nuclearXsquid: Sorry your NaNo failed too. And sorry this has taken sooo long to update. Ember was determined to finish a Naruto fic she dredged up from the near-abandonment pile, and... yeah.

AnimeAddic5: Thanks for the kind review. Ember's glad she's getting the emotions across. Sorry for the long wait!

I love Malfoy as a ferret: Has Ember told you lately that she loves Malfoy as a ferret too? Just updating that opinion. And Ember wants them to just kiss already too, but Ed and Roy have other ideas. They've just bumped that chapter back again... Damn them.

kataang816: Glad that bit was so amusing. Ember dredges up personal experience from time to time, and that was a rather interesting bit of humiliation she wanted to see someone else go through. So to Ed it went.

kristen tucker: Well, he isn't in a skirt per se. He's in a longish shirt with tight pants. What most females today call dresses. It's Kayley's outfit from "Quest for Camelot". Ember fell in love with the music for that, so it's the show!

Oh, Ember's goodness. Sorry that took so long!

Chapter 9: Fall

About a week had passed and, much to Roy's delight, the band had performed marvelously at its second competition. Morale was high, and even the usual troublemakers seemed to be content to maintain the band's good standing by not interfering with practices. In short, it had been an excellent week.

Driving home from practice, Roy smiled. It really had been a great week. Nothing had gone horribly wrong in school, he didn't have any major tests for the next week or so, and his parents finally trusted him enough that they felt they could take a well-deserved vacation without him now that he was eighteen.

Everything had been great as usual. Even Ed had seemed to loosen up a little and smile like he used to. Really, it had been almost scary watching him twitch and jump at every little thing. It was enough to make Roy seriously wonder about Ed's mental health.

He finally arrived at his home and sat at a table to begin his rather large stack of homework. About twenty minutes in, though, a flicker of bright red in the window caught his eye.

Standing up and going to the window, Roy stared in shock. Ed was walking down the street in a long red jacket that swirled around him in the wind, wandering as if he was lost.

What was going on? Ed should have gone home, especially with the storm everyone had seen approaching at practice, so what was he doing there?

Shaking his head, Roy yanked open his front door and quietly caught up to Ed, tapping his shoulder.

Ed jumped straight up about eight inches, finally putting the top of his head at the level of Roy's eyes, and turned around, eyes widening when he saw Roy there. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I should be asking you that," Roy replied, "but since you asked first, I live right there." Roy pointed at the correct house.

"Oh." Ed was silent for a while, staring at the sidewalk. His expression was definitely that of someone who was lost, so Roy steered him into his house and sat him at the table he'd just been doing homework at.

Once Roy cleared his homework off the table, he sat down himself. "So what are you doing here?" he asked, unable to put off the question any longer. "I hope that you didn't get lost. That would be entirely too amusing and I wouldn't be able to stop laughing for about a half an hour."

Ed chuckled briefly before his eyes returned to that dark and lost expression. "No, nothing like that. I just… needed time outside of my house to think, that's all."

Ed knew that Roy wasn't going to be satisfied by that explanation, but apparently he had other questions as well as he pulled a sheet of homework to himself. "So, why red?" Roy asked, gesturing at Ed's jacket.

"Why not?" Ed replied. "I saw this and thought it looked cool. I know my brother doesn't see it that way, though. I've found this jacket in his trash can more than once."

Roy shrugged, accepting the response, and continued doing what looked like a math worksheet. As he worked, Ed sat in silence and looked around at the room he was in. It was a nice enough kitchen, with a sturdy wooden table and stainless steel appliances. The floor was covered in white and green tile, and there was a leafy wallpaper border running across the top of the wall wherever there were no cabinets.

Finally breaking the comfortable silence, Ed commented, "This is a nice place. Real cozy."

Apparently Roy had decided that that was a perfect opening, for he asked, "Why aren't you at home?"

"It's a really long story," Ed warned, hoping that it would dissuade Roy.

"Well, we certainly have time. It's not like my parents will come home any second and be shocked you're here. They're currently in Ireland on vacation."

Ed fidgeted for a while, not exactly sure what to say. He certainly wasn't telling Roy the whole story—he hadn't told anyone that—but he figured Roy could at least know some of the truth. "This is the day my house burned down six years ago."

"What?" Roy's head snapped up from his worksheet.

Ed sighed, knowing that this would be a long story. "Six years ago my house burned down. Al and I lost our mother in the fire, and our father had left when I was three. So we were bounced around through a few foster homes before Winry and Granny Pinako took us in. Really I don't know why we weren't with them in the first place; they were close family friends. They're great and all, but sometimes I just need to be away from them. I need to go off on my own and just… remember, I guess."

"So you've run off before? This isn't something new?"

Ed bristled at the implication that he was running away. "I always go back either late in the night or early in the morning. I used to leave notes, but now they know I'll come back. It doesn't exactly hurt that they can bug me on my cell phone now, too. That answer all your questions?"

"It'll do for now," Roy replied. "But since you mentioned you don't go back to your house until late in the night, you can sleep on the couch here if you need to."

Ed blinked, shocked at the kind offer. "I think I'll actually take you up on that. I woke up early this morning," he said as he walked toward the comfortable-looking couch.

Curling up on the couch and setting his phone on the little table nearby, he instantly fell asleep.

Roy quietly finished his homework and moved to put it away, stopping in the process to check on Ed.

When he stopped by the couch, the first thing he noticed was an annoying buzzing. When he looked around for the source, though, it stopped.

Frowning, Roy muttered a curse before getting back to his original course of action.

Smiling when he noticed Ed curled up and asleep on the couch, he walked quietly to his parents' bedroom and grabbed a blanket, bringing it back and gently laying it over the younger teen. Ed stirred slightly, sighing happily before going back to sleep.

Roy jumped when the tranquility of the moment was interrupted by the return of the buzzing sound. This time, however, he was aware of the culprit instantly.

Ed's phone had lit up.

Briefly examining it to see who was calling, Roy recognized Winry's name and figured Ed wouldn't mind him answering just this once. It was almost nine in the evening, after all, and Ed was sound asleep.

Walking back into the kitchen, Roy flipped the phone open, speaking quietly. "This is Roy. Ed's asleep."

"Oh?" Winry's voice sounded surprised. "And exactly where is he?"

"At my house," Roy replied. "He came over earlier this afternoon and fell asleep on the couch. I didn't want to wake him."

A tinny sigh came over the speaker. "No, don't wake him. I just wanted to make sure he was all right. I shouldn't be surprised, though. He does this every year. I'm shocked he's asleep, though. Already? Are you sure?"

Roy frowned. "Why wouldn't he be asleep?"

"I'm not sure how much I can say. He just never sleeps well this night. Just… make sure you're there for him, all right? I don't know what they're about, but I know he has nightmares."

Roy had never met someone who would try to be helpful and elusive at the same time. Most of the people he knew just got straight to the point. "I'm going to pretend to understand exactly what's going on and tell you I certainly will. And I will, even though I have no clue what you're talking about. Even if he doesn't explain either."

Another sigh, this one sounding vaguely relieved. "Thank you. He never says what's going on. I don't even know if his brother knows all of it. But he'll need someone to be there, and I can tell he trusts you."

Roy didn't know if he was glad Winry had decided to hang up immediately after that remark or not. He had no idea how he was supposed to respond to that statement.

Figuring he should probably return Ed's phone to his former resting place, Roy paused when he heard a tiny whimper. Rushing over to the couch as quietly as possible, he saw that Ed was frowning and twitching ever so slightly.

The calm was over. Ed had fallen into his subconscious, and it clearly had no intentions of letting him go.

Roy was damned if he'd let it go. He had promised he would be there for Ed, and it would start with this nightmare.

END CH. 9