Worlds Collide

A/N: MustangsHavoc, yep, plenty of emotion there. Russell finally wised up, and wrath deserves that. I love writing Frank and Kain, so I'm happy you're enjoying. Amethyst-eyed Koneko, Fletcher's struggling to be a gnetleman. Russell is definitely different from Edward. Nicholas is definitely his pap's boy. Well, as far as Frank and the adoption, adopting an older kid was what he was getting at.

And please, no one shoot me for the way this chapter goes. It will seem strange, but trust me with the events to follow. Also, Het Lemon warning.

Chapter 50

Bad Decisions

One Month Later

Nicholas and Victor stood at the game room at the Armstrong mansion, Phillip making one hell of a shot at the pool table.

“So, how’s the Academy?” Victor asked.

“Going well enough. I’m having problems because I’m an Armstrong but not, but aside from that, doing well.” Phillip lined himself up for another shot. “How has Aideen been?”

“Angry, bi-polar, I don’t know,” Nicholas said, shaking his head. “She’d actually worn green at Fletcher’s request…” Nicholas paused, shaking his head, only half-noticing as his long-time friend scratched. “My turn.”

“You said, Fletcher requested her to wear something else?” Phillip said, moving away from the pool table. “And she listened?”

Nicholas only shrugged. “He didn’t give her a lot of choice. He had on his only black shirt, and she took his green one.” Thankfully, he managed to get the thirteen ball into the right corner pocket.

“Why did she wear his shirt?” Phillip asked, eyes wide.

“Because they’d just had hot sex,” Victor chimed in as he threw a dart, missing the bull’s-eye by quite a bit.

“What!”

“Because she was working in the garden with him and had to get to Frank’s birthday party.” Nicholas missed his shot, frowning as he did. “For shit sake, Phillip, you’ve been jealous of that man for going on three years, and in that time, nothing’s happened between them. Still hasn’t.”

“It hasn’t?”

“Nope. I think Russell thought it would, but my sister’s a downright recluse now.” He shook his head as Phillip lined up the three ball to the left center pocket. “I sometimes wonder how we’re even related. I’m a social creature by nature.”

“Too social. I can’t find a damned date because all the girls have something planned with you.”

Nicholas laughed in that sort of devilish way he had.

“Really, though,” Victor said, pulling the darts from the board, “I wonder sometimes, Phillip, what your obsession is with Aideen. I mean she’s hot to look at, but I think if you got to close to her, you might get frostbite.” He looked Nicholas in the eyes. “No offense, but it’s the truth.”

Reluctantly, Nicholas nodded. Though, icy really didn’t describe her lately. She’d been moody and distant, though their fights decreased except for the few occasions when that falsely pleasant persona appeared.

“Listen, don’t worry yourself about my sister,” Nicholas said. “You go back to the academy tomorrow. When you do, enjoy yourself there.”

********

Ed looked through the library, the place where Aideen had holed herself up for the last month. After what went on with Fletcher, Ed had assumed it would just be a matter of time before she was dating the older man, or that at least, they’d see an improvement in her behavior.

Instead, his daughter had become more withdrawn, avoiding everyone. She no longer wanted out in public, didn’t visit Fletcher, and only tolerated the company of her own family. The only time she left the house was when it was to visit her therapist, one that seemed to be doing very little better than Dr. Zacharias had. She’d detached herself completely, and Ed was at a loss. He didn’t know how to deal with this, and nothing he tried seemed to work. There were nights, when he let himself think about it, that he go so frustrated that angry tears ended up running down his cheeks. Other times he spent wanting to yell at his daughter, to force her to snap out of it.

Nothing worked.

But for the moment, she had collapsed in near exhaustion upstairs, and he was taking the chance to really look at what she was so intently researching. Ed went through the books sitting on the desk, relatively innocent, though complex still for her age, if not her advanced skill. But then again, he’d seen nearly these same books laid out daily. He knew his daughter well enough to know that these were decoys; he knew because if he were the one doing the studying, they would be decoys for him.

However, it seemed that Aideen had been sloppy in putting away her books, as he found a few bookmarked ones among the papers on the desk. He began stacking the marked books on top of the desk, picking up the first, opening the first book marked page of a book that was all too familiar, and thinking back to his first encounter, he still shuddered to look at it.

“Aideen Riza Mustang!” he yelled out, hearing the noise from directly above as the teen left her room and ran down the steps.

“What is it, Dad?” she asked as he held the book in his shaking hand, though whether it was shaking from fear for his daughter or anger at her, he didn’t know.

“What are you doing reading this?” She looked at the book, and he swore he saw the faintest smile on her face. Angrily, he opened up to the first marked page. “‘In order for a soul transfer to take place, the receiving vessel must be within the transmutation circle…’” He slammed the book shut. “You have no business reading this. It is forbidden for a reason.”

“Right,” she said, watching as he pulled out the bookmark, “because it’s better in the hands of an inexperienced eleven-year-old than a sixteen-year-old who’s seen the consequences.”

“You don’t understand—”

“I understand perfectly. It was fine for you to know it because it saved Uncle Al, but heaven forbid I learn anything about it.”

Ed began removing bookmark after bookmark. “It is dangerous, and you should know better than to question me. I am the parent here.”

“Do you think I’m going to be stupid enough to actually lose my arm and leg?” she asked, looking at his two pieces of automail with a smug expression. “Really? Do you think I’m that inexperienced? I might be your daughter, but it doesn’t mean I inherited your carelessness.”

“Watch you mouth, young lady!” Having had enough, he finally pulled out all of the bookmarks from the pages at once.

“Fuck you!” she said, arms tight and trembling at her side, clenched in fists, eyes on the book.

Before he could think, Ed’s left hand made its way to her cheek, smacking with his so hard, it left an almost immediate red mark on her fair skin. “You can spend the rest of the week in your room for that, and you can forget about wearing the coat until you’ve earned it again.”

Storming out into the hall, Aideen clapped her hands and grabbed the red coat Ed had given her. “You mean this one?” And with those words, it turned into a hundred pieces of shredded red fabric.

“Get your ass to your room, right now. I don’t want to see or hear from you!” Ed grabbed his daughter’s shirt and led her up the stairs.

“Get your hands off me! I HATE YOU!”

When they’d reached the top of the steps, he released her with a bit of a push and she stormed into her room, slamming the door with a look that seemed to say she’d meant those words.

It would be several minutes before the adrenaline wore off, and when it did, Ed found he was nothing more than a shaking mass, somewhere between fury and feeling like his daughter had just ripped his heart out.

“I love you,” Russell said from behind Wrath.

“We’re supposed to be working,” the braided head said, not turning to look at Russell, which he found just a bit rude.

Russell wrapped his arms around the larger man’s shoulders. “I meant it.”

“I know you did,” Wrath said, bringing a hand to Russell’s head, which rested atop the black hair. “But you don’t have to say it every ten minutes. I believe you.”

“I don’t say it often enough.”

“You do, but in your own way. You show it.”

Russell moved his mouth to Wrath’s ear. “Can I show you now?”

“I’m serious about working, Russell,” Wrath said, violet eyes not leaving his papers.

Russell sat at the corner of the desk and began looking over what Wrath was looking at, only to find himself being pulled onto the taller man’s lap. With a smile, they kissed.

“I’m going to have to move into a separate office.” Wrath held either side of Russell’s face as he covered every inch of skin with his lips until Russell finally moved away and latched himself to the soft skin at Wrath’s neck, shifting positions so that he was straddling the younger man’s lap. He wrapped his arms around Wrath’s neck, enjoying as a moan came from the dark-haired man when Russell drew some of his flesh into his mouth, biting at it and almost certainly bruising it. “Oh, damn… You’re too much of a distraction.”

Russell only laughed into his lover’s neck. He really did love him so much that it hurt, and until this moment, he’d never understood what that meant. Understood how lucky he was every time he saw his brother trying to hide the fact that he now knew his feelings for the teenager who no longer visited him.

*******

Fletcher knelt on his rooftop garden, hearing the sound of the main livingroom door opening. He glanced over his shoulder, trying not to smile like a fool when he saw his early evening visitor was Aideen, though he noticed the absence of her guard.

“Fletcher?” she asked.

He stood up, looking at her, seeing something was off. “Aideen, is something wrong?” He wiped his hands on his pants as he stood, only to find his arms full of teenaged girl. “Aideen?”

“I had a fight with Dad.” She began sobbing in his arms. “It was a big one.”

Fletcher ran a hand over the silky black hair, gently rubbing her back with the other. They stood like that for a few minutes with him whispering comforting words in her ears, trying to remind himself that he needed to be the responsible adult. He needed to call her parents, the guards. But at the moment, all he wanted to do was stop her from crying.

And after some time, she finally did stop, looking up at him expectantly, something still off behind those orbs of gold and brown.

He was about to tell her that he needed to call her parents when he felt her arms wrap around his neck, a set of ruby red lips pressing against his chapped ones. Thought stopped as he held her body close to his own, returning the kiss. He felt her hands moving over his back, felt her lips demanding more from this kiss.

But Fletcher felt that, despite this being what he’d wanted he couldn’t take advantage of her, and in the back of his mind, he knew this was wrong. He pulled back from her and looked into her eyes, realizing that her hands had untucked the back of his shirt and were now underneath of it, grasping at his back. He pulled away, trying not to resume kissing when he saw her parted lips and clouded, half-lidded eyes.

“Aideen, we can’t do this.” He looked her in the eyes, seeing full clarity reflected back at him, her entire face turning blood red. She pulled away from him, hand over her mouth. “Aideen, you don’t need to be embarrassed.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, muffled behind her hand as she ran, faster than Fletcher could catch her out the door, into the apartment and into the hall.

“Aideen!” he called out after her. “Aideen wait!”

To quick for him, Aideen was down the hall and gone before he could catch her. He tried to track her on the steps, knowing she was ahead of him, but she kept her headstart on him. “Wait!” he yelled out, knowing that he shouldn’t continue to yell her name. That was too dangerous, given her family and the potential target she could become without her guards to help protect her.

Then he got to the street, looked around and she was gone. With the darkening sky, it was little wonder that the raven-haired, black-clothed teen could vanish in the streets, but Fletcher wanted to make her understand it wasn’t a mistake, just poor timing.

“Where are you? Please answer me!”

But there was no response.

********

Kain stood, cooking dinner, feeling something smacking him in the back of the head. He turned around to see if a bug had somehow gotten into the house and glanced for a moment over at Frank, who was breaking up cauliflower.

“What’s wrong?” Frank asked.

“I thought I… never mind.”

Kain resumed sautéing the chicken and felt it again. This time, he spotted a tiny piece of cauliflower on the floor before he turned.

This time, he grabbed a sliced carrot turned and chucked it at his husband.

“Didn’t take you long to figure out I was the one doing it.”

“Remind me again… Aren’t you the one who’s supposed to be older and more mature?”

“I’ve never claimed that.” Frank said, those cool blue eyes grinning up at Kain. In their main room, the phone was ringing, Frank immediately leaping up from the chair. “Not that I wouldn’t love to hear you continue telling me how immature I am…”

Kain rolled his eyes and resumed cooking as he heard his husband answer the phone.

“Roy, calm down,” Kain heard Frank say from their livingroom. Immediately, the younger man put the pan off the stove. If the fuhrer was upset, then things were bad, very bad.

“What do you mean she’s gone?”

Gone? Kain immediately started walking to the bedroom, gathering his and Frank’s uniforms. He had a guess who was missing, and if it was her, they’d need to be in uniform leading their men.

“Roy, we’ll find her. I see Kain went to get our uniforms now. We’ll get some men gathered and start fanning out through the city.” There was a pause and a faint sigh. “I know there’s no point in saying it, but don’t worry. We’ll do what we have to find her.”

Kain came back out with their uniforms, not even thinking about the fact that he was stripping in the livingroom to put it on.

“Aideen?” Kain asked as he saw Frank hang up the phone.

“Yeah.” Frank’s hand lingered for a second, another sigh escaping his lips. Kain knew how much his husband cared for the teen, including himself among one of many who tried to bring the girl out of her current funk.

“Well, let’s get ready and find her.”

********

Phillip was walking outside of Armstrong manor, debating on whether to visit Aideen or not. He really wanted to see her, but he wasn’t sure if she’d want to see him. Maybe it would be best if he just moved on from all of this, to stop pining after her like a stupid idiot. He’d assumed she would move on, even assumed it would be with Fletcher Tringham, since they shared a lot of common interests, and he was older and more mature than either Phillip or Aideen.

Still, Nicholas had only just left, and he’d told his friend to have his sister call or stop by before he left for the academy, and really, he couldn’t expect her to show up tonight. Certainly not this soon.

Hands in his pockets, he kicked at a rock on the sidewalk. He was being an idiot.

“Phillip?” A tiny voice whispered.

He turned around to the bushes, seeing a bit of pale skin and a set of brown and gold eyes. “Aideen?

Her head poked out from behind the foliage, and he could see she’d been crying. Going back there to be with her, he knelt in the mossy undergrowth, looking her in the eyes. “Aideen, are you okay? What happened?”

And in an uncommon display of emotions, one he’d never seen in his life from his ex-girlfriend, she began to detail a fight with her father.

“I wanted to learn, to understand what’s been going on. Nicholas and I are fighting all the time, my parents don’t understand me, I just didn’t know what to do. That thing at the zoo was made with alchemy, and my dad keeps hiding parts of alchemy from me. I got so angry at him, and I know I hurt him.”

Phillip pulled her into his arms, noticing her make-up was a mess, between the black streaks running down her cheeks and her smudged red lipstick, but not caring. She needed someone to be there for her, and if she needed it, he would comfort her.

“Let’s go back to the mansion.”

“No!” she said sharply, making him pull her away for a moment to look her in the eyes. “I left the house. If your parents see me, they’ll call my fathers.” She buried her head at his shoulder. “I can’t face them yet. Please, Phillip, is there somewhere else? For just a few minutes?”

Pulling her up with him, Phillip stood. “The pool house. We can talk in there.”

“Thank you.” He took her by the hand, leading Aideen through the back yard, careful of any watching eyes before going inside the pool house. His parents rarely looked there, and he knew it would be well stocked; it always was. He kept the lights low, as he looked around the room where he used to stay as a child. His parents had often used it as an additional guest house outside of the mansion, and it always had a fair amount of food in the kitchenette, a nice sofa and a bed at the rear.

He sat beside Aideen, letting her pour her heart out to him, or at least, letting her tell him her story until the point she left her house. She told him her concerns, her fears, her anger. For the first time since he’d known her, nothing was masked.

He hadn’t even paid attention to how long they’d been there, when he found his ex-girlfriend kissing at his neck.

“Aideen, what are you doing?”

“The arguments, the situation in Central, the attacks, they are all getting worse, Phillip. I thought… Well, I thought something might make it better, and it didn’t. Something’s after me. I know it. What if it… before…” She looked up into Phillip’s eyes. “Please. You’ve always loved me. I know you have, and I’ve always cared for you.”

“Aideen, this isn’t right. I don’t know what else happened to you today, but I can’t let you…” He found thought leaving him as she began unbuttoning his shirt. “We can’t. We shouldn’t.”

“Please, Phillip.”

********

Roy didn’t know whether to be furious or sick. For the moment, the fury was winning, deciding that once he found his daughter—and he would, damn it—he would allow the worry and the stomach churning to win. But he hadn’t found her yet. He’d gotten a call through to the Armstrong house just a few minutes ago. According to Roy’s chief general, his son had gone out for a walk. It was all Roy could hope for that his daughter had found Phillip. At least with him she’d be safe.

Ed was practically frantic, all but attacking everyone who crossed his path, demanding answers. Roy knew enough of the argument he’d had with their daughter, and Ed’s worry that his last words to with their daughter would be her telling him that she hated him. But the older man didn’t want to consider that thought. Roy had needed to let Maria Ross stick with him, as she seemed the only person capable of keeping him under control. Those two, along with a few of Ross’s detail searched some areas of the city standing beside the person he least wanted to be around at the moment.

Fletcher Tringham ran at his side, looking nearly as frenzied as Ed in his search. Apparently, the moment that Aideen had run off from his apartment and he could no longer track her, he’d called Roy and Ed. He had been running around Central trying to find her. When Roy finally found him, he couldn’t help but notice the red smear on Fletcher’s lips, a smear very similar in color to Aideen’s usual lipstick.

When Roy had pointed it out, Fletcher had nervously begun wiping his mouth, but shaking off his unease to try to find Aideen.
“Papa,” Nicholas said, coming out from an alley with Danny and some of his guards with him. “I’m going to start going back toward the house. Aideen has ways of getting out that even I don’t know. She could have gotten back in pretty easily without the guards out front seeing her.”

“Send a signal if you find her,” Roy instructed his son.

“Dragon?”

Roy nodded, watching as Nicholas ran off.

Together, Roy and Fletcher began analyzing the sides streets.

“I’m so sorry this happened,” Fletcher said.

“I’m sure you are. Tell me, how long exactly were you making out with my sixteen-year-old daughter? Because lipstick doesn’t get smeared like that if you immediately pull away like a gentleman.”

“Would it be better if I was celebrating my thirtieth birthday?” Fletcher asked, sounding just a bit angry.

“Circumstances were different, and you should watch your mouth.”

“I know what circumstances were, sir.” Fletcher’s green eyes met Roy’s black. “But understand I am trying to show restraint in regard to someone who I have known for many years. Something was very wrong with her, and I refuse to take advantage of her. But I was no more able to stop myself from enjoying that kiss than you did the first time you and Ed kissed.”

Roy nodded, feeling honestly impressed despite still being angry. Though he’d always taken Fletcher for being weak, it was obvious when it mattered the man had a backbone.

********

“Please, Phillip,” Aideen said to him as knelt between her legs. For a moment, seeing her eyes so clouded, half lidded, and looking at him, Phillip stopped. She was beautiful with her milky white skin, perfect breasts, dark black curls below a thin, taught belly. And she was asking for him. She wanted him.

He leaned down, feeling her soft hands rubbing over his tan flesh, part of his mind telling him this was wrong, but as that part of his brain had lost all blood to parts south, it wasn’t getting much attention.

After all, Aideen was beautiful and his for at least tonight. With a smile, he thought to himself that this could be the start of something much bigger.

“Please,” she was practically begging as he lined himself up. Before he could even think to push in, she was moving against him, forcing him inside of her.

His hips jerked as he began to press inside of her meeting resistance, her virginity. But she gripped him harder, pushing him further inside that delicious warmth with a cry.

“Aideen?” He managed to grunt out, looking down at the tears starting to form at her eyes.

“Please,” she said with a whimper as his body instinctually began moving, pumping. “Phillip, it hurts.”

“Trust me, Aideen.”

She bit her lip. “Phillip… ah!” Her body arched, her face twisting.

He wanted this to last longer, to prove to her it would feel better. He knew it would. After all, hadn’t he heard the stories at the academy?

Unfortunately, his body wasn’t cooperating as he grunted and groaned, her hands now clawing and scratching at his chest somewhere pushing and pulling at him.

“Phillip, oh…”

“Aideen! Oh, Aideen!” And with those thoughts, he released inside of his longtime friend and former—possibly once again renewed—girlfriend.

Sated and boneless, he withdrew, rolling off of her. As quickly as she could, she climbed off of the bed, putting on her clothes.

“Aideen, you can stay. Aideen?”

She shook her head, stuffing her bra back into her pocket and ran from the pool house, Phillip grabbing his pants, running after her into the darkness.

*********

When Nicholas finally arrived back at her house, he immediately started searching the house for any sign that his sister was back home. Walking by Aideen’s room, he heard the sound of something being set ablaze, felt the familiar power from Aideen’s fire alchemy. Before he could enter her bedroom, he heard the sound of the bathroom door shutting, a pile of what appeared to be Aideen’s singed clothing. From what he could see, they were some of her favorites.

What had happened?

He heard the sound of the shower in the next room, and what he was certain was sobbing. Quickly as he could, he grabbed his gloves and opened the window. He snapped his fingers creating a large flame dragon that rose quickly above the buildings of Central, one that his fathers would be certain to see.

Then, just as quickly as the thing had appeared, it vanished, Nicholas hoping it was enough for his parents to see as he went to the door of Aideen’s bathroom, calling for his sister. Finally, the door opened to the raven-haired teen, face red from crying, though ads he looked at her arms, still bare from the sleeveless nightgown, they looked as though she’d tried to cook them in hot water.

“Nicholas,” she said as she grabbed hold of his shoulders and buried her head into them. Tightly, he wrapped his arms around her.

“Aideen, what happened?” She only shook her head against his shoulder. All he could do was hold her up as he guided her to the bed, where she could sit down. “Please tell me.”

She only shook her head and curled up in near fetal position on her bed. “I can’t.”

“Did someone do something to you?”

Aideen paused, and Nicholas laid in the bed opposite his sister as they’d done since childhood. “N-no.” And in a moment of weakness that frightened her brother, Aideen curled up to his body and for the first time in their lives she felt small in his arms.