InsaneJournal

Edward pushed the book at Kakashi, chatting animatedly about some arcane detail of alchemy. The jounin looked at the pages distrustfully. The scribbles meant as much sense as Ed’s babblings. None.

 

“See, that’s why Stein’s First Transmutation Theorem can be used in cases of vegetation binding on a third degree. You get it now?”

 

The diagram looked faintly like a turtle. “No.”

 

“What?! You’re supposed to be this big genius, but you can’t even understand the most basic of stuff!” Ed exclaimed, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

 

Kakashi looked up, his eye heavy lidded with weariness and frustration. “I’m a genius at what I do. What do you understand of chakra molding and concentration?”

 

Ed rolled his eyes. “A lot, actually. I just can’t do it.”

 

Brat.

 

The alchemist scuttled his chair closer, enough that their legs touched. Hm, better. Kakashi let his eye drop to the book again. If it wasn’t Edward poking at him to try and learn some alchemy, and if he hadn’t seen its amazing potential, he’d be long gone. There was something to be said for a source of power that did not even drain chakra. Especially when it was taught to him by a short but smart young man that could be delightfully flexible.

 

“Fine, we’ll just start from scratch again. Look here, at that transmutation circle,” Edward flipped the pages to the beginning of the book.

 

Right, mind on business. Maybe this was why he could never understand anything. Ed was just so distracting when he was passionate.

 

“It’s as basic as you can get. Since you won’t be transforming any material into something else, you only need those sigils to define the shape you want it to take.”

 

Edward was gesturing as he spoke, automail arm moving as gracefully as the flesh one.

 

“Hey! Are you listening?”

 

Kakashi looked up, meeting Ed’s golden eyes from up close. He looked angry, and that was certainly a desirable look on him.

 

“No,” he answered truthfully. He’d given up on alchemy a while ago. It just conflicted with his own knowledge too much, and he was happy with what he mastered enough not to blunder through something he wouldn’t be able to make work well enough to be of any use.

 

“Then what are you wasting my time for, uh? I try sharing my genius with you, but you don’t even give a damn!”

 

Oh, he was getting really angry now. Kakashi suppressed a foxy grin. It gave his cheeks a nice color.

 

“Sorry. Let’s try again,” he said, absolutely insincere. He just liked seeing Ed get all worked up. It put an appreciable grace to his limbs.

 

Ed stared at him angrily for a moment before sighing with aggravation. He turned to the table and chalked something on the wood.

 

“I give up, you’re a lost cause. Still, with a lot of practice even you should manage this, and it’s bound to be useful in one of your missions someday,” Ed muttered with aggravation. “Just remember it right, or you’ll end up with a foot in the face. If you’re lucky.”

 

His curiosity picked, Kakashi looked at the circle Ed was scribbling. It was a bit more complicated than the few transmutations he’d been bullied into trying, but he knew he’d be able to remember it.

 

“What does it do?”

 

Edward smiled that devilish grin Kakashi had latched onto the first time they’d met and finished the transmutation circle.

 

“It’s a secret trick of mine. Just watch.”

 

Ed put both hands on the edge of the circle and the lines glowed red faintly. Kakashi analyzed its intensity; if it was hidden well, it would pass unnoticed by an enemy. Kakashi waited for something to happen, but the wooden table just remained the same. He’d opened his mouth to point that little fact out when Ed reached for a pen, and with a meaningful light in his eyes, let it drop in the middle of the transmutation circle.

 

Kakashi barely even saw the pen as it bounced back from the table to shatter against the wall, smearing it with blue ink. The wood in the circle wobbled a little before recovering its harmless look.

 

He…hadn’t expected that. He suddenly found himself appreciating Ed’s intellect and instincts for anything mathematic or scientific. A wrong angle as it dropped, and that pen could have become a fatal instrument of eye-piercing doom.

 

He could see its potential.

 

“The bigger they are, the faster they go,” Ed chuckled, and demonstrated with his boot. It nearly put a dent in the ceiling. “You can make the circle as big as you want, so long as you keep the proportions right.”