A/N: This was inspired by a drawing I saw on AnimeOTK by the artist Maki, at least I think that's the artist's name.

Warning: Contains spanking of a teenager by a parent. If you don't enjoy stories like this then please read one that is more suited to you. There are plenty of stories out there folks just waiting to be read, if you don't care for mine.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or it's characters. I'm simply borrowing them and will return them when I am finished.

Curfews Suck, Don't They?

I pulled out the pocket watch that Hohenheim had given me and checked the time. Four in the morning. Hopefully I would be able to sneak back into the apartment that we both shared unnoticed. I didn't really want to hear another scathing lecture, I was getting damn tired of Hohenheim trying to act all parental on me, he was about ten years too late for that. What right did he have to have a say in anything I did? What made him think that after ten years of him being gone, he could just waltz back into my life and play daddy? Hohenheim was no father to me. Hell, Roy Mustang had been more of father to me and Alphonse than he had ever been.

Alphonse...I felt my throat constrict as I thought about my little brother. It was for him that I was out at four in the morning and breaking the law. I had heard through Munich's lowlifes that there was an old man living in west side of the city, somewhere on the other side of the train tracks, that was a practicing wizard and alchemist who could alter time and save people from death. The lowlifes which I had learned the information from thought that the old man was just plain crazy, but that bit of news had piqued my interest and I set about finding him. I had found his house easily but there wasn't anybody home. I had shrugged and quickly picked the lock and let myself in. To hell with the laws about breaking and entering if I had a chance to get back home. I had only gone through about half of the books and notes that I had found there when Hohenheim had showed up.

Due to the German government's idiotic six'o'clock curfew, Hohenheim had taken it upon himself to come and find me earlier this afternoon. He had found me in a bad part of Munich researching a way to get back home. He had demanded that I return at once with him before it got to dark and we missed the curfew. I shrugged him off and kept reading and told him that I would leave when I was damn good and ready. I had expected to make Hohenheim angry but I didn't expect him to grab me by the ear and hauled me out of the dilapidated house that I had been in. I couldn't believe how strong a grip that Hohenheim had; I couldn't break free no matter how hard I tried. Thankfully he didn't drag me the whole way back to the apartment by my ear; instead he had dropped his hand down to my upper arm and held it in a vise grip. I tried to protest the action, insisting that I would follow him on my own; insisting that he didn't need to hold onto me. He shot me a glare so fierce that I immediately shut my mouth and gave up trying to get out of his hold. It wasn't until we got back into our apartment that Hohenheim released my arm, only to place his hand on my shoulder and push me down on the couch. He stood in front of me and proceeded to scream my ears off. I barely listened to his lecture and as soon as he had finished, I had stood and walked away from him, muttering my consent to whatever he had been saying, before going into the kitchen to start supper.

Supper had been quiet and subdued. I had refuse to look at Hohenheim or even acknowledge his presence at the table. And though he had sighed and acted as though he wanted to say something, Hohenheim had kept quiet. As soon as the supper dishes had been cleared away I had gone directly to my room. I had had no intention of staying there. I had decided that I was going back to that house and was going to finish researching everything that old man had on alchemy. However I knew that I faced a problem: Hohenheim. I had laid down on my bed and waited until Hohenheim had decided to check on me and had pretended to be sulking. He had asked me if I was alright and I had shouted at him, telling him to leave me alone as I pulled the covers over my head. He had huffed but left me alone. It wasn't until I had heard his bedroom door shut a few hours later that I had fluffed up my blankets to make it look as if I was sleeping, and then snuck out my own bedroom window, disappearing into the night.

And that had lead me to where I was now, on my way back to the apartment after ransacking an old man's house and having nothing to show for it. The old man's research been simple, basic alchemy for the most part and a few half baked theories on human transmutation for the other. I looked up at the clouds drifting lazily across the night sky and pulled my overcoat more snugly around my shoulders. I sighed. I had known prior to going to the old man's house that it would most likely be a waste of time but I had to try. I had to get back home to Alphonse. Though speaking of 'home', the one I was currently living in with my bastard of a father was right in front of me. I looked at at my window. I wasn't sure that I could climb back through it. It was pretty high up. I quietly cursed to myself. I was so used to being able to use alchemy that I hadn't even thought about how I was going to get back into the apartment after I had snuck out. Not wanting to try to climb through the window and risking Hohenheim hearing me, I decided to try the front door, sometimes Hohenheim would forget to lock it thinking that I had already done so. If it was locked though I would have no other option but to try my window. I circled around to the front of the house and carefully gripped the door handle and turned it.

I winced as the door creaked a little as I stealthily opened it. I peered around the edge and quickly scanned the living room. Thankfully the apartment was devoid of all lights just as it was when I left it. I quietly slipped through the door and gently shut it behind me. I hadn't even taken two tiptoeing steps forward when the lights suddenly flicked on and a hand grabbed me non to gently on the shoulder spinning me around roughly to face a very livid looking Hohenheim. Catching sight of the look on Hohenheim's face I could tell that he was plenty angry. I subconsciously took as far a step back as Hohenheim's grip would allow. I tried desperately to think of something to say in my defense, even though I knew none of them would do me any good as Hohenheim had caught me dead to rights. I waited for him to say something. I uneasily met his eyes, looking up at him from beneath my lashes, all the while hating the fact that I only came up to the top Hohenheim's shoulder, making me feel like a disobedient child as I fought back the fluttery nervous feeling that had settled in the bottom of my stomach. Why hadn't he said something by now? I waited for him to speak while looking unconcerned as I could, until I couldn't handle the silent stare down any long and opened my mouth to speak, my words coming out more defensive and arrogant than I had intended.

"Well, what are you looking at?!"

"I catch you sneaking back into this house at four in the morning and that's the first thing that comes out of your mouth?" asked Hohenheim, incredulously.

"It's not like I need to ask for permission to leave the house!" I snapped, shoving his hand off my shoulder and getting angry at Hohenheim's overly calm tone and implication that I should have apologized.

"You promised me you'd always be in this house at six'o'clock, Edward. You broke your word." said Hohenheim sternly.

"No, I didn't." I smirked, acting much more confident than I felt. "I was in the house at six, I left at ten."

I could practically see the steam coming out of Hohenheim's ears as his anger built up. I relished the feeling of getting under Hohenheim's skin. He, however, did manage to keep a lid on it for the most part. He sighed before continuing on with his lecture, acting as though I hadn't spoken.

"You can't just do as you please here Edward. It's dangerous, Germany is dangerous. You need to think!"

"I am thinking! Thinking about and doing whatever it takes to get back home!" I snapped.

"You have to think about more than just that, Edward. You have to think about having to survive here in Germany before you can think about getting home." said Hohenheim.

"So what do you want me to do? Just sit here while Alphonse is back home, and do nothing?" I practically screeched.

"No, I don't expect you to do nothing, but I do expect you to exercise caution. You'll be no good to anyone in this world or our own if you're rotting in a German prison!" replied Hohenheim.

"They couldn't throw me in prison even if they wanted to! I'd like to see them try!" I sneered.

"Your arrogance won't help you here in Germany, Edward! Without your alchemy you're just a rude, arrogant teenager, who has nothing to back up his words with and that will get you in trouble!" said Hohenheim testily. "They are throwing people in concentration camps as we speak for lesser infractions than breaking the curfew!"

"So you'd rather I lick their asses like you?" I yelled. "You don't care if I'm stuck here for the rest of my life! You don't care that Alphonse is all alone back home! All you care about is kissing ass and looking good to the German government! You've never once cared about your own wife and two children!"

"That is enough out of you, Edward! I'm your father!" yelled Hohenheim, beginning to get angry himself.

"Wrong! You gave up those rights a long time ago!" I screamed.

"Edward, I'm sorry that you had to grow up without a father but-" began Hohenheim, trying to regain some composure.

"Oh, don't worry yourself about that, I didn't grow up without a father." I interrupted, thinking fondly for a brief moment of Mustang, and the rest of the team. "I grew up with several father's, but you sure as hell weren't one of them were you?"

An unreadable expression came across Hohenheim's face for a moment before he sighed and said quietly.

"No, Edward I wasn't. And I can never apologize enough for leaving you and Alphonse and Trisha...But I explained why I left."

"Yeah, because you were a coward and didn't want your family to see what a freak you are!" I shouted.

"It is true I didn't want you to see me as I had become. However I knew that if Dante knew about you, Alphonse and Trisha, she would come after you all. That, Edward is the real reason I left. Dante would have stopped at nothing to hurt me and attacking all you would have been the perfect means. I know it may have been the wrong way to go about it, but I was trying to protect you and your mother and your brother." said Hohenheim wearily. "And that's what I'm trying to do now, Edward, protect you. Protect you from the German government, protect you from a German prison."

"I'm not some little kid that needs protection!"

"But that's what you are. A kid." replied Hohenheim calmly.

"I'm grown! I don't need an "adult" to look after me! So don't treat me like a child!"

"But you act like one." Hohenheim said in the same calm tone.

"No, I don't!" I yelled.

"You claim that you're grown and that you don't need an adult to look after you, and yet tonight you acted like a rebellious child who is in need of some firm discipline." said Hohenheim calmly.

"D-D-Discipline?" I all but squeaked. I remembered back when I was in the military; discipline from Roy Mustang's point of view meant a painful spanking especially when I had first joined.

"Yes, Edward discipline. You have acted like a spoiled child all day and now you will be treated as such." said Hohenheim firmly, as he took ahold of my arm.

"Let me go you bearded bastard!" I yelled, as I fought against Hohenheim's vise grip on my arm.

"That's enough from you Edward." Hohenheim replied sternly, acting completely unfazed by my struggles as he dragged me towards my bedroom.

I kicked and clawed and tried my damnedest to get away from Hohenheim, but due to my slight sixteen year frame and Hohenheim being a lot bigger than me, my efforts were, for the most part, wasted. I did, however, manage to land one good solid punch on his jaw, causing him to loosen his hold, but not let go unfortunately. He growled in annoyance and pain but still proceeded to haul me to my room, remaining undaunted by my continued fighting. The only thing that I had truely manage to accomplish was pissing Hohenheim off even more.

"Edward this happening whether you like it or not. I will not watch you be sent off to God knows where! And if a painful reminder to your seat will help you remember not to break your word and to be more cautious, then so be it." said Hohenheim, as he pushed the bedroom door open.

Hearing my punishment so nonchalantly decided upon sent the familiar flutters into my stomach. I was way to old for this! I hadn't been spanked in well over a year. This was completely unfair. Hohenheim had no right to do this to me. I held onto my raging indignation, while trying to ignore the fact that if Roy was here and the circumstances had been the same I would have been in the exact same position. Hohenheim pulled me into the room and began to lead me towards the bed when I went completely limp in his grip causing him to stumble a little from my weight.

"Get up." said Hohenheim simply.

"No!"

"What did I say?"

"I don't care! If I get up you'll..."

"Spank you? That's going to happen one way or the other, so you might as well make it just a little bit easier for yourself."

"No freaking way!" I yelled.

"Fine." sighed Hohenheim, as he began dragging me towards the bed by my arm.

"Ow! You bastard that hurts!"

"Then get up and it won't."

"Hell no!"

"Fine." Hohenheim said again, as he reached the side of the bed.

He stooped down, and despite my kicking and fighting, somehow managed to pick me up and toss me over his right thigh. I struggled to push myself up from his lap, but Hohenheim threw one of his legs over mine and pinned my arms to my back. I fought a bit more before tiring myself from the useless attempt. I almost wished that he would just get on with it and be done. But then again I didn't...

I was laying there trapped over Hohenheim's lap and I couldn't stop trembling. I was scared. Hohenheim had never spanked me, not even when I was a small child. What if he didn't stop when he was supposed to? Roy always knew when to stop before he really and truely hurt me, almost as if he knew exactly when I was actually sorry for whatever wrongdoing I had done at the time. What if Hohenheim didn't stop and truely hurt me and didn't realize it? What if he did and didn't care? What if Hohenheim didn't care about hurting me anymore than he did when I was five. I felt my trembling increase and I felt like I was hyperventilating. There was something cold and wet on my face. It couldn't be tears. No, it had to be something else. There was no way that I would be crying before a spanking. And yet my face just kept getting wetter.

"Edward?" Hohenheim asked questioningly.

I just shook my head and continued to cry. I couldn't have spoken if I had wanted to. I squeaked in surprise as I felt myself suddenly pulled up from the lap I had just been hauled over top of. Hohenheim quickly sat me upright and drew me close to his chest. I could feel him rocking back and forth gently, trying to hush my sudden outburst of tears. I pushed myself away from him but he stopped me by laying a hand on my head and pulling me against his chest again. I didn't try to move again. I just sat there listening to the sound of his heartbeat. It sounded so different than Roy's heartbeat. It was faster but no less steady. It was a comforting sound, a heartbeat was. I sat there listening to Hohenheim's heartbeat until my tears had finally subsided. I sighed a little and I heard Hohenheim speak, his voice vibrating from the chest my head was resting on.

"Edward? Are you alright now?"

"Please d-don't hurt me..." I whispered.

"Edward, you know that you deserve this, you acted like a child." Hohenheim sounded confused.

"Please don't hurt me..." I whispered again.

I felt Hohenheim suck his breath in sharply as he suddenly realized what I was asking of him. He pulled me away from him and looked me in the eyes.

"...Edward, are you asking me not to injure you?" Hohenheim's voice sounded...disbelieving? Hurt? I nodded silently. "I would never hurt you Edward!"

"...You already did..."

Again Hohenheim sucked his breath in sharply before he fell completely silent and he covered his eyes with his hand. The action startled me. He only sat there for a moment like that before he laid both hands on my shoulders and said.

"Edward, I understand that you're scared of me and I have no one but myself to blame for that, but I want you to understand that I will never harm you that way or any other way again. Am I going to punish you for breaking your word and being a foolhardy rebellious teenager, yes I am, but will I injure you the way that you seem to believe that I am going to? No, Edward I will not. I will never do that to you. Do you understand me?"

Again I could only nod silently. This was a Hohenheim that I had never seen before, or if I had I couldn't remember. He sounded...well, kind and caring and genuinely sorry for having left us. I could tell that he was hurt that I thought he was going to cause severe injury to me. He pulled me into one more quick hug which I struggled to get out of, embarrassed, before Hohenheim suddenly became stern again.

"Your actions today Edward, were foolish, irresponsible, and dangerous. Such actions could very well have endangered your life, Edward. They will not be permitted. I will not allow you throw your life away, Edward. And to make you think twice about ever doing something like this again, you are getting spanked with a switch. And I don't want to hear anything about it." said Hohenheim firmly, as I opened my mouth to protest.

Before I had time to truely process what he had just said, Hohenheim had flipped me back over his knee and locked my legs beneath his own, though he mercifully left my hands free. I gripped the bedding trying to prepare myself as much as I could. I had resigned myself to the fact that this was indeed going to happen and like it or not there was truely nothing I could do to stop it. However, I flatly refuse to cry. It didn't matter that I had already cried in front of Hohenheim or that every other time I had tried not to cry I had failed miserably; I was not going to cry during this spanking. I was going to take this like an adult.

I heard it long before I felt it, the loud swish as it cut through the air before it ended with a snap across my bare backside. I jolted forward and gritted my teeth at the burning pain that striped across my bottom and squeezed my eyes tightly shut as I braced for the next. My hands clenched onto the bed sheets as Hohenheim began spanking me in earnest, each swing of the switch covering my entire backside, leaving behind an endless burning sting. I would hear it before it hit me, a promise of imminent pain before the switch would snap down fulfilling it's promise. It was endless blistering agony that had me clawing and twisting the covers in my hands in an attempt to keep the tears that were pricking the corners of my eyes from falling. I was soon struggling unconsciously, trying to push myself away from the switch. I felt the first tear slide down my face and I bit down on my lip to stop myself from crying any further. I felt Hohenheim tip me forward before he snapped the switch down across the undercurve of my bottom. I let out a shriek of pain and started to cry in earnest, releasing my bottom lip as I wailed in protest.

"You will not bite your lip Edward, or employ any other means you can think of to distract yourself from your punishment, do you understand?" said Hohenheim sternly, landing six stripes to my sit spots.

I nodded my head and howled out a 'Yes Sir', before burying my head into my covers. I heard Hohenheim grunt before he returned to switching my aching rear. At some point I threw my hand back to protect my backside, but Hohenheim just grabbed it and held in the small of my back. He tipped me forward again and began to lecture as he once again began to attack my undercurve.

"I want you to think about something Edward. Do you know what would have happened to you if you had been caught after curfew?"

"P-Pri-Prison...B-Been sent t-to p-prison." I managed to choke out.

"That's right, you would have. And do you know what they do to those prisoners?" Hohenheim asked as he laid down another painful smack.

"NOOOO!"

"Well I do! They would torture you and experiment on you. You'd be wishing you were dead by the end of the first week. You wouldn't live long enough to make it back home to Alphonse." said Hohenheim "Now I don't expect you to like living in Germany, and I don't expect you to agree with it's politics, in fact I'd upset with you if you did. I do, however, expect you to abide the laws that are imposed by the German government because doing anything other than will get you killed! Do you understand me?"

"Y-Yes-s s-sir!"

"Good." began Hohenheim, pausing the punishment "Now, Edward, do I have your word that you will be in this house before the six'o'clock curfew and that you remain in this house until it ends at six in the morning?"

"Y-Y-Yes sir..." I replied miserably, hoping to God that my punishment was over.

"Very good Edward, I'll be holding you to that. However there is one more thing we need to discuss." said Hohenheim firmly, as he laid the switch down on the bed before spanking me with his bare hand. "You will never hit me again, especially to get out of a well deserved punishment. I will not tolerate it, do I make myself clear?"

"YESSS!"

"Yes what?"

"Y-Yes sir!"

"That's better." said Hohenheim, as he delivered half a dozen smacks to backside.

I was sobbing so hard that I didn't realize that Hohenheim had ceased my punishment and was rubbing circles into my back. I don't know how long I lay there on his lap, but after awhile I had calmed down enough to realize my position and tried to stand. Hohenheim immediately allowed me up and held me by the shoulders to steady me. I still had a few stray tears lingering in my eyes, but I brushed them away determinedly staring at anything other than Hohenheim.

I felt Hohenheim's arms slip around me and I stiffened, before I relaxed into the embrace. I buried my face in Hohenheim's shoulder while gripping fistfuls of his shirt. I could feel myself beginning to cry again, but I didn't really know why. Hohenheim must have noticed my fresh tears; he tightened his arms around me and gently shushed me just as he had before. I just stood there, slumped against his shoulder, his arms around me being the only thing truely keeping me on my feet. He held me like that, whispering quiet nonsense words of comfort until I had cried myself out. I pushed away from him slightly and he dropped his arms back to his sides all the while looking at me with a knowing fond smile.

"You're still a bastard..." I whispered.

"I know."

A/N: I had actually asked 7-Pistol to write this as part of his/her's 'Trial's of an Era' series, but since I never got a reply back I decided to write it myself. Anyway I hope that you enjoyed. I probably won't do anymore Hohenheim/Ed stories. I found this one to be very hard to write. Lol