For Her. For Him.

Chapter 19

First

“So what the hell are we here for?” Breda said as he stood behind a vehicle cross the street from a restaurant.

“To watch the colonel.”

“What, Havoc? Did he steal another girlfriend?” the stout man asked.

“No. Just take a look, moron. Do you see the girl in there with him? And by girl, I mean girl. She looks like a kid.”

Breda peered over the top of the car into the restaurant. “What about it? So the colonel has found a young one. Not saying I approve, but what’s the big deal?” The two men could hear the panting of Cain Fuery long before he ever got there. “You need to get in shape, man,” Breda said as Fuery reached them, dressed in uniform.

“I ran all the way here from my apartment. Havoc said it was important, an emergency.”

“He’s full of crap,” Breda said, leaning against the car at his back. “He’s just jealous. Mustang got to another one before him.”

Fuery looked at Havoc in disapproval. “Personally, I say if the colonel has been able to find someone who makes him happy after Lieutenant Hawkeye, why should any of us care?”

Havoc glared at his two friends. “And what are the rules about who the colonel will date?”

Fuery raised an eyebrow as Breda answered. “Within ten years of his age and no family attachments. He keeps it pretty simple.”

“Well, this one looks like he’s breaking both.” With that, the other two men turned and watched.

Havoc took a puff on a cigarette as Mustang stood from the table, offering a hand to his date. When she stood, Fuery gasped.

“Are you sure they’re dating, Havoc?”

“They were holding hands, talking, looking all lovey-dovey. They’re on a date, Heymans.”

“Couldn’t she be a cousin or something? I mean, the colonel just doesn’t date pregnant women,” Fuery said. “He always says he wants no attachments.”

“Yeah, well, that’s exactly what I’m curious about.”

Behind black-rimmed glasses, Fuery’s eyes looked almost shocked. “You think the baby is the colonel’s?”

Another puff. “I’m wondering. And if it is, it means the bastard cheated on Lieutenant Hawkeye with this girl or the other way around.”

********

Roy led Ed out of the restaurant, taking the teen’s left hand in his own, intertwining their fingers together as they walked. It was a short distance to the movie theater, and though Roy probably would have driven Ed to the front door had he been farther along in the pregnancy, he knew the teen wouldn’t stand for it. Roy realized his pampering might have seemed a bit smothering, but it wasn’t his intention. He was good with women because he tried to anticipate what they wanted or needed before they actually did, and he didn’t intend for it to be any different tonight--though usually by attending to a woman’s needs, they attended to his own, a thought which didn’t cross his mind tonight.

They had only passed two stores when he felt that the young alchemist had stopped moving and had gone rigid.

“R-roy,” Ed stammered. “Roy!” Roy turned, seeing Ed absolutely frozen in front of a store window.

Roy tried to turn Ed around, but the former blond was frozen in place, staring in absolute terror at the store he was facing. Finally, the taller man placed himself between Ed and the cause of this sudden fear.

“What is it?”

“We don’t have any of this. None of it, and we need to get it in duplicate.” Roy glanced over his shoulder, finding they were standing in front of a baby store. “The room for them is still full of boxes, doesn’t have any paint. We don’t have a crib, and I don’t even know what half of that stuff in there even is.”

Roy looked at the store, realizing that Ed’s fear was contagious, as he felt his own heart speeding its pace. Fullmetal was absolutely right. They were more than halfway through the pregnancy, and they still had to get the nursery ready. Before saying a word, Roy took a deep breath to calm his own nerves.

“We have an hour before the movie and the store’s still open. Let’s have a look around, okay?” Ed remained frozen. Roy grabbed either side of Ed’s face. “Look at me, we’ll go in right now, and at least get an idea of what we need.”

“But paint? We’ll need paint too.”

“And we’ll find some, but we‘ll have to pick carefully.” Roy’s hands moved down to Fullmetal’s stomach, rubbing the round bulge. “I think the kids are going to have enough issues with gender roles, as Riza used to put it, to do pink and blue.”

Finally, Ed seemed to have relaxed, wrapping his hands around Roy’s waist and burying his face in the older man’s chest. “Yeah,” he said, somewhat muffled. “I can imagine trying to explain how they have one mommy and two daddies is going to be hard as hell.”

Roy placed his chin on the dyed brunette head, and spotted a single blue uniform across the street. It wasn’t unusual to see someone in military garb, but Roy didn’t want Ed noticing them and panicking again. “Come on, let’s get inside.”

*******

Inside the baby store, Ed saw an elderly woman approach them, asking them what they were looking for, to which Ed responded, “Everything,” in the somewhat quiet, raspy voice he’d used all night, refusing to make it a higher pitch to play the part of a pregnant woman.

“We’re having twins, they’re our first, and we need quite literally everything,” Roy said as he stood behind Ed, his hands sneaking their way around his waist to the teen’s belly. The woman’s eyes glinted with the prospect of a very large sale.

“Well, let’s start with cribs.” The woman showed the “happy couple” several designs and colors. Ed immediately spotted one in dark wood that had two pins at either side.

“That one. Two of that one.” Ed pointed. Roy looked at him curiously. “Al and I never slept a sound night without some kind of movement. We’re going to have two babies, and if they’ve both inherited that, we’re going to need these. You pull out the pins and they rock. Movement.”

When they were about halfway through the store and had chosen high chairs, diaper changing table, bassinettes, and mobiles, Roy pulled out his watch.

“Are we late for the movie?” Ed asked.

“No, we still have twenty minutes.”

Ed began going over in his mind everything they had purchased. “Do you notice a pattern with what we’re picking out?”

“That it’s all big, bulky and does twenty different things? I noticed that.”

Ed pulled Roy down to his level. “We are behaving like two typical men trying to shop. That’s fine for you, but for me…”

“I prefer it this way,” Roy whispered back. “No arguments.” He straightened up and put the watch in his pocket.

“Sir, your watch…” the woman said. “Are you a state alchemist?”

Deciding to take the opportunity to make Roy feel uncomfortable for his own enjoyment, Ed pressed his cheek to Roy’s arm and rubbed his hand on the older man’s chest. “This is Colonel Roy Mustang. The former great womanizer and current Flame Alchemist.” Ed traced a finger over Roy’s jaw, smiling that Mustang’s name even had an effect here. “That’s right. No one ever thought they’d tame him, but it’s amazing what a man will do when” Ed moved his hand to rub his stomach. “children are involved.”

Almost catlike, Ed moved his cheek along the smooth pinstripe sleeve. When he was done, he looked up, finding that beneath the dark hair, the pale skin was turning a bit pink. For as often as Ed had turned crimson in the man’s presence, the teen wanted to see if he could darken that color just a bit.

Ed slithered his hand upward, adjusting the tie around the man’s neck, then smoothing the red article of clothing, fingers dipping just below the buttoned coat jacket. Glancing up at the face above him, Ed saw he had achieved his goal. “He gets so easily embarrassed. I don’t know why.”

Ed gave the older alchemist a mischievous smirk, as Mustang said, “I think if we stay much longer, we’re going to miss the movie. We have a good start on the baby supplies, at least enough to make me bankrupt.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’ve gotten my salary back,” Ed said.

Roy gave the woman instructions for delivering their purchases, with the request that they arrive at the colonel’s house the next day. With it being Mustang’s day off tomorrow, there was the possibility of getting some of the moving and work in the nursery accomplished. When they left the store, arm in arm, Mustang turned Ed to face him.

“What was all that about?”

“I wanted to make you squirm a little. After all, you have been treating me like your date all night long. I just thought I’d reciprocate.” Ed folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not usually touchy-feely, but you made me hold hands with you in the restaurant and have held my hand as we walked, so I thought I’d have a little fun with you.”

Roy held Ed by the shoulders, a smirk on his face. “Are we playing games now? Because if you behave like you did in the store, I might have to…” Roy’s eyes looked up.

“Might have to what? Roy?”

“We have an audience.”

Ed glanced over his shoulder and saw Breda’s rather plump body. “Crap!” He turned back and looked up at the man in front of him. “Is it just Breda?”

“No, it’s Havoc and Fuery too.”

“Shit!” Ed buried his face in Roy’s shirt. “They’ll figure me out. They’ll know who I am.”

“So far, you aren’t exactly acting like yourself.” Roy draped his arms over Ed’s shoulders, as though trying to add to the appearance of a date for the three men across the street. He leaned closer to Ed. “As long as you don’t behave like Edward Elric, no one will suspect.” He placed his chin at the top of Ed’s head. “I had a thought. There is at least one thing you would never do, and it would give them a good show.” In dismay, Ed looked up at Roy. “What do you say?”

Roy was being so casual about this, but Ed could feel his left hand sweating as it and the automail one still clung to the lapels of the man's jacket. “Wait. I don’t… I haven’t…”

“If you don’t want to, I’m not going to force you.”

“It’s just I’ve never…”

“You mean you’ve never had your first kiss?” The shock on Roy’s face was humiliating.

“No. Some of us are too preoccupied to try and get ourselves laid every five minutes.”

“I didn’t mean to sound so surprised. I just had no idea.” Roy moved his hands down to Ed’s sides. “We don’t have to.”

Ed blushed, cursing the man for once again turning him the color of a tomato. “I didn’t mean to stop you. It’s just you said you were going to make it good for them. I just wanted you to know it would be my first, and you needed to make it good for me, too. I'm willing to do this if it will keep them from guessing.”

“I’m not going to steal your first kiss.”

Mumbled into the ground, Ed said, “You can’t steal what’s being offered to you.”

Ed swallowed, tilting his head upward, hands on Roy’s lapels trembling just a bit. The dark-haired man bent down, moving his right hand from Ed’s side and up to cup his cheek. “I don’t want you to regret this. You can’t take back your first, and there’s nothing worse than to spend a lifetime wishing you could.”

Ed slid his left hand up the man’s chest and curled it around the back of Roy’s neck. “Just do it, Mustang.”

Ed was as far up as his height and swollen foot and ankle would allow, which left the actual meeting of their lips to Mustang, and for some time, Ed thought it would never happen. He had just barely closed his eyes when he felt Roy’s lips brushing against his own, gentle, finding their way to the bottom lip, which they slowly began to plunder, drawing it into Roy’s slightly parting mouth.

The man tasted of peppermint and smelled faintly of smoke. His lips were not as smooth as Ed might have expected, based upon his hands, but they were gentle and full against Ed’s own thin, slightly chapped lips. He didn’t even try to fight the slight moan that escaped him or the fact that his hand tightened in the jet black hair. He trembled a bit as Roy practically hummed against Ed’s lips.

When they pulled back from one another, Ed had a pleased grin on his face. “I knew I wouldn’t regret it.”

He laid his head against Roy’s chest, his stomach bumping as he did, a reminder of the only reason why he’d received the kiss in the first place.