Happy New Year everybody! Thank you to all who have read/reviewed/alerted/etc. this story so far! Enjoy!

"Ed!" Elysia cried, waving excitedly at the blond, having spotted him from her perch on her father's shoulders. Edward grinned and hurried towards her, dragging Winry and Al with him through the crowd.

"Nine." Hawkeye said, turning to him as he emerged through the crowd. He blinked blankly at her, taking a second to recognize the lieutenant out of her uniform.

"Nine?" Ed asked, wondering if it were some secret code that he'd missed.

"Counting heads," Hawkeye explained simply before listing people off to check if all were present. "Ed, Al, Winry, Maes, Gracia, Elysia, Jean, and Kain which leaves us just waiting for..."

"I'm here!" Roy cried, shoving his way through the crowd.

"Late as usual." Havoc muttered.

The train whistled, cutting off any retort that could have been made. The group moved towards the train quickly, managing to board and find their seats without too much difficulty before the train lurched into motion.

Looking around as the train sped away from the station; Winry realized that she knew most but not all of the people around her. There was the Hughes family, Edward's commanding officer Roy Mustang and his assistant Riza Hawkeye, and then there were two she didn't have names for. She knew they were Mustang's subordinates, and she'd heard Hawkeye label them as Jean and Kain, but which was which she didn't know. Ed caught her gaze, which was lingering on the two mystery people, and realized that he hadn't introduced them yet.

"The blond is Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc, the other one is Master Sergeant Kain Fuery." Ed stated, pointing to them as he spoke. They gave him a confused look, before realizing who he was talking too.

"Hi there, nice to meet you." Havoc greeted, offering his hand to shake. "Call me Jean."

"Hello," She returned with a smile, "I'm Winry Rockbell, Ed's mechanic." She shook hands with both men in turn.

"We've heard a lot about you."

Winry eyed Ed, who shrank away from her nervously.

Maes grinned at this, "She fits right in doesn't she?"

The three teens gave him questioning looks, to which he simply replied "You'll see sooner or later."

They nodded slowly and settled in for a long train ride. Riza had already pulled out her book and had set about ignoring any craziness for a while, and Elysia was happily watching the scenery fly past as the train rattled along the tracks.

Roy pulled an orange from his pocket and began to unpeel it, putting the peel back in his pocket to find a trash can later. After tearing the orange in half, and setting one half in his lap, he began eating his fruit, slice by slice. This was watched carefully by the blond who was sitting next to him, eyeing the food hungrily.

Riza, smelling the orange, looked up from her book and raised an eyebrow at her superior.

"What?" He asked, swallowing another slice of citrus fruit.

Ed took this moment of distraction to see if he could snatch the half of orange that was awaiting its demise on Roy's lap. He grinned giddily, clutching the fruit to his chest protectively, before realizing that others may have seen him steal the orange and quickly looking up, catching Riza's questioning gaze. He pressed his finger to his lips earnestly, hoping that she would keep quiet.

"Nothing." Riza finally replied to Roy's question, shaking her head and returning to her book.

Roy shrugged and went back to eating his orange, completely unaware that half of his snack had just been snatched by the young Fullmetal Alchemist.

Winry smirked. As she was sitting across from Ed she'd had the perfect view of his antics. She was sure that Al would disapprove, but he was too busy talking to Gracia and Kain to have noticed. There were others however, who had noticed. Havoc was suppressing a giggle and Maes was grinning madly.

Roy was almost done with the half of orange he was munching on when he realized that his friends had grown quiet and were all watching him surreptitiously.

"Brother," Al whined, noticing the brightly colored fruit that was clutched in his sibling's hand. Though it was no longer a half, as Ed had figured he'd gotten away with his thievery, and was eating the evidence.

Roy looked down at the blond beside him, seeing the orange; he looked at his lap, where he had set the rest of his snack. Finding it missing, he quickly put two and two together.

"Give me back my orange!" Roy demanded, resisting the urge to tackle the younger boy.

"Finders keepers." Ed stated, popping another slice of fruit into his mouth.

"Doesn't apply if it was never lost." Roy growled, "Give it back."

Ed shoved the last of the orange into his mouth and swallowed it before grinning at his superior, "Too late."

Roy let out an angry cry somewhere between a growl and a roar and lurched at the blond, who fell onto the floor and scuttled backwards away from his attacker.

"No fighting on the train." Riza stated. She couldn't say no fighting, as her superior and the young alchemist were much too alike to ever get along, but she could delay it until innocent citizens were out of harm's way.

Both Roy and Edward returned to their seats, resuming civilized sitting positions, though Roy's face was scrunched into a child-like pout.

"He owes me half an orange." Roy muttered.

"Do not." Ed retorted.

"Do so!" Roy cried, "Equivalent exchange."

"He has a point there brother." Al said, hoping his brother would see sense in the alchemic term.

"Fine." Ed huffed, unable to counter the law of equivalent exchange with a reasonable excuse that would justify his thievery. "But it's not fair to bring alchemy into this."

"It's not fair to-."

"Drop it." Winry growled; glaring at them.

Roy and Ed quickly shut their mouths obediently, their argument forgotten, both choosing to sit quietly instead of incurring the wrath of an angry female.

Maes chuckled. "She definitely fits in perfectly."