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Mustang paced around the room, his heart pounding as he thought about the conversation he was about to have with the boys. When he first told Hughes about his intentions of bringing Ed into the military, Hughes had jokingly said he was supposed to get married before having children. Mustang argued that he wasn’t the boys’ father and would not do anything to potentially fill that role. Hughes smirked at him but didn’t say a word.
At the time, Mustang had every intention of keeping the relationship between himself, Edward, and Alphonse as professional as possible. But, dammit, there was something about those two that just made him want to be there for them in a more… parental way. Which meant that he was forced to have some… uncomfortable conversations with them. And one of those conversations was The Talk. The Sex Talk, to be more precise.
His stomach was churning at the thought of it. A part of him didn’t want to have The Talk at all with these two. He was in no way anti-sex. He understood that learning about sex early from a trusted adult was the best way to ensure healthy, consensual relationships, whether those included sex or not. And all children needed to learn about sex so they didn’t get taken advantage of by other people. He understood this. He smacked Hughes upside the head when the man proclaimed that he would never give Elicia The Talk. He rolled his eyes at parents who insisted on calling genitals weird names like ‘pocket book’ or ‘thing’. He was staunchly pro-sex and pro-sex education.
But something about giving The Talk to Ed and Al… that was different. Did Aunt Chris feel this way when she finally sat him down and explained what it was his sisters were doing every night?
He had been putting it off. Every day he came up with another excuse as to why it wasn’t a good time to talk to them about sex. Every day he gathered up the courage to talk to the boys in the morning only to have it disappear the moment he got to the office. Everyone had asked about his strange behavior, his antsy fidgeting, the weird way he talked to Ed and Al over the phone. He didn’t tell them what was going on.
Something like this had to be dealt with privately. The boys would probably feel embarrassed if they knew the entire office was aware of the conversation they were going to have.
Finally, though, after weeks of putting it off, Mustang sucked it up and called the boys, saying they needed to talk. He debated where to best have The Talk. They were more familiar with his office, but he worried it might be a little too formal. They had only ever been to his apartment once or twice and likely wouldn’t feel comfortable there. He could always do it in their dorm room, but he knew they weren’t exactly super comfortable either, on account of them hardly ever being there.
In the end, he decided the office was the best place. It wasn’t exactly neutral ground, but it was the only place he knew everyone was at least a little comfortable with. Besides, he kind of liked the fact that he had a desk in front of him. Sure, it felt like he was hiding, but sometimes you needed a large piece of wood in between you and two teenage geniuses when you were having difficult and uncomfortable conversations.
And there he sat, in his chair behind his desk in an empty office, waiting for Ed and Al to come by. It was after hours. Everyone else had gone home. The last thing he needed was Havoc or Hawkeye to barge in and realize what was going on. He recited what he was going to say in his head again. He was pretty sure Ed and Al already knew the basics of sex. Egg plus sperm equals baby. So he wasn’t going to go too much into detail on that end. However, sex was more than just the mechanics of making a child. So, that was what he was going to focus on. If the boys had any questions, he hoped they would feel comfortable enough to ask.
Finally, a whole thirty minutes after they were supposed to meet, the door burst open.
“We’re here, bastard. What’d you want?” Ed said, stomping into the room.
“Punctual as always, Fullmetal,” he said, leaning back in his chair as he and Al took a seat.
“Sorry, sir. He was trying to convince me not to come,” Al sighed.
“I assumed as much. And I assume I have you to thank for the fact that you’re only thirty minutes late instead of several hours?” He was sure his voice came out relatively nonchalant. He wasn’t sure, though. Why was this so nerve-wracking! It was just sex. He grew up in a brothel. He was in the military which meant he was subject to all sorts of sex stories, jokes, and innuendos. Half of his day consisted of listening to Havoc complain about his latest (failed) exploits! Why was this so hard for him?
Al nodded, looking more than a little proud of himself. As he should be. Very few people were able to get Edward Elric to do anything.
“Yeah, yeah,” Ed scoffed. “Whatever. We’re here now bastard, so why’d you want to meet us after hours? Is Hawkeye here?” He glanced around as if Hawkeye were hiding behind a plant or something, watching him.
“No, she’s not here. It’s just us. And I wanted to talk to you two about something.” He felt like he might vomit. His foot was bouncing due to nerves. He hoped both boys would be so shocked by what he was about to say that they wouldn’t immediately run away.
Shit, what if he was overstepping his bounds? He felt like there was a more familial relationship between them, but Ed and Al might not feel the same way. What if this ruined their relationship forever?
No. He was not going to chicken out again. He was not going to back out after he had dragged them out here after work hours technically ended. He was going to man up and talk to two children he wasn’t related to about sex. And hope that they thought of him as a trusted adult and not a creepy older man trying to hit on them.
Fuck.
“Well, what’d you want to talk to us about?” Ed said, crossing his arms and glaring at him. He was starting to get antsy. “Believe it or not, I have better things to do than stare at your ugly mug. Or are you getting to the age where you’re starting to forget things?”
Mustang glared at him. “I’m not even thirty yet.”
Ed glared back.
He needed to stop stalling. There was no time like the present and Ed was right, the boys did have better things to do than to sit here and watch him stall this incredibly uncomfortable conversation.
He cleared his throat and started to speak. “It has come to my attention that you two, while incredibly smart, don’t necessarily have information on everything. So, I’ve decided to help fill in the gaps and give you some advice that is more difficult to find in books and whatnot.”
They looked at him, confused.
Wow, his stomach might somersault right out of his body. “You see when a man and a woman love each other very much—”
“Oh, come on!” Ed cried burying his head in his hands. “Please, not this. Anything but this.”
Mustang pressed forward, knowing this was a conversation they had to have, whether they liked it or not.
Then, a thought came into his head. “Actually, love doesn’t have anything to do with it. When a man and a woman are attracted to each other—”
“Please, kill me now, Al. Go on without me. I can’t take it.”
“Brother, be polite.”
Shit, what about people who weren’t attracted to the opposite sex? He shouldn’t just assume that Ed and Al were attracted to women. What if he gave them all this advice under the assumption that they would be having (shudder) sexual relations with women only to later learn that wasn’t the case.
“Actually, it doesn’t have to be a man and a woman. It can be a man and a man. Or a woman and a woman, but you two don’t have to worry about that one.”
“Please stop. I’ll do anything. Give me every mine inspection in the country. Please, just don’t say another word.”
Come to think of it, he shouldn’t just assume Ed and Al were boys. Yes, they both presented as male and used he/him pronouns, and had masculine names, but Mustang knew firsthand that gender was much more complicated than that.
“Unless… you two weren’t assigned male at birth. Hang on, let’s start this again. What gender were you assigned at birth and what gender do you currently identify as?” Well, shit. This had already gone so wrong so quickly. All of the things he was going to say flew out of his head and now he was stumbling through an explanation with no plan. No end in sight.
“Please, just kill me now.”
“Go on, sir. You’re doing great.”
Fuck him.
*****
“Well, that was hands down one of the most traumatizing things I’ve ever had to go through,” Ed said as he kicked off his boots and collapsed onto his bed.
Al walked over to the bookshelf and started searching for the notebook. “It wasn’t that bad, brother. Besides, he’s the first one to talk about gender identity. That was kind of nice.”
“Still, I’m giving him an F. That was the worst one yet.”
“Brother.”
“I’m serious, Al. You honestly can’t tell me that’s the best sex talk we’ve had so far?”
“No, but I think you’re being harsher on him because you like to give him a hard time. Even Fuery got a D and we had to do most of the talking on that one. Come on, give your honest opinion. It’s not like he’s ever going to know.”
“Fine,” Ed groaned, knowing Al wasn’t going to let up any time soon. “Maybe a B or high C. You’re right, he did talk about gender and that’s not something anyone’s ever done before. And he focused on sex and not reproduction.”
“Not to mention same-sex relationships. We’ve only had a few people talk about that.”
“Yeah, but he was so unfocused throughout the whole thing. He kept going off on tangents and didn’t seem to know what points he was going to make next.”
Al scribbled everything Ed was saying into the notebook, as well as a few of the points Mustang made and his notes.
“You’re right. I think a low B is a good score for him. If he had been a bit more focused, it might have been the best one yet.”
Out of all the bad things that came along with being an orphan, getting a parade of sex talks from seemingly every adult in his life that had spent five minutes with him was not anywhere close to even being on the list. It seemed like because he and Al technically didn’t have an adult assigned to teach them about the ways of the world, people worried that no one would step up to the plate. So they all (independently because why the hell would they all give separate talks) decided to be that trusted adult for Ed and Al.
It started when they were training with Teacher. She had pulled them aside one day and explained puberty and sex and all that. It was mortifying for both of them, but she didn’t care, whacked them on their heads, and said they needed to know this. It was pretty basic as far as sex talks went; probably because they were both pretty young so they weren’t exactly going to be seeking it out.
The next person who had given them The Talk was Pinako right before Ed and Al left for the military. They tried to argue they didn’t need it. They already knew the mechanics from all the anatomy books they had at the house. However, Pinako pointed out that the books only covered the mechanics and there was much more to sex than just what body part was inserted where. She warned them that people would try and take advantage of them and she wanted them to be aware of what that looked like so they could fight back against it. And, well, Ed couldn’t argue with that.
He thought that would be the last sex talk he had ever had with an adult.
Nope.
It seemed like everyone in the military thought it was their job to give the Elrics The Talk. With Mustang’s most recent attempt, they now had thirteen talks under their belt. At first, Ed and Al hated these talks and tried to get people to not give them. However, after poor Fuery stuttered his way through a talk, they decided to find the humor in it and started grading them on how well the talk was. There was no formal scale. It was more for fun than anything. However, they used a basic letter system and wrote down the pros and cons of each talk.
“Hopefully that’s the last one,” Ed sighed. “I can’t imagine who else would want to give us a talk.”
“The lady who works at the library?” Al suggested. “Or the man who works at the mess hall?”
Ed shuddered. “God, I hope not. As much fun as it is to critique each of these talks I’m not sure how much more I can take.”
“I agree. Hey, shouldn’t you get started on your report now? It’s due tomorrow.”
Ed groaned and rolled onto his back. “Please, Al, don’t make me do it. Not after the traumatic experience, I just had. I’ll never be able to look at Mustang the same way again.”
“Brother,” he warned, “if you want to leave tomorrow to look into that new lead, you know you have to finish the report.” He put the notebook of Sex Talks down and dragged Ed off the bed.
“Come on, so you’re not working on it all night.”
“Alright, alright. I got it,” Ed said, batting away Al’s hands. He opened up his report and started working on it, the awkward sex talk from earlier now completely forgotten about.
*****
“Hurry or we’re going to be late!” Al said, pulling Ed through the halls as they rushed to get to Mustang’s office.
Despite Al pushing Ed to start his report early in the evening, he had gotten distracted with the new book he had gotten from the library and didn’t start the report until very early the next morning. Which lead to him not finishing it until seven AM when he promptly fell asleep. Al, who had gone out for a walk, didn’t realize Ed hadn’t finished the report yet until he got back, which lead to a lot of scrambling as he rushed to get read and get to Mustang’s office before their train took off.
They burst through the door, causing everyone in the office to jump.
“Ah, Fullmetal, about time—”
“Here’s your report. We gotta go!” Ed shouted, practically throwing the papers at Mustang. He was so rushed that he didn’t even feel satisfied when the notebook smacked Mustang in the face.
“Hang on, I need to look through it—”
“We can talk when we get to Alba. See ya, Hawkeye!” He waved to her as Al yanked him out the door, sprinting as they rushed to make it to the train station on time.
They barely made it. Ed collapsed onto the chair just as the train started to move. His mind was still racing as was his heart. Something about what had just happened seemed off. But, he couldn’t put his finger on it. Oh well. If Mustang wanted to complain about his report, then he could do so over the phone when they got to Alba. For now, he was going to sit back, relax, and catch up on some sleep.
*****
Mustang had to admit, he thought the day after having The Talk was going to be a lot more awkward. Instead, he got a notebook to the face as Ed and Al ran off to catch a train.
He was holding his nose which was now bleeding from Ed’s impeccable aim as Hawkeye handed him a washcloth.
“It’s like he’s doing this on purpose,” he grumbled, pinching his nose in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.
“I’m sure it was an accident, sir,” Hawkeye said, gathering up the papers and straightening them out on his desk. “You should be happy that he got the report in on time. He’s being more responsible.”
“More like he being more difficult,” Mustang said, eyeing the notebook. “Why’d he even give me a notebook anyways? This isn’t the one he uses for his research and nothing about the last mine inspection should be interesting enough to fill up a notebook.”
“I suppose there’s only one way to find out.” She slid the notebook towards him.
He sighed and briefly debated putting it on the bottom of the pile. Ed’s chicken scratch always gave him a headache and he was not ready to subject himself to a whole notebook’s worth of information. It was like Ed was being purposefully difficult, finding new ways to make Mustang’s life a living hell.
He decided against putting off dealing with Ed’s report. Better to get it out of the way first thing in the morning when he was relatively motivated and not annoyed about the thousands of little things that were bound to happen throughout the day.
He pulled the notebook off the stack of papers and flicked it open to the first page. The first thing he realized was that it was not in Ed’s chicken-scratch handwriting, but Al’s much neater (and bigger) handwriting. He’d scold the boys later for tag-teaming the report. It was bad enough that Al went on all of Ed’s missions. He did not need to also be writing all of his reports.
The second thing he noticed, was that this was not a report on the mine inspection at all. It was much, much worse.
In neat handwriting, at the top of the page, was his name. Followed by a letter and a few paragraphs. The color drained from his face as he read the report.
Mustang: B-
Good things: We liked that he went into detail about gender identity and the various types of sexual relations two or more people can have. It’s always nice to know that liking someone of the same gender is not a bad thing and you can still have a healthy relationship despite it. It was also nice that he didn’t go into a lot of detail about the actual mechanics of reproduction. That’s easy enough to understand and find information on.
Bad things: He got very distracted very easily and kept going on tangents. It’s like he didn’t plan what he was going to say and instead went wherever his mind took him. At times, I was confused as to what it had to do with anything. There were also times when he doubled back and repeated what he had just said a few minutes ago.
Overall: Brother wanted to give him a lower score but I convinced him to be impartial. It wasn’t the worst, wasn’t the best. It’s nice to know a little more about different genders and sexualities but the rambling nature of the talk made it not very focused and I felt like he left out some information.
“Oh, god,” Mustang said.
“Sir, are you alright?” Hawkeye asked. She sounded worried.
He wasn’t paying attention, though. Instead, his mind was catching up to what he had just read. The boys had given him a score on his sex talk! They had written down the highs and lows. Oh, God!
He flipped to the next page.
Falman: F
Good things: The book he was clearly reciting from had some interesting information about the actual development of a baby.
Bad things: He literally just recited information word for word from whatever book he had read before talking to us. Why didn’t he just give us the book?!
Overall: The book itself wasn’t bad, but the point of a sex talk is to give information that can’t be found in the book. If that was the route he was going to go, he should have just given us the book.
He flipped to the next page.
Ross and Brosh: C if considered together; If considered separate, B- for Ross and F for Brosh
Good things: Lieutenant Ross didn’t seem that nervous about giving the talk, which was nice. She stayed on topic and kept it brief but informative. She didn’t go into a lot of detail on the reproductive side of things and mainly kept it to consent and whatnot.
Bad things: Lieutenant Brosh didn’t want to be here and sat through the entire talk with a bright red face looking very embarrassed. I don’t think he said a word. As for Lieutenant Ross, her talk was almost too simplistic and straightforward. It felt very basic.
Overall: We liked how confident Ross was, but Brosh either shouldn’t have been there or should have done more. He was so uncomfortable it made us uncomfortable. As for Ross, we wished she would have gone into a bit more detail about things. Overall, a decent talk but there should have been more information.
“What on earth?” Hawkeye said from behind him. She had been reading over his shoulder. “Is this Edward’s?”
“And Al’s,” Mustang managed to say. He was mortified by what he was reading.
She pulled the notebook from his hand and flipped to the next page.
“Major Armstrong: D minus,” she read aloud. At least Mustang wasn’t the worse.
Hawkeye reading it aloud caught the attention of all the men.
“Overall,” she continued to read, “he went into way too much detail about our growing bodies and wouldn’t stop flexing and talking about diet and exercise. At the end of the talk, we were unsure if he was giving us a sex talk or a health and fitness regime. Al, do you think we can even count this one since I’m not even sure he mentioned sex?”
“Hang on, what?” Havoc said, jumping out of his chair and coming over to her. “What is this?”
“It appears Edward and Alphonse have been rating all of the sex talks they’ve been given.”
“Let me see that.” He pulled it out of her hands. “C plus!” He screeched. “What the hell did I get a C plus for? My talk was excellent!”
Breda pulled it out of his hands. “Started confident and then fizzled out into an embarrassed mess. Also, the talk was extremely basic. Did he even mention consent?”
He handed the notebook back to Havoc with a grin. “Looks like you weren’t very confident in your sex-talk-giving abilities.”
“Are we all in there?” Falman asked.
Mustang nodded, burying his head in his hands. He didn’t even care if he got nose blood on his gloves. He couldn’t believe this was happening. “You got an F,” he said.
“Really?”
“What did I get?” Fuery asked.
“Wait, you gave them the talk as well?” Hawkeye asked. She pulled it out of Havoc’s hands and flipped the page.
“Hughes: D. Overall: He wouldn’t stop talking about Elicia and showing us pictures of Ms. Garcia. Probably the most baby-focused talks we’ve had. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing since we learned some of the ups and downs of taking care of a baby. But, it was clear he just wanted an excuse to talk about Ms. Garcia and Elicia and show us a bunch of pictures.”
She flipped the page. “Rebecca: A- for all the ways to kill a man. C for the actual talk. Wait, what?”
She continued reading. “Overall it was nice to learn about all the ways you could get back at a guy who tried to assault you. She even brought diagrams! But the actual discussion about sex was a little lackluster. I can’t believe Rebecca gave them the sex talk.”
Breda pulled the notebook out of her hands and flipped to the next page. “Fuery, here’s yours. You got a D minus.”
Fuery sighed. “Really? I didn’t think mine was that bad. What’s it say?”
“Says you were so flustered Ed and Al had to do most of the talk for you. Which, you know, defeats the whole point of the sex talk.”
Dear God, just how many sex talks had these kids had? No wonder they were so uninterested in it when Mustang tried to give his last night.
“Oh, your sister apparently gave them the talk, colonel.”
Mustang’s head shot up and he looked at Breda, still flicking through the notebook. “What? Which one?”
“Vanessa.”
“When did she even have time to come do this?”
“Eh, doesn’t really matter. She got an A-minus. They liked how she talked about different forms of contraceptives and how to tell when someone gives consent.”
Wow. He didn’t know what was worse. The knowledge that Vanessa thought it was her job to give his boys the sex talk, or the fact that she got a better grade than him.
“It looks like their teacher and automail mechanic also gave them the talk. B and A-minus respectively.”
Mustang hoped Breda was talking about Pinako and not Winry. The last thing he needed was children attempting to give other children information on sex.
“Well, hang on,” Havoc said. “What about your talk? Did you give them one?”
Breda shrugged and flipped through the book. “Of course.”
“And… what’d you get?”
He smirked. “Are you sure you want to know?”
Havoc nodded. “Yeah. Come on. We all shared our scores. Share yours!”
“Alright, if you’re sure. I got an A-plus.”
“What?” Everyone screeched.
If Mustang was keeping track (not that he was because who needed to know how their sex talk stacked up compared to other people’s sex talks), then that meant Breda had the highest score out of any of them. That was quite possibly worse than learning Vanessa had a better score than him. What the hell? His talk wasn’t that bad!
“Liar!” Havoc said.
Breda shrugged. “I’m not lying. See for yourself.” He handed Havoc the book.
“Overall, Breda’s talk was focused and discussed almost every aspect of sex imaginable. He wasn’t overly flustered by the topic and didn’t treat us like little kids who had never heard of sex before. He talked about enthusiastic consent, including ours, the pros and cons of various contraceptives, and also said that if we ever needed anything or had any other questions we could come to him. Overall, a very good talk. It might just be the best we’ve ever had!”
Havoc dropped the notebook and groaned. “I can’t believe your talk was the best! I worked so hard on mine!”
“I think we’re all missing the point here,” Hawkeye said, finally taking the notebook from them and putting it back on the desk. At least Mustang didn’t perform the worst. Still, he couldn’t believe that Vanessa and Breda got better scores than him.
“And what’s that?” Fuery asked.
“The fact that no less than thirteen people have taken it on themselves to give them the sex talk,” Hawkeye said. “We need to have a discussion about boundaries and who is actually in charge of raising them and talking to them about sensitive topics.”
“Why not just let Breda do it,” Falman said. “Since he did the best job out of all of us.”
“Hey, now, I only talked to them about it because I was afraid no one else would. Someone had to teach those kids about condoms.”
“Exactly my point,” Hawkeye continued. “We all need to discuss what roles we are to take in these boys’ lives and how to have an appropriate relationship with them. I’m sure we all had the best intentions, however, how would you have liked it if thirteen adults all gave you separate sex talks?”
“I guess you have a point,” Havoc sighed. “Hey, lieutenant, I didn’t see your score anywhere in the notebook. Did you give them one?”
Hawkeye’s cheeks turned pink and she looked away. “No, but… I was planning to when they got back from Alba. I’m glad they already got it, though. I wasn’t looking forward to that conversation with them.”
She had a point on the whole appropriate relationship thing. While Mustang was glad that so many people were taking responsibility for these kids, maybe they needed to have a conversation as to who was in charge of what so something like this didn’t happen again.
“Sir,” she turned to him. “I’d contact everyone on this list. When Edward and Alphonse get back from Alba, we will all need to have a conversation.”
“Great, just what I wanted to do today.” He sighed and picked up the phone. Might as well get started now. He wasn’t sure how Ed and Al would react to having so many people discussing their well-being, but they couldn’t let something like this happen again. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but it was unnecessary. Besides, as the scores so clearly showed, some people were better suited to certain topics than others. If they spread the burden out, so to speak, those kids might just have a decently normal life.
“And sir?”
“Yes, lieutenant?”
“Remember to do Edward’s report after.”
Dammit. In all the commotion he had completely forgotten about the actual reason Ed had given him the papers in the first place. He already had a headache, and he hadn’t even started on his actual work for the day.
*****
“Why do you think the colonel called a meeting with us?” Al asked as they once more made their way through the halls of East City.
“Don’t know. The last time he did, though, he gave us a stupid sex talk.”
“Maybe he wants another go at it? Clarify some of his previous points?”
Ed shrugged. “I hope not. I’m all sex-talked out. Besides, I want to read up on that information we gathered in Alba before I forget anything.”
As much as he was trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing, he was a little nervous. The last time Mustang had called a meeting after hours, he was forced to sit through a nearly three-hour rambling mess about gender identity and consent. He was not looking forward to round two. However, there was no way he could get out of this. Al was going to force him to go. He’d drag him if he had to. Ed preferred to use his own two feet to get around. Thank you very much.
They got to the office and he kicked the door open. “Alright, I’m here. What’d you want—” He trailed off as he realized that it was not just Mustang in the room.
Instead, he was looking at Mustang, Hawkeye, Fuery, Falman, Havoc, Breda, Armstrong, Brosh, Ross, Hughes, Garcia, Pinako, teacher, Sig, Aunt Vanessa, Grumman, and Rebecca Catalina.
“What’s going on here?” He said, inching his way in.
“Um… are we in trouble, sir? We didn’t cause any property damage this time or overthrow the mayor of Alba. We promise!” Al said.
“No, you’re not in trouble.” Mustang looked just as nervous as he did when he attempted to give The Talk two weeks ago. “However, when you handed me your last report, you also gave me this by accident.”
He held up a very familiar notebook. Ed felt the blood rush to his face as he realized just what Mustang was implying.
“Um… right… well… you see…” What do you even say to that? What even is the correct reaction to this situation?
“It has since come to our attention that maybe we need to discuss a sort of… delegation of responsibilities when it comes to you two,” Mustang continued.
“Delegation?” Al asked.
“Yes,” Hawkeye continued. “I don’t think it’s too strange to think that you two should not have gotten thirteen separate talks from various adults. We want to make sure a situation like this doesn’t happen again and talk to you two about what you need from us.”
That sounded… Ed wasn’t sure how that sounded but at least he wasn’t in trouble. Though given that Teacher was currently glaring at Mustang, he had a feeling it was only because she was too busy trying to decide how best to kill him.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Al said. “I mean, we were a little annoyed at first. But then we realized it was kind of funny and went along with it.”
“I still can’t believe I got a C plus,” Havoc groaned.
“Better than a D minus,” Fuery sighed.
“Or an F,” Brosh said.
“It’s not just about what’s written in the notebook,” Hughes said, pulling their attention back towards the matter at hand. “It’s about making sure that you boys know you have people who are here for you and willing to help you out.”
“And making sure you don’t get the same talk over and over again,” Ross added.
“They didn’t get the same talk over and over again,” Breda said. “But yeah, that’s basically it.”
“Come on,” Mustang gestured to them. “Don’t just stand there. Let’s talk about this.”
Ed groaned and sat down in a chair next to Aunt Vanessa. Al sat next to him.
“Are you sure we have to do this? We never did get Hawkeye’s or Sig’s sex talk.”
“I’m sure,” Mustang said, before starting the meeting.
Ed honestly couldn’t believe he was even here. As much as he wanted to grumble and complain about how horrible this was, there was something deep within him that felt warm. And excited kind of nervous.
When his mother died, he truly thought it would be just him and Al against the world. Forever and ever. He would be the one solely responsible for both of them. For what they did. For what they learned. For how they survived.
And, while he never wanted to go through another sex talk again, he could honestly say that there was something nice about knowing there were so many adults in his corner. They’d never replace his mother, that was for sure. But they didn’t have to.
As he looked around the table at all the people who had come together specifically to talk about them and make sure they were taken care of, he didn’t feel like it was just him and Al against the world anymore.