Phew! No flames or complaints about the long wait! Sorry, the usual excuse: I had no inspiration...well except for weird little things which I think come out in the beginning of the chapter, but then I finally got some direction, so next chap shouldn't take nearly as long! Enjoy!

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Roy paced the porch angrily. Why had Ed insisted on him being kicked out of the house while Ed's new arm and leg were attached? It didn't make sense to Roy. A sharp yelp startled him from his pacing and he ran to bang on the door. No one answered and Mustang quailed. Was something wrong? He paced the porch at triple speed until the door opened. Ed came out, looking over his shoulder with a smile on his face, threatening Al who was bickering happily back.

"Are you alright?" Roy carefully approached Ed.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine." Ed put a little warning into his voice, telling Roy to leave it alone.

"Where are you two going?" Roy asked. Ed looked at Al, eyebrows raised as the two communicated silently as only those who knew each other that well could.

"Brother." Al's rebuke was half eye-roll, half request.

"C'mon, Al!" Ed turned to Roy. "Come and see!"

Roy grinned at Al. "Don't worry, Alphonse. I can take care of myself."

"OK fine, if that's what you think." The normally more polite Elric replied doubtfully. Roy followed Ed and Al down in front of the house where Ed turned suddenly, kicking out at Al's head. When Al blocked and threw him, Ed bounced up and punched at Roy, who froze and fell backward. Ed rolled his eyes and swiveled to duck a punch from his brother. Ed punched, Al blocked, Ed grabbed and held Al's arm and punched with his other hand. Al blocked again, grabbing Ed's arm and throwing his elder brother over his head. Al crunched his fist into his palm menacingly as he approached Roy.

"You can take care of yourself, huh?"

Ed dipped and kicked across the back of Al's knees, knocking him off balance. Al fell on top of a surprised Edward and trapped him. Ed shoved Al off of himself and went for Roy again.

'Simple. Just block his strikes, right?' Roy mentally coached himself. He was incredibly bad at following his own instructions. The first time he caught Ed's arm, Ed sidestepped and elbowed him in the gut. Before Roy knew what he was doing, he grabbed Ed's shirt collar and jerked him roughly. Ed's automail hand clamping down painfully on his arm fueled his violent anger and he shook Ed roughly. Ed cringed, letting go of Roy's arm to try to pull away. In lieu of pain, Roy came back to his senses, letting Ed go.

"Ed I'm sorry. That was stupid." What had he done? Ed was just playing around! He'd known that. Ed took a few steps back and looked at Roy in a slightly guarded way.

"Really, I just-I've never fought like that and I just-..."

"Never?" Ed was curious now.

"N-no. Are you okay?"

"Are you kidding? Al goes way rougher on me."

"But. Well..."

"I'm fine. But an amateur like you could hurt yourself." Ed dismissed Roy from the sparring, not missing a chance to put some smug insult into it. Roy sighed and went up the porch where he could watch Ed and Al spar. Pinako came out, sitting next to Roy and lighting her pipe.

"I saw what happened." she said.

"I'm an idiot." he conceded.

"I get the feeling you're not used to dealing with kids."

Roy looked over at her. She looked old and wise as she sat there and it made him wonder. She was probably twice as old as her was. It would make sense for her to know more, especially about kids. And was she offering to help him by bringing it up?

"Yeah, I've never had to babysit anyone over seven who wasn't my younger brother."

"You've got the right idea. Especially a kid like Ed needs to be cuddled, but there's more to it."

Roy nodded.

"When he played that stupid prank and flooded the house, I tried to punish him and he ended up crying. I can't quite figure out where I overstepped the line." Roy confided, fishing for advice.

"What did you do to him?"

"Slapped his palm with a ruler."

"Hard?"

"Not hard enough to hurt."

"And he cried?" She looked confused now.

"First he started shaking and when I asked him if he was sorry, he broke down."

"Well that explains some of it. He'll shake off physical pain, no problem, but make him say he's sorry or how he feels and it can really get to him."

"So I shouldn't have said anything?"

Pinako shook her head.

"No. If you'd just walked off he would have been confused and upset and alone. The worst thing you can do is confuse them. That's my opinion. If you're angry with them, you have to make sure they know why, even if it seems obvious to you, they can get hold of entirely the wrong end of the stick unless you say something."

"so what did I do to make him cry?"

"You know, crying isn't always such a bad thing. Sometimes it's just the most natural way for someone to express themselves. Ed never cried when he was bullied or teased at school, but the minute Al called him a dummy he cried his eyes out. He's hard to figure out sometimes, but I'm pretty damn sure by now that Ed only cries from guilt. He always thought Al was calling him dummy because he'd made him mad, which most of the time was true." she added with a grin. "From the way I've seen him act around you, I'd say he likes you. So I guess he felt guilty." She nodded and inhaled deeply.

"He has a funny way of showing it most of the time." Roy grumbled. Pinako nodded.

They watched Ed and Al spar until Al picked Ed up and accidentally smacked his smaller brother against the tire swing.

"Brother! Are you ok?"

"Al---! Oww!"

"I'm sorr-whoa!"

Ed launched himself at Al, knocking him over. Pinako grinned and blew a little cloud of smoke.

"When Winry was five, she went to their house once to ask if we could borrow some salt for dinner." she said, nodding at the brothers rolling around on top of each other.

"She started playing with them and forgot to bring the salt back home. It wasn't such a bad thing that I could yell at her, but she knew I was mad.When she didn't come over to play the next day, Ed came over to invite her. And she broke down right there and said she couldn't or I'd be mad at her...That was bout the dumbest thing I thought she could've said until I realized I'd never said anything about the salt. And boy, I was the one who felt stupid when the whole mess was finally cleared up. Even at sixteen, they don't always see what's right in front of their noses. And Just because Edward's supposed to be some kind of prodigy, that doesn't really make him a genius 100 of the time."

Roy laughed at the last. He opened his mouth to ask her something, but a younger voice interrupted him.

"Hey Roy! C'mere! Al and i are gonna have a race, wanna try?" Roy stood and stretched.

"Alright Ajer." he used Ed's Ishvarlan name.

"why are you calling me that? C'mon, hurry up!"

"With those short legs, maybe I should give you a headstart." Roy smirked. Ed growled.

"Shut up and get down here so I can leave you in the dust, Mustang."

Roy lined up next to Ed.

"To the tree." Al said, and because he was younger, he got to say 'go'.

Ed shot out in front of Roy, little legs a blur. Al was right in front of Ed as they whizzed past the tree. Roy followed and ed turned and grinned.

"You're slow."

"But not in the head." Roy grinned back.

"Roy--." Ed whined, instead of ranting or swearing, his eyes demanding apology.

"You're not going to scream?" Roy looked surprised at first, his face then growing warmer. He smiled and wrapped an arm around Ed's shoulders.

"I take it back." he said before ed could say anything. Ed blushed and pushed away.

"Can you do push-ups?" he grinned suddenly.

"Of course!" Roy pretended to be indignant.

"C'mon!" Ed pulled him up onto the porch which was flat and smooth.

Roy kept pace until the 15th push-up. He just couldn't push himself back up. He collapsed on his stomach and Ed laughed as he pushed himself up to number 17. Roy stuck his tongue out as Ed went on to 25. Roy thought he was done then, his arms quivering as he got stuck halfway up. Then Roy noticed his eyes. Determination was written so purely on his face, there was no way he wasn't going to get up. Slowly, painfully he pushed up and repeated the shaky procedure 5 more times. He flopped onto his stomach and rolled onto his back, his ribs almost in contact with Roy's kneeling legs. Al happily called out "50, 51, 52..."

"Very funny, Al. We both know you could do 500 if you wanted to." Ed sighed. Roy, acting purely on impulse at seeing the pale skin of Ed's tummy, reached down to pet it. Ed stopped panting, lifting his head just slightly to see what Roy was doing. After a moment, he raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know. It looked smooth and soft so I thought I'd pet it." Roy said distractedly.

"That's my stomach you're talking about!" Ed sat up.

"Sorry." Roy sighed. It really had been cute, but he would be freaked out of Ed started petting his tummy.

"Weirdo." Ed was clearly confused, which to Roy, after having his parental talk with Pinako, meant he had to make himself clear.

"I didn't mean anything, you were just lying there."

"Whatever."

Roy now remembered Pinako was still on the porch watching. He turned to give her a 'what-just-happened-did-I-do-something-wrong-look'.

"Why did you pet my brother's stomach?" Al asked. Roy sighed.

"He was just lying there looking cute and I don't know..."

Al didn't have anything to say to that. He and Roy sat staring at each other as Ed climbed onto the tree swing and kicked off the thick tree trunk. Roy sighed again. Al got up to go give Ed a push.

Roy groaned and put his head in his hand. Pinako laughed.

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OK, so that was a bunch of random inspiration finding its way out of my brain...Next chap very soon!