As soon as he got home, Maes initiated his plan. He gave Gracia a kiss, promised he'd be up later after doing some homework (since to him it was homework; he could never lie to Gracia) and as soon as she was up the stairs, he turned to his laptop on the coffee table, powered it up and went to the school's website.

With the light of the computer screen, Maes mumbled as he looked through the register, "Let's see here, where're the 'E's? Oh, here they are and now to find Elric. Elric… Elric… El-Bingo."

He clicked on the name Elric (it was the only one in the register, so he knew it was Edward's) and scanned through the profile.

Student's Full Name: Edward Jenna Elric-Hohenheim

Student's Current Age: 15 Years Old

Student's Birthday: 2nd of February, 2001

Student's Gender: Female

Student's Parents/Guardians: Van Hohenheim (Father) and Dante Hohenheim (Step-Mother)

"Bingo." Maes muttered, "Now, let's see what the great big world of the internet has to say about these two."

Maes entered Van's name first and was surprised when so many links showed up. He clicked on the first one, which turned out to be a Wikipedia page.

"Now this is getting interesting." The man mumbled as he read the words the internet had to say about him.

Van Hohenheim is an extremely successful business man and Alchemist originating from the country of Xerxes, ("That explains Edward's golden eyes and hair." Maes though since Xerxesians were known for having such traits) but is currently living in Amestris in Central City. He and his wife, Dante, are often on the move because his trading meetings are held all over the country.

He has had 3 wives; the Xingese Echo Yao, the Amestrian Trisha Elric and the Cretan woman Dante Rappar. Hohenheim is the father of 4 children [two sons and two daughters] and is the step father of 2 children [two boys].

His oldest child is half Xingese and a boy named Ling Yao (1997); Ling is the only child Hohenheim had with Echo. His second oldest is his first daughter Edward Elric (2001) and her younger brother Alphonse Elric (2005) takes third place; they both have the same mother, the late Trisha. His step sons, two half-Ishvalan children named Rio (2008) and Rick (2009), are his fifth and sixth oldest and have the same mother and father; Dante and the Late Ishvalan Solider simply known as "Scar". His final child is a girl named Nina (2011) who is Dante's and Hohenheim's daughter.

"Wait," Maes though out loud, "Edward has an older brother?"

To be honest, this completely shocked Maes; though Edward didn't seem fond of most things, she definitely cherished her siblings, even her Ishvalan brothers who she had no blood connections to. She spoke of them often and not once had Maes ever hear her mention having an older brother.

Putting this information to the back of his mind for later usage, Maes continued to read the article. It gave him next to no useful information; the closest thing to useful he found was the things that Hohenheim created for the state (gunpowder weapons) and that he was a former State Alchemist who used light as a weapon, getting him the title of "Hohenheim of Light" but was retired after he confessed to having lung cancer he had gotten over the day before Dante became pregnant with Nina.

"So, let's try to find out about the former Mrs. Rappar." He muttered to himself and clicked on Dante's name.

Dante Hohenheim, also known as Dante Rappar, is a powerful and intelligent Alchemist who was born and raised in Dublith, Amestris by Cretan Parents before moving to Central City with her two sons, Rio and Rick. She met and fell in love with Van Hohenheim here and became the step mother of his three children, Ling Yao, Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric. In 2011, she and Hohenheim had a daughter named Nina.

There are rumors that Dante had been a stripper, dirty magazines model and prostitute on the "Bad Side" of Dublith in her youth, but she does not deny or confirm such rumors, only stating that "desperate kids will do unimaginable things when given the chance to if it will benefit them".

"A prostitute?" Maes questioned, then he remembered some of the rumors he heard the students natter on about.

"I heard her mother's a model for dirty magazines."

"I bet she's fucking all the teachers in school."

"They say the apple never roots far from the tree."

"I once heard that someone saw her sucking my chemistry teacher's dick after school hours."

"Holy shit." Maes muttered.

No wonder Edward had a hard time with the other kids; they though she was jerking everybody off. Of course, that wasn't true, but Edward never specified if anything said about her was true or not; that was just like her.

Sighing at the migraine that was going to take hold, Maes closed his laptop, pulled at his disheveled hair, got up and went to bed; only one bit of information remaining in his brain.

Hohenheim and Dante were constantly on business trips.

That meant that Edward and her younger siblings were often alone at home, since he was very sure she would never mention having any guardian at home, which is something he knew she would do.

When he arrived at work on Monday, a bit earlier than usual he admitted, Maes was surprised at the sight he saw already there. The sight was Edward with a broom in her hand and sweeping up the last of the dirt in the girls' changing room from football practice on Friday.

"Edward? How did you get in here?" Maes called.

The blonde girl yelped and turned to glare at her teacher, "Damn it, Mr. Hughes, stop scaring me like that! And to answer your question, the janitor let me in."

The dark haired man raised an eye-brow at that, "And he'd do that because…"

Edward scoffed, "Alphonse decided to play a prank on everybody and set all the clocks in the house 2 hours ahead, so I ended up getting to school before even the janitor could arrive. Little kid may seem like the honest, cute, couldn't-hurt-a-fly type, but he's really a cheeky, little devil when he wants to be. And since I had nothing better to do, I offered to help clean up, so he lent me to key to the changing rooms."

Maes was surprised by this; for what purpose would Alphonse have for pulling such a prank on his siblings? Shaking his head slightly, Maes chuckled and went to the PE Department office. He opened up the computer under his account name, opened up the register and marked Edward Elric in for the day.

And so, Maes initiated Phase 4 of Operation "Is Edward Elric Abused": Keeping a closer eye on her during school hours. Unfortunately, Maes noticed one too many things he wasn't sure it was a good thing for him to have.

1:On the field, during PE, she ran as if her life depended on it.
2:In class, during a test or something, she worked as if it was the only reason she was alive.
3:In the library or the field, during breaks, she read or trained as if it'll be the last thing she ever did.

Maes had always known Edward Elric was the kind of person who gave life her best, but he knew she knew that she wasn't in immediate danger (or so he used to think). What on Earth could be putting her on edge so much? What reason is there for her to feel like she has to be on alert all the time? It's as if she's waiting for something to come out and kill her, no matter where she is.

That made Maes more worried than he had been in years. And that paranoia was increasing daily.

On Saturday, at the Hohenheim house, Edward sighed for what felt like the umpteenth time, "Now, everybody behave, got it? I'm afraid I'm gonna have to work a little bit longer today and that's why I'm leaving the others in your care, alright guys?"

Alphonse, May, Rio, Rick and Nina nodded, "Okay!"

Edward looked at Sheska first, "You can read any book in the house you like, just help out when you're called, okay?"

The brunette nodded, "You got it, Eddy-chan."

The golden blonde turned to look at Winry, "My Dad's car is out back and you can tinker with it all you want, just make sure he won't notice any changes."

The lemon blonde cheered, "Yahoo!"

The alchemist turned to Kain, "If you wanna tinker with a radio or something, tinker with Dante's; she never uses it anyway so she won't notice a difference."

The younger looking dark haired man grinned, "Yes."

The girl in red turned to the Hawk's Eye, "I do have some guns in the basement if you wanna see what they're like, but don't leave any evidence you even touched them, or Hohenheim will kill you."

Riza nodded and saluted, "Yes."

"And Roy," Edward turned to said man, who grinned like an idiot, "Do whatever you want."

He fell down Anime style, "What?! How come everybody else gets to do something and you're like, 'Psst, whatever' with me?!"

"Because you're a Bastard and I don't like you."

"Awww, come on, Edward-chan!"

"Don't call me chan, so, later everyone!"

With that, before the argument could continue and Edward would end up swearing like a banshee in front of her siblings, she ran out the door, hopped on her bike and road into town. She heard Roy yelling insults or something after her, but ignored it in favor for peddling a little bit faster; she was already going to be at least a little bit late for she shift at work and she knew the others weren't going to let it slide.

"What the hell is going on?" You ask. Well, you see, Edward has a part time job at a little restaurant in town named "Angel's Café" and since she couldn't work during school hours or after them, she spent practically every weekend there. Last weekend, since she had that fever, she hadn't been allowed to go to work, so she had to make up for lost time this week.

"I sure hope the other girls won't hate me for that." Edward though, grimacing, "If I give them a chance, they'll murder me in my sleep for dumping all that work on them last weekend."

Before long, Edward had arrived at the Café. It was in the middle of a highway street and simple, but charming (in it's own way). The inside of the café was painted cream with several different patterns all around the walls, some drawn by customers, come by the workers. There was a quaint Roman numbered clock in the far corner on the left above the counter, which showed off several different and delicious looking treats like cakes, pies, ect. And behind the counter, was one of the objects of Edward's fear.

Behind the counter was a fairly tall (much to Edward's annoyance) and fair-skinned woman with dark-eyes, a slender frame with a curvaceous yet well-toned, well-endowed figure, and upper back-length black hair worn in box braids. On the left side of her collarbone was a blue Flamel tattoo and she was wearing her traditional long white collared-blouse with a flowing backside, form-fitting grey pants reaching her ankles, and opened-toed sandals that have the letters "W.C." on them. To this day, Edward would never know what they stood for, but that wasn't the point.

The point is: this is her scary co-worker/mentor with a butcher for a boyfriend. This is Izumi Harnet.

"Thank you for coming to the Angel Café," Izumi smiled at the customers, "Please come again, soon."

When the customers walked past Edward, she sighed with a thought, "Izumi is going to kill me."

"Hi, Izumi-sensei," The blonde said with a shaky wave and laugh, "sorry I wasn't here last weekend-"

"STUPID STUDENT OF MINE!" Izumi screamed and threw a empty chair towards the blonde.

Though she anticipated such an act, Edward still screamed and ducked, whimpering when she saw the chair brake into a million little pieces when it hit the bullet-proof glass of the café window. They were lucky it was still early and that there weren't any other customers there to worry about.

"You come crawling in here, begging for a job to pay for your brothers and sister to go to college," The dark haired woman screamed, "and then YOU MISS OUT ON ONE OF YOUR SHIFTS?!"

"I'm sorry, okay!" The golden haired girl growled, "I had a fever, I collapsed on my school's football field after practice! My siblings and teacher wouldn't let me go, even if it meant tying my wrists to my bedpost!"

"Then why didn't you call in, you idiot student of mine?!"

"Because they threatened to wield my metal leg to the bed if I got up for anything but the toilet!"

"What a pitiful excuse. As if your siblings would actually do that."

"No, they wouldn't, but my stalker and old friends would!"

"Wait a moment," Izumi halted her screaming, "you have a stalker?"

"Basically," Edward groaned, "his name's Roy Mustang. I met him when he broke into my house just after moving here, saw him again when I found out he was in the same school as me and is now attempting to find out where I work in order to watch me there, too."

"Dear god, what did you do to get his attention so bad?"

"I don't know, all I do know is when he broke into my house, I had been asleep and woke up when he tried to kiss me!"

"Damn, sounds like he's in love with you, Edeline-chan!"

"Don't call me that; that's what that shit head Mustang calls me!"

Izumi chuckled and returned to the counter, "Well, I just hope you change your mind soon; if you think he's stalking you, then what's really happening is he's trying to become your friend before trying to get you to fall in love with him."

Edward grimaced at that, "Me? In love with that bastard or him in love with me? Gross," she pretended to be sick, "Ugh, you just ruined my whole morning Izumi-sensei; thank you so much."

"It was my pleasure, child," Izumi chuckled, "Now get to work."

"Hai, hai." Edward sighed and walked behind the counter, past the kitchen, into the changing rooms where her locker was and went from her usual outfit of all black (with the exception of her red jacket) to something new.

Maes sighed. Things weren't going so well on Operation: Is Edward Elric Abused. And by 'not well', he meant he was getting evidence that confirmed his fears. Maes had caught wind of her parents' return from their latest trip and he had noticed Edward's edginess and intensity in all things increase 10 fold, as if her parents' presence makes her wearier instead of safer.

Could this mean her parents frighten her?

Just the fact that he had been contemplating that as he watched her during school hours, showing off all the evidence he needed to confirm his fears, had made his skin crawl. But he had to be careful; the Hohenheims were extremely powerful here in Amestris and Maes had once been a soldier. He knew what happened to those who didn't obey the flow of power in the military.

However, he wasn't going to let them get away with abusing Edward if they really were doing that. Even if it cost him his life, he was not going to let it continue.

"IZUMI!"

Hearing the scream made Maes lift his head and blink his green eyes in shock a few times. That sounded like Edward…

He turned his head to see he was in front of a café. His stomach rumbled at it and after a quick glance at his watch, he realized it was just about time for brunch. So he decided to go in. Maes took a seat and sighed. He only now noticed the migraine he had from thinking so hard on Ed's situation. That was just great.

"Good day, sir, would you like a menu to make an order?"

"Yes, please miss…" Maes trailed off when he lifted his head and saw the last thing he thought he would ever see in his entire life.

It was Edward Elric. With her hair died pink. In a maid uniform. Blushing mad and gaping like an idiot.

Maes didn't know wither he should laugh, grimace or point it out (but then realized that would most likely get him a useless ear because she's scream in it to the point of making him deaf). But before he could speak, Edward did.

"Mr. Hughes," She growled, as if angry, but Maes prayed she was just covering up her embarrassment, "please, I beg you, do not speak of this to anyone."

Maes nodded, but before Edward could go back into her waitress mode, "I'd like an explanation after you shift, if you wouldn't mind."

The blonde-turned-pink haired girl frowned, "It ends at 9 pm, Sir. But I get a break at 11:30 to 11:45."

The once green haired man nodded, "I'll wait for it then, it's only 10:50 now."

The teenager nodded and went back into her waitress mode while the adult allowed himself to be a customer again.

40 minutes later, we find Edward back in her regular cloths with her golden hair again while Maes is sitting in front of her, ready to start asking questions.

"Okay, first of all, why are you working here when you're parents are billionaires or something like that?" Maes questioned.

"Because I'm supporting my own collage funds, I don't wanna rely on them and it's a good paying job. 12 bucks an hour for just being here and helping out wither it's by cleaning the bathrooms or serving customers." Edward explained.

"What was with the pink hair and maid outfit?"

"Izumi-sensei's idea of a practical joke. Normally, I just wear a shirt, some knee-length jeans and sneakers, but she broke into my locker and replaced those with that ridiculous maid outfit. I changed my hair using alchemy so that if anyone ever hears of 'The Woman who is Izumi Harnet's Apprentice at the Angel Café', they won't associate her with 'Ice Queen Edward'. I even go by another name here, everyone calls me Edeline."

"Izumi-sensai? Who's that?"

"She's a mentor of mine; taught me all the things I needed to know about how to work here and the nickname kinda stuck. She's also the heiress of the café, so it also a sort of Boss to everyone else since the real owner is never around."

"And why Edeline?"

"It's girly so no one would suspect a tomboy to have it, similar enough to my name for me to turn my head and it was Izumi's idea. Even if I didn't approve it, she would have convinced me otherwise with her scary temper."

"And why did you start working at a café of all places?"

"Because it was the only place that I could find that would take me on and pay me. This will make me sound like a greedy bitch, but I want that money as soon as possible. Plus, I like the job."

"I see. But, if you want money so bad and know alchemy, why not become a State Alchemist? You're a prodigy when it comes to chemistry; I've seen your marks in it."

"Because I promised Alphonse I wouldn't do something knowing it would get me possibly killed. I could die at any moment, doing whatever, but Alphonse has this idea of me losing my life sooner if I'm summoned to war as a Human Weapon or something. And since he used to have nightmares of me on the battlefield, I promised him I wouldn't become a soldier."

"That's understandable." Maes takes a sip of his coffee, "So, how do you feel about working as hard as a dog here?"

Edward half shrugs, gives a smile and says, "Oh, it's fine here; aside from the maid outfit incident today, things are okay around here. You don't have to worry about me so much, Mr. Hughes," she chuckled as she takes a sip of her apple juice, "I'm fine, I take care of myself well enough."

Maes could tell that was a lie. Throughout her shift, all Maes had seen from the girl was fake smiles and hidden sadness in her eyes. She thought she could create the perfect mask to hide her emotions, but like most masks, there were holes for the eyes and her eyes told him everything that was really on her mind. She hated this job and though she hid it well, from her face to her body language, her eyes told no lies and confessed the truth to anyone who could hear (or rather see) it.

So, he said, "I know teachers don't usually say this, but, Edward," Edward's attention was back on him after saying her real name, so Maes continued, ",if you ever need someone you can trust to help you out, please talk to me. I want to be able to be here for you, not as your teacher, but as your friend."

Edward might have gasped if she hadn't gotten so good at hiding her emotions. She knew they were mere words, nothing special, but they made her feel… touched. Loved. Looked out for. She hadn't felt like that for so many years, she thought she would cry, but held back to look at the clock.

"Oh, I have to get back to work. Later…" She was unsure about this, but gulped down her fear and forced herself to finish, "Maes."

Maes let the surprise show on his face, before smiling as he stood up, "Yeah, Gracia is probably missing me, too. So, I'll see later at school, Edward."

The blonde smiled and nodded, calling as she dashed into the world behind the counter, "Goodbye, Maes!"

As soon as she was in the changing room, making sure it was locked, Edward put her back to the door, sank to the floor until her butt hit the ground with her knees level with her head and she did one something she once did on a regular basis in privacy, just for the first time it was out of happiness.

She cried.

She cried pure tears for joy because she knew someone was reaching for her. Edward showed off her worst to the entire world, acting like she didn't care while praying it would make them back off so they wouldn't get involved with her and her crappy parents. And yet, someone who was supposed to stay at a certain distance, to keep some sort of barrier between his students and himself had just told her he wanted that barrier thrown in the bin.

And he did just that by calling her by her first name. Edward was scared to death, happy as hell and just wanted to cry there, let the tears of joy role down her face and forget about her problems for just two minutes to let herself be thankful that someone in this cold, cruel world saw past her bitterness and could see the girl underneath who just wanted a hand to told in this horrible place.

Edward had forgotten what it was like to have a hand holding her own, guiding her in this horrible and cruel world and keeping her heart warm and protected; she had lost the right to such warmth and comfort when she got her mother killed.

She wondered if she could regain that right one day.

She wondered if Maes could really be the one who would allow her to believe she had that right.

She wondered if her friends could help her get back the right to feel cared for.

She wondered if her siblings could ever learn of her true life and help her heal from it.

She briefly wondered… if she could really be treated like a human for the first time in 4 years without fear of it being taken away from her again.

Back with Maes, he was still shocked that Edward had called him by his first name.

The teenager had sounded so surprised and happy when she said his name; as if happy to be on a more personal level with her teacher who he hoped she would now consider a friend.

Maes wanted to be closer to Edward; he wanted to find out what was making her tick, he wanted to know what made her ticking jump or alter, but most of all, he wanted to know the truth. He wanted to know if she was being abused and when he finally did figure it out, if she was in fact being abused, he planned on helping her out as much as he could.

Some music caught his ears and as he turned his head, he saw a young guitarist who was singing and playing at the same time.

"I can't say that everything's okay
'Cause I can see the tears you're crying
And I can't promise to take the pain away
But you can know I won't stop trying

I'll be the angel by your side
I will get you through the night
I'll be the strength you can't provide on your own

'Cause when you're down and out of time
And you think you've lost the fight
Let me be the angel, the angel by your side

I know it feels like you're running out of faith
'Cause it's so hard to keep believing, oh
But if I can bring the smile back to your face
If For a moment you'll forget all about it, oh

I'll be the angel by your side
I will get you through the night
I'll be the strength you can't provide on your own

'Cause when you're down and out of time
And you think you've lost the fight
Let me be the angel, the angel by your side

'Cause this won't be the last time
You'll need a little hope
So I wanna be the first to let you know

I'll be the angel by your side
I will get you through the night
I'll be the strength you can't provide on your own

'Cause when you're down and out of time
And you think you've lost the fight
Let me be the angel, the angel by your side
Oh, let me be the angel, the angel by your side, oh
The angel by your side
"

Maes had heard this song; he knew it as well as he knew Allyssa Lies. This was "Angel By Your Side" by Francesca Battistelli; the song he had been listening to when he first met Gracia. He had played it at least once every other day from that day on to remind himself of that magical moment.

And he made another decision.

Even if Edward acted like she didn't need him or anyone else, even if she decided to just go back to being student-teacher, he was going to be there for her.

He would be the angel at her side, even if it killed him.

(AN: I have an Omake chapter explaining why Edward beat Shou Tucker up, but I'm not sure if I should bother posting it or not. Would you mind telling me if you wanna hear it or not?)