Title: Chance Meeting
Disclaimer: Ahahaha lets just be thankful I don't own any of this.
Summary: Fran didn't think there was anyone who was quite as obsessed with books as she was...until she ran into Sheska. Literally.
Notes:Never did I ever imagine I'd write a crossover between these two fandoms. Written for punkpinkpower, who mentioned a parallel between Jungle Fury's Fran and FMA's Sheska. And her prompt was too good to resist. I haven't sat down and watched Jungle Fury (or the first FMA anime) in a while, or written Fran (or Sheska!) before, so I apologize for any flaws in character here. I'm totally handwaving the different universes/timelines and the hows and whys of how this even works, but. *shrugs* I blame punkpinkpower. :D And I couldn't resist the HP reference. Much love to tsukino_akume for cheering me on through this.

*Takes place after Fran finds out about the Rangers in JF, and a few weeks after Hughes' death in the FMA timeline.

Fran sighed, running a hand through her hair as she pulled her hat off. It'd been a long morning and she was ready for a break. The Rangers had been called out—all of them, and she'd been stuck with single-handedly running JKP again. Thankfully though, they got back just before the bulk of the lunch rush. Now that the customers had died down a bit, she was finally getting a break.

"Just go," Lily had told her as she pushed her out of the kitchen. "Take a couple hours and then come back. We can handle things here."

She untied her apron and hung it, then grabbed a book out of her bag and headed outside. Most days when she was off—which wasn't as often lately, she didn't mind sitting inside at her favorite table, but today she just wanted some fresh air. The park wasn't far from here, and it'd been a while since she'd gone. It was one of her old favorite reading spots before she'd found JKP.

She hadn't made it five strides down the sidewalk before she was knocked on her backside by a girl that looked strangely similar to herself. Minus the odd uniform she was wearing. It looked military-ish, but it was unlike any military uniform she'd ever seen.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" the woman exclaimed as she scrambled off of Fran. "Are you alright? I'm sorry! I had a lot of things on my mind and I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking."

She reached down to help Fran to her feet, then knelt back down to pick up the files and books that had fallen from her bag.

Fran surged forward to catch a stray paper that had freed itself from a file and handed it down to the girl, crouching down beside her. "Here, let me help you."

"Oh, no, it's quite alright really. It was my fault for knocking you over."

She gathered and stacked the files and stuck them back in her bag, then reached for the last book on the ground. The one Fran had been carrying before they ran into one another. Fran watched as she frowned at the cover.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? I haven't seen this book before." She opened the cover and fumbled to keep the book in her grasp as the book jacket slid.

Fran stared at her. "You haven't? It's been out for nearly a year now. You not a Harry Potter fan? I've read all the books multiple times over. This is actually my fourth full read through of the series. I was at the bookstores for the last few book releases. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next! And then with the death eaters and prophecies and the horcruxes and deathly hallows and then the whole thing with Voldemort...I just love this series so much!" She took a breath and looked up to see the woman looking vaguely frightened, but eying her with something like recognition. Then she realized what she was doing and bit her lip. "Heh, sorry, I do that sometimes. I just get so excited about things and then before I know it I'm rambling and my friends and coworkers have to tell me to breathe and—I'm doing it again," she finished sheepishly. "I'm Fran by the way."

The woman didn't seem too perturbed by it though and laughed as she handed the book back to her. "Sheska. And it's quite alright, I love to read too. I actually used to work at a library."

"Really? That must have been awesome! You could read and work at the same time!"

Sheska made a face, wincing. "I read every book I could get my hands on. Which was great, but I read so much I forgot to do my work and ended up getting fired. But then I was lucky enough to meet Edward and Alphonse, and they introduced me to..." Her whole demeanor changed and she jerked her head sideways, looking toward the ground, before carrying on softly, "They introduced me to Brigadier General Hughes. He gave me this job in the military and made it possible for me to afford care for my mother."

Fran reached toward her, then aborted the motion. "Were you...did something happen to him? You seem sad. Was it a monster attack?"

She looked at her wide-eyed for a moment. "He was killed a few weeks ago. I think he was murdered though."

"Oh," Fran replied quietly, looking down. "I'm sorry."

"No," Sheska chuckled soundlessly. "I'm sorry. First I bowl you over and then I get all depressing on you five seconds after I learn your name." She shook her head. "I should just go-"

"Do you have some time to spare?" Fran interrupted before she could finish. "It's just that, well I'm on my break and you kinda look like you could use a friend right now."

"Really?" She glanced down at the book in Fran's hands. "But...you were going to read weren't you? I don't want to-"

Fran shook her head and smiled before Sheska could continue. "I know this book backward and forward, I can read it anytime. I read the ending at least a dozen times after I got it, and then I've probably read the entire book more than I have all the other books. It's not my favorite though, surprisingly, my favorite is actually—Again. I'm doing it again." She winced, shaking her head. "Sorry. What I was trying to say was...do you like pizza?"

Sheska frowned at what must have seemed like a non sequitur. "Yes?"

"Good," she said, linking her arm through Sheska's and tugging her back toward Jungle Karma Pizza. "I'll buy you lunch, and in exchange you can tell me about some of the books you've read."

A/N: I've found I quite liked writing this and I still have a couple ideas bouncing around for this little 'verse, so there *may* be a couple more little drabbles to go along with it in the future.