Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist

Pansy!

Ed was reluctantly sitting in the flower shop now, feeling like a damn fool. Gracia had seen him coming out of the shower and now she was taking over his life. Ed had never been so embarrassed before. He couldn't understand a word she was saying, but he knew he was being scowled, somehow. Scowled and then dressed like a child; it wasn't his fault he didn't know how a damn bra worked!

The tiring ordeal of being someone else's doll against his will had turned into a chain of events that included stern mothering and a kitchen spoon that left him, in the flower shop, looking like a fucking girl.

That shouldn't be surprising to him, with the breasts and all, but Ed had no intention of accepting everything that went with the estrogen, like skirts or braids. He was willing to comply with the hips and thighs his own way, in a pair of pants, but Gracia had given him such a odd look when he tried to tie the skirt up into a pair of shorts that he decided against it. He felt odd enough without everyone thinking him crazy.

A smack on the table drew his attention back to the task at hand. Gracia gave him a warm smile but Ed wasn't fooled. For all her warm and gentle look, she was rather scary. Not in a Hawkeye or Winry way, Gracia was scary because it was so unexpected.

She tapped her spoon on the table and pointed at a pansy.

"Stiefmütterchen," she said and then pointed with the spoon at Ed.

He sighed and attempted to repeat the foreign word, "Stiff-muffin-chin."

That was his new mission it seemed, to learn the language by identifying flowers. Edward eyed the pansy and though about how much of a pansy he felt like. His socks were too high, the long skirt didn't stop drafts at all, he missed his boxers and his chest was bound up in bra. It was like female bondage and he was tired of it already.

"I want pants," he whined and rested his head on the table, waiting for the inevitable long suffering sigh from Gracia's double.

He should feel bad, she was trying hard to keep him occupied, but his heart wasn't in it. It was too much change all at once, even for the one and only Edward Elric.

Something was placed on his shoulders and Ed raised his head to see it was...Oh, he knew this one. It was a wrap, shawl, thing... yes it was! Gracia wore a similar one and spoke in soft words. She gestured to the door and Edward grinned in understanding at last, they were going out.

The cold air whipped around his legs and Edward thought longingly of pants and their shielding comfort. The only thing he was glad of was the sheer number of people around him to block out the wind. That too came with its faults because through the crowded market street he had somehow lost the only person he knew. Ed jumped up several times but could not even hope to see over the hustling and bustling heads that flooded around him.

He wrapped his shawl closer to fight off the cold and thought about undoing his hair to keep the back of his neck warm when he heard a small yelp. Unable to let that go as a trick of the wind, Ed peered around to find its source. HE could almost see a narrow alleyway through the breaks in between groups of people and Ed figured it came from there. He pushed and shoved his small body through until he reach the mouth of the dark passageway.

It felt it was a world apart from the busy market place. The loud merchants hocking their wares suddenly seemed very far away as Ed took a step in his too large boots. He couldn't see anything but there was a sharp turn up ahead and instincts earned from years of living out of trains and strange cities told him the noise came from just beyond the corner.

A severely cold gust billowed around him, flapping his skirt like a flag and reminding him that this wasn't the same as before. He couldn't handle whatever was behind that corner because he didn't have the support of his automail, his alchemy, his brother or even his normal strength. All that was gone now, leaving behind a pale, pretty but fragile girl who looked similar to the man he used to be.

Another yelp and a sob broke his hesitation. Ed tied the shawl in a knot around his waist to free his arms and took that fateful step around the corner. What he saw was horrible and made him bare his teeth subconsciously. Four men of various hateful sizes were bent over something in a purple skirt that was most definitely not the abused animal Ed had expected.

"Leave her alone," he shouted at them then paused. Why was he expecting his deeper and more intimidating voice to sound out?

Instead of looking threatened, or even surprised, the men looking positively excited and thrilled to see Ed. His confidence was rapidly falling away like the tattered remains of incinerated clothing. The pissed and angry expressions Ed was used to when he did something like this were nowhere to be found and instead replaced with something akin to hunger that made Ed want to run for all he was worth.

It was then that two of the men moved and Ed was able to catch a glimpse of the victim in the purple skirt. She blinked at him with wide doe eyes and Ed knew he couldn't just leave her. She was quivering like a rabbit in a snare and Ed grimaced at how appropriate the analogy was.

The largest man said something in a sickeningly slimy voice that made Ed realise that two of the other men had moved closer to him. He spread his legs in a fighter's stance while his insides scream over and over that he couldn't possibly fight all four on his own. The final man was still holding the girl down with one hand and lifted her skirt with the other, gingerly viewing his prize, his prey.

"Don't you fucking touch her," Ed snarled and pointed with his right. The man to his left took that opportunity to grab his other hand and bend it painfully behind his back.

Ed yelped and threw a wild punch with his right hand somewhere behind him. His glee at hitting the man's face evaporated when the man laughed and picked him up without problems, hugging Ed close like a rag doll.

Fuck this wasn't good, he was already trapped and without an escape plan. The situation rapidly grew worse when the first man, the largest one, dipped close in front of him and licked the side of Ed's face with a devilish grin. Instead of grimace or quiver like the purple skirted girl, Ed caught the man by surprise with a high kick that met his nose with a resounding crunch. Ed pushed aside his thoughts of victory when the man holdings him off the ground twisted his arm further, causing Ed to bark a curse.

A blood soaked face shoved itself into his with an ugly look. Ed's heart tried to beat out of his chest with panic when and equally bloody hand tore open the front of his shirt to expose his undershirt to the world, which was quickly cut open with precision only earned through practise and experience. This was something new and Ed's breaths can in shallow pants. They weren't hurting him like he expected but that didn't mean he was safe, not by any means. The knife flashed again and his bra was easily sliced and fell away. Ed couldn't tear his eyes away from the bloody hand now lightly caressing his soft breast, leaving a red line in its wake. It was a frozen and sick sort of fascination to watch one's self about to be violated.

It was so bizarre because in Ed's mind, it wasn't his soft and squishy body he was looking down at. That arm around his belly holding him up, that was holding someone else. This wasn't real. He was Ed Elric for fuck's sake. Ed Elric was a boy, fuck no, he was a goddamn man in the Amestrian military. He was a State Alchemist. He was in prime physical condition. He was...he was... holy shit, he was going to be raped.

That struck a chord that released him from his fear addled paralysis. Ed raised both his feet and kicked hard on his offenders chest. The man fell back on his ass and Ed booted him again in the face. The man holding his up griped tighter but Ed wiggled like wet fish and managed to free his trapped right hand. He pinched a pressure point in the man's neck that made him drop Ed like a sack of hammers. Ed landed on the ground and quickly rolled into his crouch.

The pressure point pain stopped the moment he removed his fingers, so the man wasn't inhibited in any way. Ed began his attack circle and the man followed suit. Moving gave him opportunity to spot the two remaining thugs. Ed felt his hair on the back of his neck stand on end when he saw one man standing guard while the other undid his pants.

This was so fucking over now.

Ed yelled out to the man by the girl to make him turn around. "Hey, Stiefmütterchen!"

Ed grabbed the small blade that had been tossed aside when he knocked its owner unconscious and did something that even surprised himself. Ed threw the knife with alarming ease into the throat of the man with his fly down. Blood flooded and spurted out of his neck while he choked to death, gagging in a wet disgusting way. Ed and the last two aggressors just watched in communal shock.

It wasn't his first time throwing a knife, it was the only time he'd used one as a weapon. Ed remembered those long and boring nights he had spent with his brother on that small island back when they were earning the right to learn alchemy. They had been given a medium size hunting knife to protect them one that blasted island and by the end of thirty days, Ed was able to toss it easily, hitting snakes as if they were the board to his 'dart'. After getting automail, Ed had stopped carrying a knife on him, for his arm was the only blade he needed, but as evident by the man with the blood spout coming out of his neck, Ed still had the skill in spades.

The revelation that he wasn't entirely helpless empowered him to dash forward and leap onto the man closest to the purple skirt. Ed trapped him into a choked hold by locking his joints. The man turned blue as he stumbled around, clawing Ed's tender arms. He waddled to close to a wall and Ed used it to kick off of and knock them both to the ground. Ed rolled back to his feet and then jumped squarely onto the man's chest, cracking his ribs and bouncing off the launch a flying kick at the remaining man.

His leg was solidly caught in mid air and the man swung him like a bat into a dumpster. The reverberations rattled his whole body and made Ed's teeth chatter. Blood trickled down Ed's chin and his head swam. With his mind currently unable to process what was going on, he wondered why the world was suddenly the wrong way and why his ankle felt like it was going to be squeezed off. The edges of his vision were growing fuzzy and Ed grimaced at the familiar series of events about to take place because they happened to him all the times before when he was about to pass out.

A loud bang echoed through his head, causing him to nearly curl into ball, even as he was dropped to the ground. Slamming into the cold concert was both painful and alerting. Ed used the sudden pain to wake himself up and look around. The man who looked a lot like Maes Hughes was standing in a strange dark uniform and with an even darker look in his eyes. Two men ran out from behind him with clubs and handcuffs. Ed would have liked to see what happened next, but the doe eyed purple skirt girl knelt in front of him and place a gentle hand on his cheek.

She had tears streaming down her face, but she looked somewhat relieved at the turn of events. She spoke in a language he could understand while her hand made no move to retreat from his cheek. "Thank you. My name is Noah."

Author's Note

This chapter was exhilarating to write. It took several tries before I got it the way I liked it but I'm pleased, at long last, with the results. I was hoping wmc would be around to joyessly bother with my jubilant chapter of... joy! Yeah, I only managed a two J chain, but you know what, enJOY the chapter and leave my vocabulary alone. --laughs and leaves--

Oni