Every time he tried to remember her, he only saw her face the way he had seen her last time.
A face full of pain and sadness. He tried remembering her the way she had been before, but he couldn't. He couldn't remember the silent but somehow cheerful girl she had been.
The last time they had met was in Reole. He did not tell Al about it. The look in her grey eyes had changed. Something really bad happened to her. But back then he was afraid to ask. He knew his brother Al would scold him for not telling him that he met Elena. And if he had told him that, he would have had to tell him about their conversation and the look in her eyes. But he couldn't. It was something he could not talk about, it hurt him when only thinking about her.
"Nii-san."
"What is it Al?
"You've been distracted for a while now. What are thinking about?"
"Nothing important." Ed shook his head as he looked out of the window of the train. They had been called back to Central by Colonel Mustang because of something.
Al sighed. "I was thinking about Elena and where she might be now. And what she might be doing."
Ed flinched. 'Brother telepathy.' he thought.
"What do you think nii-san?"
Ed hesitated. "I don't know. Maybe she's traveling, just as we are."
"Yeah, maybe."
"We will be in Central soon. I don't want to know why Mustang called us back."
"Maybe the Colonel has found out something about our research."
"As if."
Ed was too tired to get angry at the colonel, so he went in without ranting about why Mustang called them back to Central.
"Hi Edward. Alphonse." Lieutenant Hawkeye greeted them.
Ed just raised his hand as he walked towards the colonel's desk.
"Hello Lieutenant." Alphonse greeted back and nodded towards the other subordinates in the room.
The colonel raised his head from his paperwork.
"Hello Fullmetal."
Ed grunted and sat down at the chair before the desk.
"Hello Colonel Mustang." greeted Alphonse as he stopped behind Ed.
"Hi Alphonse." He smiled politely. "You may wonder why I called you to Central-"
"Just say it. I want to get into bed." Ed stated bluntly, interrupting Mustang.
The colonel raised his eyebrow. "Very well then. I have a mission for you. But before you get the details you can rest tonight. Come here tomorrow morning."
Ed stood and went out without a word, only nodding towards Mustang's subordinates as he left the room. Al hurried after him.
It was late afternoon when they arrived at the hotel and went to their room. Ed did not say anything. Al began to worry.
"Nii-san, is everything alright?"
"I'm just tired Al. I'm going to sleep now."
"But dinner will be ready in an hour! You should eat something."
"Later Al. Later."
Al looked at his nii-san. He wondered what was distracting Ed so much. Ed would never had gone to sleep without eating dinner, except after a fight when he was too tired to eat and that rarely happened. And the face he made as Al mentioned Elena. 'His face had been full of hurt.' Al thought. He wondered what his brother was thinking about, it distracted him even that much that he did not fight with the colonel.
Al decided to phone the colonel and ask him for his opinion as he left the room and went down to the main hall of the hotel.
"Alphonse Elric?" A man came towards him.
"Yes, that's me."
"There's a phone call for you, from a certain colonel."
"Really? Thanks."
He went to the phone and answered it. "Alphonse Elric."
"Hi Alphonse." came Colonel Mustang's voice. "I wanted to talk about Ed."
"Colonel Mustang!"
"Is he asleep yet?"
"Yes, and he did not eat anything. I just wanted to phone you."
"He is acting weird. He did not eat? That's even weirder for him."
"I know. He's been like that since yesterday. We were sitting in the train already. And then his behavior suddenly changed."
"Do you know where it had been? Did you pass a city you were before?"
"It was shortly after we passed Reole."
"He maybe thinks back to when you first where there."
"No, he would act different. He wouldn't like us to notice."
"But what could it be then?"
"Maybe...No.. the last time we saw each other..."
"What is it Alphonse?"
"He reacted weird when I mentioned an old friend. But the last time we saw her was ages ago."
"You think it could be her?... Wait, HER?"
"Yes, her name is Elena, we are old friends. She knew our sensei, that's how we met her."
"But you said the last time you met..."
"Years ago, before we lost our bodies."
"Then it can't be her. He would not remember her so suddenly without a trigger."
"Yes, I think so too. But I still worry."
"And we still don't know his reason for acting weird."
"I look what I can do."
"I'll see you tomorrow morning then."
Al sighed as he went back to the room. Later on Ed woke up and ate something, but not much. After that he lied down again.
"Nii-san!"
"I'm tired, Al. Could you wake me in the morning? Mustang wanted me to show up in the morning." With those words he turned his back towards his brother and went to sleep.
Ed's behavior had gotten a bit back to normal in the morning. He ate as usually and grumbled about the colonel calling him out so early. But if you had looked at him when no one else did, you could have seen his expression change and his eyes closing because of mental pain. But he hid it from the others. Al nearly had gotten to now everything, so he need to do as if it disappeared.
"For your size you eat quite much." The waitress smiled with no evil intentions. "Well, but you still have to grow a bit, right?"
Ed flinched. "WHO DID YOU CALL SMALL? MY SIZE IS PERFECTLY FINE!"
Al looked at his nii-san, relieved. When they had been traveling by train, someone had called him a small kid but Ed hadn't noticed that time. Now he was getting angry again. A good sign. But something was still wrong, Al felt it.
Ed finished his breakfast and stood immediately. "We need to go now."
Ed pushed open the door and walked in. "Hi." he said towards Mustang's subordinates. "Oi, you shitty colonel! Never call me out of bed so early again!"
The colonel raised his head from his paperwork. "I'm your supervisor. I can call you out anytime I want. And don't be so impolite to your supervisor."
Al looked at the colonel, smiling. "Good morning Colonel Mustang."
"Good morning Alphonse. At least one of the two brothers can be polite." But Mustang looked relieved at the sight of Ed being normal again.
Ed sat down. "So, you have a mission for us you said."
"Yes." He opened a drawer of his desk and took out a folder. "Here."
"The Element Alchemist. Who is that?" Ed looked at the file in his hands. There was no picture or description, just a name and a date from last week.
"A young gifted alchemist, who had taken the exam last week and passed without failure. No mistakes in the theoretical part or the practical exam."
"And? What do we have to do with this Element Alchemist? Weird name by the way. What meaning does this Element have?"
"I watched the practical exam. Amazing abilities. Can perform any kind of alchemy."
"But that would mean to draw a new circle every time." Al intervened.
"No. No circles." Mustang said. "Just like you Fullmetal."
"No circles? No formula? But that means..." Ed paused. "We need to meet this Element Alchemist!"
Mustang nodded. "I thought so. You will meet, but it's under the excuse that you are going to explain her the rules and everything in the military."
"Alright... wait! Her?"
"A female alchemist?" Al asked with wide eyes. "I don't know many female alchemists. The most are males. How old is she?"
Mustang shrugged. "I would guess about one or two years older than you, Fullmetal. I don't know. We don't know very much about her. We know her name: Lucy Swan."
Ed and Al nodded.
"When will we meet?" Ed asked at Mustang.
"She will be here in an hour. By the way, Fuehrer King Bradley seems to like her and became her direct supervisor, like I am yours. You have to be careful around her. And I heard rumors that he was the one bringing her to the exams."
"We will be careful, right nii-san?"
"Yes, we will."
A/N: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or the mentioned characters. They belong to Hiromu Arakawa.