I love it when my internet connection takes all morning to stop being such a stupid head. Ugh. I've been trying for nearly five hours to get it up so I could upload this for everyone. I'm glad that everyone is liking it so far. I'm not sure why but I love having Roy off balance by Edward. It just makes me smile. Goodness knows he needs someone to have a hold of his reins every now and then. Though they rather start to put each other off balance.

Is anyone else not getting alert emails from FF? I have gotten nothing for 3 days, not even review alerts. I know you guys are reviewing... maybe it just doesn't like Kikiko and I...

Chapter Four

"You're dripping water all over my floor." Roy groused, staring at the puddle Edward was leaving.

"So did she." Edward defended with a smile.

"She went upstairs already to dry off. Meanwhile you, you are standing there creating your own personal lake." Roy had already used his alchemy to dry himself off, and was now standing eyeing the puddle of water with disdain.

Edward opened his mouth to say something to that, but thinking better on it, chose different words. "Oh fine." He said, and clapped his hands before placing them on his clothes. Instantly he stopped dripping, from everywhere but his hair.

"You missed a spot." Roy pointed out unhelpfully.

Ed stared down at the floor. "Well you're the one with all the firepower, you take care of that. Evaporate the water or something already."

Roy sighed, snapped, and the water vanished with a wave of smoldering heat.

Ed grimaced and took several steps back. "Think you could have waited until I was out of the way? These pants are leather you know, do you want them to shrink on me? It won't be a pretty sight."

"Then they might finally fit you." Roy eyed the still damp blonde locks bound back by a braid, "do you mind? Or I swear I'm burning it all off."

"You wouldn't dare." Ed's eyes narrowed, "I don't use alchemy on my hair. Deal with it."

"You're a frustrating brat."

"And you're a bastard as usual."

"Are you looking to annoy me to my death by nights end? These floors are expensive!"

"Oh, care more about the floors than me? Nice." Edward grumped and shook his head. "You'll live, unfortunately."

"Just what is it you're going to do anyway?"

"Eh? Do? About what?"

"The proving to her we're intimate thing." Roy reminded him, feeling his stomach turn just a bit in nervousness. How exactly had Ed managed to delegate this to himself anyway? He was the one who'd brought it up, not Ed.

Edward glanced towards where Daphne had vanished to. "Let me worry about that. You need to transmute me a ring."

They were standing outside the library doors. Daphne had insisted on using the time they spent being rained in to do something productive. That meant looking for the wayward ring that Edward had lost in an apparent bout of hormonal excursions.

"Why do I have to do it?"

"Because you're the one who proposed to me. Therefore this little headache is your problem." Ed muttered. "Besides, it's not my fault you forgot about the ring."

"It's not mine either."

Edward was about to make a clever retort that would certainly have left Mustang reeling from the sheer impressiveness of it when Daphne appeared again.

"Ready to begin?" She asked.

Both men made their own versions of the typical manly grunt and followed her through the large door to the library.

Ed had to fight to keep his jaw from dropping, and keep himself from running to the nearest bookshelf to start searching through the literature for something of interest. Screw finding the nonexistent ring, reading was more fun!

Roy glanced over and almost laughed at Edward's enthralled expression. He rarely gave a look like that to anything but food.

"Alright, let's spread out." Daphne said, and started off down to one end of the library, eyes scanning the floor, tables, and all around.

"Don't break anything." Roy warned Ed before heading off in a separate direction.

Edward stuck his tongue out childishly in the direction of Mustang's retreating back before heading off with a gleeful expression.

The library, as Mustang called it, was a circular room that was two stories high. Now he knew what the attached tower looking thing had been near to the back of the house. He'd only caught a glimpse of it on the walks to the front door and hadn't thought much of it. There were two floors to the library, a winding wooden staircase connected the two floors, and a wide walkway and railing contained the upper circle. There were two ladders on each floor, one for each side of the library so that you could reach the books on the shelves that stretched all the way to the ceiling, or the next floor.

Seeing that Roy seemed determined to search on the lower floor, making quite the scene of looking under the many tables on which lamps and books were set, Ed took his chance to scurry up the staircase alone and have a look around.

Books upon books met his greedy eyes, and Edward instantly went to one of the shelves to inspect the volumes. "That bastard has more books than some of the military libraries." Edward said aloud wondrously as he perused every title his eyes landed on, before shoving it back where it belonged.

No wonder Roy had never gone to any of them, he didn't very well need to with the collection just in this room. As Edward thought about it, even the sitting room had a nice supply of books.

"Strange though, I can't see him having actually read all these." He said, gazing around. There had to be at least several thousand books here.

Edward continued his way around, looking at the books and not bothering about the search going on below. It was up to Roy to figure out something to do regarding the ring situation. In the meantime, he may as well enjoy himself. Even if it was raising some more questions about Roy's life.

The more Edward thought about these things, the more he felt he should do something about it. Why? He had absolutely no idea, and such a realization made him wonder whether or not he was coming down with something after getting chilled in the rain. Since when did he care what the appearance of Mustang's life told him? Since when did he even care enough about the man to notice these things?

Even so… he felt he should do something. The question was how, and that was altogether a very complicated thing to answer.

Daphne continued to look down on the bottom floor, giving a thorough sweep to everything she passed. Roy on the other hand was doing his best to uphold the image of actually looking. In reality he was quite concerned about what Ed was doing up there where he couldn't supervise. If Edward broke or damaged anything…

But he had an even bigger problem to solve.

A ring.

He needed to transmute a ring. Sure, he could do it. That was not the issue he had to work around. The issue, was his mother. The flash of light would certainly alert her, and as crafty a woman as she could be she would soon put two and two together. He'd be strung up with a date to some strange woman from his mother's town faster than he could say "Edward."

Roy actually stopped in his tracks. Since when was he one to care where his dates came from? He always did the same thing to all of them anyway. And even more alarming, why was he against it?! He should want this to be over, even if it meant owning up to his lie. He should if it meant he'd get another female date. Yet the thought of it didn't sit well with him. Was he really so determined to pull this off that he was actually willing to forego bedding more women each night?

He hung his head with a sigh, and stooped as if to inspect something on the carpeting of the library. The thought of, and don't forget about what happened earlier, flashed through his mind. He didn't even need to bother wondering what precisely that thought meant by earlier. The memory came back to him in a rush, along with a feeling of heat that was going somewhere that for once, he cared not to think about. He'd just blame it on a case of not having had any fun last night with whatever-her-name-was. This did not in any way shape or form have to do with the blonde currently gallivanting about on the floor above him, a thought that seemed to work because he started to feel normal again.

A quick check assured him that he was, and he stood up.

"Find it yet?"

Roy Mustang, jumped. And not just any jump. Oh no, he jumped, catching some air under his feet, and slamming his upper thigh against one of the unyielding tables. A steady stream of curses that made absolutely no sense in his pain fogged voice was cut off as Daphne smacked him across the back of the head.

"Pull yourself together. A General of the Amestris military is not bested by a table!" Daphne lectured him.

He glared back at her, rubbing both the back of his head and the place on his thigh he was sure he'd be finding a very interesting colored bruise later. "Thanks for that uplifting monologue."

"Nor are they caught off guard by a fifty four year old woman with no military stealth training." Daphne added for good measure.

"Oh, you've not finished yet?" Roy asked in fake sweet tones whilst his black eyes glowered at her.

Daphne smirked at him, "I have now."

"Well for your information," Roy growled, "I was thinking about someone a lot younger, and better looking than you. I got distracted."

"Oh, remembering fun times in the library, were you?" Daphne taunted.

Roy somehow managed to keep from turning a radiant shade of crimson. "I was not!" He protested, perhaps a bit too loud, for his words echoed in the circular room.

Edward frowned and poked his head over the railing. "Roy, do you mind containing your squawking for later?"

"I was not squawking!" He defended, glaring up at the blonde.

"Whatever." Ed sighed and pulled his head back over again.

Daphne was smiling, and as Roy's attention was brought back to her she suggested, "I think you were."

"You may think all you want, but that's not the truth." He insisted and glowered around, his eyes somehow fixating on one of the tables.

The table wasn't out of place, or even worthy of staring at. But he had a sudden image of Edward on that table…

Daphne's snort of sheer amusement brought Roy's attention whizzing back to her.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked snidely.

She waved her hand at him, "oh, nothing." She then turned to head away again, towards the table Roy had been staring at. "But your body disagrees with you."

"My what, huh?" Roy suddenly saw where she was heading, looked down, swore, and was out of the library like a blur of military blue.

Daphne heard him flee, and laughed silently to herself.

Edward, deciding that he should probably come down now if Roy had gotten to the point of raising his voice, spotted that he wasn't there and thus walked over to Daphne. "Where'd he run off to?"

Daphne looked up at Edward with an innocent smile. "He had a slight urgent matter to take care of. He'll be back once he's done."

"Urgent, huh?" Edward mulled it over in his mind. "Must be work related or something."

"Work?" Daphne smiled, and looked around still trying to find the ring, "Ed dear, I swear stuff like that became a hobby for that man when he was thirteen."

Ed blinked at her, not understanding at all what she was saying. He was about to ask for clarification when he decided against it. "I'll go look over here." He proposed, and headed off in a direction that would take him very far from a smiling Daphne.

The minutes passed as the two of them searched alone, not speaking. And most certainly not finding any ring.

Roy had just finished his "work related business," and came out of his bathroom with a hand to his head and a very confused and slightly panicked look on his face. Even if his darkened and still slightly hazy eyes didn't agree with his expression. What the hell had that been about? He was not supposed to get turned on by a table! Yet it wasn't exactly a table he'd been picturing back there in the bathroom as he fixed his problem.

He sat down with an unceremonious flop onto his bed. What was going on with him today? Maybe he'd be better off playing sick the rest of the days and spending his time safely abed. These feelings, he'd never had them before. They were brand new, and he was determined to just label them as flu like symptoms and act out that scenario for the rest of the time his mother was here.

He knew he couldn't sit here forever though. His mother was probably getting more and more amusement with each minute he was gone. He had to get back down there. But at least the issue he'd encountered had allowed him the perfect opportunity to fix the earlier problem.

The ring.

Roy thought quickly to himself. He believed he had all the ingredients necessary to create a suitable ring. So he quickly got to work gathering them all up, and finally piled them onto the bedside table. There was just one more slight problem though. He had no idea what it should look like.

Hadn't Edward once said something about creating from his own imagination? Well, Roy couldn't imagine what he wanted it to look like. Perhaps though subconsciously his mind had fashionable sense about engagement ring creation. It's not like he really had anything to lose. If it turned out resembling a metallic colored dog turd, he could always transmute it back and try again. So Roy took a deep breath, rubbed his hands together for good measure, clapped, and hoped for the best.

When the light faded, Roy blinked at the ring in amazement. "Wow." He had to admit, he was actually impressed with himself.

It was a simple ring, goodness knew Edward would have driven him through with his automail blade if he'd created something ostentatious. Just a silver band, but the stone that had appeared on it was an amber that Roy knew without a shadow of a doubt, was the exact same color as Ed's eyes.

"I didn't even add in ingredients for it…" Roy said aloud in confusion as he picked the ring up, examining the creation. It was solid. But how had he managed to transmute something if he lacked ingredients for that something? Perhaps he should ask Ed later… goodness knew that alchemist spent more time transmuting a variety of things than he did.

Roy quickly hurried out of his room, pocketing the ring away safely.

As Roy reentered the library, Daphne shot him a smirking look, and Edward plain ignored him. Roy himself merely got back to work attempting to keep up the appearance of looking for what he'd just created. Later he felt he might appreciate the irony of this.

They had been in there, all working without speaking, when Edward finally turned to look back at Roy. He'd felt eyes on him, but as soon as he'd turned Roy had looked away. "What," Ed mumbled under his breath, "creep."

Roy waited until Ed had gone back to whatever he'd been doing, before he decided it was time to end this little goose chase. The clock above the door told him it was nearing four. Dinner still had to be made, and he was considering leaving to bed early and never getting out of it. He made sure Daphne had her back turned before stooping down and retrieving the ring out of a pocket.

"Ah! I found it!" Roy declared, suddenly shooting to his feet and stepping towards Ed cheerfully.

Ed had jumped as the once silent Roy had nearly raised dust from the spotless shelves with that declaration. Even Daphne had jumped slightly.

"Oh good!" She said upon recovering and started walking over so that she could see.

Edward blinked, and suddenly frowned at Roy as the man dropped to one knee before him. "What do you think you're doing?" He asked forebodingly, ignoring how his pulse seemed to increase at such a sight.

"Giving you back your ring." Roy said with a smile playing on his lips, and seized Ed's hand before the blonde could make an escape. "There we go." He said as he finished sliding it on.

"Stand back up, you look like an idiot." Ed hissed at him, but not unkindly. The threat to kick him in the head if he ever got down on one knee was very far from Ed's mind right that minute.

Roy looked up to meet his eyes, and smiled before suddenly pulling Ed's hand towards him so he could bend his head and kiss the ring. "I'm only an idiot around you." He said as he released Ed's hand at last and stood up.

Edward was saved from having to reply by Daphne. Honestly, he wasn't sure he could have. He was too busy looking back at Roy, their gazes still locked.

"That was so sweet, Roy." She crooned after the couple was done, and suddenly seized Ed's hand to examine the ring. "Oh Roy, it's beautiful!"

Ed finally managed to tear his eyes from those black ones, and looked as well. He knew nothing about engagement rings, but he had to admit, Daphne was right.

"It matches his eyes. Did you do that on purpose? You must have, you're so sweet!" Daphne said, suddenly releasing Ed's hand to engulf Roy in another of her crushing hugs.

Edward meanwhile raised his hand closer to his face. She was right, that stone did match his eyes. He looked from it quickly to meet those eyes that hadn't left him for a second, even as he was being crushed in a hug. "Thank you… for finding it." He said at last. As Roy finally looked away, smiling, Edward looked down again at the ring, brushing the fingers of his other hand over where Roy had kissed it. Why the hell had that affected him so?

"Come on, I think this calls for some celebratory champagne and…-"

Just what else Daphne was saying was lost on both Roy and Edward as their eyes met again. Roy was first to break their silence, "let's go then." He said, in somewhat of a rough way, and turned to follow after her.

Edward bit his lip in thought for a moment, before hurrying after Roy. Reaching his side he glanced over at him, and quickly they both looked away from each other. Just how did Roy manage to get the ball back in his court for the showing of intimacy? Slowly, hesitantly, Edward reached out and took Roy's hand in his own flesh one. He told himself it was because he didn't want Roy to win that round, but such an argument was silenced when Roy threaded their fingers together and squeezed them gently.

Their hands only separated upon reaching the sitting room.

Roy had to leave to go fetch the champagne from behind the bar. Daphne took a seat on the couch, and suddenly pointed Ed towards the loveseat. "You sit there dear." She said, concealing the wicked smile that wanted so desperately to appear.

"Um, okay." Ed agreed with a shrug and went over to sit there and wait.

"Now Ed, tell me about this brother I heard you mention." Daphne said, and shifted on the couch until she was almost laying down.

Ed was glad that she'd asked that actually. It wasn't something he had to really make up a story for. "His name's Al. Alphonse, actually."

"Al? Well, continue."

"He and I are really close. We've always been together. Moving in here was kind of hard at first on both of us, but it's not so bad anymore."

"Does he have a girlfriend, boyfriend?"

"Not officially, though I have suspected for some time that he has a crush on my mechanic. Her name's Winry."

"Do you approve?"

Edward blinked, what sort of question was that? "Yes, of course I do. They're both dear to me, I want them to be happy. If being together makes them happy, then I couldn't ever disapprove."

"Do they approve of you marrying my son?"

Edward thought about that one for a minute. Which was good, for he didn't want to appear to hasty answering such a thing. Would they approve? Would they, all jokes, farces, acts aside, would they approve if he actually were to marry Roy? "They do." He finally said, "they would only want my happiness too. And they like Roy, which makes things even easier."

"That's good."

Roy chose that moment to walk back over and cut in on the conversation. He'd heard quite enough, but not in a bad way at all. "Your champagne, mother." He said, offering her the slender crystal glass.

"Thank you." She accepted with a smile.

"And for you." Roy said as he walked one over to Edward.

"Thanks." He said, taking it and trying not to notice how their fingers lingered as they accidently brushed against each other.

"You're welcome." He said and suddenly sat down on the floor right in front of the vacant seat on the loveseat. He crossed his ankles and leaned back looking quite relaxed indeed.

"Your butt is going to go numb." Daphne remarked as she peered over at her son.

"My butt does not go numb." Roy argued. As if he would ever be so weak as to go numb from sitting on the floor for a while.

"Sit up by Ed. He looks lonely up there." She insisted.

Edward met Roy's over the shoulder look with interest. Just what was Roy going to do now? This argument could get interesting. With a shadow of a smile Edward settled back into the cushions to see how this one played out.

"He does not look lonely. I'm right here."

"Do you want him to be sitting down there?" Daphne asked, turning her green eyes on Edward.

Ed wisely took a sip of his champagne.

"I can sit wherever I like, it's my house. My floor." Roy argued and snapped his fingers in the direction of the fireplace, causing the flames to spring up instantly.

Edward suddenly smiled, a bit evilly if anything. "But darling, it's my floor and house too. Or, once we get married it will be."

"You're point, cupcake?"

Ed's eyes narrowed at the pet name. "Don't call me that."

"It could be worse." Roy sighed, and sipped on his own champagne.

Edward smirked and set his champagne glass aside. Before Roy could react he clapped his hands together and placed them on the loveseat. Out of nowhere an extra cushion was suddenly shot up under Roy, causing the man to collapse back so that he was now laying down right beside Edward. "Don't irritate me when I don't need circles." He said, and before Roy could quite gather what had happened, clapped his hands again and placed them back on the couch causing the cushion to vanish.

Roy collapsed back down onto the floor, slopped with champagne and looking just a bit disoriented. "What the hell was that for?" He barked, rubbing his rear tenderly. Ed sure hadn't let him down nicely.

"For calling me cupcake. I could have dropped you from higher, so stop complaining." Ed said, and retrieved his champagne.

Daphne smiled into her champagne flute, it seemed that Edward quite had things under control when it came to Roy. Good. She wanted to leave her son in capable hands. As cruel a thing as it might be for a mother to think, she was glad someone was going to be a hassle for Roy.

Both Edward and Roy suddenly looked up however, and towards where the front door would be.

"What is it?" Daphne asked.

"I'll get it." Edward said, rising from where he sat. "You have the mess you made to clean up." He grinned and motioned down at Roy's still champagne slopped military jacket. Still holding his champagne flute in hand he walked out of the sitting room and made his way to the front door.

"Someone's at the door?" Daphne asked incredulously.

"Yes." Roy sighed and examined the mess. Darn Edward and his temper.

"I didn't hear anything."

"I guess it just comes with the environment. We're used to hearing noises that you wouldn't be able to. In Ed's line of work, it could mean life and death."

"What exactly does Ed do?"

Meanwhile Edward had reached the door, and tugged it open after dealing with the series of deadbolts. "Al?"

"Hey." Al said and eyed the champagne glass. "Am I interrupting something?"

Edward rolled his eyes, "no. There's nothing to interrupt."

"Why do you look so disappointed?" Al asked with a wide grin.

"I am not!" Edward defended and wished he could wipe that grin off Al's face. "What are you doing here? You want to come in?"

"Nah, let's sit outside for a bit. It's not been raining for a good ten minutes. I think we're safe." He said and turned from the door.

Edward followed him out, shutting the door behind him, and went to stand against the wall with his brother. "So what are you doing out here?"

"Thought you could use a break." Al smiled over at him.

Edward groaned and leaned his head back against the wall. "You've no idea."

Al smiled and took Ed's champagne flute away, to down the rest of the alcohol himself. "It can't be that bad. You look happy enough, though I must admit… you do seem out of sorts as well. It's an odd combination."

"Well it's nice being able to relax, when I can. And Daphne is really nice to me. I guess a lot about this is just causing me to think strange things and I'm honestly torn between whether or not I should keep this up. I don't like lying to Daphne, she's a nice woman."

"You're starting to ramble." Al noted and patted his brother's shoulder lightly. "Is it a lie though?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Ed asked, shooting his brother an honestly confused look.

Al pursed his lips and looked up towards the cloudy sky. "What's causing you to think these strange things? What sort of strange things?"

"He is, it's all his fault!" Edward vented, raking his hands back through his hair as he thought. "He does and says things that leave me feeling confused. Confused about how I react."

"Do you like him?" Al asked, still staring at the sky.

"Do I-what? No, I hate him, remember? He's a bastard!" Ed fumed and rested his head back against the wall with a sharp whack.

"You know, sometimes it's easy to mix up those feelings."

"I'm not."

"Then it is a lie?"

"It'll be over soon enough." Edward sighed, "and when it is it's back to me being the dog, and him being high and mighty."

"Do you want it to be like that?"

"No! I never have."

Al looked over at him, and suddenly gave his surprised brother a hug. "Listen to me, Ed. Do yourself a favor and stop thinking for a moment. Next time Roy does something like whatever he's been doing, don't think about it. Just do whatever you end up doing, and don't question yourself. You've never made bad instinctual decisions before. So stop thinking and start doing."

"What good will that do me." Ed grouched.

"You might be surprised." Al said and linked his arm with his brother's. "Now come on," he said, beginning to walk back towards the door. "I would like to meet my future mother in law. And besides that this champagne isn't half bad. How long has he had it?"

"You think I went over and checked labels?" Ed gave his brother a strange look.

"I would have." Al admitted, and the two of them walked inside the house.

Edward locked it again before he led the way back to the sitting room.

"This place is huge." Al marveled.

"Yeah, I know." Ed grinned, "I actually like it, and he has the hugest library too. I haven't gotten lost yet, thankfully enough. But apparently he hasn't even invited Hawkeye over. None of them have ever been inside."

"Does that mean I'm special?"

"It means Roy can bite me if he disagrees. If I'm going to play fiancé, I should be allowed to bring guests over."

"Why does he have such a big place if it's only him?"

"I've wondered the same thing, actually." Edward sighed and led Al into the sitting room, their arms had become linked again sometime during the walk. "I haven't asked him about it though."

"There you are, and who's this?" Daphne asked from the couch, sitting up now.

"Hey Alphonse." Roy said from where he sat, now clean, and still on the floor.

"Hello sir." Al smiled.

"Daphne, this is my brother Al, who I told you about." Ed smiled at her. "Al, this is Daphne. Roy's mother."

"It's very nice to finally meet you." Al said to her.

"And you as well. It's nice to meet Ed's family finally." Daphne said, rising to her feet to walk over and greet the new guest.

Edward walked back over, and resumed his seat near to Roy. "What?" He asked, catching the look Roy shot him.

"I was wondering where you were."

"Think I'd run away?" Edward smiled.

"Not without your things I'd hope."

Edward frowned at him, and seeing that Al was still being kept busy by Daphne, slid down to sit beside Roy on the floor. For once, he was thankful of Daphne's ability to completely distract a person. "You've done nothing yet to make me want to leave. You should know that."

"Good, it'd be hard to explain to her why you suddenly were gone."

"Is that what you'd be worried about?" Edward frowned at him, and suddenly looked away from the other man.

"Just remember our deal."

Now Edward glared at him. "Deal, right. How could I forget? Thank you for putting it in those blunt terms for me." He said, and suddenly sat back up upon the seat, directly in the middle so as to not allow even the chance of Roy sitting up next to him.

Al seemed to catch the sudden tension from across the room, and looked over at them. "So Daphne tells me you guys found the engagement ring again today. I haven't seen it in ages, Ed."

Edward caught the hint and instantly was up from his seat and walked over to sit next to Alphonse with an easy smile. "Yeah we did." He said as he held out his hand, unconsciously making sure the light from the fireplace glinted off of it.

"Wow." Alphonse sighed as he inspected it. "I never get tired of seeing it, it's beautiful. And I love how it matches your eyes. It's really so perfect for you." He then looked across to meet Roy's eyes, "Roy must care about you a lot." He then quickly looked back at Edward, "mustn't he?"

"Yeah." Edward said, softening up a bit. Pulling his hand away he gave the ring one last look before tearing his gaze from it entirely.

"Al, why don't you stay for dinner? I was just about to go send Roy and Ed off to cook. It's their turn after all. I'd like to speak to you a bit longer though." Daphne said with a smile.

"I'd love to stay, but are you sure we shouldn't help them? After all, I am one more mouth to feed."

"Oh please, they'll have to get used to feeding extra mouths one of these days. Might as well start now." Daphne grinned and turned to Edward and a very irate looking Roy. "Off you two go. Make something good!"

Ed nodded and smiled at his brother before wordlessly getting up and heading out without so much as waiting for Mustang.

Roy got up with a huff and stalked out after Ed, but not before Daphne called after him. "I don't know what you said to upset him, but you really should apologize."

"I've nothing to apologize for." Roy said as he left.

"They really make quite the stubborn pair." Daphne sighed.

"I agree." Al grinned and looked over at her. "They make a pair though, that's for sure."

Back in the kitchen Edward didn't even look over his shoulder as Roy came in as well.

"Ed, we need to talk." Roy said, walking over to one of the cupboards.

"Talk." Edward repeated slowly, as if testing the word out. "Then by all means, start talking. Goodness knows it's one of your favorite pastimes."

"We can't fight, we have to keep being happy. Or she'll try and butt in even further."

"But I am not happy!" Ed rounded on him, "and neither are you!"

"Yes I am."

"You are not! What sort of man buys and furnishes a house like this, and never even invites anyone but his mom over? That and your little slutty date friends, but have they ever even been anywhere but the bedroom? You're a lonely single man in a big house that is meant for a whole lot more people, and you call yourself happy?"

"I can have a date whenever I want. I am not lonely."

"You are, or you wouldn't have so many dates. One each night? Come on Roy, that's absurd! No happy man does something like that. You are so desperate to have stability in your life that you find your stability in always having a date whenever you want. It's not healthy, and you're going to end up alone and miserable if you keep things up this way."

"Then that will suit you just fine. You've wanted me miserable, have you not?"

"Once I did." Edward admitted. "Not anymore. I don't like seeing you living this way."

"There's not much you can do about it. I like my life as it is." Roy defended, his gaze never wavering from Ed's.

"Then why tell that lie to your mother?" Edward asked, and when Roy did not respond except to look taken a back by the question, Ed shook his head. "You're not happy the way things are. So stop fighting the wrong fight. I've never seen you truly smile before all this started, you like having people here."

"It's just nice to have someone other than myself to talk to." Roy said, and turned to start opening the can of whatever it was he had grabbed, Ed hadn't seen.

"And what happens when I leave?" Edward asked quietly. "Do you really want the cycle to start over again?"

"I really don't wish to discuss this, Edward." Roy said sternly. "Let's just get through dinner."

"Why is this stone the color of my eyes?" Edward asked, undaunted.

"I don't know." Roy admitted, turning towards Edward, "it's just what happened."

"I see." Edward said shortly, "then what can I help with?"

By the time they'd gotten dinner ready, and set out on the table, things had loosened up slightly between them. However a slight hum of tension still hung in the air between them. It was a tension Daphne vowed to do something about, since the two men seemed incapable at present time.