Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist in any way shape or form. I know I haven't added a new chapter for 2 months? I'm sorry it hasn't been updated sooner. I've been trying to write as much as possible while putting effort into my school work as well. Once I'm out of school for the summer I will update much more often. Don't worry chapter 8 is already in the works so I should have it up a couple weeks after today. Now for Chapter 7. Enjoy!
Dreams
Chapter 7: Date Delayed
-Ed-
"Ed, get up."
Edward woke up to his younger brother's voice. Ed swatted his human hand in the air until it found Al's face.
"Stop that brother!"
"What time is it?" Ed mumbled.
"About 6:30am, so get up."
Ed made a grumbling noise as he slid out of bed. They had already packed their stuff the night before so all they had to do was get dressed and arrive at the train station on time.
Al had been up a half an hour earlier than him so he was dressed except for his shoes. Ed got dressed quickly and fashioned his hair into a sloppy braid.
At 7am Al made sure that they had everything and decided to see if the Colonel was ready to leave.
Edward was still half awake when he walked with Al over to Roy's door. A fully dressed but drowsy Roy answered the knock on his door.
"Oh joy, it's the Elric brothers. If this had been 4 years ago I'd be miserable at the sight of you at my doorstep. "
"Believe me it's misery for me to be standing here even now." remarked Edward.
Al rolled his eyes at their little bickering banter. "Are you ready to go Colonel?"
"Yes, I'll meet you down in the lobby."
With that Ed followed Al down to the lobby of the hotel where Ed signed them out and waited for Roy. Ed almost fell asleep sitting in a chair while waiting. The Colonel finally came down and signed himself out of the hotel.
"Shall we get a move on? We have an hour til the train leaves."
The trio of alchemists walked to the train station. A few people stared when they passed by. Edward never really noticed but when he did, he always reminded himself that he was famous, maybe hated by some, but still famous.
The walk to the train station was only 6 or 7 minutes so their train was sitting in the station waiting for 8 o'clock to roll around.
They found a seat and after being there awhile were surprised to find that no one else had come in to sit in their car.
"Hmm, seems like we'll be by ourselves." Roy said sitting down across from Ed.
"Great." was Ed's only reply while rolling his eyes. He was sitting by the window with his head resting in his hand.
"Come now Fullmetal. I can't be that terrible to be with."
Ed tried not to look at the man but it was hard not to.
"I guess not unless your being your pompous bastard self."
Surprisingly Roy just sighed.
"What no comeback from the Flame Alchemist?"
Roy didn't answer his question and asked where Al was instead.
"I don't know, I think he said he was going to the bathroom."
"Ah."
The train hadn't left yet due to some delay. Edward rummaged around in his pockets trying to find something that would keep him occupied through the train ride.
He stumbled upon a pack of cards in his inside coat pocket. He pulled them out and found that it was an old pack that he had bought when he was on the other side of the gate in Germany. Al returned just as Ed found his cards.
Making his presence known Al said, "The train will be leaving in a couple minutes."
"Look what I found Al." Ed held up the cards to his brother.
"Your playing cards?"
"Yeah the ones from Germany."
"Those came back with us through the gate?"
"I suppose so, they were in my pocket when we went through."
"Huh, well we have something to do now."
The train jerked to a start and Al sat down quickly next to the Colonel.
"So what do you want to play Al? How about poker?"
"Brother you know I'm no good at poker."
"Ugh, fine pick something else." Ed said while he started to shuffle the cards.
"How about Go Fish?"
"That's a child's game."
"Well then it's perfect for you, Fullmetal."
"Oh ha-ha very funny." Ed retorted taking a sucker out of his pocket to eat.
Once the train was at a basic speed they got up and moved one of the little tables in between their booth so they could play cards better. Roy had no idea what Go Fish was, so Al and Ed explained to him how to play.
"It's a game that the little kids used to play." Ed said while cutting the deck, passing 7 cards to each one of them.
The sun rose higher and higher up in the sky as they played without worry but many interruptions.
Ed decided he wanted to play poker and Roy agreed that he would play against him. Al would just deal the cards and watch. Unfortunately Edward didn't take it lightly when he lost to Roy.
"You cheated!"
"I did not your just not as good as me."
"Ha! Yeah right, I'm way better than you!"
It went back and forth like this until the train got close to the station. Ed fell asleep so Al watched him to make sure he didn't blurt anything out while he was unconscious. Roy was too preoccupied with his paperwork anyway. He wanted to finish it before he went to work the next day.
Ed was still asleep when they pulled into the station with his head resting in his left hand.
Al had left to get their things and Roy was busy reading.
The sudden jerk of the train stopping made Edward wake up in surprise.
His head popped up quickly and then turned to his left. This ended with him banging his forehead against the cold glass of the window.
"Ow! Damn it!"
He immediately clutched at his forehead with both hands and fell back onto the seat.
Roy sat there and stared. After Ed fell back onto the seat he roared with laughter.
"Are…are you ok?" he said.
Ed sprung up and pointed at his head.
"Do I look ok to you?"
Roy laughed again seeing the red spot on Ed's forehead. "Define ok." He said between chuckles.
"Prick." Ed muttered crossing his arms.
"What's going on?" They heard Al's voice drift from down the car.
Al dragged two suitcases with him. He came to find his brother with a swelling red spot on his forehead and an amused looking Colonel.
"What happened?"
"I hit my head."
"Are you ok?"
"I'll be alright. Bastard here thought it was hilarious."
"I'm sorry but if it had been me you would have laughed."
"He's got a point brother."
"Can we go now? I don't want to be stuck on this train forever."
They gathered their stuff and got off the train. Edward had expected to see Havoc waiting to take them back to Headquarters. Instead Riza was there. Roy seemed to take notice as well.
"Hey I thought Havoc would be picking us up?"
"No, he got stuck with a different errand."
"Ok."
Roy and Riza started their own conversation. Edward was still tired and waited for them to finish. Then something Riza said caught his attention.
"Your little blind date won't be until tomorrow."
"Fine by me." replied Roy not caring.
Riza then turned to him and said, "That goes for your blind date as well."
Even though he really didn't want to go, he wanted to know why it wouldn't be tonight.
"Why?"
Riza paused for a second. Whether she was taken by surprise or trying to think, Ed couldn't tell.
"Your date had work to do today so it's been delayed until tomorrow night."
"Well ok then, let's go."
Edward walked out of the train station his traveling coat catching the breeze with Al trailing behind.
-Al-
Alphonse Elric sat leaning against a bookshelf sitting in between his older brother and Maes Hughes bickering about which pictures of Elysia Edward had seen already.
"I've seen that one too."
"Oh, oh how bout this one? Isn't she so cute in that red dress?"
"I saw that one yesterday, Hughes." Ed rolled his eyes hoping that Al would find the book he wanted. Al just smiled.
"I guess you've seen them all. So got any guesses on who your blind date is?"
"Nope and I don't care." Ed said while browsing through a shelf of water alchemy books.
Al listened to them talk. A shadow from behind the bookshelf in front of him moved and Al caught a glimpse of raven black hair and a military uniform.
*Roy.*
-Roy-
Roy paced in his office racking his brain for names and faces of women who he had previously dated. The blind date was tonight and Riza and Hughes refused to even give him a hint of who it was.
He had finished all his paperwork in record time, hoping that this might convince Riza to give him a hint.
Speaking of the Lieutenant she opened the door. "I don't think I've ever seen you pace over something like a blind date."
"I'm done with all my paperwork. Will you please tell me?"
"All of it?" Riza questioned suspiciously.
"Yes all of it look." Roy went over to his desk and picked up the one and a half inch stack of papers all bearing his signature. He handed it to her.
"There, now will you tell me?"
Riza paused for a moment, flipping through the stack of documents now in her hands.
"Nope but good work, Colonel." She gave him a smile.
"Fine if you won't tell me, will you at least let me guess? And if I get it right you have to tell me so."
"Alright fine, one guess though."
Seeing that his office door was open he whispered the name in Riza's ear.
"How could you think it would be anyone else?"
"Well I never know with Hughes. He would have hooked me up with a cow just for shits and giggles."
"Though that may be true for Hughes, I wouldn't do that."
"I know. Where is Hughes anyway? I need to talk to him."
"I think he said something about the library."
"Right, thanks Riza."
With that Mustang was off and out of East Headquarters. Once he got to the library he asked the librarian if she knew where Hughes was.
"He's back in the water alchemy section with the Elric brothers."
He said thank you and went on his way. As he walked closer to his destination he heard Edward's voice first. He peeked around a bookshelf to find Hughes talking to Edward about the blind date. Roy decided to stand behind the bookshelf Ed was looking off of and just listen.
"Not even one little guess?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I told you already, I don't care."
"Doesn't it just bother you not knowing who it is?"
*I know it did me.* Roy thought.
"Somewhat, yes. But this seems to be insignificant compared to many of the other problems that I have."
It was quite for a moment and then Hughes spoke again.
"What if you answer one question and if you answer it honestly I'll tell you who your date is."
Ed didn't reply immediately. "What's the question?"
"What are your feelings toward the Colonel?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"More of a personal question I suppose, but you can confide in me and your brother of course."
Roy was listening intently now.
"Well I'm not answering it."
"Why not?"
"Because…I…"
Suddenly a row of books above Roy fell on him. He yelled and Al, Ed, and Hughes then appeared to his left.
"That's why he didn't want to say anything." said Al.
Roy rubbed his head, "You didn't have to set an avalanche of alchemy books on me though." The Colonel picked himself up.
"You know you're not supposed to eavesdrop on people." Hughes said wagging a finger at him.
"And you know you're not supposed to talk about your friends behind their backs."
"You didn't give us a chance to."
"Still…" Roy had almost forgotten the reason that he come there to talk to Hughes. He pulled his friend off to the side so Al and Edward couldn't hear him.
"I figured out who my blind date is."
This brought Hughes humor back.
"Did you ask Riza about it?"
"Yes."
"And did she say that you were right?"
"Yes so now I want all the details before the date tonight."
"Oh Roy your sucking the fun out of this."
"You mean your enjoyment of keeping things from me?"
"In a way, yes."
Roy rolled his eyes.
"Are you excited for the date now?"
"No, more like nervous."
Roy's eyes wandered over to Ed and Al who had moved so Hughes and him could talk, and to pick up all the books that had fallen.
"The great Roy nervous?"
He didn't reply, just kept starring at Edward.
"Come on. Let's go get some coffee before you start drooling." Hughes said tugging Roy along.
-Al-
Al saw Hughes drag Roy out of the library while his brother and he picked up the books.
"Thanks Al, I owe you three times now, right?"
"Did you notice?"
Ed looked at his brother confused.
"Notice what?"
Al sighed. "Brother are you that distracted by putting books on a shelf?"
"Just tell me what I missed!"
"Roy was starring at you."
"So?"
Al took hold of his brother's shoulders and shook him.
"Can you not see that he likes you?"
"No I can't."
Al let go of Ed's shoulders. "Why?"
Ed looked down, his bangs falling and hiding his face. Al could tell Edward was upset though.
"I don't want to get my hopes up just to have them crushed."
Al sighed before he hugged his brother.
*Please let tonight go well. Maybe with this date they'll both realize that they need to be together.*
