This is one of the few stories that I write in first person point-of-view. I'm trying to practice my hand in that field. It's strictly Ed's view.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and slumped low in my seat. My dad beside me glanced over, turning his eyes away from the road in a split second, before looking back in front of him. The weather matched my mood perfectly tonight: dark, cloudy, and miserable. I wasn't normally this depressed, but I was starting college and I was going to be living in a dorm room with some weirdo that I didn't even know. To add to that, my poor little brother Alphonse would have to endure his last year of high school without me there to protect him from perverted classmates. My dad didn't understand that I wanted to go to a college near our home, but no, it had to be two cities over.

"Edward, sit up," he scolded in a hoarse voice, breaking the cold silence between us. "Your posture says everything about you. Do you want people to think you're a slob?"

"Sure, whatever." I bit the inside of my lip and turned towards the window again, which was now steamed up from the temperature difference between the inside and the outside of the car. "I told you I didn't want to go here. Why did you send in my application without telling me in the first place?" I glared over at the man sitting beside me. "Answer me that and maybe I'll think about sitting up like a normal person."

He stopped at a red light and took the free time to give me a stern look. I returned it by rolling my eyes his way. The light changed from red to green and my dad pushed the gas pedal. He sighed heavily and let his head hang slightly as he said, "Please, Edward, don't be stubborn. You've wanted to come here since you were little. Your mother wanted you to come here as well, remember?"

"Cheap bastard, playing the mother card against me..." I glared at him through narrowed eyes.

Bringing up my mother around me was a one-way trip to the other side. The last guy at my school to say, "Your mother is so fat..." to my face was sent to the hospital in critical condition without even finishing his joke. His friends (and the teachers) quickly learned that mentioning my dead mother to me was like telling the spirit of the Kuchisake-Onna that she was ugly, even if she didn't take off her surgical mask. I had been suspended twice at my old school for that and the one time I punched out an upperclassman for groping my brother. I was protective and sensitive about my family; I was willing to admit that they were weaknesses of mine.

"Shit!" Hoenheim slammed on the brakes, nearly choking me with my own seatbelt. I gagged as it pressed into my Adam's apple and grabbed at my throat. I glared as my dad flipped the already-gone driver off and started driving again. "Sorry, that word slipped out..."

"Took the words right out of mine," I grumbled. Again, he sighed.

"Will you please stop acting like I'm taking you to your grave?" he asked, looking over at me. I pretended to be dead by rolling my eyes up and sticking my tongue out. My dad wasn't amused. "Stop doing that, Edward, your face will freeze that way."

I mimicked his sentence in a nasally voice like I was three years old and rolled my eyes again. Hoenheim sighed and shook his head.

"Edward, I swear... You have got to stop acting like such a little kid."

I glared at my dad and shifted away from him so that I was pressed up against the door. He let out another heavy sigh and stopped for another light.

"Edward, you have to let Alphonse fend for himself. He can fight." Oh boy, here comes the "do this, do that, but don't be like this" speech again. I've heard that speech so many times, I could recite it backwards. "Just for this year, focus on your school books and make some new friends. This is college; you're supposed to have fun and work towards your career. Don't dote over your brother and keep him hidden from the world. Who knows, he might bring home a cute girl that has a friend."

I rolled my head over towards him.

"Dad, I'm gay, remember?" I shot back. "You, of all people, should know. Three years of therapy did nothing to help me through my 'phase.'" I curled my fingers and let them drop into my lap.

Hoenheim sighed one more time and that ended our conversation as quickly as we had started it. For the next half-hour, we rode in silence with just the dull pattern of rain beating on the outside of the car and the sound of the tires on the wet road.

My father and I never got along well. It started when he left Mom in a harsh, violent divorce. Mom fell ill from depression; she stopped eating, she was fired from her job, and she soon gave up on everything and died. Dad didn't return to claim custody over us until after we had finally gotten over everything that had happened between them and settled in with Winry and Pinako. He suddenly appeared, claimed us, and we moved away from them. Alphonse had no heat against him and welcomed him gladly, but I still hated him for everything he had put us through. I even thought of seriously killing him a few times, but gave up that idea because of the torment that would cause my brother.

"We're here," he announced finally, pulling into the parking lot of a dorm building. The rain continued to pound relentlessly against the car. He put it in park, and unbuckled himself. His hands stayed on the steering wheel for a while as I flipped the hood on my red sweatshirt up to cover my hair. "Edward, just try and make it through. If not for me, then for Alphonse. Besides, you can meet all kinds of interesting people in college."

"Shut up and let's go inside," I growled, opening the door. I was greeted by the roaring of rain and the dull vibrations of thunder. My father opened the door as I closed the one on my side and popped the trunk of the car so that I could get my suitcase out of the back. I grabbed it as my dad grabbed my laptop bag and slung it over his shoulder.

After he closed it we made a dash for the door, but still managed to get soaking wet. The dull red of my shoulders and arms turned dark and my face froze when we entered the air-conditioned building. It was still warmer than outside, but I lost all feeling in my cheeks when I finally got to the registration desk. The woman at the computer looked at least forty, with a bright pink suit and lipstick that was smeared at each corner of her mouth. She looked up at me when I reached the desk.

"Um, I'm the freshman that recently enrolled," I said slowly. She scoffed and pushed her glasses up onto her nose.

"I got about twenty of you this morning. I need more information than that," she said curtly.

I huffed and blew a lock of hair out of my eyes.

"My name is Edward Elric." I raised my eyebrows. She turned towards her computer and typed away, upper lip bulging out as she ran her tongue over her top row of teeth. I grimaced at the lovely face she made and she finally stopped typing.

"I see. Your room is 205 on the third floor. Here is your key." She turned around in her chair and rolled it to the small metal locker in the back. She opened it, scanning through the keys before pulling out the one she wanted and spinning back over to me. She slapped it down and printed out a few more papers from her computer. "Here's your schedule as well as a map of the campus and its buildings. Your first class starts at nine; do not be late because Mustang does not wait for students who are late." I gathered the papers as quickly as she was giving them to me. I shoved the key into my pocket and tried to pick up my suitcase only to find that my dad was trying to be courteous by carrying it for me.

"Don't be cute," I said, turning away as the woman tapped onto my shoulder to hand me a calender for my year there. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me, it's my job for Christ's sake." She laughed and went back to playing Solitaire on her computer. I inched away from her quietly and turned back around. I looked through the papers she had given me as my dad followed with my bags in hand.

"As soon as I get inside the room, you're gone," I ordered, pressing the only available elevator button. It was right there waiting for me and opened. I held the doors open as Hoenheim entered beside me and placed the bags onto the floor. Once the doors closed, he began to talk again.

"If you meet a cute girl, be sure to get her number."

"Would you please just shut. Up!" I bellowed. "You're not funny, you're annoying the hell out of me! Enough with the 'girls this, girls that' shit." I hit my head against the wall beside me. "If you can't accept that I like guys, then don't voice it! I'm tired of hearing it." I gave him a sharp glare. Hoenheim just stared at me for a few moments.

"Fine, I'll be quiet." He turned away and tapped his fingers against his leg.

The tension could be grabbed by the handfuls and broken into crumbs. I literally felt at ease when the doors of the elevator finally opened and I practically ran out into the hallway. I nearly ran into a drunk kid who was bent over a trash can puking his guts up. A girl was rubbing his back and pulling his long, brown hair out of the way of his mouth. She turned back to me, shrugged, and looked back to the guy beside her as he continued to retch.

Hoenheim managed to get through the elevator with my bags and we got directions from the girl where my dorm was.

"Finally," I sighed, pulling the key from my pocket. "Leave my bags here. I'll get them later."

"No, I'm going to carry your bags for you. Now open the door; I want to see where you'll be staying for the next ten months." He grinned. I gave him a look before turning towards the door and sticking the key into the lock. With a swift turn, the lock clicked and I swung the door open. I walked inside and my father followed me inside, placing the bags down and turning the light on. The room was plain, nothing much to say for it. A pair of shredded pants and a black shirt were folded over a chair neatly.

"Wow, this is nice," he said, ignoring the ensemble beside him. "I'm starting to feel jealous. You have this whole room to yourself?"

"I dunno," I replied.

"Turn...off...the light," a voice growled. Hoenheim and I both jumped and looked around the room. We found a long lump on the bed closest to the clothes. Something coarse and black was hanging off the side. The lump curled in, and I yelped despite myself.

"Uh, sorry," Hoenheim said, stepping up beside me. "My son's new here, and..."

"Turn...off...the Goddamn light."

"Well, the least you could do is greet us!"

"Dad, stop making an ass out of yourself."

A hand slithered out of the blankets and the middle finger popped up. My dad growled.

"Dad, just leave. And turn the light out when you do." I hung my head sheepishly as if my roommate was staring at me. He sighed and placed a hand on my head.

"Keep in touch, Ed." He kissed my head, made me curse, and a left quickly, flipping the switch down and leaving me in patch black, save for the digital alarm clock on the nightstand sitting between the two beds. My shins found the bed for me, and I covered my mouth as I cursed again. My roommate didn't acknowledge me. I let out my frustration in a deep breath and dropped onto the bed. The mattress was soft and dipped underneath my weight. The room, despite being dark, was warm and cozy. I smiled and let out a sigh.

College didn't seem too bad so far. I was an early riser anyways, so getting up before nine wasn't going to be a problem for me.

I pulled my sweatshirt off and let it drop to the floor, separating the blankets from the sheets and sliding in under them. I made a mental note to call Alphonse the first chance I got to see how he was doing. He would probably want to hear about what my room was like, what kind of classes I had, and how busy I was going to be during the week. Hearing about the busy college life would probably overwhelm his head.

I sighed and closed my eyes. Sitting in a car for sixteen hours sucked worse than being at a funeral for someone you didn't even know, and whether it was mentally or emotionally, I was exhausted to the core. Falling asleep was a task, though, no matter how tired I was. I felt a chill run down my back, and I could literally feel the hostility radiating from the bed beside mine. Something about the person literally set me on edge and made my heart pound in my ears.