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“What if I just skipped school today?” Ed sighed, dragging his backpack on the floor. He could hear the muffled gasp of Al behind his back almost as if he had just grown two heads.
“But you can’t! We have a chemistry test in two days, and with how Mr. Mustang teaches you’ll be missing half of the content!” Al protested.
“I wouldn’t be missing half of it if he got his ass into gear during the start of the unit,” Ed groaned. He hated Mustang’s way of teaching, it was bookwork on bookwork on bookwork, and then the last few days he sped through all of the actual important stuff before handing you the test.
He didn’t even give out a review.
“Well you know how he is,” Al sighed. Yeah, he did know and he also knew that he wanted to punch him in the face.
As they got closer and closer Al began running to Chemistry while Ed stayed lagging behind. He didn’t give a damn if he was gonna be late again. Who knows, maybe he’ll get suspended the day of the test for having too many late days then he could use that day to study. Faking sick was pointless, Izumi always knew when he was faking it.
Then again there was the situation if he ever did get suspended and Izumi found out– actually not getting suspended sounds great right now.
He rushed towards the door making it the exact same time as Mustang, then the bell rang.
“Looks like we’re both late,” Mustang replied, letting Ed walk in first. “But since you’re here before me I guess I won’t count it. You’re lucky I’m feeling nice today Ed, you owe me one now. How about not blowing up the classroom for a change?”
Ed’s grip on his backpack tightened as he looked over to Mustang.
Could he get suspended for punching his teacher?
“I don’t owe you shit!” He shouted.
“No cussing in the classroom Ed, I don’t wanna get scolded for your bad mouth again,” Mustang sighed. He sat down at his desk and gestured for Ed to do the same. As the announcements came on for the day Ed began getting out his materials.
He did well in this class, but that didn’t mean that he was lazy about it. He worked his ass off for this. As the announcements finished up he tapped his pencil against his desk and began surveying the classroom. There was Al in the corner talking to Ling (the bastard still needs to pay him back for lunch), the sun was finally shining for once meaning that it would be warm (so his stumps wouldn’t ache as much), and there was a glint on Mustang’s finger that he didn’t realize before–
–wait.
Ed squinted at it before shortly realizing that it was a ring, on his ring finger, an engagement ring.
He felt his mouth drop open suddenly and his eyes widened. When the hell did he get married ? Who married him? When was he seeing someone? He never mentioned it during the start of the year so it must’ve happened relatively recently, or maybe he just never wore it until now?
“Something caught your eye Edward?” Mustang looked at him smugly, well he knows that Ed knows now.
“When the hell did you get married ?”
“What have I told you about your language in my class? I doubt you talk like this in Ms. Armstrong’s class,” Mustang frowned.
“Answer my question first,” Ed insisted, pointing to the ring (which everyone in the class was looking at now).
Mustang exhaled deeply as if he didn’t want to talk about this (liar).
“Well it happened relatively recently if you must know, last week actually but I haven’t really worn the ring yet also– I’m not married, there hasn’t been a wedding yet,” Although if the smug indication of his voice was anything to go off of it seemed that he had already planned the majority of it.
“Well then, in that case I offer my condolences to whoever married your sorry a– butt,” Ed corrected, before Mustang could get at him for it.
The class burst into a flurry of questions shortly after with some of the girls giggling and wondering who it could be. Ed only rolled his eyes, the fucker had to of know it would incite this kind of reaction. What a bitch.
“Who is it?” Al asked above everyone else. Mustang paused for a moment as if he was considering the possibility of telling them, only to smile and shake his head.
“I can’t tell you that Alphonse, however I can say that you know who they are. Why don’t you guys try and guess who it is? I'm sure the majority of you know her already,” Mustang replied easily. He was probably planning this from the start, cause a commotion so he wouldn’t have to do his job for once and actually teach the class, because of course he wouldn’t that's just the type of person he is, what a bastard–
“There’s quite the commotion going on over here,” A voice called from the hallway.
Hawkeye.
She was the gym teacher of the school and while she was harsh she wasn’t nearly as hard as Ms. Armstrong.
“Ah! Ms. Hawkeye, what can I do for you?” Mustang asked, he leaned on his chair towards her and gave her a big smile.
“Well you could start by teaching your class, progress reports are due next week, don’t you know? I’m sure you have quite a few papers to grade, don’t you?” Hawkeye scolded, but Mustang shrugged her off.
“Eh, they can grade their own papers, actually why don’t we do that today–”
“Don’t they have to take a test in a few days?”
“Yes but–”
“Get back to teaching Mustang,” Hawkeye laughed. “Before I send Ms. Armstrong to check in on you,”
Mustang paled a little before nodding. “Uh huh got it, you always know just what to say, don’t you?” he hissed out.
“Courtesy of knowing you for so long,”
With that she walked past them over to her own class.
Mustang sighed and stood up looking over to them. “Alright! You guys can guess at who I’m marrying and I’ll tell you who but– it'll have to happen later as I don’t want Ms. Hawkeye to yell at me… or send Ms. Armstrong yell at me,” he shuddered and the class laughed.
Ed knew his pain though, if he had to choose between fighting a bear and fighting with Ms. Armstrong he would choose the bear, the bear at least might show him some mercy.
Mustang walked over to his white board and took out a marker already drawing some structures.
“Okay! So–...”
If anyone was happy about hearing the news of Mustang’s marriage it was definitely Winry.
Ed sighed as she squealed over her lunch, covering her face in barely concealed excitement. “Really? That’s so cute! Good for him, I know that Mr. Hughes has been trying to get him to go on a date for a while or just find someone– I’m so glad that it finally worked out!” she giggled.
Ed sat up a little straighter. “Wait, so then how long has Mustang known his fiance for then?”
Winry paused and looked over to Ed. “Well– probably a while, right?”
“But if Hughes didn’t know…” Ed trailed off.
“Maybe he was hiding it, Mustang’s a very private person brother, remember?” Al asked and Ed scoffed.
“Private? He’s anything but did you see the look on his face when I mentioned the ring? He was dying to talk about it,” Ed hissed.
“Maybe he was just happy to be marrying the girl of his dreams?” Winry added.
“Hell no, honestly he was probably looking for a reason to stall so that we would all fail the next test. Thank god Hawkeye showed up in time to whip his lazy ass back into shape,” Ed praised. “Honestly I’m just glad that he went over that last formula because I had no clue how it worked when the book explained it,”
“We’re going over formula’s today?!” Winry shouted in surprise. Ed cringed as a few people turned to look over to them. “I didn’t study for that! I don’t want to be called on randomly again,” she whined.
“I’m sure Ed would love to teach you some right now,” Al smiled giving Ed a knowing look, and they called him the troublemaker.
“Really?” Winry gasped, she looked over to Ed and smiled a look of genuine hope flashing through her eyes. Wow, she really didn’t study if she looked a little excited for chemistry out of all things.
Ed sighed and nodded, reaching over to his backpack and taking out some of his notes. “Sure, but this is payback for copying your literature homework. After this I don’t owe you anything,” Ed insisted.
Winry sighed and nodded, grabbing his notes and looking over them with him. From the corner he saw Al’s smug smile. The little shit– he must be so proud of himself.
When class ended they all went to Hawkeye’s class, health and P.E. It was one of the two classes that they all had together. The other class that they all had together was Hughes’ class, teaching math.
“Hello Edward, Alphonse, Winry,” Hawkeye smiled, tilting down her head a little in greeting. “You three are earlier than usual,” she commented.
Ed’s face twisted a little confusion before noticing– they were a little earlier than usual, weren’t they? He turned over to Winry to mention it but the look on her face told him that she planned this. His face paled as he realized why they were early.
“Hawkeye! You’ve known Mustang for a long time, right?” She asked.
Hawkeye nodded in agreement. “That I have, why?”
“So then do you know who he’s marrying? Ed implied that it was someone who we knew but he doesn’t even know and I don’t know if I trust his memory–”
“I have a better one than you!” Ed interrupted, he could feel his face moving in anger. Al stepped to the side giving Hawkeye an apologetic look.
Hawkeye laughed. “Well if he won’t tell you I don’t think it’d be very fair if I told you, besides don’t you think that’s a little private Winry?” she asked.
“Well he said that if we guess who it is and we guess correctly he’ll tell us!” Winry replied enthusiastically.
“Hey! I told you that!”
“Shut up Edward! I’m talking to Hawkeye!”
“And you dragged me here early to do it?!”
“You can always leave!”
“No!”
“Well then stop complaining!”
Hawkeye sighed. “Please no fighting in the classroom, and no shouting either. I don’t want a noise complaint from Bradley about the two of you,” she said tiredly. They all said their apologies in unison before sitting down and conversing about the subject.
Winry looked over to Hawkeye once more before smiling. “Is that a new necklace?” she asked, pointing over to the thing on Hawkeye’s neck.
Hawkeye nodded. “Yes, I got it last week,” she moved it. It was a simple silver string with a ring on it. Ed squinted at it, why does he feel like he’s seen one like that before? “Thank you for noticing Winry,”
“Of course!”
Riza sighed, walking over to Roy’s classroom, school had ended for the day and the majority of the students had already left. She leaned on the door to see him not grading papers but instead planning a lab. She huffed a little in amusement and that got his attention, he turned to her and smiled widely.
“Hello, Ms. Hawkeye, what can I do for you?” he asked, spinning on his chair towards her. He set his chin on his hand eyeing her up and down playfully.
“Well I suppose that I have a question or two for you,” she walked over to his desk and placed her hands down on it, gently touching the wood. “The first one being why are you planning a lab when you haven’t even finished grading yet?”
“Mmm, that’s a great question, the answer being I want Edward to suffer for trying to blow up my classroom again today,”
“Ah, I see, but you do know that you need to get all of your material done by the end of the school year? Y’know… for the final?” she teased, he moved his hand over hers and nodded.
“I know, I’m pushing this lab up, give them more work,”
“Mhm,”
“Did you have any other questions, Ms. Hawkeye?”
She had to stop herself from giggling at the use of her last name. Currently they haven’t changed her last name to his. She had no intention of keeping her current one. She had no attachment to it. Her father was obsessed with his work and her mother died from a young age. The only family she had now was the apparent mayor of the town that they were currently in (something she didn’t even find out until she began working at the school). Grumman, her eccentric grandfather.
“You’re really getting all of your use out of that aren’t you?” She teased.
“Well I can’t call you Mrs. Mustang just yet, can I?” Roy hummed, he was gently caressing her hand now. “Although I wouldn’t have any objections to calling you it right now ,” he whispered, leaning forward.
“I’m sure you wouldn’t but that’s not exactly why I came over,” Riza replied, turning the conversation back to the reason why she was actually here. “I’ve heard that you’ve been teasing your students over your fiance,”
Roy stood up from his seat, picking up her hand and walking around his desk over to her. “It’s just a little guessing game, I wanna see if they can figure it out. I mean– I don’t think it’ll be that hard,”
“I suppose it shouldn’t be, but I think that you should’ve told Maes before the kids, he doesn’t even know we’re seeing each other like that,” she emphasized.
“I thought it was obvious,” Roy frowned, his thumb gently moving over the top of her hand. She looked down at their hands and pulled him closer to her, gently kissing him.
“I know you did, but you should go tell him before he ends up breaking down your classroom door demanding information,” Riza suggested. “Besides, knowing those three Maes probably knows already and is rushing over here this instant,”
Then almost as if on cue Maes came stumbling in the hall, huffing and puffing.
“I came over here as soon as I could– Roy! What’s this about you having someone–” he stopped as he saw Riza and Roy, a huge smile suddenly appearing on his face as he pumped his fist in the air. “YES!” he shouted.
Roy frowned a little, letting go of Riza’s hand. “Have you ever heard of knocking?” he groaned, rubbing his temples.
“Have you ever heard of shutting your door? I mean if you’re gonna do that stuff here at least close the door–”
“We weren’t doing anything!” Roy shouted. Riza noticed the flushing of his face.
“Uh huh, I know that you’re in the honeymoon stage right now Roy but seriously? I’m glad you’ve got someone like Riza to watch you though, keep you in line and all that,” he grinned, giving Riza a thumbs up. Maes ignored Roy’s stammering and walked past him to Riza excitedly.
“I can’t believe that the two of you kept this from me! Especially you Roy,” Maes emphasized pointing to him. “Honestly I just wished that you could’ve told me sooner so that we could’ve went on a double date sooner,”
“What do you mean sooner–” Roy stammered.
Maes smiled at him. “Tonight Gracia and I are inviting you two to dinner! We already have reservations at the really fancy place that’s opened recently, I’m sure that the two of you will love it. Think of it as a congratulations for the proposal!”
“I don’t think that–” Roy was cut off by Maes.
“Besides think of this as you owing me for letting your students know that you were married before your best friend,”
“I–”
“I’ll see the two of you there! I’ll text you the details Riza! Make sure he comes,” he added quickly before disappearing.
Roy’s mouth was still partially open as he stared at the door in shock.
“I feel like a storm just passed through,” he admitted looking over to Riza. “You know that you don’t have to accept it right? We both know he’s a lot so–”
“It’s fine, besides it would be a good moment to tell Gracia as well, y’know face to face instead of through Maes,” Riza added. “Unless you don’t want to go?”
“I’m good with anything,” he said instantly. “I mean… a double date– that seems so soon,” he muttered.
Riza laughed. “You literally proposed to me last week and we’ve been seeing each other for years ,”
“I know that but still, Maes always makes me feel like I’m rushing things with how he works,” Roy admitted.
“Well you kinda need it, after all you wouldn’t get anything done without some pressure, I should know best,” Riza laughed.
“I guess you’re right,”
“I usually am,”
The news of Mustang’s marriage apparently excited a lot more people than just Winry Ed was beginning to notice. Everyone was buzzing about (mostly the girls) and rumors spread through the classes like a wildfire. The current leading theory (and the dumbest in Ed’s opinion) on who he could possibly be marrying is Ms. Armstrong. It’s mostly because Hawkeye threatened sending Ms. Armstrong to get after him though. He’s heard Winry discuss it with a sad twinge in her voice, saying how it could be very likely.
“Did you want it to be someone else?” Ed sat his tray down next to her watching as she picked at her food.
“Well– I mean– it’s just so rude to say that, Ed, you need to learn better manners,” Winry hissed, her face flushed bright red as she stomped down on his foot with her feet.
He let out a hiss of pain curling over the desk and looking over to Winry. “I’m not the one sad that Mustang is marrying,”
“It’s not that!” Winry exclaimed – and a little too loudly – “it’s just… I really thought he was gonna get together with someone else, I mean they seemed really close and all,” Winry sighed as she took a bite out of her food and instantly made a face, it made sense, it was meatloaf after all.
“Like Hawkeye?” Ed asked, rolling his eyes. “I see what you mean but it’s like hell that they’re ever gonna get together,”
Winry pouted. “Why would you say that?”
“Mustang is married, and even if he wasn't, why the hell would Hawkeye marry him of all people? She hardly puts up with him as is in school,”
“But maybe that’s just how she shows that she loves him!” Winry protested.
“Well then Mustang would have to be insane to even think of proposing to her, honestly if anything she would probably have to propose to him,” Ed replied.
“Well it’s a better option than him marrying Armstrong,” she frowned.
“I guess so but not by much,” Ed replied.
Honestly he just couldn’t see Mustang marrying someone in general. After all there had been rumors about him being a womanizer during his high school and college years (both of which he knows Hawkeye has known him for) and he couldn’t see him marrying anyone because of that. Sure, people changed but Mustang? Hell no, not in a million years.
He still remembers that one time they went on a class field trip and they encountered not one, not two, but three , of his exes there.
That had been one hell of a time.
Ed practically slammed the finished test on Mustang’s desk, forcing the other to look up at him and wake up from his cat nap or whatever (seriously how is this guy a teacher?).
“You done Edward?” Mustang asked, he grabbed the stapled sheets of papers and flipped through them. “You sure you don’t wanna spend more time on this kid? You have like 20 minutes left,” he muttered.
“Yeah, I’m done, this test was really easy so I didn’t need to spend much time on it at all,” he bragged casually, leaning against Mustang’s desk. Mustang’s eyes followed to where he was leaning and then back up to him.
“Alright… also are you sure you spelled fluorine correctly this time? Didn’t call it flourine like you did the last few times,” Mustang replied smugly, as he already tucked the test away.
“ Yes ,”
“Good, just making sure,”
Ed turned around to go back to his desk. He sat down with a thump and looked around the classroom suddenly regretting that he had finished his test so early, because now he was bored and there was little for a bored Ed to do. He couldn’t take out any chemistry homework to work on (as Mustang would yell at him for it cause the others were taking a test) and he had already finished all of his work in his other classes (courtesy of Winry and Al insisting that he finish his work before the period started with the exception being chemistry cause the current homework wasn’t due till next week).
He let his eyes wander the classroom before looking back at Mustang’s ring and all of the sudden getting a feeling of deja vu. It looked exactly like something else he had seen before, maybe the ring design itself was just relatively common, as he couldn’t see Mustang spending that much on a ring (especially on a teacher's salary) but there was something still bothering him.
He’s seen that ring before, and recently as well. He just couldn’t remember where, maybe he’d seen it on a billboard or on display somewhere, or maybe it just looked like one of those cheap rings that someone might get at a kids jewelry store, but that didn’t seem like his style either.
However he didn’t remember seeing it often , just seeing it somewhere . Somewhere specific, somewhere recent.
Why was he even concerned about this in the first place?
A tap on the door cut him from his thoughts.
“Would you happen to have a first aid kit? One of the kids scraped their knee pretty badly, and I thought that I had one but then I remembered that I gave it to Ms. Curtis,”
Hawkeye stood at the door.
Mustang instantly straightened up and nodded. “I believe that I should, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s pretty run down given how many times I’ve had to use it for some of my students,” he replied looking dead at Ed.
He didn’t even try to hide that one.
“Shouldn’t we be more concerned about that then?” She replied walking into the room as Mustang turned around and into the cabinets to find the kit.
“Ah, it’s nothing, they’re tough…” he muttered, trailing off as he took it out. “Here, you can just bring it back by the end of the day, I doubt that I’ll have much use for it,” he replied casually ( too casually might Ed add).
Hawkeye took it with a nod. “Thank you, well then, I’ll be off,” she looked over to the students and then to Ed. “Did you already finish your test Edward?” she asked.
“Yep,” he replied. He saw that she was holding the first aid kit close to her, and near it something caught the corner of his eye. “It was relatively easy,” he explained as he squinted a little, getting a better look at her necklace.
“Shouldn’t you save that for after the test? Wouldn’t want this one getting mad and making it harder for everyone else,” Hawkeye replied looking over towards Mustang, who only held up his hands guiltily while the rest of the class grumbled in agreement.
“I don’t see how that’s my problem, it’s not like he can make it that hard anyways, he’s not that smart,”
Hawkeye only smiled at him. “Well I still think it’s better you say those things while you’re not in his classroom, don’t you agree Edward?” she replied gesturing over to Mustang, who currently looked like he wanted to beat the shit out of Ed, well it's a good thing corporal punishment was illegal.
He sighed. “Fine,”
He looked back to her necklace and almost paled, he knew that ring. It was the same one on Mustang’s finger.
He looked over to Mustang and then Hawkeye and then wanted to turn back to Al and scream at the top of his lungs incomprehensibly because what the fuck .
So instead he just gave Mustang a 1000 yard stare.
Hawkeye and Mustang had the same ring.
There was no way… right?
However Mustang seemed to notice his dilemma and instead gave him a smug smirk only confirming his beliefs.
Once class ended Ed stood around with Al. He just had to confirm this whole thing.
“Can you tell me why we’re waiting again?” Al whined.
“Shut up! I’m just trynna see something, we’ll be out once I do alright?-”
“Hello Edward,” Mustang greeted, he leaned over his desk and smiled. “You have any questions for me?”
“Are you and Hawkeye married?”
“Brother!” Al protested, Ed could see him turn red from the corner of his eye.
“Relax Al, it’s just a question,” he replied looking over to Al, he then turned back to Mustang. “Well?”
Mustang tapped his desk rhythmically with a grin. “Well… it is a possibility,” he teased.
“You said you would tell us if we got it right,” Ed stated. “And I just wanna figure this out so Winry doesn’t mope around anymore,” he sighed.
“Why is Winry moping?” Mustang asked, a look of confusion flashed over his face.
“Because the current rumor is that you’re marrying Ms. Armstrong,”
Mustang made a face of disgust. “Oh… well I see why she was looking at me funny the other day then,” he muttered. “But.. if you must know Fullmetal,” – Ed cringed at the nickname, one he jokingly gave himself because of his prosthetics – “I am in fact marrying Riza,”
“She could do better,”
He frowned. “Now why would you say that?”
“Because it’s true, are you gonna say it’s not?”
Nothing.
Ed grinned at his victory. “Well then, thank you for your help but I’ve got to go and tell Winry that she can stop moping, I’ll see you around Mustang,” he replied walking out the door.
Winry was gonna have a field day with this one.