3/8/15 A/N: I swear at some point I'm going to get Ed and Winry together.

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You've Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party

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Alphonse felt a lot better Sunday morning. Sure, he and Edward were grounded, but despite being bawled out by Hohenhiem, the good Doctor did let Ed take his car back to Rockbell Auto Repair so Winry could fix the door. Despite Pinako's protest about teaching Winry her own lesson, their father also informed both of them that they'd still have to pay the teenage mechanic for the work. Hohenheim even arranged for part time jobs at the hospital. They just weren't sure what that exactly meant other than having to walk to the city bus stop after school so they could get there in time to put in a few hours work on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The younger Elric was happy because it could have been so much worse – he feared his dad would separate them.

Edward felt like shit and he didn't even have a hangover. The old man locked up his liquor cabinet too. The sneaky bastard-dad even confessed he'd used the app on his phone to trace Ed's cell phone and knew the boys were just driving aimlessly around Central City then stopped at the high school. One of the nurses even drove by for him on her way home and let him know they were sleeping off a stinking drunk. He knew what they were up to the whole time! Still, Van thought it was a great idea for Ed and Al to have replaced the girl's bike and he did make sure to let the boys know this. But, despite the kindness, Edward would be separated from his car until he made enough money working the piddly hours he was assigned to pay Winry for the repairs.

Basically, Hohenheim owned their asses until about Christmas...or longer.

The only good thing about their whole situation, the only shining star was that their father maintained a gruesome work schedule. Edward planned to milk that cow for what it was worth and he abhorred milk.

"Do you think they'll like us, Brother?" Alphonse's body stretched across his brother's bed with his bare feet up against the white wall. He mindlessly tossed a tennis ball against the wall and caught it.

"I don't care." Ed sat at his desk with Al's laptop, he opened a Google search for waterproof prosthetic legs. "I'm not going."

"You have to! I don't want to go by myself." Al pouted. "Paninya said she'd be here at seven-thirty to pick us up."

"C'mon, you know me, my leg, and water don't cooperate." He huffed in defeat. Had Edward turned from his desk, he'd seen the happy and optimistic face on his brother fall to pieces. "I don't want to be the gimpy kid who needed help on the slippery river rocks." Edward swiveled around in his chair and caught his brother's sorrowful expression.

"I'm sorry. I'll not go either." Al's golden eyes stared at his brother's missing left leg, now replaced with steel and aluminum. Guilt tormented his kind heart.

"What the hell?" Edward left his chair and sat down on the bed next to the boy. "It's just one time, Al. I'm already finding a replacement prosthesis I can show Dad. You know he'll buy it...if I give him the doe eyes." Ed batted his eyelashes and made a pouty face to cheer his brother up. "Mom never could afford to get me more than this aluminum pole..." He pulled up his left pants leg to reveal a long metal shaft and knee joint. The foot was plastic and flesh colored. "The good Doctor on the other hand. HE has some making up to do for years of being out of our lives." Edward grinned. "I might be able to mulct him outta a leg made of god-damned diamonds!" This sent the once gloomy younger brother into a small fit of laughter and Edward joined him. "I mean, he bought me a fuckin' CAR!" The boys laughter exploded into near hysteria but was cut short by soft knocking on the white-wood door.

"Ed? Al?" Hohenheim stepped inside his son's room with trepidation. He didn't quite hear all of the conversation, but it overjoyed him to finally hear their laughter after all the teeth clenching and eye rolling since their arrival. "I'm leaving for work, you can go swimming in the pool if you want. Maria will be in at ten and she's going to keep an eye on you."

"Yeah...fine." Ed responded in monotone.

"We'll be good, Dad." Al responded earning a funny look from his brother for the lie.

"Okay. See you tonight." The older man slowly closed the white-washed door and the brother's held their breath as his footsteps faded down the stairway.

"Sucker." Ed smirked and grabbed the tennis ball mid air.

"Can't you put those red fairings on it?" Al, not having the toy anymore, rolled over on his side. "I always thought it looked cool with those on and, you don't have to swim."

"Yeah, they 're still packed up in my closet, had been meaning to wear them." Ed thought a bit about the red metal parts that snapped around his leg giving him more of an appearance of having a calf and shin and filling out his trouser leg better. He smiled thinking how several of the townspeople back in Resembool raised money to buy it for him for his birthday two years ago. However, the happy thought morphed into anger toward Hohenheim for dragging him away from all those wonderful friends. "I don't want to bust them up, though."

"Please, Brother?" Al learned to work his doe eyes from the best.

"Nah, next time."

Honk! Honk!

"Loser." Alphonse playfully punched his sibling in the shoulder as he got off the bed and made way for the door. "That's Paninya and Winry...probably in bikinis."

"Yeah?" Ed shot from the bed and sailed toward the large window. He clumsily raised the Venetian blind to gain a good view of Van Hohenheim's circular driveway. True to Al's prediction, a muddy green Jeep idled on the asphalt with its top removed. Paninya honked the horn and sat in a sporty green bikini top and camouflage cargo pants. Sitting next to her and placing a pair of sunglasses on her face, Winry wore a halter top two piece in a dazzling blue. Ed imagined it was the same color as her eyes.

"Brother." Al pushed Ed aside so he could see the girls too. "You have to go."

"I wish." Ed sighed and lowered his shoulders in defeat. "I'll cover for you, bro. Maybe I'll take a swim in the pool." He shoved his little brother toward the door.

"If you're sure." Al wanted to give his sibling one last chance.

"Go before they leave." He pushed him out the bedroom.

"Okay...later, Brother!" Alphonse reached back inside the room and picked up a black duffle bag he had packed and left behind his bedroom door and then he ran down the long staircase and out the door.

"Geesh, at least try to act conflicted about it..." Ed rolled his eyes as he heard the Jeep honk goodbye and leave the drive. The young man smiled coyly, thinking how his little brother crushed on the Rockbell girl and now he'd have a chance to maybe get a date. Thinking about Al and Winry started to make his stomach churn and for the life of him, he didn't understand why. After all, she was a pain the ass, smart-mouthed, machine head who wrecked his car and blamed him. Now anger filled that hurty-space in his gut and that was fine by him. Edward tugged off his t-shirt and began looking for his swim trunks. He decided if he was going to be stuck home at least he'd make the best of it down by the large swimming pool.


The warm morning wind tossed everyone's hair about and Alphonse smiled as he sat in the back of Paninya's vehicle. He loved the feeling of the wind, it reminded him of standing in the pastures in Resembool as the breeze blew his body too and fro. He almost laughed at the memory because they never stood too long on a rolling hill before launching themselves and rolling to the bottom. They'd sit up, covered in grass and laughing at each other. Al missed those fun, lazy times with Edward. He knew that things moved a lot faster here in the city and school was going to be so much different than the one room open air school house they attended back home.

"So, Al...what grade are you starting? Winry said you were fifteen...are you going into the tenth?" Paninya yelled over the wind and road noise as the Jeep traveled a windy, road in the forest.

"Um..." The young man suddenly smelled water, he knew they were near a river. "Actually, Ed and I had to take a placement test because the school we went to back home was so small. I tested into the eleventh grade and Ed into twelfth...but he chose to start the same grade as me so we'd graduate together." It hurt him to lie to them, the truth was that he and Ed tested to a college level and could have taken their GED and applied to Central University. Learning had always held so much importance to the brothers that they always studied on their own time. They practically taught the younger kids in their old school as well. However, it didn't take much to convince their father that they wanted a normal life and a chance to make new friends in Central so Van acquiesced to allow them both to enter the same grade together.

"Oh, so the brothers are smart!" Paniya joked. "I bet they're in a lot of your classes, Winry..." She elbowed the blonde next to her.

"I'm just taking advanced placement English, Biology and Trigonometry." She turned her head so Al could hear her better. "My concentration is on engineering and they have a great new intro to engineering class this year...what are you taking, Al?"

"Um...mostly advanced placement classes too. Chemistry, Biology, Calculus..."

"You got in to AP Calc?" The girl brought her dark glasses down to see the boy in the back seat. "That's a senior class, they wouldn't let me take it." She frowned.

"I'm sorry...I don't know how Brother and I got it – it must have been our placement scores..." He didn't want her mad at him, he couldn't help it that he and Ed excelled in mathematics.

"Don't pout, Win..." Paninya countered. "You got into that senior Anatomy class!"

"Hey, me too!" Al smiled, genuinely happy that he and Winry shared some classes. "But Brother did not, he'd taking Physics instead."

"I'm glad you're in Anatomy with me, we can study together." She smiled and turned back around in her seat.

"Bunch of nerdos in my car, we are here!" The Jeep came to a stop on the side of the road. There were already a few vehicles parked signaling the trio arrived later than others. "Darn it, I bet those dweebs took the best rocks!" Paninya stormed out of the car and slammed the door behind her.

"It's so hot, I can't wait to jump in the river, you swim, Al?" Winry left the her door open so the tall boy could exit on her side.

"Oh, yeah! Brother and I used to swim in the Rain River back home too...it also flows by our hometown."

"I thought Ed didn't swim...that's why he didn't come?" Winry had been curious why the youngest Elric joined them and not the elder. She just assumed Edward couldn't swim. Paninya interrupted.

"It's because of his leg, isn't it?" The dark-haired girl sad matter-of-factually. "Because he has a fake one?"

Both Al and Winry gasped in unison.

"How, how did you know?" Alphonse slung his bag over his shoulder and began following Paninya toward a trail in the woods.

"When I was on him, yesterday, you know, punching his lights out..." She kept walking. "I felt his left leg was a metal pole...figured he had a prosthetic."

"I had no idea!" Winry chimed in. "You couldn't tell by his gait." She tugged on the short sleeve of Al's t-shirt to stop him. "How did he lose his leg?" Her blue eyes searched his golden ones for an answer. The boy's sad face surprised her.

"It was...it was an accident back home." It pained the boy to speak it out loud. "A terrible...accident." He hated thinking about that day, the horrible day his brother almost died. Then, the image came to him, the picture of his brother laying on bloodied grass in a heap beside the still moving train. Guilt filled his belly and he fought the familiar sensation of needing to retch. An honest person by nature, Al also felt the need to elaborate, to tell her the reason for it all, but he just couldn't say it...not now.

What the boy said struck Winry hard, she stopped walking. She didn't need to see Alphonse, she heard the him wince as he uttered the words out loud. However, she did see his kind and beautiful face as he spoke it, a face twist up with what she could only describe as horror and something else, something excruciating. The girl realized Al saw it happen, he was there.

"It's ok." She moved without thinking and hugged him. His body stiffened at her touch, then relaxed and accepted the comforting gesture. It lasted only a second or two before she withdrew and pat him on his head – something her Granny always did to comfort her. "He's fine now, that's all that matters, right?" Her blue eyes sparkled in the speckled sunlight of the green forest.

"Yeah...he is." Al smiled meekly and then realized she'd hugged him, a pink blush crept across his cheeks. Winry giggled when she saw it.

"What's keeping you two!" Paninya obviously used this bossy voice to keep her campers in line when she was working, and it also worked on two hapless teenage friends. The trio made it to the river.


Edward considered his left leg for a moment as he sat on one of the white lounge chairs before the lake-still swimming pool. Suddenly, the memory overcame him again as sometimes happens when he attaches or removes the prosthesis. He remembered waking up in the tiny clinic room five years ago. His mother's frantic voice carried over a few other people talking but he never figured out what anyone was saying. Then, there were those blue eyes, four actually. The intense set of orbs hovered just in his field of vision and he heard them speak – a man and a woman. "We can save his arm...but, the blood supply to the leg is permanently damaged." The male voice sounded sad. "He will live, I promise, we won't let him die..." The female must have been talking to his mother.

Those doctors, the couple that were traveling on that train, they did save him. Edward haphazardly rubbed sunscreen on his torso then his right arm. He fingered the white and red scar that traveled around his shoulder where his limb had nearly been torn from its socket. Yes, they did save his arm, he lacked no function of the limb save a few numb fingers. However, despite that best effort, he suffered terrible aches when the weather turned cold or it rained. Other physicians told him it was the build up of scar tissue inside the limb. No matter, it worked, it was still there. Unlike his leg.

The young man pushed up his swim trunks so he could gain better access to the prosthesis on his left leg. Edward considered himself lucky, in a way. Many trans femoral amputees like him have to use braces or straps to keep their prosthesis in place but he could use the suction socket just fine. He pressed the small round button on the carbon fiber socket and heard the rush of air enter the large cup-like structure that contained what remained of this left thigh. Now, he could easily slide the stump from his leg. He set the limb aside and next went to task on removing the silicone sleeve that protected the skin of this stump. Once the boy was free of the thing, he let out a loud sigh of relief.

"That feels great." He scooted back on the lounge chair and put on a pair of dark sunglasses. Next, he picked up an enormous Advanced Chemistry book and sat back to take on some sun and get a head start on his reading for school.


"I don't see what the big deal is." Paninya grumbled as the trio made their way through a small gathering of kids on the riverbed. "I mean, I have TWO prosthetic legs for Christ's sake. He's being a big baby."

"Are you trying to scare away the new boy, Paninya?" A tall young man, with dark hair pulled back in a loose ponytail slid in between Paninya and Alphonse.

"Sod off, Ling." She shoved his chest, Ling barely staying upright from the blow. "If anyone has any problem with my stems, they've got a problem with me!" She thumbed her own chest in emphasis.

"I think you're legs are lovely...and everything north of them I'm happy to see as well." He smiled flirtatiously at the dark-skinned girl. "Aren't you going to introduce us?" He eyed Alphonse.

"Right." She pointed at Al. "This is Alphonse Elric. Alphonse, this is suck up is Ling. Discuss." She chuckled and trotted across the dry river rocks.

"Does she really have prosthetic legs?" Al watched Paninya stealthily negotiate the rocks until she found a large outcropping that overlooked the slow moving river. The girl drug a towel out of her bag and spread it on the rock claiming hers and Winry's spot. She tugged off her camouflage pants to reveal two prosthetic legs the same color as her dark skin. Paninya, unlike his brother, was missing her limbs just below her knees.

"Yes, she does. She had a terrible illness as a toddler and lost them." Winry walked past the two boys. "And, it certainly doesn't stop her from doing anything." She winked at Al and left him to Ling.

"New kid, huh?" If it were possible for Ling to narrow his already narrowed eyes, he did just that.

"Right. My brother and I moved here from Resembool this summer."

"Well, then, you're lucky to know me." He put his arm around Al's shoulder. "Let me introduce you to my friends." He maneuvered Alphonse until they were facing several teenagers in various stages of lounging and sunning themselves by the river. "This is my right hand girl, Lan Fan." Ling motioned to a raven-haired girl who seemed to materialize from nowhere. She nodded hello. "This is my sister, Mei."

"Hey." Al wondered why his voice just failed when he saw Ling's sister. The shorter girl just stood there wearing a pink tankini with her hair in a billion braids.

"Hi." Her strong voice soared above her diminutive body nearly knocking the boy down. "I heard there would be some new kids at school this year."

"How did you know?"

"Lan Fan's grandfather, Mr. Foo is principal." Ling interrupted. "So, we get some of the deets before others..." Sudden hoops and hollers coming from the path leading to the river distracted him. Al and Mei turned to see who was coming. "Aw shit." Ling darted to meet the newcomers.

"What's this about?" Al tried to see who was tearing through the path.

"Nothing but trouble." Mei growled.


The dream wasn't new. Before he realized he was dreaming at all, Edward let it play out as it had done hundreds of times since the day he lost his leg.

The fight started the whole thing. Alphonse always had this romantic notion that their dad watched over them from afar and all the good things that happened in their lives indirectly came from him. Ed hated to bring his brother down a notch but Al was too young to remember Hohenheim like he did. The new roof on the house came from helpful neighbors not their dad. The money to pay the taxes came from his mom working her butt off in their vegetable garden, not their father. Their new shoes came from the kindness and charity of Mrs. Bendible at the shoe store when their mother realized she didn't quite have enough to pay for them. Edward told his brother the truth and it affected the youth like a slap on his face.

"I think if we ask him he'd help...he's a doctor!" Al, on the verge of tears pleaded with his brother.

"Are you kidding? Mom would rather ask Mr. Plenkets prize sow than call up that bastard and ask for help with her treatment."

"But, she's sick, our doc said so. Shouldn't we take her to Central City where there are more doctors...maybe someone else can help? Dad's right there at the hospital...he'd help, I'm sure!"

"Al, just...just leave it alone." Ed didn't want to say anymore, but his brother just wouldn't drop it.

"No!" The younger Elric stormed out of the kitchen and found their telephone table in the entryway and pulled the drawer out so fast the whole drawer came sailing across the hall. He ran to it, and found their mother's address book and began rifling through the pages looking for a phone number for their dad. "I'll call him if you won't!"

"Who are you calling?" Trisha stood in the open front doorway. She carried a basket full of produce from their garden. She smiled but the boys both noticed the dark circles under her eyes. She'd been fretting over her recent diagnosis.

"He wants to ask dad for help." Edward quietly walked to the mess in the hallway and picked up the drawer with its contents and affixed it back in the table.

"What is wrong with the two of you?" Al couldn't believe neither his brother or mother would entertain asking Hohenheim for at least a reference to a physician who would help.

"Alphonse, dear, will you go sit down in the kitchen? I'll get you and your brother a glass of milk and we can talk." Trisha, in her eminent grace and elegance ordered her boys and they followed.

"No milk for me, mom...yuck." Ed helped her get the glasses and took one to pour himself water.

"I know." She ruffled his hair. "Can't blame me for trying." She poured a glass and handed it to Alphonse who stared at both of them, not understanding why they weren't upset. "Sit." Trisha smiled and joined the boys at the table.

"Mom!" Alphonse slammed down the glass and white liquid splattered on the wooden table. Trisha frowned at the mess.

"Al, honey...I know you adore your father." She took a deep breath to continue. "And I want nothing at all with making you stop." Trisha looked at Edward who stared at the wall behind his brother's head. "But, I've already called Hoheneheim..."

"And he didn't do squat!" Ed couldn't hold back. He'd stumbled in the house and caught the tail end of that conversation between his mom and dad. Trisha had to tell him everything and asked Edward to promise not to upset Alphonse with the ugly truth of it all.

"What Ed means is, your father thought it best that I continue my treatments in Resembool and in East City. He, in fact, did give me the names of a few specialists there."

"But he's not giving her any money to help out." Edward snarled. He longed for the day that Al saw their father's true nature, that he did not love their mother and probably only saw them as a burden whereas he had to support them only until they turned eighteen. Ed supposed this day was as good as any to burst Al's bubble and he could tell from the way his baby brother's face changed that he had.

"Dad?" It all hit Al too hard at once. He'd dreamed of a day when their father would return and ask for them to forgive him for leaving, that he'd marry their mom and whisk them away. Now, the realization of Hohenheim not even wanting to financially support their mom when she was most at need struck him like a baseball bat to the back of his skull. He couldn't handle it. He had to escape the house.

Alphonse shot up from his chair, knocking it to the ground and before his mother or brother could stop him, he'd already ran from their house. Edward gave his mom an "I'm sorry," look and ran after his sibling.

Trisha got up and wiped the spilled milk from the table. She felt the familiar rumbling of an approaching train as she did.


"Wake up, sleeping beauty!"

The foreign voice wafting through the dream of his mother brought Edward back to consciousness. He realized he'd fallen asleep on the chaise lounge by Hohenheim's swimming pool. What he didn't realize was just who was summoning him out of that dream.

"Wakey, wakey."

Ed opened his eyes and let them adjust to the bright morning sunshine when a strange face burst in front of the sun, diffusing the light.

"Hey, Al, should I kiss him awake?"

"The hell!" Ed shot up to see Alphonse and a whole gang of strange kids making themselves at home around the swimming pool. When his vision sharpened he also became aware that most of them, including his brother sported busted lips and bruises. "Alphonse, what happened?" Ed stood on his right leg and used Ling as a crutch, much to the boy's amusement. When the taller teen refused to budge, Edward smacked him across the crown of his head until he helped him over to Al.

"We had sort of an...altercation at the river." The younger Elric smiled and half giggled.

"Rockbell!" Ed scowled and scanned the pool area for the blonde girl he considered "in charge" of his baby brother during this outing. He noticed a movement to his right and Winry meekly came forward. "Is this what happens at your group's parties?"

"No!" Winry, apparently unscathed, stormed forward to face the forever grumpy golden boy. "Avari and his goony friends decided to crash our swimming outing." She giggled. "Your brother, Ling and Lan Fan basically trounced them..."

"Ling? Lan Fan?"

"Calm down Brother." Al strode up and let took reign of his brother from Ling. "Until the police showed up, it was really sort of fun."

"Police!" He looked around for someone to take out is anger and his yellow eyes fell solely on the squinting eyes of Ling. "You! It's your fault." Edward lunged forward away from the steadying hands of his brother. He aimed at wiping the grin from the boy's face. A set of hard, onyx colored eyes came between him and his prey and he realized he was now holding onto the shoulders of a very angry girl. "Oooof!" Ed heard his voice box release the sound after the girl in front of him landed her right palm directly into his solar plexus. He fell to the concrete.

"I'm Ling." Ling motioned to himself then to Lan Fan. "And that, was Lan Fan." His eyes opened wide. "I think this is a much better place to party." The boy grinned and someone started loud music from their ipod's speaker.