The Rest of the Story

A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing, everyone. I hope you've all enjoyed these so far. This little drabble-ish thing came from a suggestion on LiveJournal, and again, anything you'd like to see, let me know in a review.

Hope you enjoy.

Inked

"You're serious?" Ed asked, looking up at him. "I just stamp and go?"

Roy grinned. "Yes. How many hand cramps or people doubting that's a real signature are we going to have before you believe me?"

"But, isn't that lazy? I mean, I write enough as it is. My hand isn't cramping up just from the signatures," Ed said, twirling the iron handle in his automail hand.

"I use them for minor documents, Ed," Roy said, sitting next to the younger man at his lab table.

"Like I said. Lazy." Despite the words, Ed was grinning over at Roy. Moments like these, Roy was reminded of just how young Ed was in comparison to himself, a reminder that Ed, regardless of dogged research and ancient eyes, had his moments of looking all of his 22 years. "You don't use your symbol, do you?"

"I don't want alchemists accidentally touching it and incinerating the document, Ed. I use my signature."

Ed looked down at the rubber-covered base of the metal object in his hand. "So why isn't mine?"

"You never consistently sign your name, Ed."

"You make it sound like I'm not capable of doing it. Like I need to sign X on the line."

Roy grabbed eithr side of Ed's ace. "It's a gift, Ed. Stop making such a fuss over it. It's your Flamel becaue it's distinctly you, and you can use it to replace your signature on documents or mark something as yours."

Ed still eyed him suspiciously.

Roy gently kissed his husband on the lips. "A gift. I even got you red ink so that no one doubts it's your symbol."

Ed rollwed his eyes before kissing Roy again in thanks.

********

Really, Ed didn't want to know how grateful he'd been for his husband's gift, but since he'd received the thing, he'd marked his red Flamel on twelve order forms, ten request slips, and was just about to use the wonderful little gift again when Al suddenly spoke up.

"Um, Brother... I don't think anyone's going to believe these are from you."

"Why not? It's my symbol, or at least, our symbol."

"But it's, well, pink."

"Pink!" Ed jumped up from his chair.

"Yeah," Al said, looking down at Ed, somewhat frightfully. "I mean, I wondered if you know if it was pink, but I didn't think you could."

"Do you really think I'd stamp official documents with pink Flamels?"

"Wel, not really, but I thought..." Al shook his head as though thinking better of whimself. "I don't know what I thought."

"Pink! bet the bastard did it on purpose! I bet he knew when he gave this to me. Though it would be funny to see me trying to hand this through the Amestris bureoucrats." Ed was scowling down at the supposedly red inkpad, just imagining what he'd do to his husband the moment he got home.

********

"This most certainly dries red, sir," the store owner said.

"I'm glad," Roy said. "I had to do a bit of convincing to ensure my husband believed I didn't do this on purpose."

The owner laughed, handing over the blood-red pad to the fuhrer.

"Thank you," Roy said, looking over at the man behind the counter. He was ready to turn away and thought better of it. "Sir, may I ask, how long does the ink take to wash off?" Fighting the heat rising to his face, Roy quickly covered. "With children in the house, should they find it, you understand."

"It is semi-permanent, so if it is on fabric, it may not fade."

"You still don't believe me, Ed? I told you that I didn't do it on purpose. Now untie me."

"And if it's on skin?"

"Oh, I believe you completely, but we wouldn't want this to go to waste, and a stamp like this can also be used to mark what's mine. You said so yourself. And I intend t o cover every inch."

"A few days, Fuhrer, sir."

Roy nodded, tightening his collar, hoping that the marks on his neck didn't look noticeably like tiny Flamels, that perhaps he could pass them off as a fuchsia-colored rash.