author: carla, aka cali-chan
rating: PG-13, because of some swearing... Can't be helped,
since there will be people calling Ed "short" once in a while. Rating
might go up to R, though, depending on my mood when writing later
chapters.
genre: AU, romance, a bit drama, really cheap humor XD
canon: manga ONLY!
pairings: EdoWin, RoyAi. Hughes will definitely be gushing about his wife a lot...
summary: AU, chaptered, high-school themed, but not your usual
sweet-valley high school fanfic. Edward Elric has to become the best
track runner there is, for his mother, for his brother, and for
everyone else in his life. But will triumph come at a high cost?
in this chapter: Edward does not race against Envy... but there IS a lot of tension between them.
Chapter 3: Not against Envy
"...So listen up! This practice session is very important! The regional competition is coming up and we need to figure out which of you will be there to represent Leizenburgh Secondary School. So you all have to do your very best today!"
Edward sweatdropped. It wasn't that he didn't like their Coach, really; on the contrary, he was a very nice person. He only wished that he wouldn't be so... intense. Like maybe someday managing to direct practice without taking off his shirt? And what's with the sparkles?
"...But I'm sure you will all be great!" Coach Armstrong said as he paced back and forth in front of the team. Both Ed and Al (who was present at every practice even if he couldn't run; he was sort of an honorary member of the track team) backed away from him, a little nervous. "After all, I have thought you the secrets to running that have been passed down the Armstrong family line for generations!" All of a sudden this bright light erupted from behind him and... ah, yes, the sparkles, there they were. "Oh, I'm so proud of all of you boys!"
"Ac-hem!"
"Oh, and girl, of course," he added, recognizing the presence of the one female member of their team. Without any more warning he went into an emotional rampage and grabbed onto the first person he could find-- which turned out to be a skinny fourth year kid-- and sparkled some more. The rest of the team simply took one step back.
Soon enough, though, they were getting ready to race. Al sat next to his brother, watching him warm up. Ed was muttering stuff under his breath as he stretched. "Are you nervous, Brother?"
Ed rose sharply and looked at him. He scratched his head a bit. "Not really. I just think I could've practiced more. I've got to talk to Granny Pinako about this no practicing deal..."
"Don't worry, Brother!" Al exclaimed, being his ever-positive self. "You have one of the best records. It's almost guaranteed that you'll make it to the regionals."
Ed's expression turned grumpy. "Yeah, well, that's not enough, Al. I can't very well win the regionals if half the team has a better record than mine!"
"That's it, Shrimp. Get used to the idea of being a loser," a voice said from behind them.
The reaction was instantaneous; vapor began coming out of Ed's ears and his hair stood on end. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A SMALL EDIBLE CRUSTACEAN!"
Al grabbed him by the back of his sweatshirt. "Calm down, Brother! He's just trying to rile you up so you lose concentration..." Ed quickly stopped thrashing around. It wasn't fair! Al always knew to hold on to him if he wanted to stop him; in that case Ed couldn't move for fear of making his brother lose his balance and hurt himself.
Ed glared at the insolent idiot that was standing in front of them with a smirk grazing his features. "Yeah well, he's getting his way, the bastard. Leggo, dammit!" he snapped back at his brother, trying to pry his sweatshirt from Al's grasp.
The newcomer's smirk only grew more and he ran a hand through his long, wispy hair. "You should listen to that poor, invalid brother of yours, Smurf," he said, his tone excessively innocent. "No sense in loosing your mind and ending up more humilliated than usual."
Edward felt the bile rise up in his throat. There was no one in this world Ed despised more than Envy Licht. The jerk had transferred into Leizenburgh Secondary some years ago; he was the adopted son of some very rich guy from Central City and he and his older sister had been sent to Leizenburgh because their father felt a more personal education was better for them. Leizenburgh Secondary wasn't a very big school, and so the attention was more personalized, or so the Principal had told them.
His sister, Lust, had graduated a couple of years back and it was a relief; the two of them had never wanted to move to Leizenburgh and they had always thought they were too good for such a small town. Since they were rich and used to a luxurious life, they had always thought themselves superior to the other residents, in all aspects. Lust was the most vain person Ed had ever met; luckily they'd only been in the same school for a couple of years. Envy, however, was in Ed's grade and he'd made it his personal mission to be the biggest bastard around. He didn't even study-- sometimes he didn't even show up to classes at all-- and it was his father's money that had landed him a spot in the track team in the first place. He could run, that's for sure, but he wasn't even interested in the beginning. When he saw in Edward someone who could potentially be better than him, that's when he became interested. He couldn't let a stupid country midget beat him. He was Envy Licht, after all.
Ed thought it was all bullshit. So what if he was rich? It was only because he'd been lucky-- Mr. Licht adopted anything that could move. Rumour was that he had adopted five kids in total, including Envy and Lust. And word of mouth was that some of them weren't even that great-- they'd heard about one with physical problems, or more like deformities, and there was another one that was allegedly mentally retarded. Which was all well and good, but what kind of father could that guy be? He'd just shipped two of his kids away to Leizenburgh without a day's notice. And who the hell would name their son Envy, anyways?
Through all these years, Ed had gotten into one too many messes because of Envy. He'd tried everything to get him to leave them alone, from beating him up to going to the Principal, but Envy was still there, thanks to his father's power. What did that guy do, anyways? Ed was sure he had to be something illegal. But anyway, as they couldn't get Envy off their backs, Al had resorted to just trying to get Ed and Winry to ignore him. He said Envy just craved attention, and their not giving it to him would drive him away. It hadn't worked, so far; the idiot kept pushing Ed's buttons and he could take anything that Envy said about him, but there was only one topic that to Ed meant crossing the line-- his brother's disability.
His face going red, Edward pried himself from his brother's grip and ran at full speed towards the stupid jerk. Envy kept smirking, not moving out of the way, until Ed finally grabbed him in a headlock and pushed him down. When he hit the floor he did look a bit surprised (so what if Ed was tiny; Envy was as thin as a rail so they were even-matched), but it didn't take long for the infuriating smirk to come back. "Come on, Shrimpy," he said, his voice husky because Ed had his hand on his throat. "Hit me. Do it. Get yourself kicked off the team."
Ed growled. "Stop messing with me and my brother, Licht," he pressed harder, sure he would at least leave a bruise on the bastard's neck. "When I'm done with you, you're going to be eating my dust."
Envy just smirked.
Ed just had the urge to punch the daylights out of him, when his brother intervened. Al rushed, as best as he could, to his brother's side. He dropped his walking cane to the floor and kneeled beside him; it hurt horribly, but he had to get Ed off of Envy before something extreme happened. He pulled his brother by the shoulders with all his might. "Brother, let go! It's not worth it!"
Fortunately for Al and his knees, Coach Armstrong had noticed the commotion and ran towards them. "What is this! Edward, Envy, stop this right now!" He easily separated Ed and Envy. Then he carefully picked up Al, and carried him to the bleachers, where he laid him down to see what he could do about his injury. The whole of the team, who had been standing around them, followed him to see what was wrong with Al.
Ed stood up halfway, wincing a little; his right arm hurt. He put too much force in trying to bring Envy down and his bones weren't in top condition after the accident. He'd probably have to have that arm looked at, again. He pushed it to the back of his head, and tried to go to Al's side. He forgot that Envy was still there, however, and that he was going to take advantage of the fact that Ed couldn't move as fast. He didn't notice until he felt himself being brought to his feet by the pull on his braid. Envy smirked at him, once again, and then punched him in the face.
Ed fell to the floor, all his weight on his hurting arm. Envy took one last look at him and started walking down the track. He wasn't running away; he knew he wasn't going to get into trouble anyway, so why bother? But he did so want to beat Elric in the competition, that he wasn't going to hurt him anymore, not quite yet. After they raced, who knew.
Ed sat up, lifting his hand to his aching mouth. He wasn't bleeding, but the hit was going to bruise. Damn that Licht. One of these days, he was going to give him what he deserved. But now, he was more worried about Al.
He walked over to where his brother was, sitting in the bleachers, pale and with ragged breathing. Coach Armstrong had given him a couple of painkillers and water, and had put some healing ointment on Al's knee. He kept muttering to the other team members. "...This kind of behavior is just not acceptable! You're lucky it's a Saturday or those two would already be sitting outside the Principal's office! He will be informed of this as soon as possible. I can't be expected to choose a team for the regionals after this display of barbaric conduct!" He had been telling the Principal for years that it was not a good idea to have that Licht kid in the school, much less in the track team. There was something inherently wrong with him. Armstrong couldn't pinpoint where the nucleus of the problem laid, but anyone with eyes could see that Envy was a bad seed. "We will have to cancel practice."
The rest of the team groaned. "But Coach! It's imperative that we get the team formed today! We'll need all the practice we can get, we can't afford to lose another week!" the only girl exclaimed, being something of a spokesperson for the groups. Most of the others nodded. Edward was still seething inside, but even he agreed; they had to get this over and done with. Al was feeling somewhat better (or so he had told Ed when he'd asked if he was ok) and even though Ed's face and right arm still hurt, that wasn't going to stop him from running.
Reluctantly, Coach Armstrong agreed to continue the session, but only after Al assured him that he was fine enough to take care of the stopwatch. He called Envy back, not without giving him an earful, which he ignored anyway. Sadly there wasn't much Armstrong could do about Envy; the last time something like this he'd banned Envy from running in a competition with a school from a neighboring town, and all that came out of it was Envy being given a disciplinary mark in his record and Armstrong getting a reduction on his salary because he had "abused his power."
So they started racing, in turns of two. They raced three times each, so it took them quite some time to complete the roster, what with breaks and even some discussions between race and race.
"Licht!"
Ed saw Envy walk up to the start line and pull his long hair into a ponytail. With a dark expression, he patted his brother's shoulder and headed down there himself. He and Envy had the two best records of the whole team; they always raced against each other because of that. However, Coach Armstrong stopped him before he could come closer. "Go back to your brother, Edward. You're not racing against Envy today."
Ed was genuinely confused. Sure, he and Envy had never gotten along, but the rotation of the races had never been altered because of that. "But Coach--"
"No buts, Mr. Elric. Go back to the bleachers. I will call you when it's your turn."
Ed grumbled. He'd really wanted to race against Envy and see his dumbfounded face when he kicked his ass in the track. But it wouldn't be today. He grudgingly made his way back beside his brother, and another boy was called in to race against Envy.
They were just about ready to run when Ed heard his name being called. "Ed! Edoooo!" Both brothers smiled when they noticed Winry waving at them as she skipped up to the bleachers. Mr. Hughes and Elysia tailed her, a few feet behind.
Envy let out a loud groan from below. "Shut her up, Elric! Just because you're doing her doesn't mean that we have to stand her annoying squeaks!"
Winry turned red, from anger or embarrasmment, no one knew. Ed stood up growling, and Al glared at the dark-haired truant. Mr. Hughes and Elysia seemed not to have heard. Envy seemed like he wanted to say something else, but Coach Armstrong quickly admonished him for his crude comment.
So they ran. The other boy was good, but Envy was excellent. Ed wanted to wipe that gloating expression from his face.
"Anyway, I wanted to tell you," Winry began as soon as they turned away from the race, "that I think that talent scout man is going to come today to see you race. I spoke with his assistant today and she was pretty sure they'd come." She beamed at Ed, hands clasping in front of her. "So you have to give it your all-- JUST WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!"
Edward winced at her shrilly tone; she had finally noticed the bruise on his face. She turned to Al and also saw that his knee was bandaged up and it seemed swollen. "You two are impossible! I leave you alone for a couple of hours and you immediately go and hurt yourselves! Stupid, that's what you are! Leg up, Al! I'll check that." She declared that Coach Armstrong had actually done a pretty good job with Al's leg, now all that was left was for him to let it rest; it probably wouldn't be a good idea for him to walk back home today. Then she tended to Ed's face with some alcohol she borrowed from the track team's first aid kit, and applied some of that pain-relief ointment, too. As for his right arm, she thought it was not necessarily something wrong with the bone, but that his muscles were too strained. After a light massage, Ed had to admit he was feeling much better.
It was getting dark when Ed was called to run. After being wished good luck by everyone, he went down to the track and got in position. The tried to leave his mind blank. Now was not the time to be thinking about Envy, or about talent scouts or about regionals. Right then it was only him and the track, and he'd be damned if he wasn't going to give one hundred and twenty percent of himself.
Winry and Al noticed the newcomers, though. Roy Mustang and his assistant had come up to the bleachers, and were currently greeting Mr. Hughes and Elysia. Winry elbowed Al and gave him a significant glance. The boy understood. He didn't hope that his older brother would do good, because he knew Ed would; but he hoped this man could see his brother's talent and give him a chance to shine.
Soon Ed and his running partner were given the go. They started to run, and the familiar feeling of the wind in his face and the stress in his limbs made Ed feel right at home. He'd never run so fast in his life, he didn't think. He didn't even notice when he crossed the finish line; his opponent was still a good ten meters behind him. His mind only broke out of the spell when one of his teammates came up to him with a bottle of water and a towel.
Winry and Al turned to the three adults standing behind them as soon as the stopwatch stopped counting. "Well? What did you think?" Al asked, excited. Ed had managed a great time! He'd beaten his own record. He was still behind Envy by a mere couple of tenths of a second, but overall he had improved greatly. He hoped it had been enough to impress Mr. Mustang.
Mustang kept silent for a few seconds while they all stared at him, expectantly. Then...
"He's a midget!"
...Everybody fell down in shock. Of all the things that could've come out of his mouth... Al sweatdropped. "Just don't say that to his face," he said, thick streams of tears falling down his face.
"But about his running, Roy," Mr. Hughes pleaded to him to be serious. Mr. Mustang's assistant seemed to be pretty annoyed, too, but she kept quiet.
"Let me see his time," Mr. Mustang asked Al, and he eagerly handed him the stopwatch. He took one look at the digital readout, arched a brow, and gave it back to Al silently. They all held their breaths waiting for his next comment.
"I have to go back to Central tomorrow. But I'll be back sometime next month."
With a wave to Mr. Hughes, who was smiling at him, and to Elysia, he climbed down the bleachers and walked to the parking lot. His assistant nodded at them all, and followed him.
Al and Winry looked at each other, wide eyes and wide smiles adorning their faces. If that meant what they thought it meant... They squealed, Winry jumping up and down and Al clapping his hands, as he couldn't jump. Ed still had to run twice more, but as soon as they got hold of him after the last race, they told him what had happened. He didn't take it with so much joy, though. He was glad Mr. Mustang had taken an interest in him (neither Winry nor Al were ever going to tell him about the midget comment, of course, so all Ed got was a good impression of the guy), but he was still feeling down because he hadn't managed to beat Envy.
He only gave the dark-haired teenager one last dark look as the three of them got into Mr. Hughes' car. He'd offered to give them a ride home that night.
author's notes--
i quite like envy, but i think it's just too hard for me to characterize "bad guys", i feel it never comes out right. so I tried to model his attitude and the whole fight with ed from chapter 13 of the manga. i'm not sure if i managed to make it similar, i'll leave that up to you guys to decide... oh, and i'm sorry if you feel that envy has too much of a free reign at school. believe me when i say that his father is very powerful, not only in that school, but in the whole of amestris. saving his son from expulsion is the simplest thing for him.
BTW, envy and lust's last name, "licht," means "light" in german. remind you of someone? i think i just dropped my first plot point right there.
i do admit i know next to nothing about track running. it wasn't really a priority when i was in school-- we did run, for a short period during the school year in gym class, but it was nothing structured, like a track team, and definitely not for any type of competition, just to get a grade. and i'm really short (more than ed!), asthmatic and not very athletic, so i pretty much sucked at it... 8S forgive me if it seems i'm not describing it convincingly. track is just not my thing. maybe i should've made ed a baseball player...
say hello to armstrong! wheeeee...! i love that guy, he's so funny. and he's the coach! boy, are there a lot of runners in that town! i'm sure you've noticed that i've made all the alchemists be somehow related to track running. now what conclusions can you get from that, i wonder?
oh, and if you guys want to see what fräulein looks like, check it out (leave out the spaces):
www . web . odu . edu / webroot / orgs / hs / nurs / nursing . nsf / pages / 303chantilly (underscore) sp02
this is, quite possibly, the fastest i've ever written a fanfic in my entire life. i have other fics that haven't been updated in something like three years. lucky you, hagaren fans, then. hopefully i'll continue to be as fast. i don't know how long this thing will be-- could end up being humongous. gah! XS
thanks for all the reviews! it's really awesome that you guys are liking this, and i would be ecstatic if you keep reading it. i'd like to reply to some of you, BTW:
lirincandy: wow, to your favorites! thank you so much!
teenage writer: YAY alright :D
xmeo: i'm glad you liked fräulein! she'll probably make an appearance next chapter.
nyago: actually, that was on purpose! 8D i know that her name is officially spelled "riza," but for some strange "i'm-weird-and-i-know-it" reason, i prefer spelling it "liza", since it comes from elizabeth and all. it wouldn't matter to the japanese anyway, since the r and the l carry basically the same sound. hopefully it's not too strange for you people to read. same with the spelling of leizenburgh. i think it makes it all seem much more european, and i like that.
justareviewer: i'm glad you're liking it so far! i'm working very hard to keep this universe believable, yet faithful to the original. and i think ed is a disaster by himself; the track thing is just an added complication :D roy and ed will get much interaction in the future; in fact, they'll probably meet face to face in the next chapter.
thank you all for reading and i hope you like this chapter as well!