Blehh... This chapter would have been longer (the second part anyway) except that the way I wrote it the first time around was just really crappy and I had to rewrite it, sorry for the long wait.

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Roy slowly started back toward their seats wondering how he was going to get through this damn long train ride when he started hearing a funny noise. As he got closer, he identified them as Ed-cries and picked up his pace.

Coming from behind Izumi, Sig and Mason, Roy saw Jean struggling to wrap his jacket around Ed and pull him into his lap. To the boy's credit, he was trying not to cause a scene, but whether that was due to some newfound maturity, or the embarrassment Jean was provoking, Roy couldn't have said.

Jean had him swaddled like a baby in not only his jacket, but Roy's and Ed's as well.

Roy stood in the aisle looking down at the blonds while Jean finished tying the sleeves of a jacket expertly behind Ed's back, binding his arms to his sides. Sig was frowning, but Mason and Izumi were laughing and snorting into their palms.

"What's going on?" Roy asked.

"Those two bet I couldn't hold Edward without getting a black eye," Jean responded indignantly. Ed was blushing, staring at his legs.

"Did you wake him up for this?" Roy sighed sympathetically.

"No. WE went over a bad bump and he clonked his head on the window and woke up," Jean told him. Ed kicked a bit and Havoc settled the boy into his lap, hanging his arms loosely around Ed's frame.

"I count to three, hear me?" Ed hissed at Jean. Jean grinned.

"You start screaming and I'll smother you with this shirt," he said as he picked up the shirt that had been lying under Edward's head a minute ago. Ed struggled, his eyes trained on the coat over his front rather than Jean. Roy saw his shoulders move a few degrees and surmised Ed was pulling his hands behind his back. Jean grabbed the place on the coat that must have been covering Ed's upper arms and pressed it closer to Ed's body.

"No alchemy," he growled. Roy sat down and Ed suddenly directed his fierce glare at Roy. he looked accusatory and Roy's immediate reaction was to ask Ed "What am I supposed to do?"

"Torch him," Ed snarled. "Grill him. Now."

Roy laughed. "Lieutenant, hand him over," he said. "That's an order," was added when jean opened his mouth to protest.

"Well at least I proved them wrong," he lamented dramatically.

"You have five seconds and then I scream so loud you-!" Ed was cut short by Roy smushing the shirt Jean had left on the set in his face. Ed started kicking furiously, his metal foot denting the bench seat.

"Hey!" Roy reprimanded him for damaging public property. Ed started yelling but Roy didn't understand what he was saying. Suddenly a flash of blue came from under Ed's lower back and all three jackets were nothing but dust to be kicked off. Ed grabbed Roy's hand, clamping his automail over it too hard. Roy jumped in pain as Ed crushed multiple parts of his hand and fingers. He dropped the shirt and smacked Ed upside the head with his other hand.

Ed let go and dragged the shirt off his face, bright red and panting.

"You nearly suffocated me!" Ed snapped

"I think you just broke my hand!" Roy yelled, indignant that Ed would seem to think himself more in the right.

"Serves you right!"

Roy grabbed Ed's wrists, pushing them against Ed's shoulders and pinning Ed to his lap.

"Don't. You don't hurt me, got it?" his voice left so little room for argument that Jean almost passed out when Ed snarled back, "You hit me."

Roy just shook his head, pulling Ed upright into his seat next to Roy. Izumi was watching them both with a secretive, calculating look.

"Hey, what did you do to my brother, anyway?" Ed snapped.

"Nothing, Edward."

"Well he ran off after you and I haven't seen him since."

"And what exactly do you think I would have done to him?"

"Probably yelled at him for no reason or something..." Ed replied lamely.

"Excuse me?" Roy had no idea where Ed had come up with that last one.

"You're always losing it over nothing," Ed declared.

"Like what?" Roy demanded. Jean was looking out the window taking deep breaths. He knew both alchemists next to him very well by now, and he knew both of them had dynamite tempers. He was just waiting for one to blow.

"Like over stuff I do in missions or whatever," Ed mumbled to his feet.

"Oh. You mean destroying buildings, causing riots, getting hurt, breaking your automail, getting sick and picking fights with inhuman monsters?" Roy ticked off on his fingers sarcastically. Ed didn't answer.

"As soon as we get back to my house I'm going to set you straight once and for all, you understand me? I'm not done with you," Roy hissed so no one else could hear. "Now why don't you go find your brother if you're so worried about him?"

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Ed watched out a side window as Alphonse leaned his body against he railing on the balcony attached to the end of the train. He hadn't been planning to spy on his brother but Al had looked so deep in thought and oblivious to the rest of the world that ED had wanted to watch him for a while to try to decipher his brother's sighs. He couldn't concentrate on his brother sighing for very long, however, and ended up thinking of Mustang's threat to "set him straight".

Initially, Edward thought Roy was in line for some of his own medicine, but a little tiny part of him felt guilty and nervous. On the one hand, Ed was sure he didn't deserve any hostility from Roy but that little part of him that was making his stomach tighten said he must have done something because now Roy was angry and he didn't really get upset over nothing.

Realistically, Ed had a feeling he wouldn't be having such a hard time with his feelings right now if he would just admit that Roy probably had good reason to be upset when he ran away or disobeyed orders or even struck Roy, but he was used to doing whatever the hell he wanted and he was even more used to trusting his own judgment and reasoning. Trusting Roy's was a completely different story and Ed was having an unusually hard time deciding if Roy's judgment was to be trusted. Of course, usually Ed made these decisions about people subconsciously, thinking they had nothing to do with him whereas if he decided Roy's was to be trusted, he knew he would eventually cave in and adhere to it. Which might not be a bad thing if, in fact, he decided Roy had good judgment.

At this point, Ed realized he'd pretty much walked the mental circuit of the subject and decided to go wake his brother from his trance.

"Al!" he yelled, his voice being drowned out by the wind. He pulled his head inside the train and walked out onto the balcony.

"Alphonse!"

"Aaa! Kittiesshowercurtaineggbombfrostedminiwheats!" Al yelled, spewing nonsense at his brother a nanosecond short of the speed of light.

"Uh...Whatcha thinkin' about?" Ed asked after recovering from the verbal barrage.

"Oh... Nothing, Brother."

"Nothing? What is it? A girl? Ed elbowed Al in the side.

"NO."

"Oooh! I think you were!" Ed taunted.

"Give me a break, Brother. If either of us are thinking about girls it's you."

"What! Gross, no way you pumpkinhead!"

"Pumpkinhead? What the hell, Ed?"

"You're a pumpkinhead! See?" Ed clapped his hands and transmuted Al's head into a pumpkin shape.

"BROTHER!!! Fix this right now!!"

Ed dashed back to his teacher and military superiors with Al right behind him. He had momentarily forgotten that Roy was not pleased with him and only remembered after he dove over the man onto the seat, putting the colonel between himself and his angry brother.

"I said fix this!" Al screamed.

"Nya-nah!" Ed pulled his bottom eyelids down with his fingers and stuck his tongue out.

"BROTHER!!! FIX IT!!!"

"Both of you! Behave!" Roy snapped.

"Settle down!" Izumi snarled. The boys ignored Roy, but both swiveled their heads to stare at Izumi. She clapped her hands and fixed Al's head while Roy grabbed the back of Ed's jacket, jerking him closer.

"You're just asking for it, aren't you?"

"What!" Ed jerked away, staring up at Roy's face.

"We'll be right back," Roy said and dragged Ed from his seat to the bathroom.

"Roy! What are you doing?" Ed pulled away as Roy turned to lock the bathroom door.

"I was just playing with Al! Why are you so mad?"

"Because it would be nice, just every once in a while, to see you acting your age instead of your shoe size. Don't you know how irritating it is when you're sleeping or reading on a train to have a bunch of kids come screaming down the aisle like a couple of lunatics?"

"But-"

"Shut up. Stop digging 'cause you're already in too deep."

"Roy!" Ed looked shocked and hurt, but more than that he looked confused. Uncertain of something. Probably what to do next.

"Come here," Roy growled and Ed stared at Roy, pure shock and disbelief radiating from him. He wasn't stupid. He knew what "come here" meant at a time like this.

"I was just playing with Al-" Ed squeezed his eyes shut as Roy closed the distance between them and grabbed Ed's wrist.

"No!" Ed backed away into the wall and Roy cuffed him soundly on the ear.

"Why won't you listen to me!"

"Why should I?!" Ed's voice was shrill and he was crouching against the wall, pressing himself away from Roy.

"What...what kind of a question is that?" Roy backed off just a little. Ed peeked up at him, golden eyes apprehensive.

"Why wouldn't you? I'm your military superior, I'm older than you..." There was something more, Roy thought. Something much more precious, that made much more sense but for some reason he couldn't say it. He couldn't even understand it or why he thought it existed. And yet, somewhere deep inside he knew there was a reason that Edward should listen to him, do as he said. At least take his advice into consideration, at least not directly disobey him.

"I don't give a damn," Ed snapped. Roy had lit the fuse. Edward had never known a time when he didn't resent being told he should submit because he was younger, and he would never, never submit completely to the damn military pecking order.

"Ed," Roy's voice held a warning. He was showing Ed a line, a sort of 'cross this, and you'll get it,' but Ed was too used to overstepping his boundaries. Too used to that tone of voice.

"Stop it! Stop trying to control me!!"

"Stop-" Roy stopped himself when he realized he was about to enter into an argument that couldn't be won. If he told Ed to stop disobeying him, and Ed yelled at him again to stop trying to control him, he would be bashing heads with the boy. And everyone who'd ever heard the name FullMetal, knew that bashing heads with the boy didn't yield good results. No, Roy had to find an angle from which to attack. The only other aspect to this argument besides the two opposing arguments he and Ed had already voiced, Roy thought, was that feeling he had that there was another reason Ed should listen to him. But if he couldn't identify it, he couldn't use it as a weapon. And if he couldn't fight back, he had to find a way out of this, a way to take this down a notch.

Ed had taken advantage of the silence to gather his thoughts, and when Roy still didn't speak, Ed piped up again.

"Roy... I. I know you like me now," he said awkwardly, "I know you worry but you can't tell me what to do. I can take care of myself when I have to."

Roy stared at Ed. His first consideration was Ed's peculiar wording of the first sentence. He liked Ed? Well, yes...but no. That wasn't it. He set the subject aside for further speculation later.

The second consideration he had to think about was what Ed had said overall. Unfortunately for Roy, overall it was true. He just couldn't seem to control Ed even if he tried, and even though he worried for Ed and the boy often got injured or otherwise harmed, Ed could fairly well take care of himself.

Roy's mind worried on Ed's words a moment longer, trying to find some flaw in them, some way to turn them inside out and prove that Ed should follow his orders, and then gave in. But not before realizing a negotiation that would make it easier for both of them. Roy was a relationships genius. He knew what people needed. Not always what they were thinking or exactly how they felt, but it wasn't just his good looks that won him all the women he'd ever wanted.

Roy sighed in resignation all the same.

"You're right Edward. I can't deny any of what you said. But allow me one thing. Promise me when you've followed a lead, if you find out there's nothing at the end of it, come back to Central and let me help you. I can help you when you get hurt or if you or your brother are upset, you know that. Let me help you with everything else, so when you have to run off after a lead at least I won't have to worry if you're upset or under the weather or anything else. Let me help you as much as I can."

Roy's request completely side-swiped the boy he said it to. Ed had not been expecting either acceptance or goodwill after what he'd said to Roy. After all, the poor man had been trying to order him around for almost four years now. Ed hadn't been expecting Roy to take yet another refusal so well.

And he also hadn't been expecting Roy to pinpoint his feelings like that. Ed needed freedom to do what he had to do. He couldn't work with confinement, but at the same time, he needed someone to help him with the aftermath. He'd needed someone like that when Nina died, but back then even Roy hadn't been willing. He'd needed someone like that after he'd come so close to death by Scar's hand the first time, but again, he hadn't known there was anyone he could turn to. Certainly he felt the sympathy of everyone in Roy's little East HQ unit, but he hadn't realized he could lean on any of them.

"Fine. But you have to make croquettes," Ed demanded arrogantly and randomly. Roy laughed.

"Croquettes it is."

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R&R please!!!