Hey so there's actually Amestrian in this chapter that relates to worldbuilding! It's all underlined. Enjoy!

What to do

The tension in the room was so thick it was hard to breathe. Haruhi swallowed, realizing exactly what this meant: No more fooling around.
Ed's words from the previous day rung in their ears, about not taking chances and extra dangers; Edward going missing and then showing up injured nailed it into their heads that he had been right to err on the side of caution.

Alphonse broke the awful tension with a strangled growl, his words angry and hoarse from worry, "What do you mean you found him?! You didn't sleep last night and you can't do alchemy anymore! You better not have gone out looking for him! You said you wouldn't be that reckless anymore, brother!"

Looking to his sibling, Ed held up his hands, his left slightly higher than his right, in a placating manner, "Al relax, I didn't. I just had a hunch and followed up on a couple things like revisiting the crime scene and some proximital locations and..well…" With a sigh the older Elric scrunched up his nose in disgust, "You know our luck."

Al knew his brother was hurt, but Ed's calm attitude at the accusation left him skeptical. "So you didn't provoke him?"

Looking away and scratching his face with his left forefinger Ed hesitated, "Uhh….Well…"

"Brother!"

"Al, hear me out-"

"Brother I can't believe you!

"Al, he had someone pinned up against a wall!" That caught Al's attention and Ed continued, "I had no idea it was the guy we were looking for until I got his attention and had to dodge boiling metal he shot at me out of a pipe." Pointing at the specks of silvery-gray on his jacket, Ed started picking at cooled silver that had seeped into the arm of his coat, it didn't budge. "Pretty sure I've got a burn of some kind under this."

Al got up and walked back to his brother's side to examine him more thoroughly. He'd known the metal at first glance, some sort of Aluminum hybrid, and that his brother had a limp, but he was acting calmer than he usually did when he was hurt so he'd taken the seriousness of what happened over his brother's condition.
Turning his brother's chair to the side so he could get a good look at him, Al sighed.

Edward was clearly exhausted, though subtle, the underside of his eyes were darker than usual and his expression held a weariness that Alphonse didn't see often, despite how much his older brother tended to run himself ragged over the years. He was covered with dirt and dust peppering every inch of him, from the scuff on his left cheek where he very obviously must have collided with the earth, to the small clumps in his hair where it seemed to have hit him from a distance.

His clothes were littered with cuts and slashes, indicating some sort of weapon struggle, but there wasn't much blood among them, and many of them were small clean cuts that had been further torn along the edges. Most of what Al was able to notice was hard to see, obscured under dirt, grime, and fabric fibers.

Nothing was bleeding profusely, which was a good sign.

The biggest offender was a small cut along one of the tears in the suit jacket, clotted, but the surrounding fabric dyed a deep red-brown, something the younger Elric took note of, but knew wasn't urgent at all.
The leg he'd been limping on was his real one, not the automail which raised some concerns, but as there was no blood or obvious broken bones, and his brother didn't even flinch when he touched it, Al decided he could leave it be for now. Assured that his older brother was more or less, fine, Alphonse relaxed with a heavy sigh. He was hurt, but it was hardly anything close to either brother's worst injuries.

Looking back to Ed's face, Al found his brother deep in thought, and he shook his head before dragging his chair around to his brother's side. "Okay, so let's start this over….is the victim alright?"

"Hm?" Ed looked up as his brother's words caught up to him, "Oh. Yeah, by the time I gave him the slip and made it back to the crime scene the police were there. Same M.O. as the other victims, wealthy woman." Unconsciously scratching at his right arm, Ed stiffened and bit his lip immediately halting the conversation. After a moment as the pain died down, he continued with a glare to the offending metal and the burnt skin it was attached to. "She had already been taken by ambulance. The police on the scene said that she couldn't talk due to attempted asphyxiation and when I got a good look at the crime scene there was a transmutation circle etched into the ground, get this though- it wasn't drawn on cement, he transmuted a manhole cover into an alchemical circle."

Nodding along, Al replied, "So it's possible he's limited to metals, not minerals. But why transmute a transmutation circle? What type of array was it?"

Ed looked to the other members of the room. "I made sure the police took the manhole cover in as evidence and told them not to leave any transmuted ones out around the city." Taking a folded scrap of paper from his pocket, he made sure the sigil on the inside was covered by his or his brother's hand as they exchanged the note.

Unfolding the paper, Al couldn't help but gasp, "This looks like-"

Cutting him off, Edward gestured briefly to the other occupants of the room, "I think it is. I'm not really sure what it's meant to do, though. It seems like it only affects the metal it's on..."

"We should check a map just in case."

Ed nodded, "I picked one up on the way back, we should reconvene later and go over this more in depth, I have some theories and you should know more of the details, but first and foremost is moving Haruhi, if he's targeting her, her apartment isn't safe anymore."

Haruhi jumped at the mention of her name, "W-what do you mean?"

Alphonse picked up for his older brother, "If he's attacking supposedly wealthy women and you stumbled upon the scene when you were dressed as a girl, whether or not he's targeting you specifically, you are a potential target one way or another."

"Also," Ed began, drawing the attention back to him, "I made some notes about the apartment complex last night, and there are an unusual amount of manhole covers in the area. We shouldn't take any chances if these transmutation circles are crucial to whatever he's doing."

Ranka was called immediately to be informed of the situation, that Haruhi couldn't go home tonight, and that they were deciding on the next course of action. He was also advised to avoid dressing in drag for a while because he too, could end up targeted.

Assuring him he would be notified when they came to a decision on where his daughter was to stay, the call ended and the discussions as to who's house was safest began.
The problem being: the more extravagant the building, the easier it would be to assume Haruhi was wealthy if the killer happened to be watching.
Ed tuned out most of it, concentrating on the metal on his arm and trying to assess the damage, but piping up every now and again with a word or two his brother didn't cover.
Peeking into the shirt from the tear by his collar, a lot of the skin was bright red. Particularly around the metal, some of it was peeling up and he cussed quietly to himself. Thankfully it looked like the various layers of the jacket and undershirts had saved his arm from a 3rd degree burn, as nothing was blackened from what he could see. Under the metal though, was another story.
It was stuck to his skin, removing it would be a sinch if Al separated it alchemically, but he worried about the full extent of the injury. Of course it's the arm I just got back.
After another minute or two of listening in on the discussions, Ed interrupted pointing at his arm, "Hey Al, I'm gonna need your help with this." Conversation halted as their curiosity was peaked, and Edward continued, "Looks like the metal's attached to the skin, so you're gonna have to remove it. Everything around it is burnt but I have no idea the extent of underneath. Just about the only thing I can figure about that is if it was bleeding it's been cauterized."
Noticing the host club pale and return to the discussion Al decided to move the first aid to the back room, dragging Haruhi with them.

They made sure Haruhi sat far enough away she couldn't see whatever the injury was in detail, but close enough that she was still in their peripherals. As an extra precaution, Alphonse made sure to position himself in her line of sight..
Luckily for them, Al's new Alkahestry skills came in handy. The burn was absolutely a 3rd degree burn, the skin where the metal settled was charred black and there was a visible indent where it had burned away the flesh, the smell was atrocious and both boys vaguely registered Haruhi's quick movement to cover her nose.
Thanks to Alphonse, Ed didn't need any special medical treatment and they were able to wrap the injury with a burn creme. It would hurt for a while, but the dead skin was removed, and some of the surrounding dermis thinned to make it a little bit healthier and ensure it would heal. Were Mei here, more could have been done to repair the skin, but Edward insisted it was fine and he was used to healing on his own anyway.

"Are you sure? Mei would be able to minimize scarring as well-"
Pulling his sleeve up the remaining 4 inches to show off his automail scar, Ed quirked a brow. "You really think minimizing scarring is a priority at this point?" Letting his sleeve go and gently pulling it down over his newly wrapped burn, he continued at a lower volume, "I won't have a hole in my arm thanks to you, that's all I'm worried about right now."

"Okay, then what about your leg?"

"We can worry about it later, I still have to get these metal specks out of my hair yet and clean the cuts. The sooner we get Haruhi indoors the sooner we can take care of the rest."

With a sigh and a nod, Alphonse stood up and followed his brother out of the room, stopping only to let Haruhi pass.

Taking their seats at the table, not much had passed in their absence, but it had been narrowed down to three locations. The school itself- which was immediately passed over due to an intense lack of security, Tamaki's house- which the blond insisted had nothing at all to do with his cousins, and Kyoya's house- the police force and various resorts providing extra protection.

The pros and cons of each were thrown about, Tamaki's status as president of the host club giving reasoning for any of the host club members to be present, and Kyoya's many locations allowing her to be moved at any time deemed necessary.

It was Tamaki's abode that won out in the end; nobody was convinced that the Ootori police force would let the Elrics work in peace. However it was set as a plan b, and both the Ootori and Suoh estates were informed of the situation.

"There's one thing I don't understand," Kyoya announced, stopping the occupants in the room from getting any closer to the door, "I thought you two were alchemists, but Alphonse said you couldn't do alchemy anymore. Is this true?"

Edward shrugged, "Yeah, but that's all I can say." At the collective confused murmuring, the older Elric let out a whistle to get the group's attention, "It's classified information, so keep it to yourself."

"But Edo-chan!" Honey exclaimed, completely ignoring the face Ed made at the name, "Why do you call yourself an alchemist if you can't do it anymore? Wouldn't that make you not an alchemist?"

With a sigh, Ed looked at his brother who held his hands up in the universal sign of -do not involve me in this- and he rolled his eyes, "Because I still am an alchemist. Alchemy is more than just activating a transmutation circle, it involves years of study and memorization." Ed paused deliberating if he should add any more, before shrugging and shoving his hands in his pockets, "There isn't really a word in our language for someone like me, and saying ex-alchemist requires an explanation I shouldn't be giving out."
Alphonse nodded in approval and chimed in, "Also you have to keep in mind if Ed called himself an ex-alchemist, people would question his reason for being here." Giving a shrug himself, Al grinned, "I can't imagine how hard it would have been to get the case files if an underage non-alchemist came in lieu of someone with better paper qualifications."

Ed sent his brother a weak glare, "Wanna run that by me again, Al?"

"Whaat?" Ignoring his brother's expression, Alphonse walked forward and yanked the door open, holding it for the party and looked to Ed with his most innocent face, "Underage who? You're 19 brother, you must've misheard me."

"Misheard my ass, nice save."

Taking the limo provided by the Suoh's, the small group of four discussed rules and precautions in the vehicle.
For the current night, none of the other host club members were allowed at Tamaki's- for the simple reason that Edward needed the night to recuperate and it wasn't fair to leave Alphonse alone to guard the entire lot of students. For once, nobody argued with this, and the friends wished each other an uneventful night.

Tamaki had mentioned the basic floor plan, how many and what rooms were available; and the Elrics planned to quarter up in Tamaki's room, as any intruder would expect guests in the guest room, and it seemed to be further from the stairs than many of the other options.
Haruhi however, had a bit of a problem with the next topic: "What do you mean I can't wear my pajamas to bed?!"

"You're stuck as a boy until you're out of Tamaki's house." Ed blunted.

"The latest victim confirms he's targeting wealthy women," Alphonse picked up, "Just by being at Tamaki's, as a girl, you're by definition a 'wealthy woman' which puts you at higher risk by association."

"Why move her to any of our houses, then?" Tamaki questioned. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and they knew why Haruhi's apartment was unsafe. "Why not just rent a place?"

Ed groaned, "Because if this guy's working with other people there are too many wildcards." Sliding down the seat and out of the top half of his seatbelt he continued, "You also can't tell your father who's house you're at in case the phone lines are tapped."

"He's gonna be worried sick!"

Al covered his brothers mouth as Ed let out a very exasperated groan, which wasn't as muffled as he'd hoped, though Ed didn't seem too triumphant to have been heard.

"Haruhi, take a deep breath," Alphonse began, "We know you're worried. We'll call your dad from school tomorrow and let him know what's going on and what precautions we're taking, but you don't want him to worry about how he could put you in danger by knowing your location, do you?"

At Haruhi's hesitant nod, Al continued, this time addressing both Haruhi and Tamaki, "It's okay to be scared, and we know what we're doing. The fact that Ed came back with minor injuries should prove that, right?"

Again, hesitation, but both teenagers nodded, nonetheless.

"Tamaki, can Ed use your shower?"

"What? Uh, yes, of course, I'll show you where it is when we get there."

Peeking out from under his arm, Ed looked over at the other three in the car, "You're gonna have to make me some bandages, Al. You got any antibiotics at your place?"

Nodding, Tamaki replied, "Yeah, anything you might need is in the medicine cabinet, including bandage rolls and medical tape." At Ed's quirked brow, the blonde continued, "It's a large cabinet."

Taking his cousin's word, Edward shrugged and pushed himself upright in the seat with a slight wince, "Alright, nevermind that then, Al."

"Neither of you are to leave my sight while Ed's out of the room, understand?" Al quickly picked up, "I don't care if you want a drink of water or you have to pee, it's either done before Ed leaves to clean up, or after he gets back."

Ignoring the startled look on the other occupants of the vehicle, Ed nodded and elaborated, "You should be Haruhi's guard Al, we can continue what we've been doing with me on night patrol-."

"No way, brother. Not when you're hurt."

Shooting his sibling a side glance, Ed mimicked him, "Yes way, brother. I know what the guy looks like so if he's stalking around the neighborhood I'll be able to spot him faster than you."

"And do what, exactly? Endanger yourself because of your leg?"

Ed hesitated for a moment, responding with a glance out the window, "Make sure he didn't follow us."

The silence hung in the air for a short time as both brothers thought about what to do for the course of the night, but it was Ed who broke it with a sigh, "I'll go out after I'm cleaned up, take note of some things in the neighborhood and then come back in an hour or two. If there's anything suspicious we both stay up, if it checks out, you're on night duty, alright?"

Taking a moment to think about it, Alphonse nodded, but before he could say anything, Ed's finger was in his face, "But you're on Haruhi duty regardless." Al blinked as his brother put his arm down, "I'll keep an eye on Tamaki. This means you two," Ed gestured to the duo in question, making them jump at the older brother's commanding tone of voice, "Are not to leave either of our sides for even a second until we get our bearings. This means tonight, at school tomorrow, and any time in between. You do not sneak away, you do not second guess our orders, you do not pester us with hundreds of questions on why we tell you to do something, understand?"

Before waiting for either teen to nod, Alphonse himself nodded and added one last thing, "No doing anything stupid, okay? If you need something, just ask. We'll figure it out."

Haruhi and Tamaki shared a look and nodded, but both jumped out of their seats as the driver loudly knocked on the separation window declaring they'd be arriving in a couple minutes which made Ed snort and Al chuckle.

Arrival at the Estate was very efficient, they were ushered inside, where they met with various house-keepers and attendants, who took the necessary belongings such as jackets and bags from them to shuffle away to whatever corner they would be stashed in, and were left in the giant foyer that made way to two massive stairwells.

All traces of exhaustion left Ed as both he and his brother marvelled at the size of the place, speaking quickly and quietly in Amestrian about the space

"He wasn't joking about the foyer..."

"This is larger than the Fuhrer's house!"

"How big is this place if this is the first room?"

"How much are the taxes on the kitchen alone?"

"If this is the second estate how big is the first?"

"Why do they have a second estate?"

Following Tamaki upstairs to his room, the boys kept muttering and commenting on the...excessiveness of the place, and Tamaki didn't seem to miss their reaction at all, "So?" He asked as he pushed the door to his room open, "What do you all think?"

The room was larger than either brother expected, one wall was lined with portraits of the Host Club, there was a small table with chairs before the massive bed and large windows that stretched along the wall to the spacious walk-in closet lining the other wall.

Ed was the first to speak, seemingly dazed by the sheer size of the dwelling they were in, "What do you do with all this space?"

Tamaki, confused by the statement, responded in kind, "Um...do?"

Al shook himself, the idea of a mansion of this size wasn't unheard of in Amestris, they'd certainly frequented a few, but neither brother expected by 'estate' the Suoh's had meant anything of this size. "We've only come across a...handful...of mansions this large, Tamaki. We grew up in a decent sized farmhouse, but-"

"Our entire house and our neighbors house could fit in your foyer and kitchen." Not to mention we were never related to anyone with this kind of wealth. Ed added internally.

"Yes, that."

"Oh, um...well we don't really use it, per se. It's...living space…"

"Living space?" Haruhi asked,

"Yeah, ya'know like elbow room. You should see the place around the holidays." The tall blonde added with a smile.

Inspecting the closet, Ed retorted, "Tamaki, you have enough 'elbow room' in here for a dozen horses and they're 3 times your size." Continuing to play with the door, he turned around, "Like, do you throw parties or something? What do you need all this space for?"

Blinking in response, Tamaki questioned, "Need?" He paused as the question hung in the air, "I mean, yeah Father throws parties, occasionally, but they're usually at the main estate."

Furrowing his brow, Ed peeked his head out of the massive closet, "So who lives here with you, then?"

Tamaki's hesitation was so quick the Elrics almost missed it, "The...staff. Shima is really great, she makes sure I get up on time and practise what I need to and everything." His demeanor brighted almost instantly as he continued, "Oh and Antoinette!"

"Antoinette?" Al asked,

"My dog! Oh she must be outside, she's a golden retriever and she's really friendly!"

Ed's entire demeanor darkened at that and he frowned, "Nobody else?"

Tamaki shook his head, and Haruhi leaned over to Alphonse and whispered, "Does he not like dogs?"

Al shook his head, "No, er...well kinda, but that's not why-"

"Can I take a shower now? We should probably stop goofing off."

Surprised by the abrupt change Tamaki cleared his throat, "Ah, right."

After giving Edward the directions and asking a maid to bring him a fresh towel and some spare clothes, Tamaki turned to Haruhi and Alphonse completely confused about the 180 in his cousin, "Did I say something wrong?"

Al shook his head. "No, you didn't."

When Ed returned from the shower all bandaged, Al helped remove the rest of the metal he couldn't pull off himself, mostly in his hair, and checked out Ed's leg, which seemed to simply be sore from whatever impact it took. Al promised if it still ached in the morning he would see what he could do. Neither brother really wanted to use Alkahestry on something so minimal, but given the chance that the murderer could be targeting both Ed and Haruhi, they didn't want to worry about Ed's leg giving out in a fight or if he needed to run.

Pulling his hair back in a high ponytail and stuffing it in an extremely fancy baseball cap, Ed set out on patrol.

Which luckily, turned out to be pretty lackluster, outside of the dog barking at him as he inspected the gigantic yard and then whatever street property was within walking distance, he returned to the manor having spotted no other people on the street at all. There were no manhole covers in the immediate area thanks to the large property, and the walk on softer substrate did more than he expected for his injured leg.

Nonetheless, Ed was still in a foul mood when he returned, and the brothers laid awake reviewing information until there was nothing else worth going over, after which they sat comfortably in silence. Haruhi and Tamaki had fallen asleep in separate corners of the floor nearby, and Antoinette- the boys decided would be an excellent help in their guarding duties- curled up at Tamaki's feet.

"Brother?"

"Hm."

"Did you want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Doesn't mean it's not upsetting you."

Ed quieted, and Al thought that was it, that the conversation was over, but he heard his brother shift and looking over he was now facing him.

"I told you there was something off about the old man."

"Yeah, you did."

"For someone offering all these extravagant things to his sister's kids, he can't even be bothered to live with his own?"

"...To be fair he never fake promised to take care of us."

"Or to take us in, just to give us a bunch of things; yeah."

"That must've been awful, growing up alone in this big house. Do you think his staff is like his family?"

"You're really calling this a house? And I dunno, maybe. He didn't seem to really be too ecstatic about them when he was talking about it." There was a pause before Ed continued, "He's a lot like us, you know."

Al snorted, "Yeah? Finally admitting we're related?"

"Not like that." Edward frowned at his brother. "He mentioned the other day he grew up with his mom, and he ended up here when she got sick."

"Oh."

"Yeah…he was older than us when he came to Japan though."

"That's...good." Al paused, "Is she still alive?"

"Supposedly." Alphonse quirked an eyebrow and his older brother continued, "He's not allowed to see her, I guess."

"What? Why not?"

"Dunno, didn't ask."

"Ed!"

"Al, I wasn't gonna bring it up on the street. That's the last place I'd want to talk about it."

Ignoring the chance to jab at his brother's surprisingly well placed tact, Alphonse let the conversation lull into another bought of silence.

"So he's got a not great father and a sick mom he can't see again." Al reaffirmed.

"Yup."

"Mmm."

"Mmm?" Ed repeated, "What's mmm?"

"What part got you angry earlier?"

Another pause.
"...The fact his old man's still around and does jack shit for his kid."

"He's providing shelter."

"That he has to stay in alone. At least we had each other, we had Winry and Granny and Den." Edward paused, "He had the fucking nerve to give us a talk on how much he could've done for us, while providing...what exactly for his own son? I mean have you seen them interact even once since we were introduced?"

"No, and that wasn't exactly a family interaction either."

"I dunno, I don't get it."

"Don't get what?"

"...Why he doesn't seem to be mad at him."

Al shook his head with a faint smile, "Maybe because he's not you."

"Hey!" Ed snickered as he threw a hand over and slapped his brother in the face, earning a muffled cry, "Hear me out!"

Exaggeratedly rubbing his nose, Al snorted, "Fine, jerk."

"I didn't hit you that hard."

"Is that what you wanted me to hear?"

"I-no...I.." Ed sighed, rolling back over to face his brother, all signs of mirth gone, "All the anger I had at Hoenheim, and the things that were keeping him away were preventing our deaths and literally dying. I have my gripes about why he couldn't have left us a fucking letter, but...ya'know he had his reasons, and I can't say they weren't valid ones." He paused, rolling back onto his back, "But this?" He mentioned, throwing a hand towards the ceiling for emphasis, "His old man's right there. He could see his kid every day and who does he call to his office to speak with? To talk to and offer to spend time with?"

Alphonse sighed, his mind jumped to that as well, "Yeah, I agree with you there, brother." Al paused a breath, "I wonder if maybe this is a cultural thing?"

"Could be. A lot of things are different here." Ed frowned, "Not that I have to like it."

"Mmm."

The two sat in silence absorbing the situation and understanding their cousin's weird behaviour and over excited mannerisms just a little bit better.

"Ed?"

"Hm?"

"I think that's the nicest thing I've ever heard you say about dad."

"Don't get used to it."

Al couldn't help the chuckle that left him at his brother's bluntness, "Ya'know, you still didn't tell me about how you proposed to Winry."

"I-It's getting late, Al, I should really get to sleep." Turning his back to his little brother, Ed faked a yawn, "Didn't sleep last night and all."

"If you can stay up mad, you can stay up and tell me what happened." Hearing no response from his brother, Alphonse tried again, "Oh c'mon I can see you blushing from over here, what'd you do, trip and drop the ring?"

There was a pause and an almost inaudible mumble that Alphonse just barely registered as words, "I can't hear you, brother, what?"

With a slight whine, Ed repeated himself, "There…kinda..wasn't…aring..?"

"WHAT?! Edward!"

"Shhh! They're sleeping!"

"Oh my god."

"Shut up."

"Oh my god. My brother, the state alchemist, hero of the people, didn't get his fiance a ring."

"I didn't say I didn't get her one, I said I didn't propose with one!"

"Oh my god." Alphonse couldn't stop himself from laughing as he thought about how much more of a disaster that must've been. That's his brother alright.

"Shut up!" Ed whisper-shouted as he sat up, "Stop laughing! Or you're not gonna hear the rest of it!"

"Alright, alright, okay." Al let out a snort and a couple giggles, "Okay, I'm done. What else did you screw up?"

ANs

Whew, no idea how many chapters are left because fleshing this out seems to be taking this from one final chapter to like, 3. I wanna say one more and then a (potential) epilogue. Idk I'm making this up as I go along.

Also I'm down for doing oneshots off of this story/bonus chapters if anyone's interested in reading any, feel free to suggest some things, if I really like an idea I might write something!

A couple ideas I've been playing with that probably won't be in the story because it really isn't relevant:

+Elrics meet Grandmother Suoh during the stay and Ed is just the worst to her.

+Ling happens to call Ed on his cell phone during one of the Host Club meetings and is in general being a pest/Ed's bff and confusing everybody else in the room as he do.

+Post-both series and this story, visits (either to Japan again or to Amestris, probably with Winry because I do love that child).

+A prequel of sorts involving wrangling the Elrics into this mission, or perhaps the first meeting with the host club.

+idk are people enjoying the Edwin I throw in here? It's small and here and there but I can do some stuff with that I'm sure.

+Scenes from the perspective of the other other hosts, a la the end of chapter one.

+Scenes with more of the other other hosts (9 people in one scene is a doozy to figure out, I tell ya)

+Some other Ouran/FMA cross that takes place in a different time/different storyline.

+Suggest stuff.

Anyway, please review? Gets me motivated to write when I know what works and what doesn't and what ya'll like. Happy New Year!