Unedited.

I am officially dead.

x_X

And I lied. This isn't the action part. Next chapter.

"First things, first. You need to be in shape, dude, seriously." Kevin snickered, jabbing a finger into Roy's stomach none too gently. He flinched back, swiping out at the brunette's offending finger, glaring.

"What are you talking about? I am in shape. I used to be in the military, remember?"

"Doing what? Being a good little messenger boy and doing all your homework?" Kevin asked, grinning as Roy's glare deepened into a scowl, "You need to be solid. Not some soft, stuffed toy, Man. Have you seen the chief? He's a rock."

"What does my appearance matter when I'm already in top shape?" Roy threw back, starting to get a little offended at being called...soft and stuffed. He was not fat!

"First off, the better the muscle, the more proof you have of being in top shape. Second of all, the more muscle, the more intimidating you are. I'm not saying you need to be all buff. Just some toned muscle will be fine. I mean we can't all look like Jeremy. It'd be a little freakish."

As Kevin went on explaining all the ups to having toned muscles and how much the girls "loved them" , Roy started thinking on other things. He had already been here for a few weeks and he was already despising this mission. If only he could shake the name out of Fullmetal and go on with it, he could go back home to his comfortable apartment, with real food, and a real shower. He couldn't remember what a hot shower felt like anymore. But he knew if he even laid a hand on Fullmetal he'd either get a metal fist crashed through his skull or a bullet in his head, whichever one came first.

"Now," Kevin held up a finger, walking over to a iron dumpster, pushed up against one of the brick buildings that were abandoned, and climbed on top of it. Once he straightened up, looking down at Roy, he grinned, "I need you to climb this."

Roy stared at him for a moment, trying to think about what Kevin requested. He wanted him...to climb....a dumpster?

"Well...okay then." He muttered, striding across the ground littered with chunks of tarmac and cans, and stopped in front of the dumpster. Was there a trick? Was it harder than it looked? It was roughly four feet tall, which wasn't too tall for something to climb.

Grabbing the edge, he hoisted himself up, not as easily as Kevin made it look, but he managed to scramble up and pull himself up on top of the stinking container. Loud clangs resounded through the street they were in as his state issued boots clanked on top of the iron cover. Even though Kevin was as tall as him, it was obvious the kid weighed more, judging by the way the thin cover was slightly dipping under his weight. He was compact and had more muscle tone than Roy had ever had. Even in his teenage years, Roy couldn't quite get the muscles he wanted. A glance at Roy and Kevin, you'd think Roy weighed more, judging by how much broader he was. Kevin looked lanky and thin, but looking at his arms and torso you could see the kid worked out a lot.

"Are you gonna climb it, or are you going to stare all day?" Kevin asked, jerking his head back and gesturing towards the building. Roy looked at Kevin, then at the building, before settling his gaze back on Kevin.

"You're joking, right?"

"Come oooon, I know I joke all the time. But seriously, its not too hard to find a way to get to the top." Kevin said, using his hand to shade his eyes as he looked up to the top of the building, craning his neck.

"I can't climb that." Roy told him, disbelievingly. He could almost see Fullmetal being able to climb it, but anyone else seemed impossible.

"Oh, don't be such a wuss. Even Winry can climb something like this....Not saying that girls can't climb, though...." Kevin looked behind him a little worried, "Don't tell her I said that, okay?"

"I won't if you don't make me kill myself climbing this thing." Roy grumbled. Okay, maybe these kids that lived on the streets their whole lives, running from the police and getting into fights with other enemies toughened them up and made something like this easy, but he couldn't see himself scaling the side of a building.

"Nah, you won't...kill yourself. Maybe break a couple limbs, but that can be easily healed...depending on what kind of mood Win is in. If she's pissed she might take it out on you for being the idiot for climbing a building. She thinks our training methods are....'unrealistic.'"

"Then maybe I shouldn't be climbing a building if its such an idiotic idea."

"Its not, dude. You never know when you'll need to be doing some climbing. What if a cop showed up or something? What if you needed to hide out? You always have to be trained for every possible thing. First thing, you need to learn how to climb."

Roy scowled up at the top windows of the building. Today was going to be a long day.

~*~

"Winry, I said it was fine. Why do you gotta bug me all day about it?" Ed grumbled, rolling his shoulder with the automail melded to it. It was starting to lock up the muscles in his neck and shoulders. It was getting to the point of driving him crazy.

"I'm not bugging you about anything. I need to make sure you don't apply too much pressure to the automail or you could have another malfunction, you moron. Too much stress and you know what happens." Winry told him, the crossness in her voice made him flinch again as he rubbed the joining of his neck and shoulder until her felt it start to heat up with the friction, giving him some relief to the tense muscles. His neck was full of kinks and his back killed.

She prowled over to him, showing her irritation with a deep frown as she crossed her arms, a small bag in one of her hands, "You'd better sit down if you knew what was good for you, Edward."

He shot her a look back that told her to tone it down, as he flopped down onto the floor, folding his arms over his chest as he scowled across the room, "I don't know why you think I'm in pain. I'm fine- Ah!"

Winry pressed the bag against the back of his neck, making him jump, the heat from it stinging at his bare skin.

"Fuck, Winry! Why didn't you wait till it cooled down?!" He yelled, trying to steady himself from jerking away from the scorching heat.

"'Cause you're being an asshole." She declared simply, making him purse his lips and glare at the wall across from them, trying to burn a hole in the wall.

"S'not my fault you think I'm having muscle cramps when I'm not." He spoke in an undertone, flinching as she moved the rice-filled cloth bag over to his shoulder where the metal was bolted to his flesh. He felt her fingers drive into his skin on the other shoulder, kneading at the tense muscles. He bit back a noise of gratification as he relaxed into the treatment, letting his eyes droop shut.

Even though Winry mostly hit him or cause some sort of damage, this always reminded him that she had a softer side that didn't want to strangle him all the time. And she was the best at massaging.

He'd tried getting Al to do it, but Al wasn't as good at it as Winry was. He always dug into the wrong muscles and always applied pressure into the wrong kinks.

"You're such a liar," She chided him, "I can feel all the stiff muscles in your shoulders....And you enjoy getting neck rubs," She added deviously, making his face burn up.

"A massage is a massage." He muttered, leaning back into the ministrations more, "'Course if feels good."

He felt her remove the rice bag and drop it to the floor before digging her thumbs into either side of his neck, grinding into the muscles. He sighed, letting his head loll forward.

"Would you rather me go get one of the guys give you a massage? I do have some work to do." She teased, making the frown form back on his face.

"No."

"Thought so." She said, grinning knowingly.

~*~

Roy didn't think he would be able to get so high up on the building. But when he had to stop and climb back down, that was the tough part. Not seeing where any of the ledges or window panes were located was close to being the death of him.

"You're not very lucky are you?" Kevin grinned broadly at him, supporting Roy by wrapping one of Roy's arms around his shoulders and letting him lean on him, "You at least got to the top. But I didn't think anyone has ever slipped at the bottom and break their ankle."

"Shut up." Roy grumbled, irked, "I was a little worn out from climbing a eight story building, sorry."

"This is why we need to get you in shape."

"Whatever."

Kevin just sniggered and kept quiet the rest of the way, giving Roy some piece to wallow in self pity. It wasn't a very long walk, maybe three of four minutes, to get to the hotel. It wasn't his fault he wasn't agile and as quick with his hands as the Brat'ja were. But that didn't mean they had to pick on him relentlessly because of it. It wasn't like it was going to make him hurry up and become suddenly like one of them.

Kevin abruptly jostled him as they stepped up the stair way to the hotel's entrance. Someone had finally fixed the awry door by replacing the broken hinge, he only just noticed.

"What the hell happened, Kevin?!" A sharp voice cut through his thoughts, making him yank his head up, his dark eyes meeting two angry blue ones.

"Someone lost their balance and fell off the dumpster and broke their ankle," Kevin replied cheekily, letting Winry storm over and grab Roy's other arm, and hoisting it up over her own shoulders with surprising strength. He was nearly lifted off the ground as they walked him into the hotel and across the lobby.

"You actually fell off a dumpster? Do you have any sense of balance, you idiot?" Winry scathed, making him flinch uncontrollably, "Do you know how much our steroid injections cost?! And now we have to waste one on a broken ankle?!"

Roy looked towards Kevin, feeling rather whipped. Kevin had a shit-eating grin on his face while Winry made Roy sit down on one of the benches of the kitchen. She stomped over to the stair case and pulled a set of keys from her pocket, unlocking the door and yanking the door open. Roy felt Kevin tug his injured leg up onto the table and take a hold of the foot, making Roy bite the inside of his lip as hard as he could, refusing to let the groan of pain, building up in his chest, out.

"First we need to keep the ankle straightened out, then Win's gonna inject it with some steroid stuff. Its supposed to speed up the healing or something. I don't know," Kevin shrugged, adjusting his foot, twisting the ankle into place. Roy's eyes watered up and he gnashed his teeth together tightly, the pain making his gut coil and send nerve cutting pain up his leg.

Winry stepped back over, a syringe in hand, filled halfway with a translucent blue-colored liquid. By the way it barely moved as she moved it around he could see it was pretty thick, almost as thick as a gel. She didn't look too pleased.

"This stuff costs a fortune. Next time I'm just going to bandage you up and have you heal on your own. Got it?" She asked, untying his boot and wrenching the boot off unceremoniously, making him yell out in pain. She stripped the thick socking off and wiped a white, wet cloth against the spot just above his ankle before stabbing the needle through the skin, injecting the gel.

He winced, feeling his ankle flare up in heat as he seized the sides of his chair tightly with his hands. He swore he could hear his teeth crack from being clenched so tightly as he finally let out the groan.

"It'll take a few hours for it to fully heal," Winry said, cleaning the injection site and covering it with a small bandage, "Don't walk on it and don't try to flex it at all. Let Kevin help you to your room. I've got things to do."

"Hey, Win. Where's the boss at?" Kevin asked from the seat he was perched on, rolling an empty glass bottle back and forth between his hands on the table.

"Sleeping," She rolled her eyes, "Someone just realized he needs to give his body a break once in awhile."

"Alright, I'll take klutz here upstairs and go bug Damon or something. I don't think chief would like to hear about the police arresting half of the 'gang' up in the western area. Though, I'm sure he'll be happy when he hears about it after he wakes up."

"Alright. Just make sure none of the brats wake him up, okay? He needs sleep. Now, I'll be up in my room if you need me. And I mean only if you really need me," She glanced over at Roy, "And no more falling off shit, understand?"

Roy nodded and let out a breath once she disappeared up the stairs. Kevin was still rolling the bottle around, absentmindedly.

"So, what do ya wanna do now?" He asked, still keeping his full concentration on the bottle moving back and forth between his hands. Roy shuffled for a moment, setting his foot down on the bench and looking fully at Kevin.

"What is there to do? Didn't she just say to keep off of my ankle for a few hours?"

"I never listen to her and I'm just fine." Kevin gave him a broad grin before turning the bottle and nudging it towards him. Roy watched the bottle roll towards him before he tapped it back with his finger, observing it as it rolled back to Kevin. Kevin sent it back his way and the game went on that way. Just the two of them pushing a bottle back and forth.

"And how is this supposed to help with my training?" Roy asked, trying his best to ignore the flaring heat in his leg that was slowly spreading up his leg. He had had this type of injection before, when he broke his arm during military training. The steroid was concentrated, focusing on the speed the healing process of the cells rebuilding themselves. It wasn't too bad, but the heat was pretty uncomfortable.

"Hand to eye coordination, duh." Kevin said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It was almost childish, the way Kevin went about things. So opposite of Fullmetal.

"What do you usually do besides training?"

"Bug the boss or go to the city. Those are two of my favorite past times."

"Wouldn't you get reprimanded for bugging Fullmetal?" Roy asked, slightly amused.

"Nah, he's just an uptight guy with a stick up his ass. He isn't that scary." Kevin drawled as he started chewing on his fingernails on his free hand that wasn't pushing the bottle back to Roy.

"Last time I checked he would kill people if they got on his nerves enough, or if they were traitors, all that."

"He wouldn't dare kill me. Though I'd watch your mouth around him, he wouldn't hesitate to break your neck," Kevin smiled mischievously, "Once you get to know him better and get on his good side, he won't be so threatening anymore. Though I've never had that problem in the past. You could almost say I'm second in charge."

This perked Roy's interest as he shoved the bottle across the table again, listening to the rough noise of the glass scraping against the table as he asked, "And why is that? What makes you so special?"

"Who do you think helped him start this whole gang? I mean, he had a little one in the beginning, but I'm the one who really added onto it. What would this place be without me?" Kevin asked, giving Roy a mockingly confused look.

"Oh yes, what would we do without you?" Roy said with a roll of his eyes.

"You'd lead meaningless lives and the boss would have never gotten together with Winry." Kevin stated, making Roy's eyebrows shoot up into his bangs.

"They're together?"

Kevin scoffed abruptly, "Isn't it obvious, dude? They're not...official. But Winry's, like, the only chick the boss can stand without throwing himself out a window, and he's....so defensive. Even I can't flirt with her, which sucks. I mean, if he's not going to be making any moves, so why can't I?"

"Maybe he's too busy to realize he has...feelings? And it's only natural for him to want to protect her," Roy attempted, but Kevin just rolled his eyes exaggeratedly at him.

"Bull...shit. He's got all the time in the world. He always sends me to do most of his work. And most of the chicks in the gang always drool over him. How the hell is that any fair? He's the boss and he's already got a chick. Why do they all have to stare at him?"

Roy smiled at Kevin, shaking his head. He realized what Kevin was going through. It was almost like school. The popular guy, despite him already having a girlfriend, always had the girls flocking him, leaving his friends in the dust. And he wouldn't blame Kevin, it was quite annoying to not be able to get a girlfriend. Roy had that problem in school, even though he hated to admit it.

"And I'm like...better looking, seriously, dude. Can't I just get a break? They call me immature. Whatever that is supposed to mean. The boss is was more immature then me. You should see him when he loses at a game against me or Al-boy. His eye does this twitchy thing and he starts accusing me of cheating."

Roy's smile split into a grin as he tried imagining Fullmetal getting worked up over losing a board game.

"Both him and Winry are too temperamental. What I hate is when the both of them gang up on you and they're on the same side. That's some scary shit to see."

"You say there are other girls in the gang. How come I've never seen any except for Winry?" Roy asked.

"Oh, we lost a couple. They're mostly in different groups. It sucks 'cause we don't have a lot. So many guys. Ugh. And most of the guys won't even talk. Don't wanna play any sports, don't wanna go train, nothing. They just act like they're all big and tough, when I know I could kick their asses in a heartbeat."

Roy didn't doubt for a second that Kevin couldn't kick any one of their asses, judging by how respected he was. Excluding Fullmetal and Al he thought Kevin was most likely the next hardest to beat in hand-to-hand combat. Except for Jeremy. He hadn't seen what that walking building could do yet...except lift him single handedly off the ground.

"Hey, would you wanna play soccer tomorrow? It'll do good to get your body in shape and help with getting your clunky feet more quick."

Roy bit back a retaliation as he realized Kevin was just trying to make up an excuse to get Roy to play a game with him. Sighing, he smiled, "Alright. But you got to promise you won't try to break my leg or arm or something."

"...I can't promise anything I'm not sure of."

...The next day Roy's broken arm wasn't his only problem once Winry was finished with him.

The Ed and Winry part was for Mac. Her idea, not mine. I asked her for something to squeeze a little EdWin in there and one of her many ideas were, 'Neck rub because of his automail straining it.' And that was the only idea I could remember T-T Love you, Mac.

And Kevin was my idea but for Mac too. Last I knew she loved him. You'll guys see why in the later chapters. Mac was one of my friends that got to read the later chapters ^_^ And Kevin is....I don't know the word for it.

And the over all chapter is for Kib!