Conversations Over Coffee

ObsessiveDevil23

Chapter 9

Roy let them both into his flat feeling faintly apprehensive, despite knowing almost exactly what was about to happen, thanks to Ed's spiel that afternoon informing him of exactly how the evening would go. Edward's hand was firm and hot against the small of his back, making heat spring up there and Roy feel shivery with anticipation and Ed guided Roy through the doorway and closed the door behind him, grinning a wicked grin at the older man. Roy turned and tried for a smile which probably looked incredibly nervous. He hated this part – the not knowing who was going to make the first move, the anxiousness over whether there was even a first move to be made. He felt like a virgin again every time he took someone home and they got to this odd lull in the proceedings, but now he felt it more so than ever, because he hadn't bought a man home since he still had a 'teen' at the end of his age. He was dealing with well over a decades worth of suspense.

They stilled in the small corridor just inside Roy's apartment, and the moon was coming in through the large windows in the living area, through the swirly room divider Roy had as a substitute for a wall on one side, and casting beams of light across Ed's face and hair. He looked gallant in the moonlight, and Roy took even breaths even as his toes curled slightly in his pointed shoes.

Edward ran an arm over his shoulders, pushing his hand upwards into Roy's hair at the back of his neck and angling his head down ever so slightly for a kiss. Roy's eyes instantly fell closed at the smooth feeling of the other man's lips on his own, and he felt Edward's other arm run around his waist and collect him forwards until he was held against the younger man's muscled chest. Roy put his hands on Ed's firm shoulders, feeling almost delicate in himself, and could already feel himself melting into the embrace. Ed's tongue slipped into his mouth, hot and wet against Roy's own, and the General couldn't help the pleased, gentle moan it elicited.

Gently, and Roy realised Edward was being cautious with all of his movements, the blonde turned them until Roy was resting against the wall in his corridor, and continued to kiss him in a way that was more romantic than lustful as his fingers deftly undid his captives' buttons and peeled his shirt from his shoulders. Then, when Roy was shirtless in the corridor, the material still hooked into his slacks and bunching around his waist, Edward stopped kissing him and stood back to look. Roy averted his gaze, shy for the first time in over fifteen years.

"Fuck, that looks painful." The blonde said.

He could have said, 'you look sexy' or 'damn you're hot', which would have been more appropriate, but his gaze was fixed on the wound on his shoulder. Roy didn't have to wear a dressing on it any more, but he was still advised against doing any strenuous exercise lest he open it up again. The wound itself was a red-raw circle where the point of entry was, and tight skin pulling into it on all directions. It was a bad scar, but Roy had seen, and given, much worse. Heck, he had worse.

"It can be." Roy replied, voice nothing but a whisper in the quiet of the corridor. He thought of the times he had forgotten to take his painkillers and had been near-on numb with the spikes of agony. He jumped slightly as Ed's fingers traced around the edges of the scar, and then travelled down to lower, older wounds.

"This one..." He breathed, almost reverently, fingers tracing softly over the healed burn on his side, from when Roy had sealed his own wound in the fight against Lust. "Al told me about this..."

Roy closed his eyes and willed himself to be patient. Edward wasn't the first lover to be interested in his scars, and he probably had more right to be than any of the women Roy had had there in the past, but even so it was difficult to have them pointed out to him whilst he was trying to get his rocks off. He sighed gently and put his hands back on Edward's chest, undoing some of the other man's buttons in turn and trying to get them back towards the bedroom.

He wasn't exactly innocent of how these things went, but Edward, as always, had an uncanny ability to put him on the back foot. The blonde stilled his gently tracing fingers, and then pushed Roy a little further back against the wall for more kisses – these ones hungrier, more desperate. He rocked his hips forwards and Roy couldn't help but gasp at the evidence of how affected Edward was by their proceedings. He fumbled as he unbuttoned a few more buttons and pushed the shirt off of Ed.

"We match." Edward whispered against his lips, breath hot and enticing a sound from Roy he would wholeheartedly deny in the morning. Then Ed stood back, and took his shirt properly from his shoulders, dropping it to the floor and leaving him bare-chested in his tight leather trousers.

Roy gasped in a quick breath at the sight of his partner, bathed in moon-beams, turning his bronzed skin creamy like caramel, and head to toe littered in the evidence of a painful existence.

Logically he had known that Edward had had a difficult childhood – and that scars came thick and heavy for him. There were the obvious ones like the jagged, raw edge around his right shoulder where he had lost his arm – a similar one would surely be above his left knee, had Edward been undressed enough for Roy to see it. There were the less loud ones, like the tiny white lines up his upper left arm, where he was always being thrown into things. But there, on his left side, around his abdomen, was a large, angry pink stretching of the skin that reminded Roy very much of the similar scar on his own stomach. For the first time Roy understood the need to explore another person's wounds, and before he knew what he was doing he had dropped to his knees, fingers itching out to touch. Yet they stopped halfway through the air when he caught up with himself.

Then Edward reached out and cradled his wrist, bringing his fingers forward to the scar and pressing them gently against the tight flesh there.

"How?" Roy asked, voice a harsh whisper in the silent hall. He looked up to see Edward grimacing gently. "A homunculus?" He guessed, and Edward shook his head.

"Just plain old human." He replied. "Kimblee dropped a building on me and a metal rod ran through here." He moved his hand, still holding Roy's over the scar, and Roy could feel the tight stretch of the skin under his fingers, moving as he spoke.

"How could you survive that?" He asked reverently, but Edward simply shrugged his shoulders and carded the finger of his free hand through Roy's fine hair with a look on his face that was equal parts saddened and loving.

"It doesn't matter." He mumbled, and Roy could pick up on the avoidance, but didn't push. The blonde leant himself back against the wall in the hallway, one hand still in Roy's hair and tickling the back of the older man's ear, and let go of where he was pressing Roy's fingers to the scar, travelling that hand down his own body, pressing at his cock through his leather trousers. Roy couldn't help but flicker his eyes down because of the movement, and it occurred to him just how close he was to the hard bulge in the leather. Ed let out a breath above him that sounded almost pained. "You look so good on your knees."

Roy's own dick pretty much shot to attention in his slacks at the words, and he had to close his eyes to waive away the rush of arousal that went through him, and when he opened them again he looked up to see Ed's usually golden eyes were lidded and nearly entirely black from how blown out his pupils were. Wordlessly, Roy reached out and unzipped the other man's trousers, feeling hot and bothered all over and gasping in a shocked breath as he peeled the black leather away to reveal Ed wasn't wearing underwear. The blonde's cock was suddenly three inches from his face, jutting up towards the other man's stomach and framed with a neat brush of thick golden curls at the base. Ed's hand in his hair tugged him forwards a little, probably entirely without Ed's rational thought process, and Roy allowed himself to brush his nose against the underside of his partner's erection, making the younger man breath in a deep breath through his nose and grip a little tighter at the hair at the back of Roy's head.

Roy had only done this once before in his life, way back before the academy, when Roy was about fourteen and Jaime Hertz, who had lived three doors down from his Aunt Chris' had invited him over for dinner one evening. Whilst Jaime's mother was in the kitchen roasting potatoes the two boys had been upstairs and engaged in a little 'show me yours and I'll show you mine'. One thing had lead to another and Roy had ended up washing thick white spunk off his face two minutes before they'd been called down for tea. He was, however, lucky enough that people did this for him fairly often, and he knew what he liked, so he turned his head to the side and licked a wet trail up and over the tip of his partner's cock, delighting in the shiver it bought forth from the blonde. He could only hope Ed would last a little longer than Jaime had.

He swirled his tongue over the head and then pushed his lips down over it and sucked gently, pushing his tongue a little further down the length and following it with his lips and mouth and keeping focused on the feeling of Ed's nails scratching at the back of his neck and his hips stuttering forwards and his breath starting to come out in harsh pants.

"Ffffuck." He hissed as Roy trailed two fingers up his inner thigh and ghosted them over his balls, before circling his hand around the base of his cock and beginning to pump him lightly.

Roy knew he wasn't an expert in giving blow-jobs, and he didn't want to push himself too hard too fast by trying to swallow as much as the other man as possible. Ed's dick was in no means small, and Roy wanted to enjoy what he was doing as much as he hoped Edward was enjoying it, so he used his hand to stimulate the base, and his mouth he kept for the head, and by the sounds his partner was making, he wasn't doing a terrible job. He pushed a hand between his own legs and pressed at his erection, dizzy with arousal at the imagery in front of him – Ed, leaning against the wall, naked but for the leather pooling around his ankles and his heavy boots – and the feeling of having the other man at his mercy for a moment. He gave another firm suck, and Ed replied by throwing his head back and hitting it against the wall, and then pushing his hand into Roy's fringe, pushing it backwards off his face and pushing the man's head away.

"Fuck, fuck, stop." He gasped, looking flushed and a little panicked. Roy rose an eyebrow at him, and the blonde let out a surprised sounding chuckle, squeezing himself around the base of his dick, and then he stooped low and shimmied himself out of his boots, kicking them away and standing naked in the hallway. He collected his leather trousers and fished in the pocket, before pulling out a recognisable foil square and holding it up in a way that was almost triumphantly. "We should have been using this." He mumbled.

Roy pushed himself back up into a standing position and levelled his partner with a curious look, and Ed must have interpreted it as a question because he rolled his eyes and then pulled Roy to him for a quick kiss.

"Last time I checked I was clean, but it's always better to be safe." He mumbled against the other man's lips.

Roy didn't disagree, he was just constantly being caught off guard by how mature his ex-subordinate was. Roy himself always used protection, but he also couldn't deny that his reasoning was because for over a decade he'd been exclusively bedding women, and he really didn't want to knock one of his dates up. He pressed another kiss to the younger man's lips and nodded, and trailed his hands behind Ed and smoothed them over the hard lines of Ed's back. The blonde was in no way shy, given he was currently alone in being naked in someone else's house, but now Edward grinned into the kiss and hooked his thumbs under Roy's waistband, catching up the underwear's band as well, and pulled them down. Roy's trousers, and the shirt that was still caught up in the waistband, fell to the floor, pooling around his ankles, and Roy was left, standing in the hall, trying not to feel self-conscious as Edward's golden eyes roamed over his naked body. He knew, logically, he was too pale and too lanky. Unlike Edward - who trained daily and had the muscles to show for it, Roy was at best lean. He ran in the evenings to keep his cardio up and stop from forming a beer belly, but had never felt the need to lift weights or show off his prowess at a pull-up. He wasn't even sure he could still do a pull-up since leaving the academy.

He'd never been self-conscious in front of women. He was by no means unattractive, and he did keep himself in shape – but it felt different with Edward, who would have had every opportunity to let himself go when he became a father, and yet clearly kept up his rigorous regime. In light of this, he automatically moved to cover his stomach with one hand, as the other hovered awkwardly in front of his rock-hard cock.

Edward moved further into his space, gave him a smile that might have been meant as reassuring, and then collected Roy's wrists and gently prised them apart, continuing to look at Roy as if he were some kind of marvel, and making the older man huff, looking anywhere but at his partner and fighting the blush from his face. It wasn't like this with women – they were the self-conscious ones. But now Roy was feeling the full brunt of being studied this way. Ed was naked too, he reminded himself, but the blonde seemed entirely unaffected by that.

Roy supposed when you had your sexual awakening with the Emperor of Xing, you would quickly get over any insecurities. Besides, there appeared to be nothing for Ed to be insecure about.

Then Ed's hands were pulling him forwards by his hips until their bodies were flush against each other, and Roy could feel the hard line of Edward's cock pressed up against his stomach, even as Ed stepped forward to cradle Roy more against the wall. His own cock pulsed in interest as Ed's fingers slipped between their stomachs and firmly wrapped around the head.

"Ah-" Roy huffed in encouragement as the blonde stroked him, and thought to return the favour, but Ed was rutting against him – his other hand pressing Roy back into the corridor wall against his uninjured shoulder and kissing him desperately. Roy tried to push his hands down between them but found one was uselessly tracing circles against Ed's left bicep and refusing to move from the firm muscle, and the other was flat palmed against his lower chest, unable to break through towards where the blonde was stroking him expertly. So instead he focused on giving the best kissing of his life, and was rewarded by Edward moaning into his mouth happily.

Edward rocked his hips forwards and Roy had to stop and concentrate for a moment on not just coming then and there. He threw his head back and moaned unabashedly, and only thought to be self-conscious about it when he peeled open his eyes to see the blonde he was with had a diabolical grin on his face. Then, before he could comprehend the idea of being embarrassed, Ed had hooked both his hands under Roy's thighs, and hoisted him up into the air.

"Edward!" The man exclaimed, instantaneously wrapping his arms around the blonde's neck because he definitely didn't want the other man to drop him, and squeezed his thighs into Ed's sides as the younger man carried him through the apartment towards the bedroom. Roy was feeling woozy as he remembered the blonde's ideas for the evening, and what exactly Ed had planned for when they reached the silk sheets of Roy's king-sized bed. Ed opened the bedroom door with his Auto-mail foot, carried Roy through the threshold with his hands kneading at the General's ass cheeks, and, true to his word, threw Roy onto the bed.

He bounced slightly, gasping, and feeling incredibly small next to Edward's might and strength. He reminded himself he did still have an inch or two on the shorter man, but that hardly seemed to matter in comparison to how easily Edward could manhandle him. He'd been instantly attracted to the blonde's muscles from the second he'd walked in to Fuhrer Grumman's office and seen the young man stood there, and although he was by no means a push-over himself, he couldn't lie and say he wasn't enticed by the idea of a man who was stronger than he was. He'd even confessed as much to Ed, although not in as many words. Still, the boy clearly knew that the strength difference between them was getting Roy going.

Damn, Roy thought, what did Ed promise next? – the fucking him until his neighbours complained? Yeah, he could get behind that.

Edward pushed him down in to a lying position with a firm hand on his uninjured shoulder, and crawled on to the bed, hovering over him. Instinctively, and if it ever got back to the office that he had done so there would be hell to pay, Roy spread his legs. Edward nestled his hips between them nicely, a devilish smirk on his features. Roy was so fucking done for. To hide his eagerness, although at this point he wasn't entirely sure why he still felt the need to be shy, he buried his hands in the younger man's hair and pulled it free of it's ponytail – letting the long blonde strands fall down over Edward's shoulders and down to Roy under him, tickling his already sensitive skin. He arched up into the sensation, and Ed cradled a hand around the back of his neck, angled his head and captured him in another searing kiss.

Fuck yes. Roy would have to write a letter of thanks to the Emperor of Xing for his part in Edward's sexual education, for he was certainly getting to enjoy the benefits of it now.

"Lube?" Edward questioned, and for a moment it threw Roy, who was becoming more than accustomed to the ex-alchemist seeming to have every aspect of every thing under control, but then he quickly recovered and waved a hand at the bedside drawers. Edward leaned over, opened up the top drawer and peered inside, before finally he selected a small purple bottle which had the name 'Booty Relax' printed on the front in capital letters. "I thought you hadn't dated men in years?" Edward asked, raising a shapely eyebrow at him. Roy rolled his eyes.

"I still wank." He huffed, and only after realised he'd just admitted to getting off alone using anal lube. It very much implied that he used it when fingering his own ass – because that was exactly what he used it for.

He would have been embarrassed if it wasn't for the fact that Ed gave a delicious moan at the thought, clearly enticed by the idea of Roy's masturbation habits, and delved back in for another languid, breath-taking kiss. Roy was so focused on the expertly swirling tongue in his mouth that he didn't notice the other man popping the lid on the lubricant and coating his fingers until one of those fingers was pushed between his legs, and suddenly everything became very real and present.

He hadn't had another man in his bed since he himself had been a teenager, and whilst Edward clearly knew what he was doing, Roy had to wonder whether conventions had changed in the time he was solely pursuing women. Besides, he knew his own fingers, he knew how to pleasure himself, but there was something entirely different, and terrifying, about having someone else prepare you.

A second later it didn't matter, because Ed found his mark and pushed a long, lube-soaked finger inside of him. Roy gasped. His back arched. His hands found Ed's biceps and gripped on. He'd forgotten how much he loved this. It was one thing to pleasure himself this way, but having someone else's fingers inside him, giving up control and letting someone see him pleasured and relaxed and ready to be fucked – that was a sensation he couldn't simulate on his own. It was made so much more impossibly amazing by the fact that this was Edward Elric. There was so much history between them, and so much of it wasn't great, but all of it was trusting, and Roy's chest began to pang with an odd tightness he couldn't place.

Jeez, he was probably just getting sappy because he hadn't had a good fucking in so long.

"Damn you're tight." Edward whispered against his neck, where he'd been kissing and sucking and most likely leaving marks because apparently the man was still young enough to think that was acceptable.

"It's been awhile." Roy confessed, and tried not to whine as the blonde began slowly pumping his finger in and out, fucking him with the thin digit.

Soon he'd worked up to two fingers, fucking him with them and stretching him with them, covered in lube. Roy's legs were quivering, lying on his back on the bed and trying really hard not to make too much noise to betray how much he was enjoying having Ed finger him, and the blonde was kissing him to within an inch of his life, rocking his hard cock against Roy's thigh as he tried not to be too impatient and bury himself inside his lover. If it wasn't for Roy making it perfectly clear that there wouldn't be a need to add another finger, something which definitely could have backfired if Ed had taken that to mean Roy thought his cock was small, then Edward would most likely have continued to torture him with a thorough finger-fucking for most of the night. As it was, he finally pulled out his messy, lubed up fingers and gripped himself around the base of his dick, surveying Roy, who probably looked thoroughly flushed and wanting.

The General pushed himself up on to his elbows, and then leaned over to take the condom from Ed, who was struggling to open it with slicked up fingers. He ripped open the foil packet, pinched the top and rolled it down on to Ed's length. The Blonde closed his eyes and breathed heavily against the tight, all encompassing feel of it, and when he felt more in control, he gave his cock a few teasing strokes, leaning on his knees over Roy and looking like a bronzed and beautiful porn model. Roy poured a little more lube on to the boys condom covered cock and stroked it up and down to spread it around, and then he was pushed back on to his back and Ed dragged him forwards by his hips until he was resting on Ed's thighs and the boy's dick was pressing up against his entrance.

He let his head fall back into the pillows and breathed out deeply through his nose as the younger man rocked forwards into him. His stomach clenched in lust, and his hands shot up to smooth his own hair off of his forehead, and then Edward ducked his head down and grazed his teeth over the bottom of Roy's ribs, and Roy was shouting in pleasure.

"You feel so good." Edward whispered against his chest, and Roy's hands worked of their own accord to bury in his lover's hair, and then the younger man was rocking, thrusting into him, and Roy was entirely powerless to stop a string of swearwords falling from his mouth in half-formed puffs of breath.

The blonde shimmied up and breathed against his neck, his hips not faltering in their rhythm and with each thrust he seemed to fuck Roy further into the sheets. Roy grit his teeth against the other man's golden hair, closed his eyes, and tried to grow used to the stretch in his ass and the powerful thrusts. Then Edward hooked a hand under each of his knees, and pushed them up towards his shoulders, spreading his legs wider and changing the angle of his thrusts, and Roy shouted loudly in shock and pleasure.

"I knew you'd be loud." The blonde teased, and Roy didn't even have it in him to be annoyed. Okay, fine, he was loud. He'd fucking scream so long as Ed continued to fuck him like this. It was just something he couldn't get with women. They were all very good and pretty, but they always wanted him to take control. Most of the time he loved that, but when he wanted to be with a man it was for the reason of needing someone to look after him. Roy couldn't help but be thankful to Edward for seeming to understand that.

He hooked one hand around the wooden slats in his bed's headboard, mostly for steadiness, and the other one was resting on Ed's shoulder. He closed his eyes, angled his head down into the crevice of the blonde's neck, and breathed in the scent of shampoo and gun-oil and the musty, masculine scent of a sweaty twenty-something rocking into him. Pleasure was spiking in his stomach, curling and twisting down towards his gut, made worse by his erection trapped between them and constantly stimulated by the hard lines of Edward's six-pack stomach. His hand, resting on Ed's shoulder, drifted up to circle around the other man's neck, and Roy pulled him impossibly closer, breathing harshly against the blonde's skin.

"Ah!" He huffed, repeatedly, as Edward's hip continued up their unfaltering rhythm, and before long the air of his bedroom was filled solely with his own cries of pleasure, Edward's quiet huffs of exertion, and the wet, lewd sound of their fucking. The blonde's fingers were digging in deliciously into his thighs, keeping his legs spread and open for him, and his glorious lips were dusting kisses all over his shoulders, neck and chest. Roy couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so worshipped during sex, and the thought made another sharp pang clench in his chest.

Edward let go of his thighs, and Roy, worried about he unusual amount of affection he had for his ex-subordinate, distracted himself by pushing the man off him, turning them so that their positions were swapped and Roy was now hovering over Edward, who was lying on his back. The blonde rose an eyebrow at him challengingly, but Roy simply leant down and captured the younger man in a slow kiss, burying one hand in his ridiculously long hair, and steadying himself with the other on the bed, while he climbed on top with a leg on either side of his partner.

Ed moaned into the kiss, and Roy wanted to hear him do that every day for the rest of his life. As it was, he simply reached down between his legs, angled Ed's cock the right way, and sank himself down on it. The blonde, for all of his talk of Roy being loud, shouted incoherently in pleasure.

"Fuck, oh fuck, Roy." He huffed, once he had control his volume again. Roy raised himself up on his knees and let himself sink back down again, breathing out heavily through his mouth and aware of the heat over his chest and around his ears and cheeks. Edward placed his hands on Roy's hips gently and stared at him with his molten-gold eyes lidded heavily. "You're beautiful."

It wasn't the most manly of compliments, but Roy would take it.

He placed a hand delicately on the other man's chest, angled himself slightly better and began riding his partner in earnest, grateful that the extra concentration meant he had quieted down and thus Edward could no longer tease him. He was still fighting the urge to whine in pleasure, and keen into the other man's strong hold, but he was too focused on the rhythmic up and down movement of his legs and hips to do anything more than fuck eagerly. Edward, at least, seemed to really enjoy the stimulation and the view, because he was whispering words of praise under his breath, staring at Roy with lust-filled eyes.

Then, after a while, when Roy's thighs were starting to shake from the effort, the blonde surged upwards and knocked Roy back a little, capturing him with one strong arm snaked around his back, and Roy found himself straddling a sat up Edward Elric, who was mouthing at his neck and thrusting his hips upwards to meet Roy's downward slides. Ed pushed a hand down between them, wrapped his fingers around Roy's cock and began jerking him off roughly, and the all-encompassing feeling of the man fucking him, holding him and stroking him had him seeing stars in no time at all. His heart clenched painfully as electricity seemed to surge through his entire being and rush towards his dick, exiting in ropes of warm semen splattered over Ed's hand and stomach whilst Roy gripped on to the other man's shoulders and cried out desperately.

"Edward." He puffed out, dizzy from the force of his orgasm, and only vaguely registered the young man responding with a far away hum.

Then Ed's hips faltered and he was coming too, stuttering up into Roy and breathing out a long, semi-pained sounding 'haaaah' into his neck. Roy shivered in pleasure, his whole body shaking, and it was another couple of minutes before Edward's breathing returned to normal, and – as if it was nothing – he lifted Roy up and deposited him down on the sheets next to him, smiling at the older man in post-coital bliss. Roy had no control over his face at that moment in time, he smiled back a smile that was more dopey than anything else, and his eyes slipped closed from how contented and sleepy he felt. He felt Ed run a hand down his side in a gesture that somehow felt more intimate than anything else they'd done that evening, and heard the boy grumbling as he took off the condom, tied it and threw it away, and then he felt a delicate kiss being placed to his temple, as he was allowing sleep to claim him.

"Hmm, love you." He mumbled sleepily, too far gone for conscious thought, and snuggled further down into the pillows.

And then, and he registered dimly that he'd not been so comfortable after sex to do this in years, he fell asleep.

Roy woke the next day with a confession on his tongue and the impression that he should probably just dig his own grave and jump into it. The sun was streaming in through the large window and lighting up the purples of his sheets in shades brighter than they were, and a quick glance at the clock told him he was half an hour early for his alarm. The bottle of lube that had been used the night before was lying not-so-innocently a little way down the covers, and the used condom was hanging over the edge of the waste-paper-basket, where Edward had flung it mostly blind. Which Roy had to admit was probably a fairly impressive shot. Edward himself, was nowhere in sight.

Which was probably a good thing because Roy had just remembered falling into post-orgasm sleep and mumbling a subconscious, but probably more heart-felt than he would like to admit, 'love you' at the other man. He sat up in his bed and immediately buried his head in his hands, allowing himself a self-pitying moan. Ed was probably half-way to East City by now, thanking his lucky stars he'd skipped out before Roy started proclaiming his want for a wedding and children. He could murder himself – you didn't confess your love for anyone after one night of (admittedly amazing) fucking – you certainly didn't do it to your ex-subordinate directly after all of the emotional trauma Roy had been through the last couple of weeks.

Damn, maybe he was more messed up than he had originally thought.

He sighed at himself, because logically he knew damn well his confession to Edward the night before had absolutely nothing to do with any emotional trauma he'd recently been through, and almost everything to do with the fact that Edward was beautiful and insanely intelligent and thoughtful enough to let Roy walk to a restaurant even though it would have been quicker and more traditional to drive. He hadn't dated a man in over a decade, and yet he'd taken a chance on Ed – so that had to count for something.

He lifted himself from bed, found some old jogger-bottoms and a comfortable shirt in his wardrobe, which would do for him getting a morning cup of coffee in him before he had to wake up properly and return to work, and assured himself that if Edward was on a train back to East City, tail between his legs, then Roy wasn't going to sit and pine for him. He had a damn-sight more pride than that. As it was, he entered his kitchen to see a familiar blonde head of hair pouring two mugs full of sweet caffeine, and his stomach started doing back-flips entirely of it's own accord.

Edward was wearing his red shirt from the night before, and what looked suspiciously like a pair of Roy's boxers, and Roy was fairly certain he was going to have a heart attack. The man turned to him as he entered and smiled his unfairly beautiful smile, undone hair slipping down over one shoulder and tanned skin absolutely shining in the morning light. The kitchen barely even got any light, so Roy figured Edward was simply stunning enough to light up the room all by himself.

The blonde carried his two mugs, his black and Roy with a splash of milk and his morning spoonful of sugar, over to the small table, and placed them down on either side, sliding into his chair with a sleepy, but serious look on his face. All of a sudden Roy imagined himself sitting down for an interview – that this early morning conversation over coffee was going to define their relationship, whatever that was – and as such, he sank into the other chair with no small amount of trepidation running through his veins.

He instantly took a large gulp of his coffee to try and calm his nerves, but Edward had clearly only just boiled the kettle because it was far too hot and he was forced to swallow quickly, scalding his tongue, the roof of his mouth and his throat on the way down. He wasn't too concerned, he'd had hotter burns and scalds, but it did result in his grimacing painfully and losing whatever semblance of cool he had been trying to achieve. He looked up in time to see Ed rubbing his thumb and forefinger over his mug's handle, staring down at the cup with something sad in his golden eyes. Roy wanted to reach out and comfort him, but kept his hands firmly on his own side of the table. One night of sex did not a relationship make, he reminded himself, and it wasn't his place to claim the blonde as his own simply because he now had first hand experience of just how big his dick was.

Then, Edward stood, went over to the kettle, and collected a fanned out newspaper he had obviously been reading whilst he prepared the drinks, and took it back to the table, smoothing it out in front of Roy, print angled towards the General – an invitation to read. So Roy read, and with each word the frown on his face grew more pronounced.

MUSTANG AND THE METAL-MAN: AN EXPOSE

Last night, not even twelve hours after the court case that saw General Matthias Guttering sentenced to seventeen years in prison for attempted rape as a hate-crime, General Roy Mustang, who was the painted victim in the case being hailed as a turning point in "Gay History", was spotted spending his evening in a romantic setting with his former subordinate, twenty-two year old Edward Elric, the former Fullmetal Alchemist and Hero of the People.

Mustang and Elric spent the evening together at a family owned restaurant by the river, called Harverti's, and allegedly shared meals and debated science together. A waiter, working that evening, disclosed that the two seemed very comfortable in each-others presence and that they seemed to be heading home together at the end of their date. This comes less than a few hours after Mr Elric proclaimed that Mustang had 'never touched' him when he was working under the man in Eastern Command as a loyal subordinate, and that it was he who was pursuing the older man now that he is a legal adult, separated from his wife.

Mustang is known as something of a playboy amongst the women of Central, where he lives and regularly dates, but the revelation of his bisexuality was news because the man was never once seen dating another male – despite being a public figure and supposedly attracted to them. It begs the question, was he carrying on a relationship behind closed doors with his under-age subordinate, using his public dates with women as a decoy? Or is it simply that the man had his sexual awakening in his mid-thirties, when Elric came back into his life as a bodyguard, and what we are witnessing now is the beginnings of Mustang playing the field as a bisexual man, exploring his new desires with anyone who is willing?

Roy stopped reading at that point, flipping the paper over and taking another large gulp of his coffee. It had cooled a little and the strong, sweet taste of it calmed him just enough for him to not attempt to find his gloves and snap so that every news-stand in Amestris was left as nothing but ash. He was foolish to believe a favourable outcome to the court-case was going to get people off his back about dating Edward, and now he was staring down another inflammatory article assuming things about him as a man, and about the man he had spent the night before with, and posting it for all the world to see – next to another out-of-context picture. This one clearly taken during their date the night before, with their hands locked across the tables at Harverti's and staring at each-other in a way that could be construed as loving, or might be seen as a young man hero-worshipping his ex-CO.

Roy felt sick again.

"I'm going to be heading back to East City this afternoon." Edward informed him.

"It's one article. They'll move on to something else tomorrow." Roy heard himself say, mouth moving before his brain had caught up, as it so often did when the blonde was around. Edward shot him a look, somewhere between irrevocably sad and incredibly angry.

"Did you read the whole thing?" He asked.

Roy noticed the blonde's coffee was sitting abandoned by his side. That was incredibly unlike Edward, who Roy had come to know was addicted to caffeine. He shook his head slowly – there had been at least two thirds of the article that he hadn't been able to bring himself to slug through. Then, Edward flipped the paper back to the article and ran his finger down the page, past the incriminating photo of the two of them holding hands at the restaurant, down past the information on Roy's supposed sexual awakening and the supposition on what that meant for the poor innocent souls of Central Town, and let his fingers come to rest on the fifth paragraph from the bottom.

"Read from there." He encouraged.

If we assume that Mustang is looking to settle down with the first man he jumps into bed with, then let us now think about whether Edward Elric is the right choice for a decorated General in the Military. We know Elric knows the ins and outs of Mustang's job, and should be able to support his lover in his chosen career, seeing as he used to work under the man, but does that make him husband material for the General? Is Elric husband material at all?

Elric married childhood sweetheart Winry Rockbell, of the famous Rockbell Auto-Mail Engineering in Rush Valley, at the tender age of eighteen. Rockbell never changed her name, citing the need to keep her professional identity, and indeed she was the breadwinner of the family for some time, until Elric took a job as a bodyguard to support her and their children, Sasha Elric, now three, and Maesie Elric, now two. In investigating the marriage, it has come to light that Elric spends most of his time travelling for assignments or spending his down-time in the Xingese Palace with his childhood friend, Ling Yao, Emperor of the largest country in the world. It is no surprise then, giving the long history of the Xingese Emperors being sexually promiscuous, that there were rumours of Elric's infidelity whilst in Xing.

Elric is a soon to be divorced father of two, working long hours and all across the country in his job as a bodyguard with VGA Protection Firm. He has a history of cheating on his spouse, and leaving his two children for long periods of time. A source has informed this reporter that both Elric children spent some time in Central with their father during his last assignment, spending their time in Mustang's office and causing the entire team to work around them. If Mustang married Elric would that be par for the course? Would the General suddenly find himself a part-time father, his energy taken up not for the good of the country but with caring for two children that are not biologically his?

The article trailed off into more supposition about Roy's career, but by now he was well and truly defeated. He flipped the paper back over to it's front page again and leant back in his chair, feeling exhausted.

"They published my children's names." Edward informed him, as if he hadn't just read it.

The look on his face was livid now, and Roy imagined the blonde would have no problems with him going back to his original plan of burning every news-stand in Amestris, possibly in the world. He nodded once.

"Yeah." He agreed after a moment, not sure what else to say. The whole article was a certifiable shit show.

Edward clicked his tongue, and Roy's gaze flickered down to the movement.

"I'm not good for you." He said, repeating the words of the reporter. "Everyone will either think you were fucking me when I was a kid, or that I'm a horrible parent who wants to dump my kids on you."

Roy reached out across the table, and Edward still caught his fingers. They were cold. The General squeezed them gently, rubbing back and forth to try and entice some warmth into them. Edward glanced down, but then quietly drew them away.

"We don't think that." Roy tried. "Surely we're the only people that actually matter when it comes to what we are to each other."

Edward flicked his molten-gold eyes up to Roy, raising a challenging eyebrow.

"And what, exactly, are we to each other?" He questioned. Roy had been hoping Edward could have told him. Edward was resting his elbow on the table, his head in his hand, and levelled Roy a considering look. Suddenly, the General felt a little hot under his collar. "Don't think I didn't hear you last night."

And there it was – there was no way Edward was ever going to let him get away with it, with his stupid confession in post-coital bliss as he fell asleep – and Roy's stomach started doing uncomfortable back-flips as he squirmed and tried to figure out a way to explain his mouth confessing a love his brain still wasn't entirely sure he had. He bit his lip and looked down at the paper, and then rolled that up and stowed it away under the table because he was done with looking at other people's opinions of him.

"I was incredibly fucked out." He confessed – he was, after all – he hadn't been so incredibly sated in a very long time. He hoped appealing to Edward's ego would deter the boy from pushing him harder. But then Roy had never been that lucky.

Edward smirked at him, and Roy thought he might well and truly be melting under how incredibly attractive the brat was.

"You fall in love with everyone who puts their dick in you?"

Hell, the man was crude. Somehow that made Roy even more attracted to him, because he wouldn't get that kind of teasing with anyone else. He ducked his head.

"I said 'love you', not that I was in love with you. It was simply a show of appreciation." He lied.

He was quite good at lying, most of his job was just lying. Edward, however, could smell his bullshit from a mile away. He reached across the table, hooked a finger under his chin, and forced him to look back up at him. He couldn't have been more clichéd if he tried, and Roy couldn't help but love it. The man was smirking even more now, a teasing glint in his eyes, and Roy hated the fact that his body-chemistry was reacting to it, his cock stirring interestedly in his joggers – thankfully underneath the table and completely out of Edward's sight.

"Then you're welcome." The blonde said, voice pitched low in a tone that told Roy that Edward was more than up for a round two as well.

Roy allowed his eyes to slip closed for a second, pleasure building in his crotch, and then opened them again – he couldn't allow himself to get swept up in the lure of sex when they were defining their relationship and there was still the issue of whether Edward would actually still be in Central the next day. He clenched his fists, trying to quell himself back to neutral and not do something embarrassing like prostrate himself on the table.

"Edward." He warned, and that one word was enough for them both to know what he was warning them about.

He thought about the confessions they'd given each-other thus far; that Edward had entertained an undefined crush on him in his teenage years, and that Roy was certainly attracted to him now. He wondered if that put Edward in a more soul-baring position right now, since last night was the culmination of feelings he had been struggling with for years. Yet… Edward had been the one to get married and sire two children, leaving Roy alone for six years without so much as a letter to see how the blonde was getting on. Roy had felt that loss keenly and painfully for six years, and now Edward was threatening to go back to East City once more, and Roy couldn't deny him the right to be with his family at that moment, when soon Winry would read the newspaper and see her children's names in print, and the Rockbell-Elric's would become the centre of a media frenzy. He couldn't stop Edward from going back to his family over what was essentially only the possibility of a relationship.

Edward stood, and Roy could see the tent in his boxers – Roy's boxers – pulled tight over his ridiculously muscled thighs, and now his straining cock. The General's mind short-circuited. Heck, if Edward planned on going back to East City that afternoon, then the least he could do would be to give Roy the memories of morning-sex against the kitchen counter, right?

As it was, the blonde went right over to the kettle, as if he was going to make another coffee, and leant his hands heavily against the counter top. Roy wouldn't be held responsible for his gaze lingering on the perfect globes of ass framed by the dark material of his boxers. Honestly, Edward could have worn his own underwear – it would definitely have made this conversation easier on Roy.

"I need to return to East City." The blonde told him, back turned, and it was exactly what Roy had thought he would say. "I need to put down some roots and actually spend time with my kids and be a better dad. I've been thinking since Sasha and Maesie took the train here that this should be my last assignment. I need to quit VGA, get a more settled job and be there for them. The best place for me to do that is in the East – it's close enough to Rush Valley that we can do regular visitations, and I can set myself up with Al whilst I find somewhere more permanent."

It was rehearsed. Roy remembered Edward telling him the day before that he was going to talk to Winry about finalising the divorce and seeing his kids more often, and what he was being told now was probably the culmination of that. He nodded his head solemnly, even though Edward couldn't see him, with his back turned.

"I need to focus on damage control." He sighed, trying to find something to make this conversation feel more even, and remembering Riza's dire warnings. "Find someone, settle down, etc."

He hated the idea of it, but his job was in Central and Edward's life was in the East. He couldn't build an entire relationship with Edward based on one night of fucking, and the general public would never go for it anyway – he was still fourteen years Edward's senior and his ex-CO, there was no other way to look at it. The best thing for his career would be to find a sensible lady in her thirties and marry her, hopefully putting the entire scandal with Edward behind them. He looked up in time to see the blonde nodding, his long blonde hair bouncing slightly.

"Right." He agreed.

"Right." Roy repeated.

There was an awkward lull between them. This was what was best for them at that point in their lives – they both knew it, but it didn't make it suck any less. Edward rolled his shoulder back, and Roy couldn't help but hone in on the movement, his mouth going dry at just how ridiculously muscled the man was. He'd put everything on the line for this boy, he told himself – he'd agreed to go to trial because he thought it would benefit people like Edward. There should be some divine pay-off for that. Yet, here they were, agreeing to leave whatever tentative relationship they could have had in the dust. Agreeing to relocate to different areas of the country, possibly never to see each-other again.

Roy hated how much his heart was hurting, and how much it reminded him of that last time Edward had told him he was moving back East, a few days after the Promised Day when Roy had still been blind and Edward still a teenager. He had hated it then, feeling what he had thought was the loss of a loyal, brilliant subordinate. Now he realised he was feeling the loss of all that potential of what they might be together.

"Hey, if you're ever in the East." Edward mumbled, and trailed off.

Roy wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean. If you're ever in the East we can see if we can start dating again? If you're ever in the East I'll get down on one knee and propose? If you're ever in the East we can hook up and I'll show you exactly how loud I know you can be? Really, it was all about potential.

He puffed out a breath of air and nodded. Edward re-filled the kettle, put it on the stove, and then collected their abandoned mugs.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled, re-doing the drinks.

Roy watched him measure out the coffee and felt a tiny amount of weight being lifted off his chest. He stood too, coming up behind Ed and wrapping his arms around the man's waist. He nuzzled his nose into the other man's hair, grinning stupidly that despite the fact that Edward outdid him in pretty much every way, he at least still had a couple of inches on the other man, and breathed in his scent – still smelling vaguely of sweat and sex from the night before.

"If I'm ever in the East." He repeated, "if I'm ever relocated to the East, then we're going to give this a shot." He promised.

Edward's hands stilled with the spoon halfway back to the coffee jar, and then he carried on as if he hadn't been effected. Using a minuscule movement, he nodded his head, and Roy felt his sunny strands tickle his nose.

There was a feeling between them, an understanding that chances were Roy would never be relocated East – or that if he ever did it would be long after he had settled down and found himself a nice, unassuming wife. The General had his career to focus on, and even if he did get a relocation to the East and was still available, there was no guarantee that Edward would be – the blonde was a man in his prime, and having two children would hardly stop suitors from falling at his feet. But it was potential, it was a chance, and a hope, and Edward had always been good at hope. They weren't in the right stages of their lives for anything to happen when Edward had been a teenager, and despite trying, they weren't at the right stages of their lives for them to give it their all at that moment – but maybe, one day, they might be.

Until then, they'd settle down before work, and have another conversation over coffee.