Roy was smirking at him.

For once, Ed didn’t care.

He fiddled with the taps until the shower was just over body heat and settled down to luxuriate and ignore his lover. He stretched up on his toes, held his hands up to the spray, turned around twice and finally stood with his back to it and his head bent and resting on Roy’s convenient shoulder.

“You look like a cat that’s just discovered a catnip patch,” Roy informed him.

Ed sniffed. Roy fingered the end of his braid.

“Did you know that stuff got into your hair?”

“And whose fault is that?” Ed asked with a mild glare.

“Shall I make it up to you?” Roy reached around Ed and started unravelling his braid.

“Ha. I know you just like to play with my hair for your own fun.”

“That, too,” Roy admitted quite calmly, and closed both hands around Ed’s chin to tilt his head back into the spray. Ed closed his eyes, and Roy’s fingers slid back into his hair.

Ed was not entirely surprised to feel Roy’s mouth against his. He was a bit surprised at how soft the kiss was, even when he parted his lips under Roy’s. Roy’s tongue stroked his delicately, and Ed leaned against him. He had to smile into the kiss, as their bodies pressed together; however light Roy’s touch was, he clearly wasn’t in a platonic mood.

“No one would think you were over thirty,” he remarked dryly as Roy drew back.

“No one would think you were under twenty,” Roy returned, “at least until they saw you in a temper tantrum.”

Ed growled, and then sighed as Roy started working shampoo into his hair. The long fingers combing through the strands and firmly massaging his scalp drew small happy noises out of him.

“Ahh… mmmm… hhmmm…”

He had no doubt Roy was smirking again, and he still didn’t care.

“Keep your eyes closed,” Roy directed, wrapped one arm around Ed’s waist and leaned him back to rinse the suds out. “There.”

“You’re being awfully accommodating, considering the mood you were in earlier,” Ed noted.

“Ah? Well, it’s so rare that you ask me for anything, I thought it might be a good idea to supply some encouragement. Now,” a glint entered Roy’s eye, “did you want help reaching any of the other sticky bits?”

Ed blushed, and plucked a washcloth off its rail to throw in Roy’s face. Roy fielded it, laughing.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.” He swiped the cloth through his soap dish.

“Excuse me?” Ed employed a trick he’d learned from watching Roy to look down his nose at the taller man.

The smirk faded as Roy trailed two fingers down Ed’s jawline. “Edward. Won’t you let me?”

Life would be simpler, Ed reflected, if that particular trump card didn’t affect him just as powerfully as it did Roy. He glanced aside and laid a hand on Roy’s chest.

The cloth started at his neck, rough and soft and slick with soap, moved down to his chest, scrubbing gentle circles, more firmly over his stomach to keep from tickling. Ed expected Roy to keep moving down, but instead he swept back up to Ed’s shoulder, stroked down his arm, lingering at the inside of his elbow, again inside his wrist. Roy took Ed’s hand in his and turned it up. Ed watched Roy’s fingers in the blue terrycloth as they drew circles in his palm, watched as Roy drew the cloth around each of Ed’s own fingers, because he couldn’t watch Roy’s eyes.

Roy was usually a playful lover, and that suited Ed just fine. He could get introspection and soul-searching any time, he didn’t need them in bed. Every now and then, though, Roy’s dark eyes turned serious and his touch became… overwhelming was the word, Ed decided. At those times it felt like Roy focused every iota of his attention on nothing but Ed.

It was times like this that Ed took the joking rumor that Roy wanted to take over the whole military completely seriously. Roy almost frightened him like this.

Ed shivered as Roy let his hand go with a last caress. Roy turned them around, and gathered Ed’s hair over his shoulder. Ed let Roy draw him closer and arched into the faint scratchiness of the washcloth as it moved down his back.

He tensed, though, as Roy’s hand descended further. However much he’d wanted it, and God had he wanted it, their previous activities had still left him very tender.

“Roy…”

“I know,” Roy murmured in his ear. “It’s all right.”

Indeed, Roy’s touch was soft and light, and Ed relaxed as the soapy cloth moved slowly over his rear. He wrapped his arms around Roy’s shoulders and let Roy take his weight as his legs twinged and twitched and relaxed too. The nubby texture was rather soothing, though Roy’s hand stroking him there was… not exactly soothing. Roy held him securely, lingering with the cloth until Ed was flushed and panting against him. Finally he took his hand away, only to bend his head and suck on Ed’s earlobe. Another shiver danced down Ed’s spine.

“Can you stand?”

Ed scraped together the coordination to raise a brow. “You ask me that now?”

Roy leaned in swiftly and captured Ed’s mouth, and pulled a short, startled sound out of him. It wasn’t a hard kiss, quite the opposite. Roy’s lips slid over his languidly and his tongue twisted around Ed’s, coaxing him. It wasn’t hard, but it was one of the deepest, most thorough kisses he could remember Roy giving him.

“That isn’t helping with the standing up thing,” he pointed out, shakily, as Roy released him.

“We can work around that.”

Roy backed him up against the wall of the shower, and Ed took a moment to enjoy the cool tile against his shoulders. Then he blinked as Roy sank to his knees. Roy offered him a lazy smile as he ran the washcloth down Ed’s leg, back up, down the back of his thigh, rubbing gently behind his knee. Ed locked his other leg and put out a hand to brace himself as Roy lifted his foot and the rough cloth wrapped around his arch and between his toes.

Roy set his foot down, and ran his free hand down Ed’s stomach, and that was as much warning as Ed got before Roy’s mouth closed around his cock.

“Haah!” Ed tossed his head back, right hand scraping against the tiles behind him.

The heat of Roy’s mouth always shocked him, and twice as much now for being unexpected. The slide of Roy’s tongue, the pull of his lips as he drew back, the rush as he sucked Ed in again, wiped away everything but sensation. Ed couldn’t have said for sure whether his eyes were open or not. Roy worked him slowly, until Ed was shaking, aware that every breath was a moan and not caring. Finally he felt Roy run the cloth up his thigh, between his legs, pressing, rubbing, just there, and he felt the very edge of Roy’s teeth, and was swept under as fire rushed down his nerves.

He was distantly grateful that Roy stood quickly enough to keep him from collapsing; his knees were a bit tender, too, banging them against tile wouldn’t be fun. He leaned into Roy’s arms, collecting himself again.

“My hair is half-dry now; it’ll be a tangled mess,” was the first thing out of his mouth.

“I’ll comb it for you,” Roy offered quietly.

Ed lifted his head from Roy’s shoulder to look up at his lover. Roy combing Ed’s hair was normally the one gesture of non-sexual intimacy they indulged in, but at the moment it almost seemed like too much. Too close. Too overwhelming.

Roy waited, not saying anything more.

Ed sighed and put his head back down. “Only fair.”

They didn’t bother with towels; it was too much trouble. Roy got them both to the bedroom, staggering only slightly, and settled Ed on the bed. Ed let his eyes drift closed as Roy carefully combed out the tangles. The slightly muzzy thought occurred to him that Roy must be good at it because of all the real life practice he got. People must be harder than hair, right? Maybe that was why Roy was so edgy at work.

He felt a hand touch his cheek and opened his eyes to find Roy sitting in front of him. He promptly stretched out against him, pushing Roy over so Ed could use his shoulder as a pillow. Roy chuckled and gathered Ed to him, stroking his hair back. The water still dripping from both of them made it cool enough that Ed enjoyed the embrace. He wouldn’t be surprised of that was exactly why Roy had neglected to dry them off. Roy was always considerate in bed, even in his somewhat alarming serious moods; in fact, Ed reflected, he was even more careful then, as if he were trying not to scare Ed. And while part of Ed growled at the thought, a slightly more objective part of him was glad for Roy’s caution.

“How can you be so gentle when we’re like this and such an utter bastard everywhere else?” Ed wondered out loud.

“How can you be so pliant here and so sharp and hard everywhere else?” Roy asked back.

“Pliant?!”

Roy rolled them over until his weight pressed down on Ed.

“What shall I call it, then?” he inquired, brushing a thumb over Ed’s mouth.

“Nice?” Ed hazarded, just a touch breathless. This was part of what disconcerted him when Roy turned so serious… not just overwhelming, but overpowering, and he found himself liking it.

“As you like. It was a serious answer, though, Ed.”

Ed looked up, considering. Why was he like this with Roy? Because it was a time he could relax. There were more complex reasons, revolving around Roy being his sponsor, his annoying commander who shielded him from the whole rest of the military, the one who cheerfully used Ed’s abilities for his own ends and threw all his considerable resources behind Ed’s own search. But it really came down to that one thing, in the end; when he was with Roy like this he could relax.

It was the first time he really wondered when Roy might have a chance to relax.

“…thought it might be a good idea to supply some encouragement.”

Ed eyed his lover thoughtfully.

“Roy?”

Roy’s fingertips traced the outline of Ed’s face. “Hmm?”

“Kiss me?”

For a flashing moment Roy’s eyes turned soft. He leaned down and, for the first time since they stepped into the shower, kissed Ed with no restraint.

End