Author: Harukami
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Romance, Yaoi
Pairing: Ed x Roy
Status: Complete
Summary: Roy had invited them to a card game that he regularly had with Hughes and whoever he could rustle up.

"Not poker," Al said. "I won't play poker, not with him." There was clearly some old wound there, and he sat with his large arms crossed, glaring whitely at his brother.

"We usually play poker," Hughes protested. "If we don't play poker, Roy will come up with a worse game!"

Roy had invited them to a card game that he regularly had with Hughes and whoever he could rustle up. It was primarially an officer thing, and Ed had to admit he was a bit pleased about being invited, even if it was just because they didn't want to play with just two.

"It's no good," Ed said, and shrugged. "For some reason, Al won't play that with me."

"For some reason-!" Al began, offended, but Roy interrupted, holding the cards up and chuckling.

Hughes groaned, clearly in anticipation.

"How about Mao?" Roy suggested, voice light.

"You always want to play Mao," Hughes said. "You're just a sadist, Roy, that's the end of the story."

Ed's brows furrowed at Roy. "Mao," he said. "I don't know Mao. What're the rules?"

"Ah," Roy said, and waved a finger. "It's against the rules of Mao to ever repeat the rules of Mao."

Staring, Ed felt irritation well. "Then how the fuck am I supposed to play?"

"You figure it out as you go," Hughes said, helpfully. "The goal is- Mustang, don't kick me."

"I'll deal," Roy said, and dealt.

This was dumb, Ed thought. It wasn't worth it, just for the chance to get Roy alone. He sighed. "Maybe we could play something else."

Glaring, Roy silently dealt him another card.

"What was that for?!" Ed demanded.

Roy dealt him another.

Well. It was clearly against the rules to talk. Sullenly, Ed watched the others. Al reached for his cards before they were finished being dealt, and Roy dealt him another. Al sighed, and waited.

When Roy and Hughes took their cards, Ed took his as well, and stared down at them. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He couldn't put them in order in any way - what the hell were the rules?

Roy turned over the top card on the deck, a three, then looked to his left. Hughes dealt out a four and drawled, quietly, "Thank you."

Shrugging, Ed checked his hand. That seemed easy enough. He played a five. "Thank you."

Roy dealt him a card.

And so it went, with various nonsense rules, sometimes somebody speaking stupid phrases like "All hail the chairman" and "have a nice day". Ed grew more and more frustrated, and when Roy played his last card, then smugly announced the win, Ed threw the cards at him and stalked upstairs.

Hughes watched as Roy shook his head, rose quickly. "No," Roy said, and there was a wry amusement in his voice. "It's my fault. I'll talk to him."

Hmm, Hughes thought, because Roy had that anticipatory look on his face, and as far as Hughes knew, Roy didn't tend to anticipate an argument.

Well, damn.

"It may take some time," Roy added.

Hughes shrugged at Al as Roy vanished upstairs, and held up the cards. "Blackjack?" he asked, and grinned as he heard Roy's footsteps fade.

"I'm sick of you toying with me," Ed said. "It's annoying - you're annoying. You call me up, fuck me, do everything but what you're supposed to. I won't be played with on top of that."

Roy smiled faintly. "Played with, Fullmetal?" He quirked an eyebrow. "You chose to come to a game. Didn't you expect to play?"

"Not like that," Ed said. "Not as embarrassing as-"

"Fullmetal. There was a time I didn't know Mao. I learned from Lieutenant Hawkeye." Carefully, Roy leaned forward into the blade, felt a thin line of pain. "It took me three games to learn the rules well enough to win. Hughes learned it from me. It's a challenge." Roy's eyes narrowed. "I am willing to bet you can master it in your next game. The key isn't winning the first - it's the number of games it takes you to learn to win."

Ed let his face fall forward, against Roy's chest. "You're on," he breathed, and let his arm drop.

"Good," Roy purred. "I love a challenge."

"Good," Ed breathed back. He shifted slightly against Roy. "You'll love this, then."

His shoulder came into Roy's side hard, throwing him down to the floor. Ed heard Roy's air go out of him roughly, and he took advantage of that pause, sitting on Roy firmly, knees on either side of Roy's hips. Roy's hands came up, an instinctual attempt to ward Ed off, and Ed grabbed them, felt them thin and almost delicate in his hands.

He leaned, pinning Roy's wrists over his head in a metal grip that he knew Roy could not break.

Roy watched him narrowly, out of breath, and Ed slowly grinned.

"Nicely done," Roy admitted. "Well, now you have me. What will you do with me?"

"This," Ed murmured, and lowered his head.

He didn't kiss Roy; his lips moved lower instead, touching the line of blood he'd drawn earlier. It was sharp, metallic, everything blood was, and he pressed his tongue against the flat of it, felt the lines of the cut. Roy shivered, and Ed grinned into his throat.

And Ed bit down.

He lowered his weight as Roy arched up, felt the curse vibrate Roy's throat, felt the way he strained but didn't actively try to break Ed's hold on his wrists.

Ed grinned again. This was a far preferable game.

He spat blood to the side, watched it stain the carpet, watched Roy watch and not care. Roy's throat was soft under his mouth and he kissed it, softly, nibbling his way up the curve of it to Roy's jawline. Roy groaned deeply and shifted against Ed's grip again, and Ed closed his eyes. They were the scrape of teeth on skin; it's what they were, for a moment, and Roy moved again. Ed ground down, hips together tightly, grinning at him.

Roy grinned back, then surged.

The air wooshed out of Ed's lungs as his shoulder hit the floor hard, but he couldn't stop or Roy would get the upper hand. He rolled, kicked out blindly, heard the grunt as his right foot hit Roy's chest. He paused a moment, looked over, and Roy was slightly doubled over, sucking air.

Ed inched forward, cautiously.

"Solar plexus," Roy gasped. "One moment."

He saw the change before Roy admitted to it, saw the shift from trying to draw air to waiting to... pounce. Ed's eyes narrowed. Did Roy think he was stupid? He shifted closer, then flung himself aside as Roy moved.

A lamp went flying and he threw himself to his knees, hands going to Roy's shoulders. Roy shifted and now he was heavy on Ed, but Ed kept the momentum going, rolled them over until he was on top again. They hit a bookcase together, heard books thump over. One tumbled out and landed open beside them.

Roy grinned up at Ed. Ed grinned back, and pinned Roy's wrists again.

"It was worth a shot," Roy said, breathless.

"Nice try," Ed agreed. "Soldiers gotta deceive, huh?"

"This isn't battle," Roy said, and arched his hips against Ed's.

Ed ground down, fought the whimper that threatened. He leaned nearly double, kissing Roy's neck, then moved up to bite Roy's earlobe, almost gentle. "Yeah," he said, and kept his hips moving.

Roy made a low sound under him, arching, and Ed found his hands were shaking slightly as he shifted his grip, pinned both Roy's wrists in his automail hand again.

During the tussling, Roy had lost a few buttons on his shirt, which gaped awkwardly. One-handed, Ed fumbled buttons open and gave up shortly, ripping. He'd lost enough buttons to have to sew anyway. They pinged and he heard one hit a vase, nosily. He stroked fingertips down Roy's chest, watched his chest heave.

Ed opened their pants, cursed shakily at the difficulty of it, at the irritation of fucking underwear, and got their erections free. Roy groaned again and he hissed, bit the rim of Roy's ear, pinned both cocks to Roy's stomach with a sweaty palm, and moved.

Friction, heat. Roy was tense against him, moving hard, and he couldn't breathe, didn't want to. He unclamped his teeth a moment after he realized he tasted blood, nuzzled the rim of Roy's ear in a silent apology, whimpered with effort.

Orgasm came quickly, too quickly, and he arched into it, fingers tight on both of them, growled out a curse. It faded and all at once he felt drained, tired.

Roy whispered, "Please."

Ed sat back, kneeling on Roy's thighs, and let go of his wrists, smoothing a heated metal hand down Roy's belly.

Ruefully, Ed smiled at him as he jerked Roy off. Roy smiled back, then arched.

Though Hughes knew Al couldn't feel it, he rubbed Al's back comfortingly. Al was hunched over the card table, silent, looking down at Ed's discarded cards

"Hey," Al said, softly. "Lieutenant Colonel?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't know what to do."

Hughes sighed, softly. "Well, what do you want to do, Al?"

Al's voice was tiny. "I don't know. I've never thought about it. I mean, I have, because the Colonel, he... flirts."

"Yeah, he does."

"With my brother. I'd noticed that. He's been doing it a long time." Al touched one gauntlet to the cards, picking up the joker. "...Since my brother was eleven."

"Roy's a flirt," Hughes agreed.

The card crumpled soundlessly. "If he's hurt my brother-"

"Hey," Hughes said, and leaned slightly, hugging. "I didn't know until today either, but - well, it's your brother."

"Well, yes, but-"

"And Roy. I can't say much about it, but Roy plays by the rules."

Al looked up at him, white lights wavering in place of eyes. "What does that-?"

Hughes sighed again, plucking the card from Al's fingers. He smoothed it out slowly, bending kinks backwards. "It's like his game. Mao. Once you know the rules, it's really easy to play, Al. It's getting there that's hard, but Roy's always known them all, and he sticks by them. There'd be no point in playing if he didn't." He smiled at Al again, wry. "They never exactly change, though here's one of the rules of Mao - whoever wins a game gets to add a new rule and not tell anyone. The old ones still apply, though."

Shaking his head, Al said, "But my brother doesn't know the rules."

"Not of Mao, maybe." Hughes shrugged, put the joker back. "But he's known Roy a good six years now."

"He didn't tell me," Al said, and his voice was even smaller than before. "My brother didn't say a thing."

"Neither did Roy," Hughes said, and nodded, then grinned. "So let's make 'em know how we feel about that part of it."

Al jerked. "I can't!" he said. "That's terrible, I-"

Hughes flung himself back in a seat. "It'll do them good, remembering who their partners are," he said, cheerfully.

Al took a long moment, then nodded.

Hughes looked up as Roy appeared at the top of the stairs, Ed sulking a little ways behind him. They were both dressed, though Roy's uniform was buttoned higher than usual, and to all appearances, they weren't quite as tidy as when they'd went up. It could be passed off as a fight, what they'd had.

It wasn't, but it could be.

Hughes grinned. "All hail the chairman," he greeted lazily, and waved Roy and Ed down to join them.