"This is going to stop now Fullmetal. Every day you're going to come with me and eat a whole plate of food for lunch and then every night I'm going to make sure Al calls me and tells me whether you ate anything when you go home. Understand!"

Ed stared into the onyx eyes that were before him, seeing the solid meaning in the treats he had just been given. Finally the hopelessness sank in.

"It's not that easy" he whispered severing the eye contact. Roy flustered, he had been expecting Ed to either accept this or fight back with denial.

"What do you mean?" he said loosening his grip on Ed's shirt.

"I tried to pull myself together a few weeks ago, but it didn't matter how hard I tried. I just couldn't do it; I just kept making myself sick which in turn made me lose even more weight at an ever faster rate". Roy looked at him softer now when he saw the pleading look in the young man's eyes. He wanted help but was too ashamed to ask for it.

"Come on" he said putting an arm around Ed and leading him away.

"Where are we going?"

"I'll take you home and then we can discuss how we can take the first steps to helping you"

They walked for a few minutes in silence; they had to walk back since Riza had already taken the car.

"Thank you" said Ed after a while, he didn't look at the older man, and the older man did not reply. Neither needed to say anything that was the beauty of the relationship they had. They did not think of each other as friends, but in the same instance they were much more than that.

Back at Ed and Al's place, Alphonse opened the door and was surprised to see Mustang.

"What's wrong?" he asked "has this got something to do with your phone call Sir?" Roy nodded quietly as he and Ed entered and Ed went and sat down on a stall in the kitchen; a room he had spent a lot of time in within the last few months. Since deciding to stop eating, he felt comfort in being in a place where food was prepared; he often looked through cooking books and read the food critics in the daily newspaper. They seemed to feed him as food once had.

"Alphonse, Edward has a problem, and from this point on we are going to try and help him overcome it". Al looked over at his older brother who was sat at the kitchen counter staring off into space.

"I should have seen it sooner" he said once Mustang had fully explained what was going on

"It's not really Ed's fault, it's a psychological disorder as well as an eating one. It must have been started when me and him were almost killed earlier in the year with that warehouse case"

Although Al had no body, Mustang could still understand ever bit of body language coming from the form in front of him. The head shooting up, and back straightening and the legs starting to rise from his sitting position.

"What incident?" Ed hadn't told him.

"Ok then it defiantly started there, Al I think your brother has had this problem for a while, but because he's stubborn Edward he hid it very well. Don't take the fact that he didn't tell you personally. Ed is not well and at this moment in time the only think we need to worry about is getting him sorted out. Right?"

Al didn't hesitate in answering, it was true he was sort of mad at Ed for not confiding in him, but he also knew that Ed's mind was like a labyrinth and Ed could something get easily lost within it.

A few days later it was obvious they weren't going to cure Ed by just watching him eat. At lunch Mustang put a small sandwich in front of Ed to eat. Ed cut it up into pieces and seemed to work out a system and only at the pieces that passed correctly through his "system" which wasn't very many of them.

"This is hopeless Mustang" said Ed finally pushing the plate away "I just can't bring myself to eat"

"You've got to, your bodies already lost too much weight for it to handle, lose any more and who knows what could happen" he then quickly noted on the fact he sounded like he cared and so added "your no good to me dead Fullmetal".

"Yeh I'm well aware of that" he then stood up and walked out of the room, he knew mustang didn't really mean it like that. Although it was true that if he kept doing this he was inevitably going to basically kill himself. Walking down the hall, Ed could feel his heart pumping faster and faster in his chest. It had started doing this whenever he got stressed and he found that sitting with his head between his knee's helped this.

So he did, ignoring the fact he was sat on the side of a corridor in the middle of headquarter in central military. There was no one currently in the hall so who was going to see?

"Edward?" Shit.

Ed looked up to see Riza looking down on him with concern "Are you alright?" Ed quickly started to get up.

"Yeh Riza I'm fine" but standing up quickly made his head spin.

"Edward?" shit shit shit. Roy rounded the corner and walked up to them and Ed couldn't take any more, his head was pumping faster and faster getting louder and louder.

Until finally he felt his eyes roll into the back of his head and he collapsed, only just falling into Roy's arms.

"Call Knox!" shouted Roy at Riza "I'll meet you there" he said as he lifted the young man into his arms, swallowing back that sickly feeling as he noted how light Edward was compared to that day at the warehouse that now seemed like a life time ago.

If only they hadn't gone off without backup, then Ed wouldn't have got into danger then no comments would have been made then Ed would still be alright now and not limp in his arms, resembling a skeleton more than a man.

When they reached Knox, he took off Ed's shirt and Riza gasped and Roy just wanted to cry, though he would never admit that out loud.

His body was caving in on itself, every bone was prominent, his skin translucent, his veins bright blue and glaring off his body.

Mustang sank into a chair next to where Knox was working on the blond collection of skin and bones.

"Ed".

A/N here's the next bit. I'd just like to say to those few people have sent me emails about how serious this illness is and how i shouldn't be taking it lightly by putting it in a story such as this. i would ask that you get your facts straight before pointing any fingers. i know how serious this illness is, i had first hand experience with it. But that doesnt mean it cant write about it in a way i love too. If anything it could let some people know about it and maybe they could realise they know someone with it and be able to save them in time. So please no more nasty emails. for the people that left lovely reviews thank you so much. and i hope this next bit of the story is not a disapointment to you.

Karin x