-1A/N: hi people!
Ok this story is about Edwards and Ling's places being switched. Kinda. The setting is in Xing and Edward is the illegal immigrant. I also had to add that Ling also has automail, might get more into that into the next chapter. I don't really know how long this story is going to be, and Mei, who is his sister, is the soul bound in a suit of armor. And Edward is researching the Philosophers Stone in Xing, kinda makes sense since the alchemy in Xing is medical right?
Ok here are the character changes:
Ling-Edward
Mei-Alphonse
Ran Fan-Winry
Fu-Pinako (yeah I laughed too)
Oh and one more thing. I also switched the costumes of the Amestris military with what Fu and Ran Fan were wearing when they were Lings guards, the cool ninja outfits because I can so imagine Winry wearing that.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Ling walked through the town of Tosshin Tani [the Japanese equivalent of Rush Valley, I tried to get the defiant translation of it but I think I failed. Feel free to correct me.] While drinking from a glass of orange soda.
"Are you okay big brother?" Lings little sister Mei asked, her young voice echoing from inside the armor.
Ling sighed heavily. "There's nothing out here but automail shops. Not a single library or even a bookstore. If it wasn't for the fact that I needed my arm fixed" he said lifting up said arm "Then we wouldn't be here.".
Ling noticed that Mei wasn't listening to him or even standing next to him anymore. Looking over he saw her crouching near an alley. She had a habit of picking up stray animals.
Ling sighed. "Did you find a stray animal again Mei?" he asked.
"Yup" Mei agreed lifting and depositing a long blonde haired unconscious boy in front of him.
"Is he dead?" Ling asked poking him with the toe of his shoe.
"Just unconscious I think" Mei asked squatting down to look at the boys, not that you could tell much since he was on his back.
Standing up Ling looked at Mei and said "Put him back where you found him sis."
"But-but he needs help" Mei stammered.
Before Ling could say anything they were interrupted from groaning from the boy on the ground. Both Ling and Mei looked at him in unison then at each other. Ling sighed heavily.
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"Oh man thanks for the meal, I was starving!" the boy said grinning widely.
From here they could see that he was short, golden haired, even though it seemed more blonde because of the dust, dirt and sand in it, and golden eyed, he also had a habit of grinning so widely that couldn't help but make them grin as well. And despite the hot weather he was wearing black leather clothing.
"Um I never said anything about treating you" Ling said, but he also said it so quietly that the boy could pretend he didn't hear it.
The boy ran his fingers through his hair, which caused sand to fall to the floor. He pulled off his gloves and they saw that he had an automail right arm [ok I know that I switched them but Edward is not Edward without the automail for me so just pretend.].
Ling blinked in surprise. "You have automail. So do I" he said lifting back his sleeve to show it.
The boy blinked and then grinned. "That's great. You can introduce me to a good mechanic then. I'm kinda worried that some sand might've gotten in my arm and damaged it." he said looking at both of theirs arms.
"Sand? Where exactly did you go?" Mei asked curiosity laced through her voice. "Where are you from anyway, your voice has an accent.".
"Me? Oh I come from Amestris" he said ignoring how Ling and Mei exclaimed "From Amestris!".
"How did you get here?"
"Through the desert of course" he said happily [incase you guys are going to say something about Edward being out of character he is trying to play the nice and kinda slow guy to gain their trust…and to make Ling forget about the bill for the food.].
Lings and Mei's faces fell. "Through the desert? Was it hard?" Mei asked.
The boy laughed. "Hard is an understatement my friend. The desert was brutal!". He picked up a stick that was laying on the ground and drew a circle on the ground. He labeled one circle Xing and a different circle with some space between them Amestris and connected the both of them with two lines. "The road was completely buried by sand so it was hard to know if I was going the right direction" he said while drawing the lines.
"But why did you come from the desert" Ling asked.
The boy looked up at them and said "Because I wanted to see the Jomon [real ancient civilization in Japan] Ruins for myself.".
Ling frowned and placed his arm on his knee and his balanced his chin in his palm "Jomon? I heard there was nothing there. Just a legend that it was destroyed in one night.".
"Were you just going there to do sight seeing?" Mei asked.
"No I just wanted to research something there. I wanted to find out about the alchemy in this country.".
"Alchemy?" asked Ling and Mei.
"Oh right" the boy exclaimed "In this country it is called rentanjutsu. In my country" he said, placing his hand on his chest, "It is called Alchemy and the military uses it for its purposes. Isn't it a medical science here?" he asked.
"Yeah it is mostly a medical practice but your country uses it for war?" Ling asked, he couldn't really see the rentanjutsu used for war or hurting anyone.
The boy nodded. "Yeah. We have a specialized group in the military called the state alchemists and their specialty as you can probably guess is alchemy. They use it to win all the wars that our country is going through" he gave a sad smile towards the circles on the ground that showed the two countries. "It is a most effective way but so many people are killed from it.".
"I hate it admit but I am curious about your rentanjutsu. It sounds completely different from ours" Ling said looking at the boy.
"Are you two alchemists?" the boy asked.
"No we aren't" Ling admitted. "But I'm interested in this 'alchemy' what about you sis?" Ling asked looking up at Mei.
"Does sounds rather odd. And I know a bit about rentanjutsu" she added.
The boy sat up straighter in his chair and grinned at Mei. "So you're like a beginner alchemist. I'm one of those State Alchemists. Though I've never killed anyone" he said quickly seeing the look on Lings face. "I just became one to have access to secret documents to learn more" he finished. "I'm Edward Elric by the way. The Fullmetal Alchemist" he added.
"Oh right we haven't introduced ourselves" Mei exclaimed.
Ling placed his hand on his chest and said "I'm Ling Yao and this is my younger sister Mei.".
"Younger sister?" Edward asked as he looked up at Mei.
She laughed. "It's because of this armor I seem so big.".
Interestingly Edward didn't press the subject or ask why she was in the armor in the first place like most people.
"So can you tell me more about alchemy Edward?" Mei asked.
Edward grinned once more. "Well the first law in alchemy is Equivalent Exchange" he said wagging one finger. "In order to obtain something of equal value must be lost. So if you want me to tell you about alchemy you have to tell me something about what I want to know" he bargained, his head lowered slightly and there seemed to be a shadow in his eyes along with a weird look in them.
"Well what do you want to know?" Ling asked.
Edward placed his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand. He stared off into a different direction as he said "Well I've been looking for something for quite a while and I think I can find it here. Trouble is I don't know where to look or who to ask" he concluded as his gaze slid over to the siblings.
Ling got a creeping feeling as Edwards eyes looked at him. The funny and smiling guy they first met seemed to be slipping away and leaving this guy in its place.
"What are you looking for exactly" Ling said carefully.
Edward smirked. "Its something called. The Philosophers Stone." his smirk seemed to widen as both Ling and Mei froze at hearing the familiar name. "I'm looking for it because I need it really badly.".
The look in Edwards's eyes was similar to a tiger laughing at its prey.
"Do you know anything about it" he asked. 'I know you do' his eyes said.
"Sorry we don't know anything about that" Ling said curtly before getting up. "Now if you'll excuse us we have to go".
"Wait a moment" Edward said before snapping his fingers.
All of a sudden, somehow they had managed to hide themselves from Ling senses, two people were behind him and Mei. The taller one had a dagger at his neck and the shorter one had a long sword in one of Mei's holes in the armor. A quick glance from the corner of his eyes showed that both of the people were wearing black clothes that looked sturdy and comfortable to fight in and were wearing masks to cover their faces.
"It seems like you two know more than you are letting on. Can you tell me about it" he said smugly.
Lings eyes opened [get it? Lings eyes are always closed, except for those rare times in the manga or when he was Greed, Ed's eyes narrowed and for Ling his eyes open. Please do not take that as a racist comment and if you do then I sincerely apologize.] "And what exactly do you want with the Philosophers Stone?" he asked.
Edward did a combination of a smirk and a grin. "So I can become immortal." he said.
That seems like a good place to leave it.
Ok I hope you guys liked it and I hope that I didn't screw it up that bad.
Whatever your thoughts are leave them in a review!
This is Phoenix-Fire Power over and out.