The scene was so fabulous that Ed wanted to scream "AL THIS IS SO FABULOUS"! But of course, Ed does not use the word "fabulous."
He does not scream, either.
So, instead of doing all these things he does not do, he decided to gawk at the miraculous sight. He heard Al gasp beside him (gasping was also one of the things that Ed absolutely does not do). He elbowed Al to get him to stop gasping, forgetting for a second that Al couldn't feel it.
"Wow," Al breathed, this one word being the only one he could muster. Put simply, he was speechless. So was Ed. They stood side by side in complete awe, the silence between them filled by the faded noises from the bustling town in front of them.
The streets were filled with people. People were busy decorating houses. Houses were lit by fairy lights. Lights filled the air and illuminated the hurried shadows of everyone around. Around the Elric brothers, the town seemed more alive than anywhere else they had ever been.
"Maybe it's all the cocaine they're snorting." Ed remarked. Al sighed, punching Ed lightly in the ar to indicate that his sass had yet again ruined the moment.
But nothing anyone did or would do could ruin the site before them.
The Festival they saw was like nothing either of them had ever seen before. Ed spoke again and Al prepared himself for what was coming next.
"But I mean, if drugs produce results like this…" Al groaned. Really, Ed? He thought. Yet still, the carnival was not ruined.
More and more stands popped up, filling the grounds until there was barely any room left. People ran to their homes to get ladders to string lights, and even more brought hay wagons filled with pumpkins. There were decorative pumpkins carved so beautifully, intricately that the patterns glowed with the candlelight. Some stands held the largest pumpkins Ed had ever seen. Others displayed pumpkins with not one blemish on their perfect outer shells. Another advertised pumpkins "easy for carving! The most 'cooperative' skins you've ever carved! Be a professional your first time". The endlessness of it all was astonishing; the smell of hundreds of different foods from hundreds of different food trucks stirring up hunger in Ed, the lights lighting up the dark sky, and all the pumpkins creating an array of orange on the skyline.
It truly was a sight to behold, but all Ed could think was "how the hell are we going to find a few pumpkins with cocaine in them out of all of these?"
Al was thinking on a completely different level. "Brother! Look at all these pumpkins to choose from! Can we go buy some to carve? Pleaaasse?" Al practically got on his knees, begging for the pumpkins that he so badly wanted. Ed sighed, contemplating how much time it would take - for both finding and buying a pumpkin and then carving it, too. But looking at Al, he could see in the metal face how much Al wanted that pumpkin. And Al must have really wanted it for it to show up on his face that is physically incapable of showing emotion.
Ed exhaled slowly and said dejectedly: "Sure." He beckoned to the booths in front of them. "Knock yourself out."
Al bounded eagerly toward the stands, his heavy metal soles making imprints in the soft dirt. Ed challenged himself to walk exactly inside Al's footsteps, but even leaping across, he couldn't reach the second footstep. Secretly, he scolded himself frustratedly for not being taller.
Smoothing down his ruffled hair, he moved his first foot out of his brother's first footstep and stepped to the side. Walking to the left of Al's footsteps, he noticed that he had to take three long strides to match one of Al's. He scowled and turned his head away, trying not to focus on that fact that his younger brother was so much taller than he was.
Ed found Al deep into the maze of people, pumpkins, and more pumpkins. He was gazing at some perfectly round pumpkins, every side just as curved as the next.
"What do you think of these?" Al pointed to the tens of pumpkins stacked atop each other and lying haphazardly around the floor.
"How about one of the pre-carved ones, Al? They're really nicely carved and I know we won't be able to carve them as well." Plus, that way we can save time and won't waste any time carving a freaking pumpkin, he added just to himself.
"But, brother, carving the pumpkin yourself is part of the fun and the Halloween spirit!" Al whined. "We have to carve our own pumpkins! And you can choose one, too."
Ed rolled his eyes. "Fine. But make sure you have the one you want because I'm not buying you another one if you find a better one."
"Oh, you won't find a better one. These are the best pumpkins money can buy." The salesman behind the counter put in. "They're grown right here, only 3% pesticides. Completely healthy to eat. In fact, the chemicals we use have only been linked to cancer, not dea -" Ed cut him off.
"Yes, thank you sir. We'll… Think about it." He took Al by the elbow and led him away. "When they start spurting facts like that, I don't trust them. If they really had the best pumpkins, they wouldn't be trying so hard. Go find a stand with a guy who doesn't care. I'll trust him to tell the truth." Al was ready to dispute his brother, but shrugged and agreed instead. He knew he couldn't change his brother's mind, and he wasn't about to waste his time in this great festival trying.
He was about to run off again when Ed stopped him. "Hold on, Al. I'm hungry. The smells from that food stand are driving me insane." He trudged over to the food truck, pushing aside the people in line and walking up to the front. A couple of them shouted out in protest, and one of them tried to push him down.
"Hey!" Ed cried, pulling out his pocket watch. "I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist. You better watch yourselves, or I'll have you arrested for interference with a military investigation." He turned back to the counter to order, ignoring the grumbles coming from the restless customers he had cut in line. "I'll take one of whatever is generating that smell." Ed gave his order and pulled out his wallet to pay for the food.
"Oh, so you do pay for your food. That's nice." A man commented sarcastically to Ed. The small blond turned around to face the person who had spoken and pointed to him.
"You." he said. "Shut up," and he pivoted on his heel to collect his pie. He threw a few hundred cenz into the tip jar on the right hand side of the stand and lifted his first forkful of pie up to his mouth. When he found it was satisfactory to his tastes, he went on his way to find Al, still shoveling the pie into his mouth. He spotted the top of Al poking above the sea of heads.
"Al!" he called out through a mouthful of pie. "I'm over here!" He could see Al spinning around, trying to locate the voice yelling his name. Finally, his gaze landed upon Ed and they walked to meet each other.
"Oh!" Al exclaimed. "You got pumpkin pie!" Ed stopped mid-chew.
"Why do you say it's pumpkin pie?" Ed inquired suspiciously.
"It's an orange pie. We're at a pumpkin festival. It's almost Halloween. You know, I don't know why it would be pumpkin pie." Ed spat out the remaining pie that was in his mouth and chucked the rest at the ground violently.
"I thought it was kumquat," Ed whinged.
"Ed, you're so stupid! Why would they sell kumquat pie at a Halloween festival?" Al asked, expecting Ed to answer his rhetorical question. He did.
"I don't know! Kumquats are cute! And good." Ed shrugged, stepping carefully over the squashed pumpkin pastry that now lay smeared in the dirt.
"And why do you suddenly hate pumpkin pie, anyway?" Al asked, trailing behind his sibling.
"Long story," Ed replied, implying that he didn't want to elaborate. Al didn't know why, but Ed did: it would be much too humiliating to admit that he had just had a nightmare about pumpkin pie.
Ed and Al proceeded through the stands, both keeping their eyes out for good pumpkins, and both looking for pumpkins for different reasons: Al couldn't wait to carve his pumpkin, and Ed couldn't wait to get it all over with and go to home to East City.
They had been walking through the stands for almost half an hour now, and Al was still enjoying every second that they spent there and every aspect of the Festival itself (unlike Ed). Ed plodded behind his bigger younger brother, shooting glares at anyone who stared at him or Al's large suit of armor.
Ed was practically crushed against Al's armor as Al suddenly stopped.
"What the hell-"
"Look, Brother!" Al raised a finger to a stand about three yards away. "What about one of those?" Decent sized pumpkins for a decent price sat around a busy stand, the seller barely paying attention to all the customers waiting for a pumpkin. Many of the people leaned in to the stand, whispering something to the man behind the booth. He then, for some reason went behind the stand and took a pumpkin from some sort of compartment from under the counter.
"And brother, look! They're the perfect shade of orange. These look just right!" Ed had a gut feeling that all the whispering and the special pumpkins had something to do with his case, and so he decided to let Al go ahead and buy one to see if he could find anything out through buying one of their products. Al got in line, and Ed followed, hoping to purchase a pumpkin of his own.
"Wow, Brother! You've finally decided to get into the Halloween spirit! It's about time." Al said excitedly. He could barely contain himself as he waited for his very first pumpkin. By the time they had reached second to front of the line, at least five other customers had whispered some type of code to get one of the special pumpkins from underneath the counter. Ed had strained his ears in order to decipher the puzzle, but it was all in vain. It was fact that all these people had practiced secrecy much more than Ed had practiced discovery, and it was showing. They made way with their pumpkins, and Ed let them go in order to maintain his cover.
And, he would never admit it, but he didn't stop them because he didn't want to destroy his brother's day. It pained him to let them pass with their devilish pumpkins; he could almost see their red horns growing out from the tops of the orange fruits. He let out a small growl when the last person before them ordered the same thing - a pumpkin from under the counter. In fact, he looked a bit like Ed, short with a duster coat, and long blond hair to top it off. While the seller ducked down to get the pumpkin, the man stepped aside to let Ed and Al order as well. The copy of Ed turned his back, leaning against the left hand post that held the stand up. he whistled to himself, and he was awfully patient compared to Al, who was currently hopping up and down with anticipation. Finally, the guy running the stand reemerged and handed Ed the pumpkin.
"Here is your order, sir." He said firmly. Ed glanced over and saw Al's dejected face, which looked as though he thought Ed wasn't going to let him buy a pumpkin.
Ed looked back up at the man in charge. "Actually, we're going to need another one of those." His gaze returned to Al, who had immediately brightened up.
"Thank you, Brother," he yelled gleefully. "I'm really very excited to carve my first pumpkin." The man popped up again and handed them their second pumpkin.
"Have a nice day!" The man told them, waving goodbye. "I hope you fly high with Sky Pumpkins!" Ed lifted a hand in farewell, then dropped it to his side.
"So, Al, you got your pumpkin. Now I have to get my Inn so I can finally have a break. We can finish investigating tomorrow."
"Wait, Brother." Al put his hand on his sibling's arm, stopping him from walking any further. "You were investigating? This whole time? I thought you were doing this for me, and for my new interest." Al's eyes looked hurt, and Ed felt horrible for not telling Al that he'd had an ulterior motive this entire time.
"Look, Al," he began before Al halted him in the middle of his efforts.
"To be honest, Ed, I don't want to hear it." He started to walk away when Ed blurted out: "it was because you wanted a pumpkin but when people started to whisper those codes and he had different pumpkins for the people that had the code I got a little suspicious that they were up to something but I didn't tell you because I didn't want to blow my cover and I didn't want to crush your pumpkin dream." He took a deep breath after his run on sentence. Al turned back around.
"So what do you say, little bro? Want to go carve our pumpkins?"
Ed and Al had already made their trip back to the Festival to buy tools for pumpkin carving, and they had walked for hours trying to find a spot. They'd luckily stumbled across a picnic table straight in the center of an empty field, and they waded through the tall grass to the table.
Ed plopped his pumpkin down onto the peeling white paint on the table, stretching out his arms, which were so tired they were beginning to spasm. His muscles twitched as he flexed them, then contracted them again.
"Ahh," he groaned as his arms relaxed. He wiggled them around in the air, letting them flop back down to his sides, now limp and weak.
"All right," he said to Al, menacingly ripping open the package of carving tools. "Shall we begin?"
Al chuckled. "Yes, we shall." They dramatically yet jokingly glared at each other. Ed handed the carving knife to Al, then transmuted his automail arm into his famous blade and quickly razored a jagged circle in the top of his pumpkin. Al waited to cut his open, nervous that he would damage his first and only pumpkin. He watched Ed for guidance on how to open the top in an efficient and easy manner.
Ed grasped the stem of his pumpkin with his normal hand, his tired arm struggling to pull the top cut out. He pulled it and twisted it until it suddenly popped off, the lid of the pumpkin flying out from his hand and landing with a wump in the grass behind him.
But that wasn't the only thing flying out of the pumpkin.
With a subtle poof, a white powder erupted from the inside of the pumpkin, surrounding Ed's face and wafting up his nose.
Ed realized what it was just a little too late.