Chapter Text
“Ed! You got a letter!”
Winry closed the door and walked over to the dining table, where Ed and Al were eating breakfast. Den was laying underneath Al’s chair, waiting for any fallen scraps.
Ed held up his hand and accepted the letter from Winry, grinning when he read the envelope.
“Who’s it from, Brother?”
“Central University. I applied for the doctorate program last fall, remember? I’ve been working on my dissertation, now I’ll be able to get my PhD,” Ed explained.
“Oh, congrats brother!” Al said. “You’ve been working on it for such a long time now.”
Ed ripped the wax seal off and pulled the letter out, Winry leaning over his shoulder to watch.
“Huh, I didn’t think the letter would be this compressed,” Ed said, carefully avoiding the s-word, as he flipped the paper to unfold it and started scanning the letter. “What the FUCK?!”
Winry clapped a hand to her mouth and tried to stop herself from laughing.
“What? What is it?” Al asked.
“They rejected him!” Winry supplied.
Al’s eyes widened in shock. “Really? I retract my congrats, brother.”
“You’re supposed to be on my side, Al!” Ed retorted.
His anger was interrupted by Al giggling, joined by Winry who was unable to hold back.
“It’s not funny! They clearly made a mistake! I’m the youngest state alchemist ever, a certified genius! The admissions committee must not realize who I am. I should call them, remind them who saved them, make them regr-”
“They know who you are, Ed,” Winry interrupted, holding up the letter. “They addressed it to Colonel Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist, Retired. They brought out all your titles.”
“Give me that!” Al reached over the table to snatch the letter. “There’s got to be a reason.”
Ed clenched his fork tightly as he angrily stabbed his eggs. “Stupid Central University!”
“Ah, I found it. Come look, Winry,” Al called. Winry excitedly dashed to the other side of the table to see, and the pair giggled when Al pointed to something in the letter and looked back at Ed, who raised an eyebrow at them.
“Wha’ ish i’ now?” Ed mumbled, his mouth full of food.
“You got rejected because you don’t have proof of any sort of formal education. It says here that they require proof of secondary education,” Al explained.
“Seriously? They saw my recommendation letters, resume, have heard of me at some point in the papers or radio, and rejected me because of that?!” Ed exclaimed. “That’s bullshit! I’m more than qualified to teach at Central U, they should be honored that I even applied!”
“Ed, you and Al stopped going to school when you were 7 and 8, you’re elementary school dropouts. You guys didn’t even get to learn how to diagram sentences,” Winry said. “Do you boys even know how to do that?”
Ed and Al looked at each other. “What does that mean?” Al mouthed. Ed shrugged.
“Well can you diagram sentences?” Ed asked. “Do you even have proof of education either? You know, Resembool’s not really known for their education…”
“I do in fact have a certificate of completion, because I actually went to school!” Winry shouted back, pointing at a wall. “Granny hung it up right over there, maybe you should pay attention to what’s in the house you live in!”
Ed turned around to look, and sure enough, there was a framed certificate on the wall.
“I’m sure it’s not up to Central U’s standards, but I’m positive that at least I would be considered and accepted by another university’s admissions committee!” Winry continued, crossing her arms.
“There’s something else here, too. It looks like they would’ve accepted you if you did have proof of education, so you just need to get that and you’ll be all set,” Al said, handing the letter back to Ed. “You’ll get your doctorate, brother.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that I’m pissed, though.”
Ring! Ring!
Winry walked over to the phone on the wall and answered it with the usual business greeting. She turned to Ed and held the phone out. “It’s for you.”
Ed got up and walked over to Winry to accept the receiver. “Hello?”
“Hey Fullmetal!”
Ed rolled his eyes and groaned. He could imagine the smug expression the General probably had, considering the tone of his voice. “What do you want, bastard?”
“Just wanted to check up on you. I knew that the Central U decisions were released today, thought you’d need some good news,” Mustang said.
“What? How do you even know that I got rejected?!” Ed demanded.
“Central U is a public institution, funded by the government. And in this country, the government means the military. The gossip grapevine when the committee reviewed your application made it to HQ.”
“You knew?! You knew I was getting rejected and didn’t do anything about it?!” Ed yelled. “You bastard!”
Al’s head slumped on the table loudly at Ed’s antics. Winry rolled her eyes and walked back to the table to clean up the dishes.
“Don’t blame me! I can’t do anything about it! Sure they’re funded by the military, but that doesn’t mean we control them!” Roy argued back. “And I called you with good news, how about you listen?”
“Fine. What is it,” Ed groaned.
“You need proof of secondary education. So, I spent yesterday afternoon making a number of calls to the best high schools in the city, and to my alma mater, just in case you want to follow in my footsteps-”
“Fat chance.”
“-and as I was saying, I made a number of calls. They were all more than happy to accept you so you can graduate high school. I mailed you brochures for all of them and a pair of train tickets so you can come check them out, and bring Alphonse along if you want.”
“Really? You did that for me?”
“‘Course I did. There’s also more details about what you need for a diploma included in it. Now, I better go before the Lieutenant Colonel catches me. Call me back when you get it, alright?”
“Yeah, sure. Say hi to her from me.”
“Great. Have a nice day.”
Ed hung up the phone and turned back to Winry and Al, who were patiently waiting with curious eyes.
“So? What’d General Mustang tell you?” Winry asked.
“He called some high schools so I can get my high school diploma. He’s sending all the info in the mail… it’s really nice of him,” Ed explained. Al noticed his ears turn red, but didn't say anything. He stood up and walked over to Ed and engulfed him in a hug.
“It looks like it’s all going to work out. Central U doesn’t deserve you anyways,” Al said.
“You’re right. Screw Central U,” Ed replied, returning the hug tightly.