Untitled ficlet no. 1

As a subordinate, Edward used to come and go into Roy's office as he pleased, whenever he pleased. Usually shadowed by the armour of his brother, he was sometimes nearly dragging his nails on the walls, it was so obvious he didn't want to be there in the first place.

As an adult, Edward still comes and goes on his own schedule without any regard to Roy's own time management. That much has stayed the same.

However, Roy soon found out that Edward the Person isn't nearly as insufferable as Fullmetal the Subordinate had once been. And perhaps Edward has realized as well that Roy Mustang isn't always wearing the Bastard Colonel — General, now — skin, either.

Roy could be fooled, though, when Ed grins at him from Roy's own sofa, socked feet propped on the throw pillows Roy so often uses as a headrest, and says, "Hey, Bastard," as if this is completely normal. As if Roy creeping into his own suspiciously unlocked house with his gloves on, ready to snap, is a common occurrence.

"Did you break into my house" Roy barks, slumping down against the doorway, heart still beating a mile a minute after having crept through the hallways like a master thief.

Ed shrugs, and Roy really could strangle him with his bare hands. "You were taking your sweet time, and I got tired of bumming around outside." A pause. "The neighbors were giving me strange looks," Edward adds after a moment of baffled silence on Roy's part, like an afterthought. He almost sounds mildly ticked off that the residents of Roy's very nice neighborhood found a virtual stranger stalking around a General's house alarming.

"So you broke into my house," Roy says flatly, for clarification. "For crying out loud, Edward, you're lucky no-one called the police! What were you thinking? How did you even get inside?"

It's Ed's turn to look confused; he burrows his brow and cocks his head to the side like a curious puppy-dog. He obviously hadn't even considered that Roy might question his decision to break into his house; chances are that he hadn't even considered it a break-in until now.

Roy can't decide if it's infuriating or strangely endearing.

"I went in through the door, Mustang," Ed says in the end. "Calm the hell down. I didn't climb in through the window or anything if that's what you're worried about."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Roy snaps, and then double-takes at his own reasoning.

What is he worried about?

The neighbors? Hardly; Roy has never much cared what the people in the neighborhood thought of him and his many apparent oddities — his choices in company, his slightly unkempt front lawn, or even the strange hours he keeps.

And Edward is hardly a stranger in his house these days, so his presence isn't it, either; Roy trusts Edward with all the secrets his house hides by now.

Why is Roy upset, then?

After a moment of consideration, Roy decides that he is angry on the general principle alone. "You can't just break into my home," he says, eyes narrowed at Edward who bravely scowls right back, now half propped up in a sitting position with one foot — the left, metal one — still on top of Roy's pillows. "It is a sanctuary and I don't appreciate you disturbing it so cheaply! It's a breach in security, and now I'll have to relocate the key I keep hidden outside for emergencies, in case any of the neighbors saw you — "

"What?" Ed says. "I picked the lock, dipshit, your spare key's safe. For fuck's sake." He sighs and sprawls on the sofa, head tipped back. Sounding put out, he says, "If I knew you were gonna be an asshole about it, I wouldn't have bothered. I thought you would come in and we would fuck, or at least do that mutual rubbing thing you like so much." Waving a hand around dismissively, he finishes, "But I can go, if you'd rather enjoy your sanctuary alone."

Roy swallows and straightens his back, and when he's sure that what's going to come out of his throat is his voice and not a croak, he says, "We could still fuck." He tries to make it sound casual, but despite his greatest effort, it still comes out sounding rough and dry.

Ed's grin is slow, predatory, and irresistible. "That's more like it," he says with his voice pitched low, and Roy gets a nagging feeling that whatever game they're playing between the two of them, he is very much losing.