OwlCookies: after reading this one insanely good fanfiction, then browsing through some fanfictions, then seeing stuff about Christmas, I had a flashback to last Christmas when I was on fanfiction and I read this Christmas fanfiction. I got inspired. So heheheh!

And by the way, Al's human here. Yknow….

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10 Time's a Charm?

If Alphonse hadn't told Edward, then the boy probably wouldn't have remembered it all to begin with. It was in his nature for that kind of stuff. To forget.

"It's almost Christmas, brother," cheerful little Al told Ed softly. A small grin was on his face while on the inside, Al felt the giddy excitement of the upcoming holiday.

Ed looked up from a bunch of documents his superior, Roy, had given him to read and make a report on. An eyebrow was raised as he put the papers down on his lap.

"Christmas?" he asked. "Wasn't that a few months ago?"

Al sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. Although Ed may be a genius, little things like the holidays can make even a smart kid like him seem so naïve. When he opened his eyes again, Ed was back to reading the papers. Al watched as Ed's golden eyes scanned through each sentence intently, absorbing all the information as if his life depended on it.

"It would make Winry really happy if you wished her a Merry Christmas," Al continued, stubbornly. He wanted Ed to at least acknowledge that it was Christmas.

"Yeah, I'm sure it would," Ed murmured, waving Al off. The sigh in his voice told Al that Ed had lost interest in this conversation the first moment Al had even mentioned Christmas.

Al huffed. His brother could be a real jerk sometimes! He pulled a chair from the kitchen table and settled it down in front of Ed. Then, he sat down, glaring at his older brother. Unlike every other day, Ed wasn't wearing his usual black clothing, complimented with his red cloak. Instead, he wore a day gray t-shirt and brown pants. His bare feet, one under his leg and one on the ground a few inches from the base of the chair, stayed awkwardly still. The automail one, on the floor, glimmered as the sun's evening rays shone on the metal.

Hopefully, Ed would look up after feeling Al's stare. But when he did, Ed just looked back down at his paper.

"Brother!" Al whined.

Annoyed, Ed looked back up. "What, Al? I'm trying to do something!"

"Christmas is in eleven days. Did you get Winry something?" Al asked, his eyes glittering hopefully.

"No. I didn't even know it was Christmas," Ed replied bluntly.

Al sighed. Hopeless, of course. He picked up the chair he was sitting on and placed it back where it originally was. Putting his hands in his coat pockets, Al went outside to take a walk.

Ed shrugged as he heard the front door shut. The window next to the door rattled by the force of it. He tossed the documents Roy had given him. The scattered in mid air. Ed looked at the calendar. It was December 15th. It in fact was, 10 days until Christmas.

Standing up to stretch his cramping arms, he looked at the scattered papers. The papers were filled with nonsense and complete stupidity. They weren't official documents from the military, they were a huge joke written down by the infamous, and yet famous, Roy Mustang. Four pages front and back of nothing but insults and annoying phrases. One whole page was full of synonyms of the word "short." Ed didn't know how he did it, but Roy somehow found multiple words, enough to fill up the whole page. He kicked them aside as he walked by.

"That bastard, wasting my time on pointless information," Ed grumbled. He reached into the pantry in the kitchen and pulled out some bread and condiments. Then, he made a sandwich with it. For some reason, the sandwich made him think back to what Al had bugged him about. Conscience maybe? "I don't get what's so special about Christmas. Some big fat man breaking into your house and leaving toys for all the 'good little boys and girls.'" Ed snorted. "Big deal. Flying reindeers carrying the fat man's sleigh. Oh yeah, I'll totally believe that."

Ed for one, wasn't much of the person to enjoy the holidays or his birthday. Valentines, the first day of summer, his birthday. All of those went to waste. To him, they were like any other die. Every day of the year was the same except for one. They day their mother had died. Ed clenched his fist at that thought.

"Mom…" His voiced echoed the remorse he had for that fatal event.

It was two years ago, Ed had been thirteen and Al had been twelve. In the middle of the night, Ed had heard a shrill scream. Because of that, Al had woken up in fright. Being the older brother, Ed reassured him that it would be alright. Quietly tip-toeing to the bedroom door, Ed's heart pounded. What was that? Opening the door a crack, Ed peeked through. There, a few feet away from that very door was their mother. She lay in a bloody mess at an awkward and probably uncomfortable position. Ed gasped. Quickly, he shut the door so Al wouldn't have to see the horror.

That thought made him shudder up to that very day. He looked at his automail arm and clenched his fist. He had been an idiot that day, thinking that human transmutation would "fix her." But all it did was cost him his arm and when his brother was about to get captured by the rebound, it had cost him his leg.

Another door slam shattered his thoughts and made him jump a little. Al was back and somehow, Ed had finished his sandwich. Al looked down at the paper mess and looked back up with disapproval.

"Brother, you made a mess!" Al scolded.

"Sorry," Ed apologized.

Christmas. Maybe he should consider it. At least for Al's sake.

The next day, Ed was called to office by the ever so smug, Roy Mustang. Edward, with Al behind him in tow, walked through the hallways of Eastern Command where at the time, Roy and his subordinates were stationed. The whole time Ed and Al walked through the halls, soldiers who happened to be in his way saluted.

"Good afternoon, Ed sir."

"Yeah. Ok. Good afternoon to you do." Uninterested, Ed continued to walk until he reached the door to Roy's office. He kicked the door down.

"Brother! Stop doing that!" Al scolded, behind him.

Ed ignored him, standing there near the fallen door, starring at Roy. His eyes were misty with confusion and resentment.

"What do you want, Mustang?"

Sighing, Al tried propping up with fallen brown door with the aid of one of Roy's loyal subordinate, Riza Hawkeye. Once it was in place, Riza left to get a hammer. When she returned, Al hammered the nails back in place. The door was now back in place. Well, for the time being anyway.

Al looked around. Unlike the door, everything else in the room was more orderly. White walls, hard wood ground with a large rug in the middle. On top of the rug was a couch and a coffee table. A window was across from it on the far wall. There, was all Roy's desk. It was scattered with multiple unsigned reports and a few coffee mugs.

"I'd like to speak with you, alone," he said. Roy's eyes, serious, looked at Al and Riza who, understanding his stare, walked out, careful to not damage the door any further.

After the door shut firmly behind Ed, and the somewhat synchronized footsteps of Al and Riza decreased, Roy began to explain, his hands covering his mouth.

"As you probably know, there have been some rather disturbing events occurring here in the East," Roy started. His eyes, never budging from the younger soldier, still stayed serious.

Ed dared to walk closer to the black haired man and sit on the couch, one of his legs on his thigh and an elbow resting on the arm rest while his hand was on his cheek. "Depends what you call 'disturbing.' Now what I call disturbing, that's a different story." Edward smirked, thinking that this was the perfect time to embarrass the fool. "I remember this one time… I recall you told me to go over to your place to talk about something. I don't think I saw something pretty. Hmm… let's see… what happened?" Ed tapped his chin, still smirking as Roy's face began to turn red. "Oh yeah, I remember. Hawkeye was there too-"

"Yes, I had a ton of fun, but I'm talking about bloody, death, and killing as disturbing," Roy spat, trying to stop Ed from reminding him of the event.

Now it was Ed's turn to blush. "You're a sick bastard, you know? A completely sick bastard."

Roy smirked. "Can't take the truth, Elric?"

Ed turned away defiantly. His fingers drummed against his cheek. "Yeah, yeah. What were you talking about? Bloody? Murder?"

Roy's eyes grew serious once more. "There have been multiple murders lately. Seeing that the crime scenes look similar to what you described to me when you told me about your mother…" he paused, seeing that he had hit a touchy subject. "I thought you might want to look into it."

"Why would I?" Ed asked, his head turned away to hide his dark expression.

His superior laid his hands on his desk and stood up. He turned around and looked out the window where the sun was slightly setting past noon. "After all those years, wouldn't you like to know who killed her?"

Ed stood up and held out his fist. "And why should you be concerned? As far as I know, I bet you're only telling me this so you can rise through the ranks. I'm not like one of your toadies, I'm-"

"Then why did you join the military?" Roy countered.

"I…" Ed couldn't answer. He didn't want to answer. He didn't want to admit it. "I wanted to find out who killed her…"

"And you're turning this opportunity down? Ed, I expected better from you."

Ed kicked the couch. "Damn it, Mustang!" He stormed away, partially because he embarrassed for showing how weak he felt about it all.

Riza walked in a few minutes after Ed stormed out. She pursed her lips, thinking of whether to speak or not. Narrowing her eyes until they were barely open, she asked, "Did you tell him?"

Roy sighed, shaking his head and sitting back down at his desk. His picked up his pen and began to slowly sign some papers. "Not all of it. I couldn't bring myself to do it."

"They'll find out soon. They're going to get hunted down now that you've brought them here. You need to tell them the truth." Riza's words were stern yet calm.

"Heh." Roy grinned deviously. "Those two boys aren't going to fall. Ed's to stubborn for that. But yeah, I know. In the end, I'll have to tell them the truth soon. Whoever killed their mother is coming after them next."