Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, 'It's My Life' by Bon Jovi, or Last Resort by Papa Roach.

It's My Life

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A/N: Some people have reviewed and asked if I was making this an EdWin. I prefer EdWin because they obviously go together but Winry is three years younger than Ed in this story and I have Al blushing at her. I thought that both of those would be obvious hints that it's an AlWin. I guess it is, but some people just wanted to make sure.

I'm going to be going back and forth between German and Japanese. When I switch languages German will be in bold and Japanese will be in italics, for at least the first line of the change.

"Talking"

Thinking

Texting

Chapter 8

"A hundred? You can't be serious. Even I can't manage that. I can only average a ninety-five in there and you want to tell me that a new kid managed to get a hundred?" Roy said amused. He was sitting in the basement of his house with all his friends except Ed who should be showing up soon.

His house was two stories high. His family was a rather rich family in Japan. They were part of the Upper class society. Not the richest, but they were really well off. The first floor of his house consisted of the living room, the kitchen, a dining room, a closet, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Upstairs were three more bedrooms, another closet, and another bathroom. They also had a in ground pool and garden in the backyard. The house also had a basement with a bathroom where Roy and his friends would hang out sometimes when his parents were home.

The basement had a plush maroon carpet with a tan leather couch, loveseat, and two recliners. A purple bean bag sat in front of the coffee table where Maes always sat. On the opposite side of the coffee table was a blue bean bag that Jean was sitting in. In the corner between the couch and loveseat was a corner table. Between the two recliners was another table. Against the wall in the corner, sitting on a cabinet was a stereo. On the shelves below the stereo was a collection of CDS. On the opposite wall of where the seats were was a TV stand with a television on it and a collection of movies were littering the floor and around the television on the TV stand. Pictures of the gang from the past years were spread along the wall. The uniform jackets and shoes of the teens were thrown by the stairs, waiting to be picked up when the teens left. Their bags were sitting at their feet while their books were sitting in their laps or on the tables.

"It's no joke. I saw the test too." Riza said, looking up from her trigonometry book. "He was embarrassed about it, I think, since he didn't talk to us for the rest of study hall."

"Embarrassed?" Roy asked in disbelief with a raised brow. "I would be jumping for joy if I got a hundred on one of Curtis-sensei's tests."

Maes frowned at him. "Course, because we've known you for years."

"What are you getting at?" Vato asked confused.

Maes shrugged and went back to his chemistry. "Ed is new here. He doesn't know how we would react to his grade. He's probably embarrassed because he's made friends with us and he's probably afraid we'll make fun of him for getting such a good grade when it's his first week here. Afraid he'll be called a nerd." Maes sent a look at Jean.

"Well this just proves that he is." Jean replied sourly from the looks he was getting.

"You could….." Riza started to say.

"Be nice." Jean interrupted. "We only made friends with him today so I still don't know how I feel about him."

Gracia, who was sitting on the couch behind Maes, slid off the couch to sit in front of the couch to look at Jean. "Being rude isn't going to help you figure him out. You have to be nice and try to make friends with him."

Jean held his hands up in surrender. "I know. I plan to if he ever gets here."

"That's a good point. Where is he? He should have been her by now." Roy said with a frown, looking at the stairs.

Ding dong!

"Perfect timing!" Roy said.

Riza rolled her eyes at Roy's amusement. "You don't know that is him."

"Well, I guess I should go find out." Roy dumped his trigonometry book on the table and left to go upstairs.

At the top of the stairs, Roy's mother stepped in front of him. "I thought all your friends were here already."

"New friend." Roy explained with a shrug.

Smiling, Roy's mother stepped out of his way. "Who is it?"

"Edward Elric." Roy said as he stepped off the stairs and headed to the front door. He threw the door open so violently that the smaller boy on the other side jumped in surprise. "Took you long enough to get here."

"Sorry, I was hungry." Ed said with an eye roll. "So I decided to pick up some pizza." He shook his hand that was holding two pizza boxes.

"You're forgiven." Roy said, stepping aside to let the smaller boy in. "I'll get some drinks. I know what everyone likes except you."

"Whoever said you could have some of my pizza?" Ed asked bristling.

Roy smirked. "There is no way you can eat two whole pizzas."

Ed's eye twitched. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT HE CAN ONLY EAT A CRUMB EVERY DAY OTHERWISE HE'LL EXPLODE?"

*Basement*

Jean's pencil dropped from his head as a dazed look crossed his face. "I think Ed is here."

"That he is." Riza murmured, not once looking up from the problem she was working on.

"He can really yell. How can it not bother you?" Kain asked as he patted his ears to get the ringing in them to stop.

Riza shrugged. "You should be used to it to since you are always in Curtis-sensei's class."

*Upstairs*

Grinning, Roy closed the door and pushed Ed farther into his house. "You have some interesting rants."

"Who was yelling?" Ed looked around to see a petite female with shoulder length black hair and sparkling black eyes.

"That was Ed, Mom. He's got a good pair of lungs, wouldn't you agree?" Roy said amused.

"That he does. Hello Edward-kun. I'm Lisa Mustang, Roy's mom." Lisa said kindly.

Roy pushed Ed forward again. "Nice meeting you, Mustang-san." Ed called over his shoulder.

"Drink?" Roy asked as he dragged Edward farther into the house away from his mother. She could be really embarrassing sometimes. He wasn't going to let Ed find out anything embarrassing about him right at the beginning of their possibly new strange friendship.

"Dr. Pepper?"

"Sure." Roy nodded his head and opened the basement door. "They're down there. I'll be back in a few."

Ed carefully maneuvered down the stairs. With his messenger bag, which was full of books, on one shoulder and two pizza in hand it was a little difficult to get down the narrow stairs.

"PIZZA!"

The young boy jumped in shock again at the loud yell when he made it to the bottom of the stairs. He looked over at his friends sitting in front of the TV, particularly Jean, who was the one to yell. "Yeah, pizza."

Riza turned to Jean with a semi-smug look. Jean ignored her as he got up to take the pizzas from Ed so the smaller boy could set his bag down and take his boots off, showing (surprise, surprise) black socks. As they were doing this, Riza and Kain were moving their books around to make room for Ed to sit around the coffee table with them.

"What's with the pizzas?" Maria asked once Ed was settled.

"I'm hungry." Ed explained shortly as he opened one of the boxes and took a slice out.

The others took their own slices to eat and starting talk. Once Roy came back with a tray of drinks in plastic cups and sat down with his one slice everyone reached for their own specific drink. Each drink was in a certain colored glass. Mountain dew was in the green glasses. Dr. Pepper was in the red glasses. Pepsi was in the white glasses. Water was in the blue glasses and etc. They made this system a while ago so they would stop grabbing the wrong drink.

"Is this why it took you so long to get here?" Heymans asked, chewing on his pizza between words, causing the girls to glare at him in disgust.

Ed swallowed the pizza in his mouth before replying. "Partially. I also had a few things at home that needed done before I could leave."

"Like?" Jean asked curiously.

"Like none of your business." Ed snapped. In truth, his father was at home and demanded to know where Ed was going when he should be studying. He had to explain the study group his friends have and convince his dad to let him go. He thought it unwise at first because he doesn't know about this group and they might distract Ed from studying. Al helped convince him by saying that Ed never got distracted from studying and it would be good for his brother to study with friends because they could test each other with what they learned.

"Well, then." Jean huffed.

Ed rolled his eyes. "Ever heard of personal matters?"

"Oh." Jean said, grinning sheepishly. "Sorry."

"So, if you don't mind me asking, why did you have to leave right after you arrived at the training session yesterday?" Riza asked curiously.

Ed chewed slowly on his pizza to keep from answering right away. He looked at Riza with calculating eyes to figure out why she wanted to know this. "My brother was looking for something to eat when a knife fell off the counter and cut his arm." Best to not let them know we have cooks. "I had to go to the hospital to fill the forms outs."

"Isn't that the responsibility of your parents?" Riza asked.

The young boy sighed. Of course this conversation would come up on this day. "My dad has crazy work hours. He can't leave work. He doesn't even answer his phone while working. And my mom…." Ed sighed and ran a hand over his face. "She died five….no…..six years ago today."

An awkward silence reined over the occupants of the room. Ed was leaning back on his hands and staring up at the ceiling, lips moving as he spoke silently. The other occupants of the room were either uncomfortable, looking at Ed sadly, or in Alex's case, silently crying about it all.

When he was finished quietly talking to his mom, Ed let his arms drop and fell on his back. He didn't believe, but he always felt that his mom was around, like she was still in his heart and protecting him danger.

To get out of this awkward moment of silence, Jean cleared his throat, startling a few of his friends. "So you are basically the caretaker for your brother?"

"Whenever dad is at work, yeah." Ed replied, not looking at his friends as he was still laying on his back and looking at the ceiling. "What about you guys? Do you have siblings?"

"I have an older sister in college." Maria said.

"I have an older sister, Olivier, as you know, and a younger sister." Alex said proudly.

Ed raised his head off the ground to give Alex a strange look.

"Don't mind him. He's just really proud of his family." An annoyed Heymans said.

"I have two older brothers." Kain told Ed, who dropped back to the ground.

"Baby brother." Rebecca said.

"And that is everyone with siblings." Roy said, clapping his hands once as if closing a show.

Rolling his eyes, Ed sat up and pulled his messenger bag closer to him. "You're a weirdo." He told Roy as he pulled out his history book.

"Being weird is good, little one." Roy replied with a smirk.

"LITTLE!" Ed screamed, ready to go in full rant mode and to punch Roy in the face. Before he could do either, though, Jean and Maes were able to pin him to the ground with the latter putting his hand on Ed's mouth.

"Stop making him mad!" Jean huffed as he struggled with Ed.

Once Ed calmed down and stopped struggling Maes and Jean let go of him and moved slowly back to their seats so they could be sure that Ed wouldn't try it again. Ed sat back up, straightened his black jacket, and sent a withering glare at Roy that made even trained soldiers have to look away.

"Hey Ed, I was wondering. How can you afford such an expensive car?" Vato asked in an attempt to ease the anger Ed was feeling at Roy. It seemed to work as the anger was quickly replaced by embarrassment and tensed shoulders.

"Uh…"

"What are you so nervous about? Did you steal it?" Breda's elbow nudged Ed's side and he grinned at the boy.

"Course not. I'm no thief." Ed said defensively.

Roy chuckled. "Why so defensive?"

The young boy scowled and crossed his arms. When his arms were crossed it meant he was angry or he was being defensive and had to trend carefully on the subject. If he didn't he would be digging himself into a deeper hole than he already was in.

"Ed is hiding something." Maes said in a sing-song voice. Inside, though, he was worried for his friend. He was trying to hide it, but he was a soon-to-be investigator and could see it. Behind his angry and tough eyes was a sad story. No matter how hard he tried to hide it by being strong and cool, Maes could see that he was upset.

Ed threw his cup at Maes's head. "Shut up."

"Wow." Maes ducked to let the cup hit the wall. "Violent."

"I won't deny that." Ed muttered as he flipped to the chapter in his history book. "I was wondering, the Homunculi. What is with them? When I was talking to Curtis-sensei it sounded like even she didn't like them, especially their master."

Frowns were seen all around the room at Ed's question. Kain knocked his book to the ground, getting it soaked by Heymans when he knocked his glass over. Ed looked at his friends confused. From the way they were acting it was like he said something wrong.

"Curtis-sensei and the Homunculi's master have some history." Maes began slowly, looking over at Roy with a sort of hopeful look in his eyes that he would take over the story. When Roy just looked back at him with a raised brow, Maes sighed and looked back at the impatient Edward. "Well, the Homunculi's master trained Curtis-sensei in martial arts years ago. But….well….they don't really get along. Curtis-sensei has some really different beliefs than her master. Curtis-sensei became a teacher about thirteen years ago and started the martial arts club that same year. Two years later the Homunculi was formed as an opposing martial arts club in our school."

"But who is the Homunculi master?" Edward demanded, before picking up his drink.

"I think her name is Dante." Riza replied uncertainly, looking up at the ceiling in thought.

Ed split his drink out all over the table.

"ED!" Roy, Maes, and Jean yelled as they jumped away from the table.

"Are you okay?" Breda asked, watching his friends in amusement.

Coughing, Edward nodded his head. "I'm great."

"Why did you react that way then when you heard the name Dante?" Vato asked suspiciously.

Edward slammed his book shut and shoved it back in his bag. "No reason. I have to go home. Got things to do you know. Good luck with your studying." He said hurriedly as he walked over to the stairs to grab his boots.

"But Ed, what is wrong? You can't really expect us to buy that nothing is wrong." Gracia replied with a frown.

"Sorry, it's just-" Ed pulled his right boot on. "I have to go home and check some things out. It's really nothing to worry about." He pulled on his left boot "A few years ago I was reading some books around my house and I just remembered something. I'm going to go check it out now before I forget." He finished before running up the stairs. "See ya!" He called over his shoulder.

At the top of the stairs Edward expertly spun on his heels to avoid running into Roy's mother. "Sorry Mustang-san. I have to go home."

"Oh, that's too bad. I just made cookies." Lisa Mustang said.

Ed stopped and turned back to her with delight shining in his eyes. "Cookies?"

Lisa chuckled. "Would you like one before you leave?"

"I'd love one." Edward said enthusiastically. He took a cookie off the plate, nodded his head at her, and ran out of the house before any of his friends could catch up to him.

"Ed, wait! What is going on?" Mustang yelled after him.

Ed looked over his shoulder at Mustang. He was just spinning on his heels past his mother. "Leave me al-oomph."

Roy had tackled Edward around the waist and they fell out of the house door together. They landed with a loud thump on the curved stone pathway that led to the driveway. It was such a shock to Edward. He thought he was far enough away from Roy to get out of there before the older teenager could catch him. But then again, he should have added in that Roy, like him, was trained.

"Damn it, Roy. Why can't you leave me alone?" Edward snarled. He twisted the upper half of his body so he could look at Roy with a glare.

Jean appeared in the doorway of the house suddenly. His eyes widened at the scene he came across. He grabbed Roy's arm and pulled him off of Edward while Maes pushed his way out of the house to grab Ed's arm and pull him to his feet.

"That's one way to get someone to stop and talk to you. Not a way I would recommend, but it is definitely an option." Riza said as she came outside.

Gracia looked over at Ed with a frown. "Oh Ed, you have a scrape on your chin." She got out a handkerchief to clean the dirt out of his scrape.

Riza, Jean, and Roy chuckled at the affronted look that crossed Maes's face when he saw Gracia cleaning off Ed's face. He looked so jealous of him, but it didn't seem like Ed or Gracia noticed. Ed was too busy blushing as Gracia rubbed dirt off his face and the pretty teenager was chuckling at Ed and making sure she got all the dirt off.

"Come on, Ed." Roy said, motioning for Ed to follow him with a huge grin.

Ed glared at him. "I told you I have to-"

Roy grabbed Ed's wrist and pulled him along the side of the house with Heymans pushing him from behind. "You made up the excuse that you had things to do on the spot. You aren't busy. I wonder if you know that you can tell your friends anything. We aren't going to betray your trust." The black haired boy said thoughtfully.

Edward snorted and pushed his friends off of him. "Yeah, that's what Russel, Psiren, Selim, Bald, and Isaac all said."

"Who?" Jean asked as the group came to the patio in the backyard.

"People who were supposed to be my friends." Edward growled. "Alfonse is the only one who didn't betray me."

"I thought Alfonse was your brother." Maes said.

"Alphonse is. Alfonse is my best friend from Germany." Edward explained.

Jean groaned. "There are too many Als."

"Only two." Ed said. "And besides, their names are spelt differently."

"But they are said the same way." Jean argued.

"Yes, so my brother is Al and my friend is Alfonse." Edward retorted. He took his phone out to check the time. "You should have seen them when they met. It was hilarious. It's kind of a good thing that Al is three years younger than us. He and Alfonse look very similar. If Al was any closer to our age it would be hard to tell who was who."

"As interesting as this all is, you didn't run because of that. You ran because of the name Dante. What is up with you and her name?" Roy asked suspiciously.

"Oh, that." Edward replied quietly. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "That is…..that is just…..if I am right about who she is, I really can't be in the Alchemists."

"What? What the hell is going on, Ed?" Jean asked shocked. "You're the one who-"

There's always something I want say. But the words won't ever come out. Maybe I see another way. Or maybe I just see something you don't. These stories that you tell. Now I-

Edward pulled his phone out, flipped it open, and turned away from his friends. "Hello…..No, I told you that I…..It wasn't schedule. You just made that up in the last hour…..Not this again. I told you the last time you did this…..Daaaad…..Fine. I'll be home in twenty….fifteen?...ten?...What the hell do you want me to do? Speed home?...FINE!" Slamming his phone shut, Edward rubbed his eyes in frustration.

"What's wrong?" Riza asked worriedly.

"Nothing. Dad is just being dad again. Trying to control everything in my life." Edward growled.

"What's going on?" Kain asked, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder.

Edward sighed. He looked at his friend with a sad smile, trying to decide whether or not to tell them. Each of them looked worried for him. If he didn't tell them, they would probably just fret about it. He didn't want them to lose any sleep over it. "My dad doesn't like me having a life outside academics or anything to do with school." He added so they wouldn't be suspicious about the martial arts club. "Anything else, he thinks he's in control of. He's been inviting girls to our house every few weeks for the past two years, trying to find the perfect girl that I'm supposed to marry."

All of his friends' mouths dropped open in shock. Jean and Roy were spluttering in shock. Kain was staring at him with wide eyes. Maes was looking at Edward, then at Gracia, trying to imagine what it would be like to have his parents pick his wife for him. Gracia was looking at Edward in sympathy. Alex was crying about injustice.

"He is what?" Heymans said in shock.

"An arranged marriage?" Riza asked.

Edward nodded his head. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Even coming here was against his wishes. It was only because Al helped me that he let me come. And that didn't last long. He made me a dinner reservation with some girl at six thirty. I have to go."

A/N: To anyone who thinks I should use Psiren's real name when Ed mentions her, don't say anything. Psiren's real name is my name and I can't imagine myself betraying a friend so I can't put her real name down.

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