Catching Adventure

He isn't so thrilled to find adventure again, in some strange world he has no memory of coming to. Though, he's going to have to live with that.

However Temporary

Maka furrowed her eyebrows, glancing around with worried eyes, tense and slightly bristled.

"Mm?" Soul questioned with a lazy mumble as he lounged on his motorcycle, directing a questioning gaze her way.

"I'm sensing two souls… One of them is human... I think..., but it's very tainted… and the other is a pre-Kishin…" She shot Soul a look while holding out her hand, he nodded and took it just as a surprised shout filled the air. Soul shifted into his scythe form and Maka sprinted off across the streets, skidding to a halt a few feet away from the attack.

She blinked at the scene with wide eyes. The human (she assumed, for now) was fighting back with a lance that was secured in his hand. "Meister?" She whispered to Soul, glancing at the scythe in her hand. The blade shimmered slightly before her partner's form shrugged back at her while his eyes stayed locked on the scene.

The boy back-flipped away from the pre-Kishin, twirling the lance in his hand. "What the hell are you-?" He yelped and sprung away as the pre-Kishin took another slash, but it took the lance in the shaft, slicing it in two. The head flung towards a shop, smashing into the window. Soul and Maka both spared a gasp of horror, hoping there wasn't a person linked to that weapon before glancing back in time to watch the boy get sliced in the left shoulder before he growled and pressed his hands together quickly before dropping to the ground and pressing his palms to the stone street. The pre-Kishin had lunged at the golden haired boy as blue electricity flared up around him and the stone under him lifted as a pillar before going at a faster pace and launching him toward the rooftops. He landed nimbly on the roofs above the street and disappeared.

Maka sighed and shook her head, catching the pre-Kishin's attention. It roared and rushed forward toward the meister and her weapon. She twirled Soul and held the scythe in front of her with narrowed eyes, ready to brace the attack.

_/\_/\_/\_

The Kishin was soon defeated, and the meister moved down the street with her weapon, a hand pressed to her chin. He glanced at her several times before shaking his head. "Maka, you're thinking too hard. I can almost hear you."

She glanced back and shook her head, dropping her hand. "I'm sorry, it's that boy. I don't get it. What was that? Is he a witch or something?"

Soul rose an eyebrow and looked back over to his partner. "I thought he was a meister?"

She shook her head. "No. Remember? He said: "What the hell are you?" and why would he just leave his weapon there, dead?" She sighed. "And that magic… but he couldn't be a witch… his soul was human…"

Soul cocked his head. "Think he's dangerous? We should hunt him down." He glanced around. "He can't be that far, and you said his soul was tainted."

She seemed in thought for a moment before nodding her head. "I at least want a good look at his soul… We could always be late, Kid won't mind, do you think?" The two banked around and ran back in the direction the boy had sprinted off.

"So long as we get there at an even hour," Soul joked with a chuckle.

_/\_/\_/\_

Ed peered around in a paranoid fashion, hiding in the upper story of a abandoned building. He calmed his breathing and glanced around frantically, shaking his head free of paranoia and letting his right, cool, Automail hand drift to the large, deep gash on his left upper-arm. Where the hell am I, anyway? He asked himself as he directed his gaze toward the sky, shocked to find a evilly-grinning moon staring back at him. He flinched and dropped his gaze to the streets again as he rubbed the wound on his arm before clutching it tightly in an attempt to stop the bleeding. He removed the hand and stared at his glove while shaking his head. Blood would never come out of that. He sighed and pressed his hands together as he reached for the coat he'd discarded earlier, transmuting the red cloth into strips and wrapping them tightly around his still-clothed upper-left-arm. He tugged the leather jacket down his Automail wrist and tightened the gloves before separating the blood from his right glove with a simple transmutation.

"Freeze!"

The blond jumped, his gaze flicking toward the door without moving his head. A young girl stood there, though not entirely young—the same age as himself, perhaps, but not all that young. In comparison.

"Good…" she praised his cooperation before stepping forward. That's when he got a glimpse of the scythe she held. Red, sliver, and black. His first thought, of course, was that it looked bad ass. His second? She was here to kill him. Sure, he was paranoid as it was. It was in his nature. But he couldn't help but think that, being attacked by that monster earlier that day. Not all that earlier, in fact, only an hour ago. He pursed his lips slightly. It didn't take her all to long to find him. He'd heard her voice at the scene, of course, as well as another. She wasn't alone, then? Where was her partner?

His paranoid eyes darted around the room once before resting back on the girl. A brief thought being that it hurt to keep his eyes shifted this far so long.

"What are you?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. The thought of that being a strange first question flicked across his mind briefly before he answered. "Human."

"I don't believe you."

She doesn't, does she?

"Why not?"

"Your soul is… tainted."

She can see it? Or Is it another form of sense?

"… Is it?" He responded.

"Yes… but you're not a Kishin, or a Kishin egg… something is pinning you from going that far… Maybe you're just insane?"

He gave a small chuckle, turning back to the window at this point, though staying tense and alert. "Yeah, it would be rather unbelievable if I was still sane by this point. But I think that my logic has kept me from tipping over the edge. I am rather… volatile, though." He turned again, this time facing the girl full-front.

She seemed shocked by something, most likely his eye-color, that being the only thing that had been hidden from her by this point. She let the silence hang in the air before asking, hesitantly, "… Are you familiar with the name 'Medusa'?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Of course, who wouldn't be?" The girl was tenser at this, as she slowly moved to raise her scythe. This didn't go unnoticed by the boy, who narrowed his oddly colored eyes. "Greek Mythology. Mane of snakes for hair. Turned people to stone…" He cocked a head at her behavior, but she relaxed slightly at his ignorant answer. "By chance… could you tell me where we are?" He inquired, shifting to press his back full-against the wall, in case her partner would try to attack him.

She furrowed her eyebrows and seemed confused. "Simmons street—"

He shook his head quickly. "No, not that."

"Err… Trade district-?"

"Not what I'm looking for… Think…" he held his hands a width apart, miming 'bigger'.

"Death City." She responded.

"And… where exactly is that?"

"Nevada..?"

He bit his lip slightly, still confused. But this—according to her confusion—seemed to be universal information, so he halted there. "Err… Alright." He got to his feet slowly, as to not startle the girl, but gave a heavy flinch at the twinge in his arm. He quickly noticed the error in his treatment—he'd tied it too tight—so he went to fix it, tugging at the knot in the fabric-turned-bandage until it came loose before tying it properly, still getting a burning pain from the wound. He gave a small gasp at the unexpected pain and furrowed his eyebrows, untying and retying the cloth before settling on just dropping the strips of fabric and holding his glove to the wound, coming back with more blood. "—the fuck?" he mumbled. "Still bleeding?" He rose his fingers to his nose, giving the blood a curious sniff before pulling his hand away and giving a short snarl. "Poison? That fucking…" He shook his head and sighed, leaning on the wall to support his sudden dizziness while trying to hide his weakness from the girl to his left. All-in-all, she didn't seem to frightening. But you could never be to careful.

She wasn't where he left her, though, instead she was by his side, peering at the wound with wide eyes. "A poison-clawed one? That's unlucky." She grimaced. He moved back slightly, startled at her sudden approach. She only growled slightly and yanked him back by the injured arm ("Hey, Hey! Is this how you treat an injured man?"). "Mm, we'll have to skip out on Kid's party and go home, Soul, Kishin poison's pretty nasty—and this gash is kinda deep. We have antidote at home, right?" A white-haired boy (no, ishvalan) suddenly came up on her other side, rolling his neck and nodding. "Yeah, yeah. From that time that you got cut? We have some left over." He eyed the blond with distaste before looking back to his partner. "I thought you didn't like guys."

The girl sighed and shrugged. "Benefit of the doubt, I guess, his soul doesn't seem too bad aside from the obvious taint, and I can't let someone get hurt when they obviously don't know what's going on around them."

Ed bristled, narrowing his eyes. "Look, girly, I'm not stupid. I know what's going on around me, I just… don't know my way around, or get this place…" He shifted uncomfortably before nodding. "All right, medicine would be good… How long is this shit going to take to heal up, anywho?" He asked, prodding another finger into the wound before rubbing the blood on his pant-leg.

The girl growled and pursed her lips at the comment before shaking her head and answering his question moodily. "A week, or so. Where are you staying?"

Ed shrugged back, giving a snort. "Probably going to end up sleeping on a bench somewhere with a spear in my hand." He shook his head and waved dismissively. "Lead the way."

The ishvalan boy quirked an eyebrow as he turned. "What do you mean 'on a bench somewhere'? Girlfriend kick you out?"

The blond immediately blushed immaturely at the word. "G-Girlfriend? I don't have a girlfriend! I-I don't have a home, or any money for that matter! That's the only reason!" He sputtered.

The green-eyed girl bit on her lip before seemingly reluctantly agreeing to something in her head. "Well, we'll get you fixed up, and.. maybe you can take over our couch instead of some crummy old bench…" She grumbled slightly at her own good deed, skipping the last few steps on the stair-way.

The ishvalan didn't seem content with this either, but seemed to subject to her decision and shrug uncaringly.

"Our house isn't that far from here," The girl sighed, crossing her arms and looking to the silent blond.

"Mm, thanks." He grumbled back.

_/\_/\_/\_

"Blair! We're home!"

A purple-haired woman's head peeked around the corner before smirking. "Cutey boy, Maka, where'd he come from?~"

'Maka' gave an annoyed hum, narrowing her eyes. "He had a scrape with a pre-Kishin earlier, he got a gash on his arm that happens to be poisoned, so we were just going to bring him home and get him patched up…"

"Until Maka decided to take in the homeless." The ishvalan boy completed with a grumble.

"Maka Chop!"

He was cowering on the ground, clutching at his head the next moment, while Ed chuckled behind his hand, remembering of a certain mechanic back home.

"Ah~ So Maka brought Blair home a toy so she'd lay of her man, hm?~"

Maka sputtered slightly, eyes wide. "S-Soul's not—he's my weapon partner!"

The cat-like woman smirked slightly, shrugging. "Whatever you say, Maka!~"

Ed cocked an eyebrow. "Toy?"

The boy soon yelped as he was tackled, the woman pinning him under her and smirking—only clad in a… towel…

Ed gaped, blinking before meeting Blair's eyes with his own wide golden ones before she continued to nuzzle his neck insistently. "Thank you for the new toy, Maka!~"

Ed casually pushed her off (though she insisted on clinging to his arm as well, which happened to land between her cleavage as she did so) before he hurriedly asked if he could use their bath.

Soul seemed to understand his situation as he nodded quickly, gesturing down the hall. "Go ahead!"

Ed squeaked out a 'Thank you!' before oh-so-casually sprinting down the hall and bolting into their bathroom, only to be met with a rather indecent outfit—nothing he'd ever seen from Winry before.

With a small, somewhat naughty, thought about his mechanic, he blushed and threw the clothes (including, much to his despair, underwear.) into the hallway before quickly locking the door and turning on the water with a small sigh.

Life here, however temporary, will not be easy.

A / N: Oh, Ed. How innocent can you get?