Back to School

The trip to school was uneventful compared to that morning.

Awakened by a lot of noise, the Ouran students nearly freaked out thinking there was an attack only to find Alphonse in a headlock as the two brothers fought in the living room. The chair Ed had spent the night in collapsed on the floor.

Tamaki was impressed. His cousins were...well they were kinda scary, but they were good at what they did and it calmed his nerves considering all the speculation the twins had conjured about them concerning Haruhi. Edward seemed brash and rude...vulgar, but smart. A trait shared by the much more polite and friendly Alphonse who had spent the night with him and his friends, answering questions and playing commoner's card games with them...looking at him now, however…

The tall blonde's thoughts were cut off as Ed was slammed into the ground by his little brother, who'd swept his feet out from under him. Jumping slightly at the impact with the floor, the king (and the other hosts) watched his cousins go back and forth, entirely confused with what caused the fight. They seemed to get along so well despite Ed's crude demeanor...perhaps the elder brother crossed a line..?

"Don't you need to get ready for school?" Ed sneered as he crouched under a punch.

His little brother flipped over him and tacked Edward from behind, slamming him to the floor again, "Don't you need to stop being a dick?"

"You're the one that ambushed me, you ass!" Ed struggled under his brother who'd pinned him pretty well, "Get off!" He shouted, struggling coming to a minimum, "I'd kick your ass if I'd gotten to sleep like you did, your highness!"

"You would not, you sore loser!"

At this Ed maturely stuck his tongue out at his brother and bucked him off.

"Whatever." Ed snorted with a small smile as he got to his feet, failing to brush off the wrinkles in the ouran suit jacket, "You seriously better get ready though."

Al rolled his eyes, as he mimicked his brother by brushing off his own scuffed suit, "You make it sound like you aren't going."

"I am, but I gotta check a few things before I get there. Mind giving me a hand with this thing?" Ed pulled at a tear in the right sleeve and Al nodded. The fight seemingly over with, the rest of the hosts dispersed to get ready themselves, none of them but Tamaki noticing the blue light that flashed briefly from the other room, or the mysterious journal pushed from the older to the younger sibling.

Deciding to ask about it later, Tamaki turned to grab his bag and noticed that he was wrong, Kyoya seemed to have noticed the quick exchange as well.

Soon enough the host club was dressed, fed, and ready to leave. Just enough time for a casual walk to the school. As they said their goodbye's to the patron of the household, Tamaki took the opportunity to tap his cousin on his shoulder.

Al, of course, smiled. "Did you need something Tamaki?"

"Uh, is Edward not coming with us? I don't see him."

"Oh! Ed's gonna meet us at the school, he wanted to stop by the police station before school starts."

Alarm bells went off in the blonde's head and he urgently asked, "Did something happen last night?"
"No," Al replied with a shake of his head, "But given Haruhi's testimony we need more information, otherwise she can't leave mine or my brother's sight for even a second."

At this the twins shared a look before popping up on either side of the lone bodyguard, devilish grins visible.

"So….."

"What about when she has to change..?"

Al blinked, seemingly surprised, and responded before Tamaki's mind could even begin to run with the idea, "Uhhh….well we didn't really talk about that but…...I mean I wont peek or anything but I think, like if I were going to kidnap someone that would be the best time to strike, you know? She'd be isolated." He started checking points off on his fingers, "But not too isolated to arouse suspicion because...well I'd imagine she'd be in the changing rooms for the host club, right?"

Both twins and Tamaki nodded together, following along- none having expected such a serious answer. "My brother will probably be asleep while we're in classes and during club so not only would the host club's large populace be there to mask an escape, but there will only be one bodyguard to give chase unless I can get to Ed- which is impractical if there was an incident." Another finger went up. "There's also the layout of the changing rooms and bathrooms. The bathrooms in particular have large windows and amazing ventilation, but with both of those comes escape routes, and the changing rooms connect to one another in an isolated room so even a non alchemist criminal with enough skill would have no problem breaking her out of either. And if this is an alchemist, the second she's left alone for either of those they can put up a barrier and kidnap her without much effort. And if they're aiming to kill her...well one little distraction is really all they need…."

Focusing back on his surroundings rather than his thoughts, Al noticed everyone in the apartment had gathered and was starting at him, some with worried expressions, others blank.

"Uhh...but no worries! Like I said as long as she doesn't leave my side we won't have any problems!...So I guess that would include changing….Actually, scratch that, just don't change out of that uniform at school until we have more information."

"Oh no!" Honey cried, "But today is cowboy themed!"

Cowboy themed? "And who all will be cowboys?"
Tamaki instantly brightened up, "Well the host club of course!" They'd all been excited for the wild west day. They'd been watching westerns off and on over the course of a month- for research purposes, of course.

"So just the seven of you? Not your guests?"

Kyoya, picking up his bag and noting something else on his clipboard, nodded. "Only the members of the host club dress up, it appeals to the customers. Were our clients to dress up, there wouldn't be much difference between regular meetings and one of the costume parties we hold later in the year. It's more exotic if the object of their attention is dressed differently."

Al shook his head at this, "Okay, then Haruhi definitely can't change out of that blue uniform."

Dropping their schoolbags dramatically both the twins shouted in unison, "Whaaaat? Why not, that's no fun!"

Al, again, shook his head, this time with a sigh, "No offense, but I'm not here to have fun, I'm here to keep your friend safe." Picking up his backpack they'd picked up specifically for the mission, Al stuffed his brother's journal in before swinging it onto his back and heading towards the door.

Jogging to catch up as Al headed down the stairs, Tamaki tried to say something but stopped short as he nearly ran into Alphonse who'd jerked to a halt not far from the apartment's door. Seeing the younger Elric discreetly scan the area, Tamaki took the time to throw in his two cents, "Well how does not letting her participate in club activities keep her safe? I get the changing room thing but-"

Kyoya appeared behind the two, Haruhi not far behind with the twins surprisingly bringing up the rear. Pushing up his glasses, he swiftly cut Tamaki off. "There are roughly 280 male students at this school. Only a percentage of that participate in club activity." Shooting their bodyguard a sharp glance, Kyoya's glasses gleamed in the sunlight. "You're camoflauging her."

Al nods, turning his head to the group and motioning them all forward, "The only better outfit would be if we could get her to wear the girl's uniform given there are only 7, 9 men counting me and my brother, wearing the blue uniform vs the ridiculous amount of yellow dresses in the room at any given time."

Before anybody else could say anything, a very loud, "Be safe! All of you!" echoed from the Fujioka's apartment and the kids all waved to him as they started their trek to school.

The first half of the school day flew by as usual, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary aside from some questioning looks at Haruhi hanging out with one of the new kids all day. Alphonse for his part was actually a joy to hang out with, trying to ease the tension with curious questions about the school and the Host Club members, as well as getting to know his cousin a little bit more.

Ed- on the otherhand, had snuck into first period late, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face until the teacher noticed his presence with a scowl. Ed shrugged and as soon as the teacher turned back to the board he was out.

About halfway through second period the math teacher had slammed a ruler on the desk and called on Ed to come up to the board and solve an equation that was a few class periods ahead of what they were currently being taught.
Discreetly kicking his brother to wake him up, Al gestured to the board and Ed rolled his eyes, strolling to the board with a yawn and quickly solving the equation before sitting back in his seat with his head in his arms and was lost again until lunch, leaving a mostly stunned class and a teacher that simply huffed and continued the lesson.

The bell for lunch rang and surprisingly no one had to wake Edward up, he was stretching as the bell sounded and motioned to Al they had things to discuss privately. With a nod, Al hung back slightly behind the group and the brothers entered the lunch line behind the host club, making sure Haruhi was in line despite packing her own food, and grabbing a meal with the meal cards they'd been given for the mission.

The Elrics sat next to each other at the end of the group, next to Tamaki. Haruhi, 3 seats down on the other side of the lunch table. Checking on their charge every once in a while, Ed pulled a decent sized file out of his messenger bag, and they began flipping through it between bites.

Tamaki and Kyoya had both tried to eavesdrop being the two closest to the brothers and directly across from one another, but the boys kept their voices low, and any snippet they could overhear seemed to be in a language neither understood. It seemed to be a mixture of English and German, but both boys knew it was neither. They could infer certain words and snippets that were similar to both languages, but in the end they reluctantly gave up and returned to the discussion their friends were engaged in instead.

As soon as Ed pulled out the file Al had let out a low whistle, "I'm surprised they gave you the file, what did you say?"

Opening said file and ruffling through, keeping the file close enough that the brothers could read it but nobody else could peek, Edward's shit-eating grin returned, "I was a little more...persuasive today…" At his brother's skeptical look, Ed snorted, "Well I may have started shouting and causing a scene and then blasting classified case information we figured all on our own, while framing the conversation in such a manner to make the chief of police seem really irresponsible, which...come on he totally was."

"I'm surprised they listened this time instead of just arresting you."

"Apparently the head of the department was impressed by what I 'gathered' on my own and decided to actually do his job and double check my identity...Al these computer things are crazy, he literally typed in a few things on the keyboard and all of a sudden there was a picture of me on the screen." At Al's impressed look Ed chuckled, "Boy you should've seen that guy's face he paled so hard once he realized who I was, I thought he was gonna pass out."

The smug attitude didn't last much longer however as the conversation died down and both boys scoured the files. As it turns out the original victim was not the first, which had Edward grumbling about how "that's some pretty pertinent information to leave out of a briefing!".

The file they were currently devouring gave only short information about the "potentially" connected cases. A list of one with hardly any summarizing details besides 'for more information, check case no. 771829'. Attached to the so-called list, was a brief form stating that there was another body found a month prior chopped up in a very strange manner and was not included due to lack of alchemical symbol at the crime scene. No other information was given, but the description of the body being twisted at strange angles fit the description of the body found in the case they were currently flipping through and pissed Edward off royally.

"And they didnt think to give me the previous case file. WHY is that not considered part of this case?" He growled through clenched teeth.

"Ed the way the victim was dismembered….does that remind you of anyone?"

"What, you mean Barry? He should be dead…" Then again how many people were dead to the public but still alive. Maria Ross, laboratory 5...the victims of the gold toothed doctor…they'd only heard that Barry was gone. Sharing a skeptical look and a groan with his little brother who seemed to have followed his train of thought, Ed cleared his throat and changed his statement, "Uh...actually, if he was alive- Barry's never shown any capability or interest in alchemy."

"Both of the victims were women though, it seems."

Ed nods, "Yeah, we shouldn't rule him out, just in case."

Taking another look at Haruhi who was fine, and right where they'd left her; the boys returned to the file going over every letter and scrap that was included.

It wasn't until last period that a call rang through to the classroom calling the Elrics to the principals office. The brothers shared a look and stood, ignoring the snickers of a few other students and making up a short story about how Haruhi should show them to the office as she had agreed to tour them previously and they were new to the school. The teacher allowed it as Haruhi had always been a good student, and the trio made their way to the headmaster's office.

Yuzuru sent a questioning look at Haruhi as the three of them entered, which Ed waved off as "a necessary precaution", which was accepted and the three took a seat, the brothers directly before the large desk, and their charge in one of the seats to the right that lined the wall.

"So what do you want?"

Elbowing his brother in the ribs Al flashed a strained smile, "Sorry about him, someone dropped him on his head and he lost his ability to be polite."

Ed snorted and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Tragic."

Yuzuru shook his head, a faint smile on his face, "Don't worry about it, we're family. That's actually one of the reasons I called you in here." This caught the attention of the boys, both of them suddenly more attentive to the conversation. They'd spoken to Yuzuru Suoh early the previous day about school conduct, their schedule and what was expected of them while within the walls of the academy, however it was mostly professional and only pertained to the mission. Shortly after that they were introduced to the host club and sent off for their first official day at school. The fact that the man almost wore an entirely different demeanor, far less business-like than the man they'd met yesterday, and wished to speak on familial topics caught them both off-guard. "Before we get to that, I trust with Haruhi's presence you've got the situation under control?"

Al nodded, "Yes we do. We don't really know what the enemy is looking for or what tactics he'll use, but we're taking every precaution we can until more information crops up and we can prepare more thoroughly."

"And you intend to keep the other students safe as well?"

Ed waved a hand as he answered, "As of right now none of them should be in danger. We don't even know if Haruhi would be considered a target at this point. However if we suspect the student populace is in danger we'll do what we need to to protect them."

The older man smiled, "That's very reassuring to hear, as you know my son, your cousin, is a friend of Haruhi's and I worry as any parent would. I've assured the students and faculty that precautions are being taken to ensure a safe learning environment here at Ouran. As long as you've both got this handled then I shouldn't need to do anything more than that." Nodding appreciatively, the brunette continued, "Now that that's out of the way," He paused slightly, "I...heard about Trisha- I'm very sorry for your loss and I apologize for not getting in contact sooner. She was my sister. We were close when we were young but I...never assumed that was why she stopped replying to correspondence, what with the war going on and all that-"

" -"

"Please, Alphonse, Uncle is fine."

Al paused briefly at the term not having used it since the Rockbells. "Uncle Suoh... we understand. We were confused at first because we didn't know we even had extended family and it'd been so long, but Amestris had never really had open borders in the first place."

"That," Ed picked up, "And Resembool did get targeted during the Isbalan war- destroyed communication lines and the train station and miles of the town itself. It'd make sense that any communications were closed or knocked out completely. Pretty sure phone lines were down for a while, but I was probably 7 or 8 at the time so I sure as hell don't remember for how long, everyone we talked to was within walking distance so it's not like it was a burden to either of us." With a shrug, he continued, "Point being, don't worry about it. Shit happens, people lose track of time...we're...sorry about your sister."

Studying the both of them, Yuzuru took the time to internalize the information he was given and sighed, nodded his head in the universal sign of understanding, "Thank you both. It...I think it's still rather unacceptable to have waited this long to reach out to her-"

Cutting him off, Ed shook his head, "Like we said, don't worry about it. It's been 14 years. Our old man who was actually responsible for us took the same amount of time to finally grace us with his presence-"

"Brother."

"What? It's true. Just because I've forgiven the bastard, doesn't mean he wasn't a terrible father."

Suoh, surprised at the harsh tone towards his brother-in-law, who had seemed such a nice man when Trisha spoke of him, shook his head and interjected, "Even more unacceptable, if I'd have known we could have offered you a home, money, whatever you needed-"

Ed was getting irritated with the empty promises, could have, would have, what good were those? They didn't get aid like that when they'd needed it, and what were the chances a stranger who'd never met nor cared about them would have bothered to in the first place. The man sitting in front of them gave off more of an impression that he was flashing his wealth rather than actual concern and Ed had hold back a rather mean scowl- not that he bothered to hide the irritation in his voice. "Forget the ifs, old man. We had a home. Our neighbor took us in, don't worry about it-"

"What my brother means to say," Al picked up, knowing exactly why his brother was loosing his cool. They'd both been expecting more details about their mom, or even the mysterious 'uncle' in front of them, not slew of ideas of what could have been done during the times they'd tried to forget. "Is that you can't change the past. None of us knew anything about each other's situation at the time and that can't be helped. You did what you could now to at least meet us and you're making an effort." Al looked quickly to his brother to see that he was starting to relax a little, Ed didn't look at him, but gave a small nod. Turning back to the middle-aged man, Al sighed, "It's honestly more than we expected. We knew everyone on our dad's side was dead, but we'd assumed the same for our mom." At this Alphonse sat up a little straighter and flashed the man a smile, "It's really neat to know we do have family out there though. And we do appreciate that you would have taken care of us if you'd have known, but...I personally think that things worked out the best they could've with how things went."

Of course they did. Ed snorted but kept his comments to himself. Amestris wouldn't even exist anymore if things didn't happen the way they did.

Raising an eyebrow at Ed's seemingly distaste to his little brother's statement, Yuzuru questioned, "Is something the matter, Edward?"

"Hm? Oh, no, no. Felt like I was gonna sneeze. I agree with Al. We've got a lot of people who care about us now and as much as I'd wish certain things hadn't happened, we're probably much better off in the long run."

"...I see…" Yuzuru nodded, "Well in that case, I'm sure Tamaki's already beaten me to it, but feel free to drop by the mansion at any time if you need a place to stay, Tamaki stays at the second estate and we surely have the room." Both brothers shared a look that roughly equivalates to Second estate? "Though I suppose that'll have to wait until after everything is done and settled here, seeing as I've been told you're staying with Haruhi?"

Edward nodded, "Yes, we are. Until we can guarantee that she's not a target or the culprit is taken into custody."

"Very well, then when that time comes, we'd love to have you over for dinner! I'd like to learn more of my nephews and I'm sure Tamaki is equally curious." Making a show to look at the clock on the wall, the principal cotinued, "It was great speaking with you boys, but we'll have to catch up another time, club is about to start, and we can't have any of you late to the Host club!"

As soon as the trio left the office and were far enough down the hall, Ed mused, "That was kinda weird…"

"What was?"

"The whole thing. He doesn't know us at all, Mom sure as hell never mentioned him to us, and yet hes acting like we should know him."

"Mom probably never mentioned him because we wouldn't know who he was." Al shrugged, "Or maybe she did mention him and we were too young to remember."

"I dunno Al, I think I smell an ulterior motive."

"Ed, you can smell an ulterior motive in a farmer's field. Maybe he's just being nice."

"Al have I ever told you what the words 'wishful thinking' mean?"

"Oh shut up. Not everybody's out to get us, brother."

"And not everybody's nice, either." Ed sighs, turning to look out the large windows lining the hall, "I don't know Al, it probably is nothing but it's a little too…"

"Easy?"

"Yeah."

"No I got you there. I just can't...what sort of ulterior motive would he have to getting to know us? He's already got us here keeping the students safe, what more could he want?"

"Well," Haruhi began, startling the two brothers who, in all honestly, vaguely forgot about her, "He is a business man first and foremost, and I don't know much about him, but nobody I know really speaks badly of him. Maybe he's just making connections?"

Al looked thoughtful, "Thats a possibility, Brother does know a lot of people."

"None that he'd have a snowballs chance in hell at getting in contact with."

"Why's that?" Haruhi asked as they made their way around a corner.

Edward shrugged, "Most of the connections I have need a military grade id number in order to even attempt contacting outside of emergency situations. Someone like him? Would take years to contact any of them. The only reason he was able to get ahold of us in the first place was because the police had requested help and he piggybacked off that. In other words, an emergency situation."

Haruhi nodded as the blonde's explanation turned to rambling, though she noted, her brother made no attempt to stop him.

"...how many times people think they can contact the fuhrer through me, like I want to bother with the kind of formalities that shit takes."

"Brother," Al spoke, noticing Haruhi had come to a halt and that they were standing in front of music room 3, "I think we're here."

With a groan, Ed's posture immediately slumped as he mumbled under his breath, "Let's get this over with."