I do not own the Fullmetal Alchemist

Ed walked with the first friend he'd made since the failed human transmutation. Miles and him chattered back and forth about alchemy and their lives- Ed lying about his, of course. Miles seemed like the kind of kid who loved studying and didn't care what people thought of him. He struck Ed as an always-optimistic person, even when he was being picked on.

Miles was cheerfully explaining Pythagoras theorem to Ed as they found a table to eat lunch at when-

'Oof!' Miles tripped over a burly boy's foot that had appeared out of nowhere.

'Oops,' the boy smirked. 'Maybe I had my nose in a book, nerd.'

'Hey!' Ed growled in the boy's face. Miles pushed himself to his feet and put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from saying anything else.

He grinned back at the boy who'd tripped him. 'Enjoying your first day back for being a jerk, Bobby?' He asked, 'If you're still trying to be cool it's not working, you know.'

Bobby sneered at him. 'What do you know about being cool, nerd boy?'

Ed took a step towards Bobby, ready to insult the heck out of him if it weren't for the fact that Miles squeezed his shoulder, Ed obeyed the message and kept his mouth shut reluctantly, but glaring daggers at the pudgy boy.

Miles led Ed away from Bobby. 'Just leave him, man. He does that to everyone,' he muttered.

'What?' Ed protested, 'That guy's such a jerk, we should kick his butt or something.'

Miles fixed him with a look. 'Ed, it's not an easy life here, maybe he just needs to vent his feelings and that's the way he chose. Wrong, though, but still.' He sighed. 'Just...leave him, you know what I'm saying? But don't let him get to you.'

Ed frowned as Miles twisted his wrists around, like some sort of nervous tic. 'What does he do?'

'Well...' more wrist twisting. 'He just pushes some kids around, you know, the ones that don't have... many friends? Yeah, so, uh...' Miles inhaled nervously. 'But I'm fine. It's usually worse, but since you were there with me...he only tripped me over, but it's usually worse but...'

Ed clenched his fists. 'I'm going to get back there and beat the heck-'

'No!' Miles grabbed his wrist, stopping him in his tracks. 'Just leave him, okay? It's not that bad, really.'

'Miles-'

'Come on.' Miles began pulling Ed towards the food. 'Just leave him be.'

Ed followed him reluctantly. Despite his desire to give Bobby a piece of his mind, he decided to keep his mouth shut. For now.

Miles had smiled throughout the rest of the school day, giving no indication he was bothered by Bobby. Ed wanted to bring up the topic of the bully, hoping to get a chance to beat him up, but decided against it for the sake of his friend's strangely sensible morals for someone his age.

Towards the end of the day, Bobby was nowhere to be found as they walked through the school gates and to where they were living. Miles lived close to Ed, just a few blocks away from where he was staying for the mission, so they walked home together.

'Do you have any siblings?' Ed asked, his hands in his jacket pockets.

Miles shook his head. 'Nah. I've always wanted one, though. It gets lonely here. You?'

Ed smiled as he spoke. 'I've got a younger brother. His name's Al. Alphonse.'

'Can we meet?' Miles asked.

'Uh.' Ed hesitated. He didn't prepare for questions about Al. Thinking quickly, he lied, 'He's not here with me. He's- uh... back where we grew up.'

'Why?'

'He's in a coma.' Blurted like a pin to a balloon. What? What? What? Why did I say that?

Miles's face faltered in sorrow. 'Oh. I'm sorry.'

Ed shrugged. 'It's okay. It's been a long time.' Uh...

'Oh, um.' Miles looked like he didn't know what to say. 'I hope he gets better soon.'

'Yeah.' Ed nodded. Changing the subject on Al, he asked, 'So what's your family like?'

Miles gazed into the distance. A strange look on his face. 'Well, they're sort of-'

'WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM NOW, BOBBY?'

The two boys turned to the source of the yell. Ed's fists tightened with anger at the sight of Bobby with a thin boy and a brawny girl cornering a dark-haired girl against a dumpster. The large girl grabbed for the cornered girl's arm, before she could reach, the dark-haired girl dodged and punched her squarely in the face. Both drew back as the two boys made furious steps towards the bullied girl.

'Now you've done it,' the large girl growled and kicked the girl's side, sending her crashing into the dumpster side. Before she could get up, Bobby punched her in the stomach and she collapsed on the ground, the breath knocked out of her.

'BACK OFF!' Ed shouted. He was storming towards the four, Miles walked beside him with a similar furious expression on his face. 'Lay off her.'

Bobby grinned. 'Nerd boy and... friend. Come to go dumpster diving too? We'll give you a hand.' The boy and girl picked up rotten food from the bottom of the dumpster, preparing to throw them at the two boys. The girl on the ground gritted her teeth, clearly in pain but glowering at her opponents.

'Leave her alone, Bobby,' Miles ordered before Ed could say something. 'Jayson, Lea. Don't you two have anything better to do than pick on people?'

Lea waved the rotten bread at Miles's direction. 'What're you doing here, nerd? Mind your own business.'

'Maybe it's our business if we see kids being jerks,' Ed cut in, glaring at the three bullies.

Bobby rolled his eyes. 'What're you doing, shortie? Don't you have any other friends?'

Ed's eyes blazed with fire. 'SHORTIE? That's it- WHO'RE YOU CALLING SHORT HE COULDN'T CLIMB UP A FLIGHT OF STAIRS?'

The five people were silent as they stared Ed who was breathing heavily after his outburst. Bobby burst into laughter, Jayson and Lea followed suit almost immediately afterwards like a choir of pigs.

'What?' Bobby snickered, 'Are you just short-tempered, midget?'

Ed growled, ready to punch Bobby to bits before Miles pushed past the three to get to the girl on the ground, before he could, though, Bobby shoved him, sending him falling backwards.

That was it for Ed. The three bullies had about a second to laugh at Miles before the small blonde boy pummeled them each in the face, knocking them all back on the ground. Bobby got up first and threw himself onto Ed in rage so fast he didn't have time to register the element of surprise pulled on him.

As Bobby's fists bludgeoned Ed's face, surprising him with the brute strength he possessed, Ed was knocked onto the ground helplessly, whatever was happening around him was reduced to a blur of shouts and movements. Before Ed could give in to use his automail fist on Bobby, two pairs of hands grabbed around Bobby's arms and yanked him off Ed.

Ed coughed as he pushed himself upwards with his palms, someone put a hand on his back, helping him sit up. His vision swayed with his head, he could make out two figures running away. Jayson and Lea. At the dumpster, the girl who was previously on the ground was pinning Bobby to the dumpster wall, her dark hair was wild and her school uniform was smeared with red as Bobby squirmed uselessly, his hands painted in Ed's blood.

'Oh, man, are you okay?' Ed blinked as Miles's lanky figure blurred in front of him. He had a large bruise beginning to bloom on his cheek and there was a shallow gash above his eye. 'Charlie! Can you hear me?'

The undercover name came into focus in Ed's hazy mind after a moment. 'Yeah, yeah.' He paused to touch his face, a trickle of blood ran from his nose. 'I'm fine.'

'You want to do that again?' An angry voice taunted. 'Do ya? Well then you gotta deal with more of this!' Bobby grunted in pain as the girl punched him repeatedly.

Miles stood up and hurried clumsily to pull the girl off Bobby, who was now sporting a bloody nose of his own. The girl let him go reluctantly after Miles muttered a few words to her, shoving him away from her as she did.

'You'll regret this, freaks,' he spat as he stumbled away, dripping blood as he ran. 'Freaks!'

The girl huffed as if she were annoyed. Dusting herself off, she turned to Ed. 'Can you stand?' she asked.

Ed nodded and pushed himself to his feet. He swiped at the blood running down his chin with his sleeve. 'I'm fine, thanks.'

Miles nodded. 'Thanks, guys. They didn't get us too much, did they? I got knocked to the ground.' He tapped the gash on his face, wincing slightly.

The girl smirked and swept her black hair back over her shoulders. 'They didn't get me that bad. Hey,' she said, looking at Ed. 'Aren't you the new kid?'

'Yeah, I'm E-Charlie.' Ed nodded, faintly dizzy. 'Thanks for back there.'

'No problem.' The girl stuck out a hand. 'Us underdogs gotta stick together against rascals like them. I'm Angelika.'

Ed shook her hand with his left, forcing her to switch with a raised eyebrow. 'Yeah, so... you two want to hand out sometime?'

Angelika nodded enthusiastically. 'Maybe then I won't have to dig for food alone. It gets lonely, ya know? When you're one of the bottom dwellers in this place. You two don't have to go dumper diving, right?'

The boys shook their heads.

'Well, I can teach you. Just kidding,' she added. 'Everyone's either too shy to say no or cruel to say yes. But seriously.' She paused to scoop a box of not-too-rotten pears out of the dumpster. 'We should meet up.'

The three agreed before setting off, Angelika reassured them that she could hold her own after digging out a crowbar from a nearby dumpster. Needless to say, the two boys decided to never cross her line and continued on their way home, trying to not drip blood as they did so.

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