Chapter 2

Ed bounced excitedly on the train seat. Apparently, he had only been on a train once before, and it had been a 'stinky train,' and this one was way nicer. "And they even give you food!" he exclaimed in excitement, returning to the little side table to finish up the last of the, ah, third breakfast he had ordered. This kid was going to drive Roy broke before they even reached Central. And probably give himself a stomach ache in the process. How did someone so small manage to eat so much?

"Sit down," Roy told him, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat. "The train's about to leave soon, you'll fall over." Yes, that's right. Ed had ordered three meals before the train had even left the station. Which meant a span of about fifteen minutes. "And stop eating so fast. You're going to make yourself sick."

Ed considered his words, shoved the last of his meal into his mouth, then sat down in the seat, chewing slowly this time. Not quite what Roy had in mind, but he supposed it was a start.

"Why do I hafta go to Central anyway?" Ed asked once he had gulped his food down. "Sensei and Al are here!"

"Who's Al?" Roy asked.

Ed froze. "Um, nothing! No one! Nevermind." He flushed bright red and crossed his arms, stubbornly looking out the window. Roy decided to drop it for now. At least he wasn't going on about his sensei anymore.

Finally, the train pulled out of the station, and Roy breathed a bit easier. Ever since that stunt Ed pulled the other night, he was half expecting the kid to run off again, and he had kept a close eye on him all morning. Fortunately, Ed hadn't tried anything else. He still was really upset that they were leaving Dublith, but he seemed to get this mindset that he'd just find his way back after they got to Central. Oh well. Eventually, he'd realize that this was for the better.

"Hey, Colonel Mustang," Ed spoke up after only a few minutes of blessed silence. "Can you take me to the big library before I go back to Dublith?"

Big library? He was probably referring to the State Library, where only very select people (State Alchemists being one) could get in. "Edward," he sighed. "You're not going back to Dublith. And no, I can't take you. I have work to do."

"Awe." Ed slumped a bit, before perking up again and adding, "And I am going to go back to Dublith. I need to learn-"

"-Alchemy from your sensei," Roy finished for him. "Yes, I know."

"You're an alchemist," Ed stated. It wasn't a question. "I saw the transmutation circles on your gloves. Can I see them?" His eyes were wide with childish excitement and innocence and Roy found that he really couldn't say no. He was sure Hawkeye was smirking at him when he pulled out one of his gloves.

"Careful now," Roy warned as Ed leaped from his seat to look. "Don't activate it." The boy settled himself on his knees next to Roy, leaning forward with uncontained excitement.

"I've never seen one like this before!" Ed exclaimed. "Is it for…" He paused, eyes raking over the complex symbols and calculations. "Manipulating oxygen?" he guessed.

Roy started. "You were able to tell that just by looking at it?" he asked, surprised.

Ed nodded. "It just makes sense! With the equations I mean. Well, I don't fully understand it. It looks like you would use this to create fire, but how do you spark it?" Well...this kid was a bit of a genius.

"It's the gloves," Roy explained after getting over his momentary shock. Not even he understood it that fast! And he was fifteen when he started! "They're made of pyrotex cloth, so that when I rub them together, it creates a spark."

"Cool!" Ed exclaimed. "Can I try?"

"Absolutely not!" Roy immediately snapped, taking the glove away. Ed pulled back, confusion and fear on his face. Quickly, Roy said in a calmer voice, "It's extremely dangerous, Ed. I burned myself a lot when I was first learning."

"Oh." Ed righted himself in the seat so that his legs were no longer up and sat in a bit of an awkward silence before he asked, "Do a lot of people know flame alchemy? I've never heard of it before."

"No," Roy answered. "As far as I know...I'm the only one."

"Oh," he repeated. "That's pretty cool. I bet you beat all the bad guys!"

Roy held back a wince. Right. All the bad guys. If only the world were so simple.

There was silence for a while. Ed sat beside him, shifting about, occasionally lifting up his head to look around, and just being fidgety in general. Finally, he huffed and crossed his little arms. "I'm bored," he declared, looking up at Roy as if he expected him to fix his problem.

Roy raised an eyebrow at him. "Then entertain yourself."

Ed frowned in thought. "Do you have any books?" This was a bit of a surprise. Not many little boys willingly read books as means of entertainment.

"The only one I have is about the theory of equivalent exchange, but-"

"I wanna read it!" Ed exclaimed excitedly.

"-it's a bit too difficult for you," Roy finished. Even he was having trouble following it at some parts. It was all theoretical speculation and half-finished hypotheses with no clear direction in where it was going. This was to be expected, of course, since it was the printed notes of an alchemist who had experimented with the law of equivalent exchange, and clearly this guy had very little organization in mind when he wrote them.

Ed shrugged. "I could understand all my dad's books and notes, and he was supposed to be a master alchemist or something." He gave Roy the puppy dog eyes and asked, "Can I read it?" Damn. There was that look again. Oh well. He'd probably read the first page before giving up on it anyway. Roy pulled the book out of his briefcase -a giant, thick text that already had annotations in the margins from his first attempt at reading it- and handed it to the eager boy. "Doctor Aldrik Gerstof," Ed read aloud before curling up on the seat and opening to the first page. Roy chuckled to himself and leaned back to enjoy the silence.

...Of course, now he had no book to read. He really should have thought this through better.

To Roy's surprise, Ed did not hand the book back after five minutes. Curious, he peeked over at the boy to see that he had his finger on one paragraph, and was using the other hand to flip back several pages to recheck something else. And then he was connecting whatever he found to one of the notes Roy made and nodded to himself, as if he had just figured something out. Roy resisted the urge to sigh. He was going to be outsmarted by a nine year old midget.

"You actually understand that?" Roy asked him, unable to contain his curiosity.

"Some of it," Ed admitted with a frown. "Your notes help. But I don't really get what he's theorizing. It all just sounds like a bunch of speculation."

"Most of it is just that," Roy explained. "These are just his notes, and his conclusions are near the end. He does go a bit into bypassing the law of equivalent exchange though."

"But that's impossible," Ed insisted.

"Not according to Dr. Gerstof."

The boy paused, probably wondering how such a thing might actually work. "What did he conclude?" he finally asked.

Roy shrugged. "He died before his research was complete. By the end, he starts to hint that he might have figured out a way, but it stops after that."

"Oh." Roy could practically see his thoughts. Isn't that convenient. Or inconvenient. Whatever.

There was some silence after that, and Ed began flipping further into the book. He stopped actually reading it and instead started to simply ski\m Roy's notes, pausing to investigate further if he found something of interest. "Hey," he said after a moment, grabbing Roy's attention once more. "There's stuff about human transmutation in here!"

Roy froze. He remembered that part. He didn't think Ed would get that far, much less actually understand what it said. Why was he interested in human transmutation? "How...how do you know about that?" he asked slowly. What was up with this kid?

Ed paused, and didn't look up right away, as if he realized he said something wrong. "I read a book about it once," he answered softly. Roy was pretty good at telling lies. This one didn't quite sound like one. But he wasn't telling him everything. "It was my dad's," he added, as if that cleared everything up.

"Did your dad teach you alchemy?" Roy asked next.

"No. He left when I was really little." There was obvious resentment in his voice, and his eyes were narrowed into a glare. "I taught myself by reading all his books. Sensei was going to teach me for real."

"Well, you should leave the books on human transmutation alone," Roy told him seriously. "It's not good stuff."

Ed had an odd look on his face, as if he was contemplating something. Eventually he shrugged and said, "Okay." He then turned to a different page and continued reading.

Roy sighed for what must've been the hundredth time since finding the kid. Edward was just a little ball of headaches and work. Feeling the exhaustion of the day before settling in, Roy shifted comfortably in his seat. Maybe he'll take a nap. Hawkeye could watch the boy for him, and besides, he looked too engrossed in Dr. Gerstof's notes to run off and get into trouble. Glancing one last time at Ed, Roy let his eyes close and soon he was fast asleep.

-0-

There was a crick in his neck when Roy finally woke, as well as more than a few sore muscles from sitting in the same position too long. He was about to stretch out said sore muscles, and probably roll his head to try and ease the tension in his neck, when he felt a lump against his side. Roy looked down and noticed a...thing leaning against him. A small thing. With blond hair, and little chubby legs, his chest gently rising and falling in turn to his soft snores.

Roy blinked. He heard a chuckle and looked up to see Hawkeye failing in her attempt to hide her smile. Roy scowled at her, but she simply gave him a cheeky grin in reply, her eyes alight in silent teasing. He gave her a very pointed glare, to which she simply replied with a very convincing innocent look on her face. Damn, she was never going to let him live this down.

Roy looked down at Ed again before pulling out his watch. Checking the time, he decided he better wake the boy. They'd probably be arriving soon, and he had no idea how Ed took to being woken up.

He started with a gentle shake, causing the boy to give a mumbled groan and snuggle further into his side. Roy could practically feel Hawkeye's laughing gaze.

Shaking a bit harder, Roy called out his name. "Edward. Ed you need to get up now."

"G' back t' sleep Al," Ed mumbled. "Five more minutes."

"Edward, this is Colonel Mustang. We're going to be arriving in Central soon. You need to get up."

"Mustang?" Ed lifted up his head, blinking his tired eyes and heaving a yawn. He sat himself up with a sleepy frown on his face and seemed to remember where he was.

"Who's Al?" Roy asked once he seemed a bit more awake. This was the second time he'd mentioned that name

"No one," Ed muttered, stretching and letting out another yawn. "We're almost there?" he asked, rubbing the rest of the sleep out of his eyes.

"Yeah, we should be there soon."

"Okay." Ed's hand brushed against the book on the seat next to him, reminding him it was still there. He picked it up and handed it back to Roy with a soft, "Thank you for letting me read it," that followed.

"I'm surprised you understood as much as you did," Roy answered, replacing it in his briefcase. He decided against bringing up human transmutation again. Hopefully, any curiosity Ed had on the subject was gone now.

Roy looked back when he was done to see that Ed had a sort of glum look on his face. His shoulders were slumped as well, and if he were any younger, he might've pulled his legs up to his chest and hugged them. "Is something wrong?" Roy asked him.

Ed shook his head. "I just miss...nevermind."

Roy knew full well from his previous unanswered questions that he wouldn't get very far, so he let the matter drop. He was probably only talking about his sensei or crazy grandmother anyway.

When the train pulled into the station, Roy made sure to keep a tight hold of Edward's shoulder, keeping the boy by his side. Fortunately, he looked far too much in awe of the place to run off again. He probably had never seen a place with so many people and buildings all together, with neatly paved streets and automobiles heading in every direction. He was absolutely taken with the sights.

That is, until he turned back to the various trains and asked, "Which one goes back to Dublith?" Roy wasn't dumb enough to answer that question.

"C'mon," he said, pulling the boy to the car waiting for them. Havoc was there, leaning against the door with a cigarette between his lips and eyes closed. "Second Lieutenant!" Roy barked, and immediately the man was at attention, the cigarette falling to the floor.

"Colonel Mustang sir!" Havoc greeted, and was about to do the same for Hawkeye when he noticed Ed. He paused, his salute slipping, confusion flashing across his face. "Um, sir…"

"In," Roy said to Ed, ignoring Havoc for the time being. Ed looked even more excited to be in a car. Hawkeye got in after them, and Havoc got in the driver's seat.

"Sir, kidnapping is a serious offense," Havoc said once he started the car. He kidding, of course, but he obviously wanted to know why his superior officer had a little kid with him.

"This is Edward," Roy told him. "I...found him while searching for Shulz. On an uninhabited island. By himself."

"I would've been fine," Ed insisted, once again. "Sensei would've picked me up once the month was over. And I think I finally figured out her riddle!"

"Sir..?"

"He's just with us until I can call a social worker to come pick him up," Roy explained. He didn't get into the details of Edward's situation, concerning his 'sensei' as well as the crazy grandmother. That could wait for later.

"Um...yes sir." They reached a stop light so Havoc turned to flash Ed a quick smile. "My name is Jean," he greeted, before looking forward again to continue driving.

"I'm Ed," came the boy's reply, despite already being introduced. "What's a social worker?"

"Someone from the state," Hawkeye explained for him. "They'll figure out a place for you to go."

This didn't seem to sit well for Edward, because he frowned and looked out the window, a contemplative look on his face. If Roy didn't know any better, he'd say that the kid was planning his escape. Actually, all things considered, he could very well be doing exactly that.

The ride back to Central Headquarters was mostly in silence, Ed's brooding aura filling the car. Havoc tried to ask a few more questions from all three of them, but was met with either terse replies or stubborn silences. Hawkeye would probably explain everything in detail back at the office. For now, Roy just wanted to take a nap on his desk while she wasn't looking. Well, after he called the social worker.

Ed was still upset by the time they got back to the office. Hawkeye took him from there, keeping him occupied out with the team while Roy secluded himself in his office. He had a lot of paperwork that he missed from chasing down Shultz. Not to mention he still had to fill out his report on what happened with the rogue. And no way would Hawkeye let him leave early. Rather, he'll probably have to stay late for at least a week in order to catch up with everything. Maybe he could siphon off some of his paperwork to one of his subordinates…

Roy started with the easiest thing first and called social services. It was a bit of an awkward conversation. The woman at the other end was way too cheerful when she first picked up, and then far too sympathetic when Roy explained the situation to her, clucking things like, "Poor little boy," and "Good thing that you found him when you did!" Finally, she finished up with a promise that someone would be by to get him in a few hours and Roy was very quick to give his thanks and hang up. Hopefully, they'll send someone a bit more sensible. In the meantime, he had a very large stack of paperwork to start on. Dear god, he'd rather talk to the woman…

-0-

Riza partially blamed this on herself. After all, she probably should've warned Havoc of Ed's tendency to run off at every chance he got when he took him to the cafeteria to get some food. She knew she shouldn't get too angry with him for looking away for no more than thirty seconds. At the same time, however, how hard can it be to keep track of one kid? This was probably some sign that Riza wasn't ready to be a mother (not that she had been planning on it anytime soon). Or rather, Havoc really wasn't ready to be a father (although she knew that already). Either way, it was just one, massive headache. Again.

They had already called the front desk, and they were now on the lookout for a tiny, blond-haired boy. Riza figured that Ed would be hard pressed to transmute his way out of here like he did in Dublith. This place was a lot more secure, and someone would be bound to notice before he could finish drawing a circle. Hopefully.

"Should we tell the Colonel?" Fuery asked, looking a little nervous at the prospect.

"There's no need," Riza replied. This would just give him an excuse to not do his paperwork. "We can find him ourselves. Now, listen up." Everyone stood to attention, as if she were about to debrief them on a manhunt for a very dangerous criminal, instead of finding one boy inside Headquarters. "As far as he knows, anyone here could be looking for him. So he'll be hiding from everyone. That means we can count on him still being in the building. However, his objective is to leave and head back to the train station. Breda! You take the front entrance, make sure he doesn't slip through there. The front desk is looking out for him, but they could very easily miss him."

"Yes sir!" he saluted.

"Fuery! You take the back entrance. It's big enough that he might find it. Havoc, you have second floor, Falman you got third. I'll take the first. Remember, this kid will run at any chance. He is also quite adept at alchemy, despite his age, so be on the lookout for any transmutations."

"Yes sir!" they all chorused.

"Also-" and here, Riza blew out a sigh, "-try not to ask around too much. We don't want to...alarm anyone." They all understood the message. Don't let everyone know we lost a little boy.

"Yes sir!" they repeated and she dismissed them. They all ran off to their respective duties, trying to keep a low profile as to prevent any awkward questions.

Riza raced to the first floor, glad to find that, at the moment, no one was around to notice her haste. She chose the first floor because Ed was most likely on that one. It had both exits, and if he did decide to transmute himself through the wall again, he wouldn't have to worry about a drop.

Starting from one end, Riza began a thorough sweep of the entire place. She didn't bother with checking most of the rooms. Ed was smart enough to not risk entering one without knowing for certain it was empty. She did realize, however, that there was one place that she couldn't really check: the bathrooms. Ed could conceivably enter any of them without raising too many eyebrows. She just had to had to hope that he considered it a bit too risky and continue on. She didn't have a legit reason to stomp into the men's restroom, and she really didn't want to have to explain herself.

Scouring the first floor of headquarters was tiresome. While most of the rooms she could bypass without bothering to check, any that had open doors or was obviously empty meant a meticulous search of the room, looking in every little nook and cranny before continuing on to the next one. Every once in awhile, she spun a story about how her nephew ran off and she couldn't find him. She got lucky on the fourth retelling.

"Small, blond kid wearing a blue shirt?" Riza had talked to this guy every now and then, but for the life of her she couldn't quite remember his name. The fact that he greeted her with a generic "Afternoon Lieutenant" after glancing at her rank told her that he forgot hers as well. That was fine by her. Just meant he couldn't go telling stories about Lieutenant Hawkeye chasing after some kid.

"Yes, that's him," she confirmed, hardly daring herself to hope that she might've caught a break.

"Yeah, I saw him maybe five minutes ago near office 118. Don't know what he was doing though."

Riza wanted to ask why he didn't, maybe, investigate the strange kid who was wandering around by himself but decided to not press her luck. She thanked the man and hurried along, hoping to catch the boy before he ran off again.

Rounding the corner, Riza found Ed with his arm up to one of the walls. It took her a moment to realize that he had a pen and was trying to draw a transmutation circle, but the ink didn't seem to be working. He was so engrossed in what he was doing that he didn't notice as Riza came up right behind him and said, "That's vandalism, you know."

Ed must've jumped three feet in the air turning around. He dropped the pen in surprise and had the guiltiest look on his face. Behind him, it looked like he had just only gotten the pen to work. The mark was small enough that Riza decided she could leave it.

"Y'know, you really make my job difficult," Riza told the surprised boy, quickly grasping his shoulder before he could run off. "What were you hoping to do?" she asked as she began walking him back to the office.

"I dunno. I'd figure it out." Ed's shoulders were slumped; it seemed he was done putting up a fight. For now, at least. Honestly, his devotion was a bit surprising. Didn't he know there were other, easier ways to learn alchemy?

"You really ought to just let us handle this," Riza informed him. "I know you want to get back to this sensei of yours, but she sounds a little dangerous. You can learn alchemy somewhere else, you know. Besides, you seem to already be pretty good on your own."

"That's not it," Ed mumbled back. "I need to get back to...I just need to get back." Riza didn't press. The boy was one stubbornly locked box.

They passed by Fuery on the way back, and Riza ordered him to round everyone up. She quickly glanced at the time and saw that it had been over an hour since Mustang made the call to social services. Good thing she found Ed when she did. The social worker should be arriving soon.

Riza settled Ed back in the office, relief spreading through her that they didn't have to inform the Colonel of the situation. For one thing, he really would just use it as another distraction, and he had far too much paperwork as it was. And, of course, she knew that Mustang would never let her forget this. She didn't need to give him anything else to be smug about.

It took Fuery nearly half an hour to round up the rest of the team. It seemed Havoc had been a bit hard to locate. Why he thought the maintenance hall (which was always kept locked) was a good place to look, Riza had no idea, but the ordeal was over, and Ed was looking a bit embarrassed now. Breda and Havoc were pestering him with questions about why he ran off when the front desk called. The social worker was here.

Ed panicked. "I can't go with them!" he exclaimed, and refused to listen as Riza tried to tell him it would be fine. He shouted something like, "You don't get it!" before jumping up and racing into Mustang's office, slamming the door tight behind him.

A moment passed. Then-

"Lieutenant!" came the Colonel's voice from inside. Riza sighed to herself but entered, straightening her uniform.

"Yes sir?" She couldn't see Ed anywhere inside. That is, not until she got closer and realized he was crouched behind Mustang's desk.

The Colonel looked down at the boy hidden next to him and then back up at Riza and said, "Care to explain?"

"The social worker is here, sir," she informed him. "He doesn't want to go with them."

"Ah…" Mustang looked down at Ed again and said softly, "Edward-"

"I can't go with them!" he suddenly cried. "I have to get back to Al!"

"Well, who's Al?" Ed's mouth snapped shut, refusing to say anything else. Mustang let out a sigh. "Ed, we can't help you unless you tell us. Is Al the person who takes care of you?" He was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "But he's back in Dublith?" To this, Ed didn't answer at all. "Ed-"

"Sir-" Falman poked his head in. "The social worker." He opened the door wider to reveal a young woman with her hair up in a neat, orderly bun, matching her neat, orderly clothes and professional smile.

"Hi!" she greeted, stepping into the room. "Emily Pyne, from the state." She gestured to the identification pinned on her blouse. "I'm here for Edward?"

"He's right here," Mustang informed her, nodding to the curled up form. Emily frowned and came closer, peeking over the desk to see Ed curled up besides Mustang's legs.

"He doesn't really want to go," Riza supplied for her.

"Well, that's okay," Emily told him gently, going around to kneel next to him. Mustang scooted back in his chair and stood, looking a bit uncomfortable. "Hello Edward," Emily said gently. "I'm Mrs. Pyne. You don't have to be scared, I just want to help you."

Ed looked up at her. "Can you take me back to Dublith?"

"Is that where your family is?" Ed didn't answer, so Emily stood and offered a hand. "Well, you don't have to tell me right now if you don't want to. How 'bout you come with me so that we can get all this sorted out? And then we'll see about Dublith." This seemed to lift Ed's mood. He nodded and reached for her hand, allowing himself to he helped up. Emily nodded to Mustang and said, "You'll be sent some paperwork later. If you could just fill that out and send it back, it would be a huge help." Mustang nodded and she turned to go, Edward's hand still in her own. "Have you ever been to Central before?" she was asking him as they left. "No? Well, maybe I can take you to some of the sights while we're figuring this all out. Down on Main Street we can-" Her voice trailed off, leaving the office in its original state. Riza stared after her. That woman was good.

"Your work, sir," Riza reminded Mustang before she left. The Colonel groaned but dutifully grabbed another file from the stack. This was going to be another long day.

So, concerning Ed's secrecy of Al: at the moment, he still has the mindset that the military is bad, though he is starting to think that maybe some of them are alright. Even so, he understands enough of the situation that he doesn't want Al to be stuck with him in it, so his goal is to keep him a secret, at least until Izumi comes to get them and realizes he's missing.

As for what actually happens to Al, I've been going back and forth a lot on whether I should include a chapter explaining that. This is primarily from Roy's point of view, but as you've seen from Riza's adventure through headquarters there are a few exceptions. Depending on your guy's feedback, I'll include an extra chapter on Al.