A/N: Alrighty! Here is the first CHAPTER of this story. Oh my gentle horseradish ( sorry Misty) I decided to make a STORY that ISN'T an oneshot. Btw it may seem kind of oneshotish but, well it isn't, kind of a chain of events project.Also for those of you wondering: my inspiration for this story: my mother was braiding my hair (Edward related by the way we are having character day at school and I am going as Edward ) and I was thinking (since I can't do it myself, mind you I know how my hair is really thick… and the same length as Ed's and I really can't reach it well) 'I wonder how Ed braids his hair', so THIS popped into my head.

Well here it is!

Braided.

Riza threw her jacket on just as she was making to open the door. As she stepped into the office she sat a few papers on the Colonel's desk, they were out of order and messy, due to her tripping and falling.

She sighed and finally made to acknowledge the room. The door suddenly swung open nearly making the lieutenant nearly jump out of her skin.

Edward stalked into the office angry as usual. "Just how many books did they have in that library anyway? How on earth could it take so long to get them all back?" he ranted not seeming to notice the lieutenant standing there staring at him strangely.

His hair had come half lose from its braid and the mane of golden hair was splayed out around his shoulders. His mouth was moving a mile a minuet, and his face was flushed with colour.

A blush crept onto Riza's face and she found herself watching the shout happy alchemist. Suddenly he stopped. She watched as he took a few steps closer before leaning over and a long, loud, string of curse words flew out of his mouth.

His hair lay streaming down his back as he picked up his hair tie, curses flying.

She chuckled a bit which got his attention. His face lit up with at least fifty variations of red. "Um lieutenant Hawkeye, I-I um…"

She laughed solidly before sitting down at her desk and looking through a stack of papers she was supposed to give to Roy later.

Edward looked down at his hands almost shamefully, then up at Riza blushing madly. "Um lieutenant… Could you, um…" he trailed off and looked at the black hair tie in his hands. Riza stared at him for a moment and smiled. She knew what he was asking even if he hadn't voiced it out loud.

She pulled up from her chair and walked towards him. He made to hand her the hair tie but she slapped his hands away. "Hang onto it I can't braid with it in my hands," she explained as she sorted his hair into three sections.

He was blushing very heavily as he felt her hand scrape over his scalp as she combed her fingers through her hair.

The silence was stinging his ears until he heard her ask. "Fullmetal if you can't braid your own hair who does it?"

"Al…" he answered stiffly. Riza stopped for a minuet before continuing to run her fingers through his hair. "I never would have guessed Alphonse knew how to braid hair," she said trying her best to hide a laugh.

He sighed getting comfortable with her hand stringing through his hair. That was until he felt sharp tugs signaling that she was beginning to braid his hair.

Once she was finished he found she did it much differently than Al. The braid was higher making the back of his neck itch unpleasantly. It was much tighter; it hurt his head a bit to move it. Also his bangs were tucked under his tightly wound front locks.

She moved around to his front and pulled his bangs loose.

"God, if I knew you braided with a passion I wouldn't have asked you!" he hollered. She laughed. "You can find anything to complain about can't you?" she asked as she went back to her seat to look through the rest of the papers.

"Bah!" he snorted. "I was here to bark at the colonel, but I see he isn't here, I'll drop by tomorrow."

She waved her hand dismissively telling him he could leave.

He just growled under his breath and turned out the door to walk out of the building.

"Brother what took you so long, after you yelled the whole way up here I was sure you would have gotten it out of your system.

Ed shook his head glaring playfully at his brother. And he realized that, after a while the braid loosened up, allowing movement without it moving around too much, he hated when that happened. The hair that was raking annoyingly at his neck moments ago lay lazily against his jacket.

He actually felt a bit guilty for snapping at Hawkeye earlier.

"Ed, what's the matter?"

"Hm, oh, um, you know Al, I'll be right back I need to clear something up."

Al sighed and nodded. "Alright, don't be so long… Ed who braided your hair?" Al asked no recognizing it as his work.

"Um, never mind, I'll be right back," Ed said jogging up to the office he had left a few minuets ago.

Roy hadn't come in yet, although not that it surprised anyone, it was still three and a half minuets early.

"Um lieutenant?" Ed asked almost shyly watching as she lifted her gaze from a rather important looking document. "Yes Fullmetal?"

"I um… I wanted to say I'm sorry!" he all but shouted. He wasn't well practiced in the ways of apologizing. She just nodded. "It's alright Fullmetal," she said with a look that said they were ending the conversation there. He hated it when she did that. It just gave him the urge to talk more.

"Um… did a good job braiding my hair…" he said lamely. He really hated it when she did the whole 'I'm ending this here and now' thing, it always made him want to talk to her more. She just nodded, he couldn't see any hints that he was getting on her nerves. Actually he would almost say she looked amused.

"Well are you going to say anything?" he asked airily, still receiving no reply from the blonde. He tapped his fingers on her desk. "You're waiting for me to thank you, aren't you?" he asked looking slightly annoyed.

He caught her smirk as she continued to read over the paper, telling him he had at least half of her attention. He didn't know how long he could hold this out, he wanted to talk to her, he had her attention, but she wasn't saying anything.

He sighed and walked to stand next to her. "Thank you alright!" he shouted. She looked up at him with those exotic eyes of hers and watched his face contort from pale, to pink to red, to… well that was an interesting shade.

He quickly kissed her on the cheek and ran from the room quickly. He could hear her calling out to him. "Fullmetal!"

He decided he didn't like to hear that from her. Once he was outside the building, still blushing, he grabbed Al by the arm and dragged him off. "Brother why are you?"

"Shut up!" Ed snapped and dragged him away faster.

A/N: and incase you didn't read the opening Author's note... THIS IS A STORY WITH MORE CHAPTERS. Wo!