It was two days later at the Mustang residence- a Sunday morning.

Edward and Alphonse had decided they wanted to make blueberry pancakes. But unfortunately, it wasn't really going well. Ed had a habit of sneakily dropping blueberries down into Al's armor, which infuriated Alphonse, since it was quite a tedious task to disassemble himself later and take them out.

His protests didn't stop Ed, though, who kept doing it and snickering. It was hindering the process of pancake making greatly.

Roy sighed, looking up from his paper as Alphonse squawked at Ed to cut it out and Ed dropped another Blueberry into his suit of armor as Al stood before the frying pan on the stove.

The phone ringing caused Roy to get up, but he could hardly hear it over the squabbling brothers.

"Mustang here."

"Hey Roy. We need to talk." Hughes sounded uncharacteristically serious. "Are little ears listening?"

It took Roy a moment to realize he was asking if Ed and Al were nearby. And they were, arguing loudly. "Yeah, they are, why..."

FWOMP! Alphonse had finally had enough. He'd picked up a half-cooked pancake from the skillet and thrown it right at Ed's face, and the doughy side had stuck to Ed, making it look like the boy's face was one rather large pancake with sad, runny blueberry eyes.

"Hang on a second." Roy leaned away from the phone. "Knock it off you two! I said you could EAT pancakes, not wear them!"

"Ed's being a jerk!"

Ed's protests were muffled due to the fact he was trying to get the pancake off his face.

Roy sighed, turning back to the phone. "Sorry Hughes."

"No no, continue. I had to have this discussion with my kid too this morning." Hughes was obviously smiling on the other end of the phone. "Anyways, something's happened, so if you could come down and pay me a visit I'd appreciate it."

""Yeah, give me ten minutes. See you then." Roy hung the phone back on the wall and sighed.

There was flower spread all over the counters, a few smushed blueberries on the floor, and a bowl of pancake batter precariously close to falling off his counter and adding to the mess.

Roy stepped over the mess and deftly peeled the pancake of Ed's face, revealing a rather pissed looking alchemist.

"I have to go to the office and grab some things. You two- clean this shit up. You're both almost teenagers now, you shouldn't be bickering like this."

"Alphonse assaulted me with a pancake!" Ed pointed angrily.

"I don't care who did what." Roy snapped, sighing. "By the time I get back, I expect this shit to be clean. Understand?"

"Okay." Alphonse acquiesced, nudging Ed.

"Whatever." Ed muttered.

Satisfied by their answers, Roy grabbed his keys and headed over to investigations.

Hughes was sitting at his desk, staring at a series of photographs on his desk and looking uncharacteristically serious.

Roy pulled up a chair. "What's up?"

"The situation has escalated." Hughes slid a paper across the desk to him.

Roy blinked at it. There was a man with silver hair that went down to his shoulders sitting on the concrete ground, leaning against the wall. His eyes had been gouged out of his head. His throat had been slit. And written on the concrete wall next to him in his own blooed was the worlds "Stay out of my sewer". The man had had all his fingers chopped off.

"We couldn't find any identifying information on the body. But we found a receipt in his pocket with some drachman written on it."

"Apparently there's a turfwar between our serial killer and the Drachmans in the sewer." Roy said simply.

"It seems that way. I sent the picture down to Alessi in jail- he confirmed it was one of the operatives he's been sent with."

"And still no word on Banks." Roy chimed in.

"Right. Still no word on Banks." Hughes sighed. "And we're now hesitant to investigate the sewers further."

"This is turning into a mess." Roy admitted, leaning back in his chair and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"No kidding. I'm doing my best here, Roy. I just thought you should know. The good news- if there is any- is that the man who tried to abduct Ed from the hospital might be dead. Can you have him check the photo?"

"Tomorrow morning at work I will. Not now. He and Alphonse are having a nice weekend. Well- as normal as it can get, with those two, anyways."

"Right. Just letting you know."

"Thanks. I have to go clean my kitchen now." Roy stood, heaving a sigh.

As he walked to his car, he couldn't help but feel disquieted but also slightly relieved. At the end of the day there was one less man out to get them, which was a good thing.

He strode back into his house to smell smoke. He tossed his keys onto the end table and strode into the kitchen to find his toaster on the floor, on fire, Alphonse frantically filling a bowl with water, and Ed dashing around the corner with a fire extinguisher.

"Your older brother has this under control Alphonse!" Ed shouted, grabbing the nozzle of the fire extinguisher.

Roy could only picture how much worse the mess in his home was about to get. He wordlessly slid on his ignition glove and activated the array, pulling the oxygen away from the burning toaster. The fire went out instantly.

Ed and Al looked over, surprised, to see Roy standing there.

"It isn't what it looks like." Ed started.

Roy cocked and eyebrow. "Really. Because it looks like you two tried to make pancakes in my toaster and nearby burnt down the house."

"Okay, so maybe it is what it looks like." Alphonse piped up, looking sheepish.

"We had to try! For science!" Ed piped up. "There's gotta be an easier way than flipping pancakes on the stove. Alchemy didn't work..."

Roy looked over to see a chalk transmutation circle covered in pancake batter on his kitchen floor nearby the burning toaster.

"But flame alchemy might." Ed's eyes had settled on Roy's gloved hand.

"Alright, so here's the plan- I throw a spoonful of dough in the air. You snap your fingers and flame it. And we get delicious pancakes!" Ed hypothesized.

"No. Absolutely not." Roy deadpanned. "Flame Alchemy is a dangerous weapon, not a toy..."

"Maybe he can't do it, brother." Al postulated innocently.

"What!?" Roy balked.

"Yeah, maybe your right. I bet his aim sucks pretty bad and that's why he won't do it." Ed admitted with a sly grin.

"My aim is perfect."

"Prove it, old man."

Roy growled. "Fine. But I'm only gonna do this once."

Ed scooped up a spoonful of dough and flung it into the Air. Roy focused and snapped- a moment later a charred hockeypuck of a pancake hit the floor.

"Oh!" Alphonse looked surprised.

"So his aim is fine, but his control over the flame sucks. Don't incinerate it- just heat the outside rapidly. Try and just flame the outside of it, not the whole thing."

"I said I was only doing this once." Roy growled.

Ed threw a spoonful fo dough at Roy, who instinctively snapped to protect himself. A gorgeous, fluffy pancake flopped to the floor.

"That looks perfect!" Alphonse exclaimed excitedly.

"Hit him again!" Ed flung spoonful after spoonful of dough at Roy, who kept snapping to protect himself. The pile of pancakes at his feet grew, until the bowl of pancake batter was empty.

Ed started to gather up the pancakes and eat them, grinning. "Perfect."

"They're not bad." Roy agreed. "Now clean up my kitchen and fix the toaster."

"Alright. By the way, we're out of eggs." Alphonse piped up, gathering up the soiled dishes.

"We'll go shopping later today. Now clean this crap up."