Author's note: Sorry this one took so long to get out. I've been busy! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Please review and help me become a better writer! Thank you! And thank you so much for reading! It truly brings me joy to know people are interested!

Oh and I apologize for some of the chapters that had character point of view changes being confusing. I still don't quite have the hang of this website, so I have been having difficulties keeping the lines that divide the change to stay...if that made any sense at all...

Warning: Brief scene of men getting touchy.

Edward dragged his feet warily across the dry ground. He hadn't had any rest since leaving Winry's home. The idiot man running the lame excuse for a hotel told him that there wasn't any vacancy. He had cussed him out, and left in an angry and exhausted daze. He huffed his annoyance as he continued to drag his way to what he assumed to be Central city.

He slowly lifted his head, opening his half closed eyes and lifting his flesh hand to shield them from the sun. Peering into the distance he attempted to make out how much farther he would have to travel until he arrived at Central. Ed grunted; unsure of how much longer his countryside trek would take. He knew he had to keep moving, if he stopped Mustang and his men would surely catch up to him. And at his current pace, he was positive that they had already gained some ground on him. Acknowledging this, he steadily and unwillingly increased his pace in an attempt to stay ahead of the annoying colonel.

To keep his mind off of his growing weariness, Ed thought of all the information he failed to collect in that sad excuse for a town. He hadn't found out anything new about Al's whereabouts. Nothing indicated that a car had driven through the town, and no one and nothing looked suspicious. These thoughts burned inside him and kept his mind off of his exhaustion. He was frustrated with himself for being wrong; he was almost always right with things like this. He should have known that they wouldn't take Al the most obvious way. What plan was better than doing what your pursuers least expected you to do? It was almost brilliant, and that pissed Ed off.

Ed didn't want to think about his brother still being out of reach and hidden from him. He didn't want to think of how exhausted he was. He just wanted to lie down and sleep. He didn't want to have all these thoughts continually swirling about his mind. The blonde wasn't just psychically tired; he was mentally drained as well. He fought viciously to keep his drooping eyelids open as he continued to pull himself along the winding path to the city. It finally sunk in to his brain that he could go no further in his current condition, and he needed a place to rest.

His sleepy golden eyes scanned the surrounding area; trying to scout out a decent place to sleep out of view. Spotting a nice grove of trees he mustered all the energy he had left and brought himself to it. Nearly falling over, he laid down and let out a sigh of relief. Even though the ground was pretty hard, it felt wonderful to just lay there and shut his eyes. Within minutes Ed drifted off into a much-needed sleep.

Golden eyelashes slowly began to flutter open. A satisfied yawn released itself from Ed's body as he slowly sat up. He groaned in annoyance reaching his automail limb behind his back. The ground was more stiff than he had realized and now he was paying the price.

"Wonderful. Just what I need, another problem..." he muttered angrily under his breath.

Stretching slowly he worked his way to a standing position; another yawn escaping his mouth as he looked around. He had slept at least a few hours. When he had fallen asleep the sun was still high in the sky. Now it was starting to set. With that realization he became more aware of his surroundings. His body tensed; prepared at any moment to fight or flee. His face scrunched into a familiar scowl as he peered through the trees. Considering the amount of time he had slept, it wasn't dumb to assume that Mustang or his men might have already caught up or passed Ed's current sanctuary without noticing his presence.

In a split second Ed decided to bolt from within the safety of the foliage. He didn't have time to wait around and figure out if the military had caught up with him, he needed to get to Central alone; and fast. If Mustang or his men wanted to take him with them, he wasn't going to let them without a fight. As he ran he realized that he was now starving, and also parched. He cursed himself for not bringing at least a little bit of food to tide him over while he was on the run. Too late to think about that now. He knew he could last all the way to Central.

Edward suddenly wondered if maybe no one was tracking him; and that maybe they had simply headed straight to Central. After all, they did have the most resources there. Why would finding him be a top priority? Surely Al was number one on the list? Even if he had run off and disobeyed a direct order from Mustang to stay.

Ed suddenly stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened to huge golden orbs. His breath caught in his throat as he realized that he had dreamt of someone while he slept.

Mustang.

"Sir, are you sure you wouldn't like to rest?"

"Yes lieutenant. We have to catch up with Fullmetal. We're bound to be gaining some ground on him by now. He isn't all machine after all...he's only human; he gets tired too." Roy answered his subordinate warily.

His eyes were heavy from the lack of sleep, and his body screamed at him to lie down and rest. But his mind was wide-awake and fiercely determined to find Edward and make sure he was all right. They had been walking all day; constantly on the lookout for signs of Ed. The sky had finally begun to darken, and it beckoned Roy further to give in to his body's desire to lie down, close his weary black eyes, and simply sleep.

He knew he should sleep; he would have to eventually anyway. Why prolong the inevitable? But Roy was a stubborn man, and when he decided on something, he was one hundred percent determined to accomplish the task at hand no matter what. Finding Edward was no different; it needed to be done, and it needed to be done now.

Concern clouded Riza's brown eyes as she spoke again, "Sir, you are clearly exhausted. Please, let's rest. You can sleep first, and I will keep a lookout for a few hours. Then we can switch."

"Lieutenant, I'm-"

Hawkeye stopped, and extended her arm in front of Roy's chest, preventing him from walking any further. "Mustang, don't give me some ridiculous excuse as to why you are capable of continuing on right now. I know you're exhausted. I can see it. Now sir, please don't make me pull out my gun and force you to sleep." her eyes hardened and she stared directly into Roy's dark eyes; communicating with him that she was utterly serious, and she would pull a gun on him if necessary.

Letting his shoulders slump from their usually straight and upward posture, Roy sighed, knowing he couldn't win this, and said, "alright, you win. We can stop. But I think we'll be safe out here; no need for one of us to keep watch."

"What about the chance that we passed Edward?"

"Passed him?" he asked slightly confused by the question.

"Yes. Like you said, he needs rest too. What if we passed him while he was resting? We would have never known. I mean, we weren't looking absolutely everywhere for him as we have walked today."

"I highly doubt we passed him Lieutenant. He is Edward Elric, he won't let something like exhaustion slow him down." he chuckled, "But no really Hawkeye, I don't think we could have possibly passed him."

She nodded before walking a little farther and motioning towards a secluded area from the path they were currently on.

Roy nodded his approval, and headed in her direction.

Laying down, Roy sighed once more, relieved to be finally resting his aching body. He glanced over at Riza as she made herself comfortable in the makeshift bed.

Roy glanced at the sky, the sun was starting to set.

"Well this is gonna screw up my sleeping habits..." he murmured under his breath.

"What was that sir?" Hawkeye asked groggily.

"Nothing, just thinking aloud to myself...get some sleep Riza. That's an order."

"Sir..." Roy heard her manage to say before he began to hear her deeper more steady breathing.

He smirked, "guess I wasn't the only one who was tired."

With one last glance at Riza's sleeping frame, Mustang closed his eyes and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

Edward stood frozen in shock at his realization. He had dreamt of Mustang. His mind whirled around inside his head.

Sure, he had thought about Mustang in some maybe not completely appropriate scenarios before, but those were always while he was wide awake; not when he was asleep.

This concerned Ed, you had no control of what you dreamt about; meaning he was subconsciously thinking about Mustang. He tried to shake away this revelation reeling away inside his brain. But the more he tried to rid it, the more it fought to stay.

The foggy images from the dream began to slowly become clearer; and what Ed saw in his mind made him blush.

He and Mustang were alone in his office. It was dark, so everyone had already headed home for the night. Mustang sat comfortably behind his desk, as usual, while Ed stood almost awkwardly in front of it.

"Was there something you needed Fullmetal?" Mustang asked casually.

"Not really, just thought I would drop by to piss you off." Ed scoffed.

He smirked at Ed, in an almost playful manner, before he slowly got up from his chair. He walked around the wooden desk and stood inches away from the golden haired teen.Edward felt his heart rate quicken, as he could almost taste Mustang from standing so near himself. Without realizing it, because Ed was too busy staring into the older man's dark eyes, the colonel had placed his gloved hands around Ed's waist. Edward blushed at the simple touch and he reached out to stroke his face.

Heart thrashing inside his chest, Ed slowly leaned in for a kiss; pleased when Roy's lips met his. He could feel the man pull him closer as he deepened their kiss. A small moan escaped Edward's mouth as Mustang carried out this motion.

Roy chuckled, "Oh Ed," he began between quick soft kisses, "I don't think I could-" stealing another kiss, "ever-" he kissed him again, "tire-" Ed kissed back more urgently, "of your-" "reactions-" finally stopping their constant kissing he finished, "when I first begin to kiss you."

Roy stroked Ed's blonde bangs from his face when he finished speaking; looking admiringly into his golden eyes.

"Ed?"

Edward stared at Mustang, taking in every word he said, and admiring every detail of his perfectly sculpted face, "yeah Roy?"

"I. I love y-"

Ed screeched in frustration; halting his reliving of the dream. He couldn't bear to hear those words leave Roy's mouth; even if it was just a fake dream Roy.

He tried to calm himself. His body was hot. He could feel heat throbbing throughout body; and most noticeably between his legs. Trying to deviate his thoughts from where the dream wanted to continue to to wander and explore, he continued walking; trying to avoid it.

The crisp night air aided in Ed's cooling down process, and he began to think more clearly when the images from the dream began to finally become hazy once again. He briskly and silently walked down the boringly familiar path, keeping his eyes and ears open for any unnatural sight or sound. Mustang could be anywhere by now, and he wasn't going to risk being found. He didn't need anyone's help who didn't want to aid him in the first place.

Looking down he sighed, knowing that was a lie. Mustang did want to help him out; Ed just didn't give him the chance. He had yelled at him, and ran off. It really wasn't a smart move on his behalf, but he couldn't take back his decision now, which is why he had to avoid Mustang altogether. He didn't want another lecture on how to act as a dog of the military; he knew what he was supposed to do, but that didn't mean he wanted to do it. He didn't like being told what to do, which was ironic because that is exactly what he was required to do in his military position.

Ed glanced at the stars in the night sky; wondering where Roy was at the moment. And giving himself a disgusted scoff, he swiftly looked back down at his dirt-stained boots.

Thinking back on the dream, Ed realized what had bugged him most about his unwanted dream. It wasn't that his mind was thinking about Mustang when he didn't realize it, and it wasn't the fact that his dream involved himself getting a little more than cozy with the colonel; no, it was the fact that in the dream, Mustang had said "I love you" to Ed. And that scared him. What did this mean? Did Ed unknowingly love Roy? If that was the case, how? Why?

Sure, it was glaringly obvious to himself that he found Mustang disgustingly attractive, but love?

"Give me a freaking break, I don't love Roy Mustang. I don't. I haven't even dated anyone in my life before. I couldn't know what love is even if I wanted to. This is clearly lust. And that's all." Ed mumbled out loud, trying to reassure himself of his iffy conclusion.

Shuffling his feet, the train of thought slowly wandered from his confusing feelings and thoughts of Mustang, to thoughts of his brother.

"Al..." he breathed.

Clenching his fists, his goal was firmly back and clear in his sight.

"I will find you little brother, if it's the last thing I do."