The night sky seemed so calm compared to the city below it. People bustled around anxiously, brushing past the Colonel impolitely as they made their way through the crowd. Edward didn't seem to mind a bit, since all those naps seemed to put an extra amount of energy in his system. He just held his blue jacket to his chest and chatted with Fate who nervously talked back. As Roy scanned the area, however, he noticed that there were more military personnel than usual, all checking each person as they got off, as the got on, and as they walked out of the station. Things must've been extremely uptight thanks to Sorrow.

"I've never been to Central before," Fate voiced, admiring the lights and the late night shoppers. She ran a hand through her spiky mismatched colored hair and sighed respectably, her bright eyes looking at the tall buildings. "Rush Town was kind of like this."

Edward smiled down at Fate, explaining casually, "Central never used to be this light hearted and carefree before, thanks to the constant wars. However, now that we have a new Fuhrer and less wars, Central has found a reason to be happy again."

"Sorrow doesn't help the situation though," Armstrong said, frowning as he cautiously looked around. "Thankfully, besides the military, not very many people are alchemists."

Roy nodded in agreement, folding his arms and looking at the ground. "Was Izumi murdered?"

The Fullmetal Alchemist shook his head sternly. "She wasn't in Dublith when this happened."

"Where was she?"

"At our house," Al replied for Edward, his grip tightening on the suitcase he held. "She said that she suddenly felt the need to catch up on her students, however, brother was still in Central."

Ed cleared in throat, leading the four down a quiet street, a fence blocking the way to the rest of some of the buildings. A man dressed in a black uniform stood on guard, hands behind his back and his face emotionless as they approached. Roy gazed to the top of the buildings to see silhouette figures holding guns and pointing them towards the entrance of the street.

"Sir," the man said sternly, holding up his hand to stop them. "This is the State Alchemist's street for training and dorm purposes only. Please show me the proof that you are all state alchemists and not either regular personnel."

Roy, Armstrong, and Ed all held out their silver watches for the man to check. "Very well," he said, glancing at Al and Fate. "And you two?"

"They are staying with me. Next week they will be taking the State Alchemist exams and will be living here as well." Edward explained, putting his watch safely back in his pocket. "That won't be a problem will it?"

The man saluted them and stepped aside, muttering something like "not at all" and lowering his head as they walked past him.

The street seemed so silent, almost too silent. It was so private. Each building had a plaque on the wall explaining what each building was for, but since it was dark, Roy gestured to each one and supplied, "This the Dorm I building and that's Dorm II next to it. Beyond that side of the street is the Training Hall. Across the street over here," another gesture, "is where the Apartments are. Apartments have several rooms compared to the Dorms, and are usually reserved for wealthier and higher ranking personnel. Also, we have a few weapon shops on this side of the street, which I'm banning you from going to Al."

Edward nodded in agreement to the Colonel's last statement. "Fate, I won't allow you to go into any either. Wait until you are actually a State Alchemist before you go into those shops. Besides, I doubt they'll even let you since you aren't yet. You'll mainly be either in my apartment, in the Central Library, or in the market getting me food," he expressed, grinning. He turned to one of the Apartment buildings, walking casually up the steps and pulling open the door.

The apartment was high class, not the crummy ones like in downtown Central. It had red carpeting, marble walls and a chandelier right in the entrance. They walked forward a bit and started to climb the long stairs, Armstrong talking confidently about his family's stair climbing contests.

"We'd see who could build the stairs and climb up them the fastest. My sister and me were always very close to winning."

Fate and Al giggled as Edward turned down a tile hallway and to the first door to the left. He pulled out his keys and unlocked the black door, pushing it open and standing aside for the others to walk in. "Welcome to my apartment. Don't mind the mess."

Roy and the others stopped dead in their tracks as their eyes widened at the open books and notes spread out over the floor. It was almost as if that one librarian girl was living there with Ed, Roy couldn't remember her name.

Sidestepping over some of the papers, the Colonel made his way to the comfy looking couch covered with several blankets and some clothes. "You've been doing this much research just on Sorrow?"

Ed shrugged and hung his coat on the hook by the door. He ran a hand down the concrete wall as he approached the open space, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's my job." Quietly, he knelt down on the wood floor and started to gather up everything, shoving the notes in between pages of the books.

"Even so, don't you think you're pushing yourself too hard?" Roy wondered as he slumped into the black clothed couch. "Erg, I'm so awake right now," he complained, running a hand through his raven hair. "I say we drop our stuff off and go somewhere for a drink."

Fate's eyes lightened up and she set her duffle bag by the door leading to one of the empty bedrooms. "I vote for that!"

"I'm not of legal age to drink, and neither is Al or Fate." Ed pointed out, cracking his neck.

"What are you talking about?" The Colonel exclaimed, standing up quickly. "I never said anything about bringing along Alphonse or Fate! It'd just be you, Major Armstrong, and me. Besides, it's a State Alchemist bar; you don't have to be of legal age." He rushed towards Ed, pulled him up from the ground, and waved to the two. "Sorry, kiddies," he teased, and left with the door open, expecting Armstrong to follow closely behind.

"You know what I don't understand?" Edward asked, twirling his small straw in his glass of rum.

"What?"

Ed rose and eyebrow and continued, "You are stationed back in East City, and yet you have an apartment here in Central. And Riza just happens to be back in Central as well so your apartment is full, but otherwise your apartment would just be empty and gathering up dust. Why have an apartment here anyway?"

"Well you see, Ed, I've been back and forth from Central to East City, so it's always reassuring to know I have a bed to come home to at both cities," the Colonel slurred, finishing off another drink. "Are you going to sell your apartment when you've transferred to East City with me?"

Ed thought about it for a while and took a gulp of his rum. "Of course," he answered. "Saves me the trouble of paying for both at the same time."

Armstrong hiccuped and both alchemists stared at him for a moment, before laughing. It seemed that the muscular man was becoming a bit drunk himself, his cheeks turning red and his eyelids lowering a bit. Ed knew now that he would be the designated person of the two and would have to walk both of them home so they don't do anything extremely stupid.

"So!" Roy said, his voice turning darker as he glared at Armstrong. "Didja enjoy giving Ed that hickey?"

Ed's golden eyes widened as he watched Armstrong choke in his pint.

"You don't find soft skin like his everyday," the Major finally answered, a grin coming over his face. It was as if both the older State Alchemist blocked out the fact that Ed was there now.

"True," Roy said, leaning back in his chair.

Ed looked down at his lap while the two went on about how soft and tan his skin was. His face flushed, but not from being drunk since he wasn't. He felt embarrassed and suddenly incredibly nervous to be around the two people that he'd grown to trust. He shut his eyes, trying to ignore the two and focus on listening to someone else's conversation.

"Look at that State Alchemist there, he can't be older than 18."

"Golden eyes, you don't see that very often. Not very often at all."

"That's the Fullmetal Alchemist!"

"Fullmetal? I thought the Fullmetal Alchemist was supposed to be short. He's not short at all, he's pretty average height for his age."

"Yeah, well, he grew up." A chuckle.

"He's pretty hot."

"He sure is."

Ed's eyes opened again. Was he really that handsome that everyone seemed to have eyes for him? He glanced around the dimly lit pub, noticing the group of men that were staring at him almost hungrily. He looked away and back at the two he was sitting with.

"I'll kick your ass if you touch Edward again," Roy suddenly hissed, his eyes shooting daggers.

Armstrong seemed to be shooting daggers right back.

Ed felt violated enough for one night. He stood up abruptly, his chair falling backwards with a loud clank. The pub seemed to go silent as they watched Edward frown and spit with venom, "I'm going home. You two can stumble on the streets for however long you feel necessary, but you're not getting any help from me! I'll see you tomorrow morning." He put a few dollars on the table and walked out, the doors swinging behind him.

"Fuck," was all Roy said as he let his forehead smack onto the wooden table roughly.

"Another drink?" Armstrong offered.

"Screw you."

Thank you, everyone, for the good comments. This story will be rather long, I'm certain, since I have a BIG plot ready for this particular fic. Sorry that it took so long to finish this, since I've been busy with studying for exams. However, I finally came up here after watching a few episodes of Queer as Folk and decided to finally finish this chapter.

Let me tell you that it's so hard to continue Listen now that I've finally finished the series of FMA in late Dec. However, I guess we're just going to have to ignore some the events that happened in episodes 50 and 51 because in this fic, those events never happened. However, the other events did so I'm trying to work with all of that.

I hope I get more comments from all of you because now Listen has taken a smut turn and I don't know if will even let me finish it because what's coming up may seep into NC-17. Then I'll take a last resort and put it into adultFF :D So, enjoy! I'll update soon!

Lili