I know it's been a year, I'm not dead, and I haven't completely abandoned this fanfic. I've been busy with college classes and I was having some writer's block with this, I felt it was slow and a bit boring. Hopefully it gets better after this chapter.

MadameMirage77: I could've sworn I mentioned about whether there would be alchemy or not in my fanfic and I had thought about it, but I decided that there wasn't going to be any alchemy as this is a AU. It also wouldn't be fair for the vampires if Roy is able to set them all on fire with his fire alchemy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist and the characters they belong to Hiromu Arakawa. I only own the fanfic and the various ocs that will appear. The title of the song belongs to HIM.

Chapter 6: The Tour

There was an awkward silence as I followed Rowan up some stairs. I know I was still reeling over becoming part of Envy's crew or army or whatever it is and how his personality changed from happy and weird to...removing his blood covered hand from a chest cavity. I certainly don't want to remember Envy like that; I rather remember the smile he gave me...

Where did that come from? In hopes to quell my thoughts on Envy, I cleared my throat and asked, "May I ask what ranking you have?"

"I don't have one. I'm not part of Envy's army." Rowan answered.

Oh. "Then why are you here?"

"I'm a blacksmith. I make and repair weapons." She told me.

That's good to know. With a blacksmith here means I wouldn't have to seek one out if my weapons need repairs.

"What was that Bentley's problem?" I decided to ask.

"It's like he said, he's been here for twenty-three years and he's still a grunt," she answered.

"Is that bad?" I asked.

"Grunts share a room with one bathroom and they have limited privileges whereas the ranking officers get a room to themselves and lots of privileges. Many of us bust our asses to become a ranking officer and get those commendations whereas some people- like you- are given the rank right away." Rowan explained.

"I take it that getting a rank so soon is rare." I said.

"It is very rare for Envy to be impressed with our fighting skill. He must really like you."

I didn't know what to say about that. I didn't think I was skillful to catch the Sin's eyes and I was curious to know why Envy made me a Major so quickly, let alone give me a second chance to prove myself when General Winter wasn't impressed with me the first time I fought Bentley and the others. I guess because Envy is a royal vampire the General has to answer to him, and he has the final say.

My head snapped forward and my skin tingled with pain.

"What was that for?!" I yelled as I whipped around to face Rowan.

"You kept on walking when I turned down a hall and you didn't hear me call your name," she answered calmly.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something." I told her. "And don't grab my braid." I mumbled as I rubbed my scalp.

"Best be careful with that or you'll find yourself somewhere you shouldn't be or get lost if you don't know this place yet." she informed me and possibly ignored my mumbling.

As we walked down the hall, I noticed that we were walking towards a man leaning against a wall.

"About time you two got here," the man said visibly annoyed.

"Oh, we were purposely walking slowly to make you wait all night for us, Tino." Rowan told him with a hint of amusement in her voice.

I studied this vampire, he was standing close to 6 feet with long shaggy black hair and like every vampire he was good looking except for some of the visible scars on his face and he had an eye patch over his right eye. He must've gotten the scars and lost his eye before he was turned into a vampire.

"And here I thought it was shorty's fault."

My blood boiled and I ran towards him yelling, "Who's so short he's as slow as a snail?!" My mind raced with what I wanted to do to him when I got my hands on him, but I never got in reach of Tino as Rowan grabbed hold of me and kept me at bay.

"Charming." he said unimpressed.

"Calm down Ed, before that temper gets the best of you." Rowan whispered to me.

I took couple of deep breaths and finally calmed down and Rowan released me.

"Why are we here?" I asked.

"This is your new room," Tino answered as he pulled out a ring of keys from his pocket.

"Why do you have so many keys?" I asked.

"It's because I'm the housekeeper and I'm responsible for the keys to the many rooms," he answered as he unlocked the door and pushed it open.

"Why is that?" I inquired.

"I'm more reliable than the last vampire who had the job."

"Had?" I pushed further.

"The last housekeeper was a female vampire and she was pretty unstable. Sometimes she would come onto male vampires and if they refused her, she'd sneak into their room and kill them in their sleep." Tino answered.

"That is, if she didn't decide to... rape them." Rowan added, causing me to drop my suitcase in shock.

My eyes widen in horror. "She actually did that?" I squeaked.

"Yeah, but don't worry. General Winter caught her trying to that to one of the twins." Rowan said trying to reassure me.

"Is that vampire still around?" I asked. I'm worried and you'd be worried too if there's some crazy vampire chick running around doing stuff like that to males.

Tino must've seen the look of fear on my face because he said, "Envy decided her fate and was put to death. I've been doing this gig for close to forty-nine years now."

I couldn't help let out a sigh in relief.

I followed Tino into my new room and took it in. It was a little bigger than my last room and already furnished with a king size bed, a dresser, a small bookshelf, a desk, a chair, and a reading lamp. There was a fireplace set into wall opposite of the bed.

I set my suitcase onto the bed and checked the door on the left side of the fireplace to find it was the bathroom. It was clean with your typical sink with a mirror hanging over it and a claw feet tub. I could see the toilet was taken out for obvious reasons. I turned the light out and closed the door behind me.

"Here's your key to your room. I suggest you lock your door when you're out or in." Tino said as he held up the key as I checked the other door to see it is a closet.

"Why?" I asked as I took it from him.

"Besides that crazy housekeeper, we had a few cases where a disgruntled vampire wait in the another vampire's room, waited for them to return and killed them. And there was another one that broke down the door and attacked the vampire." Tino explained.

"I've told you this place can be pretty cutthroat." Rowan said when she saw the surprised look on my face.

"I'll bring some sheets and a pillow later." Tino promised.

"Thanks." I said.

"No problem." Tino said then left Rowan and me alone.

"So, do you have to share a room with the grunts?" I asked out of the blue.

Rowan raised a brow at me. "Are you flirting with me?" she asked and didn't give me a chance to answer. "Firstly, you're not my type. I'm not into short guys—"

"Who's so short he can flirt with a mouse?!" I snapped automatically.

Rowan ignored my outburst as she continued, "And secondly, I'm married."

Oh, that's nice to hear. I cleared my throat. "I was asking in case I need to ask you something."

"I'm neither a grunt nor a ranking officer. I have my own room for blacksmithing and I have some privileges as the ranking officers." she answered.

"Oh."

"I'm suppose to give you a tour, but first we need to get you some uniforms." she told me.

"Uniforms?" I wondered. I have seen General Winter wearing one, but everyone else including Rowan aren't.

I decided to voice this. "Is the uniform mandatory? No one else besides General Winter is wearing one."

"Envy and even General Winter are lax about it. We only wear it once a week or if one of Envy's siblings comes to visit."

That sounds reasonable I guess. I thought.

After I locked my room, Rowan took me to a room on the third floor. She knocked on the door and entered after a voice said, "Enter."

As I walked in, I noted that the room looked to be a tailor's workshop. There were cloths on the tables and in the cabinets, spools of thread, needles, and other sewing supplies in a kit, and there were dressmaker dummies of various sizes for men and women. A middle age woman looked up from her sewing as we walked in.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "We have a new one, have we?"

Rowan nodded and gave the introductions. "This is Edward Elric. Edward, this is Alyss Stone, our tailor."

"Nice to meet you, Edward," Alyss said kindly as she stood up from the sewing table. "I guess you're here for some uniforms." she gazed at me with curiosity. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen." I answered.

"My!" Alyss exclaimed. "You're quite small for your age."

"Who's so small he's no bigger than a daisy?!" I snapped.

Alyss stared wide eyed at my outburst and Rowan said, "He does that when someone comments about his height."

"I see. Well, I don't have anything in your size unfortunately. I'll have to take your measurement so I can make some for you later. For now, I can have you put one on so I can alter it."

Alyss had me stand on a stool as she took my measurements and carefully wrote them down. Then she gave me a uniform set and shooed me behind a divider screen to try them on. I stripped down to my boxers and put the uniform on. The sleeves and pant legs were long on me of course that it felt like I was wearing my dad's clothes.

...Oh my god! I can't believe I thought I was small!

I gripped my head and thrashed around trying not to yell. I must've failed for Alyss asked, "Are you all right dear? You're making strange grunting sounds."

"I'm fine." I answered once I calmed down.

I pulled the leg cuffs up so I wouldn't trip and rolled the sleeves up and walked out from behind the divider.

"Oh! Don't you look adorable," Alyss cooed as Rowan bit her lip to keep from laughing and yeah, I blushed.

"Come over here so I can hem those cuffs, dear."

I stood on the stool once more as Alyss went to work of pinning the hems on my uniform. Once Alyss finished hemming the cuffs and I was careful taking the uniform off so I wouldn't stick myself with the pins, dressed into my own clothes, gave Alyss the uniforms, and thanked her. Rowan and I continued on our tour throughout the mansion and I practically moaned at the size of the library and knew I would be spending most of my time in there.

Rowan ended the tour at the dining room. "What kind of blood do you want?"

There were many tables in the huge dining room with some vampires sitting at some of them and against one wall was a buffet table with chafes of blood and clean goblets. None of the chafes had labels on them so I wasn't sure if they had human blood or vampire blood.

"Uh, do any of those chafes have vampire blood in them?" I asked. "I haven't gotten around to drinking human blood yet."

Rowan studied me and replied, "We don't usually have vampire blood at hand. The only time that happens is when a vampire pissed Envy off enough to drain them of their blood and not give them a quick death. Like the last housekeeper."

Well that's disappointing.

"I'm guessing you have a reason for not drinking human blood so I'll give you some of my blood for today and I'll tell you now, it's going to be a chore asking someone willing to bleed for you."

I went and sat at a table as Rowan went to fill a goblet and grabbed a clean one for me. She set the goblets on the table and I watched as she pushed up her sleeve, pull out a knife, slice her wrist open, and let her blood drip into the goblet. Once the goblet filled up, she pressed her hand to her wrist to stop the flow.

"Thank you." I said as I pick up the goblet and she nodded.

We sat in silent and sipped our goblets of blood. By chance, a vampire wearing a uniform walked by and I remembered the strange symbol I saw on the uniforms.

"What does the symbol on the uniform mean?" I inquired.

"It's the mark of Envy," answered Rowan.

"Why would Envy need a mark?" I inquired further.

"All the Sins have a mark and it's so each of the Sins knows who works for whom."

"Why?" I pushed on.

"There have been problems in the past where a Sin claimed a vampire as theirs even when they worked for another or when they bled a vampire," one of the twins explained as he slid into a chair.

I noticed he was sporting a black eye, a cut lip, and bite marks on his neck.

"So who won your little fight? You or your brother?" Rowan asked innocently I'm sure.

"I did." he answered.

"Like hell you did." the other twin snapped as he slipped into a chair of his own. This twin was also sporting a black eye, a broken nose and cut eyebrow.

"I had you crying uncle," the first twin stated.

"You did not," the second twin growled back.

I could tell by the glint in their eyes they were about to go another round and glancing around the room, the other vampires must have the same thought as some quickly downed their goblets and left while others took their goblets and exited hastily.

Luckily and strangely, General Winter entered the dining room and grabbed the twins by their ears.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" whined both the twins.

General Winter ignored their whines of pain and turning to her left calmly said, "Eren," and to her right, "Erek. You both know you are forbidden to fight in here after what happened last time. If you both so much as think about it- you both may be in your thirties, but that doesn't mean I can't still treat you both as children and punish you as such. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am," they both answered.

"Good." General Winter said and released her hold on their ears and left.

"I swear she has a sixth sense when it comes to us about to fight." Eren said as he rubbed his ear.

"She could've been walking by and she could've heard you two starting on your argument." Rowan suggested.

"What are you both to the General?" I inquired.

"We're her boy toys." Erek answered.

I was taken by surprise by his answer that I spat the blood I was drinking all over the table and sputtered.

"Don't listen to my idiot brother." Eren reassured me and smacked his brother over the head. "We were her wards."

Oh, thank god! He had said it with such a straight face and conviction that I thought it was true. Made me wonder how long it took him to rehearse that to make it seem so genuine.

"W-wards?" I asked as I cleared my airway.

"We're vampire born. When we were eleven—" Eren began.

"Twelve." Erek corrected.

Eren glared at his brother and continued on, "Our village was attacked by hunters and our parents and everyone we knew were killed. We survived because we were hiding but I was badly injured."

"I was afraid he was going to die. I tried feeding him my blood, but no matter how much I gave him, it wasn't helping him."

"He gave me so much of his blood that he was about to die with me from blood loss. By luck, Winter found us, saved our asses by giving her some of her blood and then took us in."

"Why didn't your blood help your brother?" I asked.

"Vampires can't heal or sustain themselves with their own blood so we theorized because we're twins that make our blood similar and we can't help each other with it." Eren explained.

That makes sense.

"So you're both in your thirties when you look seventeen?" I asked.

"We age slowly." Erek said while Eren stated, "We stopped aging at seventeen."

Well now, I can get my curiosity satisfied. "I never been around vampire borns before and I'm curious to know if you still age when you drink human blood or not."

"The whole human blood anti-aging thing only works on the vampire made types." Erek answered.

"So Ed, what's your story?" Rowan asked.

I told them my story, starting from being turned into a vampire by Doyle to getting my letter from General Winter."

"That vampire was definitely grade A creeper." Erek said.

"That creep made my skin crawl when we first laid eyes on him." Eren agreed as he shivered.

"You both met him?" I asked surprised.

"Not really." Erek answered.

"Actually yeah, we did. He gave us such a lecherous look when he talked to our parents and us." Eren told his brother.

I watched as Eren's eyes dart behind me and ask, "Is there a reason Bentley's giving you the 'I want to gut you' glare?"

I turned in my seat and sure enough, there was Bentley was sitting at a table behind me and glaring.

"Well, he got mad when Envy gave me the Major rank." I answered as I turned back in to face them.

Erek whistled. "Damn. Envy must've liked you to rank you so quickly."

"Plus, Bentley questioned Envy on it and almost got himself killed." Rowan told them in a hush tone.

"Ooh," one of the twins hissed. "You should never do that, that's basically a death wish."

"I figured that out when Envy buried his hand into Bentley's chest." I said.

Those twins gave me a look that said they thought Death was standing behind me.

"Best you watch your back, it can get pretty cutthroat for newbies here." warn Erek.

"And on that note, I'm heading to bed." Rowan announced.

"And I suggest you three do the same. The last thing you twins want is General Winter breaking your door down wondering why you aren't at training."

"Training?" I asked.

"Yeah, the General wants us up at the crack of sunset and do some training." Erek explained.

"She doesn't want any one of us to slack off, get lazy and you know, get killed by hunters when we run into them." Eren added.

Well that makes sense. I drained my goblet and got up from the table. I soon noticed the twins give each other a look and got up from the table as well. I brushed it off as them heading to their room, but then it was hard to ignore that they were following me.

"Why are you following me?" I asked them.

"It's 'cuz we saw Bentley getting up from his seat when you were getting up," one of them answered.

"And what? You both don't think I can take care of myself?" I asked them.

"Nah! You obviously can take care of yourself if got a place here, but Bentley is the type to stab you in back if given the chance."

I didn't know what to say as we walked to my room. "Thanks... for walking me to my room." I told them awkwardly.

"Sure, but be sure to lock your door. We'll wait until you do."

"Okay." I said.

At least they didn't offer to stand guard at my door or sleep on the floor in my room. This thought ran through my head as I unlocked the door.

I bid the twins goodnight and locked the door after I entered my room.

I saw that Tino set the linens on my bed and I remembered I didn't put my clothes and toiletries away. I put my clothes into the dresser, my hairbrush on top the dresser, placed my suitcase in the closet, and made the bed. I took my toiletries into the bathroom and set them where I want them to, brushed my teeth, then stripped down to my boxers and undershirt, and pulled my braid loose. I climbed into my new bed and wondered how my life will be like from now on as I closed my eyes and tried to go to sleep.

I hope you all like this chapter. I probably made some mistakes in my haste to get this up. I'll look over it again in a few day to see if anything needs to be added, removed or fixed. Now to work on the next chapter with "Golden Time Lover" for inspiration.