Draped in Wires
by. Poisoned Scarlet

Theme 057: Pleasant Conversation

"You're such a jackass, you know that?" Edward told Roy one late evening, as he waited for the man to sort out last-minute reports on his desk. Roy's office was bigger than his last one, holding individual offices unlike the, somehow neatly, cramped desks that had lined his room when he had been a Colonel.

"Good to know," Roy muttered, distractedly. "Same place?"

"Yeah, I've recently moved some of my stuff in there." Ed replied, plucking off a strand of his hair for idle entertainment as he waited on his superior officer. "Winry's dropping by to fix up the place – whatever that means.."

"Ah, let's go then." Roy smiled, gesturing towards the door with a paper-filled hand. "Hawkeye left an hour ago so there isn't anyone who'll enter the office tonight." He shifted the folders under his arm, following the younger man out the door.

"So, what's the deal with all this talk about the Fuhrer creating alliances with neighboring countries?" Edward conversationally began, as they both walked toward the parking lot where Roy's car was parked.

"Apparently, the Fuhrer is preparing for expansion over the next few years." Roy told him, lowly. "The peace treaties aren't settling well with Drachma or Creta."

"I heard they both allied themselves around a year ago."

"That's the Fuhrer's primary concern right now," he elaborated. "We're always in danger of being taken off guard by them. Amestris is still reeling from the nationwide transmutation circle, and it's bad enough we've got ourselves a new bunch of copy cat psychopaths roaming the country with their own take on Immortality." Roy heaved a sigh, remembering the topics they had discussed previously regarding some concerns Edward had with a few rogue alchemists.

"As long as it doesn't make my job any worse..." Edward yawned. "I don't give a shit."

"It'll make your job a lot worse!" Roy told him, knowing fairly well the man knew this. "Although, considering you are head of the department, you have people who take care of these things for you."

"About that..." Edward began, as the both entered the vehicle and Roy started the engine. "I do have the option of choosing my own squadron, right?"

"Stop thinking so small." Roy chuckled when Ed shot him a nasty look. "Think regiment. Your department is growing by the weeks the more people begin to notice how much of a hazard alchemy poses to the general public."

"So this regiment," Edward slowly said. "I still get to choose who I hire and who I don't, right?"

"Technically, you do, but in the end it I decide." Roy turned into a dark neighborhood, eyes scouting out the younger man's apartment complex. "I have final say on who you hire and who you don't."

"No problem." Ed muttered, sarcastically. "Control freak..."

"Hey, is that anyway to speak to the guy who writes your paychecks?" Mustang quipped, amused, and braked to a stop in front of a decent building. The cover of night blanketed the otherwise cheery appearance of the building; the neatly trimmed grass, the balconies that stuck out in the front, which Roy knew that the one on the third floor to the right was Edward's.

"I did it when I was fifteen, ain't changing now that I'm twenty two!" Ed flatly said.

"No matter. Go get some sleep, you insomniac!"

"Couldn't have said it better myself!" Ed smirked. "Actually, I could have, but you get what I'm trying to say, right?"

"Goodbye, Edward."

Ed snickered as he headed into the building, digging into his pockets to take out his keys. He opened the front door, entering the significantly warmer hallway and heading straight for the brightly illuminated staircase. He took the steps by two, eager to slip under the beckoning call of his bedsheets, and threw open the door of his apartment with a sigh of relief.

He tossed his jacket on the singular black leather couch he had bought for the sole reason of having somewhere to lounge around at night and froze when he heard shuffling within. His guard heightened, the groaning thought a burglar so soon? crossing his mind as he silently walked toward his room.

He threw the door open, a harsh shout on the tip of his tongue, and was shocked to see Winry bent over some cardboard boxes.

"W-Winry?" He incredulously gawked.

Winry gasped and turned, a bright smile blossoming on her face instantly. "Edward! Wow, you do come home late, huh? It's past midnight already!" She went back to rummaging through the boxes. "Or did you make a stop somewhere else?"

"No, Mustang just dropped me off right now—what the hell are you doing here?" Ed hastily asked, walking towards her. "How did you even get inside?"

Winry straightened up and leaned up to kiss his cheek. "Hello to you to, Ed." She dryly greeted, returning to her task. "I'm kind of offended you'd think I wouldn't be able to pick a lock as easy as that one!" She took out a few stacks of clothing from within. Edward noticed it was the clothes he had left behind in Resembool. "You really should invest in buying a better one – anyone could break it and trash your apartment!"

"No, only a trained professional like you can, you little thief!" Ed scowled, snatching a few pairs of boxers from her when she handed them to him absently. "Anyway, when you did arrive in Central?"

"Around eleven."

"Eleven?" Ed repeated, surprised. "It's going to be two in the morning! You've been here all alone since eleven? Why didn't you call me! I could've kept you company for a while!"

"Silly," Winry giggled, kneeling down to continue to unpack his things. "I spent it going around buying you some furniture and window shopping." She eyed his bedroom, how impersonal it appeared with the single bed by the window and the single, dull, dresser right across from it. "I didn't bother with buying kitchen appliances except for a refrigerator and maybe some pans in case you get hungry... you've been buying out all this time, haven't you?"

"What else is there to eat?" Ed shrugged, helplessly. "I'll burn this whole building down if I ever decide to cook something!"

"Aw, you're making me feel like I'm neglecting you." Winry mumbled rather sheepishly, grabbing a stack of his clothes and heading over to the dresser. She wiggled out a drawer, starting to stack his clothes neatly inside. She reached for the boxers he still had in his hand and he watched her begin order them in the top drawer of the dresser, where he kept the rest along with his socks and undershirts.

Ed leaned against the dresser. "Not if you're doing all of this you're not." He smiled, softly. "Thanks."

She paused, unsure of how to answer to his gratefulness, and decided to just smile up at him before continuing to pack his clothes. "No problem!"

"So all this furniture," Ed began, slowly. "You didn't buy a lot, right?"

"I bought everything I thought you needed." Winry replied crisply. "You're going to be living here as long you work at Central Command so you might as well be comfortable."

"Yeah, but the house in Resembool..." Ed trailed off.

"I'm furnishing that one, too, but this is more important right now!" Winry insisted. "We don't have that much money to waste with this little guy on the way! For now, I'll just live with granny!"

"I guess that's alright..." He frowned, realizing how hard it would be to juggle two homes at the same time. "I wish we could just have the house in Resembool..."

"Yeah, but it takes nearly half a day to reach Central by train." Winry sighed. "Even by car it takes at least three hours."

"I could drive three hours to work!" Edward insisted.

"Every single day?" Winry rose a skeptical brow. "I know you're really determined, but you can't honestly say you'll like spending three hours on your butt to get back to our house in Resembool every single day, can you?"

"If I get to spend the nights with you then what the hell?" Ed muttered, flashing his eyes away from hers when she looked up in surprise. Winry dropped her gaze back to the stacks of clothing she was packing, hesitantly looking at her swelling tummy. It wouldn't be long before she became bigger than she was currently.

She heaved a sigh and grabbed the dresser to haul herself up. She felt Edward help her up and she smiled appreciatively in response. She let her arms weave around him as his own wrapped around her quickly diminishing waistline, fingers caressing the swell of her stomach softly.

"You can spend the night here with me." She gently mumbled, closing her eyes.

"Yeah, but what about the rest of them?" He countered, begrudgingly. "I can't be there for you every day like I want to. Hell, I can't even see you every weekend with how demanding this job is." He shut his eyes, allowing himself a few seconds to cherish their time together. "How pathetic is that?"

"Everything will settle down eventually." Winry chided softly. "You just have to be patient!"

"I can't be patient when I begin to miss out on the first few months of our son." Edward sighed into her hair, resting his chin on her shoulder. "I want to be there when everything happens. I don't want to let this job take over my life and let all these moments pass me by like how it happened with my father." He absolutely loathed the idea of becoming enslaved to his duties like his father had and spend all his precious time hunched over a document or, in his case, layers upon layers of alchemical mishaps.

"You won't be like him." Winry firmly assured. "For one, you'll never leave me to pursue your own dreams, right?" She playfully smiled, although his eyes had hardened. "You already took care of that when we were teenagers!"

"Yeah, and look at how much I missed out of because of that!" Ed darkly murmured, knowing he would never take back those days but also knowing that he would never be able to.

"Stop being so pessimistic!" Winry scolded. "Brigadier Mustang would allow you some time off so you could spend it raising our son once he's born! And, after that, he'd probably let you visit every weekend! He could send the work to the house, right?"

"Yeah.." Ed muttered, somewhat annoyed at how she could find all the bright pillars of light within the gloom he had let settle around them. "But what about during the week? That's seven days of missing out if he learned how to walk, if he can string a sentence together... if he's made friends!"

Winry smiled, apologetically. "I can call you if something big happens."

"Not good enough," he gruffly replied.

She rested her forehead against his own, staring into conflicted golden yellow. "Trust me, although you'll miss out on some moments, you'll be there to witness most of them." She smiled, warmly. "Just the fact that you're stressing about all of this makes you better than how your father was when you were young. You'll never be like him – never forget that."

He allowed himself a few more seconds under her adoring gaze before he kissed her softly and buried his face in her neck in slight embarrassment. "I'm...getting way too soft."

Winry just laughed.