Vil was appropriately horrified at the fact Edna's brother was stuck in a suit of armor. But once he got over his initial shock, he permitted the odd 'teen' to visit the dorm. He was not, however, allowed to stay.

Kalim had no issue with Alphonse crashing in his dorm, and Jamil soon found the benefits of it as Alphonse was a very effective bodyguard. No one would suspect the ancient suit of armor to be alive and capable of taking out an assassin after all.

Alphonse had noticed rather quickly how much his sister had changed since her disappearance.

Edna had never really taken an interest in beauty, or maintaining her appearance. She also rarely shopped for clothes or cared about dating in the least.

Now though...Alphonse doubted that anyone would recognize his older sister at a glance like before. Edna's hair was much shinier and softer than he could remember. Her skin had a much healthier sheen to it, and there was even a light dusting of make-up to accent her eyes and features. Her clothing was a higher quality than Edna would have bought for herself, and he was surprised to learn that she actually wore skirts regularly outside classes.

Edna hated skirts. Mostly because of the fact she was too active and rarely had a reason to wear them.

Alphonse was a tad bit surprised learning the reason why. For reasons unknown to the rest of the school, Edna had shown clear interest in the most reclusive and introverted housewarden in the entire school. No one could figure out what the two could possibly have in common, but it was an interesting show regardless.

Al quietly (as much as a suit of armor could) sidled up to Azul after the Board Game club.

"So, how long has my sister been crushing on this Idia guy?"

Azul looked more amused than anything.

"About a month, maybe too. They didn't really hit it off until Shroud upgraded her automail because the oils were causing her old set to malfunction. Not sure what was said between them, but the two of them have been quietly getting even closer since the past two weeks," said Azul.

Al was quiet, before he said the magical words of a younger sibling blackmailing the older one.

"Want me to help record them? It's amazing how people dismiss a suit of armor and I can easily hold a few cameras to catch their interactions from the side."

Azul's eyes gleamed as he was more than happy to seize on a chance to catch some candid photos of other students from an enabler. Especially when it was offered freely.

It was a pity Alphonse couldn't really enter the Monstro Lounge. The metal his armor was made of rusted far quicker around salt water than it did the arid desert of Scarabia. There was more than one reason Alphonse stayed with Kalim's dorm than with his sister.


Edna felt silly for doing this. To be fair, she had never really taken up many hobbies before simply because she didn't really have the time for them. It was more important that she get their bodies back as soon as possible, so most of her spare time was usually in a library or something, knee deep in research notes. And most of the time she was in towns that didn't really have much of a library or entertainment.

However she had accidentally stumbled on a video of someone in a rather odd uniform dancing to the music Idia had introduced her to. He called it ballet.

Originally she had dismissed it and had watched the video out of boredom.

She found herself looking up another video (different song) and soon became hooked. It wasn't the music, but the way they moved that fit neatly into the exercises Vil had insisted that all the dorm members follow regularly.

Edna was likely one of the rare few who did it daily before class, or joined Vil and Jack for their morning runs.

It was so stupid, but she carefully typed in the search engine 'ballet for dummies' and found several free videos for anyone wanting to learn how to dance.

She had a bit of a leg up in that regard, because her left foot could handle some of the more intricate moves without risk of spraining, though her right needed to be trained up a bit.

Edna would not admit to having to do some quick repairs when her move went wrong and she found it impossible to properly balance with only her dresser, as she refused to use the window sill. Besides, it wasn't the right height for it anyway.

So here she was, in the dance studio available to the students of Pomefiore with a pair of ear buds in (borrowed from Idia) so she could watch the video in relative quiet without alerting anyone outside she was in there. She didn't need that much light and the days she practiced were usually pretty bright from the moon.

Edna was rather relieved that hardly anyone was awake at this hour. She was used to all nighters from reading alchemy texts until Alphonse forcibly removed her from the library.

The bar was at a near perfect height for her to rest her leg to get it in the right position.

She was so caught up in her attempts to recreate the moves she completely missed the door opening.

She certainly noticed it when she felt a hand on her flesh leg adjusting her into the correct posture.

Edna stared at Vil, startled.

"I was wondering why Rook kept seeing your light on so late. So you're the mystery ghost that's taken up residence in the dance studio," he said more amused than irritated.

Edna took out her ear buds, before carefully lowering her leg back to the floor. She had an embarrassed look on her face, but her eyes were defiant almost daring him to say something.

Vil looked at the video she was watching before calming pausing it.

"Your leg is up too high, and your foot is positioned wrong," said Vil.

Edna recognized this as his 'instructing' tone, and relaxed slightly. Vil merely glanced at the video she had been watching.

Without a word, he showed her the proper way to begin the routine. Edna paid rapt attention and silently followed him without a word.

The two began to follow the routine Edna had been trying to recreate on her own, with Vil's quiet instruction on what she was doing wrong.

Vil said nothing the next morning once they were done for the night...however Edna found a link to a more comprehensive dance routine compared to the half-assed one she had been following before in her messages.

Vil also made it clear he had no issue with her learning ballet or using the dance studio, but set a strict curfew on when she was allowed to use it. Most sixteen year olds would balk at being told they were to be in bed by eleven, but Edna found it entirely reasonable. If she had a question, she knew she could go directly to Vil to ask.

He was a well of information in regards to her new hobby or school in general.


Edna was really, really starting to regret agreeing to help Azul with his lounge during finals weeks. While Idia didn't mind giving her an old phone to use (mostly so she could contact him directly in case her prosthetic needed work), she didn't like relying on Vil for help in regards to her new hobby.

There was a video of a performance she really wanted to watch, but it was stuck behind a paywall. Normally she'd offer tutoring for the alchemy class, but since it was finals week she had found herself dealing with the laziness of the other students.

Specifically the fact Azul had apparently written a study guide for the lazy and less scholastically inclined and had already begun marketing it at least a week or two before the finals were due.

As such her well of prospective clients had dried up rather quickly, to her annoyance.

Which was when she made the mistake of mentioning it to Azul directly, leading to this current predicament.

"I hate you so much right now," said Edna.

"It's not my fault you needed money for a hobby," he said smugly.

Edna grit her teeth at that.

"But why the hell did you put me in a...what did you call it again?"

"A French maid outfit," he replied smirking. "And it's considered normal attire for doing basic chores or tasks for another."

More like he wanted as many pictures as he could get to sell to Idia later, because he knew damn well the older teen would shell out large amounts of money for it. He was not above capitalizing on Idia's obvious crush on Edna, or for enjoying the view.

She did nothing for him, honestly but he could enjoy her acerbic wit and comments while she grudgingly did the work he asked her.

He learned quickly to keep her away from the kitchen...Edna could boil water and was tolerably good at potions, but when it came to making anything edible it was usually a hit or miss. To be fair, most of her cooking experience usually involved joining Rook on his hunting excursions and cooking on an open fire until it was safe to eat.

Considering she usually only had to cook for one (since Alphonse couldn't eat regardless), the standard she had for what was edible was far lower than what Azul could allow in his business.

Hence why he put her in a maid outfit and had her cleaning the lounge and his office. Edna could care less about his little side hustles so long as it didn't involve her or her friends, and afterwards found herself in some rather amusing arguments with Floyd.

He seemed to find her 'tsundere' behavior hilarious and would drive her up the wall. Unlike Riddle, she gave as good as she got and had zero interest in him.

Azul was silently making his own bets on when Floyd and Riddle would eventually get together, because Floyd had been getting a lot of experience riling up the red tyrant thanks to Edna.

Azul was eagerly awaiting Idia's arrival, as he had deliberately left something behind in the club room and knew the other teen would be showing up soon. Azul tactfully did not warning Idia about Edna being there or what she would be wearing.

Idia came in, nervous as hell from being so far from his room, took one look at Edna in a French Maid outfit and promptly passed out from a sudden nose bleed.

"Nii-san!" said Ortho in alarm, while Edna looked more confused as to why Idia had passed out.

"I thought spray patterns like that only happened in anime?" she said.

"...I honestly thought they did too," said Azul, after a moment. That was going to be a pain to clean up.

It took them a good ten minutes to wake the older teen up, much to Ortho's relief.

"Nii-san, it's not good for you to lose that much blood!" said Ortho, scolding him.

"Sorry. I wasn't expecting...that," he said.

"You're paying for the cleaning bill," said Azul flatly.

"Did I really just see Edna dressed as a maid?" said Idia, staring at Azul who politely ignored the tissues in his nose.

"She's doing some part time work, but having her on the floor is too distracting and she can't cook to the standards of the kitchen. So she helps clean after hours," explained Azul. "She only agreed to the uniform because it's not ridiculously short."

Idia did his best to avoid looking at Edna when she came back in. He wasn't very successful, but at least this time he didn't pass out from shock or sudden blood loss. The tea was okay, but he did his best not to stare at her in that outfit.

"I know, I know, I look ridiculous. Al is never going to let me live it down if he sees me like this," said Edna exasperated. "Vil was far too amused about it already."

Amused was putting it lightly. Vil had already given Azul suggestions on how to make the outfit more fashionable when Edna reluctantly shared a picture of the uniform.

Azul was beyond amused at the way Idia was reacting. It was clear he really liked the uniform, but was too shy to say anything. Even Ortho, the innocent creature he was, was picking up on it.

Which is why he was unsurprised when Ortho confronted him about it.

"You deliberately set that up to surprise my brother."

"I did," agreed Azul. "How else are we going to nudge those two idiots together?"

Ortho paused. So it wasn't just Azul who noticed it.

"So you did that to nudge my brother towards Edna?" he asked.

"You have to admit they look adorable together," said Azul smirking.

Ortho snickered.

"Just...a little forewarning next time please? It's really not healthy for nii-san to loose that much blood."

"I admit I wasn't expecting him to have that strong a reaction," said Azul honestly. It was hilarious though and best of all he had video evidence to prove it!