A/N: Nobody freak out, I haven't deleted any chapters or anything like that. I've just been combining them to make longer chapters so there's less of them.
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Wind blew through the small train station, swinging the sign hanging above the ticket window. The dim lamp flickered in the almost-darkness of late evening. A blonde young man checked the silver pocket watch in his hand once again.
"Where is the damn train?" He grumbled to no one in particular. The brunette beside him sighed as wind tugged at their coats, the younger in black and the older in red. He glanced over to his left and noticed something odd.
"Brother," the teenage boy hissed in the older blonde's ear. His soft brown eyes were trained on a young woman leaning against the wall of the train station. A group of men had formed a loose ring surrounding her, most of them staggering in the dim twilight.
Edward Elric rolled his eyes at his younger brother. "It's too early to be that drunk," he grumbled as he turned his back to the group.
"But she might need our help!" Al whispered fiercely as the largest, and probably drunkest, man stepped closer to the slight woman.
"Well aren't you the pretty thing," the tall man slurred, reaching a hand toward her. She slapped his hand away. The man tilted his head slightly, "Come on girlie we only want a little fun."
"I'm not interested," the small woman said, "in you or any of your idiotic friends." Her voice was clear, almost like a bell.
"What makes you think we're idiots' sweetheart," Asked another one of the men.
The woman sighed in irritation, pushing herself from the wall. A waist length braid swung behind her as she moved. Leather boots came up to just above her knees over black pants. Her violet tank slid up slightly, showing an inch or two of her flat stomach that drew each of the men's eyes.
"First of all, you're all pissed drunk before," she checked the silver watch on her wrist, "seven. Second, you are all pigs. And lastly, I have no interest in men who think they get to share me." The heals of her boots clicked as she moved around the man.
The man laughed, "Well isn't she the grouchy little slut," and his hand moved around her arm.
The woman moved and her fist crashed into the man's temple. The man let go of her and stumbled a few feet before he collapsed onto the platform. One of the group looked at the woman and yelled, "You little BITCH!" and lunged.
Edward ran the short distance to the group to help, but the woman wasn't in view. "She must be covered by them." He thought as he jumped into the fray.
As he tried to drag some of the drunkards out of the way, afist came flying out from between them. It hit him in the right eye with enough force to knock him down. When he looked up again, he realized that the small woman defiantly did not need his help. She dropped each of the drunken men without much effort and, as he watched, Ed realized that he had simply been standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When all the men were on the ground the woman shook her head. "They couldn't just leave a girl alone?" She looked around and saw Edward staring at her. "Well you don't seem drunk, did I hit you?"
As soon as she mentioned it, the right side of his face began to pulse. He nodded, hand coming up to his face.
"He thought you needed help," Al was walking up, picking his way over the fallen bodies. "They aren't dead are they?"
"No," she said as she stuck a hand out to Ed, "they might wish they were when they wake up but they are not dead." Ed took her hand and let her pull him up. Once he was on his feet, Ed realized that the woman was slightly shorter than his 5 foot 5.
"So, you must be the Elric brothers."
The brothers looked at her, not many people knew them on site alone. She laughed, a beautiful ringing sound, and shook her head.
"I'm Karma, I've seen pictures of you at headquarters in Central." She introduced herself, pulling a military I.D. out of her pocket. "Now let's get some ice on that eye of yours. I'll even buy you both lunch," She said as the train pulled into the station.