Disclaimer: I do not own FMA.
It was an innocuous day in Central. The sun was shining and the birds were chirping, celebrating the lovely early summer morning. It was not to remain ordinary for long however, and it had only a little to do with the Elric brothers as they walked down the street of a part of the city referred to as the Food District, for the area catered to nothing but restaurants, treat shops, and vendors.
Currently Al and Ed were talking about alchemy when a delicious smell struck the shorter of the duo. The other, being a suit of armor and nothing more than a soul, did not notice and continued on oblivious to the fact that his brother was no longer paying attention, making his way towards the cart from which came the delicious scent while swaying like a charmed snake.
"Al! Money!" Ed shouted, snapping Alphonse out of what he was saying to realize that his brother was no longer beside him, instead a bit behind and to the right of him. He walked over to Edward to see what had caught his attention, and sighed when he saw what it was: pretzels. The huge kind made of delicious chewy dough, slathered in oil and clumped all over with giant salt granules.
"Come on, Brother, really?" He sighed as he looked onto the treats. They looked delicious, and he wished he could taste them, or at least smell them.
"Please? I think I deserve something after I restrained from choking Colonel Bastard over all of those short remarks earlier today." The Fullmetal Alchemist was pleading of his younger brother, although his face darkened as he brought up the recent memory. Alphonse visibly cringed away as he heard the sound that came from Ed gnashing his teeth, hating it.
"Alright, alright!" Al said, fishing into his loincloth (if he wasn't "wearing" armor, it would look very wrong, and even then it still was somewhat) and pulling out from it a wallet. It was actually Ed's wallet, but since his brother could be rather careless when it came to money at times Alphonse had confiscated it and made Ed's finances his jurisdiction.
Alphonse handed the necessary money over to the vendor, who smiled – perhaps at what appeared to be a father or older brother placating his demanding son or younger brother – at the two as he held the pretzel in a piece of parchment out. Ed snatched the tantalizing treat away and bit into it happily, as Al replaced the wallet, thanked the man for his service (shooting Ed what would have been a pointed look if armor could express anything at his lack of manners), and hustled off to return to his brother's side, who had already resumed going down the street.
"Life is good." Ed sighed as he enjoyed his snack, still fresh and warm.
Alphonse was silent, and Ed's thoughts turned to dwell on something that was never far from the front of his mind: himself, his brother, and the Philosopher's Stone. Although he just said life was good, he knew it wasn't. Nothing would be right until they, or at least Al, were restored. He sighed, not seeing his companion's head turn to face him, tilted in a non-verbal inquiry as to why he sighed once again, this one considerably heavier than the one from before.
It had been another failure, this last mission of theirs. What if –
Ed never got to finish his thought, because he became distinctly aware of a tugging sensation at his left arm, and looking to it gasped as he saw the pigeon attempting to fly off with his pretzel!
"You rat-with-wings, let go! This is my pretzel!" Ed snapped, pulling back, but the pigeon was undeterred. Perhaps it was stupid of the death sentence such an act was, or maybe just obstinate. It could be both. But what was more was that its unnatural strength was quite obvious, as it actually started winning in the tug-of-war, reminiscent of the eternal struggle between man and beast in quite the literal way.
"What's a pigeon doing here?" Alphonse wondered to himself as he watched bemusedly. It was a well-known fact that pigeons were near non-existent in Central, for the Flame Alchemist used them as target practice for his fire alchemy . . . although the city had not been happy about the statues the pigeons used to perch on being melted also.
"WHO CARES? GET IT TO LET GO!" Ed shouted as he scraped furiously at the ground, the pigeon that must be either very hungry or possessing a vendetta against blond midgets dragging the alchemist, even with his automail limbs, forward as it tugged back.
The spectacle had drawn quite the crowd. Little children laughed and pointed at what they called the silly dwarf, while adults were amused or confused. The people who ran their business in the Food District were very worried, fretting about if pigeon attacks would become common. They didn't want their customers driven off by the unsanitary winged terrors!
The onlookers watched in awe as the pigeon actually started lifting the young alchemist up into the air, and Al was too shocked to think of helping his unfortunate brother, frozen in place. In fact, the lower jaw of his helmet had actually dropped to the ground, landing on the pavement with a clang. Unlike the others, Alphonse actually knew that his brother had two chunks of metal in place of limbs.
By now Edward was starting to become very worried; humans were not meant to fly, even if it was only a foot off of the ground, and pigeons were not physically capable of lifting them up off of the ground, dammit!
Suddenly, a space in the air behind where the pigeon was flying into ripped open in a manner similar to a transmutation being performed, brilliant white light spilling out of it and making it impossible to see any further into it. Ed, twisted around, did not see this, but the screams of the crowd alerted him to the fact that, besides a pigeon kidnapping a boy and a state alchemist at that, that something was very wrong.
Being the stubborn person that he was, it never came to Edward's mind that he could free himself by just relinquishing his hold on the pretzel.
There was one last scream before Edward disappeared into the rip in space with pigeon and pretzel, which then sealed up beside him.