2. On Wednesday

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On Wednesday, three days away from the Winter Ball, several things happened. I'll tell them in order of how they happened.

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First of all, Rob decided to pay a visit to his girlfriend. And talk to her about something.

Visiting Sarah was excruciating, Rob thought. He had to take a train, wait for six to eight hours on it. Just to see his girlfriend. He couldn't even stay that long. Mr. Elric wouldn't let him. So Rob liked it better when Sarah came to visit him. She could stay for as long as they wanted, and there were better things to do in Central than in a small hick town like Resembool, despite the fact that Sarah seemed oddly fond of it.

This time, the rain ride took seven hours and eleven minutes total. He checked his watch. And this time, he had an entire compartment to himself. Lucky him. It was a little boring, though, having nobody to chat with. And it seemed to take forever to finally arrive in Resembool.

When he entered the house, he found Eddie and Dan Elric on the floor, attempting to solve a complicated puzzle, the kind with hundreds of little pieces that looked exactly the same. They were trying to complete a scene of a peaceful meadow with lots of colorful flowers and a brook flowing through it. Eddie was completely engrossed in it, fascinated by the challenge it presented. Dan, on the other hand, did it half-heartedly. However, it should be noted that Dan was doing it better than Eddie, who impatiently shoved together pieces that didn't fit.

"Heya, Rob. Why're you here now?" Eddie asked, trying to force one piece to fit into another. "You're here a lot, you know. You should just live here. Come to visit Sarah again, huh?"

"Oh, I just happened to be around," Rob lied easily. Both boys had never visited Central before, and were unaware of the long distance. "I'm just here to visit Sarah. Good luck with that puzzle. It looks really hard, doesn't it? I used to do something like that when I was your age."

"Uh-huh. Yeah. Sure."

The twelve-year-old Eddie wasn't too perceptive and was currently too busy jamming a puzzle piece into another to pay close attention, bending it a little to make it fit. His eyes were trained on the puzzle and never came off, except for that one moment to glance up and see who entered the house. Dan, on the other hand, was much more sensitive to the atmosphere than Eddie, despite being a year younger. He noticed that something was off about Rob, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. But he shrugged it off. It probably wasn't his business anyway. So Dan went on fitting pieces of the puzzle very neatly into the way it was supposed to be, a contrast to his cousin.

"Um, is your dad home?" Rob asked Eddie nervously, eyes glancing every which way in search of Edward Elric.

To be honest, Rob was a little scared of Ed. He was comfortable with the rest of the Elrics, Dan and Eddie and Al and Winry and Mei. It was just that something about Ed was slightly scary to him. Maybe it was the "don't touch my daughter" vibes that floated across the room and slapped Rob right in the face. Or maybe it was the rivalry between Ed and his own father. Or maybe something else. He wasn't too sure about it, but he had this vague feeling that Ed would like to see him in a ditch somewhere, dead.

When Rob had told Sarah about this, she laughed. Which made him feel a little silly. Sarah said that her dad was a very gentle person. (Yeah, right.) He wouldn't even think about hurting Rob for such a trivial reason, she claimed. (Uh-huh.) But one thing could not be denied. Ed didn't like Rob. For an unknown reason, too. (Maybe not so unknown, Rob.)

"What? Oh, um, he had to go somewhere," Eddie mumbled, not even bothering to look at the half-worried look on Rob's face. Dan did, though.

"Where?" Rob persisted.

"I don't know. I didn't ask. Hey, do you think this looks okay?" he held up a section of puzzle he had put together. Some of it was obviously forced together. Dan rolled his eyes up in exasperation. His stupid, impatient cousin! God, Eddie needed to learn how to grow up soon!

"Yeah, yeah, sure. It looks fine. Look, you sure about your dad?"

"Positive. He told Mom not to expect him for dinner, and maybe not till late at night. And he wasn't here for lunch, too. It was good, too. I had three helpings. Oh, sorry about that. So anyways, I guess he went somewhere kind of far away to do something," Eddie replied.

"He took a train," Dan piped up helpfully. "Like you did."

Rob nodded, trusting the word of both boys. Good. Because he wanted to talk to Sarah privately, with nobody listening around. Mrs. Elric was nice about it, but Mr. Elric liked eavesdropping. (And whenever Sarah found out, she'd rage and scream and slam doors. Not very charming. It took a while for Rob to calm her down. Sarah liked her privacy.)

"You visit Sarah too much," Eddie said again, looking at the part of the puzzle that he completed, or rather the part that he tried to complete but failed miserably in. "Did you sleep with her yet?"

Excuse me?

"Excuse me?" Rob gasped.

Whoa. Eddie was twelve. Did twelve-year-olds know about the birds and the bees yet? (They did. Rob did when he was twelve, to some extent. He forgot about that at the moment.) And when did Eddie have the audacity to ask about that? And about his own sister at that?

"I said, did you sleep with her yet," Eddie repeated in the same conversational, slightly bored tone. The kind you used when you were talking about the weather with some weird person you met with at the bus stop.

"No!" Rob spluttered. "No! Your sister is still a…a…a virgin!"

"How do you know?" Eddie asked condescendingly. "It's not like you were her boyfriend forever. In fact, I think you got her on the rebound. A few weeks before you met her again, she had this boyfriend. His name was Hal, and I didn't like him much, but Dad and Mom did."

"I…she…virgin!" Rob tried to get the words out of his mouth.

Dan stared curiously at Eddie and Rob, abandoning the puzzle for a moment. In a painfully innocent voice, he asked, "What's so bad about sleeping with someone? I used to sleep with Sarah when I was little. I'd go into her bed at night whenever I wanted to. And what does that have to do with being a virgin?"

Rob stared at the naïve Dan, with his mouth wide open. No way was he going to tell the eleven-year-old kid about the birds and bees, and the nests and the trees, followed by a bunch of baby birds and little bees. (That's what Roy had called it, so Rob was used to thinking it that way.)

"Forget it!" Rob finally said. "I'm leaving!"

"Yeah. See ya later. Virgin," Eddie chuckled. Rob almost said something. He didn't.

Rob threw his jacket on the floor and started heading upstairs, nimbly jumping over the huge, unfinished puzzle. Eddie was still too transfixed on his precious puzzle, but Dan looked up to see Rob stomp up the stairs, yell, "Hi, Mrs. Elric!" and disappear into Sarah's room (or so Dan presumed).

Click.

Sarah's small, blond head shot up to see who had opened her door. He face lit up instantly into one of her happy, ear to ear smiles that melted a cold heart. She threw the book she was reading on the floor as if it didn't matter, even thought it was her favorite. (If you're wondering, the title is A Forbidden Romance on Makelove Beach.)

"Robert!" she squealed joyfully. "I didn't expect you to come today! You should've sent a message or something! This is a great surprise!"

She bounced off of her bed and went forward to engulf Rob in a huge hug. Rob smiled. Really, it was these little moments that made him love her even more. Sarah could be rash, impulsive, loud, and bold. But really, inside she was just a bubbly sixteen-year-old girl without a care in the world.

Sarah, with her formerly long blond hair, now trimmed down to her shoulders. Sarah, with her round, earnest, childlike face that hid nothing from him. Sarah, with her fierce golden eyes. Sarah, her body that was curvy for a sixteen-year-old's. Ah, Sarah.

Rob immersed himself in fantasizing about Sarah's body. (Something which Edward would've beaten him to death for with a happy smile on his face, and then locked him up in a room and starved him. Which was quite impossible, seeing as you can't starve if you're already dead. But anyway, on with the story.) But it was more than Sarah's body, he supposed. I mean, there were tons of pretty girls out there, even prettier ones than Sarah. But he picked her, and she picked him. For what reason, though? He wondered…

"So Sare," he said, using the affectionate nickname he had made up for her, unaware that Ed used something similar. "Did you hear about the, um, Winter Ball coming up in Central?"

"Yeah," Sarah's voice was slightly muffled. Her face was still buried in Rob's shirt. "Dad tried to convince me to go with another boy, can you believe it? As if I'd go without anyone but you!"

Rob started to feel a little uncomfortable.

"I mean, Dad tried pressuring me to go with someone, anyone else. But don't worry, I know that our love is so strong that we won't cheat on each other," Sarah happily went on.

Rob started to feel a lot uncomfortable.

"Oh! I get it! You're gonna ask me out! Yay! I love you, Robby!" Sarah jumped and clapped her hands like a little kid again, pale blond hair swinging on her shoulders.

Okay. Now, Rob had gone to a point of uncomfortable where it couldn't be called uncomfortable anymore. Maybe ultra-uncomfortableness.

"Actually, Sare, um, about that," Rob started to say.

Sarah smiled her bright smile again, unaware of what Rob had to say.

"I'm going with someone else. A girl named Karen Armstrong."

That one, no, two, sentences were followed by screaming, shouting, kicking, Rob being hit by The Wrench, and a certain someone getting thrown out of the window. The casualties were a simple wooden chair, half of The Wrench, and the sprained dignity of a teenage boy.

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While Rob was getting thrown out of the window, his father was busy conversing with Ed in Central. Well, maybe not conversing. It was more like Roy ranting and blaming at Ed, and Ed ranting and blaming Roy. And on and on, in a cycle. They repeated themselves, they yelled, they called each other names. So all in all, it wasn't very different from their other meetings.

"What the hell do you mean it's my freaking fault?" Ed snapped at the man, balling up his fists in case he needed to give a quick punch.

"I'm saying it's your freaking fault because it is your freaking fault, Elric!" Roy snapped right back. "You are an incompetent parent! I managed to convince my child to go with someone else, but you did not! From what you've told me, your daughter completely disrespects you!"

"You shut up!"

"No, you shut up!"

"You shut up first!"

"Only after you shut up!"

"I'll never shut up!"

"Then I'll never shut up!"

"Just shut up!"

"No, I won't!"

"SHUT UP!" Riza's loud voice penetrated the walls of the room. "GOD, SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO READ A GOOD ROMANCE BOOK, YOU KNOW!"

Total silence.

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And somewhere else, there was an Asian girl who lay on the ground. She'd fainted, or so it seemed.

"Hey, you all right?"

"Hmmm? Whaaaaat?"

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Food. Need food."

"I'll get you some food, kid. What's your name? Where you from?"

"Suhyeon. I'm from Xing."

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And somewhere else, a redhead teenage girl was yelling at her parents.

"No, way! Mom! Dad! Don't make me! I don't want to go with stupid Robby! I don't like him! No, I HATE him!" Karen Armstrong yelled, stomping her feet on the ground.

"Bad Karen!" her father said. "Bad, bad girl!"

"Oh, what am I? A dog? Bad girl, Karen? That all you can come up with, huh, huh?" Karen taunted him.

"Enough, Karen," her mother said. "You will go. It will benefit us if you become close to the Fuhrer's son."

"You sound like I'm gonna marry him or something! God!"

Stomp, stomp, stomp. Slam door.

Chapter two over.

Any of you who read the manga can find out who Suhyeon's parents are, judging by the way she acts and where she's from.

And I guess that's all. For now.