Edward stretched in his seat as the bell went off, signaling the end of yet another mind numbing lesson, groaning. Next time, he really ought to remember to just read one of Hohenheim's -that bastard!- notes. Any one of the seven volumes, even if it was the most ridiculously boring one, because even that was far more interesting than listening to Mustang drone on and on about chemical bonding, and all that other stuff he learnt during his preschool days.
"I can't believe it." Ed complained to Winry as soon as the lesson was over. "Why are we learning something so freaking simple?"
"Don't be silly, Ed," Winry said as she gathered up her notes. "Not all of us are geniuses like you, you know."
"Ah HA!" Ed exclaimed, pointing a finger straight at Winry triumphly. "You DO admit that I'm a genius!"
Winry rolled her eyes at Ed's childish behavior as she batted his hand away. "But maturity, on the other hand..." Winry trailed off, but the meaning was clearly there.
"HEY! WINRY, TAKE THAT BACK, YOU GEARHEAD!"
"CHEMISTRY FREAK!"
"MACHINERY NUT!"
Whack!
"OW!"
LINE BREAK
"Jeez, brother. What did you do this time? Looks like Winry really did a number on you." Alphonse casually remarked as he collected his books from his locker, eyeing the rather large lump on his brother's temple. Actually, he really wasn't sure whether he wanted to know about how his brother nearly got Winry to brutally murder him.
"Nothing, Al." Ed's eye twitched dangerously at the reminder of his most recent encounter with a titanium wrench. Why'd Winry carry that around, anyway? Wasn't that just dead weight? Then again, Ed never did understand women...
"So, anyway," Alphonse began, "What do you have next?"
"Huh?" Ed flipped his schedule over, only to pale drastically at the next class he was supposed to have. "Oh, crap..."
"Brother?" Al asked nervously. If something could scare Ed that badly, it was probably something really, really bad. Probably as bad as 'someone called Ed short' kind of bad.
Ed didn't reply. He simply flipped his schedule over to Al's side, pointing to a particular class.
"Physical Education?" Alphonse read, before looking back at his brother with a raised eyebrow and a deadpanned expression, as if saying, really?"Brother, you like excersing, we even spar daily, so what's the problem?"
"Al, you forgot, didn't you?" Ed accused, before lifting up his right arm and pointing at it, before Alphonse finally remembered whatever it was that his brother was so distressed about. "And I'm pretty sure the Physical Education attires are short sleeved."
Alphonse laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry brother, I guess I forgot?"
Es thumped his head on a conviently placed wall. What was his little brother doing to make himself forget important things?
"... Maybe I should try feigning sickness?" Ed tapped his chin thoughtfully after recovering, before Al shot down his idea with precision, that Ed wondered how Alphonse got so good at shooting down his ideas.
"Brother, they'll just make you head to the nurse's office."
Ed shuddered. "That's unfortunately true..."
Al snapped his fingers, beaming broadly. "I got it!" Turning back to his locker, he quickly dug through it.
"Uh, Al?" Ed asked nervously as he narrowly dodged one painful looking textbook just as Al yelled out in triumph, holding out a pair of dark colored arm warmers.
Ed's eye twitched. "Al... Weren't those for girls? And why do you have them?"
"Brother, don't be silly. These are the ones for males. And besides, weren't you complaining about people finding out about what's on your arm?"
"Al, you're evil."
LINE BREAK
"Hiya, Edo!" Ed had just entered the locker room five seconds before hand, and hadn't the time to react before he was unceremoniously squished into a hug.
"What the-?! Get off! And who the heck are you?" Ed protested, shoving the offender who tumbled backwards to the floor.
"How mean!" The person, who was obviously of Xingese or Chinese origin pouted, getting up and dusting himself off, before saying. "I can't believe you forgot me!"
Ed scrutinized the person, before blinking in surprise. Wait a second... So that's why the squinty eyed guy looked familiar! Ed's eye twitched in annoyance.
"Ling?!"
Edward had met Ling during his time in Xing a year ago, after finding him collapsed by the roadside. Ok, maybe that was Al, but who cares? Of course, being the kind soul Al was treated the idiot with some food -with Ed's money unfortunately-, only for the squinty eyed idiot to rack up a damn bill of twenty thousand cenz in Amestrian currency! And he still hadn't paid him back! Ed wanted his money back!
At that thought, Ed clenched his fists, nearly fuming at the memory. "Squinty eyes... You still owe me twenty thousand cenz!" Ed growled out through gnashing teeth, Ling completely unaffected by the dangerous aura that was radiating off Edward, as he simply grinned, inching out of the locker room. "C'mon, aren't we friends? Friends treat each other to things!"
"When since were we friends, you idiot?! You just mooched off me!" Ed growled, fist raised, following after Ling onto the field with the other males.
Before any more of the conversation could continue -or possible violence could start- , a loud, booming voice filled the area.
"GREETINGS, STUDENTS! IT IS I, COACH ARMSTRONG WHO SHALL BE TEACHING YOU THE ART OF EXERCISING THAT HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN THROUGH THE ARMSTRONG FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS! "
At this, a significant number of the males present let out rather girly shrieks, that they would later vehemently deny. Luckily for them, the girls were at a different area of the field which was out of hearing range, because both groups would be doing different activities for the semester.
Their coach was to put it very simply, extremely muscular, mostly bald with a single lock of blond hair falling from the center of his head, with a funny mustache that seemed to curl upwards.
"Should I be worried?" Ed wondered out loud, not expecting to receive a response from Ling. "You should!" Ling grinned, still unaffected by whatever he should have been worried about.
"Are you crazy?!" One student hissed from Ed's side. "Coach Armstrong is well known around the school for his... Odd tendencies!"
Ed blinked, turning to stare, confused, at the student, whom Ed recognized as one of his friends from back in Resembool. Pitt, he recalled, was his name. He should have been worried at being recognized, but Ed hadn't seen him since he was what, six? Seven? He highly doubted Pitt would have remembered him.
"Odd tendencies?" Ed repeated, his eyebrow raised. "What do you mean by-?"
"NOW, STUDENTS! RUN TEN LAPS AROUND OUR SCHOOL'S MAGNIFICENT TRACK FIELD! I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT YOU'LL WHAT CAN BE ACHIEVED BY FOLLOWING THIS MARVELLOUS ROUTINE EVERYDAY!"
All of a sudden, the coach's shirt had vanished to who knows where -maybe disintegrated-, and Armstrong himself was busy flexing, showing off his bulging muscles.
Were those pink sparkles?!
"...that?" Ed finished weakly, before bolting off to the track field, intent on getting as far away as possible from Armstrong, with the rest of the class running after as though their life depended on it.
Was death by sparkles possible?
"I'm definately cursed..." Was the thought that repeated on repetitive all the while Ed ran the ten rounds, which equaled to about five kilometers. Luckily for Ed, his teacher had pretty much made him and Al run ten kilometers a day, all the while chucking rocks at them. Not the most pleasant memory, but it did help improve their stamina, which meant they could run at least slightly more than ten kilometers without breaking a sweat, which was useful here.
By the end of the end of the class -half of which Ed spent drawing perfect circles into the ground since he finished running six rounds ahead of the class-, more than half the class was on the floor in a sweaty mass, crying out bloody murder, with the sole exception of Ed and Ling. Honestly, Ed wasn't too surprised. Ling was like some sort of ninja wearing bright colors instead of the traditional black. Kind of reminds Ed of a television show he once saw for five minutes when he was playing around with the channels on the hotel room's television when he had nothing better to do. Something to do with a ramen loving ninja wearing orange.
And so, there concluded the first lesson of Physical Education, which Ed left hoping the next lesson was not going to be anytime soon, mainly because Armstrong was too busy flexing the whole time, exposing his muscled chest in it's full glory.
Gah, Ed's eyes and brain were permanently scarred now. And he really did not want to be scarred anymore than he needed to, thank you very much.
Oh well, on the bright side, no one noticed anything strange about Ed, which meant his secret was safe for a while longer.
As Ed changed back into his normal daily wear, once he made sure no one was looking, he pulled off the arm warmers. A circle with complicated markings that had been seared into his forearm stared back up at him, before he quickly pulled back on his red jacket, hiding the markings.
He had been so stupid, messing around in things he shouldn't have. He shouldn't have tried playing around with Hohenheim's research.
Now everytime he shut his eyes, he could see that- that thing, grinning at him, before it cursed him to this fate of running and hiding continuously. Ed never did understand, why he could have activated his Father's research in the first place, when no one else could.
"Hey, Al! Look what I found! Cool, huh?"
LINE BREAK
"C'mon, Ed, Al!" Winry laughed, pulling the two brothers -against their will- along to the horror called shopping. The worst part? Winry expected them to pay for her expenses. Talk about being a mooch.
"Wow!" Winry gushed, her eyes sparkling as she spotted a tool shop. "They've got a new set of tools! Oh, and those chrome bearings are to die for!"
As Winry went on and on about the different tools and screws -possibly because she had one missing-, Ed groaned, thinking about how much lighter his wallet was going to be when they got back home sometime next week.
And here he thought Winry was different from other girls. Nope, she was exactly the same, with only her choice in products differing.
Al patted his brother's shoulder sympathetically.
Four hours and twenty different stores, one extremely light wallet and a happy Winry later, the trio were seated at a cafe, enjoying a hot chocolate -once again using Ed's money. Damn, they were heartless- as they caught up, Winry listening to Al retelling an incident where both of them were banned from a village for life thanks to Ed's crazy antics.
"I already said I was sorry!" Ed complained. "It wasn't my fault that guy refused to listen!"
"You keep thinking that, brother."
"That had better not be sarcasm I hear."
"Whatever you say, brother."
Pretty soon after, they left the cafe and headed back home. It was funny finding out they lived next to each other, though.
As soon as Ed had shut the front door, he quickly peeled off his jacket, throwing it on the couch because really, it was summer, and was hot out there! Not to mention the fact his arm was bothering him much more than usual.
"Is your arm hurting again, brother?" Al looked over Ed in concern, who waved him off.
"Nah, it's just the heat." Ed reassured him, despite the stinging sensation that was beginning to crawl over his forearm, right where the darkened markings were. It had always been like that, even after four years since that day.
Ed had to wonder though. If he had never succeeded in activating that circle, where would his life had gone?
"Ok, Al. Stand back, I'm gonna try this out. One of dad's crazy research projects which probably doesn't work!"
[A/N Ok, this chapter ending was a little rushed since I had no idea how to end off. But eh, I hope the rest was good enough for a long wait. Sorry about that though. But exam results came back, and needless to say, half of them were horrendous, with the exception of English and science. My Chinese sucks, my math sucks, my literature sucks and etc...
Someone tell me how to study for them, else I'm going to do badly for my streaming year. And this year is really important for my future! Gah, damn it, Singapore education system. Damn it Secondary two year... And I'm still thirteen! Too much stress in my life in just thirteen short years!
Well, if I do update again, at least you'll know my mom didn't kill me for my results...
~ Gwntan12]
