Chapter twenty

Riza stood waiting outside the car. She had a feeling that Ed was asking his mother for permission to let his guard down. Whatever Ed may chose, Riza wanted to be there for him. She wished to welcome him with open arms no matter what. And if he came to her, offering his trust, then she would be there to accept it.

She spotted a familiar antenna over the top of the hill, followed by the rest of his head. Ed paused, looking at her. His face was red from crying. He looked a bit like a deer caught in the headlights. He just stared at her for about a minute.

Then he ran towards her. He ran straight into her arms and buried his face into her stomach. Riza put her arms around him and hugged him back while gently stroking his hair with her right hand. She could feel the fabric of her shirt being soaked through by tears.

"Th-thank you," Ed whispered.

"Of course, Edward. Thank you for being something to keep me going too."

Ed just began sobbing.

Ed walked over to the desk where Riza and Mustang were working. Ed hadn't asked for anything like this before, but he was hungry and he'd seen the sign as they walked inside the station this morning.

Riza looked up at him kindly. "Hello, Edward, is something wrong?"

"No, it's just, well, I saw there was a bake sale in the cafeteria and I'm kinda hungry… And the money goes to support an orphanage that specialises in taking in siblings and keeping them together as they're adopted…" Ed said quietly. "I'm sure that there's a lot of people buying, so there's no reason …" Ed sighed. "Just forget it. It's not necessary… lunch is only in an hour anyway…" Ed turned away, not looking at her.

"Edward, here," Riza said, placing a thousand cens on top of the desk. "I'd give you more, but I need enough for groceries too."

Ed looked at her, eyebrows raised. "Thanks, Riza." They'd get a couple of slices each for that amount.

Mustang suddenly put five thousand cens bills on top of the coins. "Just don't get sick."

Ed stared at him. That was a lot of money. Especially just for cake. "Seriously? But …"

"It's a good cause. Just lucky I got my pay cheque yesterday," he shrugged. "Just bring what you can't eat yourself up here and we'll help."

Hughes suddenly jumped in from nowhere, slamming three thousand cens on top of the pile. "Sounds like a great idea! Have fun!"

Ed stared at the pile. Havoc then came over from his desk and put another thousand cens in coins on top of the pile. "I was gonna buy cigarettes, but cake sounds pretty good too…"

What the hell?!

Breda then came over with another thousand cens, simply shrugging and smirking. Then came Fuery, the tech expert, and he emptied his wallet on top of the pile, adding two thousand more. "Aww, I really wish I had more. Sorry, boys." He looked miserable at the fact.

PC Falman then came over with another thousand and saluted Ed. "I hope you have a fun time!"

Ed stared. He then shouted for his little brother who was sitting with his head in a book, not noticing what had just happened. "Hey, Al! We're going to the cafeteria!"

Al looked up brightly. "Really, Brother?" He stood up and went over to him. "How much did we get? Do you think we can get more than one piece each?"

"Yeah… we got fourteen thousand cens…"

Alphonse stared before his eyes fell upon the pile on the desk.

Hughes grinned again and pulled a small plastic bag out of his pocket and placed the money inside before handing it to Al to carry. "See you soon, boys, have fun!"

And so the two of them went out of the office completely stunned. Ed had seen the prices on the sign earlier today. "Al, we've got enough here for seventy slices of cake!"

"How are we going to carry them, Brother?"

"We're just gonna have to ask for help with wrapping them up or something."

"They were really nice to do that. Do you think they usually give that much at these kinds of things?"

"No." Ed suddenly felt himself redden as a thought struck him. "Shit! Al! We've become the office pets!"

Al looked at him curiously. "I don't think so, Brother. I just think they saw how much placing siblings together means and wanted to help. I think they just wanted to make us happy."

"Yeah, maybe…"

They found their way into the cafeteria where a few policemen were swarming around a long table littered with cakes. There were five people in charge of the sales it seemed. They walked up to the table, looking at the many different options. Ed felt his mouth water at the sight.

"Hello, boys, can I help you?" a smiling constable with short black hair and a mole under her left eye asked. She looked kind enough.

"Uhm … yes, please… we'll need a lot of help though…" Alphonse said shyly.

The woman smiled warmly at them. "Of course I'll help you. What do you need?"

Alphonse held up the plastic bag to show her their predicament. "We just wanted a couple of slices each, but the whole office chipped in…"

The woman froze, taking in the bag. "H-how much did you get?"

"Fourteen thousand," Ed began. "Do you have something we can use for transport? And I think we're gonna need a list too…"

"I…uhm…" She looked to her right where another constable was looking at the exchange curiously. "Brosh? Would you mind getting us a trolley?"

The man looked confused, but then his eyes fell on the plastic bag and widened. "Oh, sure."

Fifteen minutes later, Ed and Al were sitting in a corner of the cafeteria where Ed was stubbornly holding his cake on his own, no matter how much it hurt his arm. They had a three-storey trolley next to them, stacked with all kinds of cakes. Officers kept eyeing them curiously where they sat, but none of them came over.

At least not until a man with the most egotistical facial expression in history walked up to them and sat down. He had a stupid moustache and stupid haircut. Ed didn't like him. "Hello, boys. I'm Yoki. It's a pleasure to meet you two." He interlaced his fingers and rested his chin on top of them.

Al was cowering next to Ed and Ed immediately grew protective. "What do you want?"

"I hear that you two are staying with DCI Mustang's new partner... That must mean that you two hear things. Or at least have access to some of the files?"

Al looked pale and moved to speak, but Ed got ahead of him. If this was a dirty cop, then Ed wanted to do something to help Riza out for once. It would be a great way to repay her after all. Ed gently pressed his foot down on Al's as a sign for him to leave this to Ed. "Yeah… why do you wanna know?"

"I see, straight to business…" Yoki smirked. "I hear that Maes Hughes from IA arrived yesterday… would you know if it has any connection to my maid? Miss Rial is currently a murder suspect it seems, and I would simply like to hear from you two from time to time to see where the investigation is going… For a price, of course… I would rather not get involved with such grisly business after all, and I don't know too much about Hughes's abilities…"

"I see… and what sort of price are we talking about?" Ed asked. This was actually a bit of fun, acting like a bad guy.

"Gifts… a nice jacket here, a new bike there, all from a "concerned third party worrying about those poor boys"…"

Ed pretended to contemplate it for a bit before he nodded with a smirk. "Sounds like a deal."

Yoki smirked back and dropped a wallet on the floor. "Oops, I think that's yours, Mister Elric…"

Alphonse was thankfully so well behaved that he picked up the wallet on instinct.

"All I ask is a bit of information and maybe a few misplaced files…"

"That's perfectly acceptable. I guess we'll see you soon."

Yoki smirked and left.

"Edward! You're not going to feed him information, are you?!" Al whispered urgently once Yoki was gone.

"What do you take me for, Al? Of course not! Don't you see? We can help Riza and the others catch a dirty cop! Come on, let's get these cakes up to the office, we need to talk to them."