The Right Thing

It was loud. It was too damn loud in his office. His head hurt, his mouth tasted like a horrific blend of burnt coffee and old cigarettes (he didn’t know how Jean managed to suck on those things day in and day out. He knew better than to try that again), and he had some sort of gravity defying pile of papers demanding his attention.

And he was going to get nothing done if that damn racket didn’t cease.

Now.

He slammed through his door, knowing he could order someone to repair whatever just made that distressing crack, and slammed to a halt.

Gold eyes shadowed with the perfect amount of disdain, an eyebrow raised in perfectly indolent amusement…

“Well. You look like shit.”

Just enough disrespect mixed with a saving hint of concern…

More than he wanted must have shown on his face, as Ed’s eye narrowed and cast a Look in Riza’s direction. The woman nodded slightly. “I am sure you all have something better to do than gawk at Edward.” Her hand drifted, almost casually, down the holster on her belt.

At which point the entire office realized it actually did have work to be taking care of. Jean sauntered off, tossing a casual “welcome back, boss” over his shoulder, Cain scurried back to his desk, trailing a tail of multicolored wires, Breda decided he had pressing business down the hall and Farman smiled his appreciation at the forced return to order before sitting back down at his desk. Riza snapped a salute, and pointedly turned her back on Roy and Ed.

“Well, we going to just stand here or are you going to move so I can go you’re your office and sit the hell down?”

It is always embarrassing to get caught staring. It is even more so when one is caught staring at someone who raises a cocky eyebrow and manages to slide their hips just so…aware of the effect it produced and enjoying every second of it.

Roy swallowed a lump in his throat that was some arcane combination of anxiety, lust, and embarrassment, hating feeling like some adolescent having just been caught looking at dirty photos.

“Ogle later, move now. I’m fucking tired.” Ed pushed past Roy and stomped his way to his favorite part of the couch.

Roy’s legs moved, mostly of their own accord, to follow the younger man, somewhat determined to keep Ed within some sort of breach able distance. It wasn’t that he wasn’t desperately happy to have his lover back again, not that he wasn’t desperate to check every inch of beloved flesh for damage…that would be inappropriate, unbefitting someone of his rank.

But, as Ed collapsed back against the couch with a blissful sigh, Roy decided rank and propriety could go fuck themselves. All desire for Ed to realize and acknowledge how miserable he had been was smothered by an overwhelming sense of relief at having the younger man back.

“Well, do you want my report or not?”

Roy snatched his hand back, his defiant lapse into casual pleasure defeated by Ed’s seeming determination to stick to protocol. It was maddening. Reminding himself they hadn’t parted in the most comfortable of situations, Roy pulled every inch of the Bastard Colonel he could muster into his posture, into his voice. “Well, lacking your usual accusations of my manipulative nature I had assumed you to have neglected the mission altogether.” Just the right amount of sneer to cover the actual bitterness that lingered in the back of his throat like stale bile…Roy sauntered his way back to stand behind the reinforcement of his desk.

Ed didn’t even flinch. “It’s taken care of. Al and I got in and out easily. The information you were after is in here.” He waved an only slightly battered folder in the air, his face a study in satisfaction.

“Hmm. I must have missed the pigs flying this morning. The Fullmetal Alchemist completing a delicate mission with uncommon attention to the subtly required.”

“Bastard.” Ed grumbled, doing his best to see just how far into the couch he could wedge himself.

As annoying as it was to admit, even just to himself, Roy had no idea what to do next. Ed didn’t appear to be inclined to leave, and while that was encouraging, Ed also didn’t seem at all inclined to acknowledge Roy’s presence anymore than necessary. His report was settled on his lap, his eyes were closed, and there was an odd set to his jaw that heralded some manner of mental or emotional discomfort. Roy noticed the plentiful lines bred from exhaustion and stress that spidered out from the corner of Ed’s eyes, across his forehead, and the butterflies lurched back to life in the pit of his stomach.

“Edward…”

“Roy…”

Roy shivered slightly, delicious shudders dancing down his spine at the sound of his name so carefully, so precisely pronounced. “Yes?”

“Eh, you started first. Go on.” Ed opened his eyes a bit, looking up at the still standing Roy from under his eyelashes.

It seemed some sort of divine prank, to give a young man eyelashes that any woman would kill for. And Roy spent a rather embarrassingly long moment contemplating the way Ed’s eyes glittered up at him from behind that slight barrier before recalling the other man was waiting for him to speak. “Edward, about our conversation…before you left…”

“Yeah?” Interest gleamed in those gold eyes, and Roy paused a moment to try to set some sort of order to what he was going to say, to try not to sound like the estranged lover he had cornered himself into being.

“Before you left I did something rather idiotic. And while I don’t think it was the wrong thing to do, I handled it rather poorly and…what the hell are you doing?”

Ed had fished his battered black notebook out as Roy spoke and was presently busy trying to figure out where his pencil had gotten to. “Me? Nothing much. I figured if you were going to apologize I should record the date. No one would believe me otherwise…actually they still might not. Would you sign it or something?”

“You…” Roy sputtered, caught completely off guard by the amusement dancing in Ed’s eyes.

That amusement was too short lived. Ed tapped his notebook a few times, obviously engaged in a frantic quest for verbalization of his own. “I had a talk with Hawkeye when I got in.”

“Oh?”

“Ok, Hawkeye had a talk with me.” Ed admitted with a wince. “She can be kinda…intense, cant she?”

“That’s one way of putting it.”

“Well, she let me know you were kinda…upset about me going off like that. Havoc had at me too. After she left, and right when I thought it was safe. Al, the traitor, went off with Fury as soon as Hawkeye told him she needed to talk with me. You’d think he would have at least argued with her…”

“Have you ever tried to argue with the Lieutenant?”

“Yeah, you have a point. Anyway, they both had words with me…and…” Ed snapped his attention up from the notebook he was fidgeting with, locking gazes with Roy. “I am not sorry I went, Mustang. I never will be. Don’t you ever do that again. Got it? But…dammit, you aren’t supposed to fall apart.” Ed chewed on his lower lip. “I’m sorry you were upset.”

“I just…I worry about losing you…”

“I can take care of myself!”

Roy let himself grin. “I try to take your size into consideration. Small things tend to break easier.”

“Who is so damn small he gets stepped on!” Ed snarled, and then narrowed his eyes. “Roy…what are you…umph!”

His Edward. His irritable, impossible Edward. Roy grinned as Ed pulled himself free of the unexpected embrace, then emitted a rather undignified ‘umph’ of his own as Ed lunged into a fierce kiss. It was full of tooth and tongue and messy as hell, and it was perfect.

Perfect until Ed pulled back, a puzzled look on his face. “Roy… why the hell do you taste like smoke?”

Unable to help himself, Roy allowed a mournful expression to drift across his face. “I was a wreck with worry. So I asked Havoc for a smoke, and, well, I can see why the man is so taken with them. They do help alleviate loneliness.”

Ed shook his head in amused disgust, and then leaned forward a bit to rest his forehead against Roy’s chest. “Hey, Roy. I was serious about being tired…you think I could nap a bit in here?”

“Just as long as you don’t snore.”

“You’re the one that snores” Ed grumped, slouching back against the couch. He watched through half-lidded eyes as Roy stood with a slight wince. “Did you just creak?”

“You must be hearing things.” Roy replied, smiling as he made his way back to his desk.

“Good” Ed yawned.

Very little work got done in the office for the rest of the day. But, as Roy watched Ed sleep, sprawled half on and half off the couch, he had a feeling Hawkeye would understand.