Edward Elric is the Fullmetal Alchemist (fullmetal_chibi) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-09-08 23:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | edward elric, leon orcot |
Who:Ed and Leon
What:Pizza and dessert exchange
When:Sometime last month
Where:Riza's flower shop
Warnings?:None
STATUS: complete
Bored. Ed was so bored he’d resorted to working at the flower shop that day. Honestly though he probably should have just stayed at home instead. He’d already been complained at by a large woman wanting him to do impossible things, a small old woman who mistook him for a gardener, and a rich lady who wanted an errand boy.
“Look lady, picking up your dry cleaning isn’t a part of our services here.” Ed responded once his nerves finally decided they’d had enough. The woman looked down at him as though he’d said her stupidity lowered the I.Q. of the entire street out loud rather than just in his head. She finally turned on a heel and left, storming off to her expensive looking sports car parked crookedly in the front where there wasn’t actually any parking to begin with…
Ed sighed and slapped a face to his forehead. “Finally..” And went back to watering the plants he was helping with that day.
Becoming friends with Riza had a few benefits, not the least of which was the fact that she was willing to give him her discarded flowers so he could bring them home to Bart. The butterfly always enjoyed having variety outside of the butterfly bush Leon kept on his windowsill, and it usually gave Leon a chance to catch up with his friend too.
As usual, Leon had brought something for them to snack on - today, a fruit flan, and he shuffled toward the store, nearly being bowled over by some angry looking woman. He turned to watch her climb into her illegally parked car as he stepped into the shop. “The hell’s her probl-” Leon started, before actually looking into the shop and catching sight of not Riza, but Ed. “Oh, hey Ed. Riza around?”
The blond teen looked up at the voice and shook his head. “Nope. She went out on some kinda flower related business I think..” He wasn’t too sure, but it wasn’t like Ed didn’t know how to run the shop on his own, he hung out there pretty frequently when there wasn’t anything to do and got a little pocket money in return since Neal couldn’t officially pay him until he was legal working age. He nearly was, but not quite yet.
“Did you need something?” Ed turned to ask him as he turned off the hose he’d been using to water things with. “I can probably find it…” He wasn’t as people friendly as Riza was, but at least he didn’t glare at Leon this time. Even if it looked like he came by with his aunt in mind. The kid had loosened up a bit.
“Oh.” This was embarrassing. Leon frowned to himself, putting the flan on the counter. Briefly, he debated saying that he hadn’t really come for anything in particular and leaving. But he had promised Bart that he’d get him fresh flowers. The butterfly was starting to show his age - almost a year old now - and Leon didn’t want to disappoint him.
“You’re aunt usually puts aside castaways for me to take home,” Leon said. “I just thought I’d come by with a snack and pick those up.” And maybe if he was lucky, Ed wouldn’t ask what they were for.
Ed peered over at the dessert and then back at Leon. “...She might not be back for a while. “ The initial sharpness had left his tone as le leaned against the rack he’d been working on. “I think she did mention that, but why do you want those? They basically look scraggly.” He asked curiously, trying not to sound weirded out by Leon’s choice in flora as he went to get the small pile of them that had been set aside. He handed them over and eyed the flan once more. Peering at his watch he frowned. It was nearly lunch time..
“I was ordered a few pizza’s if you wanna stick around?” Maybe repay him a bit for the burgers and stuff. Ed had a strong sense of pride when it came to people just doing stuff without wanting anything in return.”I probably can’t eat three on my own. Two likely.” He lied, but he was attempting to be a bit more inviting as he wandered past Leon to flip over the ‘closed for an hour’ lunch sign on the door behind him.
Leon didn’t miss Ed eyeing up the flan, though he managed to hide his smile well enough. Especially when Ed asked the question. Leon scowled at nothing in particular. “It’sformypetbutterfly,” he muttered, taking the bag of flowers.
“I can’t say no to pizza,” Leon said. “So long as it’s not cornmeal or goat cheese or something awful like that.” Actually, the pizza at Sharon’s place hadn’t been that bad. Just weird. Not nearly as good as a regular old pepperoni, or bacon, or meat-lovers.
Ed wasn’t good at subtle. If Leon had wanted subtle he was going to have to work for it with the kid made of metal. “..Pet butterfly?” He asked incredulously. Leon looked like this tough guy, now Ed learned he had a butterfly? “....Er, that’s..cool?” He tried to hide his surprise at the answer the best he could for Leon’s sake as he seemed uncomfortable answering it.
“...Ew. Who puts goat anything on pizza? Nah, it’s meat. All meat all the things, nothing Raven would put up with buut she’s not here.” His girlfriend was basically a vegetarian. Getting away with meat lovers was one of the few perks of flower shop work.
Leon worked very hard on cultivating his tough guy image, and even harder to maintain it. The appearance of a flowering cactus and a butterfly from his dreams had been kind of a blow to the image he kept up, though he’d been very careful to not let any of the guys at work in on it. He’d be laughed out of the station if they got word of it. “He’s alright,” Leon said. Truth be told, he had grown rather fond of the fluttering thing.
“Glad we’re on the same page, kid,” Leon said. He opened the dessert. “Want some of this while we wait on that pizza of yours?”
“Ehh...I think I’ll stick with wanting a dog though.” Pet butterfly wasn’t exactly the coolest thing to say or want, but Ed was used to OC’s weirdness by now. “I ordered three.” Ed could technically eat all three by himself, but he didn’t mind a little help. “There’s enough. We can always order more if needed.” Alchemy took a lot of energy to use, so he ate more than the average bear.
“You sure? I know you didn’t bring it for me..?” But he’d be lying if he didn’t want any. It looked pretty damn awesome.
“Dogs are too much work,” Leon said. Not that he hadn’t been thinking of getting a dog himself sometimes. He didn’t really have the time to take it on walks and things, but taking care of a dog was probably a whole lot easier when you could actually converse with it.
“No, go ahead,” he said. “Riza’s not here and I wouldn’t want it to go to waste.”
Ed tried not to look too eager as he accepted one and nodded with a grin. “Keep tellin my aunt we could use a fridge in here. For emergency pudding situations.” He said as he took a bite out of his and peered over at him. “Where do you even get this stuff?” It was pretty damn awesome and it showed the way it was nearly inhaled. He tried to look a little more reserved, but it didn’t usually go well. Ed loved food. Holding back wasn’t a thing he was too good at.
“You get a lot of emergency pudding situations here?” he asked, amused. Personally, Leon wasn’t a big fan of sweets. He took only a small piece of the fruit flan, letting Ed enjoy however much of it as he wanted. “There’s a bakery near the precinct that sells them. I usually stop by before work, but I think they sell out pretty early.”
“Pudding, ice cream, soda. But she claims they only happen when I’m here. I don’t buy it. That’s cool. ” Ed said with a little shrug as he leaned back to finish inhaling his portion of flan. He didn’t take it all, but he was trying not to be entirely a jerk. Once you got past his protective hard shell he was basically like any other teenager. Not long after that there was a knock at the glass door and Ed got up. “Times like this I wish I had magic to open the door for me.” Ed shrugged, paid he pizza guy and took the various boxes. “Dig in. One’s sausage and pepperoni, another’s strictly pepperoni and the third is all the meats.” Ed was basically an endless pit when it came to food really.”Riza said you’re a cop I think right?”
Leon gave a bit of a smile at the magic remark. It had taken him a long time to come to terms with magic and that not all of it needed a ritual sacrifice to some soul-devouring demon, but just because he accepted it now and actually realized how useful it was didn't mean he wanted it at his fingertips.
But the pizza put a smile on his face. He loaded up with a few slices of meat lovers, and took a large bite of his first slice. “That’s right,” he said, mouth full. “Homicide. You're starting college I think, right?” Or had already started college. Frankly, Ed didn't look old enough to be finished high school, but high school kids seemed to look younger to him every year so he could be.
“Already started, starting a new semester though. Still need to pick a major, but they said I’ve got time..” Ed wasn’t so sure, most other people seemed to know what they wanted to do with themselves and he could barely even get a part time job yet. “I graduated early.” He shrugged. The only hard part was figuring out what to do, so maybe he should have stayed in a little longer. “That’s the ones that deal with murders and stuff right?”
“I never went to college myself, but I’ve definitely heard of people who went for years before finally settling on a major.” It wasn’t something Leon had ever needed to do. He’d known what he was going to grow up to be for as long as he could remember. “Graduating early though, huh? That’s kind of a big deal, isn’t it?” Leon himself had managed only average grades in school, being more interested in sports and girls than books, but he was pretty sure no one in his class had graduated early. “That’s right. Solving murders and all that other fun stuff.”
“I don’t wanna go years, but people keep asking me. Professors call on me more often and expect me to have my whole life planned out.” He made a little sarcastic wavy hand motion as though he had any clue what he actually wanted. “Yeah, had to take tests and psych evaluations and all that junk. I just wanted to study my own interests instead of being told what to do.” Ed had a bit of a problem with people claiming to be authority figures and then knowing more than them. He leaned on an arm lazily while munching at least his 5th slice without showing any real signs of being full. “Hnn. That might be fun.”
“I wouldn’t worry about any of that yet. I knew what I wanted to be for as long as I can remember, but not everyone gets that. Sometimes you need to try a few things out before you find something that sticks.” Leon raised his eyebrows as he watched Ed inhaling the pizza, though for now he was going to keep his mouth closed. Teenagers ate a lot. He probably did the same when he was… whatever age Ed was. He took a bite of his pizza, and, mouth full, continued. “You’re what, seventeen? You’ve got your whole life in front of you. But yeah, homicide’s a pretty sweet gig. Pays like shit and you’re more likely to get shot, but I get vacation so there’s that. And great health benefits.”
“Sixteen actually, Seventeen in October.” Alchemy took a lot of energy to sustain apparently, more so than he liked to admit since he liked to try to make it look just as easy as dream him made it appear, it meant he had to eat more than the average kid. “Why do you do it then if it doesn’t pay, is it that fun?”
Leon’s eyebrows rose. “Wow, you really did graduate early.” Finishing the rest of his pizza, he went to grab a couple more slices. He was starting to get full already though, so it was likely his last helping. “Fun’s not the word I’d use for it,” Leon said. Because it wasn’t. It was gruelling sometimes, and the things he had to see sometimes… well, they stuck with a man. “But there’s no better feeling in the world than cracking a case. Except maybe slapping a pair of handcuffs on the sonnuva bitch who thought they could get away with murder.”
“High school was a hellhole.” Ed said flatly, he didn’t enjoy it at all. “I got in trouble by teachers for being smarter than them. Nearly got sent to the loony bin at one point for it.” Exciting time in his life, honestly. “Hn..you don’t have to sit around writing tickets at least.” That was his opinion of most cops jobs. While people suffered they sat in their cars and wrote tickets. “Can you find people too? Like people that just disappear out of nowhere?”
Leon had always enjoyed high school. A different person before both his parents had died in the span of a year, he’d been jovial, friendly, and popular. He’d also been on the baseball, basketball, and football teams which had probably helped matters. “I hear college isn’t nearly so hard on smart kids,” Leon said. He’d never gone himself, so he couldn’t attest one way or the other. He frowned slightly at Ed’s question. “I have,” he said. “But there’s also a lot of people I never did. A couple I found too late. Why?” Because those questions rarely came without a request following them.
For Ed it had been entirely the opposite. “Yeah, nobody picks on me for being small or uninterested in sports or smart really.” Nobody even bothered him at all, it was kind of nice. They were all wrapped up in their own worlds. “Do you find people who are still alive ever?” Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to ask about, but he sort of wondered where his deadbeat dad had wandered off to these days. “Just wondering…” Maybe he’d tell him depending on the outcome of his answer, maybe not. Ed wasn’t even sure he wanted to find the deadbeat, but part of him wanted answers.
“Yeah,” Leon said, smiling a little and rubbing his nose with his index finger. “Once in awhile. One of the best feelings in the world, you know.”
Ed gave a slightly strained smile as he started on the second pizza box. His side of things finished. “Doubt the thing I was thinking of would be one of those good feelings, so eh.” He waved a hand as if to say ‘never mind’ about what he was considering requesting of him and peered over at the sign in the door, it was nearly time to open again.
“You had something in mind?” Leon asked, his eyebrows knitting together. “Do you know someone who’s missing? Have you filed a missing person's report?”
“Sort of but like I said...complicated. He’s not exactly missing as much a he doesn’t want me to find him, and it’s an adult. So.” He waved a hand again. “Not even worth the energy. Besides Riza probably wouldn’t be very happy with me trying to locate my deadbeat old man anyway.” Ed kind of wanted to know why he wasn’t wanted, why the man had chosen Al after all this time, but maybe he was better off not bothering after all.
Leon frowned to himself. It was a delicate conversation, and he wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it without sounding like a dick, especially since he and his own father had had a great relationship before his father had been killed. But he’d been a cop for a long time, and he’d learned a thing or two about people as well. “Sometimes it’s best not to find people who don’t want to be found,” he said. “It’s more than likely going to be a disappointment. I’d take your aunt’s advice in this case.”
“Ehh I guess so.” Ed waved a hand off at the comment anymore as if not to talk about it would magically make it better. “Nevermind, it wa a dumb idea anyway.” He had basically finished off the pizza in front of him and was onto the second one. “Do me a favor and don’t mention it to Riza will ya?” He really didn’t feel like explaining why he suddenly wanted to find the dead beat after all this time, it was kind of embarrassing.
“I don’t think it was a dumb idea,” Leon assured him. “If my dad hadn’t been around I probably would have looked for him too. But don’t worry, kid,” Leon said, winking at the teen. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Heh I’m not sure if I wanna find him and demand an explanation or find him and just kick his ass.” He shrugged, Ed didn’t want to get into the reason why, it was complicated and depressing over a pizza to talk about so he didn’t say anymore on the topic. “Why can’t lunch be like three hours and work be two?”
Leon stifled a laugh. “Well, as a cop, I can’t condone assault,” he said attempting to be stern. “But I didn’t hear anything from you.” Really, he couldn’t blame the kid. Men who abandoned their children were scum. “If only that was the way the world worked, huh?”
“Yeah yeah morals and laws etc whatever.” He rolled his eyes and leaned back into his chair with a slightly exasperated amusement at the comment. “It’s not my fault if his ass just happens to be in the way of where I’m trying to walk.” Metal foot. Sometimes they were fun. “Don’t tell anyone I do this you know? I got an image too.” He thumbed at himself and gave him squinty sort of ‘I’m watching you’ look.
Leon laughed. He could only imagine what it would be like to be stepped on by a big metal leg. “You got it, kid,” Leon said. “Your secret’s safe with me.”