I keep meaning to walk away from this fandom, and yet, somehow, I keep writing more fic for it. This was written for awesomenaruto. It is basically a continuation of the EdWin piece of my fic Lives, but you really, really don't need to have read that to read this.

When Ed stepped off the train platform, the first thing he saw was Jean Havoc, standing next to the arrivals with a shit-eating grin on his face and a large sign reading "Fullmetal".

"For fuck's sake," Ed said, pushing the sign down, "It's been twelve years! Is he ever going to stop calling me that?" Ed sighed. People were already whispering and pointing.

"Only as long as it still irritates you," Havoc said, cheerfully. He picked up the cane that he'd leaned against the wall, and started leading Ed out to where he'd parked the car. "He's looking forward to seeing you," he said, conversationally. "I warn you, he's going to try to convince you to move to Central."

Ed snorted. "If he really wanted me out here, he'd negotiate with Winry, not me," he said, tossing his suitcase in the trunk of the car.

Havoc laughed as he maneuvered himself into the driver's seat. "I wouldn't want to go up against your old lady," he said, amicably. "Then again, the boss is married to Hawkeye, so we already know that he lives for danger."

"Speaking of dangerous women," Ed said, slyly, "How's Catalina?"

"Becky? Dangerous?" Havoc grinned. "She's a kitten compared with your fire-breathers."

"A kitten who's certified on firearms and heavy weapons," Ed pointed out. "I have some more baby things for you, by the way. Winry threatened me with bodily harm if I didn't pass them along."

"Oh, god," Havoc said. "More baby things. It's our fourth kid, you'd think we'd have everything we could possibly need by now!"

Ed grinned, and shook his head. "All I know is what I've been told," he said. "I learned a long time ago that it's best not to argue."

Ed spent much of his time that day not telling people that they were idiots. Roy had called him in, as he did every so often, to consult about ongoing problems in the East. Apparently, he was supposed to be some kind of expert, by virtue of having traveled through most of it in his youth. And, Mustang liked to point out, by having personally caused at least some of the damage. Still, if Ed had ever needed proof that politics were not his forte, these trips out to Central were it. He hated not being able to tell people that they were idiots.

"You're staying with us tonight, I hope?" Riza asked him, toward the end of the day.

"Yeah," Ed said. "Bastard at least owes me a free meal and a place to stay in exchange for all this crap."

"Good," she said, smiling. "I've been hoping we'd get a chance to catch up."

Roy cooked, as usual. Ed was useless in the kitchen. Riza could put together a perfectly edible meal, but Roy could actually cook, and almost always did when Ed was in town. On one level, it was stupid. Amestris's Prime Minister certainly had a cook in his employ. It was nice, though, for it to be just them, sitting at the kitchen table while Roy chopped vegetables and seared meat.

"How are Winry and the kids?" Riza asked him. "She and I haven't been able to talk much since this mess with Aerugo started. I was hoping that you'd be able to bring her this time, but..."

"Yeah," Ed said. "She wanted to come, but between Sara starting school and her picking up some new patients, she just couldn't make it."

"Sara's starting school already?" Roy said, scraping some vegetables into a pan.

Ed shrugged. "That's what happens when they get to be five years old, Roy." He grinned. "Do you want to see pictures?"

"Ugh," Roy said, but he didn't mean it. "You're getting to be as bad as Hughes."

Ed's smile turned a touch melancholy. "I'm going to have dinner with Gracia and Elysia tomorrow, speaking of which. So no need to worry about me then."

"Good to know," Riza said. "Now, pictures?"

After dinner, they ended up in the living room. Riza leaned up against Roy, sipping a glass of white wine. Ed was flopped at the opposite end of the couch with his own glass. Roy was holding forth about politics in general and about the maddening antics of the Cretan ambassador in particular. "Then I get to the end of this ridiculous list of demands, and find out that the last thing that the asshole wants is, get this, a damned elephant!"

Ed laughed. "What did you do?"

"Sent Breda and Falman out East to find the man his elephant, that's what I did," Roy said, grinning. "You should have seen the look on his face when I showed up with it. I got two major concessions on that treaty while he was still in shock, too."

"Do you know what he did with it?" Ed asked

Roy laughed. "Damned if I know. Riza?"

"He kept it," she said, sipping her wine. "It's still living in the embassy compound. Which you'd know, Roy, if I could ever get you to attend a function there."

"Hey," Roy said. "I'm a busy man. And besides, that's why I have you- to attend parties so I don't have to."

Riza rolled her eyes. "I never thought that 'attending parties' was going to be such an important part of my skillset," she observed.

"You see?" Roy said, "That's why you love me. I'm helping you expand your horizons."

Riza sighed, and looked at her now-empty glass. "If that's what you want to call it. I'm heading to bed now, I think." As she left the room, she leaned down and kissed Roy with astonishing tenderness, her hand brushing his cheek. It made Ed's heart ache for Winry. He wondered whether he'd get a chance to call her tomorrow. He liked traveling, but he always missed her.

After a long moment, Riza stood. "Goodnight, Ed," she said. "I'll see you in the morning." Then she was gone.

Roy looked after her with naked, helpless awe on his face.

"You're a lucky son of a bitch," Ed observed, raising his glass to Roy.

Roy gathered himself. "She's been my..." He paused, searching for the right word. "My touchstone for more than twenty years," he said. "Somehow, I'm still surprised that she married me." He laughed at himself, took a sip of his wine. "I guess you probably understand that. Though nobody was surprised when you married Winry, no matter how many times you tried to claim she was just your mechanic."

"Havoc said you were going to try to talk me into moving to Central," Ed said, conversationally.

"Havoc talks too much," Roy said, scowling.

"What, are you offering me some kind of job?" Ed asked. "I thought you'd given up on that."

"My interior minister is resigning," Roy said. He straightened up, and Ed could almost see Roy-the-Politician come out to play. "You could do the job, Ed. I trust you, and whatever you may think, people still remember the Fullmetal Alchemist. That's political capital that we could use."

"I know that I could kick ass at the job, Mustang," he said. "It's a question of whether I want to."

"C'mon, Elric," Roy said, sipping his wine again, "Don't you get bored out there in the boonies?"

Ed thought about Winry, and little Al, and Sara, and days spent bickering and reading and playing and teaching, with his family at his side. "Do you ever regret not having kids, Roy?"

The question was presumptuous. Riza wasn't quite so old that kids were out of the question, but you had to assume that if they were gonna, they would have done it by now. Roy's dark eyes went darker. He leaned back into the couch, looking away. "When you have kids," Roy said slowly, "You have to give your whole life to them. Equivalent exchange- the cost of creating life." He paused. "Riza and I lost our lives to Ishval, a long time ago. What we have left isn't ours to give away anymore. We refused to bring a kid into the world if we couldn't do it right." He sipped his wine. "You understand that, I know."

"Is that a yes?" Ed said, mulishly.

Roy shrugged. "I don't think the loss is ours to regret, quite frankly."

"You sound like Riza," Ed said, draining his glass. "I think you're both stupid. You would have been happier having kids and retiring out to the country to take care of them."

"You sound like Maes," Roy said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm taking that as a compliment," Ed said, and grinned. "Want to see my pictures of Al and Sara again?"

"I'll pass," Roy said, drily. He raised his glass to Ed, took another sip. "Okay," he said. "You got to ask me one unreasonably personal question; I'm going to ask you one now."

"Yeah?" Ed said, putting his empty glass on the endtable behind his head. "Shoot."

"Do you ever regret it?" Roy asked. "Giving up alchemy?"

Ed scowled, jumped to his feet. "What the hell kind of question is that?" he snapped. "Al would be dead if I hadn't, so no, I don't."

Roy put up a hand. "That's not what I mean," he said. "But- if we leave Alphonse out of it... do you miss it?"

"Why are you asking me now?" Ed asked, crossing his arms. "Twelve years, Mustang. Come to think, I've been without my alchemy now nearly as long as I had it."

Roy regarded him thoughtfully. "I can't imagine," he said, softly. "I saw the Gate, what was behind it. I can't imagine what it would be like to carry around that knowledge and not have any outlet for it." He looked at his wine glass, frowned. "I don't know why I'm asking you this now," he admitted. "Never mind, Ed. You don't have to answer."

Ed sighed, flopped back down on the couch. "Sometimes," he said. "Mostly when I break something and have to fix it by hand."

Roy looked at him hard. "Liar," he said, frowning. "You just said that because you thought it's what I would want to hear. Don't answer if you don't want to, but don't lie to me."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said. "I'll give you the real answer, you bastard." He jumped up again, walked to the window and looked out. "I was a genius," he said. "A child prodigy."

"I remember," Roy said, when Ed grew quiet. "I was there, Ed. I recruited you."

Ed turned, looked over his shoulder at the other man. "I used to think that it wasn't really true," he said. "It's hard to compare yourself to other people. Besides, I figured that I cheated by looking at the Truth."

Roy shuddered, remembering. "I don't think there are many eleven-year-olds who could have seen the Truth and come out sane, much less able to use what they'd seen," he said, quietly.

"Teacher said the same thing," Ed said, looking out the window. "God, do you know that my Al is older than I was when we decided to try to bring Mom back? It seems unthinkable that a kid his age could even think of something like that, much less do it."

"You weren't really a kid," Roy said, "Not by the time I met you."

"That's part of my fucking point," Ed said, snapping. "I was already as good an alchemist as you were when I was twelve," he said. "Don't argue that with me; you know I could have taken you. Then, by the time I was fifteen, I was trying to save the whole goddamn world. And then I found my dad again, and then Al-" Ed broke off, gritting his teeth. He was too old to start crying, especially in front of Roy-fucking-Mustang. He breathed for a moment. "Al was gone," he said, his voice strangled. "And I waltzed up to Truth, and told him he'd better give my brother back. When it occurred to me that I could offer him my Gate, my whole connection to alchemy, I felt-" Ed stopped. He leaned a hand on the window frame, dropping his head. His hair fell over his face, covering it. Suddenly, he felt a tentative hand on his shoulder. Roy, of course. Ed turned, looking up at him. "I felt free," Ed whispered. "I felt like I'd been let out of prison. I felt like everything that had been on my shoulders, pinning me down, just flew away."

Roy watched him silently, and Ed couldn't figure out what he was feeling. Pity, maybe, or awe.

"Al was upset when he found out what I'd done," Ed continued. "I tried to explain it to him, but it took him a long time to understand. Alchemy was... it was great. I loved it. But it was a chain. It was a leash, just like that damned pocketwatch. So, no, Mustang, I don't miss it. I have my family, and I have my books, and I'm no one's dog- not yours, and not Truth's."

"I'm not trying to chain you, you know," Roy said, touching Ed's arm lightly. "I know I used you, when you were younger."

"I made my own choices," Ed said, his tone fierce.

"I know," Roy said, turning away. "But I'm the one who offered the choices to you. I'm the one who took one look at you at the age of eleven, and offered you State certification. It's not the worst of my sins, for sure, but it's on the list."

Ed laughed. "I used you, too," he said. "Get near my son before he's of age, though, and I might have to kill you." Ed's teeth were sharp as he smiled.

Roy nodded, acknowledging the threat. "I know you've given so much to Amestris already; no one could ask you to give anything more. But I'd be a fool not to make this offer. It's not like you got stupider with age. You're still a genius."

Ed sighed. "And you're a manipulative old man," he accused.

"It's true," Roy admitted. "But I still want you to think about the job. I'll understand if you turn me down, but-" He shrugged. "We need you, Ed. I've got idiots and sycophants on my staff. Just think about it."

"When you put it like that, it sounds so attractive!" Ed said, rolling his eyes.

"At least talk to Winry about it," Roy said. "You've got a few weeks." He stood. "I'm going to bed," he said, clapping his hand on Ed's shoulder. "Good night, Fullmetal."

"'Night, you old bastard," Ed muttered, and made his way to his bed.

Maria Ross took him to breakfast before his train out of Central, several days later. "Word is that you're considering working for Mustang again," she said, over pancakes.

Ed rolled his eyes. "You're all a bunch of gossiping hens," he told her. "What, you heard it from Riza?"

"Breda," Ross corrected him. "Last night was poker night. Breda bet me three thousand cenz you'd turn his ass down."

"Yeah?" Ed asked, grinning. "How'd you bet? I might swing the bet your way if you cut the winnings with me."

She smiled at him. "I bet that you'd take it," she said. "Falman, too, for the record. Brosh bet you'd turn him down and punch him in the face."

"I guess we'll have to see," Ed said, standing. "In the meantime, I've got a train to catch. Thanks for breakfast, Major Ross."

"Good to see you, Ed," she said, still smiling.

When the train arrived in Resembool Station, Winry and the kids were waiting for him. They jumped on him as soon as he stepped off the platform. Ed hugged them both, and then kissed Winry as thoroughly as he could manage with two little kids standing by.

"Home," she told him when they broke apart, in a voice brooking no arguments. "Now."

"Home," he agreed, grinning.

A/N:

Havoc walks with a cane, because even a Philosopher's Stone has its limits. He married Catalina about a year after the Promised Day. She resigned from the military immediately, and they bought a house in the outskirts of Central. It has a yard and a white picket fence.

Roy knows how to cook because Madame Christmas considers it a basic life skill that everyone should know. Before his marriage to Riza, Roy mostly used it as a way to impress women. Now, he does it if he wants to have a little privacy for a while.

Havoc, Breda, Falman and (of course) Hawkeye all left the military to follow Roy into civil service. Fuery, Ross, Brosh, and (incidentally) Armstrong all stayed in.

I don't know whether Ed will accept Roy's offer. He already had the opportunity to choose between power and happiness once in his life. He chose happiness before. I don't know whether duty will make him choose differently this time.

Apologies to Lois McMaster Bujold about the elephant.