If The Answer Is Yes

by Granate, 2005


Disclaimer: Don't own, not making any money!

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It was unusual for Ed to run into Colonel Mustang outside of work and even more unusual to catch him out of uniform.  Ed was in the train station looking for the parcel office so he could send his White Day gift to Winry in Rizembul.  A train had just arrived and the place was swarmed with people, but Ed was sure he saw a man who looked like Colonel Mustang wearing a camel-colored coat approach the flower stand in the west entryway.  Since he couldn't look over the crowd, Ed tried to look through it.  He had to weave through the throng and get closer but finally he was able to confirm that it was indeed Roy Mustang selecting the biggest, reddest bouquet of roses available.

He looked…  Well, Mustang always looked…  But right now he looked especially…  Ed dropped his eyes to the floor and unconsciously fiddled with the box in his hand.  He hated finding the Colonel so attractive.  What was he, some love-struck girl?  Just another member of Mustang's Fanclub?  No, he was a young man with a purpose, he didn't have time for nonsense like that.  It was annoying.  Sometimes when Mustang teased him, he even forgot to snap at him.  Except when it was about his height.

When he looked up again, it was too late.  The place was clearing out and Mustang had spotted him.  Ed would have liked to slip off, but you didn't run away when Roy Mustang was walking towards you, casually waving a bouquet of roses and smiling like that.  Mustang didn't have to dodge people as he made his way into the station, the thinning crowd just seemed to flow around him.  

"You're looking lost, Fullmetal," the man said as he approached.

"Colonel," was Ed's curt greeting.  Though he could stare for minutes at a time, and probably longer, he was habitually brusque with the Colonel.  It felt like maybe he had a chance at keeping some distance that way.

"Looking for something?  The parcel office perhaps?" Mustang asked, glancing at the box in Ed's hands.

"Actually, yeah," Ed admitted.  It felt strange to be standing around with Roy Mustang in civilian clothes and being so informal.  This was where he had first seen Mustang, back when he was still Lieutenant Colonel, toasting that Bard guy and manipulating the system so that he and Al could take the State Alchemist Exam.

"This way," Mustang said.  He dipped his free hand into his pocket and sauntered off towards platform three.  Ed kept up with him, moving a little faster to match the man's longer stride.  "They keep moving it," Mustang mused, "the signs probably point in five different directions."

"Yeah," Ed replied, even though he hadn't really been able to see the signs over the mob earlier.  He really did hate being so short, but now he had a very relaxed, very handsome Colonel Mustang showing him the way so maybe that made up for it this time, though the man's presence had a negative affect on his vocabulary, as usual.  Ed had spoken four words to him, and half of them had been "yeah."

He was led through an archway into a small room.  The clerk window at the other end had the words Parcel Office stenciled over it in gold lettering, but it was barred and dark.  Mustang checked his watch.

"Missed it by four minutes," he reported.  "You need to get your nose out of the books sometimes, Fullmetal."

"And it's already late," Ed groaned.

"White Day gift?" Mustang asked as he looked out the open window in the deserted office.  

"Yeah," Ed grumbled, turning the box over in his hand.

"Already going to be a couple days late if it's going to Rizembul," the Colonel said, relaxing against the wall.

Ed frowned.  He knew it was going to be late, he just wasn't on top of these things.  He'd never really gotten Valentine's chocolate before this year.  Maybe he and Al had gotten some from classmates when they were kids but it didn't mean anything then.  Now it was just more nonsense he didn't have time for.  Al had been furious when he found out that Ed hadn't sent Winry a White Day gift yet.  It annoyed him that Al was more familiar with these practices that he was.  Mustang looked well-acquainted with them as well.

"So who are those for?" he asked the man as he hopped up onto the shelves under the window where Mustang was standing.  He wasn't in much of a hurry anymore anyway.

"The flowers?  Dena - no.  Doris?  No, wait," the Colonel squinted one eye in thought and then simply checked the card.  "Diana," he read.  

Ed gave him a withering look.  All the things people said about him appeared to be true.

"That's going to Winry, correct?"

"Yeah," Ed said for the fourth time.  Honest to God, he had a perfectly good vocabulary, but sometimes your lips just stumbled when Roy Mustang was standing so close and wearing his pressed button-down shirt open at the throat and had his nose buried in a dozen roses like that.

"Is she your girlfriend?"

Ed stiffened in surprised and then felt a blush creep over his face, even though he had no reason to be embarrassed.  He looked at Mustang, who was looking back at him over the top of his flowers.  Ed immediately looked away and made sure to glower at the far wall so he wouldn't glance back at those half closed eyes.  "No," he huffed.  

"Are you sure?"

Ed glared at Mustang now.  "What kind of question is that?  Of course I'm sure!  All she thinks about is metal, she's a total metal-freak.  I'm not interested in her like that anyway, I owe her a lot is all."

"She just takes care of the metal, then?" Mustang asked slowly.

Ed's brow furrowed as he noted the change in that voice.  Roy languidly straightened up from the wall and moved directly in front of Ed.  Ed resisted the urge to move away, keep the distance.  

"Yeah, she's my mechanic, like I said," he insisted.

"Then who takes care of the flesh?" that velvet voice asked as the owner leaned closer.  Ed was entirely prepared to be annoyed at these very personal questions, but when Roy Mustang was so close and looking at you like that, well sometimes thought just ceased completely.  And sometimes your brain just melted.  And all you could do was blink.  Stupidly.  Even though at any other given moment you're a competent, daring, genius alchemist who earned the title of State Alchemist at the age of twelve and is widely renown and beloved by the public.

But Mustang's eyes were looking so deep and black.  And they glinted blue around the edges in the light.  He'd never noticed that, maybe because he'd never been this close.  Wait, hadn't Mustang just asked something about his flesh?

"Well, I..." Ed uttered, barely finding his voice, "I do, I guess.  I take... baths."

A purr of a chuckle escaped the colonel.  "I'm glad you take baths, but that's not what I meant," he said as he leaned in even closer.  "What I meant was," he whispered hotly against Ed's neck, right under his ear, "do you have a lover?  And, if the answer is no, are you looking for one?  And, if the answer is yes, how might I be considered for such a position?"

Ed swallowed, battling to keep at least a few neurons firing so he could answer those questions.  "Well, in that case, um no, uh yes as of right now, and uh it's yours if you're serious."  If more of his brain were working, he might have noticed that he'd just promised himself to Roy Mustang.  Maybe he should have thought longer before speaking but sometimes, when you're sixteen and it's your first real White Day, and the person you really want is kissing your neck and offering a whole lot more, you just might go overboard and never look back.

"Oh, I'm serious," Roy said, licking his lips.  "Then I only have one more question for you."

"Wh-what's that?" Ed squeaked as he felt teeth on his ear lobe.

"When do I start?"

Ed heard the rustle of tissue paper as something was set on the shelf next to him and remembered the bouquet.  He put his hands firmly on Mustang's shoulders and pushed him away.  "As soon as you get rid of Diana," he said flatly, coming to his senses a bit.

"Who?"

"The girl these flowers are for!" Ed reminded him, holding up the roses.

"Oh, well, she's not my girlfriend or anything," Mustang claimed.

"This is an awfully big bouquet," Ed countered.

"Well it was some awfully big chocolate," Mustang replied.  "I still have some.  Want to help me finish it?"

"Yes," Ed said immediately and then shook his head furiously, "I mean, don't you have plans already?"

The Colonel shrugged, casual as could be.  "I was just going to drop these off, maybe stay for coffee if nothing better came up.  Somehow, I seem to think you and me on my floor in front of the fireplace eating chocolates counts as something better, how about you?"

Ed would have said hell yes, except he didn't get a chance to answer before he was kissed.  It was like nothing he'd ever felt before.  Shocks jumped up his spine when he felt the man's tongue dance over his lower lip.  His first real kiss, on his first real White Day.  With Roy Mustang.  Suddenly, it didn't really seem like nonsense anymore and even if it was, he wanted all the nonsense Mustang could throw at him.