Costume Party

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Al had about enough of his brother for the day.

While he was very excited for Ling and Lan Fan's party, the fact that it was a costume party, of all things, pushed him to his limit. Not because he didn't enjoy dressing up, of course; he and his brother did a little cosplay in their high school days, but because Ed became obnoxiously competitive over dressing up as fictional characters. He took pride in the fact that all of his costumes were hand made, a little too proud.

"Winry is fucking crazy if she thinks she can top me," he grumbled over and over and over, while going through his large boxes of stored suits and props.

"Don't even act like you wouldn't love that, brother," Al mumbled as he walked by, which led Edward to tossing a large boot at the back of his head. "Hey! What was that for?!"

"I heard you," he seethed, and jumped back into his box of fabric-filled geek-dom.

Alphonse rubbed the back of his head and grumbled lightly. "I'm going up to Ling's."

"You don't have a costume yet," Ed reminded, and Al rolled his eyes.

"None of your clothes are long enough for me," he chided, causing another boot to fly across the room.

"I think I took one of your suits from Hohenheim's by mistake," Ed shouted from deep within the box. "You could be James Bond, or Tuxedo Mask. I have props for both."

"Hmm, Tuxedo Mask sounds pretty good," Al replied. "Alright, help me get prepped."

Ed surfaced from one of the large bins, holding a green tunic, chain mail, and iconic sword and shield. "You got it."

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A half hour later, Al was walking out of his brother's apartment, fumbling with his mask as his cape swished dramatically.

"This is ridiculous," Al thought to himself, but let out a sigh and walked to Ling's apartment door.

Lan Fan answered his knocking almost immediately, and when Al got a full view of her elaborately put together costume, he felt less out of place. She hardened her hand into a fist and thrust it to her chest in an iconic salute, causing the red scarf wrapped around her neck to bounce.

"Good evening, Mr. Mask," she said stoically, though a small smile curved the sides of her mouth upward.

"And to you, Miss Ackerman," Alphonse laughed lightly. "Seriously, your costume is amazing!"

"We take cosplay very seriously in this building," she replied, and moved for him to enter.

Al took a quick look at everyone in the living room, and realized she wasn't kidding. Just about everyone in the building, including a few new faces, were all dressed in intricately detailed suits of iconic and cult classic characters. Garfiel and Armstrong , who were liberally pouring themselves full glasses of wine, were dressed as Dr. Frank N Furter and Rocky from Rocky Horror Picture Show. He was rather stunned at how womanly Garfiel's legs looked in fishnets and heels, not to mention how comfortable Armstrong seemed to be in a golden speedo; something told him it wasn't the first time they worked those outfits. Rose was sitting on the dining room table, giggling mirthfully in what looked like a costume based off Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service, and beside her was a lovely girl with rich, olive toned skin, who was dressed as non other than Katniss Everdeen.

"Ling, Al just came in!" Lan Fan shouted, and smiled as she joined the two girls by the table, leaving him alone as he awaited Ling's arrival.

"Yo! Al, I'm glad you're he-" he heard Ling start, but once he walked out of the kitchen and caught sight of his costume, he began to cackle with laughter. Al could feel his face turn red. What the heck was he laughing so hard about? He was pretty sure Ling was dressed as Haru from Free!! That was much worse than his Tuxedo Mask! …. Wasn't it?

He began to feel very much unsettled as Ling's laughter increased, which made his much too tight Iwatobi Swim club suit show much more than he'd ever like to see of his friend.

"You've got to be kidding me!" he wheezed out. "Mei! Get in here! You're not going to believe this!"

Al felt completely perplexed, especially when Lan Fan's eyes grew wide and she began to laugh as well.

"What are you cackling abou-" a high, feminine voice started to say, and then he caught sight of the girl attached to it.

She was small, very petite, but curvaceous, with large, ebony colored eyes that shined unreasonably bright under the poor wattage bulb in the ceiling, and she was wearing a perfectly detailed Sailor Moon outfit.

"This is some after-school special type of shit here!" Ling howled. "Someone call Disney immediately!"

"Ling, you hush that up now!" Garfiel scolded, waving a hand at the still maniacally laughing man.

"Nice to meet you, Al," the girl smiled, her cheeks rosy as she looked up at him.

"Hello," he replied. "Mei, right? It's nice to meet you."

She giggled and nodded her head, and Al didn't think he'd ever heard something so adorable.

…. But the moment was ruined by the sounds of screaming from the hall.

"WHERE IN THE HELL DID YOU FIND TIME TO MAKE AN ACTUAL ARM CANON?!"

"Brother…" he grumbled, and headed towards the door.

Outside of the apartment, Edward, in an elaborate Link cosplay, was cowering by the wall while Winry, who adorned the most realistic Samus Aran suit Al had ever seen, had a fully functional arm canon pointed right at the sniveling idiot.

"Talk shit, get hit, Ed," she growled, and began to blast.

Edward shrieked as tennis balls struck him on the ass, causing everyone in and out of the apartment to howl with laughter. May leaned into Al's side as she began to giggle uncontrollably, which nobody seemed to notice other than him, and he was instantly thankful that his brother's obnoxiousness actually did some good for once.

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