catwwomen47: Nice. Very nice. Our band's biggest (and worst) habit is that we routinely chant "water break" and whenever the director tells us to do something and then we'll have a break we shout "Do you promise?!". It's rather obnoxious, whereas yours seems amusing.

Bursting-Bubbles: Aww. Well, not everyone's great at every instrument. And not everyone's quite crazy enough to survive a band camp. But that's another story...

I love Malfoy as a ferret: Points for you! You guessed right.

arissa-x: Ember's glad you're enjoying.

The mutant penguins now have a livejournal! We'll post the link up to our page as soon as Ember posts this, so you all can go check it out. Anywho, there you'll find what all we're doing, maybe a story or two, and any excuses Ember has for not posting within a week of the last post. So go check it out; we'll be using it.

Chapter 4: Friends

During a water break on the hottest day of the week Roy decided it would be a good idea to go over to the color guard and have a chat. They hadn't done anything wrong, quite the contrary. He just liked the conversation and how insane the group could be.

Ed came with him, not really knowing what to expect. Roy smirked. He was in for it.

As they approached, the captain shouted, "You'd better have chocolate, bastard!" as half the guard agreed.

Ed muttered, "What'd you do to piss all of them off?"

Roy simply smirked and replied, "That time of month, huh?" as they arrived.

"Like I said, you'd better have chocolate," the same girl growled.

"Relax," he said, pulling something out of his bag. "I brought a sacrifice."

At that point Ed glanced in his direction with the most terrified expression he'd ever seen.

Roy laughed as he tossed the large bag of chocolate to the girls. "There, fight to the death over that."

As they fought to get as much of the chocolate as possible, Roy smirked at Ed, who was staring wide-eyed at the commotion around him. "Rule number one," he stated. "When dealing with the guard always come prepared because half of them PMS at the same time."

Ed positively jumped as one of the girls came up behind him and hugged him suddenly. "I like your friend, Roy," she said. "Can I keep him?"

Roy laughed. "No, sorry. He has other things he needs to do."

The girl, a blonde, tightened her grip. "But it'd be so much fun," she stated, making Ed turn the brightest shade of red he'd ever seen.

Roy decided to come to Ed's rescue. "We both know you wouldn't, so could you stop scaring him?"

"What do you mean, scaring him?" The blonde looked at Ed's face, which was giving fire trucks a run for their money in the redness department, and smirked. "Ah. We have us a prude. You'll need to work on that," she declared as she withdrew.

"Oh, I will," Roy replied as Ed glared in his general direction. "Come on, Ed, we've got to get people back to work."

Ed was still glaring at him as they left. "And why exactly did you decide to put me through that?"

"Oh, come on. You were just on the wrong side of things; they're some of the funniest people I know. Go to them if you ever want a good conversation. That is, if you don't mind the humor getting a little dirty."

"I'll say," Ed muttered to himself as they made sure everyone else was getting back to work.

Ed had just finished recovering from Roy's last escapade when they stopped for a break at noon.

Just then someone else approached. The young man seemed to know Roy, for he stopped to say hello. "And who is this?" he asked, looking in Ed's direction.

Roy stepped in to introduce them. "Maes, this is Edward Elric. Ed, this is my friend Maes Hughes."

This Maes person's eyes lit up behind his glasses in recognition of the name. "Oh. So you're that one," he grinned.

Ed was instantly suspicious. "And what do you mean by that?" he demanded.

"Oh, nothing. Just that Roy would always tell me that you two were screaming at each other again. It's kind of a surprise that you're not screaming right now." But Maes' smile was large and telling. Ed knew there was something else going on there. He just wasn't quite sure what.

He'd ignore that for now, though. "Well, we kind of decided that it's more fun to be like this. See, when we were screaming at each other we'd just be pissed off the rest of the day. Now we're not."

"I can see that. So what are you two doing now?" Maes asked.

"Eating," Roy replied.

"Doing my chemistry homework," Ed added.

"Chemistry, huh?" Maes' smile was absolutely wicked.

Well, two could play at that game. "Yeah, I'm on this great question about phosphine gas."

Maes' eyes twinkled. "Now, Ed. Playing with phosphine isn't the answer to your problems."

Ed stared at Maes. "You know what that is?"

"Yeah. Fun stuff, but none for you."

At this point Roy had about had it. "And just what is phosphine?!"

Ed took the liberty of explaining. "Phosphine is an incredibly toxic and flammable gas known to ignite on contact with the air."

Maes laughed. "I'm surprised you didn't know that, confessed pyromaniac that you are, Roy."

"I try to block out my chemistry days."

"Well, in any case, you two can forget about any plans you might have had for the next hour. You're coming with me." Ed had to wonder if the wicked grin on Maes' face was permanent. It certainly seemed so.

"Coming where?" Roy asked suspiciously. "The last time you said that was freshman year; I almost missed rehearsal entirely."

Ed stared at him. "You WHAT?!"

"Mistakes of the past; I don't like them to be brought up."

Maes cut in at that moment. "Don't worry, I know you have to be all responsible and stuff now. We're just going down the road for lunch so I can meet your friend here."

"Isn't that what you said last time, before your mom had driven an hour?"

"But I actually mean it this time!"

"Roy, you're forgetting something," Ed added.

Roy looked at him. "What?"

"We can drive now. If he takes too long with whatever he's doing we can just leave."

"You're a genius. Remind me why I never talked to you before?" Roy asked, evidently awed.

Ed laughed. "Because you're an oblivious bastard?" he suggested.

Maes grinned. "That he is. But he's a funny oblivious bastard."

And so they left, Ed and Maes laughing and Roy glaring at them.

At least they had gotten back on time, Roy reflected as they walked inside.

Actually, truth be told, it had been kind of fun, even if most of the jokes had been totally at his expense. He never would have expected Ed to fit right into that situation, but apparently he was far more sociable than he ever let on.

Rehearsal that afternoon passed quickly and before Roy knew it, it was time to leave.

Also before Roy knew it Ed had somehow appeared at his side. "Well, that was boring, don't you think?"

Roy smirked. "So I've improved and I can think now?"

Ed laughed. "I don't know, can you?"

Roy replied, "Well, I think I can…"

"If you think you can, then you can think. It's that simple."

All of a sudden Ed froze as they both heard a high-pitched noise. Roy frowned. "What is it?" he asked.

"Winry," Ed managed before the wrench collided with his head.

Quickly grabbing the other teen before he fell over at the impact, Roy wondered what on earth had caused a wrench of all things to fly in Ed's direction.

Looking back at where the strange projectile had come from he saw a blond girl about their age heading their way. "Ed!" she shouted, looking furious.

"What?!" Ed shouted back. Apparently he knew this girl.

"What did you do to my workbench?! It's never that messy!"

"I haven't touched your damn workbench! And why'd you have to throw that wrench at me again?! Haven't you done it enough for a lifetime?!"

At this the girl smiled. "Even if I have, I'll just keep doing it. And who's your friend?"

Roy quickly introduced himself as Ed finished his quick recovery from the wrench impact.

The girl—Winry, as she had introduced herself—seemed surprised. "Huh. I never thought he'd talk to you civilly like he is now. Normally he'd go on for hours with his rants about how you'd managed to piss him off that particular day."

Roy smirked. "Hours, huh?"

Ed looked embarrassed. "Shut up, Winry."

Winry was evidently undaunted. "Oh, yes. And you always got the most creative and colorful names. I wrote some down once; I wish I could remember them off the top of my head. But the point is that I never would have imagined you two could just sit here talking like this."

Roy laughed. "For the longest time we didn't think so either."

Ed joined in. "Then we were told we had to work together, or else. The band director is very convincing when he wants to be, even if he is insane."

Winry turned to walk away. "You'd better get home soon, Ed. Granny said to say she saved some stew for you."

"Cool. I'll be home soon, don't worry."

"Worry? Since when?" Winry scoffed, walking away. "Bye, guys!"

"Home?" Roy asked quietly, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Her grandmother took my brother and me in after our mom died six years ago. They're the closest thing to family we have now." Ed sounded calm as he said those words, and his face was distant. Roy suspected there was more to the story, but he didn't ask.

Ed seemed to pull himself from wherever his thoughts had gone, for he continued, "I should go."

Roy smiled. "See you tomorrow, then." And they walked their separate ways.

END CH. 4

Ember's offering to write a story prompted by the winner of this next little competition. The first person to correctly guess who the captain of the color guard is can PM us or something with what they'd like to see in a story and Ember will write it. How will you find out you won? We'll tell you with the next chapter!