as we're clear."

There was a moment's pause and then Roy shifted in his seat, his mind spinning with possibility after possibility.

"First we need to develop a course of action. I won't risk either one of us on this mission. What did you make of the mayor's description of this killer?"

"Either this guy isn't human or he has help. I think Cranning knows something he isn't telling us," Ed replied with a derisive snort.

"Why do you say that?"

"He hasn't done a very good job of catching this guy. And he barely knows anything of use to the case. You would have at least had a brief description of the killer by now! Especially when there had been a witness," Ed began ranting, his voice starting to rise.

Roy jabbed Ed in the side with a finger and Ed lowered his voice again, though not without another dark glare sent Roy's way.

"You also wouldn't have let your only witness be killed before you could even get anything useful out of the man."

"Thank you for that ringing endorsement," Roy told him drily. He was quite honestly touched by the other's high regard, though. Ed didn't praise people lightly or often. "However, I doubt Mayor Cranning has anything to do with it. I think he's just that incompetent."

Ed laughed, his face lighting up with genuine mirth.

"But you are right. He should know more. Perhaps it's someone on his staff? We'll have to keep a good eye out for them. I think we can manage to sneak a call out to my 'supportive sister.'" Ed snorted with his laughter this time and Roy knew he was trying to picture Hawkeye and him in the same actual family. "I'll have her look into the matter as well."

He gave Ed a hard, stern look before adding, "We'll also have to keep a good watch on you."

"What? I can take care of myself," Ed hissed vehemently, just as Roy had expected. He was just glad it was a hiss and not a shout. "I don't need to be coddled like some kid!"

"And I want to catch this murderer with my subordinate alive and intact enough to deliver back to his brother," Roy replied coolly.

Ed's mouth snapped shut and he turned his head to stare sullenly into the empty fireplace.

"Unless you're here in the room, with the door locked, I want you to stay close to me at all times. Understood? We might need to plan a trap later on, but it will be planned," Roy told him.

"Understood," Ed growled with annoyed frustration fairly dripping from every syllable.

"You're still strong, Ed, but until we know what we're dealing with here, I don't want to risk you," Roy said to try and soothe the boy's ego. They might not be actual lovers, but a chilly bed partner made for a chilly bed too. He simply kept it to himself that he would never have sent anyone, and especially not Fullmetal, into a situation like this in the first place.

"Fine," Ed growled again, but the growl had lost some of its hard edge.

Roy stared quietly at the far window for a few more minutes, plans and ideas forming in his head as he devised the best strategy for this horrible mess he'd suddenly found himself in. Eventually, he began to speak, telling Ed what he'd decided they needed to do the next day and his plans for after that. They needed more information, more to work with, than what they'd been given. Occasionally, Ed would interrupt with his own idea or a fine-tuned version of Roy's plans. Roy was pleasantly surprised to find that the other's own chaotic style actually did complement Roy's more orderly one well.

When they finally went to bed that night, Roy was quite satisfied at the obvious signs of Ed's maturing into a fine young man and very happy to note that he felt far better about their situation than he even had on the train ride in.

Ed didn't like a single thing about this mission.

It wasn't simply because he was stuck on it with Colonel Mustang either. The man couldn't help teasing Ed it seemed, yet Ed still found himself impressed, even if grudgingly, by Mustang's intelligence and acting skill. He'd known Mustang was good at strategy and tactics, but seeing those skills in action put the older man into perspective for Ed. In fact, Ed had come to respect Mustang far more than he ever had before just in the last day or so. He'd never admit it, even to himself, but he did actually enjoy their planning session earlier.

It also didn't bother him as much as Ed thought it should that he had to share a bed with Mustang. The other man stayed on his own side of the bed, only lightly snored, and actually managed to serve as a bed warmer. Ed knew, too, that if something should happen in the middle of the night, he could count on Mustang to back him up, the same as Al. The only real drawbacks to this arrangement were that it felt weird to hear someone else breathing in the same bedroom as him and Ed just couldn't sleep well without his brother there.

So, in the end, what truly bothered Ed about this mission was the mission itself.

Everything seemed far too well orchestrated, as he and Mustang had discussed earlier. Someone in the military knew too much about them and was out to get them.

But who?

Ed hadn't angered anyone high enough up the food chain recently that actually would be able to and want to do this, and he didn't think he'd be a target too if this was just to get at Mustang. Or would he? Could someone want to kill Mustang and Ed had just gotten in the way? Or maybe it was still the other way around. Someone had just taken their time getting revenge on Ed and Mustang just happened to be handy to go down with him?

Heaving a huge sigh, Ed turned to face Mustang, away from the faint light streaming in through the window. He kept his eyes closed and the added darkness seemed to help his mind settle a little further.

If Ed didn't know better, he'd think the homunculi were still in power and hiding within the military. But Wrath, or King Bradley as he'd been known, had been killed finally in an amazingly bloody battle with Scar while Lust, Envy, Gluttony, and Greed had all been killed or, in Greed's case, purged. There were no more homunculi left to control the government or otherwise manipulate Ed's life, even if this situation did stink of their interference. Only they had ever seemed to like the roundabout way of killing him, everyone else tended to be more straightforward about it.

So if Ed couldn't think of anyone who would want to kill them, did that mean this was all a coincidence that he and Mustang were picked? They stood a good chance of surviving, even if it wasn't a coincidence. They weren't known as heroes all over Amestris for no reason, after all, even if only a few people really knew what they looked like. So why try to kill them with a mission that might not kill them?

But why else handpick them and place them undercover as the killer's ideal targets if not to kill them? And why them? Ed could think of at least three other alchemists better suited to this than him, even if they didn't know as much about chimeras and human transmutation. And he could think of even more reasons why someone other than Mustang should have been chosen.

Ed shifted uncomfortably and opened his eyes to stare at Mustang. For a controlling, sadistic bastard, the man was very handsome. And he was still quite young. His whole confident demeanor also added another layer of attractiveness to him. Perhaps that was why Mustang had been chosen, despite his rank? Who would question a young, impressionable man falling in love with him?

But then again, Ed hadn't noticed any of that until now, so why would anyone else, particularly someone with the position needed to assign them to this mission through the Fuehrer?

Dark eyes popped opened, startling Ed and sending a shiver through his spine. They stared at each other for a moment, Mustang seeming to take everything about Ed in right then. For a brief, insane second, Ed had the terrible feeling that Mustang knew exactly what he'd been thinking about him before and he had to fight down a blush.

"What is it?" Mustang's voice was husky with weariness. "I'm trying to sleep, and I can't with all that racket you're making."

Ed scowled and flopped onto his back.

"I wasn't doing anything! How can you sleep anyway?"

Mustang sighed and rolled onto his back as well.

"I told you. We can't do anything until we get this mission out of the way. Do you want to be court marshaled? Or worse, shot for desertion?"

"No! I just don't like not knowing what's going on! And I like even less knowing that Al is trapped within reach of the maniac without any idea of the danger he's in," Ed growled up at the ceiling. "We don't even know who to warn him of!"

"The military was never a nice place, Ed. You normally only have contact with the people I let near you, but not everyone is like them. My team will keep him as safe as usual, I promise."

"So what are you saying? You've been protecting us all these years when you've been sending us out into all those messes?"

Mustang heaved a deep sigh, as though he were trying to recapture the last of his patience.

"If you want to get back to your brother and find out why we sent here like we were in the first place, then we have to take this one step at a time. Sleep now so we can do our job tomorrow. Then we catch the killer, go back to Central, and straighten this all out. Discretely."

Ed growled again, but couldn't deny the sense Mustang made.

"Worry tomorrow. At a sensible hour."

Ed grumbled under his breath in agreement and rolled away from Mustang onto his side. There was a soft laugh behind him and then a bit of rustling as Mustang apparently did the same. Ed ignored him as he began fantasizing just what he'd do to the man behind all this when he caught up to the bastard.