Woot! Another chapter that I finally got to type and post! Like I said, I have up to chapter 13 done right now, and I'll be able to update once every week or so again…because, guess on, guess….can't guess? Well…I GOT A COMPUTER!!!

It's a little crap box that can't even handle anything over a 36 Gig hard drive, but still, it's better than nothing. It'll be a 'check your e-mail and update' computer, not my usual 'spend hours at a time playing online games, Sims 2, fable and adobe' computer. No way, but like I said, I can write, and that's, honestly, all that matters.

Anyway, you guys are going to enjoy this one, I finally get to open up the group's personality a whole bunch and you finally get to look into their history. But just a little, for now. I get to expand on the characters as the story progresses.

Here you guys go, chapter 9, and thanks for sticking with me.

Chapter 9 – Bonding
Ed smiled a he enjoyed the booming fireworks with the faux-wine cooler accompanied by toasted marshmallows, the epitome of class. As promised, Al had kept his distance and left the five of them alone. With no word from Clause either, they were safe to assume that he was holding up his end of the bargain in full. Needless to say, the night was going perfect.

"Hey Ed!" Al's voice bellowed from right behind Ed.

"Stop doing that!" Ed whipped around to once again see Al's, grinning, face.

"Just dropped by to see what you were up to." He smirked deviously at his twin brother. "I just knew you couldn't resist having a drink." He said in a hushed tone whilst giving Ed a swift pat on the back. "There's hope for you yet."

Quickly cutting off anymore praise his sibling might have given him out of misinformation, he held the glass bottle in front of Al's face; by this time, they had torqued the interest of the rest of the group. "Nice try Al, but it's non-alcoholic."

Alphonse squinted at the tiny sideways writing in the dim light of the community campfire; they had been set up along side of the riverbed for everyone to enjoy. "…huh…pussy." He stood up. "Whatever, I'm off after this, so I figured I'd say goodbye."

"Auf Wiedersehen'." Ed spoke in his fluent second language as Al ruffled his hair before walking off.

"Auf Wiedersehen Sie Exzentriker." He scoffed and smiled. "Ich muss Sie betrunken irgendwann machen." Al too spoke perfectly in German, just like Edward.

Edward shook his head. "I don't think so." With that, Al was gone.

Aria's eyes were bright. "You both speak another language? That's amazing."

Bunny rolled her eyes. "And here I thought Al was a total knob. He actually has a brain."

Ed laughed. "He means well…but I have heard on more than one occasion, someone referring to him as 'bright as a bag of hammers'…so I see it." He finished off his drink and reached into the marshmallow bag.

Aria poked him in the shoulder. "That's not nice, you should love your family."

Ed snickered. "Yeah, but love is such a strong word." An untoasted marshmallow, flung by Aria, flew and hit Edward in the forehead, bounced off and landed in the fire. "I'm kidding." He rubbed the powder from the soft sugary treat off his skin. "Of course I love my brother, I just worry about him sometimes. He's so superficial."

Later on in the evening, around the midnight hour, Ed and his new friends sat around their campfire, roasting the latter half of the first marshmallow bag and a few hot dogs; Aria had brought her own 'vegetarian friendly' sausages. It was 'spicy Italian in flavor.

Bunny leaned back and glanced up at the stars. "Hmm…" A couple of the members of the group turned their attention toward her. "How do you think we all came to be here?"

Leo shrugged. "I don't know…something to do with a big bang, evolution, social progression."

Paninya shook her head. "I didn't mean it like that you dork." She laughed lightly. "I mean, us, as a group. How did the five of us find each other and mesh as well as we did? I hear so many people talk about how they got 'screwed over by this friend' or 'cheated on by another friend'." She sat up. "You know what I mean?"

Russell nodded. "I suppose we just gravitated towards one another because of the need to be honest. And we stayed together because we remained honest."

The group seemed to whole heartedly agree. "And from what I can tell." Aria continued on the conversation. "All of us dislike conflict." Once again, this was met with a communal nod.

"I can see that…but how did we turn out this way?" Bunny questioned again.

Russ spoke up again. "Well, have any of us led a normal home life? From what I know about you guys, it seems that there's some factor in our lifestyles that sets us apart from the 'norm'." He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "Take me for example. After dad got a concussion, he stopped disciplining my little brother, thus, Fletcher is out of control. He also has a compromised learning curb on top of the misbehaving, so he doesn't understand consequence. Making life exceedingly difficult for mom, who would rather go out to bars than make a living." He shrugged. "I have no structure in my home life, but with you guys here, I manage to keep sane."

Leo piped up. "My family and I got moved around a lot because of mom's illness, so, after dad passed away, it was pretty tough even for the bare minimum living expenses. It was only last year that we finally got that grant that we were holding out on, for five years, and actually managed to buy a house. Even still, mom's still sick, so the house is basically just a band-aid covering a bullet hold."

"I love Scarling." Aria piped up. "But anyway; my mom's been in and out of relationship after relationship, so it's made me grow pretty distant from her. And after dad left us, I never had a decent male role model, making it difficult to get a decent relationship of my own. Reference back to the abusive boyfriend I just had."

Bunny nodded. "I think if I had an abusive boyfriend, my mom might have actually stuck around. But, since I told her I'll never have a boyfriend, only girlfriends, she went all riotous and holy then left us to go be with her church. So now it's just me and my dad, he's fine with me being gay and he really doesn't understand why mom's taking it so hard. Regardless, I haven't seen her in about three years, but from what I can figure, she being housed somewhere by the church in hiding."

Ed sighed. "That's pretty rough. With me…ever since I needed glasses, I kind of fell short of Al's success with sports, and I know dad means well, but he picked favorites for the longest time. He made my success in school and arts go unnoticed and unappreciated. Thus making me feel really useless, like any amount of marks I got in school didn't matte. Mom let it go and told me I was imagining things, though all she did was either perform on stage with dad or paint. I know I don't have it as tough as some, but it's still damaging to say the least." He huffed, but luckily for him, it felt good to get it all off his chest. This was the first time he really opened up about his problems, in fact, he never told anyone about his concerns at all before, not even Al.

"Wow…" Leo snickered. "We really are a sad bunch."

Aria nodded. "At least we have each other."

"That's right." Ed added in. "Al referred to us as the 'out crowd'…but if we're a crowd, at least we're not alone in the world." He grabbed a chunk of wood from the pile and tossed it in the fire. "Honestly, I'm happy where I'm at, I wouldn't change a thing." Ed poked at the fire with one of the designated 'poking sticks'. "But…did you ever get the feeling that someone in the 'in crowd' really doesn't want to be there?"

Leo gave him a raised eyebrow. "I doubt Al wants to abandon the 'plastic team', he's got the hot's for Winry."

Ed figured as much with how much he talked with her, rather, tried to talk with her. Though she had no interest in Al, she did however seem to like talking to him. She spoke with him during homeroom, math class, on several occasions.

"Yeah, you're right." Ed actually didn't have Al in mind when he asked the question, he was referring to Winry. Whenever she was with her friends, she was quite vapid and bored; though when she spoke with him, she was enthusiastic and cheerful. More and more throughout the week what she meant by 'forgive the front', became quite clear.

Edward stared off blankly into the fire. He still was left in the dark; if she disliked who she was with, it made sense to him to go about changing who was around her. He was willing to accept her for whoever she was. It then occurred to him, in a brief passing though; what if she was interested in him, but not Al?

Feeling it best not to mention Winry; even though he could take Al if need be, he wanted to avoid conflict. That evening was going to be the first evening where Al was staying in his new room. It had just been painted so it was all set by this point; which was a good thing, Winry had given him her cell phone number so he could talk to her without drawing too much attention.

Finally finishing with his own random thoughts, he returned to the group. Ed really did have a bad habit of getting lost deep in his own thoughts.

Not being able to stand it any longer, Winry reached over to Clause, while she was driving, and grabbed the cigarette right out of her mouth. "What did I tell you about doing this?" With a quick jerk of her hand she flung the offending white death stick out the window.

"What the fuck? Why did you do that?" She yelled in anger, her nails digging into the steering wheel.

"I told you not to smoke in the car with me here…several times." She folded her arms and scowled. "Also, you're on the ropes Clause. One coughing fit in the middle of a performance and you're out."

"Winry, you can't be serious! …fine, I'm sorry." Clause may have been an abrasive person, but she knew when to back down. Winry may have been a lot less bubbly than the rest of the friends in their group, but her leadership skills were something to be reckoned with. "Anyone want to go to Tim Horton's?" Being quick to patch things up, she offered an alternative to everyone going home on a bad note.

"Fine by me." Winry nodded. She peeked over the seat. "Guys? Timmy's?" She saw them, Al being one of the guys, nod in agreement. "Good, I'm craving a Nanaimo bar." She smiled and sat back in her seat.

You know the drill, leave me a review, and I'll update sooner. Like I said, I have a computer now, so updating is going to be a breeze!

I love you guys:)