-1Give Guidance or Counsel

Cats

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist

Chapter 11 - A Freaking Family Event

Monday the 25th of January

"Ed."

The by shuffled his feet, then leant back against the wall in the hallway.

"Brother."

He tapped his finger against his leg to a steady beat.

"Mr. Elric."

His foot joined in the tapping.

"Look Fullmetal, while your dancing abilities are second to, oh I dunno, everything, it does not give you the excuse to ignore your brother and two of your teachers… plus me!"

Ed took the headphones out of his ears, shocked to see a small crowed of people around him.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" he asked the group at large, and was met with collective groans. Al plucked the mp3 player from his brother.

"We're at school Ed. At least pay attention to your surroundings." he scolded. "besides, this is Winry's."

"Yeah. She leant it to me." The blonde grinned at his younger brother. "Isn't it cool? I've never seen something so small play music!"

Al laughed. Ed was so behind on modern technology. Probably due to the fact that they never did or brought anything unless it was a necessity. Hawkeye, Havoc and Mustang, however, didn't seem as happy. Hawkeye was annoyed that Ed had an mp3 out in school, and Havoc and Mustang were just staring at Ed incredulously.

"You've never seen a mp3 player before?" asked Havoc, and Ed shook his head, not seeing what the big deal was. Roy rested a hand on Ed's shoulder, which caused a spark of excitement to ignite in Ed's stomach. Every time Ed thought of Roy since the dark-haired man had said 'love you' on Saturday, he had become overwhelmed with butterflies.

"You poor, neglected lit…" He trailed off, choosing his words carefully in case he spurred on a rant, "Nutcase." He said it dramatically, with a fake sigh of woe, which earned him a glare from both Ed and Riza.

"I don't think that you should talk to people like that Roy." She scolded, and Roy bit back the retort 'sorry mother', before waving it off.

"I just say it how it is."

"He's still our student."

Roy grinned.

"Correction, your student. My patient. Besides Edward, what do you say? Are you a nutcase?"

Riza glared, but Ed couldn't help a small smile gracing his lips as he made eye contact with Roy. In a way, Roy calling him a 'nutcase' or 'fucked up' had become endearing. Sure, it had started off as Roy being a dick, but had turned into gentle teasing, and now those words were a constant reminder that Roy was trying to keep them both near each other - selfish man that he was. It gave Ed a happy feeling somewhere between giddiness and warmth.

"I think I'm severely fucked up." he answered, making Roy grin as he scolded the young blonde for his language. He had to look somewhat professional after all.

"Right." Ed agreed to the scolding, "See you after school." He added, grabbing Al and making their exit. Despite the bumps they'd had over the last three weeks, things were beginning to look up again.

- X -

"So, how'd your family thing go?" Ed asked, later that day. They were in Roy's office, supposed to be having a counselling session, but neither really felt up to discussing Ed's messed up past, so Roy had proposed they simply chatted about anything. Roy's family thing had been the first trivial subject that came to Ed's mind. Though, at the mention of it, Roy visibly stiffened, making Ed worry. "You okay?" he asked. Roy nodded, although he couldn't hide how on edge he'd become.

"It went well." was the short response, and Ed was about to question him further when the door was opened. The girl walked in, opened her mouth to say something - then realise she wasn't alone with Mustang.

"Oh. Hi Ed." she said, glancing between the blonde and Mustang.

"Hi Rose." Ed replied softly, surprised by her sudden appearance. Mustang cleared his throat.

"Right." Said Rose, collecting herself. "We need to talk." she addressed Mustang, but kept shooting nervous glances at Ed.

"I can go." the short boy offered. Rose said 'yes' at exactly the same time Roy said 'no'. The two teens turned to look at the adult with identical looks of confusion, although Ed betted they were for completely different reasons. A very nosey part of him was starting to wonder why Rose was there to begin with.

"Can you wait outside? I'm sure this wont take long." Mustang asked, and Ed nodded, making his was outside the office. He leant down against the wall, and the door was shut behind him so he couldn't hear anything that was being said inside. Only muffled voices. He stayed there in silence as the minutes ticked by ; trying to think of how Roy knew Rose. Then he found himself remembering his and Roy's New Year's trip out west. Rose had been at the fair, and Roy had recognised her straight away. What was their connection?

Not that Ed was jealous or anything. After the incident with Hawkeye, he trusted Roy completely. Roy wouldn't ever betray him. Not with Rose at any rate. With Riza he could understand it somewhat - she was pretty, intelligent, fast-paced - a 'match' for Roy as it were. But Rose… well, it wasn't to say Rose wasn't pretty, intelligent and fast-paced, but she was still a teenager - the same as Ed. There was nothing Rose had that Ed didn't - aside from obvious womanly attributes that Ed decidedly lacked. But Ed wasn't too concerned about lacking those.

The point was, he wasn't jealous. He was simply curious, and he wanted Roy to tell him about stuff and not get all stiff and uncooperative whenever Ed mentioned his personal life. Really, Ed told Roy everything - personal or not, private or not! Roy demanded he did. But was it too much to ask that Roy trusted him back? That he told him things? Even stupid things like how a freaking family event went? If Ed could accept that Roy had accidentally been the cause of his best friend's parent's deaths, he was sure he could accept that while visiting his family in the north he'd got a little tipsy and sat in the Tiramisu.

He re-ran the image in his mind and burst out laughing in the empty corridor. The idea of Roy doing something so stupid was laughing if only for the fact that Roy was normally so cool. He could just imagine the half-Xingese man standing up and craning his neck to see the remains of Tiramisu on the back of his posh suit trousers.

The door opened and Ed hushed his giggles as Rose came out. She nodded apologetically at Ed and took off down the corridor at a fast pace before he could say anything. He shrugged, and re-entered Roy's office.

Roy was shuffling away from files and gave him a quick, strained smile in greeting.

"Everything okay?" Ed asked, but didn't sit down. He knew something had 'just come up' for Roy, and he was more then likely going to get sent away. Roy nodded stiffly.

"Everything's fine." he said, but Ed could tell he was lying. He pressed his lips together firmly in frustration as Roy continued on. "Sorry. Something's come up. I promise to make this up to you."

He sounded like a robot when he said it, Ed mused. It just went to show how many times he'd said it before. Even before Ed came into his life, he must have said it hundreds of times to disappointed people. Ed could just tell.

"You know you can talk to me right?" the blonde asked as he made his way towards the office door. He didn't miss Roy's shoulders stiffen. Perhaps it was a little odd to offer a counsellor someone to talk to…

"Of course I do." The elder said, but it sounded strained.

"Just so you know." Said Ed: resigned, before leaving Roy to do whatever had just come up.

Ahah… the Tiramisu. *wince* Oh, bad memories… Fun night though. =)

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! ^^

~Od23