Here's chapter 4! Featuring some narrative description for the first in this fic's history!


Ed is bold

Roy is italic

(No Al this chapter. Sorry!)


Friday AM

(9:00) Good morning.

(9:01) Notice I waited until 9 to text you.

(9:02) It's my way of respecting your very probable hangover while still ensuring you entertain me before lunch.

(9:04) First off, I have been up for over an hour

(9:04) So you waited for nothing

(9:05) Second, I'm not here for your entertainment

(9:05) So fuck off

(9:07) I take it your night didn't go well?

(9:08) They wouldn't let us in

(9:08) Then I almost got arrested for causing a scene

(9:10) I tried to attack the bouncer while screaming about ageism

(9:11) Al and Win say that ruined the night more than not getting in

(9:12) So they've been pissed since last night

(9:14) As much as I'm sure Al appreciates you standing up for him, I'm sure he would have appreciated it more if you'd done it less violently.

(9:16) The bouncer started it!

(9:17) He kept looming over me

(9:17) On purpose

(9:18) Using his freakish height as a weapon

(9:18) It should be illegal

(9:19) I don't think you'll have much luck getting that law passed, I'm afraid.

(9:20) Damn tall people

(9:22) Yes, well…

(9:23) It was nice of you to refuse to go into the club without your brother.

(9:24) Well they wouldn't let me in either way

(9:25) Why wouldn't they let you in?

(9:26) Ageism

(9:26) Discrimination against the young

(9:27) Envy of my youth, intelligence, and overall badassery

(9:28) Ageism…?

(9:28) Aren't you the older brother? And a grad student?

(9:29) Yes and yes…?

(9:30) Grad students are generally in their mid-20s or higher, are they not?

(9:31) Not when they're prodigies

(9:33) You weren't kidding about that.

(9:34) No

(9:35) How old are you exactly?

(9:35) Rude

(9:36) Sorry. It's just clearly you're under 21.

(9:37) Do you want a medal for figuring that out?

(9:38) You could possibly be under 18, depending on the club you were trying to enter.

(9:39) I'm just trying to figure out if I'm talking to Doogie Howser before he even graduated med school.

(9:41) …who?

(9:42) Oh god

(9:42) Please tell me you have seen the show Doogie Howser.

(9:43) Or have at least heard of it.

(9:43) …no

(9:44) Why does that matter?

(9:45) Because Doogie Howser was a fictional child that became a doctor by the time he was 16, and I am seriously starting to question if you are even THAT old.

(9:46) Hey!

(9:47) Just because I don't know some old tv show from "back in the day" doesn't mean I'm a kid, old man!

(9:48) Then how old are you?

(9:49) 20

(9:49) Damn

(9:50) Skip a few grades and even your texting friends treat you like a kid

(9:52) I'm not trying to treat you like a child. I just wasn't expecting you to be so young.


(10:00) Is it a problem?

(10:01) No.

(10:02) It is, in fact, much better than the preteen age I was starting to fear you were.

(10:03) Ha! I bet :D


(10:08) So…texting friend?

(10:08) Is that what we are?

(10:09) What would you call it?

(10:10) Idk. Penpals?

(10:11) Omg you're so old

(10:12) You need to stop calling me that (

(10:13) You're just an old man reminiscing about the good old days when people still used snail mail

(10:14) Back in your day did you have to walk your letter up hill both ways and through the snow just to get to the post office?

(10:15) -_-

(10:16) Did you buy special calligraphy pens to use when writing your handwritten letters?

(10:17) Pen your letters by the fire while listening to your gramophone?

(10:18) I'm ignoring you, in case you couldn't tell.

(10:19) Wait! I have a serious one

(10:20) Did you grow up listening to records or CDs?

(10:21) And to think I originally wanted to ask you to lunch again.

(10:23) Oh

(10:23) You did?

(10:24) That was before you called me old. Before you made a production of calling me old.

(10:25) I don't eat with people who are mean to me if I can help it.

(10:26) I was JOKING. You know I was joking.

(10:27) I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that with my old ears.

(10:28) Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I couldn't do lunch today anyway

(10:29) No? Got more clubs to not get into?

(10:30) Haha! You're hilarious!

(10:30) Bastard

(10:31) I have a lab at noon

(10:31) Which seems to be your lunch hour, so…

(10:32) Hmm I would suggest eating before or after, but I have meetings all day.

(10:33) That's alright

(10:35) Maybe we could do dinner?

(10:36) I would love that.


As much as Fullmetal joked that Roy was too old for modern inventions, Roy did, in fact, know how to use a computer. So what if he preferred records when listening to music? CDs didn't sound as good, and iTunes was just plain confusing. But he didn't need to know how to add music to his phone to know how to use Google. And even with the little information he had, it was all too easy to search for a car accident involving a mother and her two sons. There was only one result with a boy that would be 20 now. A boy that lost an arm in the accident, and later a leg. A boy that was now studying at Central University, which was so close to Roy's work that he lost his breath for a moment. Only to lose it again when he saw the pictures. The sight of that familiar face hit him like a punch to the chest. He knew that boy.

"Sir," Hawkeye called from just outside his inner office door. "Are you almost done with that report?"

"Of course, Lieutenant."

His eyes never strayed from the blond boy in the photographs. One set in a hospital that was all too familiar to Roy, and another somewhere he didn't recognize. In the latter, the boy was older and sporting a prosthetic arm and leg. They looked metal.

Fullmetal. I'm so sorry. He thought before trying his best to focus back on the report he'd only just started before he'd been distracted by his search. But every time he touched pen to paper he remembered the haunted golden eyes of Edward Elric, and fought to reconcile that boy with the young man he'd been joking with just that morning.


Friday PM

(6:01) Ready for dinner

(6:03) Of course. How was your day?

(6:04) Alright. Al's not mad anymore, so that's always good

(6:05) And I bought Winry Starbucks before lab, so she stopped glaring

(6:06) Overall an alright day. Hbu?

(6:07) Hbu?

(6:08) How bout u?

(6:09) Smh

(6:10) Shaking my head. I know that one!

(6:11) Fuck. You are so OLD?

(6:12) How do you even function?

(6:13) I resent that.

(6:14) Offended again?

(6:14) Yes.

(6:15) How old are you anyway?

(6:16) Now who's rude?

(6:17) Only fair. I told you mine, you tell me yours

(6:19) Fine. I suppose I do owe you.

(6:19) I am 30.

(6:21) Huh

(6:22) Huh?

(6:22) Yeah, huh

(6:23) I don't know how to take that.

(6:24) That's young for a Colonel, isn't it?

(6:25) Did you look into my job?

(6:26) Might've

(6:26) That's why you thought I was old?

(6:27) You're still old. You just could have been older

(6:28) "Is it a problem?"

(6:29) Haha no. So much no. Not at all. It's good actually

(6:30) Yeah?

(6:31) Yeah

(6:31) Good.


A little short, but chapter 5 should be out soon. I have sooooo many ideas for it, and it's a 3 day weekend for me so I'll have plenty of time to write. I plan on starting it today, and hopefully can have it finished this weekend. No promises, but it does seem likely :)

I'll give more info on Ed's accident in the next couple of chapters. There's information about it that Roy couldn't know from an internet search, so you (and Roy) will have to wait to learn about it until Ed feels like sharing.