My Fallen Rose

"Ummm, excuse me sir, I need your tickets, please." asked the tall ticket holder.

"Oh, sorry…of course. Here you go," replied Alphonse as he handed the ticket master two tickets and started to get onto the train. "Come on Ed. We have to hurry. Lt. Mustang said it was urgent."

"Yeah, yeah. Everything is urgent to him." said Edward. "I'm coming."

The ticket master laughed and said "you should listen to your big brother, there shorty. He knows what he is talking about."

"SHORTY?" screamed Ed, "SHORTY! I'LL SHOW YOU SHORT! I'LL POUND YOU STRAIGHT INTO THE …"

"Edward…not here. Please just get onto the train!" said Alphonse as he pushed Ed ahead of him into the train's cab. "Sorry for the trouble mister" he motioned to the ticket master.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all. I guess he doesn't like trains…well, you look after him, you hear?" said the ticket master. "Well, you'd better get onto the train too, sonny, it's about to leave."

"Oh, I will. Sorry again." And with that Alphonse hopped onto the train.

Alphonse wandered down the train's cab until he found Edward, sitting by himself in a huff next to a window. Al hurried up and sat in the seat across from him. He could hear Ed murmuring to himself.

"Damn ticket person. Calling me shorty…I'll show him who's short…he had no right."

"Oh, Ed, stop. The guy didn't know. You don't need to keep going on. There are more important things to worry about!" said Al.

"Like what Al? You know there really isn't anything for us to do these days" Ed said as he put his arms behind his head and started to smirk. "Besides searching for the stone, what do we do? Nothing, that's what, so relax. Live a little"

"Aren't you at all curious at what Lt. Mustang is gonna tell us? I wonder why he said it was so urgent…"said Al.

Flashback

"Mr. Edward, there is a call for you at the front desk" said the hotel secretary.

"Come on Al, we gotta go. We finally try to get some rest, and then we get a phone call." said Ed as he walked out of their hotel room's door.

"I wonder how they found us. I thought you said they didn't know where we were." said Al.

"I don't know how they found us. But this is bugging me. I wonder who it is that wanted us so bad they tracked down our hotel." wondered Ed as he walked to the stairs, down to the front desk.

"Here you go Mr. Edward." said the secretary as she handed the boys the phone.

"Yeah, who is it?" asked Ed.

"This is Lt. Mustang, Ed. We need you to come back to central immediately." Roy said.

"Oh yeah, for what?" asked Ed.

"Please, Ed. Don't give us any arguments. We need you right away. Come to central RIGHT NOW!" said Mustang as he slammed down the phone.

"Ouch…geez…he could've at least waited till I said bye before he slammed the phone in my ear…Well Al, we gotta go. Mustang says it's important…" said Edward.

End of flashback

"Ah…he probably needs someone to help him clean up some mess…" said Ed as he trailed off.

"No, it probably is important… I wonder what he needs…" said Al. "Well, two more stops and we are there, Ed. What do you want to do until then?"

"You know what, Al? I bet something he's gonna have us do could leave us closer to the stone." said Ed.

"You think so?" asked Al.

"Yeah. I bet you it does." stated Ed.

"And if it doesn't? What then brother?" questioned Al.

"Ummm…I haven't really thought of that…well, if it doesn't, at least we'll have something to do for a while." said Ed.

"I guess so" said Al as he started to stare out the window.

The brothers didn't talk the rest of the trip back to central, for they were both going over their own thoughts. When they finally got to central, it was dark outside.

"Wow. Does it really take this long to get to central?" asked Ed.

"Well, when you take it as one trip. But we kept stopping along our trip away from central, so it didn't really seem that long." replied Al.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Ed smiled "good thinking Al. what would I do with out you pal?"

"EDWARD! ALPHONSE! OVER HERE!" cried a voice from the crowd of people at the train station.

"I wonder who that was" inquired Ed.

"I don't." said Al, "look over there."

A tall, burly man in a blue military uniform was waving madly at the two brothers. It was Alex Louis Armstrong. As he ran towards the two brothers, his only piece of hair besides his mustache flopped above his head. When he reached Al and Ed he stopped, bent over with his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath. When he did, he looked up at the brothers and said "finally you guys have arrived. I've been waiting at this train station all day!"

"You know," stated Ed, "we didn't get on the train until about noon. You should've known we wouldn't be here so quick. It's common sense."

Major Armstrong just stared at the two for a moment before he cleared his throat and said "yes, well…I was ordered to wait here until you arrived, so I only did as was ordered of me…But enough of that, Lt. Mustang needs to see you as soon as possible. It seems to be very important."

"Wait, so you don't know what he's gonna tell us either?" asked Al as he stopped walking.

"No, I have absolutely no idea what he needs with you two boys, but he said we need to hurry," replied Major Armstrong.

"How long ago did he say that? This morning when he made you come down here? If he's waited all day, I'm sure we can take our time on our way up there." Ed told them.

The major just stared hardly at Ed before continuing to walk ahead of him.

"Ed," said Al, "just do what he says. We don't need to give them any trouble."

"Give them trouble? Aren't they the ones who dragged us half way across the country?" questioned Ed, "Besides…it's probably gonna be something totally stupid when we get there."

"Well, we have to get there first, don't we?" said Major Armstrong as he turned around and hurried them along. After a few minutes of walking they reached a long black car, capable of carrying several people.

"Get in" said the Major.

Abidingly, the boys got in. About half an hour later, the car stopped and pulled up next to a tall building with many stairs leading to the doors.

"Well, Al. We're back." Stated Ed as he and Al exited the car with the Major and climbed up the stairs. Upon entering the building they were greeted by an unfamiliar secretary who walked them to Lt. Mustang's office. As soon as they were outside the door the secretary left and said, "Go on in. He's been waiting for you for quite a while." The boys looked at her, then to each other. They both shrugged and started to walk in when Edward held out his arm in front of Al. "Wait a minute" he whispered. Through the door they could hear Lt. Mustang and someone they've never heard before talking. "We shouldn't be doing this Ed," Al told Ed.

"SHHHH! I wanna hear" snapped Ed.

End of first chapter