Predilection

by Kloudy Reignfall

Wow, I just realized how long ago I posted the first chapter! UGH! I'm so horrible about updating! But, here's the next one, I actually finished it. And the third chapter is in the making.

Oh, but before we get going, I just have to thank some of my reviewers! (I love you guys!)

Sapphire Dreamer – Thank you! Yours was the review that really prompted me to post this next chapter. And it was rather encouraging. I appreciate it very much!

Anime Monster – Don't worry, you got the pairing right, so you can continue reading if you want.

The Plushie Bandit – I loved your review, it was like a story itself! And thanks for the Ed plushie!

Spades 44 – Last, but not least! I was honored by your review. :cries dramatically: I hope, if you are reading this, that it is to your approval. And don't forget to keep writing yourself! Your writing is my biggest inspiration.

Everyone else – Thanks so much for the reviews! I love them, I love them, I love them. And in case you didn't get the point, I love your reviews. Thank you all!

Disclaimers and Warnings and stuff: I don't own FMA. I'm not even Japanese and I can't draw. Also, this is/ will be shounen-ai. Oh yes, and if you're easily offended… I'm sorry.

NOTE: "Nark" equals Campus Supervisor

Chapter Two

Boring. Edward could not seem to stop complaining about how boring school was this year. Oh, not that it had been any better last year, or the year before that, or the year before that. And, truthfully, it wasn't all that bad. It was just irritating and he felt like whining. Which wasn't anything new, so nobody paid any mind.

Despite being unbearably boring (in Edward's opinion), the school days went on without a hitch. Winry and the Elrics started to fall into a comfortable routine. Every day they'd eat lunch in the courtyard at the same stone table, just beneath a little wisteria tree, enjoying the sunlight. Or in Ed's case sulking about something stupid.

When the bell rang for the end of lunch period on the second Monday of school, Ed jerkily lifted his head off of the stone table. Taking a deep breath, he wondered when in the world he'd fallen asleep. And where the Hell are Al and Winry? Damn them for leaving me here!

In a rush, he picked his books up off the bench beside him and hurried off to his locker.

It wasn't until he'd turned the contents of his locker inside-out that he realized he'd left his Pre-Calc book laying under the table, and rushed off to retrieve it, hoping not to be too late. He didn't seem to care that he'd left his locker wide open. Not, of course, that he had anything of value in it. What could he care if his World History book was stolen? Maybe then he'd have an excuse not to attend that stupid class.

The warning bell rang seconds later and a short, dark-haired nark walked through the hall, urging students to hurry to class.

"Hurry up, don't be late for class," he admonished. "Please, don't run in the hallways. Excuse me, could you- Hey-!"

The rowdy student that the nark was fruitlessly trying to scold turned around and scowled at him. "Shut the fuck up, annoying fucking nark," he growled. And as a demonstration of just who was boss in that hallway, the student (who was, by the way, a jock and about twice the size of the poor nark) shoved the smaller man into the nearest open locker and slammed the door on him. Without a second glance, the jock and rest of the students in the hall went on their merry way and the hallway was soon empty.

"…Um, can someone please help me? …Please?" The cries of the nark, muffled by the metal of the locker, echoed just slightly and fell to silence. He really hoped that whoever owned that particular locker came to open it soon, because it was already getting kind of hot and cramped in there and a couple books were digging into his back uncomfortably.

He was endlessly relieved when Edward opened the door and he tumbled out. Edward, however, was slightly miffed.

"Isn't it a little early to be shoving geeks into lockers already?" he wondered aloud. And then he decided to take a look at his locker's temporary resident. And the nametag that he wore… Oh, a nark. …Oops. "Hey, look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that geek thing."

But the little nark was shaking his head rapidly. "No, no, it's ok. Thank you! I'm Cain Fury. I just started working here last week…" He hastily stuttered his thanks and stuck out his hand politely.

Ed shook with him. "I'm Edward Elric."

Fury gave a wide smile. "Nice to meet you. And I'm really sorry about the locker thing. I was just trying to get some guys to stop running, but I guess they don't like to be told what to do…"

"Yeah, it's okay," Ed said as he replaced some things in his locker and fished out his notebook. "Some of those guys like to pick on anything that's smaller than them."

"Oh, are you speaking from experience?" Fury asked with sympathetic curiosity.

Ed's eye twitched. "Are you implying something?" he asked, his eyes narrowed on the nark's painfully naïve face.

"Um, no…" Fury started to stutter awkwardly again. He didn't like that look Ed was giving him so he changed the subject. "Oh, uh, do you want a pass to class?"

Edward's glare melted away. "Yeah, thanks," he said as he accepted the slip of paper with a hastily scrawled excuse on it. Finally gathering up his stuff, he started to walk down the hall toward his math class. "See ya later," he called over his shoulder. He began to run down the hallway at a dangerous clip. Fury didn't bother asking him to walk.

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"Hey, what's going on today?"

The cafeteria was teeming with people. Students, teachers, and other staff members were milling around busily. It looked chaotic. There were signs, posters, and booths set up around the walls, making it hard to get anywhere.

"I think they're having the Club Drive," Winry said to the brothers.

Ed groaned. "Great, just what I needed to help this headache. People screaming across the room and giggling girls with less than half a brain-cell telling you to 'come join our club, it'll be so much fun!' Yeah, I think not."

Winry rolled her eyes. "Oh, Ed! Stop being so bitter. I think clubs are a great idea."

"Yeah," Alphonse agreed. "Actually… I was thinking about joining one this year."

The other two turned to look at him in surprise. "Really?" Winry asked curiously. "Which one?"

Al stammered. "Um… well, I don't really know… I thought maybe I'd look around to see which ones there are."

Ed scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Why the hell would you want to join one of those stupid clubs?"

Alphonse looked a little hurt, but he tried to argue his point. "Well, they say it looks really good on a college application, you know. And anyway, I thought it might be kind of… fun?"

Winry smiled supportively. "That's great, Al. I think you should! C'mon, let's go look!" She took a slightly surprised Al by the arm and led him off to the lines of booths. With nothing else to do, Ed was forced to follow.

They passed stands advertising all sorts of clubs and organizations, everything from Key-Club, to Spanish club, to Food-appreciation club. Ed was curiously watching several members of the break-dance club perform for a group of interested onlookers when he felt someone staring at him. He turned quickly around to see a girl looking nervously at him from behind her booth. She frowned when she noticed him looking.

"What do you want?" she asked angrily.

Edward wasn't sure what to say. What the hell is up with this girl? he thought. She was the one who was staring at me! "Nothing," he replied hotly. "Don't you want me to join your club or something? What is it anyway?"

The brunette girl narrowed her eyes and clutched at the necklace she was wearing. "It's the Christian club. And no, I don't want you to join."

Ed took a step back but continued to glare. "What an attitude on a religious girl," he declared. "I don't care to know much about religions or anything, but shouldn't you be a little more gentle or something?"

The Christian club girl looked like she was about to jump over the stand, tackle Ed to the ground, and gently beat him to bloody pulp. Luckily, before she had the chance, Alphonse and Winry reappeared behind Ed. They took a quick look at the scene and hastily started to lead Ed away from the booth, making sure not to look back.

When they were far enough away, Alphonse turned his still-scowling brother around. "What in the world did you do this time! That girl looked like she was going to murder you!"

Edward crossed his arms defensively. "I didn't do anything. She started it! She was staring at me, and then I turned around to see what the hell her problem was and she blew up in my face! I don't even know who she is."

Winry thought for a second. "She was in one of my classes last year. I think her name is Rose or something. I didn't talk to her very much, but she was always really quiet and polite. You must have done something to upset her. She looked awfully mad."

"I told you," Edward yelled, "She was the one provoking me for no reason!"

The others sighed. They knew full well that nothing they said could get past Ed's thick skull and hot temper. It was almost pitifully comical the way he acted sometimes. They shook their heads and moved on through the crowd, Ed still following behind them, still angrily trying to justify his idiotic actions.

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"It seems we have a new student today?"

Mustang glanced around the room, looking for any extra additions to his class. Seeing no hands raised or any other indication of a new student, he consulted his roster.

He flinched visibly as he read the name aloud. "Mary-Sue? May-Sue Dixon?"

The name caused a ripple effect in the classroom. People shivered, most unconsciously. Ed shuddered. There was something about that name! It seemed to strike fear into his heart. He looked around the class but luckily there didn't seem to be any "Mary-Sue" around. He sighed in relief. Maybe she'd transferred to a different school or something. People did that a lot, didn't they?

Ed opted not to worry about the mystery girl and instead turned his attention back to Mr. Mustang, who was scribbling something on the whiteboard. That damn man was his worst nightmare! He teased him constantly, calling him "Chibi Elric" and making various other references to his lack of height. It was infuriating; it was driving Edward absolutely nutty.

"All right, who can tell me some of the similarities between the ancient Romans and the ancient Greeks?" Mr. Mustang scanned the room for raised hands. He found several, the majority of them attached to over-eager young girls. However… "Elric."

Ed was jolted out of his thoughts as he raised his head to look his teacher in the eyes. "I wasn't raising my hand," he said.

Mustang smirked. "I'm fully aware of this."

"Then why the hell did you call on me?" Ed asked, frowning.

"Because," Mr. Mustang answered, leering, "I am the teacher and I have the responsibility to make sure every student participates."

Ed rolled his eyes. "I'm so sure." He sighed. "I don't know anything about the Romans or the Greeks, and I really don't care."

Mr. Mustang shook his head at the boy. "Well, I suggest that you pay attention, since there will be a test on this. And that goes for the rest of you too, of course," he said, reverting back to his proper teacher mode.

Edward crossed his arms huffily and narrowed his eyes. It really was perplexing to him that anybody could be this annoying. And on purpose! It was so obvious that Mustang did it consciously. Always calling him names, picking on him when he wasn't paying attention, and all with that sickening gleam in his eye.

What the hell is this guy's problem? he wondered as he went back to contemplating his class work.

-------------------

"I think you're just being over-dramatic, Ed!"

Edward considered bashing his head into the next lamp-post he saw. He was walking home with Winry (since Al was still at school, helping out with a tutoring session or something of that matter), and he'd been trying to tell her about his stupid teacher, but she really wasn't being any help at all. He started to walk sideways so he could face her. "I'm not being over-dramatic! Seriously! This teacher has problems or something. He's got it in for me, I'm telling you! Why won't you believe me?"

Winry laughed softly. "Because I know you, Ed," she replied.

Side-stepping a pothole, Ed turned back to the sidewalk. "This is just like a horror movie," he said, pouting. "I'm the victim and Mustang's the killer, but nobody believes me when I tell them, so he ends up murdering me in my sleep one night!"

Winry bit back a cackle of laughter, trying not to get her little friend worked up more than he was. "Actually, I think it's a little more like The Boy Who Cried Wolf. You know how that story goes, don't you Ed?" By now Winry was giggling quite madly at her own impersonation of Edward. "'Somebody help me! Everyone's out to get me! I'm so defenseless, and the world hates me, just because I'm short!' Hahaha! Besides, he can't murder you in your sleep unless you told him where your house is!"

Ed glowered at her. "Winry, stop making fun of me! This is a serious situation!"

"Yeah, seriously ridiculous. Oh, Ed! Stop worrying about it! I'm sure it's nothing."

"Yeah, right. You don't see the way he stares at me." Ed put his head down and kept walking, leaving Winry to her thoughts.

Oh, Ed's just being his normal self, right? She looked over at his sulky form. No…I wonder what's really wrong with him lately? Winry sighed and put it behind her, deciding that if Ed thought it was important enough he'd tell her sooner or later.

End Chapter Two

Well, there it is. I edited it a million times, and I still don't like it. But there it is. It's over!
Anyway, I really hope youliked it! If you did, please feel free to leave a review! If you didn't like it and you feel like being mean, go ahead and leave a flame.
So, next chapter is on the way. Reviews make it appear faster! (Gee, I really sound pathetic, don't I? Heh. ;)
'Til next time, everyone!
-Kloudy Reignfall