Captain Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, had been stalking around Central City headquarters all day like a panther with a thorn in its paw.

A young panther, to be sure, but that didn’t make the people around him feel significantly more secure.

After the sixth time Maas was accosted in the hall with a more or less subtle inquiry of whether he could please do something about his friend, he decided it might actually be serious and not just Roy practicing his intimidation techniques.

A few questions revealed that Roy had met with Colonel Gran that morning to discuss his promotion prospects.

Definitely serious. Wonder why he didn’t mention it? Unless, of course, the meeting had come as a surprise to Roy himself. In which case, the question was whether it would be better to get Roy out of headquarters to somewhere he could blow things up until he calmed down, or to distract him somehow.

A quick look out the window showed clouds piling up as evening drew on. Not outside, then.

Maas tracked Roy down to his room. His knock on the door was greeted by a groan.

“Maas, since I know that’s you, you are not dragging me out tonight, not anywhere, I don’t care how good the beer is at the latest bar you found!”

Maas breezed in anyway. “Nor even how beautiful the girls are?” he inquired.

Roy removed the arm he had thrown over his eyes so that he could glare. “Nor that either. I’m surprised you haven’t figured that one out for yourself…” he trailed off in a grumble.

“What,” Maas asked, pulling up a chair across from Roy’s bedside table, “that you only flirt with the ladies who are girlfriends or secretaries or whatnot to the officers with their fingers in politics?”

Roy didn’t even bother to sigh. “Yes, that.”

“Weeks and weeks ago. Not to worry, Maas is here with the perfect thing to help you unwind after a long day,” Maas declared.

The look of some trepidation on Roy’s face changed to blankness as Maas pulled out a deck of cards and bridged them between his hands.

“Cards?”

“Poker, to be specific,” Maas corrected, starting to shuffle.

Roy’s lips twitched a few times before he broke down laughing. “Poker? Us?” He curled up on his side, holding his stomach. “I could have sworn you said relax,” he managed at last.

Maas eyed his friend tolerantly. “Oh, come on Roy, how many secrets do you think you’re still actually keeping from me? Surely it won’t make that much difference whether you work at fooling me or not.”

Roy gave him an opaque look. “I’m pretty sure there’s at least one,” he replied.

Maas was pretty sure there were more than that, but he certainly wasn’t going to say so. “Well then you could still use the practice on something that doesn’t matter, right?”

Roy hauled himself upright. “Since I doubt I’m getting out of this, you might as well just deal.”

Once they were playing Roy’s lackluster attitude disappeared like snow in the spring, as Maas had rather expected it would. Roy really was insanely competitive about anything he paid attention to.

And he was getting a lot better at controlling his expression, too.

“Raise.”

“Call.” He can’t really have…

An evil smirk appeared. “Royal flush,” Roy declared, laying the cards out with a flourish.

“All right, all right, you got me this time,” Maas laughed. “I still carry the night.”

“Well,” Roy allowed, “since I am more relaxed than I was three hours ago, I suppose you do.”

Maas leaned back in his chair, smiling. Roy always remembered all the stakes. “I certainly do. And you’re just lucky we weren’t playing strip poker, my friend.”

Roy gave him a Look, and then leaned back himself. Maas realized that he had just managed to hit another competitive trigger.

“Why Maas,” Roy purred, “I had no idea you walked that side.”

After a moment of fast calculation on the odds, Maas decided he’d better alter his ground. An innuendo war was just as likely to wind Roy up again. He shrugged. “Once or twice. You?”

It was his personal discovery, and one he was rather proud of, that Roy would almost always respond to a direct revelation and then a request for one in return. It seemed to be a reflex. It worked this time, too.

“On occasion.” And then the ground changed again. “Is there a reason you ask?”

Maas scrunched up his mouth. Roy was looking at him narrowly. Maas knew his friend was perceptive when he was paying attention. To hedge or not to hedge? Maas’ common sense was telling him to stop and think about this. His love of challenges and puzzles, backed up by the hormones that had lately been taking notice of Roy, were telling him to go for it. Ah, screw it.

“Could be,” he allowed, letting his eyes travel down Roy in a very clear once-over.

“Hm.” Roy’s posture shifted subtly, more open, more sinuous. “Well, then,” he said softly.

It was becoming increasingly hard to tell, with Roy, whether this kind of invitation was shyness or a trap. Maas decided that it would be interesting either way. He moved across to the bed and brushed his hand along Roy’s jaw.

Roy tipped his head back, his eyes half closed.

Maas leaned down over him and brushed his lips across Roy’s. He felt them curve under his, and then Roy twisted, quick as a cat, and Maas hit the bed hard, on his back, with Roy’s weight over him.

A trap, he decided, as Roy’s mouth closed on his for a hard, searching kiss.

Maas laughed up at his friend as Roy drew back. “Well, aren’t we feeling dominant?” he teased.

“Yes,” Roy agreed, very quietly, “we are.”

“Why does that not surprise me in the least?” That wildness that Maas occasionally saw in Roy was clear and present, burning in his eyes, and Maas found that he had, in fact, more than half expected it—the other side of Roy’s coldness, most likely springing from the same source, the intensity Roy brought to all areas of his project, but uncontained here and now.

“Does it bother you?” Roy asked

Maas also found that the idea of being touched by that intensity was very attractive indeed. “I don’t mind one way or the other, as long as you’re considerate about it.”

Roy’s teeth gleamed. “Always,” he breathed before leaning down again. One of Roy’s hands curled around the back of Maas’ neck and Maas let Roy’s mouth open his own. He was curious to see how far that wildness would go. Curiosity really will be the death of me one of these days, he decided, a bit hazily as Roy slid a leg between his thighs.

Roy’s body, moving against his, was demanding, but his hands were gentle, fingers tracing light paths down Maas’ arms, chest, over his ribs.

He was not particularly gentle with their clothing, and Maas was fairly sure he’d have a few buttons missing after this.

On the other hand, the heat of skin against skin was worth it, and Roy’s skin felt almost fever-hot under Maas’ hands. He missed it when Roy whispered to wait and rose to make a whirlwind rummage through his dresser. When he returned, he lay down beside Maas.

“Here, bend you leg.”

Maas thought that Roy must be watching his face very carefully, because he was not slow and his fingers never stopped, but he never quite went faster than Maas could handle. When Maas released a low sigh Roy leaned down and kissed him long and deep.

“Now?”

Roy’s dark eyes were hot, but his mouth was calm and still. Maas could see that if he wanted longer Roy would hold the wildness back, and he smiled. It was good to know.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

Roy moved down the bed and ran his hands up the backs of Maas’ legs. Maas arched against the bed, gasping, as Roy pressed into him, hard inside him. It was a controlled movement, but still not a slow one. Roy pushed him to the edge, overwhelmed with raw sensation.

From the sound of Roy’s voice, Maas wasn’t the only one.

In fact, Roy was the first to fall over the edge, which Maas felt quite smug about in the corner of his brain that still functioned.

And then Roy’s hands were on his knees, pushing his legs down and apart, and Roy’s mouth closed over him, hot and wet, and Maas’ hips tried to flex up into it. He shuddered as Roy’s hands held him down and open, and groaned as Roy’s tongue pulled him hard into brilliance.

They lay, sprawled next to each other, catching their breaths, and when he had, Maas couldn’t stop laughing. “That was so very you, Roy.”

“Mmmm,” Roy mumbled before opening his eyes. “How so?”

“I can’t imagine anyone else who could be that forceful without ever actually being rough about it.” Maas smiled affectionately at his friend.

Roy propped himself up on his elbows. “You don’t mind that I was… forceful?”

Maas grinned. “Nah. It was fun.”

Roy returned it. “Good.”

Maas stretched, paused, stretched more carefully. “Of course, if you’ve got a few aspirin hanging around I wouldn’t say no to them.”

Roy scrambled out of bed with a penitent expression and returned with aspirin, water and a towel. Having applied each appropriately, Maas pulled Roy down and kissed away the concerned line of his mouth.

“I wouldn’t mind doing that again some time,” he murmured.

Roy ran a hand through Maas’ hair. “You’re sure?”

Maas decided it was time for desperate measures, before Roy managed to make himself feel guilty. “You make love like a windstorm, never stopping, taking everyone’s breath away, lifting everything off the ground, wild enough to scare people.”

Roy was a bit wide-eyed.

“Like I said,” Maas continued, with less poetry and more pragmatism, “it’s you. And I know you. I knew it would be a wild ride. And I enjoyed it.”

Now Roy was actually blushing. Maas’ mouth quirked. “Besides, now I bet you’re really relaxed,” he finished. “I carry the night.”

Roy’s mouth twitched once. Twice.

And then he snatched a pillow to pummel Maas with.

TBC