A/N: I am really quite embarrassed at my lack of writing lately, but things here have been seriously out of control to the point that I have been too exhausted to write on most days. Adding to that, my health had unfortunately taken a turn, which luckily had nothing to do with the pandemic. I've managed to do something like strain the muscles in my left arm, which is another reason I haven't been writing. So, I am not dead or dying. I've just been a little...stretched, more or less. Now, hopefully this doesn't take me forever to do.

Sagey: Yes, I had actually noticed that other than Reid probably being a little less naive due to the circumstances with his mother and her illness, but also his extreme intelligence. Aside from a few differences and some...transgressions, I feel like they are actually quite similar and would undoubtedly get along. I can easily imagine Ed playing the big brother role to Reid. XD

From-the-inside1569 I'll answer your questions in order and try to see if I can tell you where I may have (hopefully) written it in.

No, Ed is not short. It takes place right after his "last" transmutation in FMAB, starting in chapter 1. His appearance is like it is in CoS (Conqueror of Shamballa), so they won't be able to tell as far as his prosthetics go. His picture is what he looks like in the left corner. Al's going to be more like he was at the end of FMA when they were separated and he went back in age. He will not be the poor starving thing at the end of FMAB.

We all know that the BAU is far from stupid. They have Ed basically being babysat (like that hasn't happened before) by Reid and Morgan until his probationary period is up. On the other hand, he basically has a spotless record [insert hysterical laughter here] *-++++3333333333333333333333 ← dog on keyboard.. :)

Aside from the fact that I have my arm hurting and my usual epilepsy? Yep! I hope everyone is being safe and healthy, considering!

Moonprincess919: I've always kind of enjoyed this particular crossover, considering how brilliant Ed and Al are. I think that they'd do pretty well figuring people out, considering all the people they've gone up against. It helps that Ed has always been his own brand of crazy. We're not even in denial at this point. If you need an example, think about the train takeover and that crazy glint in his eye right before he basically floods them out. -.-'

Last chapter: Ed turns the table on the BAU with his intelligence during their attempt to interrogate him and manages to find out a little bit more about the team in the process. Reid and Morgan are going to keep an eye on him, until things smooth out a bit. Never let it be said that Edward Elric goes down without a fight...unless he's with someone who reminds him of Al on a constant basis.

***At the last moment, I decided to have a bit of a cameo appearance. I've always loved him, for all of his masks that he wears; and honestly, with all of the offers he's gotten, why not the BAU? I already have him with Spence in another fic, and I couldn't stop myself. So, I won't consider it cheating if you look at the clues about their "relationship" or just look at "It's Complicated" so you won't be confused. It's in the same universe . Don't worry. I won't let him go overboard with Ed. Probably. If I'd thought about it sooner, I could have taken a poll to see if you could guess to see who it is. Well, you have until the time skip to start to figure it out!~

Chapter 3: He's a Puzzle

For the first time in a while, Ed felt terrified. All he kept seeing when he slept was his brother being ripped away from him, over and over again. He didn't know what time it was, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep anymore. Feeling frustrated, he looked around for a distraction, for anything to do. Every time he looked at his...housemate, he felt as if he were looking at Alphonse and yet not at the same time. He wasn't sure why, but he constantly felt like he wanted to protect Reid like he did Al. Sighing, he got up and walked towards the window. Yeah, well he'd always failed in that aspect. He'd tried to protect his little brother all of his life and where had that gotten him? He wished he actually knew. From what he had gathered, he was on the other side of the gate again, just in the future. It was very different from the last time he was on this side, maybe it was a different timeline. He knew that Reid had told him all of his books were available for him to read, especially since it could help him with his English. He had also suggested listening to the radio and trying to translate it in his head. He had memorized the dictionary that Reid had given him, but he didn't want to wake him up with the noise. That left reading, he supposed. He had to admit that he was fairly impressed with the expansive library that was just begging to be read. He'd have to take at least a few of them to keep his attention all day, seeing as he wasn't exactly sure how involved they'd let him be with the current case. Shaking his head to try and clear it, he looked at the selection and hummed appreciatively. It was no Central Library, but it would do until he was able to get something else. The first thing that caught his eye was about Criminology and seemed like more of a psychological warfare kind of thing in his mind. Seeing as criminals had undoubtedly changed quite a bit since his last "visit", he figured it could be fairly enlightening. The second book he chose looked to be about psychological behavior and profiling.

Hmm...profiling. That seems to be something that could be very helpful if I'm going to be stuck in a room full of them constantly. I'll have to change the cover, if only to give the element of surprise. He had already read Modern Miracles of Science**, so he decided to go with that one.

At this point, Ed had looked the cover over and transmuted the other book to look like it, while wearing a trademark 'Ed's gone crazy again' expression. Of course, he knew that his brother was going to groan in despair at his actions, but he hadn't had so much fun in a while. Since he had always been fighting to just stay alive and keep everyone else safe, he felt like he hadn't smiled or even laughed in years. He couldn't help but groan a bit at the thought. Putting the original book back on the shelf, he grinned at the thought of taking Reid's friends and coworkers by surprise. If he was lucky, maybe one of them would fall over in shock. He'd consider giving himself extra points if it was that Mustang clone, Hotch or Morgan. Sitting back on the bed, he started to read immediately.

~one convenient time skip later~

Reid had noticed Ed reading when he got up in the morning, but decided to leave him be until the last possible moment. He seemed to be the kind of person who totally concentrated on whatever book or research he was doing, probably even ignoring his surroundings unless it was urgent. He also couldn't help but note that Ed had brought nothing with him, which meant he either was mugged or had merely packed nothing. Either was possible, but even for someone as reckless as Ed seemed to be, he didn't come across as someone who would be so unprepared. He was no good at picking out clothes, and he knew that none of them had the free time to go shopping during a case like this one. The outfit he had would have to do for today, but after that, he'd have to set a certain Italian loose on him. Well, that all depended on the work that got done at this point. He winced inwardly at the thought of setting his best friend on the poor guy. They acted kind of similar in a way sometimes, he noticed, and he knew if it came down to it he could sick the girls on him.

"Ed, we need to get going to the BAU." he said, almost sure that he'd have to physically remove the book from him to get him to come.

The blond merely raised an eyebrow and sighed. He had no idea how long he'd been reading, but he'd gotten most of it read. He had wanted to finish it before they left, but it seems that wouldn't be happening. Grabbing the other book, he followed the other man out the door, not noticing the way Reid frowned at him as he walked out. It had been pretty late by the time they had gotten back last night, and so they hadn't bothered to eat. Reid usually ate at the office or on his way there, but Ed hadn't even asked about food of any sort. As they got into the car***, Reid glanced over at the book he was so engaged in and frowned. He could have sworn that Ed had already read that one the other day.

"I thought that you read that one already." he casually commented, as he knew from experience with his friend that saying the wrong thing could make him shut down completely. Ed lowered the book a bit and stopped reading. He knew that Reid didn't quite suspect anything, but was actually really curious by nature.

"There were parts that I thought could use a more...thorough read. I suppose I found it very interesting and just wanted to look at certain parts of it again. To be honest, there were a few chapters that I wanted to re-read." Ed answered while turning another page. It wasn't necessarily a lie. He had wanted to give another look at all the progress that had been made over the years. To be honest, he was still in quite a bit of shock.

Reid looked skeptical, of course, more than likely because he was all too aware of Ed's intelligence and ability to read at such an amazing pace. Therefore, it puzzled him as to why he would want to go back and read a book that he had just read not even a few days ago. He supposed that for now, it wasn't the most important thing that was on their plates. They had made a relatively decent break in the case the other night, which had been thankful. The only suspect that they'd even had was Eric Miller and Reid had unfortunately been forced to practically crack him emotionally. He had not been proud of it, and had, in fact, loathed doing it to an already broken man. The only help was the discovery of his wedding ring that he still wore, proving that he still loved his ex-wife. Glancing over at Ed, he took in his position and body language. It told him that he was used to not having a lot, which meant that he was possessive of what he did have. Judging by how he kept mentioning his brother in such a protective and outright borderline obsessive tone, it would seem that they were undoubtedly never separated for too long a time. As he was obviously the eldest, he had for some reason taken it upon himself to probably take personal responsibility for him. Mentally shrugging it off as not necessarily important for the moment, he had to call for Ed's attention a few times as his new friend had obviously been so preoccupied in the book he had borrowed. Not for the first time, he wondered if Ed had the ability to read and retain information like he could.

As they stepped out of the elevator and made their way through the crowd, Reid noticed that Ed had barely looked up from his book at all. He still answered Reid's questions mostly in English, with a barely noticeable accent; which had surprised him, as he had only been given the translation book a few days prior. Then again, the book he was reading was in English, so it shouldn't be that big of a surprise. What did surprise him was how aware of his surroundings he could be, moving around people the way he did and only looking at Reid to answer questions. Maybe it was something that his being in the military had taught him, but he had a weird sort of grace that seemed almost subtle. As everyone gathered together at the beginning of the day, Ed had yet again taken a position that allowed himself a view of the entire room and the exit at the same time. Morgan looked at Reid with a raised eyebrow, obviously noticing a pattern in his behavior; no matter how casual it may appear to anyone else. Everyone looked slightly confused, as they usually had all paired off by now, as opposed to them all gathered together like this. Hotch arrived last, making sure everyone had made it, including Penelope. Walking towards the front of the room, he cleared his throat slightly to gain everyone's attention as this was obviously quite irregular.

"As this investigation is progressing slower than we'd like, I thought that this would be a good time to gather and get a fresh perspective on things. As I'm sure you are aware, Ed here is in the military, if not on somewhat temporary leave. From what I've heard, he did mostly research and investigations."

Ed kept himself from outright laughing, if not with a slight tint of dark humor at the term. What he had researched was something that had led both him and his brother, (let alone his entire country) down a dark and bloody path. To keep himself from having explain any of this, he merely nodded. Naturally, Reid was curious about it.

"May I ask what you were usually researching?" Reid asked, in a manner that reminded him all too much of his brother. Mentally sighing, he went with a phrase he commonly got from some of his superiors.

"Sorry, but it's classified," Ed told him, shaking his head. Inwardly, he sighed. He knew that neither one of them were entirely innocent, but he wouldn't tell him. It wasn't technically classified on this side of the gate, but he wasn't about to tell any of them about his very bloody past. He could see that almost everyone wanted to know more about it, but he shook his head, seeing the curiosity in their eyes. "It's not worth looking into, but I will help you."

A/N: Okay. I'm going to stop it there for now, because if you have watched CM at all, you know things are about to get crazy. Well, there's that and me trying to update my fics in general. T.T

**I have no idea if this is even a real book, but it sounds like something he'd be interested in.

***I have never seen Reid actually drive, so if he owns a car I don't remember. For the sake of convenience, he'll drive at least some of the time.