-1Give Guidance or Counsel
Cats
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist
Chapter 3 - One Heck of a Black Eye
Wednesday the 6th of January
Ed was sat next to Wrath, who was smiling. That in itself had Ed on the edge of his seat, curiously glancing over at the second year. Miss Lust was sat on the other side of Wrath, showing Mustang some photographs she had obtained from the man Ed now mentally dubbed Scar. He'd also been permitted to see the photos, and he was worried about Miss Lust; who constantly looked like she would burst into tears at any moment, whenever you saw her nowadays. He knew that looking at the photographs might help her recollect the past she couldn't remember, and that sharing the with the group would do her good. Still, he couldn't help be insanely jealous as he watched her getting so close to Roy. His Roy. There was no doubt that the two made an attractive couple; so where did that leave him?
The meeting was drawing to an end and yet again pretty much nothing had been noticeably achieved regarding Ed's 'problems'. All this 'sharing' business wasn't going to help Ed in anyway - He'd much prefer a one-to-one with Mustang. He let a small smirk slip onto his lips at the idea, and Mustang called the meeting to a close - Not even sparing Ed a glance. It couldn't be helped, they couldn't let the others know what was going on between them.
He made his way to Izumi's, reflecting on his boyfriend's actions. Could he call Mustang his boyfriend? He'd refer to the man like that in his head , but he'd never say it to Roy's face - not even to Al or Winry.
"Boyfriend." he tried aloud to the air as he neared the shop door. He blushed furiously, shaking his head. "Maybe lover?… or perhaps just Roy, there's no need for stupid names…" He mumbled to himself, amused at the idea of giving Roy a pet-name. Perhaps Sugarplum. He grinned.
"You're late!" shouted Izumi as he entered the store, "Your new partner was here 10 minutes ago."
Ed cleared his thoughts of the dark haired man, remembering that Izumi had said he'd be sharing his workload with another teen in need of a job. Poor kid, he thought raising his eyes, who'd want to work for teach? His golden eyes fell on a tall blonde with confident blue eyes. He held a mop in his hands and was smirking at Ed. Ed smirked back.
"This guy's obviously just trying to make a good impression. He's kissing your ass teach." he their employer. Izumi lowered her eyes dangerously.
"I think you'd do well to learn how to kiss a little ass Elric. And I told you not to call me that."
Ed opened his mouth to protest, but a swift smack round the head shut him up. Ed glared up at the other blonde's laughing eyes; he got the feeling he'd seen the guy somewhere before, but couldn't place him. The new employee stuck out his hand.
"Ed Elric right? Pleasure to be working with the famous genius shrimp."
Now, If this new person had been Roy, Ed might have let that slide. However, this monstrosity was NOT Roy. He was lanky and called Ed 'Ed', he didn't pronounce 'Edward' with the slightly husky edge Roy did, and therefore, the retard was NOT allowed to make ANY form of reference to his height, let alone flat out call him a shrimp. Ed, who had been half way through the process of shaking the taller boys hand, suddenly gripped it with a lot more force then originally intended, making his knuckles turn white. Then he said, in a deadly whisper, through the clenched teeth of a forced smile;
"Who are you calling a disgusting, red sea creature that can't be seen behind a tiny clam and is too small to even be cut up when served for breakfast you blubbering, suck-up, giant?"
Izumi dislodged their hands with a well placed Karate Chop.
"Get to work." she ordered, before disappearing into the back of the shop - which also doubled as her house. The taller blonde gave a newly nervous chuckle.
"Sorry if I offended you. Actually, I admire you." he said, actually being able to see Ed's ego inflating. "I'm Russell Tringham, I'd love to reach your level of intelligence by the time I get to 4th year."
Ed's ego rapidly deflated again.
"Holy… How fucking old are you?" he demanded. Russell grinned.
"Fourteen."
- X -
Thursday the 7th of January
The next day Ed found an unwanted addition to the lunch table he always sat at with Al and Winry. Russell Tringham was sat on the spare seat next to where he always sat, chatting away merrily to Winry, who was sat opposite him. He heavily sat himself down next to Mr. Charisma.
"Hey Ed!" greeted the only girl, "Russell was just telling us about how you guys work together now, he and Al… share… classes." she trailed off at the mortified Ed was giving her, and Al stood up, fists clenching at his sides. Al was so very angry right now. Winry hadn't noticed, since she'd just figured Ed had only just started working and Al had known, but Al had been silent ever since Russell had revealed the fact that Ed was working.
"You never went to any study group did you?" asked the little brother, anger slipping into his tone. Ed winced backwards at the question.
"I did…" he replied, voice small. "A while ago."
Al looked up at him, glaring.
"How long have you been working for teach?" he asked calmly, but Ed noticed his fists shaking; a little bit like his did when he really wanted to cause someone bodily harm.
"About a year perhaps. She wouldn't let me work until I was 14." he replied, briefly wondering is Russell was in a similar situation that he and Al was. Didn't he mention that he had a younger brother? "All the money's in the bank, I'm saving it for us." he added before Al's fist connected expertly with his jaw. He was sent backwards and Al pounced on him, shoving both of them to the ground. He raised his fist to punch his brother again.
"You fucking idiot! I don't care about the money! Don't you trust me at all?" he asked, bringing down his fist of Ed's face.
"Al!" cried Winry, attracting the attention of a near by teacher. Ed swapped his and Al's positions on the ground and got a punch back in as the teacher rushed over. Al just rolled over again and attacked his brother before Russell managed to pull him off.
"What on earth has gotten in to you two?" asked an enraged Hawkeye.
- X -
They were both sat outside the principal's office, Ed with a bust lip and a rapidly bruising cheek and Al with what looked like it was going to be one heck of a black eye tomorrow, when Mustang walked into the lobby, carrying a bunch of files. He dropped them, however, when he saw the two beat up students.
"What the fuck happened?" he demanded, rushing over to Ed and running his fingers gently over the bruising cheek bone. Ed blushed, but couldn't bring himself to answer with Al right there and still angry at him. Instead, he pushed the man away.
"Go pick up what you dropped - Miss Sloth could come out of Bradley's at any moment." he said quietly. Miss Sloth, who had first scared the shit out of the Elric brothers with her resemblance to their late mother (they'd been convinced she was a ghost for weeks until Winry beat some sense into them), was known for popping up at the most inconvenient times. (The most hilarious of which was which was when she walked in on Jean Havoc masturbating in an empty classroom - to her image!, of course, those were just rumours). Mustang straightened, passed his glance over to Al for a short moment, and went to retrieve his abandoned folders. He dropped the folders on Miss Sloth's desk, before sending Ed one last worried look and exiting the lobby the way he had entered.
"Did you tell him?" Al asked, once he had gone. Ed looked at his knees, then slowly nodded. Al sighed. "Why don't you trust me brother?"
Ed shifted slightly in the hard, uncomfortable seats they were sat on.
"It isn't that I don't trust you. I didn't want to worry you."
Al glared at the photograph hanging on the wall across from them. It was an aerial view on their school.
"But you don't mind worrying him." he said angrily, almost as if childishly jealous. "And you worried me more by making me think you were burying yourself in your studies!" explained the younger Elric. Ed lowered his head, ashamed.
"I'm sorry Al, and just so you know, I probably wouldn't have told him if I hadn't done so before I started to…" Ed coloured, took a deep breath and carried on; "Care about him."
Al shot him a teasing smile and Ed knew that they were no longer fighting. So he didn't feel that bad when Miss Sloth came and told them that Principal Bradley would see them. They entered the office trying to keep the smiles off their faces and look like they were sorry for trying to beat the shit out of each other on school grounds. Bradley ushered them in and motioned for them to take a seat.
"Now." Said the man, smiling at them and resting his elbows on the desk. "Ms. Hawkeye says you've been fighting." he added, resting his chin on his hands. The brothers shared a glance, mentally counted to three, and said at exactly the same time;
"We're sorry."
The eye-patch wearing man smiled some more.
"Nevertheless, I'm afraid you'll be put on a weeks worth of report and detention. You know how that works?"
Ed nodded, but Al shook his head, having never been in trouble before. It was amazing he'd never been in trouble when Ed stopped to think about it, since he hung around with Ed and Winry, who were always in trouble.
"You'll be designated a teacher, at breaks and lunch report to them and they'll survey your behaviour and take not of it. Every day after school you will go tot hem for a 1 hour detention."
Bradley retrieved the Elric brothers files from somewhere, and Ed had to smirk and how much bigger his was compared to Al's. He did think Bradley was being a little harsh on the punishment front though - especially for Al, who was usually a goody-two-shoes.
"Alphonse, please report to Ms Sheska, and Edward, to Ms Hawkeye." he said, reading their records. "Edward, I see you attend counselling sessions. These will be discontinued until your punishment is over. The report and detentions will start Monday."
And with that he ushered the two boys out of his office. Great, thought Ed, I weeks worth of detentions and no Roy.