While Edward waited for his brother to get home, he decided to clean the house up; he even attempted cleaning up that horrid black spot on the kitchen floor-with no success. All he did was get frustrated and wished that all he had to do was clap his hands to make it go back the way it was before it was burned or whatever. Unfortunately, he didn't have the power to just fix stuff like that…
He had just finished cleaning and sat down on his futon when the front door burst open and slammed shut. "I cannot believe you didn't even come to school! You said you were going to be late not absent!" Al yelled, throwing his book bag down on the ground.
"Al, I-"
"No! It's only our second day and already you're skipping! I like this school, Edward, if you get expelled again I'll-" Al stopped his rant abruptly, seeing his brother's face for the first time. "What the hell happened?!"
"Al, calm down-"
"CALM DOWN!? What the hell happened to your face?!"
"Al-"
"Did you get in a fight already?! Damn it, Ed, I thought it was going to be different here-"
"ALPHONSE!" The younger brother shut up, stunned by the elder yelling his name like he did. Edward sighed. "I didn't get into a fight, and I did go to school, just sit down and let me explain." Alphonse looked at his brother skeptically, but sat by him anyway. "First of all, I want to thank you...for going to Principal Mustang this morning."
"...Ok...So you really did go to school...So why did you leave?"
Edward sighed; this was where he had to start lying to his brother. He already had his lie all figured out, but he hated lying to his brother. "I...wasn't feeling good this morning, but I went to school anyway. Mr. Havoc thought something was wrong with me, so he sent me to see Mr. Mustang, and I told him I was sick, so he offered to take me home."
"Oh...then...what happened to your face?"
Edward had thought of a lie for this too, though it wasn't really the best one. He laughed a bit, to play it off as not being a big deal, "Oh, that? I wasn't paying attention, and when I opened the door to get in his car, it hit me in the face." He laughed some more.
Alphonse looked at his brother for a moment, then joined in on his laughter. "You should really be more careful, Brother," he said.
Ed was relieved that Alphonse took his lie, whether he believed it or not. "Oh, and some good news, Hohenhiem sent us some more money, so I bought us some more food. It should last us a week or two, if you don't eat it all."
Al seemed to perk up at that. "Really? That's great! Did he send a card this time?" Edward sighed and shook his head. "Oh...he said he would, last time you talked to him on the phone, right?"
Ed felt a pain in his heart; he never talked to Hohenhiem on the phone, not once. "Yeah, he did, but maybe he forgot." Another lie. Sometimes it seemed like his life was just one lie after the other.
"Yeah, maybe… So what should we have for dinner, brother?" And that was the end of the conversation. Al didn't bring it up again. The brother's made dinner together, they laughed and goofed off, and they went to bed content with full bellies.
The next morning Edward made sure to be up and ready for school before Al, just to prove that he was going and everything was fine. He even had time to make breakfast and pack a lunch for them both.
Alphonse was glad that his brother was better, and that he stayed home all night the night before, and now they were going to go to school together and everything will be normal. As the brothers walked to school, they chatted happily about anything and everything. Al even expressed his new crush on that Martel girl, saying how pretty and unique she was and how he hoped she liked him too. Ed assured him that she did.
Once they arrived to their destination-fifteen minutes early- the brothers separated, both calling out "see you at lunch" to the other. Before going to his first class, there was one thing Edward had to do…
Roy looked to his door when he heard someone knock. "Come in," he said, hoping that it wasn't Alphonse again. It wasn't, it was the other Elric. "Edward, good to see you here early, your bruise seems to be healing nicely," Roy said, brushing the hair out of Ed's face to get a better look at the bruise. "It's not swollen anymore, so that's good."
Edward blushed, and looked down to hide it. "Yeah, it's alright. Listen...I wanted to talk to you...about yesterday."
Roy's heart skipped a beat. 'He doesn't know what I saw, does he?' he thought. "What about yesterday?" he asked calmly.
"Well, I really wanted to thank you. I don't think we've eaten this well since our mom passed...but, I couldn't tell Al about what really happened to my face so I told him a few white lies." Roy waited for the teen to go on. "I told him I was sick yesterday, so you took me home, and I have a bruise because I accidentally smacked my face with your car door."
Roy frowned. "Edward. I can understand if you don't want to tell me what happened, but if it's so bad that you have to make up lies to your own brother, it can't be right."
Edward sighed. "Look, there's not many ways a kid my age in school can make money, and I have my own ways, I can handle it."
"You're face says different, Edward."
Ed touched his cheek and sighed. "This is the first time anything like this has happened. It won't happen again."
Roy was worried for his student, maybe more worried than he should have been. He could tell Edward was uncomfortable, so he changed the subject. "Oh! You um, dropped your notebook in my car yesterday," Roy grabbed said notebook off of his desk and handed it to Ed. "You might need it, since you have History first period."
Edward looked in Roy's eyes, smiled, and said, "Thank you."
Roy knew he didn't mean for the notebook.
"Anytime, Edward. Now get to class." Ed smiled again, then left. Roy sighed and sat down at his desk. Why did that boy have to be so damn adorable?