Disclaimer: I don't think I have to do this each and every time, considering this is a site for fictional stories of already existing fictional stories written by fans of said stories, so I'll say this once and you guys can pretend it goes for every chapter henceforth – I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, property of Kazue Katou, and I hells ain't getting any money out of this. At least last time I checked it wasn't possible, not to mention illegal, and I'm far from good enough to be getting paid for whatever crap my overactive brain spews on MSWord and demands to be uploaded to FF for kicks. Glad we established that, although it goes for every author here who's passed his/her teens, yet still feels the need to cling to the imaginary. We shall one day rule this world, my brethren, even if it all ends up being only in our heads.
I should stop while I'm still making sense.
On to the story!
Chapter 1
The Legendary Railrider
The ties that bind us are sometimes impossible to explain.
They connect us, even after it seems like the ties should be broken.
Some bonds defy distance, and time, and logic.
Because some ties are simply...
Meant to be.
Glancing briefly at the scenery of the setting sun casting an orange glow over a stretch of fir trees to a grassy field rushing past outside the moving train, Edward sighed in his gloved human hand. It was definitely more comfortable to lean on than the mechanical one passively holding a couple of cards barely reaching the required score of twenty-one that would surely put a satisfying stop to the seemingly endless losing streak he was suffering against his little brother all afternoon. Even one look at the expressionless large suit of armor hunched comically over his own pair of cards that he was clutching while patiently waiting for his older brother's call (as close to a picture of pure innocence a metal giant could get) was enough of an indication for Ed that Al had once again randomly happened upon a perfect pair of ace and ten, that lucky bastard. Pokerfaced armors had their advantage, but Edward knew his brother well enough to look past the empty metal shell and practically visualize Al's innocent smug look that he wore when he managed to once again out-class his older brother in little things like this. Luck was always on the side of the innocent. Dread overcoming his wounded ego, Ed quickly lost any leftover motivation to play cards as means to pass the time and reluctantly threw his meager instant eighteen on the table.
"Your win." He stood up and absentmindedly rubbed the junction of his shoulder where metal met skin. "I feel like walking around anyway. Need to stretch."
"Giving up already, brother?" Al's young voice echoed inside the armor and Ed could once again imagine the annoying smug look on the lucky bastard's face.
"Be right back." Making a face, Ed refused to supply a proper answer and strode away past the seats and down the corridor, on his way to the restroom.
But just when he was about to reach for the handle of the sliding door to the next train car, it flew open by itself and bright red blurred his vision as something collided with his front, knocking him off-balance and onto the hard floor that made his head spin and throb painfully.
"Brother!" Al called out, followed by the clunking of his unnervingly hollow metallic footsteps rushing to his side.
Ed tuned him out to zone in on the sounds of men shouting, scuffling boots and doors being slammed open from several cars back.
"Find her!" someone was bellowing orders, "Don't let her escape!"
"Wait 'till I get my hands on that little brat!"
"I'll make her regret being born!"
Their overlapping voices snapped Ed out of his disorientation and he lifted himself on his elbows to yell out on automatic, "Who are you calling—!" But the words got caught in his throat when he felt the weight of whatever toppled him shift from his sudden movement and push away from his torso. Glancing down, his eyes widened in alarm and his face flushed the color of red that was the long hair of the young-looking girl in a gray-blue men's coat sprawled over his lap. She was clutching the front of his shirt with one hand for support as she groaned and rubbed her previously smashed nose with the other. When she moved her hand away from her face, vibrant green that reminded him of the hills over Resembool stared at his golden orbs with equal surprise.
"Brother," she breathed breathlessly, searching his face for something and making him feel seriously weird. But upon taking notice of the rest of Ed's features, she was quick to shut her mouth closed and move back away from his face, the peculiar interest in her eyes fading as quick as it came.
"Are you alright?" Al's metal body came into view as he crouched beside them. Ed was about to reply until he noticed that the question was actually directed at the redhead.
"What are you asking her for?! I'm the one that got practically run over!" he fumed, tossing aside his previous state of embarrassment.
The girl initially flinched away from Al's intimidatingly large figure, then seemed to backpedal and momentarily access her situation, glancing back and forth between the brothers, as she seemed to reach to some kind of decision. Blinking furiously, her face distorted and tears leaked from her eyes, accompanied by strangled hiccups, all of which sent the brothers into a state of panic. She threw herself back into Ed's chest, clutching his shirt as she cried and wailed loudly into the black fabric.
"Hey! Wh-wh-why did you suddenly start crying?! It's not your head that got slammed into the ground! What the hell's going on?!" Flailing his hovering arms around her in a complete lack of understanding what had caused the stranger's reaction or what to do in a situation like this, Ed shared a look of alarm and complete ignorance with his equally as stumped brother. They glanced back at the girl, then towards the nearing angry voices, searching through compartments merely a car away, and heard the girl sound something strangled in-between her hiccuping.
"What's wrong?" Al supplied in a much calmer tone. "It's you they're looking for, isn't it?" She stiffened and her cries halted for a brief second, dissolving into hiccups. "You can tell us." The girl finally removed her red crying face from Ed's chest and made an effort to calm herself so she could speak.
Staring down with a look of bitter shame, she shyly answered in a strangled voice, "Two officers cornered me, said they wanted to have some fun, tried to touch me, so when I refused and started screaming to get someone's attention, they took away my ticket and tried to get me kicked off the train. I don't have anyone to back me up since I'm travelling all alone. Nobody believes me. I don't want this. I'm scared." The girl lift her face to Ed's, causing him to feel uncomfortable to continue looking at her glazed pleading emeralds staring so close and so intently at him. "Please! Will you help me?! I'm begging you!"
Even though he had no idea where this girl came from and even though he was still a bit mad about getting run over by her, Ed couldn't help the anger that rose in his chest and flared in his eyes at the bare mention of the repulsing travesty that these bastards had tried to force upon her. She seemed to be just a frightened helpless girl around his or Al's age, for heaven's sake. But still, Ed was still a bit reluctant to completely believe her. She could be lying. Those men all sounded pretty pissed at her in general. She might be a con.
"I'm just trying to find my brother. Why does everything always have to go so wrong?" But as those strangled words came from the girl's quivering mouth, all of Ed's doubts were swept away.
"You hear that, Brother! We have to help her!" One look at Al's emotionless metal face and Ed could naturally decipher his little brother's true expression. That was all that he needed to be completely won over.
Several men from the military police entered their train car, flanked by two angry train workers, further confusing the passenger bystanders by surrounding the two noisy kids and the strange tall man in full-body armor.
"There's no place left for you to run, you little rodent. We've got you now," one of the officers said triumphantly.
"Thank you for holding her up for us, Sir. She's been causing a commotion all over the train, refusing to cooperate. You can hand her over to us now. We'll handle her from here," his superior explained, stepping up out of the crowd of uniformed men and reaching to lift the panicking redhead by the upper arm.
Ed rose to his feet, shoving the girl at Al's safe hands so he was free to capture the commanding officer's wrist with his steel-tight automail fingers and keep it away at safe length from the girl. "Not happening." The glare that he gave the taller man spoke volumes of his disgust with him.
"What did you say?!" The man freed his wrist from Ed's vice mechanical grip with a struggle and sized him up. This boy was surprisingly strong for his small stature. "Who do you think you are, boy? Do you want to be pinned as an accomplice? This girl illegally boarded the train without a permit and committed multiple offences against me and my fellow men for which she is to be detained for insubordination. Don't try to be some knight in shining armor and simply hand her over to our higher authority." Al the shining armor himself jerked his head visibly, as he was hovering protectively over the redhead and giving the surrounding men his intimidating expressionless version of the stink eye.
"Yeah? Well I heard differently." Ed reached into the pocket of his leather pants and took out his silver pocket watch, reveling in the change of attitude the intricate engraving caused the grown men before him. "My name is Edward Elric the Fullmetal Alchemist and this girl is now under my protection. Got a problem with that?"
"Edward Elric?!" Whispers rose from the men. "The State Alchemist?!"
"How can this be?! Someone as young as you?!" The officer before Ed let out a condescending laugh. "I bet you stole that watch from an unsuspecting alchemist so you could run around and pose with it, using it for your own gain! There's more of a chance for me to believe that the armored man behind you is the Fullmetal Alchemist, not some little runt like you!"
A vein threatened to pop on his forehead as Ed grit his teeth and breathed heavily trough his nostrils, his eyes twisting into a look of bloody murder.
"Oh no. You shouldn't have said that." Al sighed, palming his metal face, and the military men exchanged blank looks.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A TINY LITTLE MOUSE SO MINUSCULE IT COULD CRAWL TROUGH ITTY-BITTY CHEESE HOLES?!" Ed's rage exploded as he slapped his hands together and dove, slamming them onto the ground, from whence the train floor rumbled with visible sparks of alchemic energy and erupted into tiny wooden mechanical wind-up toy mice with large ears, a hair antenna and Ed's angry face on them, crawling over the military men's feet and sneaking into every crevice of their uniform to incessantly tickle their exposed skin.
"NOBODY SAID THAT!" They flailed around with loud shrieks and screams of hysterical laughter, pleading the boy to stop his little minions.
"Brother! I think that's enough!" Al felt the need to stop him while the boy could still hear reason and Ed reluctantly withdrew his hands from the floor with an angry pout, causing the mice to cease their movement and turn inanimate.
"They deserve it, the bastards," Ed snarled, "Going after a poor helpless girl, trying to cop a feel! You're supposed to be civil protectors! Don't you have any pride?! How low can you get?!"
Blinking stupidly, the disheveled police men looked at Ed and Al with empty faces as their senior officer stood slowly, shaking in anger.
"Are you completely airheaded or just plain brainless?! She's fooled you! And now you've let her get away!"
Briefly deadpanning, Ed turned to Al in alarm, who in turn looked to the empty space beside him where the girl was supposed to stand. Noting her absence from the train car in general, the brothers felt the train rock and slow its pace while entering a rather long stretching turn. They exchanged looks of realization and rushed to open the nearest window in time to notice a blur of red jumping out the rear of the train, landing among a pack of densely grown bushes and disappearing into the night that had fallen during their small altercation.
"That deceiving little fox! To think I felt sorry for her!" Grinding his teeth, Ed was ready to leap out the window after the sly redhead immediately, had his brother not hauled him back down by the hood of his red coat.
"Contact the nearest stations over the radio! Warn them to keep an eye out for the girl!" the commanding officer ordered and one of his men saluted, dashing out of the train car.
Al turned back to the policemen and attempted to ease the situation as he began politely, "Ah, um, my brother and I wish to express our heartfelt apologies for this misunderstanding."
Temper boiling, the commander pointed an accusing finger at Ed's face. "It's all your fault! We would've had her if it wasn't for you!"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it, sorry about that," Ed admitted begrudgingly.
"State Alchemist or not, sorry isn't going to cover this. I could detain you for collaborating in her escape." The man took a moment's breath to calm himself. "It's not much surprise, though. She had us all at the start."
"You too?" Al asked in surprise and all the men nodded, ashamed.
"We found her stowed away by the cargo. She looked miserable, claiming her parents abandoned her unconscious on the train," they took turns, explaining.
"Half-way into the trip we realized she gave us fake names when we got a call back from the station, telling us none of the mentioned ever even existed."
"By the time our communication specialist came back, she'd randomly started screaming, doubling over on the floor as if experiencing tremendous pain. It caught everyone by surprise, since she seemed just fine seconds before, and that caused a brief panic."
"We immediately moved her to a compartment to lie her down but when the Chief tried to check on her, she jabbed a foot right between his legs—" Everyone present involuntarily winced, making a face of horrible discomfort. "—and ducked out of the compartment, jamming the door at the base with the hilt of the gun she'd somehow nicked off of me."
"That's when we lost her."
The brothers finally understood what got these men so pissed off at one single girl that they'd be on her heels like a mindless pack of wolves. Ed rubbed his head in thought, pondering how could one girl manage to outwit half a train, when the guy that was sent to warn the stations returned, slamming the door open, a huff in his breath.
"Sir! There's an important notice from Headquarters for all personnel! That girl is known throughout the Eastern Railways as the Legendary Railrider!"
"The Legendary Railrider?" Ed snorted, "Sounds stupid."
"Red hair and a long dark blue washed-out men's cutaway coat. Information says she's a master con artist, spotted throughout the countryside stowing aboard the cargo, freight hopping, catching free rides and swindling people for their money and possessions," the man added in astonishment for the feat that it presented, "She's done this for over a year. There are formal orders for her capture."
"Formal orders? From Eastern Command? Whose?" Ed asked, fearing the worst.
"Colonel Roy Mustang."
"The Colonel?" Al perked up.
"Knew it." Ed deflated. "What would that guy want with some small countryside swindler?" he briefly wondered, but thought better of it, "Well, it doesn't concern me. I don't want to have anything to do with that manipulative redheaded weasel. Let's go back to our seats, Al."
"Wait right there," the police superior halted his retreat, "You still have to take responsibility for allowing her escape. Under your protection, was it?"
As much as he disliked the nasty look on the policeman's face, Ed knew he was right, yet he didn't have the time for any distractions.
"I understand perfectly, but I'm on my way back from an assignment. I told you I was a State Alchemist, didn't I? My superior's going to nag if I'm late." Ed mentally swore at himself for having to excuse himself with meeting Mustang's annoying mug, but the man could be useful at times such as these.
"You've mentioned it, but unfortunately, you seem to have misplaced your proof," stifling a smirk, the officer motioned at his pants.
"My proof?" Guessing, Ed felt his pockets, coming up with air, and despair crept up his his face. "Where is it?!" He panicked, looking around in case he dropped it, but it was supposed to be safely chained to his belt. The only way it could have disappeared was... "THAT CURSED REDHEAD! I'LL NEVER LET HER GET AWAY WITH THIS!"
"Brother, maybe we should get off the next station and call the Colonel that we'll be making a small detour," Al suggested reasonably, in case his brother got any ideas about jumping out car windows again.
- xxx -
Mustang would one day become his undoing, Ed was sure of it. Not only was his pocket watch stolen by an underage con girl but when the Colonel heard about it, he didn't just laugh, he decided it was the perfect opportunity to assign Fullmetal the girl's capture and wash his hands away from the entire matter. After all, the Colonel pardoned him for aiding the girl's escape and got the police off his back, so now the Legendary Railrider was his own responsibility, his punishment for being so gullible. Ed could practically feel the bastard's smug expression over the phone in the booth at the small countryside station. As useful as it was going to be for the Colonel, the whole ordeal inconvenienced Ed. He and his brother were supposed to be following leads on the Philosopher's Stone, not catching small time criminals.
"One last thing before you head out, make sure to handle the girl with care. Your orders are solely to retrieve her. Don't let any harm come to her."
"Isn't she a criminal? Can't I just drop her at the nearest jail cell and be done with it?" Mustang's words seemed strange to him. "And don't talk like I'd right out attack her, even though I have every reason to do so," he added the last part in a quiet undertone.
"I'm doing this as a favor for a colleague of mine. She's really done nothing that can't be pardoned with a word from me and a little bail money."
"Are you sure this is legal?" Ed was honestly concerned about this scheme Mustang and this colleague of his were concocting all for a troublesome swindler.
"Don't you have any faith in me, Fullmetal? You wound my heart deeply." When no answer came after Mustang's sweetly voiced implication, he cleared his throat and continued in a more serious manner, "The girl's name is Anabel Matlock. She ran away from home a year ago and her guardians are very concerned about her well-being. One of them is my colleague here in Eastern. He's an old friend of mine from the Military Academy and I owe him one for a, uh... a dog accident."
"Dog accident?" Ed sweatdropped, his imagination soaring. "On second thought, I don't want to know."
"That is all. I'm counting on you, Fullmetal. Good luck."
- xxx -
Finding her wasn't supposed to be easy, but starting from the first town nearest to the point where she jumped off the train was their best shot. It was already well into the evening and the girl was bound to be searching for a place to rest. With a bit of questioning, the brothers' hunch proved right. Apparently, her carrot hair and unusual attire did her no good as it made her easy to spot and track down, since several people around the town confirmed seeing a redheaded girl in a washed-out blue men's coat looking for the nearest inn. Making their way straight to the place mentioned, the brothers entered a small softly-lit establishment with wooden furniture and the feel of an old homely tavern. And they seemed to have made it just in time, since the first thing that caught their attention was a certain redhead, obnoxiously shoving a familiar silver pocket watch in the old innkeeper's bearded face at the bar.
"You've never heard of the Scarlet Alchemist?! How ignorant can you countryside people get?!" The girl seemed infuriated for some reason and had adopted a snobbish way of speaking that completely contrasted with the image of the helpless victim that had bawled her eyes out on Ed's shirt earlier on the train. "Look, believe me that neither of us would like my superior to hear of this and I've already told you to mail the cost to my name. I give you my word as a State Alchemist that you, sir, will be generously paid for aiding the military by providing me with food and housing for one sole night. I'm a very busy woman on an urgent assignment and I've just been robbed by a pickpocket so you should understand that my patience is running dangerously thin. I don't have much time to waste arguing so I suggest you get a move on."
The mention of being rewarded for doing the girl a favor perked the innkeeper's interest the same way he felt intimidated by the thought of crossing the military. Besides, it was just for a single night and how much could one girl eat, anyway? He was a heartbeat away from giving her a room when the Elric brothers came into view, each placing a hand heavily onto the girl's stiff shoulders, causing her to involuntarily jump in place.
"Sorry for the interruption, Miss State Alchemist, but I believe we need to have a good long talk about personal possessions." Ed barely restrained himself from grinning evilly when the girl turned her head slowly, a barely visible spark of panic flashing on her face.
Before it twisted into another one of her elaborate schemes.
"Oh, splendid!" she exclaimed dramatically. "And here are my colleagues now – the Fullmetal Alchemist himself and his trusted companion."
"Fullmetal?!" The innkeeper seemed to recognize the title this time around, as he stared Al's full-body armor up and down with awe. "Edward Elric?! The one to make State Alchemist at twelve?!"
"No, no, not me!" Al jumped and flailed his gauntlet arms in denial. "I'm the younger brother, Alphonse!"
"Younger brother? Then..." The innkeeper's gaze moved over to Ed's smaller stature, staring down at him in slight disappointment, reluctant to voice out the obvious.
"We've got a meeting scheduled, don't we?" The redhead intervened before Ed's angry shaking fit could erupt into something explosive to the ears. "I suggest you guys pay for the night, as I seem to have been deprived of my travelling money. It's the gentlemanly thing to do," she added sweetly.
Snapping out of his moment of madness, Ed directed his annoyance back to the conniving girl, glaring at her with all his might. "Fine," he growled in between teeth, "But you're giving me back my watch, or so help me, I'll—!"
"Perfect!" The girl beamed, turning to the innkeeper. "You heard the man! Chop, chop!"
- xxx -
The moment they were left alone in their assigned room, skipping dinner altogether, Ed forced the redheaded swindler into one of the comfy chairs as Al loomed over her like a post guard.
"The Legendary Railrider," Ed pronounced slowly, "You've finally been caught." Saying it out loud served to reconfirm the fact, both with the idea of intimidating her and raising Ed's confidence that the hard part was over with.
"People keep saying that. Am I famous or something?" But the redhead didn't bat an eyelash, smugly sure of herself that she was still in control by the way she leaned her head over the hand placed over the armrest and crossed her legs, slowly swinging one over the other. "The Legendary Railrider," she tasted it over her lips. "Such lack of imagination. And how exactly am I supposed to be legendary? Did people somehow feel the need to put some kind of adjective there somewhere so it would sound more exciting?"
"Who cares about that!" Ed yelled, his irritation resurfacing.
"Brother." Al's voice reminded him that they were at a family-run inn in the middle of the night and waking the rest of the sleeping guests with their random shouting was considered a lack of manners.
Exhaling a groan, Ed lowered the volume. "Listen, Red." The ginger frowned slightly at the unoriginal nickname. "We know your real name is Anabel Matlock." A bit of fear flickered behind the girl's still eyes as this time they locked into his with attention. "It's about time you stop recklessly trying to hijack trains, robbing people, deceiving them. It's all fun and games but you don't realize how lucky you are that you haven't gotten yourself in some real trouble. And I don't mean the military. There are bad people that can really do you harm. You're just one lone girl, Ana. Lying can't save you from everything."
"Don't try preaching any life lessons to me." The redhead scoffed, smirking at him. "Next thing you tell me is you've come to care about me. Did you fall for me or something?"
Sputtering, Ed did his best to keep his voice down as he barked, "Who'd fall over a conniving little fox like you?!"
"Oh, but I distinctly remember this vixen making you fall over earlier on the train."
Al couldn't help but stifle a snicker at Anabel's comment and his brother's growing frustration at her.
"Al! Don't laugh! Whose side are you on?!"
"Sorry, Brother, she just put it so perfectly."
Ignoring his brother's amusement, Ed regained his composure and continued, "As far as I am from caring, your parents are worried about you. We're here to get you back home, Ana. If you come with us, all charges against you will be dropped and it'll be like the last year never happened."
Ed's words caused a drastic change in Ana's entire demeanor. Jaded green eyes moving to the side, the redhead's smug smile dimmed and her hand dropped from her chin as she gripped the armrests. "My parents are dead. There's no home for me to get back to. All I have is my older brother and I need to find him," she pronounced each word clearly, with an unwavering determination, as she put an emphasis on the last part.
Locking eyes, the brothers deliberated whether this was another one of the girl's acts, yet allowed her to continue only because of how her words struck them. She had no home to get back to. All she had left was her brother. It was just like they were. And Ed remembered Mustang specifically telling them that it was her guardians who wanted her back, meaning that she might've really lost her actual parents.
"So back in the train you weren't lying when you mentioned you were looking for your brother." Al abandoned his intimidating stance over their heads and lowered himself into a crouch at the girl's eye level to show he was genuinely concerned. "What happened?"
Eyeing him warily, Ana was about to tell him it wasn't his business but something in the way the expressionless metal face of his helmet gazed at her under the dim light of the room that made her feel both vulnerable and safe at the same time, like she was free to voice out all of her worries, cry away the pain, be assured that everything was going to be alright and actually believe it. Pushing those silly thoughts aside, the girl looked away from him and forcibly kept her emotions bottled up, causing her to frown. "Nothing much. I come back home from school one day and the entire house is bloodstained, my parents disfigured, hideous body parts everywhere and my brother gone."
Blanching from the image they conjured in their heads, the brothers still struggled to believe her, since she said it so casually, like it wasn't that big of a deal, disclosing the gory details of finding her parents' cold dead bodies scattered around the house in bloodied pieces. But the clouded look in her still eyes told another story, they noticed, because even when she lied, a flicker of her true feelings gleamed in those grass green orbs.
"That was a little over two years ago. Whoever did it must've taken my brother," Ana was confident.
Her hand dove in an inner pocket of her coat and fished out a worn out picture of a small girl with short carrot hair wearing a cream blouse with a semi-long white and blue skirt and brown kneesocks standing in front of a sunny yellow house. Little Ana was happily clinging to a tall boy in his teens with an olive cardigan over a black shirt and brown pants. His hair was longer but equally red, tied back in a tiny stout ponytail. His ears were pierced and face stoic with deep-set cat eyes that had an unusual amber shade of yellow, making him seem perpetually immersed in thought. And true, even though he had a hand gently patting his innocent loving little sister's head, his focus was elsewhere, inwards, to something unseen that bothered him.
"His name is Christian," Ana said with uncharacteristic adoration. "He could be left for dead somewhere for all I know but I won't rest until I find out what happened to him." She raised a hopeful look to the two brothers and spoke like she'd done this a thousand times over, "Have you seen him? Does he look familiar to you?"
"No." Ed brushed nervous fingers through his bangs, hating to be the bearer of bad news, but this deluded girl desperately needed a wakeup call. "But from what you've said it's obvious what happened. Your brother murdered your parents and fled."
"Brother!" Al exclaimed, appalled. "You completely lack delicacy!"
"Sorry, but someone has to say this. Her brother must've been some twisted psycho but she's too hung up on him to notice even when the truth is glaring her right in the face." Ed looked back at the girl sternly, with no remorse whatsoever to his words. "The world is a harsh place and you need to learn to live with the reality of it sooner or later, unless you want to risk going insane."
Her head down, face hidden behind red strands, Ana was shaking all over in the chair she sat on, hands gripping the picture of her and her brother as if it might disappear from her grasp.
"How dare you." Anger oozed from her in waves, even when she kept her voice low. "All of you. Everyone keeps jumping to conclusions, the police, the neighbors, the village, yet no one even bothers to take the time and remember how completely selfless and kind Brother really was." She raised her head showing them tears, genuine tears in her determined green eyes, completely different from the time she made herself cry on purpose to gain their sympathy. As these tears didn't fall, she kept them there stubbornly, in her still unblinking gaze. "I refuse to believe that Brother is capable of something so horrible. He loved Mom and Dad even when they sometimes expected far too much out of him. And he loves me. My beloved gentle big brother would never do this to me, he would never break my heart, I just know it. He's more likely to have gone after the monster that killed our parents, seeking out revenge for the two of us. He hasn't abandoned me. He's just keeping me out of trouble as he's always done."
A silence passed as Ed grew uncomfortable under her honest stare. This girl obviously had a thing for her older brother and he wasn't sure if that was really normal for girls her age, not to mention if it was healthy for her sanity.
"For the time being, let's assume your brother is innocent," Al began carefully, receiving a glare from Ana for even suggesting that there was a chance her brother was anything but, and a look from Ed that blatantly showed he was highly doubtful that the guy from the picture with the suspicious look in his eyes had a single innocent bone in his body. "It's still too dangerous to be going around looking for him all by yourself. I think it's safer for you to go back to your guardians and let someone else find him for you."
"Don't you think I've tried that?" Ana snapped back. "I've already wasted too much time standing by, being fussed over by others after my parents' death. The military haven't found any leads on Brother, not that I'm surprised, considering they couldn't get a hold of a single girl for an entire year." A smirk briefly returned to grace her face, showing pride in her ability to outsmart the authorities.
"Yet here we are." Until Ed's smug comment wiped it off.
"But Brother's better than that," she continued, as if uninterrupted, "He doesn't wish to be found which is why no one's ever even caught a glimpse of him. Regardless, those military bastards are hell bent on pinning the blame on him if they ever manage to track him down and I can't let them do that. I need to find him first and diffuse the situation."
"And even after all you've said, you've probably had even less of a progress than the military," Ed was quick to crush her delusions, "You're just one lone girl, after all."
"One lone girl that knows her big brother better than anyone." Ana didn't falter and grinned wickedly, reaching a hand into another inner pocket of her tailcoat. The brothers wondered briefly how many things she hid there, considering the long dark blue washed-out garment didn't leave much room for anything, even for a men's coat, which they guessed she probably stole off some unsuspecting citizen's back. Slowly and carefully, she took out a bunched up white handkerchief and opened it up to reveal a long orange thread inside, so sleek and shiny it might have been a hair. "Behold!" She picked up the thread and waved it triumphantly as if she were a magician, showing them a magic trick. "This I found at the last place I tricked into letting me sleep for free." They weren't even fazed that she was openly admitting to having committed a fraud, they were more interested in what the meaningless long thread in her hand was supposed to represent.
"A thread," Al voiced thoughtfully.
"If you say something along the lines of this being something that came off from your brother's clothes and that it's his means of leaving you clues to where he's been, I'm going to have to hit you upside the head to set you straight," Ed warned seriously.
"Of course not! Are you blind?!" the redhead fumed and just when Ed was about to sigh in relief, she clarified, "It's a hair! And before you ask, I'm certain it's his since it matches the texture and thickness perfectly and the length corresponds to how long his hair should have gotten by now, if we assume he hasn't had the chance to cut it."
"You're not even kidding, are you?" Ed said with an empty look on his face, proud of himself that he was managing to restrain a facepalm. He was afraid to ask if it ever occurred to the deluded girl that the hair might have fallen from her own carrot head, since she might prove to be as stupid as she was thickheaded.
"When I asked around for him however, I came out empty. Nobody's seen him there, not on all seven floors. The hotel manager even told me that no redheaded men have stayed in that particular room, since it was usually given to women and the last person to sleep there was a white haired old lady well in her seventies. But I swear the hair I found is his. There aren't many gingers around, last time I checked. I can even catch his feint scent on it, I'm sure of it. I've got it memorized from all the times we've slept together."
"Brother! Don't! The Colonel said to handle her with care!" Al was barely keeping his hold on Ed as the boy trashed and twisted, trying to free himself so he could proceed with his mission to do mankind a favor by strangling the redhead that was so insanely attached to her big brother that it bordered a mental illness.
"Did I say something strange?" Ana seemed oblivious to what her previous words implied and stared at the brothers like they were doing a silly circus act while she gingerly placed her brother's hair between the folds of the white handkerchief and back inside the innards of her coat.
Seeing as he wasn't going to succeed in his mission, Ed opted for the less aggressive approach. "I can overlook at how much length you're willing to investigate an entire hotel for one random red hair but please tell me that by sleeping together you mean sleeping on the same bed and that you stopped doing that when you entered puberty."
Blinking innocently, the redhead assimilated his question and her expression faltered, face changing through several shades of red as she sputtered out, "Of course that's what I meant, you pervert!" As reassuring as that adequate reaction of hers was, her next sentence gave the brothers something else to worry about. "It's perfectly normal for siblings to sometimes sleep together on the same bed! Don't pretend like you two don't do it just to make fun of me!"
"That's definitely not normal at this age!" Both Elrics shook their heads violently, refusing to imagine themselves sharing a bed, especially with the current state of their mismatched bodies.
Hanging her head to hide her scarlet cheeks, Ana rubbed her face, murmuring, "But Brother said it was okay if I wanted to... I don't see why it's strange... We're siblings... It's calming to have someone sleeping beside you... It conserves body heat... It makes me feel closer to him... I don't dislike it... It just started making me feel embarrassed at some point so I try not to think about it too much... I just can't figure out when and why it started being weird... We're just close, that's all... Why should it be strange?"
Her line of thinking wasn't necessarily wrong. It was a good sign that she'd started to recognize how uncomfortable things like that made her feel. So maybe it wasn't that Ana was too far off her rocker, her brother seemed to be to blame as well. Ed figured the guy probably pampered her too much and she never questioned it, receiving his kindness greedily. But while her brother would always view her as his precious little sister and nothing more, she grew older and started to become conscious of herself and her brother even if she didn't realize it and tried to deny it so things wouldn't get awkward. Their entire relationship was so close that it seemed wrong and it all ended up twisting Ana's ideas of proper human behavior. Ed pitied the poor bastard who'd be unlucky enough to fall in love with her and end up having to fix the mess in her head.
"So," Al decided it was high time to change the subject before the deluded girl could confuse herself further, "If your brother doesn't want to be found, I take it you're our best shot of finding him."
"Huh?" The redhead abandoned her inner musings to turn her attention back to the brothers. "Yeah. That's right. But I don't get what you mean by—"
"No way in hell!" Ed objected immediately, less than eager to comply with what his brother was hinting at.
"If we just force her back to her guardians, there's nothing stopping her from running away again." Al's logic proved sound as Ana froze and tried to feign ignorance, looking like she hadn't even thought of that, even though it was exactly what she planned to do if she ever got caught and sent back to her hometown.
"They can put her in some cage in the basement for all I care! That's not our problem!" Ed was unshakeable in his resolve, ignoring how bothered Ana looked by the notion of being treated like a rabid animal. Though, considering all the trouble she had caused so far, Ed wouldn't be surprised if her guardians cuffed her to a wheelchair, just to make sure she wouldn't be able to escape ever again. Knowing the dastardly weasel however, she'd probably leave regardless, bolting along with the wheelchair, even using it to add a dash of color to her elaborate schemes against unsuspecting citizens.
"But what if her brother's innocent and they get him unjustly sentenced?" Al seemed so genuinely concerned that it came as a surprise to Ana and she had to remind herself to remain skeptical towards the brothers. They were there to pull her away from her quest, after all. This whole conversation they were having could be a farce, her own game played against her.
"Does it seem that way to you?!" As he kept arguing in a hushed tone so he wouldn't wake the neighboring rooms, Ed couldn't figure out why was his brother refusing to agree with the facts. "Of course he's guilty! Did you even take a look at the guy?! With that messed-up look in his eyes! He's even twisted his own sister!" Opening her mouth, Ana was appalled that Ed dared to insinuate her dear big brother on that picture she showed looked anything far from a pleasant young man with a boundlessly big heart.
"You haven't even met him!" Al beat her to it, catching her completely off guard this time. She barely recovered in time to build her walls back up before she heard his next statement. "If Ana has so much faith in him, he's bound to be a good guy!" Her mind going blank, Ana barely struggled to regain her composure. She'd never dreamed for a second that there would be a person in her small cruel world that would believe in her and her brother with so much fervor that he'd be willing to oppose his own sibling.
"Oh, come on, Al, you can't honestly believe that!" Ed was ready to bang his head on the nearest wall at this point, if it could make his brother see reason. "You're almost as incessantly naïve as her!"
"That's because if this was us, I'd never stop having faith in you as well!" Ed's wind was completely blown out of his sails as the two brothers faced each other stubbornly. Al's hollow glowing eyes were burning with the same intensity as his words and Ed had to fight the urge to squirm under his little brother's tall imposing figure. He told himself that he felt that way only because of the size of the armor and not because his brother was taking a stand in the name of what he felt was right and just.
In the stagnant silence that had followed, Ana's perplexed eyes continued darting back and forth between the brothers, waiting for a reaction while deliberating whether she should feel offended for being discussed like she wasn't there or embarrassed that she'd witnessed something seemingly personal.
The older Elric was first to avert his eyes. "You know perfectly well that we can't afford to distract ourselves with looking for her bastard brother."
"I know." Even as he said that, Al wasn't backing down, staying firm in his decision, and Ed could see that clearly in the way the hollow armor stood still and unmoving.
"She'll just be a hindrance to us," Ed tried again, fully aware he was fighting a losing battle.
"I know."
"She's not some stray cat, you know!" Now he was just being silly, but he felt Al needed to be reminded of that once in a while.
"I'm aware." He could imagine his brother practically grinning on the inside of the armor.
Letting a moment or two pass between them as Ana's confusion grew exponentially, Ed finally closed his eyes and sighed, bending to his brother's will. "We'll have to get the Colonel's permission first."
If armors could smile, Al was practically beaming as he looked like he was fighting the urge to hug his brother, barely managing to control himself. "Thank you, Brother!"
Turning around to hide an oncoming tug of the lips at his little brother's animated antics, Ed murmured, "But I'm making no promises," to which his brother nodded elatedly.
Before she could figure out what had transpired, the dispute was settled and the brothers moved away in separate directions. At first, Ana thought they'd forgotten about her and were getting ready for sleep, since Ed was taking off his coat, but it struck her unusual that Al sat rigidly on the sofa beside her chair, without taking off his armor, and began inspecting one of the books from the small pile on the coffee table. She said nothing about it of course, guessing the brothers were in a silent agreement that Al would be first to watch over her, making sure she wouldn't make her leave at some point during the night.
As if remembering she was still there, Ed turned away from the hangers to stare at Ana, who was still rigidly sitting in her chair. "What are you waiting for? We should be going to bed."
A red light flared in her head when he said that and Ana glanced hurriedly at the sole double bed at the other end of the room that looked like it could only fit a person and a half. She had forgotten about the whole matter when the brothers first started questioning her, but this was the only free room the innkeeper could give them at that time of night and the three of them could hardly complain, since the kind old man was almost ready to give the room free of charge when Ana had wanted it for herself before the brothers interrupted her act.
"We should?" Ana panicked as Ed walked back towards her in slow grim steps and her mind made wild leaps of imagination. You don't realize how lucky you are that you haven't gotten yourself in some real trouble, he'd said. There are bad people that can really do you harm, the words echoed. You're just one lone girl, Ana, her mind rang and she shifted away, almost in danger of falling from the comfy chair, a horrified look on her beet red face.
"We have to be up pretty early tomorrow if we want to catch the first train to East City." Paying her unusual behavior no mind, Ed casually went right past her and flung himself beside Al on the other side of the sofa, crossing his arms and legs and closing his eyes, looking comfortable enough to fall asleep just like that.
Blinking stupidly from her silly pose on the edge of the armchair, Ana lowered herself back in a normal sitting position, feeling slight shame for jumping to ridiculous conclusions. There seemed to be some kind of unspoken gentlemanly presumption that the lady would get the bed that she hadn't been informed about. And Ed was probably just unused to having to deal with anyone else except his brother at this time of night and thought that other people like Ana would react normally if he spoke to them in shortened sentences, letting them figure out the rest of his words. Al's armored body was sitting right there on the sofa, reading his book tamely, so there was no way he'd let his short midget of an older brother do anything weird to her. Although, now that she thought about it, she couldn't figure out a reason why she automatically assumed Al was any less threatening but it probably had something to do with how he'd been defending her honor the entire time like a good knight in shining armor.
"Behave," Ed addressed her one last time before instantly falling asleep with loud comical snores.
"Seriously?" Ana whispered to herself, this time wondering how in the world did she ever feel intimidated by this short joke of guy in the first place.
Feeling the armored giant glimpse over his book at her funny reactions, Ana heard a soft boyish chuckle echo inside the helmet. "Brother is harmless. You don't need to worry about him."
"As if," she denied everything, cursing herself for being so transparent that her thoughts were obvious to an overgrown boy under a hard layer of metal. Averting eyes, the redhead addressed a more imposing matter, "So why are you taking me to East City?" Thinking back on their conversation, the brothers mentioned her parents being worried about her, meaning that her guardians had been looking for her all this time that she'd been scouring the land for Christian. "It's Lieutenant Coleman isn't it?"
By the way Al's helmet continued facing her, Ana could imagine he was probably raising an eyebrow. "Haven't heard of him. We're taking you to Brother's superior. Though he did say the Colonel mentioned something about a colleague of his asking him to bring you back as a favor. Is that the Lieutenant you're speaking of?"
"That's my guess." Ana slumped in her seat, rubbing her face in exhaustion, more mental than physical. Deep down, she knew this day would come, that she'd be hunted down and dragged back to the place that only brought back painful memories.
"He's your guardian, isn't he?" For a guy whose senses were most probably hindered by that large suit of armor, Ana felt that Al was unnervingly perceptive.
"Our neighbor." She decided there was no harm in telling him. She did owe him for standing up for her. And besides, if she built up his trust, she might gain some leverage with Ed as well, since even though he had a hard time trusting other people, he seemed to be easily swayed by his brother. "The neighbors' kid and I were childhood friends and our parents knew each other well. I've rarely seen the Lieutenant though. He's almost never home, making a living for his family, always working at Eastern HQ. He's been in the military since I remember. I guess my parents thought it best to leave me in him and his wife's hands if anything ever happened to them."
Like Winry and Aunt Pinako, Al thought to himself, not realizing that ever since hearing Ana had no home to return to, that she only had her brother lrft, he began looking out for more similarities she shared with him and his own brother. He nodded visibly, giving the redhead a moment to gather her thoughts, a moment that she didn't seem to really need as she avoided any further discussion of the matter what so ever.
"I guess this is the end of the line, huh." Ana brought her legs up on the chair, hugging them to herself sadly as she placed her head over her knees. "At least for now."
"You mean until you escape us, or the military and your guardians." Al was bound to be grinning under that helmet, Ana could swear on it. "That's not happening."
Frowning, Ana regarded the armored boy with hostility. "Like you can stop me!" She had the impression that this brother was on her side, yet she seemed to be wrong in her thinking. There really was no one she could trust after all.
"I just did. You don't have a reason to run away anymore." The girl continued staring at him skeptically, urging him to elaborate. "As soon as the Colonel agrees on it, we're going to help you find your brother."
Taken aback by that unbelievable statement, Ana opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish, before managing to voice out, "No one's going to agree to that." She wasn't really in the mood for some random stranger to be giving her false hope like that.
"We'll see. If there's an investigation still going about your parents' murder and your brother's disappearance, the Colonel can just arrange for it to be handed over to my brother. That just leaves us to convince him that you're the only one who knows the suspect well enough to pick up on his tracks so the Colonel can drop all your charges and assign us to protect you as you help us track Christian down and uncover the truth to what exactly happened two years ago. It's two birds with one stone, don't you think?" Al's voice was perky under the armor. "Or is that four?"
It sounded so simple, so efficient, that it was hard for Ana to believe. "What's your gain in all of this?"
"What gain?" Al seemed surprised.
"Why else would you be doing this? There's gotta be a catch, right?" The girl seemed to be trembling in her chair from the prospect of everything working out by itself, but there was avid suspicion in her eyes.
Looking her over, Al immediately understood her reluctance to believe him. He looked up, feigning thought as he hummed inside the armor. "I guess I'll be getting the mental satisfaction of doing a good deed for a girl who misses her big brother and is in dire need of someone to depend on in her time of trouble. And the catch? It's all against her will of course, since I'm so terribly intent on forcibly empathizing with her situation by putting myself in her shoes." Ana looked at him dumbly as he looked back at her, bobbing his head sideways cutely like a cat would, and added, "Truth is, I'm secretly a self-gratifying egocentric sadist."
It was unthinkable, unfathomable even, that there would ever come a day that Ana wouldn't have to lie and deceive people to get ahead in life, to get what she deeply, sincerely wanted. And what she wanted most was help – someone who would take away all her worries and make them his own. She was searching for the older brother figure she so dearly missed, but she didn't really comprehend it until now. She had never expected such kindness from a complete stranger. Ana was so used to being on her own, that she thought this was a universal fact – the only person you had was yourself and you are the only one you can rely on. With the exception of her brother, of course, but after all that had happened, her faith in him was shaken and doubt clouded her heart. She felt abandoned. She felt alone in a world so big.
That's why after a year of wallowing in grief and self-pity after her home was bloodstained in her parents' innards, Ana decided it was high time to get a grip and take matters into her own hands, leaving the neighbors that generously cared for her in her frail state of mind by sneaking out in the dead of night to begin a journey of half-truths and deceit, of uncertainty and danger, all in the name of seeking out her personal justice by unraveling what happened to her brother and in this way, shedding light to who exactly was her parents' murderer.
And after so much time running around, making ends meet in deceitful ways while searching for her elusive brother, she stumbles across these two golden boys, delivering her salvation on a golden platter.
Whether because of the eventful day or out of sheer relief, water gathered in her eyes before she could help it.
At the sight of her murky orbs, Al immediately tensed up, dropping his book back on the table. "Did something I say upset you? It was just a joke!" he hurried to explain.
Covering her face with both hands to hide from Al's vision, less he noticed the genuine smile that threatened to sprout upon her face, Ana stood up abruptly and excused himself, "I'm just tired, that's all." Taking that as her chance to retreat, Ana went up to the bed and climbed under the covers with her clothes on, save for the tailcoat which she left carefully folded on the bed stand.
Figuring that some girls were probably overly sensitive, Al muttered a good night and decided to shrug the whole thing off in favor of the barely interesting fantasy novel he'd picked off the coffee table and continued his reading.
Lying on her side with her back to the brothers, Ana found it hard to fall asleep however, the Elrics' words and actions playing over and over in her head. Even after she led them on and got them in trouble, they still listened to her and believed her, they even decided to help her on their own accord. They were either insanely gullible or maybe, just maybe, they were genuinely good-hearted people. No, that was too far-fetched for her to whom good things rarely happened. Still, Ana felt like thanking them would hardly be enough to ever be able to repay them if they actually held true to their word and did as promised to help her with the search for her brother.
"You're too much," she muttered quietly to herself and dug her face in the covers as if trying to use them to shield herself from believing, believing that a kindness like Al's existed, because she couldn't allow herself such vulnerability, not until the day she finally finds her brother. She had to force herself to be mindful. These people were still practically strangers to her and she couldn't afford to get lost in wishful thinking. Whether they would be her saviors or her jailers, remained to be proven, but until then, she had to continue being her own hero and keep to herself.
Opening one eye in his pretend sleep to glance at the redheaded lump of blankets on the bed, Ed huffed a heavy breath and rolled over to face the backrest, finding sleep elusive as well. He was unsure if this was another one of the girl's acts and it gave him no rest that Al was so easily swept up by her sob story. He had a feeling she was going to considerately slow them down in achieving their true goal. Ed knew that Al was never going to forget that tracking down leads on the Philosopher's Stone was on top of their priority list, but something was telling him that this girl was bound to be trouble for both him and his brother.
- x x x -
If you liked it, please review! And you might help me gather enough motivation to put up a new chapter sooner, you never know.
Did you know? Train surfing (the act of hitching a ride on the outside of a moving train) is supposedly a big thing in Russia, an unofficial extreme sport of sorts. There are communities with teens posting YouTube videos, organizing meetings and big-way surfing events. There's also this guy in Germany called the Trainrider who famously surfed the InterCityExpress, the fastest train in Germany.
Admittedly, there are a lot of reported casualties and it's illegal, but it still sounds really cool and exciting to ride for free, air rushing rough your hair, having a broad view while the train travels fast across breathtaking scenery, or just having a completely different and thrilling view of the underground tunnels when you catch your everyday subway ride to work. (I like trains. *asdf moment*)
And for some reason I'm now reminded of Subway Surfers...