When they arrived at the hotel Ed did his best to look inconspicuous. He knew he was well known in all sorts of areas so he needed to keep a low profile to work in quiet. Mustang was at the desk requesting separate but adjoining rooms because according to him, "It's best that way. We have our own workspace but if we need to go about in the middle of the night we can do so in secrecy. Rather, it'll be easier to communicate in secret that way."

What would they be going into each other's rooms in the middle of the night for anyways? Edward suspected the man was trying to rile him up. Well, he wasn't going to let it get to him! He'd behave and the man would never know – Ed blanked out the rest of that thought and slunk up behind the man to listen to the end of the conversation.

"-we're not sure how long we'll be staying."

The male – thank god – desk attendant nodded and picked up two keys from a little box behind the counter labeled three twenty. He handed the keys over unceremoniously and smiled congenially at the two of them and nodded to the left. "The stairs are over there. If you need anything you can call down to the front desk and we'll do our best to help you. Over on the right there is our dining hall and breakfast bar. Breakfast is free, but you have to pay for dinner."

"Thank you. I think we'll be fine from here on out."

Roy led the way up the stairs and into the hallway where they turned to the right and meandered two doors down to their rooms. Ed plucked his keys from the man's hand and dangled them in the air. "I suppose one of the two of these is for the door between us?"

"Yes. The smaller key is for the door between us. The larger key is for the outer door."

"I could've figured that out," Ed muttered but swung the keys in his hand. "I'll see later then?"

"Later? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go take a shower and nap for a bit. Trains make me tired."

Mustang nodded sharply. "Fine. I'll come wake you up in an hour and half or so."

Ed's eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare! You're not giving me orders!"

"It wasn't that I was trying to give you orders it was more like that it'll be five o'clock and getting close to dinner…unless you're not inclined to eat tonight?"

Ed huffed, rolled his eyes and sighed. "I suppose you can come get me."

Ed waved and ducked into his room and flopped face first on the bed where he lay for a few minutes.

He roused himself enough to get into the shower and scrub off all the train dust and dirt. The soap dripped off his body and pooled on the shower floor where it clogged the drain.

As he stepped out of the shower his foot slipped on the wet tile and he swore as he reached out to grab something for balance. What he grabbed however was the towel rack but because the towel rack was weak it broke away from the wall and Edward landed on the floor amongst a tangle of towels.

The knock on the door was hesitant as if the person on the other side was afraid of disturbing a hibernating bear or a wolf with rabies. Edward pondered that last fact for a moment, could wolves get rabies, he knew dogs could –

"Edward are you all right?"

"'m fine. Just slid on the wet tile."

"Are you sure? That was quite a loud crash."

"Ahh…the towel rack kind of got in the way."

" 'Got in the way'?"

"Uhm. Yeah."

"Please tell me the bathroom is still in one piece."

Edward took a quick inventory of the bathroom, ripped shower curtain, shattered side of the sink (from where the metal towel rack hit it), gaping hole in the wall…

"It's still in one piece."

He heard disbelieving silence from the other side of the door and amended his statement.

"Mostly."

"Mostly as in we're going to be paying quite a few damage fines or…?"

"As in with a bit of alchemy it'll be all fixed up."

"I'm coming in." And without warning the door clicked open – Ed knew he'd locked it, the bastard had used alchemy on it! – and Edward scrabbled to knot a towel around his hips.

Edward didn't know whether to be peeved or not because Roy had hardly looked at him. He was half naked and Roy had instead been glancing around the bathroom assessing the damage done.

Ed coughed to draw attention to himself. "Can you get out now? I'm kinda naked."

It seemed the word "naked" perked Roy up because he turned to face Edward for the first time since entering the bathroom.

"So you are," he commented and didn't seem embarrassed in the least by the fact that he was standing in the same room as a naked man. In fact, if anything, the man seemed to be –

"You bastard! Stop staring at me!"

Roy laughed. "What have you got to be embarrassed about?"

Ed flushed to the roots of his hair and glared.

Ed backed up as Roy stepped into his personal space. Roy's grin was bordering on demonic Ed thought wildly as he looked for a way out.

Roy took another step closer.

Ed's hands scrabbled for something to hold onto as Roy moved again.

When Roy kissed him, Ed gave up. He knew when a battle was lost and between Roy's tongue and his own body Ed knew that there was no hope for himself.

One of Roy's hands slid down to cup his chin and tilt his head, the other encircled his body and pulled him closer. Ed raised his hands and tangled them in the man's hair and urged Roy on.

Ed saw the older man glance down at him and Ed had enough wits to mutter, "Fine. 'm fine," before thoughts began to disappear.