Disclaimer: I don't own this anime, but the story's mine… ALL MINE!

A/N: I'm so so sorry that I haven't written in 6 days! I mean, I usually put up a new chapter every 2 or 3 days, but I was out of town and then I tried to update last night and my computer froze and erased everything I'd written. Soooo, now I'm rewriting the whole damn thing! ARG, THAT MADE ME SO MAD! Well, hope you enjoy it.

Mustang's Home

Turning around a bit I ask, "Sensei? Where do you live?… I'll take you home."

His eyes glance up and he squints in an attempt to concentrate better. "What? I… uh… I live at the Ayane Condos."

"Which condo?"

"109... Do you know how to get there," I ask without thinking. My mouth is on autopilot while my mind wanders elsewhere. I hardly notice as Edward drives down the numerous dark streets towards my home, and I don't even blink as he opens the backdoor and helps me out. I continue to watch in a daze as he leads me into my own home and pushes me down onto my couch.

I noticed that Sensei wasn't paying complete attention to what was going on, and after pushing him down on the couch I leave the room, to backtrack into his freakishly clean kitchen. I browse through all of his cabinets and drawers until I find a cup, a spoon, and the odd looking tea.

"What the hell kind of tea is this," I ask incredulously as I glare at the item in my hand.

It took me a whole five minutes to locate it. It's a foreign tea so it's not like the stuff I've previously drank in America. And I never would have found the can full of the tea… stuff if Russel hadn't shown it to me before.

I stare at the back of the can in confusion. Walking back into the living room with it in hand, I approach Mustang quietly, and kneeling down in front of him I poke his knee, to get his attention.

Blushing slightly from embarrassment I stutter, "Umm, Sensei… I can't read the instructions on this can, it's in Japanese."

Mustang's coal-like eyes come into focus, and my breath catches in my throat as his steel gaze pierces me like hot iron. Suddenly, he lunges forward! As he pins me to the ground fear shoots through my veins on electric waves. My face twists and I squeak from the slight pain as his fingernails dig into my wrists, drawing blood which runs down my arms and down his slender fingers.

Upon hearing my exclamation of pain his eyes lose their mad fire and become scared and more than a little confused. Pulling away from me in haste and sitting with his back against his black couch, he covers his eyes with his trembling hands.

My own gasping is overwhelmed by the sound of Mustang's dry sobs. His heart is beating so rapidly and hard that I can see it pounding against the restricting material of his shirt. Pulling myself together, I crawl forward and reach out to gently take his hands away from his face.

My voice trembles, but I continue anyway. "Sensei? … Sensei, are you ok? What's wrong? Sensei?"

Without answering me he licks his lips and then falls forward against me. His head rests comfortably on my shoulder and against my sensitive throat. His fingers twist desperately in the thin cloth covering my back, and I can't help wrapping my arms comfortingly around his larger form. We continue to sit in silence until his tears have stopped and his trembling has subsided.

His voice is muffled because he's speaking into my shoulder, but I still manage to catch every word he says. "Edward… I'm… I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I…" He trails off as he pulls away and grabs my wrists. I flinch in pain and he quickly loosens his strong grip. For several long seconds he stares at the torn flesh and the dripping crimson. Breathing out sharply he laments, "God, Edward, I'm so sorry."

He slowly stands up and slides his hands slightly above my sliced wrists. Pulling me up, he grabs my hand and leads me down the short hallway to his bathroom. Motioning for me to sit on the counter, he turns and rummages through his cabinets and pulls out ointment and a few bandages. I hold out my arms, palm side up, as he gently rubs the disinfectant on my cuts and wraps the white bandages around them.

"Edward, you should go home now. I'll drive you…" Turning to leave, he motions with his hand for me to follow him. "Come on."

Even after all that's just transpired I don't want to leave him. "But Sens…" I'm quickly cut off as he slaps his hand over my mouth. I take one look at his face and realize that I shouldn't say any more.

Hopping down off the counter I follow him out of the bathroom, back down the hall, and into the living room. I bend down and pick up my backpack off the ground, and turn around to leave, only to be stopped by the sight of my Sensei staring at the tea can laying dejectedly on the floor.

"Did you say that you couldn't read the instructions," he inquires, as though just now hearing me.

Surprised by his question I stutter, "Y… yes."

He jerks his head backward in a beckoning motion to get me to move closer. "Come here, I'll show you." When I hesitate to move he grins and jokes, "Come on. You can trust me. I won't hurt you." His grin is quickly dropped as he realizes the irony in what he has just said.

Sensing his rapidly forming depression, I hastily step over beside him and softly command, "Sensei, show me."

I drop my backpack back onto the floor and sit down on the couch. As Sensei drops down beside me I feel myself longing to be closer to him again. Completely unaware of my feelings, he holds out the instructions and we slowly, but surely work through them. I decipher all of the foreign characters and whenever I got stuck I would enlist Sensei's assistance.

At one point I could have sworn it said, 'pour the pee in the glass and enjoy.' That made absolutely no sense at all so, I asked Sensei. When I told him what I thought it said he burst out laughing.

(love-boy mode) I LOVE his laugh! Damn, he's soooo cool! To hell if he's a guy. If you're that hot it doesn't matter what sex you are! (end love-boy mode)

"Edward, it says tea not pee… You're such a dork," he states, still chuckling to himself and wiping stray tears of mirth from the corners of his dark eyes.

"Sorry, can't be helped. I am who I am. Deal with it." I grin up at Sensei as he still tries to suppress his laughter.

" 's ok, Ed, it's a common mistake," he attempts at being civil.

Well, though I appreciate his help in trying to make me feel better, I can still hear the underlying sarcasm in his remark.

Glancing at the clock he turns back to me with a resigned look on his flawless face. "Well, Ed, that's all of the instructions. You should definitely go home now, we've had nearly four hours of lessons."

Snapping my head up in alarm I shriek, "WHAT! What time is it?"

Peering at me in confusion he slowly answers, "It's nearly 11:00. Why? What's wro…"

"Oh, damn! Russel doesn't know where I am. He's gonna be so pissed! Do you have a phone?"

Scrambling off the couch, I run haphazardly in the direction his finger is pointing. Raking the phone off the hook, I quickly dial Russel's cell number.

On the second ring a voice answers worriedly, "Hello? Who's this?"

Rushing, trying to explain before he blows up, I plow forward, "Russel, it's me, Ed, I …"

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" I never got a chance to finish as he stamped all over the rest of my sentence.

"Russel, I told you I was at tutoring," I explain.

"I know. I went to your classroom when you didn't show up after 9:00 and you weren't there. So, I've been out here searching in the freezing rain for hours!" He manages to grind out the last sentence with particular venom.

"Why didn't you call me," I reason.

"YOUR CELL WAS OFF!"

Sheepishly, "oh… oops. That's my bad."

"You think?" he snaps. " You didn't answer me. Where are you?"

"Umm…" 'Should I tell him?… Of course he's my best friend, he'll understand.' "I'm at Mustang-san's house."

Slight pause and then my ear drums explode with, "WHAT!"

"You know, if you keep screaming in my ear like that, I'll be deaf by morning."

Completely ignoring my snide remark he continues. "What are you doing at a teacher's house. He's like.. I don't know, 23, I think. How do you know he's not a pedophile," he demands.

"Sensei! A pedophile? … I doubt that."

From behind me I hear a loud crash. When I turn around I'm greeted by the sight of a shaking Mustang lying on his back, on the floor, with a tipped over chair beneath him. Sitting up, he rubs his head cutely and stutters, "p… pedophile. What the…? I am most certainly NOT!"

"Ai, Sensei, I know." Turning back to Russel on the phone I accuse, "Now look what you've done. You made him fall out of his chair."

"Good! Maybe it'll knock some sense into him," he huffs angrily.

"Argg, Russel, I'll be home in a few minutes so, I'll talk to you then."

"Oh, no you don't. I've already gotten his address off the internet, and I'm on my way over. So, get ready and I'll be there in three minutes."

Before I can say more he hangs up the phone, and so I walk over to Sensei and pull him up from the floor. Glancing up and down his damp form I remark, "Not to boss you around or anything, Sensei, but I think you should go change into some dry clothes."

"Huh?" He inspects himself quickly and then does the same to me. "Oh… good idea. What about you? You can borrow a shirt from me, I don't think you could get in my pants…"

I blush furiously as I think about the possibilities he has just unwittingly introduced. He certainly didn't mean it that way, but… I sure would like him to!

As Sensei comes back into the room he throws me a dry towel and a huge white t-shirt, and as we peel off our shirts I glance over at the man beside me. My eyes go wide as I take in his soft skin and hard, chiseled chest and abdomen. It's amazing what a contradiction this man is. Creamy white skin, unflawed, and strong, well built muscles rippling beneath its surface. Quickly turning away, before I either start drooling uncontrollably or pounce on him, I pull the shirt over my head. Taking my jacket back from Sensei and grabbing my discarded muscle-shirt off of the floor, I shove them down into my backpack.

Waving good bye to Sensei, I dart outside, through the pounding rain, and into the passenger seat of Russel's black car.

A/N: THERE! I finished it without my computer erasing it again. WOO HOO! I'll tell you now that there will be a total of 12 chapters, so there's still several left. To give you a bit of what's to come I'll inform you that an argument breaks out between… you guessed it… Russel and Ed. Guess we'll see some emotions comin' out pretty strongly. I can't tell you what else is gonna happen in the story cause then that'd just be no fun, am I right? Well, I hope you guys like it so far. Love the reviews by the way, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me. (grins)

People Reviewers:

Sqiferfan: Sorry that my story was stilted at the beginning, didn't mean to disappoint ya, or anybody for that matter. Thanks for telling me though, I'll try to pay more attention to it, but I just plain get lazy sometimes … hee hee my bad!

Fading Wind: Please don't faint, it's unhealthy. And then of course you wouldn't be able to read the rest of my story. (pouts) what a tragedy that'd be!

Alchemist X: Hey, quit guessing what's gonna happen next…. (thinks to self) how does she know these things? (Just kidding, guess away. It's fun to read your predictions.)

RejectedAndLoved: you never emailed me… (cries) so sad.. (sigh) guess I'll let it slide. Well, if you ever do face the Zumwalt team again, I'll be rooting for you. 'GO TEAM GO!' Thanks for the long review, it was tons of fun as always!

Finalfantasy-child: I'm glad you saw Joy Luck Club, I barely remember it also, but I do know that I liked it. All I remember is some babies dying so, you know we both remember the death in that film… don't know that that's a good thing.

To the rest of you I thank ya for reviewing, but I didn't have anything to comment on back to you… sorry. (bows) Latter, my awesome readers!