Ed left his dorm and headed for the main building. If he remembered correctly, his duties in the Amestrian military were basically completing missions that were assigned to him by Mustang. He didn't know if that would change or not with the difference in his age, but he couldn't think of anywhere else he should have gone to find out. So he headed for Mustang's office.

To get there, he had to walk through the gates, front doors, and about a hundred yards of hallways and stairs. He smiled to himself. Many of those places were manned by female officers, which would give him plenty of opportunities to test this new style. From there, he'd form a plan of action for his revenge.

To his smug satisfaction, many heads turned in his direction as he passed. He was just passing through a corridor that linked the main hallway to the Investigations department when someone came barreling out with a armful of heavy books and smacked right into him.

After recovering slightly from the shock, he said, "Let me help you with that," and began picking up the books and placing them in a neat stack. He turned back to the person he'd bumped into. "Sorry about that. I wasn't expecting someone to… wait, is that you Sheska?"

The brunette adjusted her glasses and stared at him. "Edward?"

He laughed. "Yeah. I guess you heard about the change, huh?"

"Sure, but…" She gave him a once over, lingering for a moment on his eyes. "I didn't think they were so drastic. How are you coping?"

Ed was puzzled for a moment until he remembered that the story he'd fed Armstrong, the one about experiments, would be the official one. Everyone would still think he was sixteen inside. He smiled reassuringly and said, "It's fine. I do enjoy the height, though." He turned back in the direction he'd originally been headed. "I've actually got to get to the Colonel's so I'll see you later Sheska." He gave her a casual wave and headed off again. Little did he know the bookworm would be stuck thinking about him all day.

When he walked into the office, he got the most vivid reactions yet. They were almost as bad as the ones from when he'd asked for the uniform! Granted no one fell out of their seats this time, but it was still funny to see them gaping. Ignoring the others, Ed walked up to Mustang's desk. "Got a mission for me?"

Mustang got over his appearance quick enough to hand him his stapled orders. "Yes. There's been a minor incident with metal transmutations in downtown. The alchemists have been caught but they need someone to fix the damage."

Ed waved him off. "Yeah, yeah." The blonde reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a thin case. He opened it, removed his glasses, and snapped them open. He was about to put them on when he noticed Mustang staring at him. "What?" Then he noticed what the man was looking at. His eyes were fastened rectangular frames in Ed's hand. "These?" He waved the glasses around, snapping Mustang out of his trance. "Yeah, I started wearing them a year ago. All that late night research finally caught up with me." He slipped the frames on and started reading again, this time unaware that Riza was staring at him intently.

It wasn't just that Ed was wearing glasses, which was shocking enough on its own. Those glasses looked almost exactly like the ones Hughes used to wear; only Ed's were reading glasses. Had it been intentional? Hawkeye couldn't help but wonder. But the blonde walked out of the office before she had the chance to ask.

She caught him having lunch in the mess about half an hour later. He was munching on a sandwich from the deli and had the papers spread out over the table, reading glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. She sat down across from him with her coffee mug. "Edward." The man looked up, expectant. "Why are you wearing the same glasses Maes Hughes did?"

He leaned back from his position hunched over the papers, letting his spine pop as he did so. "It was either that or wear oval ones like my old man. I already look too much like him, and I wanted to remember Hughes. He'd been like a second father to me, so I wanted to have at least one of his characteristics." Then he bit his lip. "I understand if it upsets you, but I not changing this just because you ask me to. I've been wearing these for over a year now, and I've grown used to them."

Riza realized she'd been scowling and relaxed her features. "I'm not upset Ed. It was just surprising, that's all." He nodded and looked back down at the papers spread out across the table. Riza did too, and noticed several areas circled or highlighted in red. "You've been working these over."

He finished chewing and answered, "I've been highlighting all the important details. This," He pointed to one highlighted paragraph, "shows me what areas I'll need to fix. This," He pointed to a different sheet, this time circled, "tells me the original design of the area so I can make it like it was instead of something completely different. I should be able to finish it before five."

Riza smiled gently. "The paperwork, you mean?"

Ed balled up the wrapper for the sandwich and threw it in a nearby trashcan. "No, the mission. It's not that hard." He gathered up the different papers and got up from his seat, papers tucked under his arm. "I'll see you tomorrow, Hawkeye." And he walked out of the mess.

Riza was a little baffled. Ed had taken at least two days to do a job like that before, and they'd always gotten complaints about his reconstructions. The kid's taste hadn't been the best. Now he was reading his orders thoroughly, taking note of exactly what needed to be done and what the finished product should be like. Ed had changed, and Riza wasn't convinced it wasn't a good thing.

Thanks to all reviewers, old and new. Keep at it, it's very encouraging!

I've had to close down the poll so I can move ahead with the story. I'm gonna try to do all of them, in different ways of course. How did you like Sheska?