1. Roy met golden eyes, and wondered if this was what drowning felt like.

2. He was young, too young, but urgent lips pressed against his own and it was hard to care.

3. It was such a mundane thing; a sleepy smile over a cup of coffee when he barged into Mustang's office, and just like that, he was in love.

4. It took some prodding --Ed was determined to resist him-- but when Roy finally convinced him to dance, they fit together like the pieces of a puzzle.

5. When Roy took his hands and asked why he kept pushing him away, Ed realized that he had no answer.

6. Roy kissed the junction of flesh and automail and Edward tensed briefly, before leaning forward with a shaky sigh.

7. Hundreds of miles between them, and every time he closed his eyes Edward could see him, smell him, and he missed him so desperately it felt like his heart was turning inside out.

8. Roy found the hastily scribbled note Edward had secreted in his pocket and smiled as he read it; folding it carefully when he finished and slipping it into his breast pocket, over his heart.

9. Watching Edward sleep was his guilty pleasure; his burdens soothed away in repose, and Roy couldn't imagine anything more beautiful.

10. Edward stared at the offered hand suspiciously, but he took it anyway and couldn't quite suppress the thrill at the simple touch.

11. Roy started upright, struggling from the grip of his nightmare, and Edward wrapped soothing arms around his shoulders and wondered when Roy would tell him what horrors haunted his dreams.

12. Roy choked on a laugh, staring at a widely grinning Ed, and hoped he never stopped surprising him.

13. Gentle fingers on his cheeks, his jaw, and Edward leaned into the touch, starkly terrified of how hard he had fallen.

14. Illuminated by lamplight and brows furrowed, Edward muttered to himself, scribbling array after array until Roy caught his hand and kissed it, startling the younger alchemist from his work and earning him a flustered blush.

15. Edward placed a hand on the worn headstone, hoping his mother would have understood that Roy was exactly what he needed.

16. Roy dangled the necklace in front of his face --two plain gold bands on a simple chain-- and clung to the hope that Edward was still alive, and that someday he would come home.

17. Ed shot a sidelong glare at Roy, irritated at being dragged to a stuffy military function, but Roy merely smiled apologetically, deft fingers stroking his neck soothingly, and Ed decided it could be worse.

18. The confession left his brother terribly, horribly silent, and Edward was afraid he might have to choose between them; a choice he didn't think he had the heart to make.

19. The best part of coming home was Edward.

20. Sometimes he wondered what would have happened if he'd said yes.

21. The universe was a peculiar thing; sometimes what you thought you needed meant nothing at all, and the one thing you never thought mattered was the only thing you ever really needed to be whole.

22. Edward drowsed happily in the crook of Roy's arm, thinking that the quiet moments were always the best moments.

23. The weight of every mistake he'd ever made came bearing down on him with crushing weight, and Edward stared at the blood on his hands and wondered when it had all gone so terribly wrong.

24. The chains of society kept them firmly bound and forever apart.

25. Roy's touch was the only thing that made him feel alive anymore.