Okay, here's chapter two. Just some more introductory stuff.

Again, here's Jaeda, if you wanted to see the way I made her:

.com/albums/j133/Xanaphia96/Waiting%20for%20Sleep%20to%20Find%

Tell me what you think. Reviews keep me going! Enjoy!

I was in the bathroom of some little restaurant soon after. My stomach was full and, being out of the hot sun, I was thankfully much cooler. I got to eat in peace, because Ling hadn't woken up quite yet; I could worry about him snitching on me later. Because Prince Ling was most definitely not my brother. By no stretch of the imagination was he even distantly related to me. We came from two very different clans; he was a prince and, quite frankly, I was nowhere near royalty. Oh well, if he ratted me out, at least I'd gotten myself a free meal, despite the blond boy being adamant about not treating me.

I don't think I'd care too much if they found out I'd lied and kicked me to the curb, but a nagging feeling in my gut told me to start caring. For whatever reason; I was an intuitive type, and had feelings like that all the time about everything.

In my alchemical studies as a child, I learned about alchemists in the west. I remember being fascinated with Amestris and all its goings-on. As I grew older, I caught wind of these two alchemist brothers about me age doing really amazing things, and I mostly focused on their work and research. My peers studying Rentanjutsu just couldn't understand my captivation with alchemy and western sciences. They said alchemy was incomplete and primitive, sometimes even going as far to say it was an ugly science. However, that didn't hinder my curious spirit; I never really fit in anyway.

While I redid my hair in the mirror (high pigtails of four separate braids each), I contemplated who my gallant rescuers (ha) might be. I had found out they were brothers. They were obviously kind people, softies deep down if not on the surface, and seemed very intelligent. I could sense something else about them, something dark. It made my stomach twist a little, like it sometimes does, but of course I didn't know what it was going on about. Otherwise, I hadn't asked anything of them. To ask too much is to become too attached. But was that a bad thing?

While they had been pretty quiet about themselves, they seemed very interested in me. They had immediately picked up that I was not from Amestris, and I told them I was from Xing. They seemed impressed by that, but it wasn't such a dramatic thing. I had the ability to endure, so crossing the desert wasn't too unbearable. They were also fairly interested in the medical properties of Rentanjutsu, but I had to disappoint them there, as I had studied alchemy instead. They showed me some of what they could do. I was so interested.

Deciding it was a good time to return, hoping to maybe learn a little alchemy from them, I pushed open the door to the outdoor dining patio. The scene was suddenly very different from the one I had left.

"Not so fast." Ling was saying presently, and snapped his fingers. Quick as lightning, two royal guards appeared and drew weapons on the brothers.

There was a short exchange while I stayed in the doorway. Before I knew it, a full-blown fight had started, right in the street. Amestris sure was a different place. I didn't know what side to fight for, so I just stayed put. Eventually, after adding another 100 cenz worth of desserts to the brother's tab, Ling stood and walked off in the wake of destruction. I hurried after him, curious to see what was happening.

When we arrived to where the fight had presumably ended, I was pretty shocked to see the royal guards tied up, the armor not looking at all worse for wear, and the blond boy's arm off. I was alarmed at first, until I noticed that it was automail.

Ling took off when a crowd of angry townspeople made the scene, demanding money for repairs and the huge bill he had run up at the restaurant. I didn't try to follow him. If these two brothers had won a fight against royal guards, they were obviously people I should stick with, if they let me. I walked over to the armor when the angry mob had cleared out; he was repairing the walls on a corner shop.

"Would you like some help?" I asked. The armor looked over to me when he had finished the wall.

"Oh, hello." He said, "I didn't realize you had followed us. But no, I can handle this. It'll go faster if I do it."

"Oh." I said, looking off down the decimated main street, "No, I think I'll help. To repay you for the meal."

"You really don't have to. It was no prob-" He stopped when I put my hands together and repaired the sidewalk clear down the street.

"What?" I asked at his shocked silence.

"Y-you can do alchemy with a transmutation circle..." He said to me, pointing at the sidewalk. I looked down at my work; I thought it looked a little uneven, and it was definitely not something to marvel at.

There was only one way to explain why he would be so disturbed: he knew. I noticed him and his brother did alchemy the same way as me, when they were showing off at the restaurant. But they must know that it's not a normal thing. This armor had to know what I had attempted, or at least he thought he knew. If that sort of thing was as much of a taboo over here as it was in Xing, it would be best not to be found out. The best thing to do would be to play dumb.

"Yeah, so?" I asked, "So can you." I hoped I sounded convincing. It seemed to work, because he didn't press the matter. Instead he changed the subject, which was a relief.

"I'm Alphonse Elric, and my brother is Ed." He said. Some distant memory twitched in the back of my mind, but I didn't think more about it.

"Jaeda Chou." I replied.

As long as the polite conversations continued, I might eventually learn to trust them enough to reveal my secret. Or not. Either way, I'd only talk about my past when I was ready.