A/N: Hey everyone! How are we doing today? So it's chapter 11 already and Lex seemed to have forgotten to make a big deal about chapter 10, so I'll do it for chapter 11... WOOT! GO CHAPTER 11! YEAH! YOU'RE AWESOME, IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY! *sniff* I would just like to thank everyone who helped us get this far... Okay, I'm done now. ^^ How was that for a big deal? Well, it's almost 2 in the morning, so I think I'll wrap this up now. But I just had a random thought. To everyone who lives in the United States, does your dad/just family in general have a friend that lives in Ohio? I don't know why I thought of this, but it seems that everyone's dad has a friend who lives in Ohio... Okay, Lissa needs to never talk again. ^^
Special thanks to our reviewers. Without them, chapter 11 would not be possible: Evalyd Yamazaki (I could tell you what happens and whether or not things get better, but I won't because I'm mean. ^^ And you like Borris [the cat] too? He's awesome! Though Blood [the hatter] was my favorite.), 4shadowedice4 (Yay! We updated quickly! And you should be proud of me because I wrote the fluff that time. ^^ I'm usually the fluff-killer.), chocolvr (I wouldn't sign in for us either, personally. ;) And also we were quite sad to have to do that to Alice, but it was necessary.), Charlie (Nooo! We love rambling! It amuses us! And we're glad you like Alice. And hey! We updated! :D), Fire and Ice (...Not gonna lie, that random outburst sorta made my day. ^^)
Disclaimer: We no own Fullmetal Alchemist. It no belong to we. We no own nothing. Lissa like talk caveman. ^^ Lissa need sleep or Lissa kill people with Lissa dumbs. God, I need a life... ;)
Liz knew something was wrong the moment that she walked into Alice's door. After letting the girl in, the pianist had gone back to her couch, eyes rimmed with red and torso shaking. Liz's jaw practically dropped to the floor; she had never seen her teacher in such a state as this.
"Uh... Miss A...?" The moment Liz opened her mouth and spoke, a sob racked Alice's body. With a quick glance around, the student placed herself next to Alice, and said, "Miss Ackerman?"
At the sound of her full last name, Alice latched on to her student in a tight hug for a good ten seconds before standing up and moving to the piano silently.
"You know, Miss A... We don't have to practice today if you aren't feeling well..." Tears welled up in Alice's eyes again, but the quiet pianist shook her head.
"No, Liz. You need to practice. Besides... it'll g-get my mind off t-things." Liz didn't move; she simply cocked an eyebrow, and beckoned back to the couch.
"What happened, Miss A? A fight with somebody? Are you and Ivy not getting along?"
"D-don't worry about it, Liz... Your lesson's canceled for today, I think." Liz left, and Alice cried. She'd been falling for that bastard, and falling hard; Roy Mustang had only been using her from the very beginning. But it was just so hard to wrap her mind around... everything Charlotte and Ivy had said had wormed its way into her head, and she had started to think that they were more than friends. Roy had called her his Alice... His, and no one else's...
A knock came on the door, and Alice stood; she was certain it was Benji, and she composed herself before he came in. Liz was one thing, but Alice definitely didn't want Benji to see her in such a state.
She opened the door and tried her best to smile. As soon as the boy glanced at his teacher, his face screwed up with concern. "What's wrong, Miss A?"
"N-Nothing, Benji," Alice tried so very hard not to burst into tears. He stepped forward and gave the piano teacher a warm embrace. Alice was shocked. Benji had never once hugged her before. But at the feeling of the tall boy's arms around her, there was nothing left to hold back her emotions.
She sobbed. "It's all right, Miss A. Everything will be okay," he said soothingly. He eventually led the woman to the couch and sat her down. He seated himself across from her on the piano bench. "Now what happened?" The boy's cedar-colored eyes bore into Alice's with an intensity that Alice had never before seen.
"I-It's nothing. Y-your lesson is canceled today."
"Miss A," Benji's commanding tone reminded her of how Roy spoke to Jean and she sobbed again. "Miss A, I need you to tell me what's wrong. I may not be able to fix what happened with my father, but I'll be damned if both you and my mother are crying without me being able to do anything." The boy's eyes practically screamed with intensity.
Alice couldn't stop herself. Benji wasn't one that she could keep secrets from. The boy was just too perceptive when it came to human emotions. It all came tumbling out. Alice blubbered in not very coherent sentences. "Roy... He, he...A bet. And he, he..." she sobbed, "He didn't care...And-and Ivy heard... and he called me 'his'. I-I thought he c-cared..." She put her head in her hands and let the tears pour down.
Benji, having many similar conversations with his mother over the years understood more or less.
"Well, then he's a bastard - er, pardon my language - for doing that to you... if that's really what happened. But when I met him he didn't seem like the type. He looked like he really did care..." Benji was doing all he could to keep fierce anger under wraps, but female emotions had this way of pulling a protective man out from inside him.
Alice smiled sadly, not actually saying anything regarding what Benji had said. "Thanks for the hug, Benji. I needed it... I'm probably the worst teacher ever; this is so unprofessional-"
Benji gave her a light smirk. Alice was still crying, but at the very least her sobs had stopped. The look in her eyes had grown stronger, although she still looked utterly heartbroken. She didn't know how long they sat there, but Benji assured her he had nowhere to be. Therefore, he sat on the couch while she softly played the piano to vent stress.
Oh, this probably looks so inappropriate... He's a student; he shouldn't be here at this hour -
Alice's thoughts were cut short, however, by another knock on the door. In one robotic motion, Alice rose from where she was sitting, and answered it.
This action revealed Roy Mustang, in full military attire.
"Hey, Ali-"
His greeting was received with a slam of the door, but not before she had given him a long, cold look with tears in her eyes. Roy stood with a look of utter confusion on the pianist's doorstep. This had never happened to him before. It was a new feeling; rejection that is. He knocked yet again, thinking that maybe he had imagined what had happened only moments before.
This time, Benji opened the door. "Hello, Colonel," he said curtly.
"Hello, Benji. What's wrong with Alice? Is everything alright? Can I come in?" Roy's voice got more commanding with each question. He wanted to know why his Alice just slammed a door in his face.
"Miss A wants me to tell you, um," he mulled over how she had worded it only moments before, "Oh yeah. She says, 'I never want to see or speak to that damn colonel after what he did.' And no, she's not alright. And no, you may not come in. I think it's best that you leave, Mr. Mustang. I should probably get going too. My mother worries if I'm not home for supper." With that, he closed the door and bid farewell to Alice before opening the door again to leave.
Roy just stared at the door in confusion. "What's going on?"
"One would think that you'd know," Benji replied as he began to walk towards home.
"Yeah, but I don't. So do you mind filling me in?"
Benji sighed and turned back towards the military man. For some reason, he wanted to help him. He wanted Alice to smile again, like how his mother used to smile back before the war. "She knows, Colonel."
"Knows? About what?"
"About the bet. And it's unlikely that she'll be taking you back anytime soon, if at all."
Roy's eyes widened, and Benji walked off unperturbed, though very concerned for Alice. In truth, he'd never heard the woman use any profanity; Alice calling him "that damn colonel" had had an odd impact.
"Shit!" A violent string of curses flew from Roy's lips, and he assaulted a nearby rock with his foot. He gave a quick look back to Alice's door, imagining the woman within. Despite his nature, Roy hadn't meant to hurt her...
Roy walked away, though. He didn't try to go back and face her, and in doing so, he thought, he proved once again how much a coward he was. Any man would go back and try to set her straight, but Roy Mustang couldn't make himself do it.
Roy went home.
Alice picked up Staccato and slowly trudged to her bed. It was only five o' clock, but at least there she could think in peace. The woman locked the door, checked the lightbulbs, and crawled underneath her covers, orange kitten in hand. As if sensing her raging sadness, the feline mewed loudly, licking the pianist's face in an attempt to comfort her.
Softly petting the cat, Alice stared blankly at her ceiling. Deep in her heart of hearts, she truly wanted to believe it wasn't a bet. She wanted to think that Ivy was an idiot, and had heard things wrong... her rationale, however, pointed otherwise.
He never should have wanted her anyway. Alice was average, quiet, socially awkward; he was charismatic, a military man, and one of the most eloquent people she had ever met. It only made sense that he would be seen with her because of a bet...
Roy went to bed that night grumbling to himself and awoke the next day doing the same. He wasn't sure why he was so upset. He knew that things would eventually end. So why was he so bothered about it ending like this? If anything, it would cause less heartache... Roy cursed. It wouldn't. He had already caused her to cry, that much was apparent from the day before. And Roy wasn't one who could stand the sight of a woman's tears. Roy trudged off to work, even more upset than before.
Alice called all her students when she woke up. She still wasn't feeling up to teaching. She had spent a good portion of the morning crying and playing sad songs on her piano. Staccato wasn't liking the woman's recent attitude and made this perfectly clear to her by refusing to do anything but stare at the woman. Alice looked at the little orange kitten. "Oh, Staccato," she sighed with tears in her eyes, "You were the only good thing that came of me meeting that damn colonel."
Roy seemed especially moody that day, his team noticed. And Roy, being typical Roy, took it out on the underlings. Fuery was given a time limit on his paperwork, Breda's chess board was taken away and was replaced by an alchemy book. Falman was forced to research the most ridiculous things and Roy briefly yelled at Riza. As for Havoc, he was instructed to report to Roy immediately.
"Hey, Colonel. What's up?" Jean asked casually as he walked into the office.
"What's up, Havoc? You want to know what's up? I'll tell you what's up, Havoc..." Roy mumbled angrily to himself.
Havoc blinked twice before shaking his head. "You know, Chief, Fuery's drowning in the paperwork you've given him. You might want to pawn off some of the work to Falman or Breda..."
"She knows, goddamnit." The office got quiet suddenly at the words coming from their superior officer. Havoc's eyes widened.
"About...?"
"Yeah. Why the hell did everyone stop working?" Falman, Breda, and Fuery struggled to look productive, and Havoc sighed.
"She was going to find out sometime, Colonel... And hell, you won. I don't see why you're so upset."
Roy sighed, looking away angrily. He could hardly admit to Havoc that he was worried about her; his pride wouldn't let him.
Havoc spoke again when his superior remained silent. "I'll admit it, though. I've grown fond of her too."
Roy looked up, the fire in his eyes dying down a bit. "Fuery!" Roy yelled across the room to the underling.
"Y-yes sir?"
"Give that pile to Havoc. You're going to learn chess today."
Fuery looked up in confusion, but didn't complain. "Yes, sir!"
"Havoc, you have until lunch to finish that. Think of it as payback."
"Payback? For what?"
Roy only turned away to retrieve Breda's chess set, leaving Havoc's question unanswered.
But when he was sure that no one could hear him, Roy mumbled quietly, "Payback for making me fall hard for that girl. For that, you should burn in hell."