Disclaimer: Full Metal Alchemist (c) Hiromu Arakawa; excerpt of Coulomb's law (c) Glenbrook High School website. (This actually isn't even my school. oO; )
Al closed the front door behind him and walked to the kitchen. He liked having a snack when he got home, and knew his brother did, too. Envy, who was also coming over (no surprise there), also liked having a snack at their house. Although that snack was usually Edward... Al rolled his eyes good-naturedly and stuck a packet of popcorn in the microwave, pressing the little 'popcorn' icon to get it going.
He set down his plain blue backpack on the kitchen table and began unloading all of his stuff. New strategy: Doing homework downstairs in the kitchen rather than upstairs right next to his brother's room. Hopefully he couldn't hear them down here.
The microwave beeped, signalling the popcorn was done. The blonde went to retrieve a bowl from the cupboard. He shook the popcorn into it, taking care not to burn himself. As he was doing so, he heard the front door open and close.
"Hey! Al!" Al heard his big brother call for him.
He smiled and yelled back, "I'm in here, Nii-san! And I made some popcorn!"
A gold-colored blur ran into the kitchen and all but attacked the popcorn bowl. "Thanks Al!" Ed beamed at his brother and grabbed a handful of popcorn. He loved coming home to food.
"You're welcome, Nii-san," Al smiled back, taking some for himself.
"Hey Al?" Ed said around a mouthful of popcorn. "Do you mind if I put some of this in a smaller bowl and take it upstairs to my room for me and Envy?"
Envy and me. "No, of course not." Al grabbed another bowl and helped fill it with popcorn as his brother kept talking.
"Oh, and Envy's friend is over too. We're just going to be in my room, so we won't bother you."
"Thanks Nii-san," Al smiled gratefully at his big brother and handed him the second popcorn bowl.
"His name's Greed, and he's Envy's roommate." Ed took the bowl, turning to go, but stopped at the doorway. "Oh, and, uh, he might come downstairs to watch TV or something if me and Envy... Uh... Are busy." With a red face and a quick smile, Ed left the kitchen.
"Envy, I got popcorn!" Al heard his brother trumpet as he ran up the stairs.
"GimmeGimmeGimme!"
"AH!" There was the sound of two bodies falling on the upstairs landing. "You could have made me fall down the stairs, you bast- Mmf!" Then the sound of someone else's voice laughing.
Al smiled sheepishly at his brother and boyfriend's antics, and settled down to do his homework.
It happened in the middle of his Advanced Placement Physics homework. Al ignored it, but still it persisted. Al slowly looked at the glass of water sitting neatly on the tabletop. Again it happened, and thin ripples bloomed on the surface of the water. Al tentatively looked to the ceiling, listening.
Thump... Thump... Thump...
Al tensed and focused his entire being on physics, tuning out the noises coming from upstairs, and the awful knowledge of knowing exactly what was happening to make those noises.
"Coulomb's law states that the electrical force between two charged objects is directly proportional to the product of the quantity of charge on the objects and inversely proportional to the square of the separation distance between the two objects-"
Thump... Thump... Thump...
Al held the textbook so that it was three inches from his nose.
"Coulomb's law can be stated as F equals k times Q1 times Q2 all divided by d to the second power, where Q1 represents the quantity of charge on object 1, Q2 represents the quantity of charge on object 2, d represents-"
Thump... Thump... "ENVY!" "EDO!"
Al set his textbook down, his face scarlet. He was embarrassed both by hearing his big brother have sex and by his reaction to it... He blushed even harder. He'd always thought he was straight, because he used to have a crush on their friend Winry... But he loved Winry like a sister, not like a girlfriend. Was it possible to become gay if you were around sexually-active gay guys enough? Was there a 'gay aura' that just sort of swallowed you up from overexposure to it? He was definitely exposed to it here... Their house was overflowing with hormones, pheromones, and other 'moans' he'd rather not speak of...
Was he gay, then? He wasn't sure... He knew Nii-san wouldn't mind...
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice there was someone standing in the doorway until they coughed audibly.
"Wha? Oh, I'm sorry!" Al turned, brown eyes landing on the man in the doorway. He was very tall, with spiky black hair and round glasses. He was wearing leather pants, a tank top, and an open black vest with a fur collar. He was also someone Al had not met before.
"You must be Ed's brother," the man spoke up.
Al put two and two together. "Ano... Yes, I am. I'm Al. Alphonse Elric." He stood and walked over to Greed, putting out his hand. "And you must be Greed-san," he said with a smile.
Greed grinned. This kid was cute. Obviously very naive, but cute. Oh well, he'd better play along.
"Nice to meet you, Alphonse Elric-san," he said gallantly, taking the blonde's small hand in his own larger one.
"Ano... You can just call me Al, as you are Envy and Ed's friend."
"Thanks." When Al smiled and sat back down, Greed also took a seat at the table, watching the kid resume his schoolwork. Bored and with nothing to do until Envy was done being lovey-dovey-horny with his boyfriend, he let his eyes wander.
Dark blonde hair, chopped short and scruffy. Soft skin... Large hazel brown eyes, with a fringe of honey blonde lashes. He looked about fourteen or fifteen, although an effeminate fourteen or fifteen, and... Was that physics homework he was doing? Greed blinked. Smarty-pants.
"F elect equals 9.0 x 10 to the ninth power times N times m to the second power divided by c to the..."
Al had the strangest feeling someone was watching him, although he wasn't sure why. He paused in the physics problem and glanced up, seeing Greed-san looking at him. He flashed a quick smile, confused, and returned to his work.
Greed almost laughed. This kid was so oblivious. Good thing for him, otherwise Al might blow up at him like his hot-headed older brother. At twenty-six, Greed was not supposed to be checking out high school boys. The action didn't really surprise him, though. He had always been kind of sick-minded.
He heard someone clomping down the stairs and got up, knowing it was time to go.
"Ne, Greed," Envy appeared at the doorway. "Let's go. I'm not allowed to stay over because Edo has homework to do... Mostly because I made fun of chibi's height again." The green-haired teen grinned.
"Okay, let's get out of here."
"Bye Envy, bye Greed-san!" Al looked up and waved. "It was nice meeting you."
Greed smiled and waved goodbye, walking with Envy out to his car. (Envy had been too lazy to bring his motorcycle.) Envy was chattering on about one thing or another, but Greed wasn't really paying attention.
That kid is way too... innocent. Ingenuous. He wouldn't last two minutes in the real world. Envy really wanted to go to Starbucks™ for some coffee, but Greed knew what he was like with caffeine in his system and kept on driving toward their apartment, Envy's whines and demands falling on deaf ears. Oh well… He'll learn soon enough.
Yeah, Greed and Envy are friends...ish. I'll explain why they're friends in later chapters. And Al has short hair, even though he's fifteen. Al obviously has his body in this fic as well, and there is no alchemy, so Ed doesn't have automail either. This is all because it's an alternate universe fic. It's not going to be exactly the same, because that's what AU is about. :P