Yay! I finally got it done! Ahah and it's like way after Christmas… but that's okay XD Sorry about the late update everyone! I just kind of… got lazy just as I was going to write this chapter… and then I couldn't stop slacking off… lol… Oh yes and if anyone's hoping for Al's grand mastermind of a plan… this isn't it XD Of course it ain't, what kind of lame plan would this be? I have yet to come up with it actually eheh… but I'll get there O For now, just make do with this )

Disclaimer: Anyone who thinks that I own FullMetal Alchemist obviously has a disease.

Café Elric

By: KatYoukai

Chapter 8: Christmas Party

"A Christmas party?"

Alphonse nodded enthusiastically, "Hai!"

Edward tilted his head quizzically; face betraying no more emotion but mild curiosity, "Is this really necessary?"

Then teen made a face, "It's Christmas Edward, do you need a reason to celebrate?" Somehow addressing the his employer by his first name wasn't quite as awkward when said employer was only one year older.

A moment passed in which both boys merely stared at each other. After a while, the elder one finally shrugged and returned to his task of putting away the plates and bowls.

"Do what you want," Ed said nonchalantly without looking at the other teen.

Al took some appreciation in Edward's agreement however unenthusiastic that it was. The next part shouldn't be too hard.

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Tracking down the people who were more or less friendly with the not-friendly-in-the-least blonde was easier than Alphonse had expected. After talking to the Tringhams – he'd gone to them first since they were basically the only ones he actually knew that sort of had a connection with Edward – the brothers had offered to speak to a certain Winry Rockbell and see if they could come up with anyone else. Or rather Fletcher had enthusiastically offered and Russel had tried to object but had been silenced by his little brother. Al had grown to know the two quite well in the past week – courtesy of Takeshi dragging him everywhere with him and his own lack of objection.

Russel inquired as to why al was doing this to which the boy replied that Edward needed to open up to others and he was simply helping that fact. Russel responded with another question, one Alphonse wasn't quite sure how to answer. Why was he suddenly so eager to do all this for Edward? Yes, he did do things for others a lot, though he was too modest to admit that, he did enjoy helping others. But he never went so far as to do this much. Maybe it had something to do with the connection he felt to Edward? But he'd be damned if he said as much to Russel.

Alphonse finally shrugged," I don't have much to do and I like to help others. That's all."

That was hardly true, the boy was practically getting pounded with all the work he had to do over the holidays, but it was the only excuse he could come up with.

The other blonde didn't seem to be convinced but let the topic drop. Conversation wandered onto other subjects for the next ten minutes or so before Al finally decided he should probably get the rest of the preparations underway.

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Alphonse heaved a sigh as he finally settled down to his work that night. Indeed why was he doing so much for that jerk? All the people had been taken care of that day, still leaving a whole lot for him to do. Al wasn't too happy with the results either. Wrath, of course, wanted to tag along with him. And who did the boy want to bring along? Alphonse shuddered at the thought. He could only imagine Edward's reaction to that.

'Probably in his case lack of reaction,' Al mused.

Though that would probably change once the pandemonium and chaos the teen was sure would come erupted.

Banishing anymore thoughts of the blonde from his head, the teen returned to his current task at hand: a sad excuse of torture and abuse called homework.

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A few days later found a very happy Alphonse beaming in satisfaction at a job well done. Edward could complain and show no gratitude at all as much as he wanted; he wasn't going to let it shake his cheery mood.

The entire café was awash in a golden warm hue. As to be expected, Al had gone a little crazy with the decorations; he was the kind that loved and indulged himself in holiday spirit. In fact, Ed had quite heatedly complained – or at least heated in terms of Edward – that the brightness was going to make him go blind. You really couldn't blame him seeing as the younger teen had gone all out and the café had ended up with tinsel hanging off every unoccupied space on the ceiling. The boy had also ended up making those construction paper red and green chains and hung it under the counter.

Edward himself had to admit that the boy's childish attitude towards the holidays was almost heartwarming. It was a strange feeling considering the way he'd been acting lately but it was there. At the same time, memories came flooding back to him, drowning out those near-happy thoughts.

Al and Ed weren't the only ones in the café at the moment. The others had not arrived yet but the darker blonde had brought his younger brother with him. Wrath was happily bouncing around and practically ricocheting off the overly decorated walls.

Alphonse watched his little brother with a weary eye. The raven haired boy had a tendency to destroy things in his hyper sprees. You would've thought he'd been smart enough to keep all sugary goods away from the child.

Sparing a glance from his watch over the younger boy at Edward, he noticed that the other teen's mood had drastically darkened.

Grey-gold eyes softened. Al got off the couch slowly and wandered over towards the other.

"Hey uh… are you okay?" He asked rather awkwardly. Despite all he was doing he still felt rather uncomfortable around the cold blonde.

The other responded slowly only turning to look up at the other teen after at least a minute had passed. That itself was a little unnerving seeing as Edward tended to either snap to attention when a question was voiced or completely ignore it.

Ed turned his face away as he replied slowly, softly in a tone almost fond, "Yea fine. I was just remembering how we used to celebrate Christmas here."

Al merely raised his brow but didn't question who he meant by we. He was pretty sure Edward was talking about his family though. The boy tilted his head to observe the other blonde's face better. The look on his face seemed softer as he lost his usual façade melted into memories.

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"WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING HERE," Edward yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the people in question.

Alphonse laughed nervously and decidedly took several steps back away from Ed and fixed his gaze on the wall which had all of a sudden become very interesting.

"Well, we were just passing by and decided to apologize for what happened last time…"

"But then we discovered there was a party going on so we had to jump in!"

"Oh don't pout chibi-san, you're all acting so dead here, you need me to liven things up!"

Al sighed in resignation as he stole a glance away from the wall to look at Roy, Hughes, Envy, and Ed. Boy were they in for a long night…

Deciding to give the bickering group a wide berth – hopefully once the yelling was over and done with Edward would forget that Al was the one who started this whole propaganda in the first place – Alphonse joined Winry, Russel and Fletcher in their more… shall we say, civilized circle.

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The sandy blonde teen cast a smokey grey gaze around the room. Half of the people here were almost complete strangers. Al let out a silent sigh, how exactly did they even get here? Immediately his mind jumped to answer said question. Roy Mustang and Maes Hughes had been "passing by" and decided to pop in to apologize for the trouble they caused last time. Somehow Alphonse got the feeling that a certain Riza Hawkeye - who was sitting in a corner of the cafe keeping a sharp eye on the two men, acting as their moderator - had forcefully bullied them into apologizing.

And Envy and Lust... technically that was his fault (as Edward had constantly reminded him over and over). Speaking of Envy and Lust, it seemed to him that the two were playing some sort of drinking game with Roy and Hughes - under Riza's critical watch of course. Al turned his attention to the other people in the cafe; what they were doing was none of his concern - provided they didn't get too drunk of course. Kyle and Takeshi had been here earlier but had left not so long ago. Wrath and Fletcher were sitting not too far away - it seemed both he and Russel shared in their preference to keep their little brothers in check and within sight - laughing and talking about whatever little boys talk about. At least they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

'And at least Wrath is making friends with kids his age rather than people like...' We can all guess to whom that was addressed. (A/N: Actually I believe Fletcher is only a little younger than Al right? I'm not sure... I'll go look it up at some point)

The teen shook his head and turned his attention back to Winry who was chattering away. Al's discomfort around a stranger had melted quickly under her lively attitude. Despite her aggressiveness - which usually seemed to be directed to Edward more than anyone else - he found that she was also a passionate (particularly with machines, the girl seemed to have an obssession with machines), kind-hearted person.

Anyways, Winry and Russel seemed to be indulged in a pile of photos. Edward had excused himself a while back to get a drink or go to the washroom or something. Al couldn't remember what it was this time.

"What are those?" Alphonse inquired, tilting his head to look at the photos scattered over the tabletop.

"Photos," she replied simply, "From our childhood."

The teen was filled with curiousity. He found it odd that he had somehow lived here all his life and never bumped into this group of friends that had also lived here all their lives.

"Really?"

Winry positively beamed, "Hai! I took them all!"

"Yea she stalked us and took pictures of us when we weren't looking," Russel put in dryly.

The blonde ignored him and shoved the photographs into Al's hands, "Here take a look!"

Alphonse blinked and flipped through the stack. A good majority of them seemed to be of Edward - several of him half naked at that; stalker indeed!

Winry noticed his staring and offered him an innocent smile, "What can I say? Couldn't resist."

Al just shook his head and turned back to the photos. At this point, it was obvious that the girl didn't just like Edward as a friend. The teen shrugged it off and returned to skimming through the pictures.

One was of the three - Edward, Winry and Russel - sitting in what would appear to be a rather large sandbox. Or maybe it wasn't the sandbox that was large but it was them that was small; they appeared to be around three or four years old. Al recognized the place the picture was taken, it was a small park at the end of a street some ways from his own; this only added to the strangeness of how he'd never met these three as a child seeing as he'd gone here all the time when he was younger. A small blond girl in a thin orange summer dress - Winry - was waving her bright red shovel menacingly at the boy with the deeper blond hair. The lighter blond boy on her right - Russel - was playing with an infantile looking child in front of him. Alphonse guessed that this was Fletcher. His attention drifted over to the other blonde to the left of the other three. Edward. Al could see the resemblence in turns of physical appearance. The boy had the same golden locks - albeit a little wilder and shorter - and light amber eyes - although much warmer than the ones he was used to. Part of the teen's mind mused over how utterly adorable Edward was as a child - as were all of them -, the other part thinking how unlike the blonde that wide toothy grin was.

It was almost like taking a glimpse into the past and seeing what naive children they had once been. It was heartwarming, in a sad sort of way, seeing the way reality had changed them. Al shook his head as his own folly, his friends always did tell him what a sap he was.

The dark blonde blinked and tilted his head ever-so-slightly as another character in the photo caught his attention. It was another toddler, probably around age two seeing as he - at least Al was fairly sure it was a boy - looked a bit older than Fletcher. The boy had short honey coloured hair, even shorter bangs parted to one side of his babyish round face. Even in a photograph, grey-gold eyes shimmered with glee. The child sat in Edward's lap, laughing and playing with the other blonde's sleeve. As it was Ed was paying far more attention to the boy in his lap than the camera or the shovel threatening to kill his brain cells, leaving Alphonse to wonder why all of the blonde's affection seemed to be directed to the toddler.

He was about to ask Winry and Russel who the child was when Edward came back from whatever he had been doing before.

"Sorry for the long wait but I--," Edward froze in mid-sentence as his eyes fell upon the photo Al still held in his hand, all blood draining from his face and his eyes turning cold once more.

"Wait Ed--," Winry started to protest but was interrupted as the other blonde let out a shuddering breath.

"I need to get some air," he said as he turned and walked out the back door.

Well actually I think I'll stop it here. I wonder if this'll make the next chapter really short though... well this is probably the last update from me for the rest of the holidays I'm afraid, too much homework overwhelming me -sighs- Anyways, plot's starting to kick in! -cheers- But anyways... hope I'm not rushing through this, it seems a bit choppy... -shrugs- meh. Ah yes I think I put a little too much description on the photo XD But anyways I'm drawing some ficart to go with the story and I'm drawing the photo right now anyways. If anyone's interested, I'll provide a link when it's done in my profile and tell you guys when it's done mm? Anyways... read, review, and most of all leave critique! That's what makes it all worthwhile! Or tell me if you actually like this or not XD Cause I know it's fun to write but may be a bit awkward to read .

Kat: And furthermore-- Holy crap! I passed the 2000 word mark! YES! -waves banner of success-

Kage:Wow finally, I really expected that sooner you know, and plus you killed like 3 paragraphs off of describing one photo...

Kat: Sh-Shut up!