Author's note: How'd you like the 1st chapter

Author's note: How'd you like the 1st chapter? I enjoyed writing it that's for sure. This chapter is based 12 years later into the future in a high school in Central when our heroes are 16-17 years old, Edward being 17 and Alphonse being 16 but in the same year none the less. Please note that Alphonse has a normal human body and will not be in a robot suit since the human transmutation from the anime never happened. But don't worry! Edward still has auto-mail because Edward isn't Edward without auto-mail! Hope you like this one. This should end all of your worries and suspense from the last chapter so enjoy! D

'Hey, Alphonse!' shouted a boy. Acknowledging his friend's call, he ran to him.

'What is it Darren?' Al asked, sitting on the edge of the boy's desk.

'Do you know that there's going to be a new kid in class?'

'Nope. Where'd you find this out?'

'I saw the kid in the office. I hadn't seen him around before.'

'Really? Wow.' Thoughts raced through Alphonse's adolescent mind of what the new kid would be like. Nice? Mean? Boy? Girl?

'What's the kid like?' Al asked in curiosity.

'I don't know. All I do know is that the kid has blond hair and is short. I couldn't tell whether it was a boy or a guy because it seemed masculine from the back but it had a plait, which threw off my "gender radars"'.

'Ha ha ha. Your gender confused!' Alphonse joked.

'Around YOU I am! You're so camp it's scary!'

'I am not!' Alphonse playfully punched Darren in the arm.

'Don't deny it!' The boys carried on with their playfully until their teacher walked in, a boy following behind.

'Settle down class.' The teacher ordered.

Students made for their seats as the bell rang. The boy who had followed the teacher in just stood there with his arms folded in a relaxed manner.

'Good morning, class.' Izumi-san addressed the class.

'Good morning, Izumi-san.' The class chanted back.

'Now as you can see, we have a new student. Why don't you introduce yourself?' Izumi-san sat at her front desk, allowing the teenager the chance of introduction.

'Hello. My name is Edward Elric and I've just moved here with my mom from a small village called Resembool. It's great to meet you all and I hope we can all be friends.' The boy's eyes held a steady gaze on the class until they met with Alphonse's. He quickly looked away towards the teacher.

The name struck Alphonse as familiar. He was sure he had heard it before but couldn't place the roots of its happening. Nor could he place where the face had come from. The boy had blond hair that was loose at the front but tied back into a braid and an antenna of hair that stuck out at the top. His eyes were an abnormal golden colour were of a red thin-clothed coat, a black vest visible underneath the jacket, black leather jeans and a pair of elevator boots and on his hands he wore a pair of white gloves.

'Thank you Edward. You can take a seat next to Alphonse Heidrich over there.'

Now that Edward was sitting next to him at a closer angle he couldn't shake off the feeling that they had met before. Suddenly, a glint of light caught his eye. Looking towards it in blinded effort he found that it appeared underneath Edward's sleeve. Was there more to Edward than first met the eye?

-2 hours later-

Break time hit them like a back hand slap. As Alphonse wandered the yard he found Edward sat on a bench. He clutched a sandwich in his but wasn't eating. Instead he looked miserably into nowhere as if he could see something that Alphonse couldn't.

Alphonse found that his feet had led him to Edward's bench where, out of politeness, he sat down next to Edward.

'How are you finding your first day here?' Al asked. A smile began to broaden on his face.

'Ok I guess. The people are nice but the lessons are tough.'

'Yeah. But they're not bad.' Alphonse was thinking of how else to continue the conversation and found a topic easily.

'What was it like in Resembool?'

'Huh?'

'In Resembool. What was it like there?' Al asked again.

'You would've loved it. It's rural but it's lovely with lots of country side, trees, clear blue sky and friendly people.'

Suddenly, a flash of memory appeared in Alphonse's head, as if a new door had been opened to him. A place appeared before him, a place that fitted Edward's description. The vision was so vivid that it was like he could breathe in its fresh air.

'So why'd you move?' Al questioned further.

'My mom felt it was best that I got some proper education instead of being cooped up in my room all day reading.' Edward smiled relaxededly.

'Yeah.' Al smiled.

The light from underneath Edward's right sleeve caught his eye again. This time the object reflecting the light looked metal.

'What's under your coat? Is it a watch?' Alphonse asked.

'Oh this? It's not QUITE a watch.' He laughed and he proceeded to pull of his red coat to reveal an auto-mail right arm.

A look of shock engulfed Alphonse's face.

'Oh… my … god … What happened?'

A friendly grin formed on Edward's face as if he didn't mind the terrified glare on Al's face. This reassured Alphonse.

'In Resembool we lived on a farm so we had a tractor. It broke one day so I went out to fix it but as I was fixing it, the tractor somehow switched on. My arm got caught in the gears. As the gears turned the arm was dragged further into the machine until it ripped off at the shoulder. I luckily had enough money to get my self an auto-mail arm from my friend Winry Rockbell.' Despite the gruesome detail his smile never waned.

'That must have been awful for you.' Alphonse sympathized.

'I guess so. We couldn't get the tractor working after that.'

'How come?' Al's face sprang with a grin in a humorous look.

'My arm rotted in the tractor so we couldn't fish it out.' Ed chuckled.

'Ewww.' Alphonse laughed.

'I've got a metal left leg as well.'

'Really? Why?'

'As I was staggering back to the house after the tractor incident, a rottweiler got the taste for human blood and chased me down. It got a hold of my leg and chewed it right off!'

'Gross.' Al's face screwed up with the horrifying image in his head of a lethal dog.

'I got my own back though.' Ed continued.

'How?'

'Dog choked on the leg.' The boys burst out laughing.

Suddenly, a gang sauntered towards them. Hands in pockets.

The leader had short, black, shabby hair, narrow eyes and a pale complexion. This was the school bully and he too was in Alphonse's class.

'Ooh look boys! It's metal man!' His gang laughed along cruelly with him.

'Very funny! Now bog off!' Edward retorted.

'Ok new boy! We will but let me give you some advice: I wouldn't get too friendly with him!' His lips curled into a smile of harm and misdoings. 'Everyone knows he's gay!' The words spat out of the bully's mouth like venomous abuse and slander.

Alphonse's face turned a beetroot red showing that his accusation was indeed true. Ed stared wildly at Al but didn't budge. He stared back at the bully. A look of wrath in his eyes.

'I on the other hand can help you make friends with the right people.'

'No thanks! I don't appreciate homophobes!' Ed shouted. Jumping up off the bench, he clapped his hands together and a long, metal blade protruded from his right hand.

'Now stay away from me and Alphonse or this will be the last thing you see!' Ed warned.

The bully and his cronies immediately turned tails and ran.

'Are you ok Alphonse? Alphonse?' Edward noticed that the sandy-haired boy was crying. His face red and streaming with tears.

'What's wrong?' Ed's sudden worry for Alphonse shocked him.

'Th-They're telling the truth.' He murmured through tears. 'I AM gay.' His crying grew worse.

'Really?' Edward was astonished but on the outside his face still held a composed smile that lightened Al's heart just to look at it.

'Y-yeah. My dad caught me always watching a close-up of David Beckham's shorts oh TV whenever the football was on. I finally had to tell him the truth when he got suspicious after I told him I was more than a football fan.' Alphonse smiled a little, trying to fight away some bout of depression.

'Well. I know how you feel.' Edward smiled as he sat back down next to Alphonse. Transforming his hand back to its original form.

'Wh-what? No you don't! You're just like the other boys and girls in my class! Looking at me with dirty looks as if I don't belong! Why don't you be friends with them I'm sure they'll look forward to the company! I mean who would want to hang out with a little pouncey gay boy!' Al's shouts of rage and spite towards Edward stung his ears. It was hard for him not to cry or cover his ears with disgust but, fighting away that temptation, he seized him by the arms and sat him back on the bench. Trying his best to calm down the angry Alphonse.

'No Alphonse! You don't understand!' Ed tried to say.

'As if!'

'Alphonse! Just listen to me!' Ed tried to shout but no matter how hard Edward held on to Alphonse in a way of getting Al into submission Alphonse was having none of it and tried to fight off the restraint of Edward.

Edward squeezed Al's arm hard with his metal hand until tears sprung from al's eyes in quiet pain.

'I'm gay too.' Ed whispered into Alphonse's ear. The boy immediately stopped fighting back and slowly sat back in the bench. Edward let go of Al's arms to find his right arm even redder than the other one. The right arm also sported a hand imprint.

'I'm sorry I had to hurt you like that but you needed to know.' Ed spoke softly to show Al he was of no other threat.

'That's ok. How'd you find out?' Al's voice was soft as well.

'I…I guess I just had these urges you know? Just an urge to be with other guys. They were always on my mind and I always seemed to be finding myself staring at some boy and well… you get the idea.'

'I'm sorry I shouted like that. I didn't know.'

'Hey, don't worry about it.' Edward smiled. 'How do they know you're gay anyway?'

'I have a friend called Darren. He's my friend in class. Or… at least he was.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well friends usually keep secrets right? Well I told him I was gay and he immediately looked at me strangely. I realised I shouldn't have told him and he stopped being friends with me. A few weeks later I forgive him for running out on me like that but what I found out afterwards was that he had told everyone in school in his absence.'

'Then why are you still friends with him?'

'Well… I don't know but he always helps me out when I'm in trouble and I've forgiven him for telling everyone.'

'Hm. I guess that's a good enough reason.'

The bell rang suddenly and kids ran for the building.

'Alphonse. Are we friends?' It sounded daft after Ed had asked just after they had poured their hearts out to each other but instead of Alphonse giving him a dum look he offered out a happy smile.

'Yes. Of course.'

Author's note: Sorry I haven't been updating as often as I wanted to but I have been doing my SAT s this week so I have been INCREDIBLY busy in the way of revising. Hope you don't mind. Anyway, to celebrate the last day of SAT s since I had my science tests today I have decided to treat my self and all the other year 9s who had to do their SAT s this week. I hope you all did well. I should hopefully be doing more chapters now but please don't fret if I don't because I still have a Grade 3 clarinet exam coming up soon so I have to revise for THAT ONE too! Jeez I am a busy person. This is so you know not to expect annual chapters. This may be the only one I do for a while so sorry . Have a great weekend.

Daisukebebop