Promotion
I felt exhausted as I arrived at the front door, arms heavy as I turned the key in the lock and pushed the apartment door open. The door swung closed behind me as I placed the small silver key on the entry table, warmth rushing over to great me as the cold Eastern winter air was cut off. It was sad, but at least a little comforting that at least this apartment hadn't turned its back on me; blonde hair fell over my face as I frowned at the grey carpeted floor, kicking off my boots before entering any further.
"Jen?" my brother called from the other room; I called back a short 'yeah' to let him know it was me before I headed from the entrance into the living area. The cigarette smoke was heavier in here, the thickest part of it clouding Jean as he laid spread out over the sofa in his casual clothes, his feet up and the cigarette hanging from between his lips; he took another puff as I absently tried to clear the air around me, turning to smile at me. The smile didn't last for long though, because as soon as Jean's eyes fell on me he was on his feet, taking long strides to cover the distance between us. "Shit, Jen, what happened?"
"I was visiting an old friend." I fidgeting with the seam line of my blue uniform as Jean disappeared for a moment, returning just as quickly with a cloth in hand. Jean gently touched the cloth to my bruised jaw and cut lip, and I cringed as pain shot through me – both from the injury and the affection my brother was showing me – something I did not deserve. Blood came away with the cloth, making me feel worse about showing up like this.
"Who was this friend?" Jean's eyes narrowed as he asked that question, but I turned away from the furious expression he was making.
"Just someone I met on a… job a few years back." How much could I tell Jean about her? He was a Lieutenant in the military after all, a real career man; he couldn't just turn his back on her criminal connections like I do. I sighed before adding, "It doesn't matter anyway, after today we're not seeing each other anymore."
Tora looked over the crowd as best she could, knowing that she would easily spot that purple haired friend of hers once she entered. It was surprising to see this market still so busy – it was what, late afternoon or early evening, either way – surely the people here had places to be going to by now. Though it seemed not with the number of them that were still hanging around, and as Tora watched she tried to figure out why Jen had asked her here in the first place – it wasn't like her to even arrange a meeting; normally she'd just show up wherever Tora was when Jen got bored. In all truthfulness, Tora smelled something fishy about this, and it wasn't the fish merchant on the other side of the market.
A blonde woman joined the market crowd then, and it immediately struck the tiger haired thief as to how similar she looked compared to Jen – heck, f Tora hadn't known better, she would have said it was Jen's sister. Jen didn't have a sister however, and as the blonde Jen moved closer her blue eyes caught Tora's gold ones, a silent message passing the large distance between them, the blonde Jen look-a-like signalling for Tora to meet her over in a quiet area of the market with a nod of her head. Hesitantly Tora followed the blonde look-a-like, gently pushing her way through the crowd until she came to the emptiest part of the market square.
Coming closer to the fake Jen, more peculiarities appeared around her – like that outfit, sure Jen had never had much sense in fashion, but Tora was sure she'd never catch the alchemist in that blue monstrosity. The blonde hair that Tora had noticed was so wrong before, appeared worse the closer she came; it was short but couldn't have been cut any time recently from what Tora could tell, it looked like she'd had all of her hair cut off and then let it grow back however it pleased. No, that wasn't Jen, there was no way – she might be a tom-boy street rat, but this look was defiantly not hers.
"I thought you were never going to show up," the blonde Jen said, turning to face the Green Lightning thief as she still stood two or three metres away. Tora couldn't believe her eyes, the blonde Jen look-a-like was the real Jenny! That horribly cut blonde hair belonged to the purple lovin' messy haired Jen, and that blue monstrosity of a uniform had replaced the strangely feminie tom-boy clothes she used to wear. "Perhaps then, things have not changed so much after all."
"Wait, wait," Jean interrupted, his fingers playing with the cigarette he had forgotten about in his hand. He still wore a tight expression, as if at any moment he would find a reason to get up and storm off – I only hoped he wasn't looking for a reason to cause trouble with Tora. "This market is where you've been going every afternoon? Just to meet up with 'an old friend'?"
"Yea," I said, taking another sip of my beer – unfortunately the only kind of booze my brother had in his fridge. During my retelling of earlier this evening I had left out Tora's name, I guessed it would be better that way, because god knows what Jean would do with even that tiny piece of information. "I sent her a letter the day I got out, wasn't even sure she'd get it."
"You haven't explained why this friend is important to you." I didn't have a reply to that comment, so I simply stared down the neck of my beer bottle, grateful when Jean spoke again. "How could you even have such a friend if you were forced to work of those people?"
"It's a long story." That was a lie, in fact the story was quite short – we saved each other's lives and then she was stuck to me like glue. Worse than glue, she was stuck to me like something that works its way under your skin and no matter how hard you scrub it will not come off. Tora called that a friend, though I don't think I ever understood her definition of the word. "And I'm too drunk to tell it right."
"Have you been drinking again?" Tora probed, eying the blue uniform with both a level of curiosity and contempt. That uniform, its blue wool fabric, the other blue shirt underneath, and the military style boots could only have come from one place, and Tora seriously hoped that Jenny had somehow managed to steal one.
"Not a drop," Jen replied cautiously, her hand playing with the silver chain that hung from her belt. "Since before I went inside."
"Inside where?"
"Prison." Okay, now there was no way that Jen was sober, Tora surely would have heard if her best friend had gone to jail. Hell, surely Jen would have contacted her with some grand idea of escape that only the thief/con artist could help with. That, or she would have broken herself out, right?
"Whoa, wait a second, rewind. Since when did you go to jail?" Jen shifted suddenly on her feet then, moving a step backwards, and her grip on the silver chain tightening for a moment. The expression on her face hardened in an instant, and Tora saw a face that she hadn't seen in years. "Damn, Jenny, what happened?"
"I kidnapped a State Alchemist's brother, and attacked Military officials, what do you think happened?" Her voice had gone monotone, and if it wasn't for that strange flicker in her eyes, Tora would have guessed that she was talking to an animated doll of Jenny.
"… The usual?"
"There is nothing 'usual' about this." Jen reached into her pocket then, pulling free the item attached to the skinny silver chain. Tora's eyes widened, her feet moving her forward to make sure that the item she was seeing wasn't a part of her imagination.
"It can't be," she muttered, her eyes tracing the craved dragon emblem on the polished silver surface. "Is this a State Alchemist's pocket watch?"
"You've run out of liquor, Jean," I called out to the living room after cursing at the now alcohol free fridge. Just after halfway through my story, and almost predictably, the booze had run dry. If I had the money, I would have been straight down to the closest store with plans to buy a car load more, not that I had a car or even money for that matter. My last job hadn't paid out, for obvious reasons, and today had been my first day with a job since then.
"I'll pick up some more tomorrow," he replied, probably taking another puff on his cigarette before adding, "Now will you come back out here and finish telling me about this friend you met up with."
"Fine, but you won't find it as interesting anymore."
"Then I will suffer that terrible fate; just continue explaining why I shouldn't hunt down this nameless friend that gave you that bruised jaw." I frowned at Jean as I returned to my seat on the sofa chair, ignoring the collection of empty beer bottles that reminded me I didn't have any more to drink.
"You'll hunt down an old friend of mine for a bruised jaw, but if I remember correctly, you never gave that bastard Mustang more than a dirty look."
"That is completely different and you know it," Jean argued, and I simply rolled my eyes in reply.
"How could you have done it?" Tora's voice had risen in volume quite a bit since she had discovered that the blonde Jen was the real, once purple haired Jenny that she had found wondering the streets.
"There was a choice, Tora, you-"
"There were plenty of choices! You could have contacted me, I would have helped." Jen stiffened as she pulled back from her friend with the braided tiger stripped hair. They had argued many times before, but there was something different about this time – perhaps this was something more than their typical I'm-fighting-you-for-reasons-only-friends-understand kind of fight. Tora was angry, that much was obvious from the way she shouted, though there was something more to why she had her fists clenched like that.
"You talking about prison, or about the job?"
"I'm talking about all of it! I would have found a way to get you out of jail, legal or illegal, and I would have made sure you had the money so you didn't have to take some dog-of-the-state dead-end job!"
"Like hell I would have taken your pity money!" Jen shouted back, refusing to lower her tone simply because people nearby started to give them funny looks and hurry away, though she lowered it anyway before speaking again. "And like I would have let you break me out. There mightn't be many things that I would die for, but keeping your upper-class arse out of trouble is high up on that list."
"… you'd choose to become the devils play thing if it meant keeping me safe?" Tora felt sick at the thought, her anger working its way deeper so that she couldn't tell where it finished and where logical thinking began. Not that either of those mattered at the moment, not when Jen was being so obviously stubborn that Tora just felt like she was going to explode.
"Yes-" There was a sudden, heart pounding sound of flesh connecting with flesh. Jen stumbled backwards, her head turned to the side, her arms still relaxed at her sides as if the punch hadn't been real. The red and quickly bruising mark on her jaw and the cut lip said otherwise, and it took a moment for those crystal blue eyes to turn back to her attacker.
"Bitch!" Tora roared, the look Jenny was giving her and the fact that she hadn't defended her self only proving to piss off the thief even more. Fuming, Tora opened her mouth once more before storming off, leaving Jen with the words; "You have no right to decide whether my safety is worth your life!"
"So… she punched you, and then what?" Jean spoke up, waking me up from the memory of only a few hours ago to realize that I had stopped talking for longer than I had thought. Touching the cut on my lip, it was in that moment that I wished to glare at the stupid silver watch I had dumped on the table during my fourth or fifth beer – I knew though that if I looked at it, I'd want to break it, and as much as the thing had caused the problems of this afternoon, it was my key to stay out of prison – and possibly a freedom beyond that.
"There is nothing else; she punched me, swore, and then left." Jean didn't say anything for a moment, placing his cigarette butt in the ash tray and lighting up a new one before turning his blue eyes towards me.
"Was it worth it in the end?"
"I don't know," I said shaking my head slowly. "She hates me, and I can't say that was the outcome I was looking for."
"Havoc-" Roy's eyes widened slightly as Jen entered the office, his expression changing back quickly before she could see it. "Tsk. Barely a week on the job and you're already getting into trouble regularly, that's not going to impress your boss."
"My 'boss' can shove it up his sexist arse," Jen retorted, giving Roy a look of disgust before seating herself at the furthest end of the paired sofas in Mustang's office, placing her feet up on the small table. "What I do in my down time is none of your business, Mustang."
"Now, now-"
"Perhaps," Jen cut in, smirking when Roy's eye twitched in the smallest amount. "I should ask you where you've been all morning? No, wait, I don't want to find out any more of your disgusting habits than I already know." It was a pity that none of Roy's subordinates had returned yet, because without any of them around then there was nothing stopping the two alchemists from continuing this argument to levels of insanity.
"I don't have any-"
"And it's for that exact reason I don't want to know." Roy's hand clenched tightly, his fingers ready to make a spark even though he wasn't wearing his ignition gloves. Did she have no concept of respect, or was she just acting this way towards him? He couldn't tell what she was thinking, those blue eyes as cold as the snow covered tundra's to the north. Even that black eye told him more than any part of her body language did.
"Sir!" A lieutenant suddenly rushed into the room, distracting Roy from the witty retort he had been busily thinking up. "There's a reporter at the front gate, she wants to talk to the criminal."
"I have a name, thank you very much, Breda," Jen said, glaring at the Lieutenant before standing up and heading towards the door behind Heymans.
"Where are you going?" Roy asked shooting a questioning look at the Flash Fire Alchemist's back. Jen turned around and shot a look at him, replying with:
"Have a problem with me talking to reporters do you, Mustang? Then write me up." Jen closed the office door with a slam, disappearing down the hallway before Roy could come up with something to say back.
"Ma'am!" Red hair fell across the soldier's face as he turned to salute, his fair haired partner glancing back at him with a troubled expression while the reporter continued to rant at him.
"What's the trouble here, soldier?" I asked with a partially curious tone, grateful that my eyes where unreadable behind the tinted glasses and the shaggy hair that still fell across my face.
"We have a reporter here demanding entrance, but she doesn't have clearance." I didn't look at the soldier as he spoke; rather I locked my sights on the so-called reporter. Her hair was pulled tightly into a high pony tail, black stripes working their way through her orange hair in a way that was strikingly similar to that of a tiger, and she wore high end clothes that I would have recognized anywhere.
"I will deal with her, you are dismissed."
"Ma'am." The fair haired soldier saluted as I walked past him, watching carefully as I nodded at the person they thought was a reporter and gestured for her to walk with me.
"You make them call you ma'am?" was the first thing she said, giving me a funny look as we stopped outside of the soldiers' ear shot.
"Count the stripes," I replied with a dismissive wave of my hand, then I turned, removing the sunglasses and looking up at her slightly. "I thought I wasn't going to see you again."
"With that black eye I'm surprised you can see anything, Jenny." Tora smiled widely. "And there is no way you're getting rid of me that easily."
"It's not that bad, and damn it! Don't call me Jenny!"
"Jenny! Jenny! Jenny!" Tora danced around as she sung that annoying nickname, her smile growing wider the more I glared at her.
"Your disguise sucks, but the way –" I couldn't help but smile when my statement distracted Tora from her annoying song. "- I mean, seriously? A reporter, surely you could have come up with better than that."
"I'm a photographer!" There was a moment of silence before we exploded with laughter, and all I could think about was how nice it was to know that Tora didn't hate me for my 'promotion' to State Alchemist.