Happy Presidents' day everyone! (Yay! No school!)

Thank you for the reviews last chapter! They were greatly appreciated!

I hope you enjoy this chapter! Oh my God, this is already chapter 10?! I can't believe it, I feel like this story just started. Oh these fics always grow up so fast. *sniff, sniff* :P

Fire surrounded him. Everywhere he looked, he saw fire ravaging everything in the room. How was he supposed to get out? He was trapped.

"Ed!"

Ed looked up but saw no one. Who was calling him? And why did it sound so familiar? Ed looked around again; where was he? Nothing in the ashen room looked familiar to him…and yet…

"Ed, wake up!"

But I'm not asleep.

"Where are you Brother?!"

I'm right here…but where is here?

Ed looked around again. The room around him was beginning to dissolve. What was going on? Was he dreaming, or was it simply all of the smoke getting to him?

"…Ed. Edward. Wake up!"

Ed's eyes snapped opened after someone began to shake his tired body gently. He turned his head and saw Terry kneeling down next to him. Ed glanced over at his alarm clock: it was almost seven o'clock in the morning. He let out a groan as he realized that it was indeed Monday morning already.

Dammit…I wanted to relax a little this weekend and I wasn't able to relax at all!

"Come, on. If you don't wake up now, you're going to be late for school!"

Ed rolled onto his side and covered his head with his pillow. He heard Terry laugh at him and walk away for a moment while muttering something along the lines of 'every freaking Monday'. Ed knew what was coming but he didn't care, he wanted to sleep damn it! And then he heard her voice.

"Oh, Eddy." Sammy whispered in a devious voice.

"Mmmghhgg…" Ed muttered into his mattress as he mentally prepared himself for what was coming next.

And then there was screaming. Loud, terribly annoying, high-pitched, child-like screams that were like nails on a chalk board to Ed's ears. And pillows, tons and tons of pillows. All of the pillows were beating down on his tired body. Ed wanted nothing more that to punch the kids in their small, screaming faces- but that would be what Kimblee would do, and he would rather die in horrible pain than have anything remotely similar to Kimblee.

"Okay! Okay! I'm up!" Ed shouted as he tried to fend off the pillows. "Stop it!"

The three grinning kids stopped their screams and pillow barrage. Ed didn't particularly like this brand of wake-up calls, but whenever Ed would notice how happy it made the kids, he realized he could take it. As the kids let down their weapons, Ed pulled out his pillow and quickly swatted them all on their heads a few times.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE!?" Kimblee shouted as he kicked down the bedroom door.

The three younger kids quickly wiped their happy expressions off of their faces, replacing it with one that could be associated with a funeral home setting, and dropped their pillows like they suddenly burned red-hot. Ed however, kept his pillow up in the air and glared right into Kimblee's uncaring and dark eyes.

"I'M TRYING TO FUCKIN' SLEEP AND I GET WOKEN UP BY A BUNCH OF YELLING AND SCREAMING!"

"S-sorry M-Mister Kimblee…" Sammy stuttered as she stared at the floor.

"YOU BETTER BE! NOW GET THE FUCK DOWNSTAIRS AND MAKE ME SOME BREAKFEST!"

As Sammy hurried passed Kimblee, he sent a kick into her small back, causing her to stumble over her own feet for a few feet before she caught her balance again and ran down the stairs. Ed could tell the kick was what Kimblee considered gentle, but any harm he brought to the kids made his blood boil.

"And you." Kimblee growled while glaring daggers at Ed, who wasn't the least bit intimidated. "Where the fuck were you?! You were gone the whole God-damn weekend!"

"I was out." Ed said as he stood up and moved in front of Terry and Kyle.

"Is that all you can say?! 'I was out'." Kimblee sneered in a mock voice.

Ed bit his tongue so hard that he began to taste blood. He really didn't want to go to school with a black eye or a busted lip and have people worry about him. Kimblee sent a glare at the other two kids that were left before exiting the room.

"Okay," Ed said before either one of them would blame themselves for what had just happened, "It wasn't anyone's fault. Just go and get ready for school."

"Ed."

Ed looked up from his lunch tray and saw that Winry had sat down next to him without him realizing it.

"Oh uh, Hey Win."

"Are you alright?" Winry asked. "You've been acting…distant all day."

"Um well, I guess I'm alright…in a physical sense."

"Well then you're not alright. What's the matter?"

"Uhh…I can't really explain it or well, I can't tell you here." Ed stuttered as he struggled for words.

"Well then when can we talk about it?" Winry asked while dropping her voice so that no one could over hear.

"Later." was all Ed managed to say before their other friends arrived.

"Friday was awesome!" Sheska exclaimed as she sat down next to Winry.

"If by awesome you mean, it sucked, then I'd agree." Riza said as she stat down across from Ed.

"What do you mean it sucked?!" Sheska asked in outrage.

"I mean it sucked by getting hit by beer cans, being tackled and crushed, and then having to play nurse to your drunken ass."

"Well if you must know, I'm sorry about puking, but you shouldn't be such a downer about things Riza! Live a little."

"You ruined my shoes with your vomit."

"Hey, be thankful because those shoes were tacky." Sheska said before she began attacking her wilting salad.

"G.D.I.M. everyone." Jean muttered as he arrived with Roy.

"G.D.I.M.?" Ed asked.

"'God Dammit it's Monday'." Jean answered as he devoured his Sloppy Joe.

"So how was the rest of the weekend for everyone else?" Riza asked.

Ed never heard any of the others responses for he was too deep in thought to hear or even care about anything else. The entire day Ed was busy fighting over should he or shouldn't he and it was driving him absolutely crazy.

"Ed! Wait up!" Winry called from behind him.

"Uh, hey." Ed said once she had reached him.

"Hey."

Winry stared at him for a moment before she let out a deep breath and decided to bring the subject Ed had tried to shoot don earlier that day.

"So I was wondering if you could tell me what was bothering you now. We could go to my house and talk."

Ed noted the slight pleading that she held in her voice and in her eyes; he had said that he would tell her later, and now he was going to have to stand by his word.

"Fine…" Ed said quietly. "But I can't stay long. Kimblee was really angry that I wasn't home all weekend and I doubt he'd be really happy with me coming home late."

"Well why where you not home all weekend?" Winry asked as they turned around and bean walking towards her home.

"Uh, well why would anyone be in that house for days if they had a choice?" Ed asked quickly.

"Right. But Granny's out of town for business for a few more days so maybe you could stay over-."

"Win I just said that Kimblee was pissed. I'm sorry but I can't."

"…I know."

Ed sat down on her outdoor couch and breathed in some of the warm summer breeze that floated passed him. There was just a bit more than a week until summer vacation started and Ed knew that once he didn't have school as a reason for not going, he was going to be more and more tempted to go. But at the same time, now was not the time to thinking about other things during class, he needed to put all of this away until after finals were over.

Winry sat down next to him on the couch and handed him a cola, which he greatly accepted.

"So what's been bothering you so much?"

"…It's really hard to explain."

"Well you know that I'm a good listener."

"Yeah, I know."

"So just try to explain it to me. Slowly."

"Well, when I got home from the party Friday, Kimblee kinda said something that I don't think he wanted me to hear. And what he said really got to me."

"What was it?"

"He…he mentioned something about…" Ed muttered vaguely as he subconsciously picked at the rubber of his sneakers.

"Uh huh." Winry said quietly while trying to move Ed along with sounding too forceful.

"He said something about, about me having a, a…"

"Ed? What did he say? Was it something that really bothered you?"

"Yeah."

They sat there in silence for a moment while Ed struggled to find the correct words he should use to tell her. As Ed glanced over at her, he thought of another reason why he loved her: she was always there to listen to his problems and never pushed him too hard to get the answer out. Ed took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"He said that I have a brother. And I found out that he wasn't lying."

Oh no's! What's Winry going to say?! Well you can find out next chapter. (evil grin)

Please review a lot! If you do, I'll try to get the next chapter up sooner!

-FSK